#and so this would be when sorin runs into her for the first time
Photo
...Claudia?
#the dragon prince#tdp#claudia tdp#tdp season 4#mystery of aaravos#tdp fanart#doesn't have to be read this way but in my head this is part of an au where sorin goes out after the battle to find claudia#bc shes his sister and the only family he has left#and at the same time claudia is on her own mission to bring back her father#and Not having a good time about it.#she hinted that she had to do some pretty heinous things for that spell so like. she's not in a great mental space atm#and ya know. necromancy has its toll#so claudia is wandering in the woods of xadia with mad haunted doll energy#and so this would be when sorin runs into her for the first time#yeah. anyways.#my art#weaverofink
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do you still take lobotomy corporation questions. do you have a special little blorbo nugget.
I shall take this as an excuse to talk about my (many) well-beloved nuggets. This is gonna be a long post.
On the first loop of my first playthrough, I decided, on a fair Day 26, to take on Malkuth's "When Dusk Falls" mission. And, as luck would have it, the Dusk that arrived was a Green Dusk.
Of the fifteen in the facility at the time, only five survived. These would become known as the "Eternal Five," as they have been in my facility every single day since then, even across playthroughs.
Since then, several other nuggets have become nearly as renowned, but those will be discussed later. For now, let us speak of the nuggets who survived the Green Dusk of the first facility and have lived on since then.
Geomeuntugu
The very first nugget ever hired, Geomeuntugu has become the facility badass. Clad in his Mimicry EGO, his classic pipe, and the ever-present red flame around his head, he's the one who always gets involved when shit gets real.
Personality Headcanons: He sees himself as the most important member of the corporation, because let's face it, he is. He isn't afraid to let others help in suppressions, but he enjoys the thrill of stabbing abnos and destroying them.
Toki
A strong-willed nugget, Toki is sort of just a farmer who wandered into the facility one day. For a long time (way longer than necessary) she was clad in Harvest EGO, but has since been upgraded to Justitia in what can only be described as the makeover of the century.
Personality Headcanons: Toki doesn't take any shit from anyone, and is always willing to use her Adoration weapon to fling goo at people.
Odelie
A powerful user of Gold Rush, Odelie is adept at punching her problems away. Her Adoration EGO Armor makes her incredibly durable as well, perfect for close-ranged combat.
Personality Headcanons: Similarly strong-willed as Toki, but Odelie really enjoys violence and murder. Slamming her plated fist into an abnormality gives her a thrill not much else does. Really hates Geomeuntugu.
London
A rich kid, who was hired using all the LOB I had to be fast-tracked into the position of Central Command Captain. Everyone hates him, but when push comes to shove, he's capable of a lot due to his Sound of a Star set.
Personality Headcanons: He's a snobby rich asshole who everyone despises, but he secretly does look out for them. When things get tough, he's often the first to run and flee, often pleading for his life in the process. Despite being a scaredy-cat, he's willing to put his fear aside to protect his friends when it counts.
Sergey
Who?
Personality Headcanons: I often forget he even exists, let alone that he's one of the Eternal Five. The other members also frequently forget he exists, to the point that the corporation has considered having him added as an abnormality who causes anyone who isn't directly looking at him to forget he exists.
Now, that's all the stuff about the Eternal Five, but I have a few more I'd like to get into just because I love them.
Ashely
Often given the honorary title of "Eternal Sixth member," Ashely was originally created to be the friend of Laetitia. She's often seen wielding Laetitia's weapon, armor, and gift way past the time for upgrades, and she's known for getting very attached to the abnormalities.
Personality Headcanons: Ashely is just happy to be here, and loves to be given work to do. She's often unconcerned with the darker aspects of the corporation, and just wants to hang out with her co-workers and play with the cuter abnormalities. However, she sure knows how to fire a gun.
Sorin
The organization's insane person, Sorin is often assigned to work with CENSORED and Mountain of Smiling Bodies. He's so adept at these works that most think he must've already been insane before entering the company.
Personality Headcanons: Often says strange things and completely disregards social etiquette. Is frequently seen wearing MoSB's EGO Gift, scaring those around him in the process. Some people enjoy his company, but most steer clear, which he seems fine with.
Minsung
A generally dependable employee, who just does what's required with nothing extra. They frequently are seen on suppression teams, and in their free time, they hang out with Ashely a lot. They are also seen in the company of the Eternal Five rather frequently.
Personality Headcanons: Minsung doesn't put too much or too little effort into work. They do what's required, and similarly, they don't go out of their way to please people. But if assigned work, they'll do as much as they can to get it done in a timely fashion.
That's about it for the main ones. I do have others, but none as important as these eight, who I often just consider the "Lobcorp Eight."
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Hello Hello
Pairing: Eowyn x Fem reader
Description: You and Eowyn meet on the castle grounds falling in love at first sight and starting your lives together after the war
Feet are feeling light head on out to see the sights ain't life a many splendored thing ducking up and down all these crazy sights and sounds bounce around like puppets on a string
You both remember the day you met like it was yesterday at the castle grounds not knowing that day would change the both of you for the rest of your lives.
Never gonna find anything to change my mind famous last lines of a fool just when you think you're a chain with just one link something comes to tip you off your stool
You were enjoying the sun and fresh air with beautiful flowers at your feet while the rest of the fellowship was trying to figure out how to stop Sauron not knowing you would meet the most beautiful and courageous woman you would ever know in your life.
Hello hello hello hello my my my what have we here what a surprise what a surprise hello hello hello hello i'm not alone it's good to know some's out there to say hello hello
You were picking sunflowers when you felt a hand on yours when you grabbed the stem looking up to see the most beautiful and wonderful green eyes looking into your soul laughing and introducing yourselves spending the rest of the day together.
Do a dizzy dance twirl around and take a chance nothing's easy nothing comes for free sniffing on a flower running through an autumn shower bumping into someone else like me hello hello hello hello my my my what have we here
Soon the two of you were carefully sneaking to each other and spending time together from talking in her room, picking flowers and braiding them in each other's hair, and watching the sun set to sneaking in her room for nights in a row, dancing to music playing at dinner, and holding hands as you hide in a corner giving secret kisses.
What a surprise what a surprise hello hello hello hello I'm not alone it's good to know someone's out there to say hello hello and I could fly on the back of a bird I could shake all leaves from a tree
The two of you decided to wait after the war to officially be together and announce your relationship to everyone you knew so that not only did the two of you not have to worry of losing each other but also so that the two of you didn't have to hide the love you had for each other in such a short amount of time anymore.
If there's a quest I'm a knight where's there wrong I will do right two's better than the one I used to be hello hello hello hello my my my what have we here what a surprise what a surprise hello hello
As soon as the war was over you and all your friends celebrated later on during the celebration you and eowyn got everyone's attention announcing that you were together and if anyone had a problem or tried to separate the two of you they could leave and stay out of both your lives but everyone laughed and smiled hugging the two of you.
Hello hello my my my what have we here what a surprise what a surprise hello hello hello hello I'm not alone it's good to know someone's out there to say hello hello
The two of you stood side by side at Aragorn and Arwen's coronation smiling in your pink dress next to her in a yellow dress holding each other's hand next to Faramir going and hugging all your friends with eowyn watching before doing the same.
Hello hello my my my what have we here what a surprise what a surprise hello hello hello hello I'm not alone it's good to know someone's out there to say hello hello
Years went on and the two of you got married being the first two queens to rule Rohan and later moving to Ithilien and starting a family together with 5 children your eldest and third eldest being boys while your second eldest and two youngest were girls naming them Kaemon, Vanya, Sorin, Alaida, and Calia who you both loved very dearly and your friends were always happy to see the two of you and your family.
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Sun's Dawn - Does your OC have a love interest? What is their relationship like?
First Seed - Does your OC have any enemies or rivals? How did these rivalries start?
Frost Fall - Where is your OC's primary residence? What city is there favourite?
FOR WHATEVER OC OF YOUR CHOOSING :)))
Sun's Dawn
Kynadora’s love interest is Miraak. He and she are a slow burn, and most of their relationship can be defined as a tall, stoic, and strong warrior being brought to his knees by the gentleness he receives from the chronically tired but kind Kynadora. That is after they get over the main story of the Dragonborn DLC. Baura’s love interest is Brynjolf. By the time we run into the Thieves Guild when Kynadora is tracking down Esbern, they are already together. They get together shortly after Baura returns with Karliah to the Guild, but before Baura, Brynjolf, and Karliah become Nightingales. Lasinia is part of what I will refer to as the Dawnguard Polycule. It includes her, Florentius Baenius, Gunmar, and Sorine Jurard. They all really just want to make each other happy and do so very well. It does however slightly confuse Isran.
First Seed
I’ve already answered this ask for Kynadora, which should be under the ask meme tag. Baura, as part of the Thieves Guild, has a main enemy in the City Guards of Skyrim. Much of the time however if Kynadora or Lasinia (upon their reunions) have enemies they are counted among Baura’s. Them and anyone else who dares to cross her guild. So the Thalmor are part of the list of her enemies twice for what happened to Kynadora and Etienne. The Silver-Bloods of Markarth are also people she tends to anger or rob if possible due to the events of the Forsworn Conspiracy, though she chose to kill Madanach and escape alone. As a follower of Meridia, Lasinia has a distaste for anything undead. Which is what drew her to the Dawnguard originally. She is less likely to go out of her way to fight against her sister and Kynadora’s enemies, but that doesn’t mean that she makes their jobs easier for them either. Harkon’s court is her primary enemy throughout the game, but she does have an interesting rivalry with Janus Hassildor. He is on her “no-kill list”, but that doesn’t mean that they get along at the best of times. She does however respect him for what he has done with his vampirism, especially in comparison to other undead.
Frost Fall
Kynadora owns a lot of properties throughout Skyrim. Her favorites have to be Riftweald Manor, a gift from Baura and the Guild for when she is in Riften, and Myrwatch which I have slightly moved the location of. It is closer to the true middle point between the Throat of the World, Solitude, and Windhelm and makes traveling, especially in the post-game much easier. Her favorite cities are Riften and Solitude but she does quite enjoy spending time in Helgen once she is done with rebuilding it. Windhelm and Whiterun would be higher on the list, but she isn’t as able to escape certain titles and responsibilities as she can in the other three. Baura loves Riften, where she owns two houses. She owns Honeyside as well as Shadowfoot Sanctum. The Sanctum is more of a residence for her to use when she needs to lay low in Riften for a bit longer. Honeyside has her true heart. She is also a Thane of Riften. Lasinia spends much of her time in Fort Dawnguard, but her favorite city is actually Morthal. She owns Windstad Manor there and is a Thane.
#ask meme#Baura#Lasinia#Kynadora#Julia Kynadora Lastblood#tes#skyrim#Miraak#Dawnguard Polycule#Florentius Baenius#Gunmar#Sorine Jurard#Brynjolf
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Here is batch 1 of my art of iris Hau’oli 
As mentioned in my re-blog of her doll, her original design comes from a unnecessarily edgy, alternate future just exactly the kind of things a 14 year old, who grew up on the 2003 ninja turtles and watch Transformers the movie on repeat has a kid would write you know 
So about the color choices I made with the original design they’re questionable right worst part is I remember making this design and thinking to myself, it’s a post apocalyptic future  clothing Options are going to be limited, and nothing is going to match and I took that concept to heart the second picture is also from that same unnecessarily, edgy future it’s actually part of a whole piece that I can only describe has being as some sort of movie poster, but I hated the rest of it so much that I cropped it out 
After that, we have the beach photo that was also pictured featured in Benjamins pictures because it’s a giant group photo. I think this is probably the first possibly the second design of her outside of the post apocalyptic feature. 
I’m gonna level with you I don’t know if the third or fourth picture came first one of them is her first design has a character in the normal timeline instead of the crazy  future. One big problem with both of them is that they were both were made using a drawing bases, and I had no idea how to appropriately draw characters to proportion, so Iris seems to tower over everyone else, despite the fact that Iris is the shortest member of the cast, thankfully I eventually figured that out
Next up, we have Chibi iris, I actually attempted to make chibi designs for all of my characters at that point, but I didn’t like the way most of them turned out. Iris I didn’t mind though, so here she is. 
Than we have a Disney princess like design, which had been inspired by a dress up game on a website called azaleas dolls if I remember correctly, it’s like heroin creator or something like I’ll have to see if I can find it. Unfortunately, this was back when l flash player was a thing, so it doesn’t work anymore unless you have a browser that can run flash might be on flashpoint though I haven’t looked, I run it through the browser that Azalea dolls recommended, which is called y8 browser or something that you downloaded your computer so I still played all the time. I actually have irises original design I made her on said doll creator, so if you guys want I can post that and maybe even an updated version but you guys will have to actually comment and tell me to do it
After that, we have a picture of featuring Iris‘s family her mom pua, her older brother kekoa, and her older sister Maylea  Iris is the baby  although he is it depicted in this picture I think because I hadn’t decided to stick him in the store yet I was also has a stepdad named Craig irises biological dad had been a Navy doctor, who retired from the Navy, and became a first responder who ultimately passed away when Iris was 11 and her mom remarried when she was 13 to Craig Craig is actually a really sweet guy. I was just dislikes him on the principle that he’s not her dad she does eventually come around though
And finally, we have a group photo of Iris and the rest of the Yuki’s friends. Remember that picture back in Benjamin stuff where him and his family are all dressed up nicely. Well this was supposed to be the other half of that picture, like it was supposed to be two parts but I hated it so much. I never colored it I just left it like this and moved on to something else  like I should apologize to Sorin, for whatever I did to his eyes, and to Pete, for not connecting his face to the rest of his body 
Now that I remembered that you can put blocks of text in between photos. I have to go back and edit all of my ones for Benjamin so that they flow better instead of just being a giant block of pictures followed by a giant block a text.
that’s all for now. 

#destinylordoffreaks#oc#iris hau’oli#my second complete custom doll#benjamin yuki#logan yuki#Paige yuki#jade yuki#infinity quinn#kamili jones#peter jones#sorin hope#rosenwny black#pua hau’oli#kekoa hau’oli#maylea hau’oli
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@hallowleylines sent:
This individual looks out of place. Not because of any type of aura or poise held, but the clear scar that ran across her face. It was rare to find a burn victim with the results in the air so clearly but she seems unbothered by any awkward glances she receives whilst wandering the landship.
Rhodes Island. Sorin had definitely entered this landship as an operator. The issue is finding him through this mass of wandering souls. A gentle slip through the crowd until she spots someone, staring... at an air vent. A brief pause to survey him and he doesn't seem to budge from that spot. Yeah, he's the type of weirdo he'd probably get along with. It's a start at least.
"You, Liberi with the coat." Ears flicker as she approaches, a triplet of tails following suit. "Have you seen a short little guy running around here? White hair and a weird left arm. Star above his left eye and probably loud to boot. We've been looking for him but he hasn't answered his pager."
Anyone would think it was abnormal seeing anyone, let alone Zephyr watching the vent like that. This stranger was far from the first to come by and question him. For awhile Popukar had sat next to and also joined to watch, but grew bored ‘waiting’ and gone back on her way to get up to some other mischief. The Liberi remained. When accosted this time, perhaps something about what she had said he curses and there’s.... something shuffling in the vent?! A loud clatter like someone had been sitting back there somewhere and now turned tail.
“Damnit!”
But he’s cool, he’s fine. He’ll find her again later. For now... Zephyr turns to face the Vulpo, sizing her up with a glance as words are regarded. One moment he’s sitting on the ground leering, the next he’s vanished. A voice sounds from behind the woman, Zephyr now standing against the wall with arms folded. Not a conventional way to approach someone, but when was he ever following any of those lines? Besides, she was suspicious.
“Well hello there.” The smile is superficial, but carries enough of the usual smugness of the raven that it would be convincing all the same after he recaptured her attention. “Maybe. I’ve seen a lot of people around here, but I don’t recall seeing you on Rhodes Island before. And I’d remember a face like that.” And yet, there was something about her appearance that jogged the memory. Vulpo. Taller woman. Tails, plural. Could this be the ex which Jester had mentioned before? ...and to think Zephyr had thought him going mad.
The grin renews.
“So, mind telling me who’s asking? And what this we is? I might be willing to help... might not... I was already tracking someone down after all before you came along. So I find myself a little inconvenienced as it is.”
#hallowleylines#hallowleylines :: iona#inbox :: answered ic#verse :: arknights#lets see how long he lasts
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( @thewolfisawake ) asked: 🎰
Random Ship Generator
1. Sorin and Hermes
A wide grin spreads across the messengers lips, golden irises taking in the sight. “Quite the place you have here. You’ve got room for the whole week?” Head tilts, curiosity peaked. He was sure there were a few others who might enjoy this place too. Maybe he should invite them some time. Not yet though, he wanted to enjoy at least some of this on his own first.
2. Wilhelmina and Aneira
Violet eyes shift towards the newcomer, a warm smile gracing her lips in greeting. “Hello there, are you new here?” It wasn’t often they got new people in Liandros, but if they were here, that meant, for the most part, she could trust them. Or at least, that’s what she has come to learn of this place. Then again, if she said that aloud she’d be quickly reminded that even here, not everyone was to be trusted.
3. Bijou and Galel
It was too easy... far too easy. Wrong? Yes but fun? Defintiely. Drinking these humans out of their cash, even if he didn’t need it, was quite the thrill. So when golden irises land on the woman on the side, he couldn’t help but allow his grin to grow wider. “What’s the matter, don’t want to try it out for yourself? Think you can outlast me? I’ve already had quite the head start. Easy-pickings now.” Cash is slipped into the inside pocket of his jacket before waving the bartender over.
4. Hijiri and Claes
“Hey,” Claes called out, cup in hand as he quickly followed behind the other. “Excuse me,” Greek accent thick, he quickens his pace not sure if the other realized he was speaking to him. “I think they switched our orders,” cup is held upward, name written across the side for the other to see. “Is this you?”
5. Rukiya and Alaric
“My apologies,” Alaric bowed, sage green eyes on the woman before him. “I was informed that the service wasn’t acceptable for that I would like to offer you not only an upgrade on your room, but an extra night stay, if you are willing to accept?” It was unacceptable that anything in his hotel wasn’t running exactly as it should. Even if it were something as simple as a computing error. Nonetheless, that was something he couldn’t let slip.
#( answered )#Hermes ( inquiries )#Aneira ( inquiries )#Galel ( inquiries )#Claes ( inquiries )#Alaric ( inquiries )#I'm sorry kirei#this got buried#thewolfisawake
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White vs Blue
((Runya fights the Diamond Weapon.
Spoilers for the Diamond Weapon part of the questline (5.5 stuff)! Also real big warning for Runya being a colossal asshole and Blue being very angry and yelling about Gaius’ war crimes.))
===
The Diamond Weapon soared out through the deck of clouds ahead of them, and Runya gunned Blue towards it, completely ignoring the startled shouts of the Ironworks men and Sorin and Baelsar in the process. He far outstripped the pace of the heavily-burdened G-Warriors, though the barrage from them had arrived ahead of him...and did absolutely nothing.
Of course it did nothing. That was a Weapon. Had they really expected that to work?
He sent Blue twisting to the side as those shoulder lasers lanced towards him, though even that wasn’t quite fast enough--one nicked the edge of Blue’s wing and the blue Weapon’s thoughts shot through with pain and anger that he had even been hit.
{badbadbadbad--}
“Yes, that was very naughty.” Runya didn’t even so much as slow the two of them down as they barrelled at the Diamond Weapon; his eyes flashed gold as his own mind pointedly melded further into his own Weapon’s, and this time the shower of lasers he simply ducked Blue under, missing the attack entirely and firing back with the aetherial cannon in Blue’s mouth.
{Something’s wrong.} Blue was still focused, at least--Runya would have been quite displeased if he hadn’t been--but he finally gave ‘voice’ to his unease, and Runya didn’t have to ask to know what he meant.
Something was off about it, wasn’t there?
“Runya!” Sorin’s voice crackled in his right ear, which automatically swiveled to follow it (highly disorienting when his subconscious was half-convinced he was a giant flying Weapon at the moment). “Fall back! We’re going to capture it!”
This still seemed like a damned fool’s errand.
“Runya.”
He was half-tempted to simply ignore them. He, after all, genuinely did not care what happened to that stupid girl and her stupid siblings.
“Runya, answer me.”
But...there was Sorin, and so he just snorted in a fit of fine ill-temper and pulled back on the controls, sending Blue arcing up into the sky and letting the two G-Warriors sail by underneath him.
{Hmmmm.}
“Yes, you’re as dubious about this as I am.” He slowed Blue and deliberately dropped him back a bit, and as the Diamond Weapon tried to follow, it zipped between the two G-Warriors...and got caught right in the capture field they generated instead. “Though it did at least stop it for a few moments. Better than I thought it would go.”
The Diamond Weapon’s craggy features split into a hellish roar, and it struggled mightily against the sparking barrier.
{...Runya-friend.} The cautious remark lapped around his ankles. {It talks.}
At first, Runya wasn’t terribly put off by that. “So do you. And I believe all your siblings do too--”
{It is someone.}
Runya sighed again, watching the Diamond Weapon rage against the capture field with increasing savagery. “And so are you? I’m afraid I don’t get what you’re getting at.”
{It has a person-brain!}
Ah.
Runya blinked, rapidly, almost kicked entirely back into his own mind by the surprise.
“...Beg your pardon?”
{It’s...yelling about ‘Allie’?} Blue didn’t even sound certain. {It wants to save her.}
And then it all clicked in Runya’s mind. He interrupted, before Blue could go any further. “Well, I can only presume that was her one brother that wasn’t dead. How...very Merceus of the VIIth Legion.”
Blue’s tail lashed behind him and his wings shivered at the thought, though. {Nonono. Don’t want it. Don’t want to fight.}
Oh, now was really not the time, and Runya’s grip tightened warningly on the controls. “Ah ah ah, it’s a bit late for that.” That barrier was shivering and sparking uncontrollably under the onslaught, and he even had to tweak Blue’s flight path down a bit to dodge a rogue laser. “We’re not running, dear.”
{It doesn’t wanna fight for the Empire. It just wants to be left alone--}
“Blue. Blue...dearest Blue.” The panic and reluctance of the Weapon crystallized around his thoughts and he knew very well he had to convince his own machine to do what he wanted, and he didn’t have very long. Either Blue would run or the Diamond Weapon would burst out of that energy rapidly failing to contain it. “If it really does have one of those boys’ minds in it, he’s likely gone completely mad by now. And there’s no getting him out of there. There’s no getting someone like that back to normal.”
His voice dropped lower until it was almost a growl. “I would know. It’s what they did to Angerona.”
A hint of sadness plinked through the heavy weight of Blue’s hesitation.
“I know you must think it’s cruel to destroy it,” Runya continued, his eyes narrowing and his mind prodding more firmly into Blue’s, “but consider: it would never truly ‘leave everyone alone’, and it would even be a mercy to simply slay him.” Not something he entirely believed, but enough so that it wouldn’t immediately get him caught. (All he wanted to see was those idiots dead, at this point. All that mattered was that it got them out of his way, and taught Baelsar a lesson into the bargain.) “He isn’t like you. His mind was ripped out of its socket and crammed into a death machine, and I very much doubt he’s going to suddenly stop being a death machine just because he blew up the VIIth Legion’s base. You have logic. You have rationality, and you can be spoken with.”
The Diamond Weapon’s chest cannon freed itself, and an ominous glow built in its depths.
“He wouldn’t be fighting his own daddy if he was something that could be saved.”
Blue dropped a bit more, level with the Diamond Weapon, as it hurled invectives at him and snarled that it would keep Allie safe like a mindless drone--even as Baelsar’s voice continued to crackle over the communications link, begging him to stop.
“They failed to shoot him down, and they failed to catch him. So we can and should just kill him.”
The blast carved a notch through the barrier field and the Diamond Weapon shed its armor in a burst of aether, loosing a strange creature of all metal and lanky legs and spikes and a gaping maw that screamed defiance at Runya and Blue, using a pool of aether like a springboard.
“So, Blue. Kill him.”
The Diamond Weapon collided with them in a rending screech of metal, and the weight of an entire extra machine drove Blue back down into the roiling stormclouds below, down towards the fields of Werlyt...out of sight.
--
Sorin panted as he ran, crossing rain-sodden farmland and still wielding his sword.
They had to be around here somewhere.
“Runya!”
He really doubted that the Miqo’te in question could actually hear him, but he tried anyway, without thinking twice about it. He tried in vain to dash the rain from his eyes, but it worked for only moments, and he was left squinting through the downpour to no avail.
“Runya...” He spoke more softly that time, taking more careful steps, lest he dash right past a sign of where Runya and Blue and the Diamond Weapon had gone. He gnawed at his lip a moment, and for just a moment worried not just about Runya, but about Baelsar--
(The Imperial had yelled at him to just go when the VIIth’s Legatus came charging in, and yes the man was responsible for many an atrocity but he wouldn’t wish death on someone who could at least be open to learning from their mistakes--he was friends with Runya for Twelve’s sake, he was no stranger to the concept!)
--but he was still alone and his furred ears swiveled but were overwhelmed with nothing but the raging rainfall...though...
Wait.
He frowned and his brow furrowed, and his right ear swiveled just moments before his head turned to follow it. Those were not natural noises. Heavy thuds, like--
A shadow loomed up out of the rain, limping slowly.
Sorin bristled and brought his sword to bear, though his muscles ached on him after so much running.
The footsteps thumped into wet earth, accompanied by the hiss of hydraulics and the chattering of loose metal.
For a moment, it looked as if the dark silhouette had the Diamond Weapon’s head and his breath hitched, though he quickly shifted to a stronger stance as it advanced.
And then Blue dropped the severed chunk of the Weapon’s corpse just yalms from his feet, his eyes lighting the rain-soaked gloom in red.
--
Runya-friend had been very pleased that he had killed the other Weapon. And when Runya-friend’s thoughts had turned towards crushing people, to attacking the little dragon-lady that had fallen out of the bad-weapon’s cockpit, he had knocked Runya out--he knew quite well now how to activate the failsafe that was installed into the Miqo’te, and though he hesitated to use it, he would do it if he had to and he very much had to.
He hadn’t wanted to kill it. He was convinced he had to, but he didn’t want to, and even if he had made it very dead and pulled its head off so it couldn’t hurt people anymore, he didn’t like it, and even the relief in Sorin-friend’s expression and in the thoughts radiating off of him didn’t do much to un-sour Blue’s mood.
(That he was in a significant amount of pain, even with the crystallized parts keeping him from bleeding out, didn’t help.)
(But more importantly, he didn’t want to do that.)
“You defeated him?”
He could dimly hear Sorin-friend through the vortex of his own thoughts, and he just shrugged, though it left part of the armor on his left forearm sparking and sending terrible warning signals to his head.
{bad-weapon is gone.} The tone of his ‘voice’ put a frown on Sorin-friend’s face but he was too tired to care much. Too sad. {bad-weapon-pilot is back there. Runya-friend wanted to kill her.}
And Sorin-friend looked so alarmed that he was quick to carry on. {But didn’t want to. Made Runya-friend stop and go to sleep.}
“I...good job, then.” Sorin-friend closed his eyes. “I’m sorry he did that to you, he really needs to learn to not be like that--”
“Allie?!”
That voice. Blue knew that voice, even if he had only heard it from behind a big horned mask before.
Baelsar came to a screeching halt at the sight of the Diamond Weapon’s severed head, jaws gaping wide in its demise, no signs of life (mechanical or otherwise) in its eyes; his gaze snapped quickly to Blue, still standing some distance away.
Blue was tired and Blue was hurt and Blue was very not happy at all to see him here again. The same man that had given Legatus Merceus the space and the people and the money to hurt him and make him like this when even the empire of thousands of years ago hadn’t done anything half as bad to him as that.
He charged with a snarl of anger, and though Sorin-friend stood in his way, he didn’t have to--Blue wasn’t going to stomp Baelsar even if he might have before meeting the two Miqo’te, and he stomped to a halt just short of them. Given the sheer height Blue had, he had to bend and that hurt a particularly ugly injury in his right leg and sent more warnings screeching into his head, but the dam had broken and the flood was in full force and that anger was not going to be stopped by hurt. Enhanced by it, maybe.
And still, Baelsar had the boldness to stay where he was, and even managed to hiss out a question in the face of an angry IXth Legion Weapon.
“Where is Allie?!”
{Alive. Sleeping.} Blue’s answer remained blunt and disinterested, in the face of the sudden aggravation he felt. {You should go away.}
“Why--”
But the question provoked another growl. {You know why you should GO AWAY.} The last two words, rattling into Baelsar’s mind at greater volume, made the man flinch but he still didn’t move.
“...You were the IXth Legion’s, weren’t you?”
Did he not remember, did he not did he not did he not--
Blue suddenly roared then, and the noise and air blew both Baelsar and Sorin-friend flat; the latter clamped his hands over his now-flat ears, but Blue was beyond reason and his thoughts tidal-wave-crashed over everything in range.
{YOU. HURT. ME.} The roar died away like a receding rocket, but the (undamaged) plates at his neck bristled and his tail lashed, even though that created some sparks and painful jolts. {You hurt Sorin-friend! You hurt Runya-friend!}
“I had nothing to do with--”
{You let the bad men have rooms and money and more men!}
Baelsar went very quiet. Blue went on, storming past any of Baelsar’s more subtle thoughts (and Sorin-friend trying to get him to stop).
{Runya-friend and Sorin friend told me about your bad men. And the little ones you made bad men so you could have more people to hurt people with.} He did overhear Sorin-friend thinking about the leader-little-one (Fordola?) that he had fought, and angrily prodded it into Baelsar’s head too. {And the way your bad men hurt people. Made them monsters. Made them hurt forever. You let your bad men do that.}
Baelsar swallowed hard as Blue leaned in so close that his breath steamed out in clouds around him.
{Your fault. YOUR. FAULT.} Blue hissed out loud. {You didn’t care. You don’t. Not enough. You only care about being hurt, not not hurting anyone else.}
And though Baelsar closed his eyes, as if expecting death, Blue just straightened back up and turned, tail swishing through the air some yalms over Baelsar’s head. {No. I won’t.} He flared his wings tentatively, and then a bit more strongly. {Runya-friend and I are going home.}
Before any of them could protest, Blue stumbled into a shambling run, and his thrusters flared to life and propelled him into the air, wings straining but holding to keep him up in the sky. And the sheeting curtains of rain closed up behind him.
#; writing#5.5 spoilers#Sorin at the end going REALLY YOU COULDN'T TAKE /ME/ WITH YOU#anyway yeah hi anyone following my main will know#i've been ranting about some things today#and that spite has fueled me to finally finish this damn thing omg
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"hey sorin you're so hot and cool can you tell us about the new au you've been talking about in all your tags???"
yes i can kind stranger!!!!!!!
i don't know the name of it yet so suggest some ig but for now i'm calling it the Cruella Au (though this is very very very very very very loosely based on the new cruella movie :P) literally the only thing i'm taking from that movie to put in here is the aspect of rival fashion designers.
one of those designers is janus hughes, a trans woman struggling to find her place in the fashion world with her boyfriend remus and her best friend (assistant designer) remy.
and you guessed it!!! t4t dukeceit babeeyy!!!!!
remus (it/he) is transmasc and agender. no gender, only chaos.
so she meets her rival, a strapping older man who hasn't been seen much before, blah blah blah, then she realizes that she recognizes him, we'll get to that later when i take this a little more seriously :^
here is where we get to the meat of the au
and then as a new catwalk approaches the group sets out to blow the socks off the rival with the most beautiful dress they'd ever seen!!! well, they're going to make the dress with everything the rival hates on dresses as the main aspects! spite is a powerful drug
and to make a statement, they use janus as the model! being a couple years on E she has quite the figure to work with ;) excuse me while i simp
usually they'd use any ol model but jan-jan really wanted to stick it to the rival, show herself off n stuff
anyway i'm gonna take this a bit more seriously so we can get to the juicy stuff >:) tw for implied rape on the first paragraph
• 12 years before all this, janus was closeted so far in that she thought narnia would appear, but at the crisp age of 17 she came out to her dearest friend, he didn't react well. after she was home alone he came over to 'teach her what being a woman was really like"
• that shoved her into the closet for a couple more years, until she met remus in college. surprisingly they were in the same fashion major despite their clashing aesthetics.
• remus was and is the most loud, unapologetic, obnoxious person she'd ever met, and that inspired her to come out to it within years of being friends. it was surprisingly well, if we don't count the fact that she had a couple panic attacks and didn't allow remus to be alone with her for weeks later
• so they're cool, trying to make a business together and they meet remy. remy takes both of them onto his small fashion house to become their designer. they all click immediately and around a decade later they're one of the top fashion influencers in the country.
• anyway remember the guy she recognized? yeah, that's the guy from when she first came out. he wouldn't recognize her at all, and that gave her lots of solace.
• here's some smaller/cuter headcanons:
- remus can and will bark at anyone who bothers them
- janus is tol and remus is smol and it's cute
- her and remy are weirdly close, like smoochin close
- touch janus's lipsticks and you're fired on the spot
- janus once tweeted asking for how many ccs she should put in her implants because she was thinking about a boob job and a transphobe got into her comments so for every time they complained she added 25 ccs
- "ur not a real woman" "150." "don't run from the truth" "175." "once a man always a man" "200! i'm really treating myself aren't i?"
- she has a pear shaped body and is on the verge of plus sized, every time i think about her i go heehoo pretty lady
- "waist trainers work wonders, darling"
- by the time this current event takes place she's almost fully transitioned, and every time she wears a bathing suit or anything slightly revealing remus goes nuts
- whenever janus showers remus is right outside of the bathroom making sure no one sees or comes in, it steals a few peeks tho
- remus is slightly behind janus in terms of transition, but it really doesn't care, boobs are nice no matter who they're on
- her and remus make the weirdest powercouple, you can't help but be intimidated when remus is barking at an interviewer who asked a question janus didn't like
- "call me anything other than madame and i'll sick remus on you" "yeah!"
- janus is a snobTM and refuses to wear normal people clothes or eat normal people food
this is all the writing juice i have for the night, i'll reblog to add on tomorrow if i can think of anything else
also yes this is also inspired by jan's new skirt pics. heehoo pretty lady.
#let me simp in peace#anyway#i wove her#thanks for listening#tss cruella au#sanders sides#ts janus#janus sanders#remus sanders#ts remus#thomas sanders#tcu remy#remy sanders#tw rape#tw implied rape
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Thera’s Journal Entry #39
Hunter parties are by far the greatest kind of parties in the world. Sure, we usually end up getting in trouble for being too loud, and end up blacking out, and end up having a hangover, and end up getting into fights. But that’s part of the fun. Zavala actually banned us from having parties at the Tower late at night. We do it anyway though.
Like tonight’s party.
The host of the party, a hunter named Sorin, found a huge lounge room that wasn’t used at all. And not many people knew where it was at. So he invited a bunch of hunters to have a blast there.
And for those of you who may be wondering, Warlocks and Titans were allowed, so if they got word and wanted to show up, they could. It was just that most of them chose not to. The most that did would be one or two Titans, and a warlock. Though that wasn’t usual.
The lounge area was one room with bathrooms right down the hall. There was also two double doors which led to a balcony outside the Tower. Couches were spread about the room, and Sorin and his friends had installed a makeshift bar in the room for drinks. A female hunter with her hair tied in a ponytail stood behind it, fixing up drinks for all the other hunters there.
Someone had brought in a boombox with some speakers for music. Oldies music (which, in case you couldn’t tell, is my favorite) played over it. Some hunters danced, some just sat around and drank, and some talked. A few had been in the back, playing a game of darts. A few had sat around tables, gambling.
Me? I had been at a table with another hunter right in front of me. Shot glasses lay on the table between us. Another hunter ran back and forth from the table to the bar to fill more shot glasses. I could tell that I was winning. My opponent seemed barely awake. Their Ghost told them to back out, but they refused. Finally their Ghost left them be. I gulped down another shot. We had been through at least fifteen and I wasn’t even fazed. The most I felt was a faint buzzing at the back of my head.
The hunter reached for another but their eyes darted to my grin. They tapped the table, slurred out “You win.”, then went to stand up. But they stumbled and would have fallen if two others hadn’t have caught them.
“Anyone else?” I asked with a grin.
A few people backed away and when I saw that no one else wanted to challenge me, I stood up, and went over to one of the couches. I picked up a bottle from the table beside me and sipped on it. It was getting pretty late into the party. A few hunters were already unconscious. A good handful or two had already left to go home for the night.
I looked over to see Sorin claim his win at a gambling match. I gazed around and watched a couple quickly head out of the room, hand in hand. “Jailhouse Rock” was playing over the speakers.
Suddenly a hunter burst through the door. Everyone went silent and someone reached over to turn down the music.
“Zavala!” They exclaimed. “He’s coming this way!”
Immediately the chatter of panic started. We had nearly been caught twice having parties in the Tower in the past month and a half. This would be the third time. I downed the last of my bottle then slammed it on the ground. It became silent once more.
“Alright quiet! Someone take the boombox and hide it. You,” I pointed to the the person behind the bar. “Clean up that bar and get rid of any evidence. If anyone’s unconscious, I need two people to take them back to their rooms. Everybody else, grab a broom and get this mess cleaned up! Open the double doors and sweep it off the balcony. And you,” I pointed to the hunter that had warned us of Zavala. “Go distract him in any way possible. Com me when he’s on his way over again.”
Everyone scattered about. A few people helped those who were blacked out and didn’t have their Ghosts with them. A few grabbed brooms and sweeped the glass out the double doors and off the balcony. The hunter behind the bar quickly moved the table and hid the bottles of alcohol in a nearby closet. They could be collected later.
In just a couple more minutes things looked a bit normal. Then the coms came on. “He’s back on his way.”
“Alright, everybody go! Scatter!”
Hunters took off running in all directions, including me. Some headed for the door, others headed for the balcony where they could jump from ledge to ledge. I went for the balcony after everyone else had left and then closed the door behind me. Suddenly I heard the door inside open and slam closed. Zavala must have just made it. I silently prayed that there was no evidence. And even if there was, there was no way that he would know which Guardians were there and which ones weren’t. Which would mean he would probably end up blaming the hunters as a whole, I thought to myself. Please don’t let there be any evidence.
I heard him groan. “They broke the lock. Of course they broke the lock.”
So that’s how Sorin got in there.
I jumped to a ledge and stood there, looking around for what to jump to next, when the door to the balcony opened. Zavala stepped out, then looked around to see if he could spot even a small piece of evidence that a hunter had been there.
I couldn’t move, I knew if I did he would see the flash of movement and see me. So I stood there, praying to the Traveler that he didn’t look to the left, because if he did, he would see the silhouette of a hunter and two glowing blue eyes looking right back at him.
He sighed then stepped back into the room.
I let out a breath and a Guardian peeked down at me from the window above. A titan symbol was tattooed onto her arm. “Hey. Just for advice, next time you throw a party, try not to get the music too loud. That room ain’t sound proof.” She told me.
I nodded. “Noted.”
She held her hand out to me and helped me up into her window and into her room.
“So you could hear that?”
“Yeah, unfortunately. I wasn’t going to say nothin’ but someone else did. A couple of someones, actually.” She laughed. “I thought for sure that when Commander Zavala stepped out you were toast.”
I laughed too. “I thought I was about to be too.”
“Well, you better get back to your room. You’re the third hunter I’ve let up here. I’m not sure, but I think Zavala’s going to keep looking around and asking hunters. I think it’d be better if you were in your room when he went to ask you, Young Wolf.”
“Yeah, probably so. Thanks.” She opened the door for me and I left with a wave.
I knew Zavala knew we were having parties, it was just that Ikora wouldn’t let him do anything unless he had evidence. Ikora knew we were having parties too. She knows everything. She just wants to see how long we can go without leaving a trace of our crazy nights.
I headed to my room quite quickly. Scout was resting on his spot on the nightstand and floated up when I entered the room.
“Almost get caught again?” He asked.
“I was standing on a ledge outside the room. Zavala was on the balcony. If he had just moved his head a little bit to the left, he would have seen me.”
“One of these days you hunters are gonna get caught.”
“Yeah, but that ain’t today.”
I quickly took a shower then changed into some clothes for the night. Scout curled up into his blanket again and I pulled the covers over me.
“Night, Scout.”
“Night, Thera.”
“Hey?”
“Yeah?”
“If someone knocks on the door, don’t answer it, let me. I can pull off a good act.”
“Why?”
“I have a feeling that Zavala’s going to ask around to see if he can get someone to talk. And I have a feeling he’s going to go to me first.”
“Alright.”
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Just a little drabble. Merry’s feeling sick and explores his feelings for Pippin a bit.
Merry’s hands were shaking. He wasn’t sure if it comforted him or annoyed him that Peony was just asleep on the kitchen counter like he wasn’t having (what felt like) the biggest crisis of his life. Merry took some medicine to calm down. He reasoned that the throat tightness and pain might have as much to do with anxiety as anything else.
If Merry could do this night over again he probably would have gone to the house of healing over two hours ago when it first started. But he didn’t want to go. He was terrified of doctors and waiting rooms and being called by his deadname and having to try to back pass. Hopefully it just gets better with time, he thought for the tenth time that night. Merry hadn’t bothered Pippin with this nightmare of a situation. He has his own shit to deal with and he would think I was strange to bring this up so suddenly, Merry reasoned. Merry vowed to call his doctor first thing the next day.
Merry tried to calm down but he didn’t know how to be calm. He hadn’t been allowed to growing up. One time in college when he was home for break, he went to take a nap and as soon as he lay down he got in trouble with his mother, for even considering such a thing. Sometimes Merry would read while he ate, but as soon as he was done eating he was told he wasn’t allowed to read anymore. And many times he wasn’t allowed to eat to begin with. Merry’s mother took it as a personal insult if Merry wanted more than his allotted 2 meals a day. And she would yell at him and shame him if he ate anywhere near her because she hated the sound.
Even Jamie had a similar issue. He didn’t begrudge her sensory issues around his eating some foods, but she didn’t have to be so mean about it. He would sometimes be forced to eat in the hallway outside his apartment. As a result, Merry was probably the quietest eater in all of the Westlands though he felt like the loudest.
Merry shook himself out of his thoughts. He really wanted to say goodnight to his friend. But he realized with his pain he couldn’t talk. But still he came out of his room and knocked on Pippin’s door. “Come in,” Pippin called. Merry smiled and waved and showed him the message he had written on his phone:
“I can’t talk because im having a terrible flare up in my throat. Im having a really rough night, could i just sit with you?”
“Sure,” Pippin responded aloud. Merry had planned to sit on the floor, but Pippin motioned for Merry to sit next to him on the bed. Merry felt a small flash of warmth and love. He sat down next to his friend and hesitantly leaned against Pippin’s shoulder. Pippin leaned into him in response.
Merry felt a desire to rest his head on Pippin’s shoulder but he restrained himself. He didn’t think Pippin would approve and Merry couldn’t really talk in order to ask. But maybe I could write another message? No, I’m being weird again, he chastened himself. However, before he could stop himself he wrote: “Could i rest my head on your shoulder?”, sat for a minute worrying about it, and then showed it to his friend. “Uh, yeah” Pippin said.
Merry just felt at home with Pippin. He didn’t want to have sex with him, he wasn’t really sure that romance existed in any way that mattered to him. But he wanted to cuddle Pippin and be close to him and hold his hand. He wanted Pippin to know he cared about him very much. He didn’t know if that still counted as platonic or if it was its own separate thing. Merry had heard of sensual attraction as well as alterous attraction. And something called queerplatonic. Perhaps he was feeling some combination of these things.
Merry leaned his head on Pippin’s left shoulder. He felt a little awkward at first and worried he was making Pippin uncomfortable. But then Pippin leaned his head on Merry’s and the two sat there in silence not doing anything for a while. Then Peony jumped up on Pippin and they both laughed quietly.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Merry woke up to the sun shining through his window. The yellow light burst through in beams that turned the sheets and the wall behind the bed bright white. Merry could hear a few birds chirping.It was around eleven o’clock. Pippin was still asleep on the couch in the living room. His chest rose and fell with his breathing as he dreamed peacefully. Peony was lying in the sun in Pippin’s bedroom. At least someone was making good use of the room.
Outside, Minas Tirith was brimming with life. Merry’s favorite flower shop had been open a few hours and was filled with customers. Its purple and green awning swayed in the breeze. Men of Gondor and Rohan and the occasional dwarf were also streaming in to Pippin’s favorite cafe to try all the different teas and have the bacon and waffles which were especially sought after around brunch time. The occasional student or professor could be seen crossing the campus grounds mainly grad students going to their lab or to the library to work.
Merry sat up in the bed, but he realized he felt rather faint. His throat still hurt tremendously. Let me just try drinking some water, he thought, reaching for the glass by his bed. Merry was starving and he remembered that he hadn’t been able to eat dinner last night because of the pain. Merry was truly sick of all this. He grabbed one of his books that Professor Borormir had assigned and decided to move to the couch in the living room.
He still wasn’t quite awake but he was certainly not going to chance how his throat might react to coffee. He started reading the book as he was walking--he couldn’t wait to dig in from where he had left off. He went down the hallway, across the living room, turned around, and plopped right on to the couch. Now, Merry was expecting the couch to be somewhat firm, but the couch was actually lumpy and hard in some places and squishy and soft in others. Merry let out a yelp and just as he leapt up, the couch shouted “hurrmmppphhh! geeerraaaa!” Merry was even more mortified than he was startled.
“Sorry! Sorry, Pippin!”
“Eru, what was that for?”
“I didn’t see you!”
“Didn’t see me? I’m right here!”
“I know I just...I was reading while I was walking and I’m half asleep”
“Huh, well I’m not asleep anymore, that woke me right up.” Pippin crossed his arms and scowled.
Merry’s face and ears had turned bright red. Pippin had never seen him blush. He wasn’t so much mad as he was surprised but he realized how he had come across.
“Oh Merry…” then he laughed, “It’s alright, you just startled me is all” Merry relaxed. Pippin thought for a moment and realized he was hungry for breakfast.
“Alright, I’m making omelets, want one?” Pippin asked, whisking off into the kitchen. “Thank you. I wish! But I can’t eat,” Merry said sadly. Pippin stopped what he was doing and turned around. “What do you mean you can’t eat?” he demanded. Pippin was used to his friend struggling with food but this had gone too far for his liking. Then Merry explained more about his throat pain that had flared up the night before and how he had attempted to eat a small dinner and that had tremendously backfired. “I just need to wait it out until I can go to the doctor tomorrow afternoon,” he finished.
“I could help you with that if you like!” Pippin offered. Merry didn’t know how to respond. People didn’t really tend to offer to help him. He felt thankful but a bit ashamed, after all, he didn’t want to trouble Pippin. But right now he needed to say something that adequately showed he appreciated the thought even if he didn’t know how to take him up on it.
“Thanks!” he started, “I...uh...just knowing that you’re there for me really helps”.
“Why don’t I make you some soup, you should be able to manage that at least” Merry wasn’t so confident, but he was too famished to care.
“That would be lovely,” Merry replied.
Pippin had noticed that “lovely” was the highest form of praise Merry would give anything. He would use “good”, “great” or even “amazing” and “fantastic”. But none of them meant so much as “lovely”.
After he ate the soup, Merry distracted himself from the pain by running a load of laundry and starting the dishwasher. It also seemed to help his throat to stand up. Then the hobbit went out and stood on the balcony for a while.
The street below was fairly busy. Most people were walking, but a few rode bikes and even fewer rode horses. Then Merry saw coming over the rise a small company of Men on horseback. All the horses were black and the man at the forefront carried a rounded shield. Merry guessed they were Men returning from their shift on patrol on the outskirts of Gondor along the Anduin.
Merry thought about his horse Sorin. Well, not his horse. He supposed they were all Theoden’s. But the one that he rode every week. The hobbit hoped that he would be able to go riding in a few days and that things would clear up.
But, Merry began to feel very hopeless indeed and thought about how much easier things would be if he just ended it all. A much smaller voice in his mind pushed back: It’s just a passing thing. You’ll feel better soon. You don’t want to make a decision that you can’t unmake! Besides, there is good in this world. There is. It’s worth fighting to stay alive for.
But Merry thought about what was really in his life and he didn’t see anything good, certainly nothing that convinced him. He felt truly hopeless. But once back inside, he felt a change. Something about the laundry machine and the dishwasher running quietly in the kitchen calmed him. There’s something good, he mused.
Pippin was still a little flustered from being sat on and then hearing about his friend’s sickness. He had made an omelet with cheese and red peppers in it and enjoyed a cup of green tea and now he was deciding what to wear for the day. He rummaged around in his closet and eventually settled on a white button down shirt with red pants.
This needs a belt, Pippin thought, grabbing a light brown one with an ornate silver buckle. Pippin didn’t have anything to do until his lab started after around dinnertime. I’ve got to get out of here, he thought, maybe there’s a museum or a bookshop I can go to? I wish Frodo and Sam were here, we could all go together. Pippin didn’t want to go alone, but he guessed that Merry would be too sick to go with him. That’s right, he thought, kicking himself, I said that I’d help him.
Pippin was still deciding what to do exactly when he went back into the living room. “You wouldn’t want to go somewhere, would you?” Pippin asked hopefully. Merry, who had been dissociating while standing at the kitchen counter, started. “Aah--what?” he centered himself, “I don’t know. Like where were you thinking?” “Oh I don’t know. Maybe the new bookshop next to campus? It looked pretty cool when I walked by”
Merry frowned. “I’m not sure I can afford any books right now.”
“Hmm, well it’s a second-hand bookshop, so it should be better anyway”
Merry perked up. “Oh I love used bookstores. They always have the weirdest stuff. I like to look at the really obscure books that you kind of can’t believe would ever need to be written or read.”
“Excellent! Well let’s go shall we?”
After Merry quickly got dressed, he said goodbye to Peony and joined his friend by the door. Stepping out into the crisp Autumn air, the two linked arms and walked up the winding side street lined with orange-leaved Plane trees.
#merry brandybuck#pippin took#modernish au#merry x pippin#they have the horses for the aesthetic and they dont like cars for environmental reasons#a hobbit in minas tirith
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Forgiven, Ch 3
This has been on Ao3 for a while but I never got past posting Ch 2 here ~
Link to Ch 1 and Ch 2 :)
Lesser eldrazi had many qualities that made them deadly predators, most of which made them relatively pathetic prey. The power to desiccate the land was a great liability when it gave your pursuers a trail to follow, especially when moving in packs. The average drone’s physiology, so adept at ambushing and bringing death, made them slow and clumsy when on the retreat.
The swarm had had a full day’s head start before Nissa, Sorin, and Nahiri set out on their trail. A day’s worth of travel that the planeswalkers could cover in considerably less time.
Unfortunately, what the Eldrazi lacked in natural advantage, inland Tazeem made up for by being an impenetrable maze of massive hedrons, cavernous ground, and rolling, titan forests. The eldrazi hadn’t even followed the Umara river, where the planeswalkers might at least have relied on reports from the merfolk settlements to indicate where the swarm was headed.
Thankfully, Nissa still felt the itch. One massive, festering, migrating rash for the mass that had abandoned the Halimar Basin, and minute irritations that helped her, Sorin, and Nahiri take care of any stragglers as they made their way north, through the reclaimed stretch of Oran-Rief.
Nahiri was dispatching two such stragglers now, far below in one of the forest’s many cavernous shafts. Nissa knelt by the mouth of the tunnel, a sheer drop of ridged stone in the middle of a large grass clearing. Sorin stood a few paces further off, one hand tapping irritably and irritatingly at his pommel. A pair of merfolk kitesailors watched from a slight distance.
“Wouldn’t that go faster with all three of you folk down there?” The smaller of the two merfolk called.
“Not enough space,” Nissa responded, gaze fixed on the tunnel. For the dozenth time she pressed her hand to the damp grass around the mouth of the cave shaft, feeling for signs of life. The underground networks were less-used nowadays ever since the threat of the Roil had subsided, but there was always a chance that a few elves might have gotten caught between the cave walls, the eldrazi, and an angry kor lithomancer.
“She’ll be careful,” Sorin said, unsolicited. “Nahiri has a skill of precision with her stonework like no other.”
“Thank you for the input,” Nissa muttered back. No unexpected pulses of life moved in the tunnels, which was the far greater reassurance at the moment.
“What sorta coat is that, mister?” The small merfolk asked.
“Demon hide,” Sorin replied, voice flat.
“Demon hide, he said, Olmer. What do you make of that?”
“Seems unlikely,” The tall merfolk replied. “But the world’s full of unlikely things, I suppose.”
Sorin rolled his eyes. “I could go help her. She shouldn’t be having this much trouble, if it really is just two.”
“The caves are vast,” Nissa said. “I’m not surprised it’s taking her a while to find them.” She glanced up at Sorin. “You have a lot of faith in her.”
Sorin crossed his arms. “She’s ruthless and she knows what she’s doing. That’s just the truth.”
“Then she’ll be fine. You’d just get in her way down there.”
Sorin sniffed, and ignored another question from the merfolk. They passed a minute in silence before he spoke again.
“We fought as a team on Zendikar before, you know. On many different worlds, for that matter. We can work together, and rather effectively, I might add.”
“I look forward to you showing me.”
That bought another two minutes of the vampire’s sullen silence. Nissa remained crouched by the tunnel shaft, trying to focus on the trailing winds drifting through the network of hedrons and trees that surrounded them. On the long, wild grasses trailing under the breeze.
“Ha!”
They both started at the sound of Nahiri’s laugh echoing up out the shaft, followed by the faint clash of stone on stone. Nissa let out a small relieved breath. Sorin’s shoulders slackened noticeably.
Nissa watched him out of the corner of her eye. He glanced down at her twice, and looked back away both times. One of the nice things about having eyes that glowed bright green was that Nissa could observe a person without them really knowing exactly what she was looking at.
If you have something to say, mover, you should not feel fear to say it.
Nissa narrowed her eyes. She was cherishing the silence-
Silence immersed in actions undone is no true silence.
“You’re very concerned for her,” Nissa blurted out in a whisper. “In light of what she took from you.”
Sorin shrugged and flicked his the wrist. “I’m allowed. I can be angry about what she’s done and worry as well.”
“You just sound like you regret what happened-”
“Of course I regret it! My entire plane-”
“That’s not what I meant. You seem like you regret it because you lost a friend as well.”
Sorin’s crossed arms tightened around each other, like a snake’s coils drawing close. “You say it like you think I’m incapable of that sort of regret.”
Nissa suppressed a twist in her stomach. No need to planeswalk away. Just deal with the confrontation at hand.
“You’ve never given me a reason to think you’re someone who regrets the consequences of their actions until a few days ago.” She turned to fully face Sorin. “I’m not complaining, but if you asked me whether I thought you were a creature of regret a week ago...well I’d have said ‘no’.”
“I’m very lucky, then, that your opinion on the matter means nothing to me.”
Nissa felt a stab of anger and irritation. She turned back away.
Are you satisfied?
Nissa shut her eyes, and sighed. “No I suppose not.”
“What was that?” Sorin asked.
“Speaking to myself.” Nissa stood. Behind Sorin, the merfolk were whispering to one another. “And...I apologize. I’m was trying to be honest, not hurtful. Your regrets are your own business.”
Sorin nodded. “Thank you.”
He was avoiding her eye, but his jaw unclenched. “It’s...it’s a matter of preservation. If that makes sense.”
“Not entirely.”
Sorin pursed his lips, frowning. A long breath trailed out his chest. Nissa wondered how much of that was habit, and how much was for effect.
“I prefer change in the world that I can control. The eldrazi were always the antithesis of that. I fought beside Ugin and Nahiri because by defeating the titans we preserved the multiverse as it was. I preserved my home from the possibility of uncontrollable, devastating change. When I thought the multiverse safe, I moved to ensure its preservation in the future.”
Nissa nodded.
“I took it for granted that the bonds I had made would preserve themselves. Next to the dangers to the physical worlds, the bridges of companionship seemed...well, much less assailable. So I neglected them. Then one friend died. And another almost lost everything she had fought for.”
“And then you lost the plane you’d given everything else up for all the same.”
Sorin nodded, slow. “All because I neglected the connections I’d made. I regret the ruin to my home most of all. And I am angry in a way that I don’t think will ever fade away. But for all that I still have space in my soul to regret that I did not preserve my friendships.” He looked past Nissa, toward the tunnel.
“That makes sense,” Nissa crouched back by the mouth of the shaft. After a beat Sorin stepped forward to stand at the edge, just a few paces away.
“Ha-haaaaa!”
A glow lit the depths of the tunnel, growing brighter and hotter with each passing second. Nissa and Sorin ducked back from the cave mouth.
A rush of air roared up, and Nahiri burst form the shaft, a cow-sized eldrazi clutched in each stone-gloved hand. She hovered above them a moment, bearing a grim grin of triumph along with her trophies. Then she set down onto the grass and cast the bodies to the ground.
“Just these ones, but if you want to check...”
Nissa nodded and felt for the leylines. The ground below was twisted and scarred still, but the active itch had subsided.
“We’re done here.” Nissa stood. “North, again.”
“That’s quite a trick, miss,” one of the kitesailors called from a slightly further distance. “How’re you flying in them tunnels?”
Nahiri grinned and patted her boots. The heels and soles, constructed so that bars of stone could slot into them, glowed with the hot-white flare of lithomancy, and gave her a lift several feet into the air, where she somersaulted over Sorin. “It’s all in the rocks, girls.”
The taller of the merfolk whistled appreciatively. Sorin pursed his lips.
* * *
The tangle of roil-sculpted earth, titan trees, and mountainous hedrons thickened the further north they ventured through the reclamation zone. And they ventured quickly. There was an urgency to Sorin and Nahiri that pressed them to weave impatiently through the roots, trunks, and floating rock. Nissa found herself relying on Ashaya more often than not for a ride and the speed necessary to keep up.
Above and to her left, Nahiri swooped under a low-floating hedron, scattering a flock of manta. Years ago there would have been no shortage of dangerous creatures about, even without the eldrazi, but the largest predators had been slow to return to the Rief, and the speed and suddenness of the trio’s travel had so far been too startling for the ones who had to even consider ambushing them.
To Nissa’s right, Sorin sprinted along a branch three times as thick around as he was tall. He hadn’t tired yet. When they’d first struck out, Sorin had suggested simply planeswalking off Zendikar, then using Nahiri and Nissa’s expertise to ‘walk back where the swarm had run to,’ to save time.
“It’s possible,” Nissa had replied, “But if the swarm disperses, I would prefer we do a thorough search on foot than have any of them scattered around the continent.”
So far the itch had remained a coherent mass. Whatever guided the drone and spawn movements, it had only led a few of the eldrazi to disperse along the way, and those few were easily dealt with without undue delay.
The merfolk, who’d introduced themselves as Olmer and Ton, had followed the trio from the cave on their flying kites, jabbering and shouting questions all the while. Occasionally Sorin even answered them back.
“Are you certain there aren’t any settlements ahead?” He called, the second such question in an hour.
“Not a one,” Ton, the shorter merfolk called back. “Most everyone’s still sheltered in an’ around Coralhelm. You’ll miss that by a good 30 miles if you keep this heading, and you’ll have nothing but leagues of dead woods around you by then.”
Nahiri caught Nissa’s gaze, nodded over at Sorin, and rolled her eyes. Nissa just grunted, and scanned the paths ahead. The low ground to the left faded into shadows as a web of roots and curved pillars of earth lifted the trees well above the dirt. On the right, the ground rose in a mossy shell of roots and massive, fallen logs.
Ashaya opted for the higher ground, and the elemental’s tread became light as the falling leaves as he loped through the moss. The trees here left tough remains, but it was the careless traveler who ruled out the possibility of a decayed spot taking their feet out from under them.
A speck of pale blue on the carpet of green ahead caught Nissa’s eye.
“Likely you won’t find any folk wandering this stretch of Tazeem for a while,” Ton drawled. “Mostly it’s bolder folk like Olmer and me who-”
“Body!” Nissa shouted to her companions. “There’s someone up ahead!”
Nahiri and Sorin split off to the left and right, as they’d discussed before leaving the wall. If either didn’t return in five minutes, the remaining two would treat the figure ahead as a trap. Ashaya slowed to a stalk and padded forward silently, Nissa scanning the surrounding trees as they approached. The merfolk landed on either side of Ashaya at her signal for caution.
“Haven’t seen much in the way of wildlife,” The taller merfolk said, just under her breath.
“It’s the despoilers, love.” The shorter merfolk pointed to the trails of dust and spots of twisted stone that grew, almost indiscernible, against the black bark of the trees.
Ashaya halted a hundred paces from the body. Nissa crouched low on the elemental’s shoulder and shut her eyes. The leylines were quiet, save for the itch to the north. On the edges of her mind the creatures that had fled from the Eldrazi’s path went about their business, a short distance displaced from their usual haunts. Calm, but alert.
Nahiri emerged first, gliding down from the trees, signaling ‘all safe’ with a brusque wave. Sorin emerged a second later, one hand wrapped around his sword, another around a grey sack that trailed spiked tendrils.
Ashaya crossed the distance to the body in a handful of long strides. The thing dangling from Sorin’s hand was covered with glassy, half-lidded eyes. An eldrazi. One of Kozilek’s drones.
“Hit it from behind.” Sorin threw the drone to the ground. A diamond-shaped gash ran straight through its body, leaking a faint distortion into the air, like it was full of gas. “It was waiting up in the branches, watching the body.”
Impressive.
“I didn’t feel that,” Nissa said, a cold lump forming in her stomach.
Sorin shrugged. “They’ve got all sorts of tricks.”
The one you called Kozilek was an apex of distorting the senses. There is no shame in having missed a trick, so long as you recognize it the next time it is played.
“So the body’s bait?” Olmer called from a distance.
Nahiri knelt by the merfolk. “Not a body.” She put two fingers to the merfolk’s neck, along his flattened gills. “There’s a pulse. We need to get him to a healer.” She ran a hand along the chest, mottled with ugly, plum-colored bruises. “Ribs shattered. He’s probably bleeding underneath. I can do some simple mending but-” She paused, as if remembering something, then looked up at Sorin.
“What?” He stared back. “We stabilize him and then what? Are we going to carry him with us?”
Nahiri’s face twisted into a scowl. “Maybe.”
“If we delay-”
“Please.” Nahiri squeezed the words out between grit teeth. “You said you were helping. This is the least you could do.”
Sorin wrinkled his nose, but still knelt across from Nahiri, laying hands on the merfolk’s neck. His fingers flexed and the veins tensed in the merfolk’s neck. The chest rose slowly, and then the belly, then the veins in the arms bulged as Sorin pushed the blood to flow to where it was needed.
“Splints.” Nahiri looked to Nissa.
“Splints.” She nodded and thrust her staff into the mossy log underfoot. Emerald shoots tore through the bark, twisting together in tight bundles. In seconds a small arc of saplings surrounded her.
Nissa pulled one up, and directed the skysailers to do the same. They exchanged wary looks, but followed her lead, stripping away the stubby roots with their trail knives. By the time they had cut the saplings to the appropriate size, Nissa had produces a length of vine to lash the splints to the fallen merfolk’s limbs.
He was drawing breath now, and a steady rise-and-fall had returned to his chest. A faint whistle of breath trickled through his lips. The bruising still looked horrible, but the body beneath was less shattered. Less sunken.
“Blood’s out of his lungs.” Sorin rose to his feet, and produced a handkerchief from his breast pocket. With slow, deliberate strokes he began to wipe down his palms and each finger. “and I’ve healed what the veins can heal. He won’t be moving under his own power without at least a month of bed rest, and he certainly won’t be able to defend himself out here.”
“We can take him to Magosi,” Ton volunteered. “We’re due there in the next week; won’t hurt too much to get back a bit early.”
“Thank you.” Nahiri glared at Sorin. “Are there survivors enough to take care of him?”
Olmer laughed at that.
“Plenty. And when they find out he was ambushed and used as bait by the despoilers? Well, you’d think folk would get tired of stories like that, but they’ll all be clamoring to hear it. Yeah, he’ll be well looked out for.”
Ton and Olmer spent the next few minutes rigging a hammock between the frames of their kites, joining them into a single, two-winged arrangement. Then they mounted the closest tree, Nissa following close behind on Ashaya, who cradled the injured merfolk in its arms.
“This’ll do.” Ton scrambled out onto a broad branch, grappling the kite with Olmer to get it up onto the limb. Ashaya lay the merfolk into the stretcher between the kites, and Nissa helped lash him down.
“Glad we found you.” Ton offered a hand to Nissa, who politely declined it. “Good to work with good people in these dangerous times.”
Nissa smiled faintly. “Always danger in our world, isn’t there?”
Ton shrugged. “Always good to find good people, then.” With a wave, she and Olmer kicked off from the branch, and glided quietly away through the depths of Oran-Rief.
* * *
Nahiri called for a short rest before pushing forward any further. She made the flight via lithomancy seem effortless while she was in the air, but the energy needed to move that way was clearly taxing her.
Oran-Rief didn’t lend itself to campfires, but Nahiri had enough energy in reserve to set a small boulder to glowing, providing some warmth for herself and Nissa. Sorin stalked off into the woods, and returned nearly an hour later, leaves and sticks tangled in his hair and clothing, two iridescent snakes hanging from one hand, and a handkerchief-wrapped collection of roots and fruit in the other.
“Supper,” He placed everything in a pile next to the stone.
Nahiri took the snakes without a word. The stone flared brighter, and she reached three fingers into the white-hot surface. When she pulled her hand back the fingers clutched a long, square knife. She let the blade cool, and began stripping the skin and scales away.
“These are poisonous.” Nissa held up several of the fruits before tossing them aside. “These are fine. This one should be cooked before we eat it. And this...well, this is technically edible...”
Sorin shrugged. “Then I guess it’s technically supper.” He didn’t move to sort through any of what he’d scavenged, and didn’t appear the least interested in partaking of any of it.
“Are you just going to stand around and look unpleasant then?” Nahiri had one snake skinned, and tossed it on top of the stone. The meat struck with a hiss and sizzle, followed by a stinging smell of cooking meat.
Sorin bristled. Nissa busied herself with rearranging the inedibles into random piles.
“Or were you looking for a ‘thank you?’”
“I never asked for thanks,” Sorin replied, tone cool. “I would appreciate not being treated like I haven’t been contributing.”
“Baby,” Nahiri replied, carving a strip of scales from the second snake with a flick of her wrist.
“Beast,” Sorin growled back.
“How about that.” Nahiri sneered up at Sorin. “Looks like the selfish old bat isn’t as willing to let things go as he claims.”
“There’s no shame to you, is there?” Sorin’s feet shifted, though he did not step forward. “Not a bit of remorse for what you’ve done and who you’ve hurt. It’s all just my fault for not being there for you, isn’t it?”
“If you call a thousand years imprisonment ‘not being there,’ then sure.”
“I did that to you, Nahiri. What you did was an act against hundreds of thousands. That is not justice of any kind.”
“You want me to do something to you?” Nahiri tossed the second snake on the stone, and pointed her knife at Sorin. “All you had to do was ask. I’ll cut off that dainty face and shove it-”
Ashaya took a step toward the three planeswalkers. Sorin and Nahiri froze and fell silent.
Nissa continued to re-arrange produce.
For a long minute there was no noise but the cooking of snake-meat. Nahiri leaned forward and flipped the pieces with her knife.
“It’s like Ugin used to say, Sorin. We’re older than some planes’ gods. We don’t do shame.”
Sorin folded his arms. “Perhaps that has been our mistake.”
“by the Pistons...” Nahiri rolled her eyes, and they landed on Nissa. “What do you think? Am I a monster like he says?”
“I didn’t-”
Ashaya shifted again, cutting Sorin off. Nissa hefted one of the fruits-a deadly green and purple thing the size of a fist-in her hand, and looked up, meeting Nahiri’s collarbone with her own gaze.
“I don’t think you care about what I think.”
Nahiri snorted. “You’re damn right I don’t care about-”
“Which is just as well, because I don’t care about what you’ve done.”
Sorin rounded on Nissa. “How can you say that? You were there! You fought the eldrazi on Innistrad. You saw the devastation!”
“Yes, I was there. I did see what happened and I did everything in my power to mitigate.” Nissa’s fingers tensed, and her gloves dug shallow furrows into the fruit skin. “And if I had been the person responsible for the things that happened on Innistrad...well personally, I don’t think I could ever look at myself without some disgust for a long time.”
Nahiri’s lip twitched.
Sorin threw his hands up in the air. “Then-”
“But that was then.” Nissa relaxed her grip on the fruit. A small crack ran down the skin where her index and middle finger had rested. “The damage is done, and it will always be done. What am I going to do about it? Kill you? For revenge? The multiverse doesn’t care about justice the way you do. I don’t care that you let worlds fall apart because of your neglect, or that you brought Emrakul to his world. Those problems are dealt with, and neither have any bearing on what we need to do next to fix the world.” Nissa met Nahiri’s eyes. “So unless you plan on turning yourself over for execution on Innistrad-” she jerked her head at Sorin “I-I suggest you do what he’s doing and focus on doing good with the power and the freedom you have.”
“Well, I would have had a lot more time to do good on the planes,” Nahiri impaled a snake with her knife and ripped it off the stone. “if someone hadn’t thrust me into a demon pit and forced my inaction.”
Now Nissa felt a hot pit erupt into her chest. She let the fruit fall to the ground, where it burst along the seam, leaking pale juices.
“It must have taken a while to make all your preparations for what happened on Innistrad.” She kept her voice level.
Nahiri scowled. “Yes. I’m not trying to hide that. I-”
“We were fighting against the Eldrazi for months. Sometimes...sometimes I feel like I spent a whole lifetime ripping out every inch of myself to preserve any scrap of our world from them. All Zendikar rose up to drive them back, and more lost their lives than anyone could ever mourn. And yet, I don’t think I ever saw you. Not in my travels. Not when we finally brought down the titans.”
Nahiri’s jaw twitched. Her eyes were flared. She lowered her knife from her face, until the snake nearly dragged against the moss.
“I thought you didn’t care.”
“I’m not angry about what you did, not anymore. I’m upset by what you could have done instead. And...and I think you should be just as upset. You said before your regrets don't matter, but I don't trust someone with no regrets.”
Nahiri just glared across at Nissa. When Nissa said nothing more, she glared instead at the rock and started tearing chunks of meat off the knife with her teeth, letting the second snake to burn on the stone.
Nissa turned to her small pile of fruit and started eating herself, not even bothering to cut anything up, but letting the pulp stain the sides of her mouth.
After the silence stretched into minutes, Sorin spoke. Nissa almost wished he hadn’t. The strange silence between angry companions was miserable. Breaking it was worse.
“I’ll...take watch. If you two need to sleep.” There was still anger in his voice, but he drifted up into the treetops without any further comment. Nahiri settled back against her tree once she’d finished eating, and turned away so that Nissa couldn’t have told whether she was sleeping or not, even if she could have brought her eyes up to look the kor in the face a second time that night.
You wielded your words with conviction and truth.
Nissa almost jolted to her feet. She had, for the first time in a long time, forgotten the squatter in her mind.
You should be proud. With every ounce of self-belief you cultivate, the closer you come to being a true mover of existence.
Nissa didn’t reply right away, but lay back, letting her head sink into the moss. Her stomach hurt, her mouth felt dry, her head felt like there was a stone where her brain should be, and she would have felt entirely miserable if not for Ashaya. The elemental sat cross-legged at her side, wind trailing through his lusher body parts.
“Life isn’t chess, you know,” Nissa said at last, murmuring up at the treetops.
The games of the flesh minds are just a simple way to express what I mean. What matters is not the metaphor, but that it helps you understand. You deserve to be the one who directs your life. Whether it is pieces or lives you deal in, there is the risk of becoming a passive reactor. Be the actor. The one who puts ideas and movement into the minds of others.
“I don’t want to manipulate anyone,” Nissa said at last. She kept her voice to barely an echo of a whisper. “I’ll use the leylines where there’s good to be done, but I won’t force my will onto others.”
I don’t mean by force, unless force is brought against you. Though it is a skill worth cultivating. You’ve seen that not all great powers are as friendly as I.
“Then I don’t know what you mean.”
Many among your companions, past and present, have had the power of the word to inspire and direct and bring others together. A magic that needs no mana, and that I see you struggle to even try to use.
Nissa almost laughed, despite the heaviness pulling at her eyes. If the eldritch voice in your head spoke, what was there to do but listen?
I worry sometimes, mover, that you will let life slip through your fingers without ever seizing what you want.
“I’m very happy in my homeworld, actually,” Nissa snapped. Nahiri stirred slightly, and Nissa clapped a gloved hand to her mouth before continuing. “I’m satisfied with the work I do, and I don’t need you telling me I should be dissatisfied because I’m not...because I’m not powerful enough.”
That is-I will not argue that. Presuming the intent and wants of the flesh has not been my own greatest strength. I will say, whatever your intentions in this world, or any other, power will help you meet those goals. Power and understanding how to wield...no, how to apply it.
“And what would I need that for? I can heal the world with what I know.”
You should listen when the binders speak. There’s more than what you can touch that you can fix. And that’s with just your words. Or would you tell me you don’t want peace between your companions?
Nissa glanced over at Nahiri. Her pale shoulders where rising and falling in slow time. Above, Sorin was just visible as a sliver of moonlight hit his breastplate.
“Are you telling me you wouldn’t just...reach into their heads to have them do what you wanted?”
I can twist minds to embrace my being, and that is a type of victory. I myself am not satisfied with that sort of adoration. I want my foes and my friends to decide themselves that I am right, not to have to twist their minds to bring them to that conclusion. The final decision should be theirs, made freely.
Nissa rolled over so her back was facing the stone. The forest was cold. And she’d left her blankets and bedroll behind to move quickly. “I’m going to rest, now.”
Yes. The burner?
“Away.” Nissa curled her knees up, and shuffled closer to Ashaya. “Away, please.”
* * *
Nissa managed about four hours of sleep before the itch clawed her awake, burning a trail of fire-ant bites down her back. Her groggy grunts stirred Nahiri, who rolled to her feet, face calm, but brandishing her dagger in a tight-knuckled grip.
“Are you alright?” Sorin floated down, nearly at a dead drop, sword drawn.
“Fine. It’s-” Nissa shook her head, and flexed her shoulders, trying to steady her heartbeat. The itch subsided by degrees as she focused. “-the swarm is close. Moving slower.”
“Good.” Nahiri hurled her knife into stone between them. It stuck fast, then melted into the rock. “I’d like to kill something, and I don’t want to rest again until that happens.”
* * *
Nahiri led the renewed chase with a grim energy and a speed that left Nissa and Sorin trailing behind where the terrain got rough. After a mile they had lost sight of her entirely.
The trail grew more confused miles along as the markings of the retreating swarm intersected with larger swaths of eldrazi devastation. Further still and the trail disappeared entirely as the reclaimed swath of the Rief disappeared into the dusty ghost of itself.
It was at the edge of the ruined forest that they found Nahiri, staring out over the dusty landscape. The same shapes of trees and roots and bridges of earth loomed above them, but pale and desiccated. It was as if a sculptor had sought to re-create the forest from the memory of another, and had nothing but ashen whites to work in.
“It’s like this for miles further,” Nissa offered, gently, as Nahiri stared. “They didn’t get all of it, obviously, but...”
Sorin grit his teeth, audibly. “The Oran-Rief covers most of the continent for miles ahead.”
“It does.” Nissa slipped down from Ashaya’s shoulder to stand behind Nahiri. “It did. I believe it will again. Part of the forest we’ve traveled through is the result of our efforts to regrow and revitalize. Much of the land around Coralhelm and along the Umara has regrown as well, thanks to the waters returning in full. The land is eager to heal, and-”
“-and they have you.” Nahiri nodded, jaw set. “Someone with relevant skills. I’m glad,” She added, when Nissa cringed back from the result. “I really am. I couldn’t have done something like this.”
She rushed out into the forest ruins before Nissa could respond.
“Rash,” Sorin muttered. “Still rash.”
“Did you take the destruction of your home any better?” Nissa asked, quiet.
“Hardly.”
Nissa nodded. “I’m still waiting on you to show me you can work together.” Ashaya scooped her up and took a step into the dusty tangle, then another, and fell into a jog.
“I shouldn’t have called her a beast,” Sorin muttered, drifting forward after them. “That was a wound that didn’t need to be opened again. I’m sorry.”
“...Thank you. I’m not the one who needs to hear that.”
They both ran ragged to catch up. Nahiri’s pace fluctuated now, between bursts of speed that took her out of sight, to long, lagging floats through the air to the point that Nissa and Sorin would pass her by a quarter mile before she matched pace. Another hour into the chase and, without warning, she burst through one of the desiccated roots, one wider than a wurm’s neck, and swearing, doubled back once to pulverize the broken section into dust.
The remorse of a game badly played.
Nissa made no attempt to respond to Emrakul. The itch was growing stronger now, and she had to focus every fiber of her mind to not let the inflaming sensation overwhelm her. They were close. So close. They could put an end to this horde soon...
Ashaya sensed her agitation. His pace doubled, outstripping Sorin and the still-fuming Nahiri.
Nissa shut her eyes. There was life, even here, if she followed the leylines deep enough. True, it was buried under hundreds of feet of chalky forest-corpse, but it was there, ready to thrive again. Here worms still turned the soil. Here there were still minerals for life to grow strong on. Nissa sent mana through to these pockets of life, and felt them swell. Felt them jolt with energy, and begin the long climb through the waste to taste the sunlight.
There were years, maybe decades to go before Oran-Rief looked anything like its former self. In truth, there was little chance it would ever look exactly as it had. That was fine. Recovery was a slow process, change was part of recovery, and Nissa would be there to help her world heal every step of the way.
The land is steeped in my brothers’ touch
Nissa grit her teeth. “I’d noticed. Or did you miss the months I’ve spent trying to heal the land?”
An ambitious and a powerful endeavor. But I didn’t mean the wastes. My brother’s-
“I’m done hearing about Ulamog, actually,” Nissa hissed.
No, mover, not my one brother. I mean that my brothers pieces are-
A noise from behind shook Nissa’s focus. Sorin was calling after her. Bellowing something.
Her name.
The itch flooded Nissa’s mind like a rush of filth-laden water. Ashaya had passed under the bent form of an eldrazi-withered tree, and ahead, a small, sunken clearing radiated the itch from every direction.
Even below.
The ground beneath Ashaya splintered and burst upward in a column of shattered, desiccated plates. Nissa and the elemental were thrust up into the air. Trees shattered into dust. Purple-blue arms shot through the newly-formed hole in the forest floor, followed by taut red muscles and a face of blank bone.
A crusher. One of Ulamog’s brood.
Nissa leapt from Ashaya’s back onto an airborne sheet of hard packed-dust. It came apart under her feet as she sprinted along its length and flung herself onto a second chunk of airborne debris, just behind the crusher’s head. She bent her knees and sprang through the air, drawing her sword mip-leap and scoring a deep gash along its shoulder.
But not deep enough to kill.
And there were more coming. Spawn poured out of the hole. Drones leapt down from the grey-white branches of the ruined trees, filling the suddenly much larger clearing. Ulamog’s brood moved over the brittle ground with ease, and Kozilek’s obsidian-clad eldrazi added twists of bismuth to the surroundings as they threw themselves down into the clearing.
It was the swarm they had been tracking, and then some, all joined together for an ambush. Nissa swore and dove off the crusher’s neck just as it slammed its hand down where she had crouched. The blow echoed like an explosion, ringing in Nissa’s ears.
She hit the ground, rolled to a stand, then raised staff and sword as a tidal wave of eldrazi spawn flung themselves towards her.
Nissa stepped back with her first swing, cutting through the skull of one spawn and voiding the space where its companions slashed and stomped and lashed out with a dozen types of limbs. Each swing of her sword necessitated another step away from the horde. Each blow felled an eldrazi, but there was a pit full of them, a crusher just behind her, and nowhere else to dodge. Nissa threw a desperate glance over her shoulder. Ashaya had landed safely and was grappling with the titanic thing, though the crusher’s arm alone arm alone outweighed him two-to-one.
A sudden disorientation swept over Nissa, and she slipped on a sharp divot. She hit the ground hard, her vision nearly inverted. A crab-shaped eldrazi hovering above her, an upside-down crown of obsidian emitting iridescent pulses all through the clearing.
At least a dozen eldrazi converged on her. Nissa held out her sword. Her vision filled with red, and her chest a sudden, overdue fear.
“Too many.” Her gasp was barely a whisper. “Too many.”
Breathe, mover. You’ve faced worse odds.
“I had friends,” Nissa whispered. “I had-”
You still have them.
A blur of white and red swung down from the trees, scorching the air in its wake. The sizzling pendulum swept away a score of the eldrazi. The remainder of the spawn menacing Nissa lurched to a sudden stop. Their skulls burst. Their bodies fell limp to the dust.
Sorin and Nahiri loomed behind them, the vampire’s hand outstretched in an invocation of blood magic, the kor rushing forward, a molten sword in each hand.
Nahiri swept through the front ranks of the eldrazi, leaving each sword buried in the breast of a still-standing eldrazi before sweeping Nissa up in her arms. The stone that had smashed into the swarm followed in her wake like a blazing comet.
“This them?” Nahiri shouted over the rush of air.
Nissa nodded, weakly. The distortion in the air made it difficult to tell where Nahiri’s face ended and the white of the dead trees began. A blur of purple slid into her vision behind Nahiri’s head-
“Look out-!”
Nahiri swerved in the air in time to miss the full force of the crusher’s blow, but the glancing hit still sent both planeswalkers tumbling from the sky, and rolling into the dust.
Nissa recovered in time to register the looming shadow over them. Nahiri must have noticed it too, and they flung themselves in opposite directions just as the fist struck again. The ground caved in under the blow. Fragments of chalk peppered the air.
The fist jolted back up, and Nissa braced to roll out of the way of a third strike. Then the disorientation hit her again, and she fell, clutching at her ears. The crab-eldrazi was right above her. There was so much noise in the distortion. The light howled in her skull. A few feet away, she registered Nahiri scowling up at the air. The rock, which had fallen and embedded in the ground, glowed hot and streaked toward the crab-drone.
It never touched the creature. A blur of black and silver collided with the crab, and Sorin tore it neatly in half with a sideways stroke of his sword. The rock shot through the now-empty gap in the air, and glanced off the crusher’s face, cracking its skull across the bottom with the sound like a thunderbolt.
The fist still fell, square over Nissa.
This time she didn’t even flinch. With so little life in the surrounding earth, she sensed Ashaya’s approach with ease. The elemental threw himself over Nissa, intercepting the crusher’s blow and dragging the massive eldrazi off-balance. As it flailed backwards, Nissa noted that its other arm now ended in a ragged, purplish stump, and that Ashaya was splattered with similarly-colored gore. She sprang to her feet to face a second wave of the swarm with her comrades.
“Stop getting in my way, Sorin!” Nahiri had recalled her boulder, and split it in half to form two jagged, long-bladed gauntlets that covered her up to her forearm.
Sorin, coat still splattered with the remains of the crab-eldrazi, snarled.
“Keep your wits about you, then! I can’t coddle you all the time!”
“Just keep clear of me!” Nahiri shot back over her shoulder. She moved toward the trees, wading into the torrent of Kozilek’s eye-riddled drones and began cleaving their many limbs from their bodies.
“Oh, so now you don’t want help.” Sorin flipped his sword in his hand and spun in the air, striking the crack in the crusher’s face. The skull splintered, and the nightmare that passed for a face underneath was visible for a moment, until Sorin shoved his sword through the gap up to its hilt. “Good! I’d hate to respond the wrong way and have you try to kill me again!”
“Focus!” Nissa shouted, already racing towards the crusher. Ashaya followed a step behind. Even stabbed through the face, the giant eldrazi swiped at Sorin. With a thought from Nissa, Ashaya pounced at the eldrazi’s arm, somersaulting through the air, a buzzsaw of wood and root and earth. The arm, already cut deep by Nissa’s sword, was ripped from the crusher’s shoulder with a sound like a hundred coils of rope tearing apart. Sorin pumped plumes of blood colored magic into the crack in its skull, and a second later it burst, showering them all with solids and semi-solids which Nissa decided not to think about too hard.
“You don’t get to use that against me!” Nahiri screamed, she’d pinned the largest drone in the latest wave to the dust with her gauntlet. “Not when you wouldn’t even listen to me after! Not after you left me to rot in that demon filled hell!”
“I think I can use just about whatever I want.” Sorin rode the crusher’s body to the rim of the pit, and leapt off, diving through a crowd of sinew-winged spawn. Each one he dealt a single blow, cleaving their bodies in half. “unless stating facts is somehow more heinous than genocide!”
Nissa ducked under the swipe of one lanky eldrazi, and found herself face to no-face with a trio of spawn that looked like floating mountains in miniature, with fibers of alien flesh strung Between the peaks.
Ah, that’s me. One moment.
The mountains froze in place, then dropped heavily to the ground, their weight embedding them in the fragile earth. Nissa was so dumbfounded by the sight that the gangly eldrazi’s second swipe caught her in the stomach, folding her over.
Too many.
Not too many. Not for you. Breathe, mover. See them for the mass they are.
Nissa fell to one side to dodge another blow. As she fell she drove the butt of her staff through the underside of the lanky eldrazi’s skull. The force of the strike lifted the creature up and over the rim of the pit, where it fell away without a sound.
Perhaps it was the quiet of their opponents, Nissa mused, that let her comrades keep up their screaming match.
“Do you think-” Nahiri shouldered aside one squat eldrazi, then stabbed another right through its obsidian crown. “-That I don’t regret what I did? That I’m not just as angry with myself as I am with you? I have fucking nothing now. I was a protector. I kept the multiverse safe for centuries. Now I’m another gods-cursed killer.” Nahiri strode up the small pile of corpses, white face shining with sweat. “I wish every damn day I hadn’t brought that monster to your world!”
Sorin snarled, diving to the ground with a drone impaled on his sword. “Try acting like it, then!”
“What do you want to hear?” Nahiri roared, an upward swing bisecting one of Ulamog’s brood from groin to crown. “An apology? Do you want to hear sorry??”
Sorin sprang up, plunging his claws through the skulls of two more drones. “It would quite literally be the least you could do.”
“Please focus!” Nissa bellowed. An obsidian-crowned eldrazi with rows of eyes lining its bulging arms swiped at her once, twice, and shattered the rim of the pit with a scream that made the air ripple. They both stumbled, but Nissa kept her balance better than the eldrazi, and ran her sword through the flesh where a neck might have sprouted on any other creature. She jumped back and let it fall into the pit, knocking several other eldrazi down with it.
Sorin started to shout something back, but then the air was split by a vision-blurring screech, and a long-limbed eldrazi sprang from an overhanging branch, wrapping itself around Sorin, and slamming him flat into the dust. The other Eldrazi converged on him in a pile of pounding, flailing, grasping limbs.
Nissa and Nahiri paused for just a heartbeat, but that was enough time for their own opponents to capitalize on their distraction. One of Kozilek’s brood warped the space around Nahiri’s arm, slipping past the joint of her gauntlet with an oily sucking sound. The kor swore and screamed horribly as her arm went limp. Ashaya was just barely able to pull Nissa away from a disemboweling strike, but not quickly enough to keep the bony claws from drawing blood.
Nissa instinctively reached out for something. Dirt. Seed. Vines. There was nothing for miles, save for Ashaya. All that time spent coaxing growth back into the plane and she still found herself with nothing to call to their aid.
Your connection is with your plane, mover.
“I’d noticed, actually,” Nissa grunted, brandishing her sword. She cut down the spawn in front of her with a savage thrust, and began wading toward Sorin. Ashaya took her flank, providing a buffer and a plow through the crowd.
Well, this is your plane now. And not just the dirt and the vines. You are no less able to-
Nissa didn’t have the energy to focus on a retort, so she screamed, pushing forward with greater fury.
Sorin was nowhere in sight. More eldrazi piled onto the mass already pinning him down, unable to reach to the center, but adding weight with every drone.
“Sorin!” Nahiri’s scream matched and outstripped Nissa’s, as she hacked through the spawn with her good arm. “Don’t you dare die here, you selfish ass!” She hewed her way through the crowd around her with wide swipes, carving a gore-spattered path to the Sorin. Other eldrazi converged behind her as she started to carve through the pile. The blade of her limp arm flowed over her shoulders and head, hardening to shield her from the eldrazi piled onto her back.
That was the last glimpse Nissa had of her ally before the next wave of spawn roared up from the pit, joining the clutch that already beat down on her from the forest side. Her warpath came to a sudden, heavy stop. Even Ashaya could not wade any further through the crush of bodies.
Sword and stick won’t solve this, mover.
“It’s all I have,” Nissa screamed back, pressing closer to Ashaya’s back. “Look around you! They’ve cut me off! I can’t bring more of Zendikar here in time!”
Zendikar is here. It may not look like it once did. It may not look like how you plan it to look in the future. But it is still here. A rusted sword may not slice, but it can bludgeon.
To Nissa’s left, eldrazi were still pouring up from the pit. She could hear Nahiri bellowing somewhere far away. There were so many. Too many. Their presence flowed like a dirty stream across the leylines.
Will you swim against the current, or flow with it?
Nissa felt for Zendikar again. Delving desperately as she beat back drone after drone. This time she did not dig. She let her mind rest on the dust and desiccation right at her feet.
The voice that answered back was sickly. Strange. But it answered.
“I think,” Nissa grunted, “That I’ll dam up the whole stream.”
Magnificent.
Chalk blew out in geysers from the shattered edge of the pit, knocking several spawn back into the darkness as they tried to clamber onto level ground. A crack ripped down the side of the hole, bursting with even more dust.
A gaping maw tore itself free from the pit wall and reared up, Jaws of desiccated earth slammed down beyond the rim. Skeletal teeth punched into drones and spawn, pulping them to the ground.
Then the maw-thing, the soul of the wastes, fell backwards, dragging dozens of eldrazi with it, crushing the rest of the eldrazi rushing out of the pit against the walls. The grind of its fall echoed through the clearing, even as the eldrazi that remained pressed against Nissa all the fiercer.
Absolutely magnificent.
“Can’t...can’t do that again.” Nissa was panting hard. She could barely keep her sword and staff in front of her, barring the crush of eldritch limbs. “Check. Or however that damn game goes.”
The game is in disarray. You’ve made one important realization already: When the game has gone poorly, you always have the option of ripping the board out from under the arrangement of pieces that displease you. And now that they lie on the ground, let me give you another clue: who is to tell you that you may not take whatever piece you want for your own?
Nissa blinked, then furrowed her brow. Three spawn sprang at once, the bone-faced ones spreading their arms wide, the eyeball-covered one leaping at an angle that gravity should have made impossible. Nissa killed one with her sword, and found herself grappling with the other two.
They pressed in with rough shoves. They were not especially strong physically, and they blocked out the spawn gathering behind them, but the press of the whole crowd moved them forward. A sack-like limb struck Nissa across the jaw. Claws the color of twilight jabbed through the gaps. A slash tore through Nissa’s wrap and tunic, ripping flesh and scoring a nick on her ribs.
This is simple, mover. If your opponent would kill you, what must you do?
“Fuck off,” Nissa grunted.
I think you’ll find this germane to your present situation, mover.
Nissa almost laughed at that. At the bank-faced monsters pressing in around her. She felt something wet seeping into her tunic along her flank.
Suddenly Nissa felt as if she was seeing the eldrazi for the first time. Alien, yes. Horrifying in numbers, yes. But they were not gearhulks or elder dragons or gods-
This is ridiculous. I’ve laid better opponents than this low without every drawing my blade.
Yes!
Nissa relaxed her muscles, and the crowd shoved her back immediately. She let them push. Ashaya flowed around her, embracing Nissa in a cage of wood with just enough space for her to fall back, as the limbs of the eldrazi scratched at the wood and grasped through the holes of the cage. Leaf-coated vines descended from the roof of Ashaya, wrapping around Nissa’s flank to staunch the flow of blood. She felt the lines of Ashaya’s vital force surrounding her, and, using that as her starting point, reached out to the eldrazi.
Their lines were confused. They were individuals, certainly. Yet in another, truer sense, parts of greater, more intricate wholes. Wholes that had been burned out of existence, leaving a hole in the multiverse. Leaving these lesser eldrazi severed. And yet fragments of the ties that had bound them to the larger entities remained; strands of power, severed at one end, but alive, in their own strange way.
Nissa seized those strands by the metaphysical handful, gathering them together and folding them into a single thread. Grasping them was tricky. Like snatching streams of current from the water. Some she fumbled. Some wriggled through her grip. But with each pull of her mind, more spawn twisted under her power. Her influence radiated outward from where she stood, and slowly a growing number of eldrazi stood still, providing her a bulwark against those that remained hostile.
Nahiri cried out.
Nissa couldn’t see the kor from her position, so she directed the drones closest to Ashaya to lift him up, over the heads and head-like appendages of the crowd. Ashaya peeled open as he rose, wooden limbs curving outward like petals to protect Nissa from the eldrazi on the ground, though none in the immediate vicinity made a move towards her that she did not direct.
Further out, spawn still fought their way towards her, and towards Nahiri. Nahiri had met them with a fury that outmatched anything the mindless drones could hope to amass. Her stone armor was cracked and pitted in a dozen places. She was bleeding from more wounds than Nissa could count. Still she shredded eldrazi, one-handed, bellowing and driving closer to the pile atop Sorin, inch by hard-won inch.
“I’m sorry, you miserable corpse! Isn’t that what you wanted to hear?!” Her armor flared red-hot, singing the drones closest to her. A second later it exploded outward, and debris ripping through skulls, sinew, and eldritch flesh. She thrust the hand of her good gauntlet into the pile, and heaved.
Sorin emerged. At least, his arm and upper body did, the rest still pinned under the swarm.
But he lived, and somehow, still moved. His other arm cut free of the pile, gripped tight around a strange, jagged-edged knife. Nissa sifted further into the horde, grabbing more and more of the eldrazi and commanding their stillness, reaching out for the mass that menaced her companions.
“Sorin!” Even from a short distance, Nissa could make out the look of manic relief on Nahiri’s face.
“I hear you.” Sorin gasped. His flesh was bruised and torn, his garments shredded ribbons of leather and cloth. He thrust with his strange knife, impaling a drone at Nahiri’s side before it could slash at her. It died, but Sorin’s arm crumpled under the creature’s weight. “I said I wanted an apology, not for you to die.” He thrashed, freeing his legs from the pile and turning his knife back on the eldrazi that had buried him.
Nahiri snorted. “Who’s dying? It’ll take more than-”
Sorin’s blow caught her in the shoulder. Nahiri stumbled to one side. A spike of obsidian punched through the air where she had stood, and then, just as easily, through Sorin’s breastplate, pinning him to the ground.
Nahiri was back on her feet in seconds, swatting aside spawn left and right, desperately trying to keep them from converging on Sorin again. Nissa grit her teeth. She could set the eldrazi she had under her influence on the ones that still fought against the planeswalkers, but that wouldn’t stop the hostile ones before they tore her allies apart. And if she couldn’t grab control of the rest in that time-
A bolt of black flew into Nissa’s periphery. Just as quickly, Ashaya lashed out with a tendril, deflecting another spike of obsidian into the dust. Nissa glanced up into the trees. A broad-chested drone was perched in the ashen branches, a long spiral of tapered black stone forming from its throat, aimed right at her. She scowled and, with a strain that drew blood from her nostrils, reached into the dead leylines of the wastes and severed the branch. The eldrazi plummeted to the forest floor, where it landed among the still-growing horde that surrounded Nahiri.
Nissa gasped. She tasted iron as her blood ran over her lips. There’s too many
You see them as individuals and grasp them as individuals, Mover. A general does not call soldiers by name, but by unit.
Nissa blinked, and furrowed her brow. “What do you-?”
The spike-shooting eldrazi reared up suddenly from the crowd, a thorn of obsidian still forming in its throat. It lunged through the crowd, bowling other drones aside, its spike aimed at Sorin’s head.
It made it within a foot of the vampire’s face, and not an inch closer. Nahiri grabbed the spike with her gauntlet, stopping it dead and, with a scream, super-heated the spike until it cooked the drone from the inside out.
Nissa watched for only a moment until her attention was grabbed by a shape lying in the space the drone had cleared when it charged. More of the round, mountain-shaped eldrazi lay unmoving in the dust, unmarked by any weapon. Emrakuls in miniature A quick glance around the clearing confirmed a dozen other like them, some lying where none of the fighting had taken place.
Dealt with all at once. Like snapping my finger.
Nissa shut her eyes. In her mind, the eldrazi had were bundled together like bales of hay, the ones she did not yet have under her control lying loose like straw littered in a field.
“Straw will take too long to gather,” She muttered.
The image in her mind shifted. The spawn of Kozilek were like silt pouring through of muddy, running water. Rough. Difficult to perceive. She formed a sieve in her mind, and dragged it across the stream, collecting up the alien consciousnesses of the brood. In one swipe, she had half the clearing frozen under her control.
Ulamog...Ulamog was salt. Drying. Desiccating. In her mind Nissa pictured the clearing as a table, and swept the grains of Ulamog’s spawn into a bowl.
When she opened her eyes, every creature was still. All except Nahiri.
Sorin hung at an angle with the ground, forming a triangle with his body on one side, the earth on another, and the spike as the third. Nahiri cracked the spike with a blow form her gauntlet and pulled Sorin off onto the ground. He was bruised over every inch of exposed skin, and a hole ran straight through his belly.
Nahiri, at a sudden loss of anything dangerous to hit, then channeled her fervent energies at Sorin.
“I’m sorry!” Nahiri screamed down at Sorin’s still form. “Please! I shouldn’t have done it! It was wrong!” She didn’t seem to even register the circle of drones around her, still and watching.
Softly, Nissa commanded the Eldrazi to lower her and Ashaya to the ground. There was a slight buzz in her head as she instructed the individuals holding them up, but it faded away as she tucked them back into the collective in her mind, and strode through the still crowd toward her comrades. Ashaya plodded behind, the chalky ground crumbling under each of his steps.
Nahiri looked up as Nissa neared. Her eyes were wild. Bloodshot. There was something between a smile and a grimace on her face.
“They can’t have killed him, right? He wouldn’t just die like this. Somewhere like this.”
Nissa grimaced. “Nahiri-”
The Kor’s sudden gasp cut her off.
Sorin’s head lolled, then slowly dragged upright. His eyes slid open and a groaned.
“No fear there.” He lifted a hand slowly and lay it across his breast. “I freed myself from an impaling trap made by the meanest lithomancer in the multiverse. What’s one spike from a cockroach?”
Nahiri’s set Sorin down in the dust. “I-I thought so!” She laughed. A rough, manic bark. She held the smile for a moment, then it fell off her face. “I’m sorry.”
Sorin shook his head. Barely a twitch of his neck to the side. “You don’t have to-”
“I’m sorry,” she echoed, soft. “I really am.”
His face twisted. “I can’t accept an apology from you. I don’t deserve forgiveness any more than you do. I hurt you in a way few people in the multiverse have been hurt, and I did it deliberately, to preserve my own selfish peace in the world.” He lay a hand on Nahiri’s. “I don’t want you to be what I pushed you toward being. Not when I know destruction isn’t what your soul is meant for. I’m sorry. That was selfish as well.”
Nahiri shook her head, rapid. “It’s no excuse. Whatever happened to me, it’s no excuse for...for...”
She stood, suddenly. She stared past Nissa like she was seeing something far off among the dead trees. Nahiri’s chest rose and fell with an increasingly furious pace, and she stepped over Sorin, past Nissa, almost to the edge of the eldrazi circle.
Then she just stood, staring.
Sorin and Nissa exchanged glances. The Vampire’ face was contorted as he pumped blood magic into the hole in his chest, but the contortion was mixed with...it was the same look Gideon used to make when he fretted over the others.
Nahiri fell to her knees, screaming in a sudden rage.
“Damn you!” Her fists broke the brittle ground easily. “Damn me! Another fucking killer!” Her fists quickly reduced the patch of ground to a conical pit of powder. “The sealing, the hedrons...none of it means a damned thing now!”
“You kept your plane alive for millennia!” Sorin shouted, horse. There was a horrible sucking sound as he yelled, and Nissa realized with a start that he only had one inflated lung. “That’s not nothing.” He struggled upright, and Nissa ran forward to grab him under the arm before he collapsed again. He wheezed, and looked up at Nissa. “Thank you.”
They ambled over to Nahiri. Sorin knelt nest to her, head bowed. “What I did to you...where I left you. I owe you as much of an apology.”
“You didn’t kill anyone to hurt me. Not on purpose.” Nahiri’s response was ragged; barely a whisper through a scream-sore throat. “You were a fucking selfish bastard but you didn’t try to kill anyone other than me. I’m worse than you.”
“Maybe.” Sorin said it automatically. “Probably. I still wronged you.”
Nahiri shuddered suddenly, with a violent sob. She reached out and seized a handful of Sorin’s torn sleeve, and slammed her other fist against the dusty ground. Her shoulders shook, and her hand twisted the leather around. Sorin did not move or back away. Nissa wondered if she should.
“I’m a murderer! Evil! I don’t deserve anything!”
“That’s true,” Nissa whispered. She leaned back against Ashaya, holding the vine-bandages wrapped tight around her side. “But life’s not about what we deserve; it’s about what do.” Her legs started to buckle, and she slid down the elemental’s leg to sit in the dust. “What we’ll do next.”
Nahiri drew in a dry, rattling breath, and shuffled around to face Nissa. “Next?”
“This...this is good, what we did here today. Together. Look how much fewer we’ve made the spawn that still threaten our world.” Nissa looked down at the waste beneath her. “Look at how much world remains to be saved.” She lifted her head and looked from Sorin to Nahiri. “You can heal. You can build. I can grow. And if you can work with each other, I would...happily work with you.”
Sorin nodded, slow, and looked to Nahiri. She returned his gaze with eyes red and watering, but unblinking.
“No forgiveness.” She held out her hand to him. “We build something new, starting today.”
“That...that works for me.” He grasped her hand, and they shook; a quick, singular motion. He turned to Nissa, and inclined his head. “And I hope we might do the same. My actions against you and toward your world-”
“When I said I didn’t care, I meant it. And I meant nothing of malice against either of you.” Nissa jabbed a head at her temple. “I’ve had this force in my head for some time now. By most sane definitions it is evil, a thing that’s twisted and killed millions. Still I tolerate it. I listen to it. I try to use its guidance to do good, because I do not have the power to oppose it, and because the alternative is to leave it unattended.”
My guidance has been of great use.
“I had a friend who believed in justice. Who believed that there were good actions in the world, and wrong ones, and that the latter should be opposed without question.” Something rose up in Nissa’s chest, but she forced in down, breathing slow to calm her heartbeat. “But he believed in every person’s capacity for good, no matter their past. I can’t say if he was right in the end, only that that sort of justice is the only kind that’s ever made sense to me.” Her arms felt heavy, but Ashaya lifted his own for her. “So please. Let’s do better, and let our mistakes be lessons, not yokes.”
The other two said nothing, though Nahiri nodded, slowly. Sorin leaned forward, hand still pressed to his breast, fingers still weaving healing magic.
Silence and dust drifted through the clearing. When the latter settled, only silence remained.
* * *
They sat around another stone fire that night, back where the chalk wastes gave way to the green remains of Oran-Rief. Nissa sat cross-legged in front of the stone, both hands laid in the comforting sponginess of the moss. The remaining spawn, a little under four-hundred by Nahiri’s count, all lay a distance away, huddled together in a crude corral of vines and stone bells to alert the trio if they starting moving while Nissa slept.
Her head was full of buzzing, and there was a throbbing ache behind her eyes.
But it was better than their last rest. The tension had gone out of her companions, and Nissa could breath easier.
“There’s pockets all over,” Nahiri said over a supper of roasted tubers and wild onions. She picked at her food with her left hand, her right still hanging limp in a sling. “Not just spawn, but opportunists taking advantage of ruined settlements and wild creatures displaced by the dead stretches on the plane. We could, the three of us, we could give those Zendikari a better chance at starting their lives over.”
Nissa nodded. She was leaned up against Ashaya, moving as little as possible to not disturb the lacerations along her side.
“That’s true, though I would like to set aside time to continue replenishing the forests. Oran-Rief is a daunting project, and I still hold out hope for restoring Bala Ged to a place for the elves.”
“Is it true, the stories about the elemental?” Nahiri was much more eager to talk since the battle.
All the words unsaid over the past week.
“Yes. Yarok, they call it. Another creature we may have to coexist with.” Nissa dared a small smile. “But, coexisting is something we’re all getting much better at.”
Nahiri nodded, suddenly interested in wolfing down the rest of her supper. Sorin just nodded from where he reclined on a stone slate cushioned with harvested moss. Faint wisps of blood magic crawled over his form, and the bruises that mottled his body were beginning to receding by bits. He pointed in the direction of the spawn. “Will they be coming?”
“Until I can find something useful for them to do. There is a strain, trying to keep them in line,” Nissa noted after a time. “I expect we may still need to face more in the days to come.”
“Not the companions I expected,” Nahiri observed through a mouthful of food. “But...beats having enemies, I guess. Were you ever able to track down Ugin?” She asked, looking to Sorin.
“Not a sign since Tarkir. When it comes to that dragon, I don’t know what to believe anymore.” The barest hint of a smile crawled over Sorin’s face. “Remember how surprised we were to find out he was in contact and collaboration with so many other walkers? Even in the middle of that accursed mess on Ravnica?”
Nissa lowered a piece of onion from her mouth. The memory of the spirit dragon, bright and looming, flashed briefly in her mind. He’d been there at the end last time. He’d spoken to her. To Jace. To...to Gideon and-
“Of course. I stopped trying to kill you, I was so intrigued.” Nahiri chewed her lip. “Do you think it’s true?”
Sorin glanced over to Nissa. “The mind-mage was your companion, right? Do you trust him?”
“With my life,” Nissa said, soft. She pressed down another lump in her chest.
“What about you?” Nahiri asked Nissa. “You didn’t-I never even thought to ask how your companions fared after the...well, the war, I guess we’re calling it. The mind-mage and the pyromancer and-”
“We’re fine,” Nissa replied. “All fine.”
“Ah.” Nahiri nodded.
“More hands couldn’t hurt here,” Sorin ventured. “If we can’t get the spirit dragon...I don’t know how many of your companions are able and willing to help, but I saw many talents on display against Bolas that would help here. The time mage, certainly. I believe I saw another elf calling upon dead spirits as well. Plenty of those to go around. Even the fire-flinger might be useful for clearing out-”
Nissa didn’t hear the rest as she, much to everyone’s surprise, hunched over and started sobbing.
“...but maybe not...?” Sorin finished.
Nissa tried to catch her breath, but she could not stop the heaving in her lungs, and the twisting of her face as tears spilled out over her chin and into her lap.
The other two didn’t say anything right away. Through shudders Nissa could see them exchange nervous glances.
“I’m sorry,” She muttered, choking out the words between sobs. “Sorry, I-”
“It’s fine.” They said it together automatically. Nahiri leapt up from her spot to amble over and sit next to Nissa. Nissa dug her fingers deeper into the ground, if only to keep herself from covering up her face.
Nahiri lifted her good hand, and it hovered over her own lap a moment before she moved to rest it on Nissa’s shoulder. Nissa shook her head. A tight, frantic shudder that might have been mistaken for more shakes from her crying, but Nahiri took her hand back all the same.
“I’m sorry.” Nahiri lay the hand instead on the grass next to Nissa’s. “I owe you one as well. If I...if we distressed you – I mean, if we acted in such a poor way as to-”
“No.” Nissa shook her head, a more deliberate movement this time. “Not you.
“Mostly not you,” she added.
Sorin cleared his throat. “Is it...is it something we can help with?” The words stumbled out from him so unnaturally that Nissa almost laughed through her tears.
“I-no? I don’t know.”
The other two exchanged another look. What look, Nissa couldn’t say, but even through blurred eyes she could see them turn toward each other.
“Is it the pyromancer?” Sorin asked after a moment. “Did something happen to-”
“I don’t know!” Nissa pulled up a fist and punched the ground, grinding her knuckles into the moss. “I haven’t seen Chandra in months! I – she came to see me and then she just-she just...”
“What did she do?” Nahiri’s own fingers clenched, and the heat from the stone rose perceptibly. “Did she hurt-”
Nissa shook her head. “She just...she just came and left. And I let her. I stood there like an idiot and I just let her.” She brought her elbow up and coughed into it. Snot was starting to run down to her lips. “I’m sorry, this isn’t important, I just-”
“Clearly it’s important to you,” Sorin interrupted. “So it is, by definition, important.”
Nissa shook her head. “I just wanted her to be happy . She said distance was what she needed, and I let her...of course I let her go. I love her. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”
Sorin drew and released a breath in a long sigh. “You need to be a bit more selfish sometimes.”
“And what?” Nissa replied. “Force her to stay with me? Make her do something that will make her miserable?”
“You said yourself,” Sorin returned after a short silence, “that you didn’t even tell her how you felt. That you let her make assumptions from your silence.”
“What would you know?”
“It’s what you did last night,” Nahiri cut in. “Until I provoked you. Um, sorry for that.”
“She said she wasn’t right for me.” Nissa steadied herself, and drew in a short, rattling breath. “She said...she knows I like the quiet sometimes. I liked that about her, that she understood that. But then she said she couldn’t-that we couldn’t be...I don’t know.” She brought the back of her glove up to clear her eyes. “She thought...she thought I wouldn’t have made space for her in my life. That I wouldn’t have liked making space for her in my life” She breathed in again, longer this time, steadying herself.
“Would you have?” Nahiri kept her voice low, just loud enough for the three of them.
“I think so.” Nissa lifted her head. Sorin had sat up and to face them. “It wasn’t the firs thing on my mind when we parted the first time. There was too much work for me here. But I did think about it when I came back again, after Ravnica, but there was still so much to do, and...” She choked again. “I took too long. I didn’t...I needed more time. I didn’t think she’d just-”
“That’s not your fault for needing time,” Sorin said. “No matter what came of it, there’s no shame in thinking through a hard decision.”
“Months though?” Nahiri said. “I mean – sorry, that’s not the point.” She lifted her hand again tentatively, but put it back down on the moss without Nissa having to say anything or shake her head. “It’s...it’s been a strange time for all of us, since, well since we were all together last. A hard time for introspection.”
“I don’t think she had to wait for me,” Nissa whispered. “I just wish she had.”
For a while there was no sound but the occasional hiss of the wind carrying a stray leaf into the stone. The trails down Nissa’s face started to dry, and she drew in slow breaths of the cool night air.
“Your paths could easily cross again,” Sorin offered, eventually. “She knows where you are, and even if you don’t-”
“I do.”
“...what?”
“I do,” Nissa said. “I mean, I could know. I can feel many things in the leylines now. More and more since I traveled with the Gatewatch. Since...since Emrakul began speaking to me. If I focus-” Nissa held out her hand, and channeled mana into the leylines that threaded through the air. There were so many on Zendikar. The plane was so abundantly alive in a way that so few other planes were.
“-She burns brighter than anyone I’ve ever met. If I wanted to – that is, if I felt it was right, I could just follow that light.”
“So why don’t you?” Nahiri leaned in, voice louder now. “Go and tell her what you told us.”
“She said we weren’t right for each other. What if she still feels that way?”
“Then you’ll have tried,” Nahiri replied. “You’ll have told her how you feel about her, and she can make her decision knowing what you want. Otherwise she’ll just go on thinking that she made a choice that you agreed with, and...well, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.”
Nissa tensed. The thought of doing just that had occurred to her weeks ago, and seemed laughably implausible since then. Nahiri suggested it like a real possibility, but...going to Chandra? Using her words to express whatever it was she felt for her? It made Nissa’s whole body seize up from the inside out. But if she could bring the right words…
“I...think I would like that,” Nissa said at last. “But, even now, I don’t know that I’ve given it the thought it deserves.”
“Then take the time,” Sorin said. “You’ve got us now, as long as you need us. You don’t need to run yourself as ragged as a one-elf savior across the whole plane. We’ll all do our good work, and we’ll be your counsel as you work through your thoughts. And when you’re ready, whenever that might be, you can go to her with the right words.”
Nahiri nodded. “If you want our help, of course.”
Nissa was silent a long while. Her head still ached from the commotion and confrontation of the day. Her body still throbbed with pain from a dozen wounds, and the alien tinge of the eldrazi spawn still crawled along her body like a new limb. She didn’t want to talk. Didn’t want to do anything but close her eyes and rest.
Still, the comfort of caring company made the night just a degree less cold.
“I think...I think I would like that. Thank you.”
* * *
Mover, before you sleep…
Nissa groaned softly. She had just lay her head down and begun to close her eyes. The soft ground felt like a balm against her buzzing scalp, she had only a few hours before Nahiri woke her for her turn at night watch, and she wanted nothing more than the quiet of sleep.
If you’d rather wait...though I find the sooner the debrief-
“No, let’s do this now,” she muttered, keeping her whisper low.
You’ve added great power unto yourself. We’ll discuss that.
Nissa waited for Emrakul to say more. The eldrazi titan remained silent.
“I’ve reached out and taken control of another mind. Minds. Or lack of a mind. Several voids where minds should be. I’m not sure I understand entirely what I’m going to do with them, and I’m not sure that qualifies as becoming more powerful.
You used one method to add the power of my brothers’ pieces to yourself. You used another to add the power of your companions, the binders. Even the mere act of finding a new application for an existing competency is an act of growing power.
“Yes. Nissa poked wearily at her connection to the herd of drones off in the wastes. “That will take...it will take some getting used to. And there’s peace between Sorin and Nahiri now. I’m not certain how much of that was me, to be honest.”
You facilitated a renewal of their companionship. Indirect intervention is still intervention. It’s all part of becoming powerful.
Nissa blinked. “I...I’m pleased to have them as allies. As friends, even. But I don’t know what you...I haven’t been sapping their powers or taking power from them or-”
Friends are power stored in other bodies. A friend made is power added unto yourself, and better still, power that aids you willingly. Joyfully.
The earlier battle flashed in Nissa’s mind. The crush of bodies. Emrakul’s voice booming in her mind all the while…
“If my opponent is about to kill me, make them my friend.”
Yes.
“I don’t know how to feel about that. What if making a friend means conceding part of who I am?”
Then you get to decide if it’s worth it to you. Look around though, and I think you’ll find you’ve conceded very little.
“I’ve conceded to interrupt my work healing the plane. I’ve conceded to speak the language of the eldrazi. To let them into my mind.”
Emrakul was silent a long moment.
You’ve spoken my language with me for some time now. Has it not been worth your while?
“...let’s talk about that later.”
...has my presence been unwelcome?
“No but...having someone else’s thoughts in your head all the time makes it challenging to know what thoughts are your own.”
This is so. I do intend only to advise, mover. I do not wish to control a fellow controller.
“I’m glad,” Nissa whispered. “And glad you’ve been less prone to objecting to our fight against your...pieces.”
I am not beyond learning, mover. And any sentimentality for what remains of my brothers does no good. All in the past, as you said to the binders.
Nissa nodded vaguely. Her eyes were growing heavier by the minute.
On the topic of my presence, do you wish for the possibility of dreaming of the burner tonight?
“Why do you call her that?” Nissa’s eyes opened slightly. “Burner? She had a name, you know. I have a name.”
She is defined by her burning. That is what binds the two of you.
Nissa pursed her lips. “That’s all you think binds us? That we killed eldrazi together?”
The burning of my brothers is not what defines her to you, Mover. It is her mind that burns for you, so she is the burner.
It seems obvious to me, at least , Emrakul added.
“You call them the binders.” Nissa nodded at Nahiri's sleeping form, and at Sorin, hovering further away.
They bound me. It was a significant, defining thing that they did.
“That’s not what defines them to me.”
It’s not always about you.
“Mm.” Nissa laid her head back. “Sure.”
Mover...the burner?
Nissa stared up a long while, past the looming edge of the hedron mass overhead. A thousand pinpricks of starlight filled the open stretch of night sky beyond that.
“Not tonight. If I dream of her...” Nissa lapsed. A pair of glints, like from twin panes of glass filled her mind, along with a brush of cinnamon. “If she’s in my mind, I prefer she remain there.”
Emrakul did not reply, but a warm rush crawled along the back of Nissa’s scalp as her eyes slid shut.
The above is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.
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Book 1 Hope returns Chapter 46 Vanguard By goldstonegolem64
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9HJV1Ben6k
Galra central command
It had been about eight teen hours since Root rot was sent to conquer and Zarkon was starting to get frustrated with how long it was taking.
“ Any word from the weed or any of the ship captains that were sent with him?” Zarkon asked
After a few second of wait one of the transition officers spoke” No my lord We are getting nothing but static . But before he did go dark we did receive a message from Root Rot group saying that they had run in with the Valkyrie. “ .
‘ I know that but it was seventeen vs one how could one man take on so many at once or maybe Voltron and or that titan was there as well “ Zarkon said as he got up from his throne
“ Should we send the twin or Skyver to assisted Root Rot in his mission?”
“ No he either succeed or he dies. I would rather not send those three to their deaths. We will deal with at in do time “ Zarkon said as he was leaving the room “ Recall any Sub-commanders and commander that nearest to us, call back the nearest mobile repair bay and tell every refinery to double their work load we are going to need as many mans on deck just in case we are attacked In the coming days” Zarkon left the control room and walked towards Haggar’s lab. As he moved he walked passed dozens of soldiers each one moved out of his way as they could see he was visibly angered by the failure of his commanders for not capturing voltron, for not stomping out the rebel cells that had been cropping up recently after voltron showed back up.
But then again he had grown complacent over the centuries believing that no foe could stand up to him and the empires might . But that all came back to bite him for not handling this problem himself. But that what project Titan was for .Zarkon stopped in front of the door way to Haggar’s lad then entered the room. As he entered the room he found Haggar looking out of a window .
“So how is the constructs of the Titan project going “ Zarkon said as he walked over to look out the same window
‘ We are putting on the finishing touches from the data we’ve collected from ever battle that both the Valkyrie and Voltron had been in the past two months and have made the proper adjustments to face both of them at once but there is a draw back to this upgrade.”
“ And what is that my dear “
“ You will need a full on neural link for it to control so if titan is destroyed it will most likely kill you.”
“Well we have the Lazarus protocol . Now on the statue of Root Rot and his men ?”
“All but two are alive and counted for. K-38 and K-2″
“So Root Rot Is dead then”
“ No he is most likely still alive,recovering and adapting from this defeat. Now should we send a recover team to collect him along with an invasion force to the planet ?” Haggar asked
“ No We have lost already to many men and recourses on one world and if Voltron and The Valkyrie are there we will lose so many more and with the twins and Skyver mechs being rebuild and upgrade and the new batch of Kurons being grown and trained we would most likely lost . Speaking of which how is batch two training coming along?”
“ Worst then the first . We tried to lean more into the silver paladins altean d.n.a But this as caused those to come out mindless.” Haggar walked over to her desk and showed a video of a Kuron in its test tube it looked liked an Altean with tan skin, red cheek marks and pink hair in their mid teens . They were just floating there in it’s pod doing nothing but growing then the monitor at the front of the pod started to glow red. Then the scientists in the lab moved toward the pod and tried to figure out what was going on. Then the Kuron inside started to violently morphing from a normal body and into a gray scaled beast. It then Burst through the pod’s glass and attacked the scientist and ripped then apart. It then let out a roar that caused the surrounding kuronsin there pods to start to change as well. They then burst out and started to rampage through out the lad ripping into each other.
“ It seems like they have reverted to a more primitive Mind set if you remove the human D.n.a and try to fill in the gapes with Altean or Galran D.n.a.” Haggar said as she stopped the video
“ So the silver Paladin is human and Altean so there are other Alteans still alive on the planet Earth then “ Zarkon said as a smile came across his face
“ Yes and no. The Silver paladin dose share some D.n.a with the black paladin but there seems to be small changes to their d.n.a . Like how the Silver paladin heart pumps blood slower then the Black paladins that tends to happen a kid is born in zero or artificial gravity.”
“So he was born on another world then. But there was no other planets in that solar system that could host life.”
“ Well the first humans we had captured were on the ninth planet of their system. So there ma be colonies on other worlds or moons.”
“ Alright then we’ll send a scouting ship to find this colony. Now have you found the traitor in are midst yet
“No I haven’t. “
“But we have “ Another voice said
Both Zarkon and Haggar turned to look at the voice and were supriesd by who they saw.
Else where in the universe
Jay was sitting in the Med bay playing a game of chess against Pidge
“ Are you sure your ok jay “Pidge asked as she moved one of her pawns
“ I’m fine my suit took most of damage and I’ve been through worse “ Jay replied as he moved his knight
“Jay your skin is bright ready and your smoking still are you sure your fine” pidge said as she moved another pawn .
“ It’s fine I’ll just shed of the dead skin of next time I shower next “
“ Wait you shed like a lizard “ Pidge had a strange image in her head of Jay shedding like a snake
Jay looked up from the chess board and looked perplexed by pidge’s statement “ Yes like a lizard would. “ Then he remembered pidge was not from mars “Sometimes I forget we come from different planets. So something normal to me is weird to you and Vic-versa”
“ That is true but still are you going to be alright after all that happened yesterday “
“Pigeon I’ve been sitting in this room four hours . I think I’m good at this point. Also Checkmate “
“What. “ Pidge looked at the board and saw that jay had moved his rook right in front of her king then notice that the queen was behind it and had the bishop that move on black spaces was also aimed toward the rook” Uh didn’t see that coming.Good game jay “
“Finally after six game I won once and now I retire on top” Jay said as he shot both his hands up in joy.
“ Alright then so what do we do now “
“ We will jst a bit more before the others show “
“And what do when they ask about the big one sitting just out side of the city’s limits “
“Will let the others deal with at when they get here “ Jay replied
‘[Captain The castle of lions as entered the planet’s orbit and Allura wishes for both of you to meet them at the as soon as possible}
“ Speak of the devil i guess we should head out then” jay said as he got up from his seat . “Hey Val did you leave the speeder here or is it still in your chest “ his said in his minded
“ I left it just out the Prometheus’s cargo by door.” Val said
“ Thank you” Jay said as he and pidge walked out of the med bay
“ Your welcome ‘ Val replied
“ So were taking the not the green lion. “ Pidge asked
“ Pidge it’s “ looked at his phone” 5 in the morning and people are sleeping so the bikes will do for now” Jay said as he walked down the ramp and saw his silver speeder which he called quick Silver. As he sat down and wait for pidge he saw the castle of lions slowly starting to descend from the clouds on the other side of the city. As he watched the castle. Pidge riding her speeder” Alright lets go” Jay said as he and pidge drive towards where the castle was landing.
As the castle landed both Jay and Pidge arrived
“ So how do you think the others are going to react to see the big one ‘ Jay asked still sitting as the castle landed a few feet away
“Don’t know but it’s going to be fun when they learn what happened here. Also do you wonder what happened on their missions “ pidge said as the door they were in front of started to open
“ Why don’t we ask them are selves “ Jay replied as he walked into the castle of lions followed by Pidge the two walked onto the kitchen first and Found most of the crew which was Matt, Hunk , Nyma, Rolo , Keith and Shiro sitting at the table eating the food goo” Sup Guys how did your missions
Adam spoke first “ We had some trouble but it was a” Adam was cut off by a blueish green furred ferreteped as Jay called them suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed him by the face which kind hurt do to the electrical burns he suffered from the fight
“ Oh no we truly are in the worst possible reality to be in . Unless it the reality . . What is your name boy “ Slav asked
Jay with his cheeks being stretched out spoke “ Jay Sorin and I’m guesting your Slav ” he replied
“ Yes .Also if our here now then this realty still has a chance “ Slav said then he was grabbed by the back of the collar by Shiro and was pulled away
“ Sorry Jay He’ s been raving about of end of the world ending conspiracy theory the moment We said anything about the Valkyrie.” Shiro said as he put Slav down
“ It’s not a Conspiracy it’s a strong possibility” Slav Counters
Shiro and Slav started to argue about this while Jay and Adam watch and laughed a bit
“So Hunk Keith Rolo, Nyma how did your mission go?” Pidge asked
“ Keith made a friend with a GAlra pilot “Hunk said
“ They were no my friend I just helped them out see as the five of us were inside of a giant space worm.” Keith replied
“ but they liked you the most “ Nyma said jokingly
“ Maybe Galra just know when their in the presents of one any other “ Hunk said
“ That is true but only for pure bloods seeing as they are all fucking purple “ Jay yelled
“ Thank Jay for the info “ Keith said
“ So they just were being polite because Keith saved them ok if it comes back to bite us in the butt that’ s on Keith then agreed ” Hunk said
“ Agreed” Everyone said
“ That’s fair .Now Pidge What did you and Jay do while we were away ?” Pidge asked
“ Fought some robeasts and the guy who took my leg nothing to big “Pidge said like it was no big deal
Everyone was quite for a few seconds before Matt speaking up “ Are you alright did you have a panic attack . Jay where were you during all this” Matt asked as he looked towards jay
“ I was being electrocuted for info you shmuck. Also I to was having a panic attack but no one asked if I was ok “ Jay said and that was followed by everyone asking what happened, Why the empire was here did they find out about the plan. As Jay and Pidge were bombard with questions
“ Ok well answer all this questions but first we need everyone here to fully explained what happened here “ Pidge said
In the bridge of the castle of lions Allura and coran were talking
“Princess I have sent a message to the blade and Asmo telling them about are success on all three of are mission. Is there anything else you would like me to do” Coran asked
“ I would like to Have Pidge, Jay, Beau, La-sai ,N-7 and Ace here to get me their mission nreport Also I would like to Talk with Ryner and Isara seeing as she and the Queens Sayers are hear. But besides that I’m good” Allura said
Coran could tell something was up with her.” Allura what is wrong you seem off’
Allura bite her lower lip then spoke “ I’m just a little bit worried about the Mission coming up . Maybe we should wait a little bit longer and train more so we can truly be ready for it”
Coran knew that wasn’t the full truth ” I feel the same they have only been paladins for a few months now and they lack the train or at time maturity, Hundreds of years of experience of fighting massive battles. But I have watched them be on the same level of the original Paladins and I believe that they could be better then them and lead the universe in to a better tomorrow “ Coran smiles thinking about it”
“ You know just what to say to put me at ease Coran.”She smiled and looked up to coran “ But I’m still worried about the others their so young and I kind of fell like I forced them into this roles with out truly thinking this through. Each one of them nearly at less once on this journey and I’m sending them into a Fight that decide the fate of the universe. “
“I may not know much about humans but from what I’ve seen they have sir pasted all of my expectation and beat ever challenge that came to face them. An I will bet on my life that they will beat this next challenge with flying colors “ Coran said as he pulled Allura into a huge
“ I hope your right Coran I hope your right.” Allura said
As the two hugged The door to the bridge opened to revel the rest of the crew with Pidge and Jay at the front
“ Hi boss sorry to interrupted but we have something important to tell you.” Jay said
“ What is it “Allura asked
The team wait for the rest of the crew to join and when they did Jay and Pidge explained what had happened from when they arrived to the fight with Robeast and the squad of copy Valkyrie then the fight with the Thunder Bird and Dread wing. Then the Battle with Root Rot. Everyone stood there in shook as they listened to how Jay was for the second time was nearly killed by the plant man again.
“ So This IronWood guy Called you Dad ?” Lance said just a little weirded out
“Yeah an the other guy black thorn said like me when I was a teenager witch confused me as well . If they were still alive we could have asked them about that but we still have one of those pilot’s still alive hows that memory collecting going anyway ?” Jay asked Coran
“ It’s been going fine and we will fine out soon what that pilot knows in about two more days .” Coran replied ]
‘Ok Is there any thing else you too want to tell Us “Allura asked as she looked at the both of them .
“ Oh that Jay call Val “Pidge said
“ On it “ Jay said before talking in his mind “Val It’s time”
“ We are on are way” Val said This was followed by Music started to play over the comm and the world started to shake
“ What is that “ Shiro asked
“ That would be are Ace in the hole “Pidge said as she walked up to the terminal punched in a location and a scan appeared showing the Vanguard walking from a massive crated that had something in it covered in Ice and Vines.” Ladies and Gentlemen we give you the colossus Vanguard the unbreakable and Allura she would like to speak to you and Voltron I don’ t know what that means but I think Shiro might know”
“ I Do Pidge. Paladin to your lion “ shiro said as he and the rest of the paladins left the bridge
Back a Galra central command
Thace had decide to move the chip he place in the control room .As he walked to the control room he felt for just a moment that someone was watching him again. HE looked behind him to see no one behind him. This sent a chill down his spine but he continued to walk towards the control room as he entered the control room. Some one tried to stab him. He quickly grabbed the wrist of his assailant and was about to punch them only to have his free hand grabbed by someone else in the room followed by a knife stabbing into his leg. He fell to his knee and then was punched in the face. He looked to his right to see Harley smiling at him Then he looked to his left to see Quinn. Both were standing over him. Then they started to whale on him . Each punch cracked against his face and he could fell his skull crack and his jaw being dislocated. after a few minutes of being beaten on. With his jaw busted he could only say one word “ Why?”
Quinn moved in closer and whispered in Thace’s ear “Sorry about this Thace but it’s the only way to make whatever your planning work in are favor “
Then Harley leaned in “ Look around the room “
He looked up again to see serval things about the room. The first thing was that the cameras were destroyed and there was a body of a control room officer knocked out. Then he noticed that the console in the room had a familiar looking blade in it. Then something clicked in his mind he remembered that there was two blade members that started a family they had kids twins. Both parents dead on a mission leaving the twin. The blade wanted to take the twins in but sadly they had disappeared before and could be found. “ You”
“ Yes we are but we aren’t going to join your little group we just want out of the empires control “Quinn whispered as she and her brother picked up and dragged him out of the room towards Lady Haggar’s lab
Back with the Paladin
Voltron flow towards the Vanguard with the Valkyrie in toe
Allura stood in the cockpit of the black lion and started at the colossal purple Knight as it stopped and looked up towards the two mechs
“Shiro before we talk to the Vanguard my I ask when pidge said that the vanguard wanted to talk to Voltron and you knew what she meant. I just wonder how”
“ I though you knew about me seeing as you are bonded lion” Shiro replied
“ No I don’ t maybe your bond with the black lion is deeper then my own.”
“ Yes and no. You know how Val is Different from the Valkyrie.”
“ Yes “ Allura replied as she started to see where this was going
“ Well besides the lions that live in each part of Voltron I’m guessing he is the “
“ I am the Lions young Shiro “ Leonidas said out loud in all the lions
Everyone was quiet for a few seconds before Hunk spoke up
“ Who the heck was that?” Hunk asked
“ I am Leonidas the prideful or as you all call me Voltron “
“ So You final decide to reveal yourself good I was tired of waiting “Val said
“ So this guy is the same as Val right . So dose that mean he can fight on his own when were not around to pilot the lions?” Lance asked
“No I was not build that way. Where The Valkyrie can pilot herself do to the fact that she doesn't have to split herself into five different pieces. But I make up for that by being more flexible with my pilots and each pilot will unlock different abilities. “
“ But I can manipulate time and I can scan anything and turn it into a weapon. “
“ I can rip a hole in the fabric of reality “
Everyone could felt tension between the two that only sibling would have. It was a little awkward until the Vanguard spoke over the comms
“ And I can open portals to any where I’ve been to which is all of what you called the know universe. Make barriers around me and I can came gravity balls that can pull in and destroy it. “ The vanguard sounded happy to be able to take to other of their kind and completely missed the tension between the Valkyrie and Voltron. “ Sorry if I interrupted what you were doing I’ m just happy to finally meet more of my own kind after being alone for so long a can’t wait to hear everything you’ve seem the past billion years “
“ Before we do that Lady Allura must ask you something” Val said
“ Yes this is of most important that we know your awnser “ Leonidas said
“ Oh ok” Vanguard replied
“ Your up Princess” Shiro said as he turned on the Black lions Outer p.a System
Allura then spoke “ Hello Vangaurd I am princess Allura of Altea and I request your in are battle against the Galra Empire You do now about the empire right?” Allura asked
“ Thank you for asking. They are current in control of 80 percent of the knew universe and have been draining world of their quintessence to furl their war machines and to keep their Leader and his wife alive for the passed ten thousand years. And I would like to join you in stopping them. But I will save this I don’ t like fighting all that much. I only fight in self defends and to protect the animals that live inside of me . But what I can do is open wormhole that allow you and the rebels you work with to any place you want to go and any planet or place you want protected I can do that. But I will not put the creatures I care for in harms way but if yo are in dyer need of my help I will fight but only as a last resort ” Vanguard said
“Well at least they know their boundaries . “ Lance said
“ And where their loyalty lay “ Keith replied
“ Ok as long as we can count on you when we need you must. That is fine by me “ Allura said
“ Ok with that out of the way can I ask Both Val and Leonidas a few things ?” Vangaurd asked
“ I see no problem with That” Val said
“ Neither do I” Leonidas add
“ Alright time to wait a the next few hours while this three talk “ Pidge said
As The Vanguard , Val And Leonidas started Talk they switched to a Language that the universal translator couldn’t understand. But that didn’t really matter to the paladins at the moment they were just happy to have the Vangaurd now truly on there side. But Allura still felt nervous about the battle to come.
Else where in the Crate the cyclone covered in ice and Vines lay there motionless but near the head there was the sounds slamming and sizzling as Root Rot started to break free of his frozen prison . As he burst free from the finally layer of ice. he let out a roar of anger and as his body had turn from green to brown do to how cold it was. He started to pull himself out of the exit hole he made and As he did his legs broke of as he continued to pull himself out and crawled to the edge of what remained of the Cyclones head and rolled himself of and ihit the ground hard shattering most of his body leaving only his left arm and head in tacked
“Cold I H-h-hate the cold” He tried to regrow his missing limbs only for nothing to happen. His body was dying and he need to reset.So he unraveled himself and started digging into the soft earth that the rain and the melting ice had made for him .It would take a few years for him to heal completely from this fight but it would be all worth it as while he rested he would adapted to the cold an along with that he would start to grow a new colony for his clan with the only thing fueling them is Revenge Bloodlust and a need for fresh meat
#voltron#Allura#vld adam#takashi shirogane#adashi#kieth kogane#kidgance#kidge#plance#klance#au#OC#hunay#hunk garrett#vld coran#vld shay#RAX#NYMA#rolo#pidge gunderson#matt holt#CANON DIVERGENCE
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The adorable brood of Sass/Lana/Theron
Thought it was time to introduce all of Sassy’s, Lana’s, and Theron’s many children in chronological order. This time with updated looks and information.
Firstborn son; Zho’Beniko’Shan. 🌱
A hybrid child of primarily cathar/chiss heritage with partial zeltron descent. Sassy wasn't quite sure what Zho would come out looking as.Not that it would have mattered that much anyway. Zho was born in the spring of the year 3630 BBY/ 23 ATC on Odessan.
Titles and Nicknames; Prince Zho, Princling, Kitten son, purr-machine, and destroyer of Jackets. Last moniker by Theron after kitten-son tests his new fangs on Dad!Therons jacket.
Biological Father; Sass’Helios’Azuras at time of birth, til both Sass and his son took on the names Beniko & Shan after Sass’s marriage to Lana and Theron.
Biological Mother; Santixes, my Cathar smuggler.
Adoptive mother & father; Lana Beniko and Theron Shan.
Traits; Official family cuddlier, happy go lucky child, and tree-climber extraordinaire :D Moderately force-sensitive, empath, affinity for force healing and force camouflage. Loves hugs and ear scratches. Uses his force healing abilities constantly on his less graceful siblings broken bones and cuts.
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Second Child and Firstborn Daughter; Kelsa’Beniko’Shan. 🌻
A shy green-eyed babe, little Kelsa may look the most like her mother out of all her siblings. Yet she possesses the quiet even temperament of her adoptive grandmother Selena. Born in the fall of the year 3629 BBY/ 24 ATC on Odessan.
Titles and Nicknames; Princess Kelsa, Ke-Ke, quiet one, baby girl (by parents), jewel-eyes, and little fuzz. Sass gave her the last nickname, when she was born she was covered in small fine hairs, hence fuzz or fuzzy.
Biological Father; Theron Shan (to his great surprise!)
Biological Mother; Lana Beniko.
Adoptive Father; Sass’Beniko’Shan
Traits; A quiet child with a sweet temperament, her grandmother Selena dotes on her the most. Kelsa is strong in the force, inheriting many of her grandmother’s Satele Shan’s abilities. She grows up with a love of the martial arts, along with the outdoors and dancing.
Kelsa likes to stick close to Sass, and spends the most time with him as a small child. She does eventually come out of her shell and becoming a bit more outgoing.
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Third Child and Second Daughter; Tasiele’Beniko’Shan 💕
A spunky, strong-willed child little Tasiele delights in attention and being in the limelight. Born in early winter of the year 3626 BBY/ 27 ATC on Zeltros. She came a few weeks early while the entire family was on vacation at a resort island.
Ever since then island was renamed “Isle of the Princess’😉 Extremely powerful in the force, even more so then her parents are.
Titles and Nicknames; Princess Tasiele, Lady Tasiele, fashionista, pearl, Lord Tasiele, and Tasie.
Biological Father; Sass’Helios’Azuras
Biological Mother; Lana Beniko
Adoptive Father; Theron Shan
Traits; A strong-willed and charming child, Tasiele grew up with a cunning eye and a sense for fashion. Also gifted with a lovely singing voice, she dreams of being a celebrated singer and fashion icon at the galaxy famous Dromund Kaas opera house.
With some slight hesitation on her parent’s part, they do eventually make her a odessan ambassador to Dromund Kaas. While asking a friend of the family, a Darth to take her under his wing.
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Fourth Child and Third Daughter; Mahiya’Beniko’Shan 🍓
Sass’s zeltron heritage has finally shown in his last daughter. Though Sass still swears it was the bottle of pink champagne he and Lana had consumed all those months age that give them their little strawberry.
Born in early summer of the year 3624 BBY/ 29 ATC on Odessan. Mahiya is moderately force-sensitive, while inheriting the ability to see forced-visions same as her father. She holds no interest in her abilities otherwise.
Titles and Nicknames; Princess Mahiya, bubblegum princess, strawberry shortcake, pinkie, freckles, bucket.
Biological Father; Sass’Helios’Azuras
Biological Mother; Lana Beniko
Adoptive Father; Theron Shan
Traits; A Happy-go-lucky child, Mahiya is a joy to be around, with a smile for anyone. With a great love for baking and dancing, she isn’t that concerned with the future preferring to live in the here and now.
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Last-born child, and second son; Sorin’Beniko’Shan 💙
Born a sickly baby, Sorin’s first few months of life were difficult. Once taken in by Theron and his family, little Sorin rapidly began to improved and grow into a healthy chubby babe.
Born in late summer of the year 3620 BBY/ 33 ATC on Rishi. Extremely strong in the force, but also unstable and volatile when using the force. It takes decades for Sorin to fully learn to control his force abilities.
Titles and Nicknames; Prince Sorin, blueberry, cheeky, pirate prince, baby boy, Rin.
Biological Father; Sass’Helios’Azuras
Biological Mother; N/A
Adoptive mother & father; Lana Beniko & Theron Shan
Traits; A adventures and curious person, Sorin could be called the dreamer of the family. Desperate to make his own mark on the galaxy and escape his heroic royal father’s shadow, Sorin’s teenage years were filled with arguments and his constant running away from home.
The night after Sass passed away Sorin stole the family ship, and went out into the wider galaxy (that Theron and Lana had left unlocked the night he left, fully stocked, with a droid companion, and a tracking device hidden away) 😉
From there on he choose to start his own smuggling business and fell into piracy as a bonus, eventually becoming a famous pirate in a few systems. With full immunity when he docked on Odessan of course. He makes sure never to raid any odessan ships. And is more then willing to help his sibling’s smuggle in stuff under their parent’s nose.
Artwork of all children was done by the talented @moonlitalien
Thanks moon!
#chiss#cathar#zeltron#babies#swtor#swtor ocs#adorable hybrid babies!#oc zho#oc kelsa#oc tasiele#oc Mahiya#oc sorin#oc sass#lana beniko#theron shan#moonlit art
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War of the Spark Commander Set Review
The Commanders of War of the Spark
In white, there’s not too many ways to build around her. Once you exhaust the suite of self-bouncing creatures you commonly see in Karametra lists (e.g., Kor Skyfisher, Whitemane Lion), the next best cards to run are cheap utility creatures like Stoneforge, Weathered Wayfarer, etc.-- essentially goodstuff.
It’s notable that this card could be very good as part of the 99 in Karametra and Ephara lists. Also, it’s a double striker with a big butt for Doran lists.
I’m not a big fan of commanders that solely care about what your opponents are doing because they don’t give your own deck a lot of direction. If you’ve got a Lord Windgrace deck in your meta, then this might be useful in the 99 of hatebear decks that are good at finding their silver bullets.
The best piece of tech for Fblthp is Proteus Staff. If you run a creatureless Fblthp list, you get to stack your entire deck and then immediately draw two cards, which is great for assembling combos, such as Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal. If you have mana rocks that produce three or more mana, Scepter + Reversal will give you infinite mana and then infinite activations of Proteus Staff so you can draw your deck and find a win condition.
Nexus of Fate is another solid combo piece to stack on top of your deck with Fblthp, as you can keep stacking it to the top with Proteus Staff and Fblthp, provided you have the 10 mana required to do so every turn.
I’m a little skeptical that this strategy is going to be significantly stronger than what was already possible in any Commander deck with access to Proteus Staff. Like, if you’re already in Blue, you’re not going to be starved for card draw, and you could be running a different commander that provides additional benefits (or additional colors) instead of an effect that your color identity could easily do anyway.
Seems like a very strong commander for extra turn effects. As long as you can keep Scroll Racking your Time Warps to the top of your library, you get infinite turns; even if you have to rely on one-shot effects like Brainstorm or whatever, you’ll still be taking a lot of extra turns, which will hopefully be enough for your 4-power evasive commander to eliminate some threats.
This deck naturally runs a ton of sac fodder; Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton, and Bloodsoaked Champion are all good here. You may also want to run some efficient token generation, as well. I also think it’s a good idea to run some of Black’s strong sac outlets like Attrition and Mind Slash so that you have the option to control your opponents with your sac fodder instead of just exchanging them for random cards via Bontu’s ETB. These sac outlets can also help you more easily reuse Bontu’s ETB trigger, especially if you sacrifice her in response to the trigger so you’ll immediately redraw her.
The most unique thing about this commander is the ability to sacrifice noncreature permanents. This opens up cards like Ugin’s Nexus and Spine of Ish Sah, which get you value when they die.
One interesting idea I’ve heard was to run Endless Whispers with her so that you get all your opponents’ creatures that die to her ETB trigger. Blink effects seem good here and I’d think about running stuff like Undying Evil, Kaya’s Ghostform, Abnormal Endurance, and Supernatural Stamina to both protect her from removal and reuse her trigger.
It may also be a good idea to run random sac fodder to ensure the ball gets rolling; it’d be a shame if the massacre never got started because the board was full of 2+ toughness creatures.
Sample Decklist
Similar to a regular Krenko, Mob Boss deck, but with power-pumping effects in place of the activated ability synergies and some of the token generation.
With Krenko, it was important to be able to get a ton of dudes onto the battlefield early to maximize his gobbo-doubling power. Krenko 2.0 doesn’t need random gobbo bodies unless they do something useful.
Sample Decklist
Neheb is kind of a sidegrade from his previous incarnation. The card filtering makes it so that you’re not quite as likely to run out of gas, but the fact that his mana generation is limited by the number of cards you discard to his trigger prevents some of the truly absurd plays that Neheb 2.0 was known for-- you’re not going to be hardcasting Eldrazi and Blighsteels nearly as often in this deck.
Extra combat step effects are very good here, as they can potentially net you mana and they give you another chance to rummage for good cards. I like that this deck can run situational cards like Ruination and Blood Moon because there’s no such thing as a dead draw in this list-- Neheb hungers for bad cards to discard.
Mass land destruction is great in this deck because, like the first Neheb, the Champion can provide the mana you need to cast your stuff.
The single best card in this deck is Aggravated Assault, which goes infinite with your commander, provided you have five or more cards in hand that you can discard-- just make sure you’ve got one of the original three legendary Eldrazi so you can shuffle your graveyard back in and prevent yourself from milling out.
I wish there were more good madness cards in Red, or in Commander in general. Neheb 3.0 is the perfect commander for madness since he provides both an outlet and mana to cast stuff, but the only madness cards worth running are like Fiery Temper and maaaaybe Avacyn’s Judgment.
Sample Decklist
This seems like an awesome reward for running fat donks like Blightsteel and Malignus.
Although he doesn’t play nicely with attack triggers, you’re on color for some sweet combat damage triggers like Balefire Dragon, Hellkite Tyrant, Dream Pillager, Rapacious One, Neheb 2.0, Steel Hellkite, and Mordant Dragon. Neheb, the Eternal, while not a combat damage trigger, also works pretty well with Ilharg.
Ilharg has some synergy with echo, since you’ll never have to pay the upkeep cost, so cards like Volcano Hellion and Crater Hellion are much better in this list than they normally are.
Having six toughness and an ability that lets you cheat mana costs means that Wildfire and Destructive Force are very good here, as is mass land destruction in general. Keldon Firebombers seems like a great way to repeatedly limit your opponents’ mana.
In addition to the usual suite of mana accelerants and haste granters, Generator Servant is quite good here, and I’d consider running Seething Song, as well.
Sample Decklist
The creatures that benefit most from Rhonas’s ETB trigger are win conditions in their own right; you don’t need to rely on your commander to make canned armies like Rampaging Baloths, Titania, and Avenger of Zendikar into threats.
Maybe this wants to be an infect deck, since doubling the power of cards like Phyrexian Juggernaut and Phyrexian Hydra makes them one-hit KOs.
Muscle Mutt is just a voltron deck, albeit one that uses an unusual subset of cards. I wouldn’t run most cards that solely put counters on Mowu, but I like cards that put counters on him while generating cards, like Ordeal of Nylea, Ancient Animus, or Implement of Ferocity. I also like some of the repeatable counter-generating effects; Retreat to Kazandu, Armory of Iroas, and Invigorating Boon (cards with cycling) seem good. There are also some lands that can get counters on your commander, such as Oran-Rief, the Vastwood; Forge of Heroes; and Opal Palace. Also, don’t forget your Hardened Scales!
There’s been a little bit of controversy about Yanggu and Mowu lately because Yanggu is able to bring Mowu with his when he planeswalks (which is supposed to be impossible, as Huatli’s tamales illustrate; normally, creatures are summoned to a plane). It would be weird if Yanggu could only do this with Mowu, but my headcanon is that Mowu is able to do it with anyone but has so far only attempted it with his dog (or that if he had previously done it, he forgot about it when he came down with amnesia).
I don’t think it’s worth running random wolves as sorcery-speed kill spells, but I might run wolves that get me value in addition to fighting (e.g., Rot Wolf, Skalla Wolf, Pack Guardian). Wolfir Silverheart is too monstrously large to leave out of this deck.
I’d also run repeatable wolf token generators like Sword of Body and Mind, Wolfcaller’s Howl, Master of the Wild Hunt, Kessig Cagebreakers, and Feed the Pack. You can also run some of the wolf token generators that create a bunch at once (such as Howl of the Night Pack, Predator’s Howl, and Wolfbriar Elemental) to build your own Ezuri’s Predation.
I gotta say that it’s very cute that they gave Voja a title so that he wouldn’t legend rule the tokens made by the old Tolsimir.
We all know that BG has a lot of good creatures that are worth recurring (putting your opponents under the Abyss with Fleshbag variants sounds like a barrel of laughs), but it also has a ton of good planeswalkers, especially when you don’t have to care too much about protecting them. Firing off a Sorin Markov or a Vraska 1.0, letting your opponents dogpile on it, and then getting it back again next turn seems like a great way to control the board and divert aggro away from your face.
I would try to fit in some ways to give your commander haste (Greaves, Hall of the Bandit Lord) and protect him (Yavimaya Hollow) since he’s the engine your deck revolves around.
This guy checks some boxes to make use of mana dorks that are too narrow for most decks: he costs four, he’s got 4+ power for Whisperer of the Wilds, and he’s an Elf for Priest of Titania.
This card does not appear to be designed with Commander in mind. Death triggers don’t work very well in this format, especially when you don’t have access to black and white reanimation engines. If you discount the proliferate (as you should), all that’s left is a pile of stats, which has never been particularly strong in Commander.
If this guy was just ETB double proliferate, he would have been waaay more interesting.
I’ve heard about lists that use clones to farm his death and ETB triggers, but I tried it and it was not… great… Proliferating before you add the new counters is pretty lame, and one-shot proliferation without cards attached to it is not worth a card slot, IMO.
The best Boros commander ever, and it’s not close. This deck draws tons of cards thanks to white and red’s many cheap cantrips, it can protect its commander pretty easily thanks to the million 1CMC instants that give things protection or indestructible, and it has some great combo pieces like Aurelia’s Fury and Blinding Beam to allow you to soft lock your opponents.
Plus, if you’d prefer to eschew the controlling playstyle for something more aggressive, you can run a bunch of Fists of the Anvil and Double Cleave variants to beat the hell out of your opponents.
Sample Decklist
This card just encourages you to run the most powerful multicolored cards, which tend to be hyper-efficient removal spells like Assassin’s Trophy and Anguished Unmaking. The only non-goodstuff cards in the list are a handful of blink spells so you can dodge removal and refill your hand. As far as win conditions go, turning Niv sideways seems to be the best one; Civic Saber, Conqueror’s Flail, and Duelist’s Heritage will cut your clock in half.
Sample Decklist
Card Ratings
In this set review, I’ll be using two five-point rating scales to evaluate the nonlegendary cards, one that measures how many decks a card is playable in (we’ll call that “spread”), and one that measures how powerful it is in those decks (”power”). Here’s a brief rundown of what each rank on the two scales means:
Spread
1: This card is effective in one or two decks, but no more (ex: The Gitrog Monster).
2: This card is effective in one deck archetype (ex: self-mill decks).
3: A lot of decks will be able to use this card effectively (ex: decks with graveyard interactions).
4: This card is effective in most decks in this color.
5: Every deck in this color is able to use this card effectively.
Power
1: This card is always going to be on the chopping block.
2: This card is unlikely to consistently perform well.
3: This card provides good utility but is not a powerhouse.
4: This card is good enough to push you ahead of your opponents.
5: This card has a huge impact on the game.
The Planeswalkers of War of the Spark
Spread: 1
Power: 2
I could imagine running this in Odric, Lunarch Marshal, since it’s a cheap way to give all your guys indestructible and lifelink or vigilance. Otherwise, it’s not worth your time.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
Might see a little play in Arcades as a way to produce a pair of beaters and draw a couple cards. It’s nice that you can curve Teyo into Arcades to frontload the mana cost but wait to produce your tokens and get your cards until after your commander comes down. The rate is not insane, though, and I could see this getting cut for a better stats-to-cost ratio in the future.
Spread: 1
Power: 4
This is solely for self-mill decks. It’s less vulnerable to removal than Laboratory Maniac but you can’t get it back with Dread Return or something similar if you mill yourself out. Either way, both Jace and Lab Man are worse than Nexus of Fate.
Spread: 1
Power: 4
I could see running this in a deck with a lot of wheel effects (Nekusar and The Locust God being the obvious ones) to act as a Leovold, making your opponents discard their hands and only drawing one card to replace it.
Spread: 3
Power: 3
Liliana is a bit expensive, but she might have potential in the few decks that can make use of more than one of her abilities. For example, sacrifice-oriented decks are interested in black token generation and getting value when your creatures die, so both her static effect and +1 will be useful there. Also, it’s worth noting that although planeswalkers are generally pretty fragile in Commander, Liliana makes a chump blocker and she’s going to have 7 loyalty when you pass the turn, which can be difficult for your opponents to beat though, especially if you’ve got Savra, Queen of the Golgari or Teysa, Orzhov Scion to control their boards.
Spread: 4
Power: 1
This card is really similar to Chandra, Pyromaster, and that card sees almost no play.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
For the purposes of the Ur-Dragon, it’s two dragons for the price of one and it can potentially deter attacks. I don’t think there’s anyone else that’s really interested in this, though.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
He’s a second copy of Rishkar for green +1/+1 counter decks.
Spread: 3
Power: 3
Omnath, Locus of Mana seems like a natural home for this card. It’s kind of cool that it’s effectively three mana since you can untap a Forest with the +1, but this card is still worse than Vernal Bloom in most ways. Vernal Bloom gets you to the game-winning threshold for mana a lot quicker; you don’t need more than 8 or 9 mana to win a game of Commander so what really matters is hitting that game-winning threshold as early as possible. Casting a turn four Bloom into a turn 5 Tooth and Nail is much stronger than casting a turn 5 Nissa into a turn 6 T&N, especially when you consider the fact that your Vernal Bloom can’t be attacked or Bolted in the intervening turn.
That being said, this is still a powerful card for monogreen ramp.
Spread: 3
Power: 2
I like the surprise factor of the -2; it’s cool that they’re finding ways to improve on abilities we’ve seen a thousand times already. Anyway, this card is not good. If you want two random cards out of your deck, you can get it at a better rate than this.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
Overall, this card feels very intro pack-y. The plus ability doesn’t affect the board, the -3 is a pretty bad rate, and the ultimate is not very impactful. This doesn’t seem like a great reason to buy a box (unless the price ends up being super high).
Spread: 4
Power: 2
Every element of this card can be done much better somewhere else in these colors. There is something to be said for the power of choices, but I really don’t think this card is good enough to see play.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
This card looks a lot like Ajani Goldmane, although it’s much better in superfriends decks than Goldmane ever was. It’s also worth noting that Ajani will probably draw less aggro than whatever busted planeswalker you’re bumping up, so he’s less fragile than he looks. However, I still think this effect is not worth a card. There are some solid repeatable proliferators in WAR, and I’d much rather use them than rely on a card type that can get attacked to death.
Spread: 3
Power: 1
I really like CMC-based reanimation and I’d really like to see it on a WB commander one day. Anyway, since you’re on color for both white and black reanimation you can do way better than this. If your deck is trying to recur a lot of weenies you can run Return to the Ranks or Dusk/Dawn, and if you want to get back one big thing, you can run Animate Dead or Reanimate or Necromancy or whatever.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
With a little tweaking, this could be an interesting commander, as it rewards you for playing with a subset of cards that normally doesn’t get played in Commander. In the main deck, however, this card seems pretty underwhelming. Even in lists that naturally have a ton of deathtouchers such as Hapatra, this is a pretty slow, small, and fragile anthem. If she had some way to gain loyalty, the -2 could help the card find its way into decks looking for sac fodder, but two tokens over two turns for four mana is not going to turn a lot of heads.
Spread: 1
Power: 3
There’s currently no UG commander that really rewards lots of large dudes, but I’m hopeful we might see something in the future (maybe a Simic or Temur Divine Visitation effect on a commander?).
Between Kiora, Temur Ascendancy, Garruk's Packleader, Kavu Lair, and Elemental Bond, we are getting very close to a critical mass of this type of card.
Spread: 1
Power: 4
Maybe if you’re running a deck with a ton of Twincast variants, this could serve as a potential win condition/storm enabler. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the combo, you cast a Fork variant copying any spell, then cast another Fork variant copying the original Fork variant. The second Fork resolves, putting a new copy of Fork #1 on the stack, which can then target the original Fork #1. Keep going through this loop and netting Ral triggers until your opponents are dead.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
Young Pyromancer sees play in 6400 decks on EDHREC, many of them in Izzet color identities. I think Saheeli slots into those same lists pretty easily, especially given the potential power offered by her -2 when copying mana rocks or utility creatures.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
What a brutal mana cost. I’d run this in superfriends since it’s almost a planeswalker clone and killing creatures/drawing cards is not terrible in that deck. I think that mana cost and the general meh-ness of PWs in Commander keep him out of most other decks.
Spread: 5
Power: 0 (no sideboards) / 4 (sideboards)
The playability of this guy hinges on whether your playgroup allows you to get cards from outside of the game. The Rules Committee’s stance is that sideboards are not officially supported and have to be house ruled into the format. If your playgroup follows that bit of dogma and Karn can only search your exile zone, then he’s not really worth playing; Null Rod only sees play in the most cutthroat cEDH lists, and while Karn only affects your opponents, I think that’s more than offset by the fact that he costs 4 and can get attacked to death.
Now, if your playgroup DOES let you have a sideboard or just dig through your binder or whatever, Mycosynth Lattice is one of the best things it can do, as it shuts off your opponents’ lands and all of their activated abilities in combination with Karn. Paradox Engine and Bolas’s Citadel are strong cards that don’t require much set up, but if you’re trying to combo off with those cards, you’d probably rather have them in your maindeck, rather than only accessible via a planeswalker. There are some neat artifact combos that you can search for both halves of if you can ensure that Karn lives long enough to activate twice: Basalt Monolith and Rings of Brighthearth gets you infinite mana (although again, these cards may be better in your maindeck), and if Painter’s Servant ever gets unbanned, you can use Karn to grab it and Grindstone to mill your opponents out one by one.
Spread: 3
Power: 3
Now, this guy is a Commander-playable planeswalker. I’d run this in any deck currently running Scour from Existence (barring Mizzix), which mostly means colorless, monoblack, and monored decks. The +1 is also solid, offering sacrifice fodder that is likely to be pretty useful in many of the monoblack decks that run it, and colorless cost reduction makes it even more powerful in the colorless decks that run it. I’m a big fan of this card, and I like that it disproportionately helps color identities that were on the weaker side.
It’s great that he’s rare, since I plan on picking up a bunch of these.
Maindeck Cards from War of the Spark
Spread: 3
Power: 3
At low numbers, the ratio of bodies to cost is not great. There are so many good white token generators that I doubt this makes the cut, even though the tokens are better than the ones produced by most of its competitors. Also, you should treat the “10 or more” text on this card like a planeswalker’s ultimate and ignore it.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
Seems very good in a Mikaeus, the Lunarch deck and in planeswalker decks that don’t invest heavily in mass removal. It stinks that White got the worst experience counter commanders and never got a poison commander because this card has so much potential, but the support isn’t there.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
This is a lot of mana for a narrow tutor. When you consider the fact that most Superfriends lists are already running Black and have access to cheap unconditional tutors, the Beacon becomes much less appealing.
Spread: 1
Power: 1
It does make a lot of Angels for your Lyra Dawnbringer deck. It’s not worth 8 mana, though.
Spread: 4
Power: 2
Hating on multicolor permanents is not that great. Although most commanders are multicolor, most main deck permanents are one or fewer colors. To put this card in perspective, Radiant Purge sees almost no play in Commander.
Spread: 3
Power: 2
I think Diving Reckoning is a fair point of comparison for this card. Divine Reckoning sees a fair amount of play; it’s in almost 6000 decks on EDHREC, most of them Voltron. While Single Combat has a few knobs that distinguish it from Reckoning, it’s probably a safe bet that it’ll see similar amounts of play in similar lists.
That being said, I’m not a huge fan of this card. It guarantees that the biggest threats survive and most of the time I’d rather take out the scariest things on my opponents’ side of the field than protect my own things.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
Varina is very interested in making multiple Zombie bodies for less than three mana. I’m gonna save a little space in a very long set review and suggest you apply the previous sentence and ratings to every Amass creature and most Amass spells that cost less than four mana.
Spread: 3
Power: 2
I like this card a lot. I think it’s much stronger than Steady Progress, and about on the power level of Tezzeret’s Gambit, which sees play in 8500 decks on EDHREC.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
Kruphix is very interested in outlets for the absurd amounts of mana he produces, and unlike almost any other commander, he can realistically hit the “10 or more” mode.
Mizzix likes X spells that generate value, so she might also be in the market for this card.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
This card could see play in planeswalker decks as another Inexorable Tide. This could also potentially see play in Mizzix decks as an additional way to bump up your experience count or in Noyan Dar as a way to grow your manlands.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
The additional mana relative to Thrummingbird hurts, and this also misses on some of the bird tribal lists (Kangee) that were interested in that card. Still, I could imagine running this in Atraxa, Ezuri 2.0, and Vorel.
Spread: 1
Power: 3
It’s a cheap Sphinx for Unesh, and it can bounce another Sphinx to your hand so you can get another trigger.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
Unfortunate that it can only target your own creatures and planeswalkers, but it seems strong in superfriends decks and simic +1/+1 counter lists. It’s also quite good in Estrid, Teferi, Temporal Archmage, and Saheeli, the Gifted, since all of those commanders have mana-generating abilities that make the Double free or cheap to cast.
There are also a ton of commanders that this can break wide open. Double Reaper King, double Atraxa, double Zndrsplt… if you’re in Blue and you’re running Helm of the Host, this card seems like a big upgrade.
Spread: 3
Power: 5
This is the new Paradox Engine. If your deck has a lot of card selection and tutors then this ought to be able to win the game all by itself. Some of the better interactions:
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist: This guy was kind of a joke before Citadel got spoiled. His mill effect is really weak and he’s in the bottom half of all Dimir commanders when it comes to popularity. However, he works pretty well with the Citadel because he can mill off excess lands from the top of your library so that you’re less likely to fizzle when comboing off.
Sensei’s Divining Top: Turns the Citadel into a Yawgmoth’s Bargain (thanks to @snarwin for pointing this out).
Mana Severance: Gets rid of all the lands so you won’t fizzle.
Aetherflux Reservoir: Subsidizes the Citadel’s life payments and eventually serves as your win condition.
Spread: 3
Power: 4
It’s interesting that this and Bolas’s Citadel showed up in the same set, since they’re both six mana black rares that offer insane card advantage and mana savings at the cost of a ton of life.
Anyway, I’ve heard people talking about using this in Oloro and other decks that gain life very easily. It could also be good in decks with very low curves so that you’re getting more cards for the life you’re paying.
Interestingly, it deals damage to you rather than makes you lose life, which means that you can prevent the damage, give yourself protection, or give the spell lifelink in order to cheat the life cost.
Spread: 3
Power: 3
The ability to get back noncreature cards is pretty rare in black, and if your deck has a lot of redundancy built into it you can sometimes remove your opponents’ ability to screw you. Plus, there’s a lot to be said for making deals with the opponent in the weakest position to get back the cards that will knock someone else down a peg.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
It provides a steady stream of Skullclamp-compliant sac fodder for decks that need it, as well as a self-recurring threat for Varina Zombie tribal lists.
Spread: 4
Power: 3
This card seems like great value for mopping up small utility creatures. 4 mana to kill some combination of Oracle of Mul Daya, Fauna Shaman, Tymna, Edric, Mentor of the Meek, etc. seems pretty strong. I think the easiest point of comparison is probably Black Sun’s Zenith. Black Sun’s sees play in over 15,000 decks, and it’ll cost you the same amount of mana to kill the same creatures. This one is asymmetrical but won’t get the random collateral damage against your opponents’ other creatures. I think they’re about on the same power level, although it’s worth noting that you could conceivably hit the 12 mana in a monoblack deck with Coffers and a bunch of ways to find it.
Spread: 1
Power: 1
This guy requires you to jump through a ton of hoops. In order for him to do his thing, you have to have:
A way to give him haste and/or a way to protect him until your next turn.
A high density of instants and sorceries
Either an extremely low curve on those instants and sorceries or a way to buff the Arcanist’s power.
I can think of commanders that fulfill some of those requirements, but not all of them.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
X spells are great in Mizzix and she has a ton of great targets to choose from. Seems like an easy inclusion in that list. It could also be good in Zada as a way to re-use your token-generating spells and cantrips.
Neheb, the Eternal is one of the few commanders who can reliably get X to 10 or higher, since that deck is desperate for good mana sinks and it runs a fair number of strong instants and sorceries.
Spread: 2
Power: 3
This card is awesome. Great in Hapatra decks as a way to get a bunch of Hapatra triggers at once and accelerate the death of your opponents’ dudes. Also seems solid in Thelon of Havenwood for spreading spores, nabbing experience with Meren and Ezuri 2.0, pumping the team in Mazirek, and of course, building loyalty among your planeswalkers.
Spread: 4
Power: 4
I don’t think we needed more cards like this, but whatever. The rich get richer. Other cards in Green that accomplish the same thing:
Tooth and Nail
Green Sun’s Zenith
Survival of the Fittest
Finale of Devastation
Chord of Calling
Worldly Tutor
Natural Order
Fauna Shaman
Note that all of the above are Commander staples.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
Useful in Sasaya as a way to get more Forests in hand. Also a solid upgrade over Sylvan Scrying in a Nissa, Vastwood Seer deck.
Spread: 2
Power: 2
Unfortunately, none of the Green planeswalkers that you can run as your commander have insane ultimates, so I don’t think it’s worth running in those decks as a means to pop em off really quickly.
It is, however, a slightly more expensive Deepglow Skate for Atraxa, Ezuri 2.0, Vorel, Pir & Toothy, and all those other blue/green counter-based decks.
Spread: 4
Power: 2
Over 7500 decks on EDHREC run Naturalize, and this is strictly better, even if it’s not a huge upgrade.
Spread: 2
Power: 1
This card suffers from the Immortal Sun effect, where it does several things, but none of them particularly well. +2/+2 isn’t a huge boost for a one-shot effect, and the lack of trample is frustrating. Also, I don’t like that this card is really bad at punishing pillowfort, since their artifacts and enchantments are what’s preventing you from getting it.
If you’re in need of artifact destruction, you’re probably better off running a tutor to find your Bane of Progress. If you’re in need of an Overrun effect, you’re better off running a tutor to find your Craterhoof Behemoth. Might I suggest Finale of Devastation?
Spread: 1
Power: 2
I really don’t like the idea of pumping mana into this in the hopes of getting something relevant. However, I do like running it in decks that can manipulate their top card (Hua Tuo, Honored Physician comes to mind) and in decks that just like its type line and don’t actually care what it does (such as Reki, the History of Kamigawa, who only cares about running the cheapest legendary cards possible).
Spread: 4
Power: 3
I really like Negate and Countersquall, so I’m happy to run this effect as a 5th or 6th counterspell in all my decks with a blue/white color identity.
Spread: 3
Power: 3
I love asymmetrical board wipes. Note that it doesn’t target the creature it bounces so you can still cast it when you have no targets and it can’t be fizzled by removal. This seems like a pretty easy inclusion in most blue/white lists in the market for sweepers.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
This could be really sweet in any GR deck that runs a lot of mass land destruction-- maybe something like Grand Warlord Radha that isn’t totally reliant on its lands to cast its spells and can generate enough mana early in the game to bounce its lands and still cast a Thoughts of Ruin.
It also might be good in Borborygmos Enraged, as it’s a way to get lands back to your hand that is much less painful than Storm Cauldron.
Spread: 3
Power: 2
While the average CMC of Commander decks has crept down over the years, this is probably still very good. It kills all but 4 of the top 21 commanders of all time and while it’s pretty bad at taking care of mana accelerators and cheap draw engines, it’s great at killing the most terrifying threats in the format (such as Paradox Engine, Gods, Praetors, Titans, etc.). Don’t run it over Anguished Unmaking but consider it in a high-CMC metagame.
Spread: 3
Power: 3
I have not played a lot of Decimates, so I can’t fully judge how strong this card is. I thiiink it’s worse than Windgrace’s Judgment because of the rough mana cost, 6>5, sorcery speed.
Spread: 3
Power: 2
Eldritch Evolution sees a surprising amount of play (almost 9000 decks on EDHREC), but Neoform is worse in three ways, so it’s hard to be bullish about this card. I think I like it in Tishana, since she naturally wants a bunch of creatures on the field and morphs into Craterhoof, but I’m not sure there are many other commanders that would be stoked to run this. Maybe in Ezuri 2.0 as a way to trade mana dorks for Sage of Hours?
Spread: 4
Power: 3
This is the cheapest we’ve ever seen this effect and it can be really devastating to an opponent to have their commander permanently stolen. That being said, there are other cards with similar effects that cost only a little more, such as Legerdemain and Switcheroo, see hardly any play in Commander.
Spread: 1
Power: 2
Very unfortunate that the red mana in its cost disqualifies it from being used in the two decks that want it most: Doran and Arcades. There are a bunch of Kynaios and Tiro decks running Wave of Reckoning, so there’s potential for it to be run there (although it’s worth mentioning that Wave of Reckoning was included in their precon, so it may not actually be that great in the deck; maybe people were just too lazy to take it out).
Spread: 4
Power: 3
This seems very good in Lord Windgrace since that deck has a ton of mana to pump into it, a slow clock, and many ways to recur it.
Other slow control decks with lots of mana available will probably be happy to run this card, since it’s a difficult-to-answer counter that doesn’t require a deck slot.
Spread: 5
Power: 1
Even with the restriction to creatures, Winding Canyons is much better than this and doesn’t see a whole lot of play, so I’m skeptical that this will accomplish much. Losing a land is a huge downside.
Spread: 3
Power: 2
This is great! Coming into this set I was hoping to see a lot of proliferate attached to staple effects, and there’s nothing more universally useful than lands. It’ll be tricky to run this in Atraxa and five-color superfriends lists because of the heavy color requirements in those decks, but I’m sure planeswalker decks with fewer colors (the nicer Narset builds, for example) and infect aggro, +1/+1 counter decks, -1/-1 counter decks, and experience counter commanders are all going to find room to run this card.
Wrapping Up
Were there any cards I missed? Do you disagree with any of my ratings? Let me know!
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Super quick Bullshit Defense AU thing: the opening of Turnabout Time Traveler, or, “why can’t this family go six months without someone getting into legal trouble”
---
“Larry,” Phoenix says. “Explain to me, exactly, why you are here in this office with a woman in a wedding dress.”
“I was hoping that I was wrong about it being a wedding dress,” Miles mutters, unfolding his glasses from his pocket and putting them on.
“I’m sure you could see how ruffly she is,” Phoenix says. “What would that be if not a wedding dress?”
The woman clears her throat, very softly, but it’s enough to prompt Larry to Interrupt. “Oh, this is Elly,” Larry says.
“Ellen Wyatt,” she says. “Soon - I hope - to be Ellen Sprocket.”
Sprocket sounds familiar as a name, but Phoenix can’t say why. “Is that that big airline company?” Trucy asks. She’s been slowly leaning forward to get a closer and closer look at the wedding dress. The woman nods.
“So,” Phoenix says, dreading the next question he has to ask. “Larry. Why are you here with someone else’s bride?” This wouldn’t be any less mysterious if it was Larry’s bride, honestly. Actually, that would be worse, if Larry had a secret surprise girlfriend he was about to elope with. Someone would probably die and that would probably be Larry.
“I rescued her,” Larry says. “Kinda.”
“Kinda?” Miles repeats.
“He meant well,” the woman, Ellen, says, and those words said about Larry send a jolt of fear down to the depths of Phoenix’s stomach.
“Yeah,” Larry says. “They had her locked up alone in a room and I was afraid they were forcing her into the marriage, yknow? So I went in and told her I’d help her escape if she needed it and she did! And I came to you.”
“But you said you hoped to be - to take your spouse’s name?” Phoenix asks. Isn’t that how she just introduced herself? “What’s going on here?”
“I do love my Sorin with my whole heart,” Ellen says, “but in truth, I am being pursued as a murder suspect. I found a body at the reception and suspicion fell on me. The police had me confined separately, but Larry came along and offered me help.
“And you didn’t clarify the situation?” Phoenix asks her. And then because it’s probably not fair to put all the blame on a woman who had not rain but a dead body fall on her wedding day, he turns to Larry and says, “And you didn’t ask for clarification?”
“I did,” Ellen says, as Larry protests the same, but much louder, “Hey! I did too ask!”
“It was just, uh, we were already on the run from the cops when we clarified, yknow?” Larry adds, nervously scratching the back of his head. Miles sighs deeply. “And I’d figured first that hey, maybe the fam paid off some cops to stop her from running. Who knows! When you’re rich you can do anything up ‘till the point that someone like Franzy or the Yagatasu-- the crow people, catch wind and then you die.”
“Back to the point, Larry,” Miles says. It’s a wonder that Larry makes a successful author - he goes on so many damned tangents when he gets to telling stories verbally. “Why are you here?”
“Thought we should get some legal advice from the best lawyers in California!” he says brightly, looking between Miles, who has his arms folded, his fingers tapping his arm, and Phoenix, who presses a hand over his eyes. “About me aiding a fugitive and her uh, being a fugitive.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere in this office,” Miles says.
“C’mon! Even Elly said I meant well.”
Outside, the wail of sirens grows louder.
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