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Lilah Parallel Episode 1: Nexus Glow
Today's the day that Lilah is set to officially become a Crystal Gem, but there's one slight problem: she hasn't exhibited any of the important magical powers that every golem relies upon to protect themselves. Lilah decides to ask her guardians for help in making a magical weapon, but they've got problems of their own today: a corrupted diopside is heading towards Beach City, and they need to poof her before she arrives at her destination.
Rated 18+ for swearing & adult concepts, NOT AT ALL FOR KIDS!
JUNE 21, 2019.
3:05 PM EST.
BEACH CITY, LENNAVERE, APPALACHIAN CONFEDERATION.
Marcus “Mark” Parallel exhaled as he inspected the almost banquet hall he’d helped set up in the school gymnasium. “We did alright, Mark,” said Jerry the gym teacher as he pushed in the very last chair, gently so as to not upset the small flowerpots of orange-red poppies adorning the long, white cloth-clad table.
Mark nodded. “Yeah, we did. The post-graduation ceremony’s going to be okay.”
“Are you sure that you don’t want to come?”
“Jerry, I’ve been to fifteen of these things and they’ve all been the same, I won’t be missing much. Besides, today’s Lilah’s graduation too, and I promised her that I wouldn’t miss that.”
“It’s a shame that your kid never got to go here. She sounds like a good egg.”
“You and your obsession with eggs,” Mark scoffed playfully before growing serious. “I wanted her to at least have the option of a normal childhood. It sucks that things have to be what they are.”
“I know,” Jerry sighed. “Sometimes I wonder why these folks keep electing the same jerks to the board. Take care, buddy. Say hi to the kid for me.”
“I will.” And with that, Mark left.
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The light went red. Mark stopped at the intersection of Concord and Basset. He’d never liked this intersection, and the reason why hung on the right side of the light facing him.
The sign was an irregular hexagon, a flat bottom tapering up to a skinny top, a black ring separating the white interior from an outer ring of white. Four colorful humanoids – two medium-sized ones in light green and pink lemonade pink, a large one in dark blue, and a slightly smaller large one in electric blue – trampling a fifth, medium-sized black one. Underneath the image was the acronym “G.E.M.” painted in black.
Mark stared longingly at the electric blue pictogram. The light turned green, and he drove on.
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Two miles outside of Beach City’s western border was a small farm on a large, flat hill. The plantings were of edible species carefully chosen for low invasive potential; beyond them were odd trees here and there, assorted wild plants, and one patch that was completely covered in poison ivy for some reason. Finally, there was the barn-like house standing at the hill’s apex, a humble, dark red wooden building hiding a far less humble interior. Mark and his daughter lived in this place, as did their…foreign houseguests.
Mark drove his car onto a specific patch of flattened ground and pressed a green button on his car keys. The ground beneath him shuddered downwards, a force field extending over him as he descended and the shaft closed. Once the panel was flat on the floor, Mark got out of his car and entered a white-tiled hallway, barren save for paintings of various styles adorning its walls.
“Hey Mark,” said a voice as the living version of the light green pictogram approached from a room off to the side: Talc, a magical alien rock creature known as a golem, an extraterrestrial exile from far across the stars, with pale green calloused skin and curly green hair tied into a long ponytail, dressed in blue jeans and a green t-shirt like an everyday human man.
“Afternoon, Talc,” Mark replied. “How are things?”
“They’re fine,” Talc said simply. “Well, unless you count the corrupted golem alert goin’ off, I reckon that’s not quite as fine.”
“It is not,” agreed a woman standing in the doorway of the room, the living version of the dark blue pictogram: Hope, a former noble standing over nine-and-a-half feet tall, clad in an elegant dark blue sari with striking yellow trim that matched her nails and eyeliner.
“Hey, Hope. What kind of golem is it this time?”
“A chrome diopside,” she replied, handing him a photograph of a blurry green thing soaring over the treetops. “A geokinetic clinopyroxene sighted one mile outside of Beach City approximately forty minutes ago. We believe that she is Diopside. Our Diopside.”
“Emerald of the Mineral Team’s girlfriend, right?” Hope nodded. “Where’s Lilah?”
“Crow’s fittin’ her graduatin’ clothes. She’s mighty antsy considerin’ she’s gonna be an adult once the Sun goes down,” Talc replied. “And you know what we promised her would happen then.”
Mark nodded soberly. “Once the Sun goes down tonight, she’s a Crystal Gem, and she’ll fight for Earth with you three.” He sighed. “I just don’t want her to get hurt, y’know?”
“Neither do we, Mark,” Hope replied firmly. “She is our child too. Even if she wasn’t the last thing that we have of Tourmaline’s essence, we’d still do our best to protect her.” Mark nodded and headed down the hall to Crow’s room.
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“A little easy on the waist there, Crow! Oh, hey Dad.” A shirtless Lilah, a broad-shouldered girl just shy of Mark’s height with striking electric blue hair and eyes, made a pained smile to her father as the living version of the pink pictogram, wearing a lavender sweater, a pink skirt with a purple rhombus pattern, a nonbinary pride flag hairbow, and dark red boots tied a black skirt around her hips a little too hard.
The golem turned around, revealing hot pink eyes and black-painted lips. “Mark!” Crow...well, crowed, dropping the skirt string and flinging herself at him. “It’s been too long! It feels like the last time we saw you for more than five seconds was in April!”
“AP and final exams,” Mark apologized, returning the hug. “They happen every year.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here, old pal. Someone needs to help us watch the kid while we go hunting.”
“The kid can hear you,” Lilah interjected. “And I’m not a kid anymore, I haven’t even legally been a kid since December!”
“That may be so, but you’re still not a Crystal Gem until sunset,” Crow replied, returning to her ward’s side to finish tying the skirt onto her. “And since today’s the solstice, that's not gonna be for a while yet.” Finished with the skirt, Crow stuck a hand into her wild, fluffy ponytail and started rummaging around, pulling out an empty tin of cookies, a live eastern gray squirrel, and a genuine 17th-century shamisen (“Wow, that was a fun party”) before retrieving a simple white button-down t-shirt with a left breast pocket that she quickly shoved over Lilah’s chest, nimble fingers with gray nails buttoning it up in a flash of pink. “There we go! Just what I needed to finish this up! You look cute, kid.”
“Hopefully cute enough to pick up a cutie someday,” the bluenette said approvingly, admiring herself in the mirror.
“Speaking of hopefully,” Crow said before sticking their head out the door and into the hallway. “Hope, do you want me to scout ahead on Diopside?” they called.
“That would be much appreciated, yes!” Hope called back.
“That’s my cue to leave. Go on, have a graduation or whatever. We’ll be back before you know it.” They gave the girl a brief noogie and left the room to the humans.
Mark sniffled. “My little girl’s growing up…your mother would be so proud of you.”
“You saw the sign again?” Lilah asked.
“Yeah.” He pulled his daughter close. “I wish you could’ve met her, Lilah. I wish she hadn’t been too sad to stay.”
Lilah swallowed. “I do too, Dad. I do too.”
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Talc was chopping some carrots when his right index finger fell off, causing the knife to slip out of his grip. “Darn.” He grabbed the waylaid digit and stuck it back on his hand, and it magically fused back on. Grabbing the knife, he resumed chopping.
“Talc?” Talc turned his head to see Lilah enter the kitchen.
“Oh, hello Lilah,” Talc replied cheerfully as he put down the knife. “You look mighty fancy today.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s simple, but…I like it. It makes me feel like a hot waitress. Speaking of waitresses, do you want me to help you with dinner?”
“Naw, I’m fine. Don’t wanna mess up your duds anyhow. But you can keep me company, I’d like that.” Lilah beamed and watched him get back to work.
A comfortable silence passed between them for some time while Talc made dinner until Lilah thought of something. “Talc?” she asked while something boiled in a steel pot.
“Yeah?”
“When I become a Crystal Gem, do you think I’ll finally get my powers? I’d love to be able to do cool stuff like you guys can. More than just magic passively making it so I never need a bath or get sick, I mean.”
“Aw, don’t worry, Lilah. Powers don’t make you a Crystal Gem. It’s what you’re willin’ to do even if ya don’t have no powers a’tall. An’ I’m not sure ya want my powers. Talcs may be hard to poof and able to regenerate from near anythin’, but our ability to fall apart at will is frankly kinda disturbin’.” As if on cue, his left hand fell off at the wrist. “See?” he asked as he picked it up and stuck it back on. “And I don’t think Hope’s psychics or Crow’s infinite-space hair are quite right fer ya.”
“Yeah, but…still, having tourmaline magic would be so COOL!” she shouted, pumping her fists while her eyes twinkled. “Mom could enhance things, right?”
“Yep, she sure could. Just like how you are enhancin’ my chores.” Lilah giggled, but her face fell once Talc’s back was turned to her. She pulled the chest of her shirt out and looked at the bare spot between her breasts, where a nexus would be if she was a golem and not a supposedly-magical human, and sighed in disappointment.
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“Crow, do you see her?” Hope asked through her headset.
“I do indeed! Magical flying dinosaur at ten o’clock!” Crow replied. Hope watched on the control room screen through Crow’s eyes as the green thing swooped through the dense forest. She resembled a Triceratops prorsus, only far spikier, with six cruel eyes and two massive, batlike wings emerging from her shoulders. “Should I attempt to ground her?”
“Roger. She’s getting concerningly close to the farm. Take her down before she gets to Beach City.”
“Alright, Di, once you’re uncorrupted I hope you’ll forgive me for what I’m about to do.” Crow placed a hand over a small, twelve-sided lump on their chest underneath their blouse, which glowed a brilliant pink before materializing a pink-and-white-striped crossbow. Nocking an energy arrow, the rhodochrosite aimed it at Diopside’s left wing before firing it. It tore a hole through the membrane, the wound spraying a fluid that was a streaky mixture of a rusty orange and an opaque white. “Alright! Got her in one! Doesn’t seem like she can regenerate that either. She’ll fall to the ground and–”
Diopside, roaring in pain, caused a boulder to come out of the ground. She manipulated it into a half-pipe and used it to slide onto the ground. “Aw, come on! She just HAD to be the one chrome diopside to keep her geokinesis!” Crow whined. The corrupted golem roared and ran off, using the dirt and rock beneath her feet like an unusual surfboard. “What now?”
“Trail her,” Hope instructed. “Try to use your arrows to drive her into the ocean, her geokinesis is less effective on wet sand and useless on water. Don’t let her see you or else she might attack. Keep her as far away from Beach City as you can. When the time is right, call me and I will send Talc to tag in and beat her down.”
“Roger!”
Hope turned off the screen, removed her headset, and buried her face in her great blue hands. “This is not how today was supposed to go,” she grumbled. She heard a knocking at the control room’s door. “Come in.”
Lilah entered. “Hey, Hope…how’s the mission?”
“Well, Diopside has been grounded, which would be less concerning if she hadn’t retained her ability to move said ground.”
“...oh. Well…I was wondering…how do you use your diamond powers? Like, making a weapon and stuff? I didn’t ask Talc ‘cuz he doesn’t seem to do that…”
“It simply isn’t Talc’s style to fight with essence-born weapons. He can do it, but he prefers to fight with his own raw strength. As for me…well, I can tell you that it takes time and concentration to do it effectively; why, it took me the equivalent of 212 Earth years just to make my first spear alone. You need to feel it inside of you…you need to envision everything about it…then you call upon the desire to fight deep within you…”
Placing a hand near the top of the vertical white belt beneath her sari that went from her neck to her waist, the blue diamond pulled a long spear with a curved, pale pink blade and a dark blue handle out of her roughly rectangular nexus. “And there you have it.”
Lilah stared at the spear in awe before Hope willed it away in a puff of blue light. “Wow…I hope I can figure out how to do that.” She thought for a moment before shyly looking up at Hope. “Hope? Can you…tell me about Mom? Maybe if I knew how she was as a leader, I could figure out how to summon her weapon.”
“I have told you many stories about your mother, but if it helps you understand your potential abilities I can certainly tell them again,” Hope replied, patting her lap. Lilah sat on her knee and looked up at the taller woman, who tapped her chin pensively. “Let me see…ah, the story of how we met Gray Diamond. That was a good example of your mother’s leadership skills.”
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Five thousand and seventy-eight years earlier…
“Tourmaline, you’re not going to like this,” said Grape, a slender purple golemette with red-violet hair in a short bob, as she meekly handed a report to the leader of the Crystal Gems.
Tourmaline, a lanky, long-legged, pale blue-skinned golemette with a mohawk-like braid of cyan hair that went down to her butt, raised an eyebrow at the report. “Kindergarten activity? But that’s impossible. We destroyed the five sanctioned Earth kindergartens centuries ago, and none of them were on the south polar continent.”
“Then it appears that this one is unsanctioned,” said Pyrope, a dark red golemette with an almost square-shaped red afro, a silver sunglasses-like visor covering her eyes, and a stoic, almost monotonous demeanor coloring the way she spoke.
Tourmaline nodded. “How old is this data? I’d imagine a few Earth years given the signatures involved.”
“That’s the thing. The report is from this morning,” Grape said nervously.
The indicolite’s cyan eyes bulged out. “Th-this morning?! That’s not good. Pyrope, get a ship. Grape, get some troops. I want Ruby, Ben, Spinerva, the Malachite Twins, Rubellite, Ametrine, and as many ices, sapphires, aquamarines, lazurites, and pectolites that we can spare. We need to take out this kindergarten before Homeworld can exploit it.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Grape saluted before turning on her heel.
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Two hours later…
A green spaceship touched down in the would-be Larsemann Hills. Disembarking came Tourmaline; Pyrope; Grape; two teal golemettes with similar proportions to Crow and Grape; a limber pink golemette in a coral trench coat and hat with crimson hair in two large pigtails; a tall, pale blue-gray golemette with slender digits and an indigo golemor with similar proportions; a diminutive crimson golemor with a sour expression; four equally-small golemettes in indigo, dull green, papaya pink, and pale, ashy blue, the pale blue one wearing a star-shaped eyepatch over her right eye; five wide-eyed, ultramarine blue golemettes; a golemor resembling a masculine, red-toned version of Tourmaline; a short, stocky golemette with piebald purple-brown & yellow skin; a pale blue golemette with pointy cheeks; and eleven blue-skinned golemettes with spindly limbs & small noses, some of which had white hair instead of their race’s standard azure.
“Brrrr!” Ametrine, so nicknamed for her colorful complexion, shivered as the group approached a large hill riddled with numerous humanoid-shaped holes at its base, a large patch of unmarred rock dividing the holes into two separate groups. “It’s so cold! Why the vulkzara would Homeworld put a kindergarten here?”
“No humans,” Green Sapphire replied loftily. “There’s a circular oceanic current that keeps human boats from getting this far south. Given that most carved-ones turn against the Empire the moment they learn we’re not the only sapient species out there, it’s in the Authority’s best interests to keep them in the dark.”
“So they park the next kindergarten where no sane human would ever go,” Ruby finished with a scowl. “Anyone see anything?”
“There’s something over there,” one of the ices, Snow as shown by the pale blue snowflake embroidered on her white coat, said as she squinted at something in the distance. “It looks like a…recreational shore ball, of all things.” She walked over and brought it back to the others. It was an icosahedral black device floating in the middle of a shimmering clear bubble made of a strange sort of rubber.
“The heck is it?” Rubellite asked.
Tourmaline picked it up and turned it over, grimacing when she saw a retracted blade on the black thing’s underside. “It’s an injector,” she said grimly. “It’s got a protective force field that masks its magical signature, no wonder we didn’t detect them until now.”
“That’s an injector?” one of the lazurites, JJ-19 or “JJ” to her friends, said in disbelief. “But it’s so tiny. I could kick it.”
“Ah, but don’t let your eyes deceive you! That right there is the most modern piece of injector technology out there!” All eyes turned to see a ruby golemor, similar to Ruby save his maroon complexion and wider shoulders, appear from behind the hill, grinning smugly at them and with another such injector in his stubby hands.
“Maroon Ruby,” Tourmaline growled as the corundum arrogantly trotted over. “Yellow Diamond couldn’t be bothered to come here herself, so she sent her best stooge out instead?”
“Ah, you wound me, my dear enemy!” he said as he came to a stop in front of her and immediately started posturing. “I am on Special Assignment™ to test one of my little experiments. If it works, I get paid handsomely and your little rebellion ends.” He smiled wickedly at her. “Allow me to demonstrate the properties of my new Stealth Injectors.
“Magical barrier to prevent detection during transport.” He tapped the pole opposite the blade in a specific pattern, the spots where his fingers touched it lighting up orange and pink as he went. The barrier fell and the injector core fell roughly into his hands.
“Coded activation to prevent meddling from outsiders.” He pressed some buttons on the top of the little injector, which glowed yellow-green as he activated it.
“Enchanted boron carbide blade on collapsible proboscis to ensure rapid strikes with deep intrusion.” The blade shot out of the injector on an extendable tube, puncturing a hole into the rock behind him.
“Easy deposit of seed crystal.” The blade struck again, this time opening while inside the hole and dropping a little white thing no bigger than a marble inside of it. The blade retracted into the injector, which fell silent.
“And my own patented mixture of elbaite sweat and rose quartz tears to speed up growth!” The inside of the hole glowed before causing a shower of rock to explode out of the cliff. Tourmaline reflexively made a cyan bubble around herself to protect her from the blast. When the dust settled, another hole had been blown into the mountain, and stepping out of it was a human-sized golem resembling a skinnier Hope, only a dull dark gray in color and wearing the default gray-and-white uniform that all newmade golems wore.
The Crystal Gems gaped in horror as Maroon Ruby finished his spiel. “With Stealth Injectors I can make an entire army in a centirot. I’ve been covertly incubating a blue diamond worthy of Earth for the last five of its years, and since she’s due to emerge today I’ve decided to start on her court so we can really fight you off. And that measly graphite was just a demonstration. Her court will also need…”
“Ice!” Twenty ice golems appeared from the valley behind the hill, soon followed by...
“Xenotime!” Two amber brown golemettes with unusually large hands;
“Hematite!” Three black golemettes resembling taller corundums;
“Chromite!” A dark gray, freckled golemor resembling a larger, masculine Spinerva;
“Albite!” A white golemette with broad, pointy shoulders;
“Pyrite!” A strong-jawed golemor with metallic dark yellow skin;
“Rutile!” A very thin brownish-maroon golemette with deep wrinkles on her cheeks;
“White quartz!” A towering, stocky golemette with snow white skin & shaggy white hair;
“Brown zircon!” Four pumpkin spice brown golemettes with almond-shaped faces and more relaxed expressions compared to the other new emergees;
“Schorl!” Two black golems, one male and one female, with Tourmaline’s rough proportions if not having slightly shorter legs;
“Brown dravite!” Another tourmaline golemette, this one honey-brown and wearing a golden skirt, black-and-white high-heeled sandals, and a magenta cat’s-eye visor with matching nail polish;
“Grandidierite!” A slender seafoam green golemette;
“Almandine!” Three golemettes resembling dark purple Pyropes;
“And white corundum!” A golemette resembling a white sapphire rounded out the list.
Most of the new arrivals (sans the zircons, who, being born diplomats, were naturally quite mellow) glared at the horrified Crystal Gems, not noticing the somewhat crumbly texture of the rock from which they’d emerged. Suddenly, there was a loud Crack! from the hill behind them, and everyone turned to see a large gash emerge in the rock face between the previous exit holes. “And now for the grand finale!” Maroon Ruby declared. “I give you EARTH’S VERY OWN BLUE DIAMOND!”
KABOOM! went the rock, flowing out in a wave as a massive hole appeared in the side of the hill. Loose stone pelted the golems below, the Crystal Gems having the sense to pull up personal bubbles for protection. The new ones didn’t know to do this, so they ended up getting bruised in various places when the rocks hit them, but Maroon Ruby oddly seemed to get the worst of it somehow. When the commotion finally settled, everyone was left staring at a thirty-five-foot-one-inch-tall hole in the dead center of the hill…and listening to the footsteps within getting closer.
Walking out of the hole came a figure similar to Hope, only much skinnier, with a thinner, more pointed face and the proper height of a diamond. Then she stepped out of the hole and into the light, revealing that rather than the expected kind of sky blue that Maroon Ruby had said she’d be, she was instead a sort of grayish-blue like sealskin. Everyone stared at the newcomer, who blinked at them with large gray eyes. “Is there something wrong?” she asked, her voice surprisingly feathery and light given her stature.
“Yes, there IS,” Maroon Ruby glowered furiously. “How the Light-damned vulkzara did you end up off-color?!” He turned and pointed at the new tourmalines. “You there, tourmalines! You’re Kindergarten inspectors by caste, inspect it!”
“You deposited a blue diamond seed crystal here because this region is high in the boron needed to give a diamond a blue color, with the necessary carbon being sourced from local mineral deposits, carbon dioxide trapped in ice as bubbles, and assorted organic microorganisms living in the soil,” spoke the dravite in a nasally, nerdy voice as she adjusted her visor with a long-nailed index finger. “It would appear, however, that her nexus also incorporated significant amounts of hydrogen impurities as well, most likely sourced from the same ice used to source some of her carbon.”
“I meant the WHY she’s off-color, not the HOW!”
“From what little education I have received in my two decirots of life, I have learned that the likelihood of a diamond carved-one forming off-color is two thousand times higher than the mean likelihood of all other mineral races combined. Combined with the high speed of formation pushed by Stealth Injectors and the long time a diamond carved-one’s nexus typically takes to form, it is likely that the nexus was pushed through its formation faster than it could naturally self-correct.”
“In plain Saxsilla, please?” Maroon Ruby demanded.
“You made her too damn fast,” the male schorl said bluntly.
“Is that bad?” the new diamond asked, touching her bangs with her right hand nervously…a hand now revealed to only have three fingers, the ring finger and pinky being missing entirely and the rest of the hand being quite narrow as a result.
“Oh my luster! Your hand! It’s…HIDEOUS!” Maroon Ruby screamed. The new diamond hid her right hand with her left and looked ready to cry. “Fine. You know what? Maybe Stealth Injectors for a diamond aren’t such a good idea. Shatter this one and we’ll try again with a standard injector. Hopefully we’ll get some good ones before Yellow Diamond asks where I’ve been for the last five reevs…”
“Wait…shatter her?” the pyrite spoke up, horrified. “You want to…KILL her for being off-color?!” He turned to face the Crystal Gems. “Is this allowed?” he asked frantically.
“It’s Homeworld’s way,” Pyrope said bluntly. “Off-colors are seen by the Empire as aberrations to White Diamond’s quest to bring the Brilliant Light to the entire universe.”
“But…she’s our Diamond!” protested the chromite as he pointed to the worried-looking new diamond. “We’re meant to serve the Diamond of Earth, and that’s her!”
“You misunderstand,” Maroon Ruby growled. “You are not supposed to serve the first diamond that comes out of the dirt! You’re supposed to make a bunch of diamonds, then all the on-color diamonds of the same color fight each other in Diamond Duels, the one that wins them all gets to stay, and if the remaining ones of different colors want to duel, then they can do that. Either way, the last one standing is the one that you’re meant to serve. Normally it’s only then that you make a court, but we’re kind of in the middle of a civil war so I had to rush that too because, in case you’ve overlooked that part of the reports, WE’RE A LITTLE SHORT ON PERSONNEL!” he shouted.
“...what happens to those who lose Diamond Duels?” the albite asked nervously.
“They get shattered,” Grape said with a wince, causing the new diamond and her court to gasp in horror. “A diamond who can’t win a Duel is seen as a liability to the Empire’s strength. And the less you know about what they do with the remains…”
“Then we want no part in this empire,” the grandidierite said firmly. “Gray Diamond is our diamond, and we will defend her to our last breath.” The other new golems agreed loudly, and Gray Diamond looked much happier at this declaration of loyalty.
“You will do no such thing!” Maroon Ruby growled. “Yellow Diamond will have my nexus if I don’t give her good results!”
“And you won’t give her any results,” Tourmaline said, having snuck up behind him while he was distracted with his ranting. Her hexagonal nexus glowed cyan, and in a flash she pulled out a brown polearm with a curved cyan blade and sliced Maroon Ruby neatly down the middle with it. In a puff of smoke, he was reduced to a round-cut enchanted ruby that she quickly bubbled and teleported away. Looking up at Gray Diamond, she smiled as she dissipated her polearm. “There’s a lot you need to know about the Empire,” she said. “But I can tell you’ll do good things.”
“Yeah,” said Aquamarine, the gears audibly turning in her round-cheeked head. “Like the legal restrictions that you as Diamond of Earth can put on Homeworld…”
Tourmaline laughed nervously when the diamond’s hand caught her eye. “Oh…you know, we have a technician who can give you a prosthesis to make up for your missing fingers.”
“B-because it’s bad to be different?” Gray Diamond squeaked nervously.
“No, because having more fingers will improve your grip strength, and you’ll need a good grip on your weapon if you’re going to fight. You do wish to fight, do you not?”
Gray Diamond shifted her size downwards to match Tourmaline’s height. Grinning, she took the (much) older woman’s hand and shook it vigorously with her deformed one. “Of course! Although…” she added shyly, “will your group accept me like mine have?”
“‘A course we wills,” Spinerva said reassuringly in her anachronistic Empire City accent, waving her hands as she spoke. “Mah own diamond’s off-collah, an’ she’s wunna da ones who stahted dis whole shebang in da foist place. Don’t be a joik and beat up Hoimwoild and you’ll be a damn fine Crystal Gem, jus’ da same as alla ya coit.”
“Yeah, same here, same court, except I actually am an offie,” Ametrine added, showing herself to the new golems. “And if they can accept me, and all the other ones we’ve got, then they can accept you just as well.”
Gray Diamond looked to her court, who nodded, then turned back to face Tourmaline. “Then as my first action as Diamond of Earth, I pledge this planet in the name of the Crystal Gems!” Everyone around her applauded, but no one applauded louder than a very proud-looking Tourmaline.
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Present day
“As for Maroon Ruby, we did let him out eventually…in Egypt while a mastaba was being built,” Hope finished. “The minute he saw mankind he turned on Homeworld and gave us all of his technology free of charge, just as Green Sapphire said he would. Changed his ways too, he never wanted an off-color shattered again.” She sighed wistfully. “Gray was…a good friend. She was very kind and sweet, and she gave up using the caste system in her court without any fuss whatsoever the minute we asked her to do so. Her being the first corrupted golem we found…hurt, to say the least.”
Lilah nodded. “I wish I could’ve met her, Hope. Thanks for the story.” She left the room, sighing as she wandered back upstairs. She was no closer to figuring out how to summon her mother’s weapon. To figuring out what it really meant to be a Crystal Gem.
“Hey, Lilah?” Talc asked. “I got a call from Crow, they’re taggin’ out. Dinner’s done, just gotta let it cool first.”
“Hopefully you’re back before it cools all the way,” Lilah said. Talc nodded and left.
“Lilah?” Mark called from the dining room. “Can you help me set the table?”
“I’ll be right there!” Lilah called back.
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Crow returned home exhausted and sweaty. “Hoo boy,” they wheezed as they collapsed on the dark red armchair in the living room.
“Crow, would you mind wiping yourself off before you get manganese in the furniture again?” Mark asked sternly while Lilah helped him put the silverware and napkins on the dining room table.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m wiping,” Crow said dismissively with a wave of their hand. They retrieved a white towel from their hair and wiped their face on it, staining it pink in the process, before shoving it back into their hair. “Phew! What an evening, am I right?”
“Yeah…” Lilah trailed off. “Say, Crow?”
“Hmm?”
“You’ve got a ton of weapons in there, right? So you’d know how to summon them better than anyone.”
“We are NOT summoning weapons at the dinner table,” Mark interjected with a frown.
“Trust me, Mark, I’m not making that mistake a second time,” Crow said casually. “Kiddo, what’s gotten into you today? Even yesterday you weren’t this antsy. What gives?”
“Well…I still haven’t gotten my powers yet,” Lilah replied sullenly. “If my hair wasn’t blue you wouldn’t even be able to tell I have Mom’s essence within me. And yet…no tourmaline powers.”
“Oh, kid, don’t worry about it! It’s probably just an age thing. Natural-born golems don’t start developing their special abilities until they’re almost sexually mature; your hair didn’t start turning blue until you hit puberty, after all. You’re about the physical and mental equivalent of an injection-produced golem right now, so I’d say you should be getting your tourmaline powers in the next coming weeks.”
“I keep telling myself that,” Lilah grumbled, staring at her chest in annoyance. “Do you think my transition fucked up my development?”
“Kid, listen. I was a seamstress before the rebellion. The idea of me summoning a weapon was considered ludicrous on Homeworld. And yet, because I honed my willpower and creativity…” They pulled out a pink-and-white-striped broom out of their nexus. “...I can summon whatever I please. Just let it happen naturally and you’ll be fine,” they went on while dissipating the broom.
“And as for your gender stuff…maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. I don’t know. You’re literally only the second human made by magic, there’s a lot we don’t know about folks in your position. But I do know that transitioning made you happy in your own body, so trust me: a little delay in summoning weapons is worth your three extra years of gender euphoria.”
“And even if you never figure it out, you’ll still be as much of a Crystal Gem as the others,” Mark said reassuringly. “Because being a Crystal Gem isn’t about having powers, it’s about doing the right thing for other people.”
Lilah nodded. “Thanks, guys. I feel a little better now.” There was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it. Maybe it’s Talc.”
“If it is, then why didn’t he teleport in?” Mark muttered as she left.
“Who knows?” Crow shrugged. “I’ve lived with him for almost five millennia and I’m still finding new things about him.”
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Lilah slipped on a pair of black flip-flops and opened the door to see two girls her age, a chubby long-haired blonde with green eyes and a skinny Japanese girl with patchy red highlights in her hair, both of them wearing the reddish-orange cap and gown of Beach City High, on her doorstep. “O-oh! Molly, Saki! I wasn’t expecting you to be here!” Lilah stammered, flushing immediately.
“I told you we should’ve texted her,” the Japanese girl, Saki, hissed.
The blonde, Molly, lightly elbowed Saki in the gut. “The surprise was better. Anyway, hi Lilah! We noticed you weren’t at graduation.”
“W-well, yeah, I’m kinda not allowed to go to public school anymore,” Lilah murmured.
“We know. So we brought you a little something! Saki, you have the pot, right?”
“Pot?” Lilah’s brow furrowed. “You guys know how strict our drug policy is, right?”
“FLOWERpot, Blue,” Saki corrected, lifting her hands to reveal a small red flowerpot with orange poppies in it. “We snuck it here from school so you could have a graduation present. It’s not much, but…”
“We thought it was wrong that the school board kicked you out of the district after fifth grade,” Molly finished. “Seriously, what kind of justification is ‘your mother is an alien and therefore you’re not technically an Appalachian citizen’?”
Lilah took the flowerpot and smiled. “Thanks, guys. It’s lovely. I don’t want to keep you from the ceremony.”
“The ceremony ended two hours ago, Lilah,” Saki said.
“Wait, really?”
“Uh…yeah? Our graduating class was literally twenty people?”
“Oh, right. I keep forgetting how tiny our town is.”
Suddenly, they heard a deep rumbling noise from below. “Uh…what’s that?” Molly asked with a gulp. Bursting out of the dirt a few feet from the barn came Diopside. She was covered in nicks and scratches, and both wings were visibly mangled. She roared, slit pupils narrowing.
“Get inside,” Lilah ordered.
“Don’t have to tell ME twice!” Saki yelped as the other girls ran into her house.
Lilah set the flowerpot on the dining room table (“What?” Mark asked in surprise when he saw the flowerpot) and ran to Crow. “Crow, Diopside’s here!”
“WHAT?!” Crow tumbled off the chair and to their feet. “How?!”
“I’m sorry!” That was Talc rushing upstairs from the back room. “She went underground and I lost her signal!”
“And our systems decided that NOW was a good time to update,” Hope glowered as she stormed up the steps behind him. “Turrets and arms are offline. I’ll set up a barrier to keep the humans safe. Talc, Crow, draw Diopside away and give her all you’ve got!”
“Can do!” Talc said as he and Crow ran outside.
“What about me?” Lilah asked.
“You can inspect the barrier for cracks in case Diopside has the sense to attack it.”
Lilah frowned, but only for a moment. It wasn’t the glamorous job of fighting the corrupted golem, but it was just as important for her father’s and friends’ safeties. “Okay. I can do that.”
Hope nodded and started singing in the native golem language, causing a dark blue translucent shell to grow around the house. Molly and Saki exchanged a confused look. “I swear I’ve heard that before,” Molly said as she tried to place the tune. “Wait…is your diamond mom singing the Camp Pining Hearts theme song in alien language?!” she asked incredulously.
“She’s a fangirl,” Lilah shrugged. “And it works. The show’s all about emotional barriers, right?”
“I mean, yeah, but…” Molly shook her head. “Oh, it doesn’t matter.”
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Outside, Crow summoned a double-bladed axe with long, narrow blades, equally as pink as their other weapons. Talc, meanwhile, summoned a pair of gauntlets the same shade of dark red as his shoes. Crow raised an eyebrow at this. “You’re armoring up?”
“I failed to get Diopside poofed before she came stompin’ around here,” Talc replied firmly. “I’m not takin’ a chance a’ her escapin’ again.”
“Fair enough. HEY, DIOPSIDE! OVER HERE! YOUR FIGHT’S WITH US, NOT THE BARN!”
Diopside, who at that moment had been poised to ram into the front wall, turned around. Her sextet of slit pupils narrowed and she roared at them. “That’s right! Over here!” Talc yelled, slamming his fists together. “Come and get some!”
Diopside pawed at the ground and raced at him, intending to ram him. Talc jumped out of the way. She rotated the ground beneath her feet with her powers and rammed into him without losing momentum. Talc caught her horns with his hands and dug his feet into the dirt, wincing as the strain on his joints increased. Diopside eventually ran out of steam, allowing Talc to twist at her head hard enough to snap off her right brow horn. Rustwhite blood leaked from the wound until Diopside’s nexus glowed light green followed by the wound, the lost adornment regenerating in a flash of light within seconds.
“Go for the horns!” Talc ordered as he tossed the broken horn away. “She’ll tire herself out remakin’ ‘em!”
“Works for me! TIME TO POLL OUR CLIENT!” Crow hollered, jumping high into the air and cleaving off the remade horn with their axe.
“Crow, fewer puns and more focus!” Hope called from inside the barn.
“Hey, I don’t see YOU out here– OOF!” Diopside had swung her tail at them, knocking them over. “Oh, you’ve got my skirt dirty! YOU ARE POOFED, YA HEAR ME?! POOFED!”
“Their magic will clean it up in minutes,” Lilah muttered.
“I find that in situations like this Crow just shouts for the sake of shouting,” Hope replied as Crow, Talc, and Diopside tussled. Suddenly, thunder boomed, lightning flashed, and it started to rain heavily. “Shit.”
“At least the water will make it harder for Diopside to bend the dirt…right?” Mark asked.
“Well, with that many injuries she’ll at least have a hard time focusing,” Lilah muttered.
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Indeed, Diopside shrieked and writhed in pain as the water pelted her open wounds. Eventually, her common sense returned for a bit and she used her geokinesis to erect a protective roof of dirt over herself. Or tried to, at least; the wet dirt was slack under her telekinetic grip. Eventually, with a far bigger tug than intended, Diopside lifted a large chunk of earth out of the ground…exposing a Stealth Injector embedded in the dirt. “How the hell did that get in there?” Crow asked.
“Musta landed here durin’ the war and got swallowed by the swamp that used to be here,” Talc replied. “Don’t think we should worry about it none, batteries’ll be dead by now.”
“Right,” Crow nodded. “Stealth Injectors trade capacity & capacitance for speed. A full-sized clunker can last for 350 years, but these things die after ten.”
It was at that exact moment that the injector was hit by a random bolt of lightning (which also passed through Diopside, causing her to drop the dirt and shriek in pain). It lit up, reenergized, and fell out of the dirt, landing button-first on numerous stray rocks kicked up during the fight in sequence and rolling down to the poison ivy field. It lit up, the blade shot out, and something was buried into the soil. The poison ivy began to wither and crumble, and the soil below started turning ashy and gray before frosting over.
“...okay, nevermind, maybe we should worry about it,” Talc said, his jaw slack with disbelief.
“Of ALL the shitty coincidences that could’ve happened today!” Crow seethed. “WHY?!” they raged at the rainclouds above them.
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“What…what’s happening over there?” Molly asked.
“Diopside unearthed an injector, and that freak bolt of lightning recharged it,” Lilah replied uneasily. “Can they do that?”
“Well, yes, it is possible to recharge an injector’s batteries through large electric shocks, but lightning has too high a wattage for that to be practical!” Hope replied frantically. “I don’t understand it, that injector should’ve melted from a current that size!”
“Injectors?” Molly asked. “Is that what that virus-looking thing was?”
“Injectors are how golems are cloned, they’re full of seed crystals made of…I think it’s something with silicon in it?” Mark guessed.
“Silicone infused with magic, yes,” Hope nodded.
“Yeah, and they get soaked in the blood of the golem you want to make, then they’re zapped with electricity & magic and shoved into the dirt. Over several years the seed crystals grab the elements needed to make the target mineral and build gemstone shells around themselves.”
“The resulting constructs are magical gemstones called ‘nexuses’, and once a nexus is complete it forms a golem with the nexus inside the chest,” Hope continued, tapping the bump between her sizeable breasts where a human’s heart would’ve been. “It’s what gives us our fantastic powers, it’s what stores the essence that makes us who we are…and it’s what remains of us if we are too badly hurt until we repair ourselves from within the safety of its extrauniversal interior.”
“I’ve told you all this shit before, guys,” Lilah remarked.
“It’s been a while!” Saki protested. “So the ground’s crumbling because the magic rock that virus-looking doodad stuck in it is…eating it?”
“To some extent. We do not know who the donor was for the blood in that injector,” Hope replied, watching uneasily as Talc and Crow engaged Diopside again. “But we do know that injection consumes a considerable amount of energy to create the phylacters – magic atoms – in our bodies, energy that the nexus takes from the chemical bonds of the surrounding material, rendering it cold and inert.”
“Including anything that’s alive,” Molly gasped in horrified realization. “Is that why you started that war you were in? To stop your empire from doing what happened to that tangle…to the entire Earth?!”
“Partly. The other reason involved finding out that our entire oppressive society was built on the lies of a single madwoman.” Hope looked outside and saw Talc snatch the injector from the ground. “Talc! Shut that thing off before it injects again!” she called. “We don’t want to lose the entire farm!”
Talc pried the back of the injector open with his bare hands while pushing Diopside’s face away with his foot. “We’re in luck!” he called back. “The injector only had the one crystal, and the lightnin’ fried the battery! It only had enough juice for one go!”
“Good!” Crow said, pausing momentarily to wring out their hair. “Now the humans will only have to worry about some inverse radiation!”
“...radiation?!” Molly squawked.
“Cloning with injectors takes a lot of energy,” Lilah explained. “So much that even after the golem’s emerged, the spot they came from keeps sucking energy in until everything’s balanced. Especially true of Stealth Injectors since they need so much energy to make golems come out in minutes instead of decades.” With a scowl she added “And that’s why it’s such an evil way to reproduce. It doesn’t just kill the things living in the soil on top of the nexus, it kills everything within range unless it’s magical. Which amounts to only golems.”
“Uh…guys?” Saki asked. “That giant green space ceratopsid…is it doing something?” Everyone turned to see Diopside curiously testing the dirt with her powers. Thanks to the injection the energy once keeping the rainwater liquid was now being drained into the new golem, and the muddy dirt was subsequently freezing into thick, black ice even fifty feet away from the injection site where Talc, Crow, and Diopside currently stood.
Diopside seemed to smirk. As it was solid and had a repetitive molecular structure, ice was therefore a mineral. And with that many dirt inclusions, lifting it would be no trouble at all. She turned her head, formed the snirt into a rectangular pillar, and slammed it into Talc’s chest. His head came off, bouncing on the dirt for a bit before stopping. “Ow,” Talc groaned, still very much alive. His headless body fumbled and flailed for his head. “Over here, goshdarnit!” he barked at it.
Paying him no mind, Diopside turned her attention to Crow, whom she began to pelt with a flechette of dirty icicles. Crow dodged momentarily, but slipped on a patch of muddy ice and fell, landing hard on their right knee with a sickening CRACK! and an agonized cry. Then Diopside turned to the barn and summoned a great bevy of pillars toward the barrier, cracking it and forcing Hope to sing again to undo the damage.
As she pointed out where Hope needed to sing to repair the barrier, Lilah swallowed. Crow was out of the fight until their knee healed, and Talc was out until he could reattach his head – not an easy task when the ground was that slick. Hope couldn’t fight Diopside; she had to keep the barrier up to protect the humans inside, and Lilah knew her aunt enough to know that Hope had trouble multitasking. And her dad, strong though he could be, was no match for a geokinetic alien dinosaur capable of flight, especially when the Gempire’s Smallest Kindergarten™ was so close by.
She knew what she had to do. “I’m going after her,” she said, marching towards the open doorway.
“WHAT?!” Mark cried, reaching out to grab her but failing.
“Blue, this is nuts! You can’t do this!” Saki protested.
“I have to! We’re out of other options! And technically, I’m already a Crystal Gem. We all agreed I’d be one when the Sun went down…well, the Sun’s covered by clouds, so it’s technically ‘down’ in the sense that it’s not usable right now.” She held her head high and tried to ignore the frightened look in Hope’s face…and the twisting feeling in her intestines. “I have to do this. I may not have powers, but I need to do something.”
And it was at that very moment that two somethings happened. First, glowing cyan lines traced over a spot on Lilah’s chest, forming the outline of an intricate hexagonally-cut gemstone before bursting into light, a polearm identical to the one Tourmaline once wielded clattering onto the porch.
Next, the dirt of the poison ivy patch, now completely bare and gray and icy, suddenly burst upwards in a messy SPLURT!, kicking up a tall plume of frigid grayish-brown dust. When the plume settled, a pale orange right hand shot out of the hole left behind, extending on a long, ribbonlike arm before slamming hard onto the remaining part of the ground. The other hand on an equally-rubbery left arm shot out and landed, then two bare feet on equally-elastic legs emerged as well.
Pulling herself out of the hole on all fours, then skittering headfirst up to the front door before flipping herself upright, was a pale orange-skinned golem wearing the default uniform of the Mohs-8 caste. She had a chin-length bob of safety orange hair and blinked at the world with large, equally-orangine eyes, taking in the shocked Lilah, the shocked golems, the unattended polearm, and Diopside slamming another wave of dirty ice into the barrier while Hope was distracted. And then she said her very first words:
“Did I miss something?”
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“Uh…” Lilah wracked her brain. Fighting a corrupted golem was one thing, she expected that by now. But meeting a new golem that wasn’t one of her guardians? “Well…” she started as she looked around before noticing the sturdy metal poles supporting the roof of the porch. Her eyes wandered over to the newcomer. Elastic limbs, thin neck, and large eyes; a true spinel like Spinerva, only orange instead of pink. Then she saw the polearm on the ground. Her mother’s. “Actually…you can help me with something.”
“Sure thing, what needs doing?” the spinel asked.
“Well, you see that giant monster over there?” Lilah asked, pointing at Diopside, who was now chasing after Talc’s headless body. “We need to poof her before she causes any trouble, but we’re kind of stuck at the moment.”
“Well, then it’s time that you got unstuck. How can I help?”
“I need to get this polearm into her so she’ll poof, but I’m not strong enough to engage her directly. Luckily, if this works I won’t need to get up close and personal. Can you tie your legs around these poles so you’re facing away from me?”
“Sure thing!” The spinel stretched a leg over to one post and wrapped it around, then did the same for the other so that her slender back faced Lilah. “Now what?”
“Pick up that polearm on the ground.”
“If that’s a polearm, is there a poleleg too?” the spinel pondered as she picked up the weapon with elastic hands.
“Uh…we’ll check on that later.”
“Lilah, do you need me to make some noise?” Crow asked.
“Yeah! Noise will work! I’m gonna need a straight shot at Diopside!” Lilah agreed, grabbing the spinel by the waist and walking backwards into the house.
“Kid, this is incredibly crazy and we’ll have to have a long talk about this afterwards, but right now I am completely within the moment! HEY, DIOPSIDE! OVER HERE! I FUCKED YOUR MOM! OR I WOULDA, IF YOU WEREN’T BORN FROM AN INJECTOR! NO, YOU KNOW WHAT? I FUCKED YOUR BLOOD DONOR! SO THERE!”
Diopside’s attention left Talc and fell on Crow once more. She roared and tried to send more ice towards Crow, but failed to move her projectiles more than a foot. Even with the spinel’s emergence draining heat from the soil, the early summer heat had started to warm it back up again, enough so that the ice had somewhat softened – making it difficult for Diopside to wield once more. “Not so tough without your cheats, are ya?” Crow taunted further before grabbing their knee and groaning in pain. “Ow, ow, don’t like that, don’t like that at all.”
Diopside charged and tossed Crow into the air with her horns. “When I let go, wait until I say ‘now’ to release the polearm!” Lilah told the spinel. She pulled further back and exhaled, then let go.
The spinel shot forward like the living slingshot she was. When the spinel’s hips moved in front of her knees, Lilah barked “NOW!” and the spinel let go of the polearm. It went sailing through the air like a ballista bolt and plunged into Diopside’s neck, emerging from the other side in a burst of rustwhite blood. With a choke and a splutter, Diopside exploded into a puff of white smoke, disappearing completely save for her nexus: grass green, circular step-cut with one row of facets on the crown beneath the heptagonal table, and about the size of a four-ounce tub of Vaseline.
Talc’s body caught Crow before they could hit the ground. “Nice catch!” Crow complimented. Talc’s body set them down and they grabbed Diopside’s nexus, summoning a small pink bubble around it. “Hot diggety damn, Tourmaline’s polearm! I haven’t seen that since…well. Nice shot, kid! You too, newbie!”
“Is that my name?” the spinel asked Lilah as the latter let go of her.
“Nope, we’re giving you something better than that,” Lilah replied while the spinel removed her legs from the posts. Spotting the flowerpot on the dining room table, she smiled. “And I think I know just the name.”
“Can someone help me get my head back on?” Talc asked from somewhere unseen.
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“To Lilah and Poppy, the newest Crystal Gems!” Glasses of water clinked together ironically. Talc was back in one piece, Diopside’s nexus was safely stored in the vault below the barn, and Saki and Molly had decided to stay the night while the storm passed…and until the “inverse radiation” in Poppy’s exit hole sucking the life from its surroundings could be dealt with.
“Today’s been so full of orange!” Molly giggled after dinner was finished. “Our caps and gowns were orange, our school is orange, the flowers were orange, the new magical rock alien is orange; heck, even your nails are orange!”
“That was deliberate!” Lilah laughed as she inspected her fingernails, which were painted the same slightly-reddish-orange of the flowers and Poppy’s hair. “I figured if I couldn’t go to graduation the least I could do was to wear the school’s color.”
“You kidding?” Saki chuckled. “If I knew what today was going to be like I woulda skipped graduation entirely.”
“But then you wouldn’t’ve gotten me flowers. Admit it, Saki; you’re a sap.”
“I-I am not!” Saki blushed. “A-and anyway! Where’s the newbie anyway?”
“Here she is!” Crow declared, emerging from the basement stairway with a flourish. “Presenting Poppy in her own ‘do!”
Poppy bounced into the room, her uniform gone. In its place was a solid vermillion yinzi eingyi blouse, a longyi skirt with a checked pale orange-and-white pattern, the white diamonds each having a little dot in their middles like an eye, and simple dark brown flip-flops the same shade as the nail polish on her fingers and toes, copper rings gracing the second & fourth digit of each hand and foot just as similar steel rings did on Lilah’s and Hope’s. “How do I look?” she asked cheerfully.
“You look adorable! Like a proper little businesswoman who could also kill you,” Lilah giggled. “Excellent work as always, Crow!”
“If it’s not excellent, I didn’t make it!” Crow laughed. “Now let’s get you introduced to everyone. This is Mark, you took care of his poison ivy problem…”
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Sometime later that night, Hope knelt in front of a great stone coffin bearing a carved visage of Tourmaline on its top. “She’s a Crystal Gem now, just like you,” Hope said. “I wish…” She sniffled. “I just w-wish y-you could’ve s-seen her f-first v-victory…”
“Hope?” Talc suddenly appeared and knelt next to her. “You okay?”
“Just…sharing the news,” Hope replied as she wiped her eyes. “Talc, I’m so worried.”
“Yeah, the inverse radiation bugs me too. We got a way to fix that?”
“Yes, the Sun-Sucker’s finished now, but…oh, confound it! Talc, I’m worried that Lilah’s going to get hurt. I’m worried that she’s going to end up walking her mother’s path and blame herself for not being able to save everyone. A-and then…”
Talc put a hand on her right shoulder. “She won’t,” he said firmly. “We’ll make sure she won’t. She ain’t goin’ down that path now that we know what steps led her mom there.”
Hope exhaled as he removed his hand. “I-I know, but…and that’s just what we can do, Talc. I’m worried about something else. Something that we can’t do anything about.”
“What worries you?”
“Diopside. She was the 31,500th corrupted golem we’ve found.”
“That number a bad omen on your planet?”
“No, but it might as well be a bad omen on this one. The number of golems stranded on Earth before White Diamond sang the Corruption Song wasn’t that much more. And at the accelerated rate they’ve been emerging after Tourmaline…” she stared at the coffin before continuing, “we might find the last one within the year.”
“And we don’t have a cure for that still,” Talc finished with a sigh. “Bugs me too.”
“That wasn’t my only concern, Talc. Think about it: White Diamond couldn’t send personnel directly to Earth during the war, not when we were so good at convincing her people to turn on her. So she turned most of us into monsters so that we could not give up the sheep about her lies.”
“Goat.”
“Whatever. The point is, now that most of us are devoid of sapience almost none of us could expose her. And we remaining few have spent the last five millennia rounding all the others up, every Crystal Gem and Homeworld troop that she marooned on Earth prior to the Corruption. All into one place. Do you see what my concern is now?”
Talc’s brows furrowed. “I’m havin’ some trouble…d’you think that someone will try to destroy us all once we’re all together?”
“Yes. I’m afraid that Homeworld will return once we’ve done White Diamond’s dirty work of rounding up the remaining Crystal Gems, and potential Homeworld deserters, for her, a-and then…” She trembled. Talc didn’t need to be told what would happen next.
“Easy now, Hope,” Talc replied in a soothing voice as he watched her cry silently. “White Diamond left us alone after the Corruption, we’ve been lookin’ around for years and we never saw no sign a’ her drones or spaceships. And if she does come back, well, then we’ll finish her off right then and there. Just like we promised we would.”
Hope exhaled shakily. “I would be happier if she was able to see that.” Talc didn’t ask who “she” was and simply sat with her, letting the much larger alien lean her big blue head on his much tinier shoulders. “I would be much happier if she could see what kind of woman her daughter was becoming.”
Neither one noticed Lilah peeking her head into her mother’s shrine while their backs were turned, having heard the tail end of their conversation. Frowning again at the spot on her chest, she left the mourners in silence.
#lilah parallel#steven universe#dragon's den studios#fanfiction#audiodrama#indicolite#talc#blue diamond#rhodochrosite#orange spinel#chrome diopside#pink spinel#purple calcite#pyrope#lazurite#amethyst#benitoite#schorl#brown dravite#rubellite#malachite#red ruby#green sapphire#blue sapphire#padparadscha#larimar#aquamarine#ice#hematite#chromite
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Wishing I lived in a time where I could get away with shutting myself away in some dark little room to do nothing but paint for a month straight…
#instead i have to go to work every fucking week#and appointments n shit#and even on my off days i can hardly get alone time if i want it..#and forget about having the space for it!! i hardly have a room much less the dragon den of an art studio i crave#shut up ashwyn#tbd#im just.. really frustrated with my art rn#my tablet wont stay awake and connected for more than 20 minutes at a time and its exhausting#worst part is i dont think its even the battery.. this dumb tablet itself is failing#and i still havent even paid off the student loans that got me this damn thing in the first place..#i badly need to upgrade my entire computer situation.. but that is so far out of the realm of possibility rn
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disney descendants - but add TATTOOS
the Docks house the majority of the tattoo trade on the Isle, so the Sea Three grow up treating tattoos more casually while they've got more of a rebellious vibe for VKs living inland, like the Core Four.
to the VKs on the docks, tattoos most often serve as a show of ownership or as self expression.
for the Core Four and AKs, I imagine it's more common to see tattoos as individual pieces of art.
there's a lot of blurring that line, but seeing tattoos as self expression vs art can carry a lot into both how a person perceives tattoos in general and how they tend to design and place their tattoos.
Jay shows up at the Dragon's Den one day with a large, traditional, fully shaded, badass cobra curling around his bicep.
Evie and Carlos are fascinated but also a bit uncomfortable.
Mal immediately feels challenged, artistically, and starts designing a badass dragon design that she wants to get on her back someday.
Evie and Carlos don't get tattoos until years later, when they're in Auradon and comfortable in their own skin and are able to go to a nice, clean, entirely above-the-board tattoo studio.
Evie gets a little crown on her ankle.
Carlos ends up getting a number of random, small designs over time. Jane's name, a silhouette of Dude, the date that he last saw his mother (the date from when he's been free).
Evie gets a second tattoo eventually, on a dare, and gets a small ruler design on her wrist that's perfect for helping measure hems and edges for her projects.
Mal waits until getting settled in Auradon, too - first because she doesn't trust the skill of the tattoo artists on the Isle to do it "right," and then because she doesn't think her tattoo would be viewed as appropriate for the future Queen of Auradon.
once everything has settled out post-D3, though, and she's confident in her skin she brings it up with Ben (because having the Sea Three around is making her remember how much she really wants to get a tattoo, not that she'd ever admit to that).
Ben totally supports her and she gets a fantastical dragon across her back, painstakingly done by one of the finest artisans in Auradon.
Harry started tattooing himself when he was a kid, messing around with stick-and-poke techniques he saw the older kids using.
they didn't have great ink and stick-and-pokes usually fade pretty fast anyway, even faster when you're constantly in the sun, so he had a lot of fun with the canvas of his hands, arms, and thighs and did a lot of experimentation.
once he and Gil got closer, Harry did a lot of small designs on Gil when he was bored.
Uma got the first real tattoo of all of them.
she showed up at one of the tattoo shops dragging a bag full of tips and left several sessions later with a full sleeve of ocean waves crashing against a ship that was surrounded by tentacles.
she was pleased by how the artist had gotten it to look like the tentacles could either be pulling the ship to its doom or just giving it a hug.
Harry absolutely loved it and began going to get himself a new tattoo every time he scraped together enough tips and stolen coins.
a compass on the back of his hand; a dagger down his thigh; constellations dotting his arms; a menagerie growing one by one of seahorses and sharks and gulls.
he gets a traditional pinup on his hip; a grand, proper pirate's ship on one knee and a kraken mirroring its style on the other; he has multiplication tables and other memorization tricks done on the inside of his wrists to help him on tests.
months after his first (and only) hesitant, respectful request, Uma lets him get her name tattooed as a tramp stamp.
she goes with him and directs the artist and he ends up with her name surrounded by tentacles; they're strategically positioned to curl around the letters but also draw the eye to where they disappear beneath his waistband.
Uma didn't get tattoos as often but they were always grand and befitting her rank as Captain.
she adhered religiously to her colors and aesthetic, creating a map of black, turquoise, cyan, and purple whirls and lines that made her look ever inch the magical being she should be.
Uma complemented the heavy linework with little skulls and bones, sea creatures, and rolling waves.
I've seen some people say that "Wharf Rats" is just an insult Carlos called the crew, but I like the headcanon that it's the actual name of Uma's crew and that everyone who joined up was required to get a tattoo as a promise of loyalty.
Harry totally designed it himself.
Uma and Harry have the largest versions of it, so they added some extra detail and flare to theirs. Uma's on her chest and Harry's across his upper back.
most of the crew have theirs on a bicep but Gil got his on the back of his neck.
Gil didn't get any ink until he came back to the Docks and joined the crew.
once he was back, though, he tagged along and got something done every time Uma or Harry went.
he liked to get Harry to help him come up with ideas for designs that would draw attention to his arms and muscles.
Gil got lots of flowers and plants and birds on his arms, eventually tying the designs together into full sleeves.
Uma and Harry would roll their eyes but loved how badass Gil could manage to make a bunch of flowers.
colored tattoos were far less common than black linework and shading because it was much harder to come by substantial quantities of colorful ink on the Isle.
having his flowers colored made Gil's sleeves pop out and draw attention even more.
he got roaring waves and sharks and sea monsters on his back, pulling up into his Wharf Rats tattoo, with everything perfectly designed to flatter the flex of his shoulders and back.
on his trip around Auradon with Jay, Gil had a lot of fun getting a new tattoo in each kingdom, coloring in his chest with new kinds of flowers and filling up his legs with a variety of designs that reminded him of his favorite stops.
once she escaped the barrier and was restored access to her magic and heritage, Uma learned that her she could make her tattoos glow and reflect her natural magic.
she waited a long time for the day when she, Harry, and Gil were all free from the Isle and she was able to casually take her shirt off and enjoy Harry tripping on his feet and falling on his face at how extra stunning her tattoos were now.
Harry took advantage of the better resources for tattoos in Auradon and had his tattoos relined, as a lot of them were beginning to fade.
he had red lines and shading worked into the designs to give them an extra bit of pop, cohesiveness, and general Hook aesthetic.
for AKs, the most common tattoos were small and easy to hide, like significant others' names, important dates, and little minimalist designs.
Harry won a dare once and coerced Jay and several of Jay's tourney friends into going and getting larger, more artistic designs, though.
to Harry's surprise (and Uma and Gil's delight), some of Harry's first AK friends ended up being heirs from kingdoms like Matinui and DunBroch, with whom he bonded over tattoos after they approached him with admiration for his ink and for his opinions on design.
kingdom pride and fairytale tattoos are definitely a thing. an artist would have a lookbook with glass slippers and well known castles and glass covered roses.
just. TATTOOS guys.
#disney descendants#descendants headcanons#tattoos#descendants verse with TATTOOS#core four#sea three#mal descendants#jay descendants#evie descendants#carlos de vil#uma descendants#harry hook#gil descendants#bal#huma
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ABOUT THE ISLAND RANKINGS !
WELCOME PACKET CONTENTS
Headmistress Delecaille’s Letter
Slave Orientation & Rules
Master Orientation & Rules
Guard Rules
Master Room Assignments
Slave Roommate Assignments
Mandatory Courses
Island Map & Campus Map
Island Access Levels
Your New Phone
Island Rankings
Every island resident, master and slave alike, is entered into the island rankings on arrival on Malvolio Island. A resident's place in the rankings is determined by points; all residents begin at zero, and may accumulate or lose points over time. The more points, the higher the rank, and the higher the rank, the more prestige and benefits you receive.
RULES OF THE RANKING SYSTEM:
Any slave who graduates while ranked in the Top 5 slaves will receive a cash prize of $1,000,000 USD, or the equivalent in their desired currency.
Any master who graduates or departs their position on the island while ranked in the Top 5 masters may choose between two prizes. They may have a building on campus renamed and dedicated in their honor, or they may award master status to one slave of their choice.
Slaves may earn points in three ways: through the required review at the end of each rental, by pleasing Masters enough to be awarded points, and by performing certain actions.
Masters also earn points via the required review at the end of each rental; in addition, they may be awarded points by other masters who witness behavior fitting of their status, or by performing certain actions.
Masters may award points freely to slaves and fellow masters for any perceived good behavior.
While a resident's points automatically determine certain factors such as their access level and eligibility for participation in fraternities, residents may also choose from a selection of perks at each 100-point milestone. These perks will remain theirs until such time as their total points fall below the total at which they were earned.
Masters may deduct points from slaves for bad behavior. They may also deduct points from other masters; these deductions will be reviewed by the administration before acceptance.
Points will be deducted automatically from masters and slaves alike for any infraction that breaks school rules; see slave rules + master rules.
AUTOMATIC POINTS !
The following actions will automatically earn an individual points, without a master awarding them.
FOR SLAVES:
Reporting an infraction by another slave
Reporting an infraction by a master
Finishing a course with a grade of 90% or higher
Uploading photos or videos to Dragon's Den
Going six months without any deductions/infractions
FOR MASTERS:
Reporting an infraction by a slave
Reporting an infraction by another master
Publicly punishing a slave's infraction
Outstanding rental or claim rules
Highly satisfactory rental or claim rules
Acceptable rental or claim rules
Finishing a course with a grade of 90% or higher
AUTOMATIC DEDUCTIONS !
The following actions will automatically lose an individual points, without a master deducting them.
FOR SLAVES:
Entering an out of bounds area
More than two (2) minutes in an out of bounds area
Finishing a course with a grade of 60% or lower
FOR MASTERS:
Denied rental or claim rules
Failure to punish claimed slave
Finishing a course with a grade of 60% or lower
MILESTONE PERKS !
At each 100-point milestone, residents are allowed to choose from a selection of perks. These perks will remain theirs until such time as their total points fall below the total at which they were earned.
SLAVE PERKS:
Unlimited calls and emails home
One three-day weekend per semester in a master's suite
A new, top of the line laptop
An upgraded dorm-bunk mattress
One rental-veto per semester
Permission to keep one small pet in the cells, so long as it is properly cared for, does not become a nuisance to guards or other residents, and does not damage Institute property
Up to 15 free hours of studio time a week OR three free art lessons a month, courtesy of The Birdhouse
The Institute's administration will compensate local business owners who offer perks
MASTER PERKS:
Two week long rentals
Permission to take unclaimed slaves ranked within the top 15 off-island for up to three days
Access to Malvolio Island's luxurious sister island, Ruby Isle
One free wish room session per month, with master's choice of slave, courtesy of Dark Desires
The Institute's administration will compensate local business owners who offer perks
OOC INFORMATION !
IN GENERAL:
You may have seen point systems that rely on OOC factors like activity or completed threads--this is not one of those. Our point system is entirely in character, and how your character progresses in it depends on your wishes and their IC actions.
You have the freedom to choose where your character falls in the ranking levels based on how they behaved and what level you want to play them at.
ON AWARDING OR DEDUCTING POINTS:
To award or deduct points, simply send an IC ask to the character awarding or deducting points and for what reason. You do not need to include a specific point value unless you choose to do so.
EXAMPLE MESSAGES:
Points deducted from Scarlett McKnight for disobedience and disrespect.
Points awarded to Sasha Bell for showing respect to her superiors.
I witnessed Qhuinn Fontenot coddling a defiant slave, points deducted
AUTOMATIC: Points awarded to Emmanuel Reyes for reporting an infraction by a slave
Points deducted from Nova Walker for going out of bounds
Points awarded to Emmanuel Reyes for his advice on how to manage mouthy slaves
ON RENTAL REVIEWS:
Submitting a rental review form is required for both masters and slaves after a rental. Masters should submit TI-001A, Slaves TI-001B.
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Sugar Coating - Lee Felix SMAU
~ Is he conscious ?? ~
~
~
At one point in time, the two weren't broken.
Things change.
~
~
Once Jisung meets Seungmin in front of the bakery entrance, they both immediately cross the street to the TOPLINE tattoo studio. Once they get to the front door Seungmin cups his face against the glass in order to peek into the shop.
"I can't see anyone." He says in desperation.
"What do you mean? Move over." Jisung pushes Seungmin out of the way so he can get a closer look. Without realizing, he leans against the door more than he expected to and the door ends up cracking open. The two men look at eat other and with a shrug Jisung fully opens the door.
They both make their way inside, being careful not to make much noise in order to snoop around unnoticed.
In a hushed whisper Jisung looks in Seungmin's direction as the latter makes his way behind the front desk, "Where the hell are they??" To which Seungmin simply shrugs in response as he continues to go through their books.
"Hey, come take a look." Jisung follows his friend to where he stands.
Holding the receipt book open for Jisung, "Look how many receipts there are. There is no way that many people have been here." Seungmins says, as he continues to flip through the pages.
"Maybe business has picked up?" With wide eyes they both scan over all of the filled-out pages.
Dragon Tattoo - $650 - 10/11/2023
Snake Tattoo - $300 - 10/11/2023
Rose Tattoo $260 - 10/11/2023
Owl Tattoo - $430 - 10/11/2023
Portrait Tattoo - $800 - 10/11/2023
Anime Tattoo - $1200 - 10/11/2023
"Dude, there is no fucking way. These are all from today and I have been standing across the street the entire day. Not a soul has been in here." Seungmin says as he begins to flip back to the beginning of the book.
"Stalker much?" Jisung laughs quietly.
With wide eyes, Seungmin turns to Jisung, "Do you think they're laundering money??" Panic almost evident in his voice.
Jisung thinks for a second before whispering back "What could they possibly be doing that requires them to?" At this point both of them are psyching each other out.
"I think that's enough snooping for today. Maybe we should head out. I feel like we're at a lion's den." Seungmin closes the book and shoves it back to where he found it.
"Good call." Jisung agrees and they both hurriedly attempt to make their way back to the front door. However, before they could even get out from behind the front desk, they hear a loud crash that halts their steps.
"Fuck!" Someone screams from down the hall before a door slams and footsteps rush in their direction. The two look at each other and before either one of them could move, Bang Chan is already standing in front of them.
"What the hell are you two doing here?" He asks, but the men couldn't decipher if it was anger, panic, or worry.
"I asked a fucking question!" The older yells.
"Chris! Is everything okay??" A voice can be heard from the same room Chan just came out of, but before he could respond, Jisung squints at him.
"Is that blood??"
~
~
TAGLIST: @hangin-out-with-the-street-rats @lixie-phoria @chansducky10 @eastleighsblog @hanniesss @sanriiolino @chrizzlaptop @ashitshowforalot @minhoie @skzofhearts @amesification
~
A/N: I really hate to make a SMAU into a reading thing, but I'll do my absolute best to keep this shit show short! lmk if you want to be added to the taglist! thanks for reading ! :)
#stray kids#stray kids imagine#kpop imagine#stray kids smau#social media au#stray kids x reader#bang chan#lee know#changbin#seungmin#hyunjin#felix#yongbok#han jisung#jeongin#angst#fluff#crack#fanfic#y/n#felix imagines#felix x reader#felix smau#bad boy au#badboy!au#bad boy felix#shy reader#gang#felix x you#mafia
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Dev Journal: Day 1
I’ve tried a few times at putting myself out there with my system, boss, level, and world design content. Every time I did it for feedback, or validation, because I was looking for a reason to go out and do it full-time. Well, I’m now fresh out of college, a year down the drain trying to find any job that matches my qualifications, and have nothing better to do than to take the hobby I’ve poured countless hours into and run with it. So now this blog is finally just going out there for myself; clean slate.
For anyone who finds themselves becoming an interested and long-time fan of my work, I’ll document where I’m starting from here. Like I said, I’m fresh out of college. Twenty-two years old with a degree in Statistical Analysis, and a sizable amount of coursework in Operations, Actuarial Math, and Physics to boot. All that aside, I’ve been a huge game nerd for 15 years, been writing worlds and systems for a decade, and have been a perma-DM of both Dungeons and Dragons as well as, now, Pathfinder for a sum total of 5 years and counting. Needless to say, I’m a nerd who wasn’t encouraged to write - so I did all the hard homework first to make time for it.
This blog is gonna start out kinda boring, it’s really just me documenting what I’m doing. In part so I can look back at it, in part so I have it all somewhere that can be seen, and finally just so I can put myself out there. Being nerdy doesn’t really score you a huge network until well after school. Eventually I’m hoping to put some of my old D&D content and notes as a DM and worldbuilder out there. Maybe someone will learn something, maybe not.
Regardless, today was Day One. My first steps to really becoming a game designer. I’ve always had a knack for level and world design. I like making things that feel meaningful and have something to add. I’ve also been infatuated with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim since I was in middle school. So me, who has no credentials in softdev or compsci, well how am I going to make myself stand out to game studios? I’m starting with the Skyrim Creation Kit, and hopefully I can make something good enough to play with the big boys in some of the large community projects.
Today is Day One, Project One: The Bookwyrm’s Vault.
When I think of Skyrim, I think of three things. Vikings, dragons, and the Jedi Greybeards. But when I think of my ideal fantasy, I think of the wizarding type of sorcery, I think of arcane dragons - long-lived individuals who have honed magic over generations. And who’s to say that the dragons of Skyrim can’t be this way, Parthurnax certainly is.
So I devised the idea of the Bookwyrm’s Vault. I’m still undecided whether it is a Dwemer ruin built around the den of a long-departed dragon, or a ruin which a dragon took interest in. Regardless of which, the goal of this dungeon, unlike many of those in Skyrim, is not to add a crawl through enemies to feed the martial prowess of so many of the races of Tamriel. It’s to instead create something once beautiful and tranquil.
Initially I thought to conform to the Dwemer dungeon stereotypes of long hallways with many guardian automatons and littered steamworks and metal scraps. I’ve decided instead to be less industrious and more mystic and monastic with this ruin, to design a great library of magic and lore, one that rivals the College of Winterhold. Perhaps some Dwarven Spiders, remnants of a bookkeeping system as degraded as the parchment, remain to provide a small inconvenience to the Dragonborn. Even maybe a few runes of fire and lightning protecting more secretive experiments, or lingering from the attempts to keep something else in. This is my level, my addition, and I want it to reflect my interests in fantasy.
Now, today was my first day working with the Creation Kit. Panning with the MMB is a new experience, and wow could it use an efficiency update, but it is a decade-plus old piece of software, so I guess it gets a pass. For my first time working with the software, and having no clue what assets Skyrim actually uses, I decided to go pretty simple.
We start, as all subterranean dwellings must, with a passageway down and in to the earth, allowing all the room needed to carve out the great recording hall that is front and center. This room will, once populated, hold a dozen or more desks in varying states of repair and organization, and will have been where historically research of older tomes and transcription was done.
To the east of the recording hall, I’ve made a larger laboratory for more practical experimentation, which will feature a handful of crafting stations, like an alchemy and enchanting table, as well as maybe a staff enchanter if I feel inclined to make this mod require the Dragonborn mod.
To the west of the recording hall I plan to have a short hallway that connects a number of bedchambers, or private cells. A place to rest or study quietly.
Finally, to the south a passage leads further down. The door at the end of this passage will be locked, and I feel the key would be best kept in a well-warded chest in one of the private cells, as it leads to the special collections room.
Based on what I’ve seen of the assets library so far, I’m worried about making the special collections room because I had been hoping to make it a two-tiered library, but that may not be possible with the assets that exist and I certainly don’t have the experience to produce new ones. I may be able to use some of the components normally reserved for exteriors to get by, though. Only time will tell.
#skyrim#modded skyrim#modding#video games#game development#level design#magic#bookcore#dragons#dwarves#learning through play
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okay so I know in the werewolf au jake and Ronnie are gonna stay together forever but would they ever do like an actual wedding.
Like let Ronnie wear a white dress have Pete (or Bradley or both) walk her down the aisle. Both packs together to celebrate
WEREWOLF MARRIAGE CEREMONIES LETS GOOOOOOO
thank you so much for sending this in lovey, I am simply bursting at the seams to talk about this after some discussion with @blue-aconite (Fe my werewolf love)
so, um, not exactly a traditional marriage ceremony if the gif gives anything away
I based this off of this^ ceremony from House of the Dragon cause uh....Big Sexy and also fit well with my vibes (but I changed a few things)
I like giving stuff in this universe latin names
so the wedding ceremony is called Foedus Aeternum, or covenant eternal promise
Foedus Aeternum needs to take place on the night of the crescent moon (something something symbol of fertility something something)
At the location of the Pack House/Den (so for Red Sky, in the middle of the woods, at the cave where Jake first turned!)
There are torches and the wolves from the pack are present, and if the Luna is from a different pack, that pack is also present
The Luna, if she's not a wolf, is brought to the ceremony on the back of her mate's second (but since Ronnie is technically from a different pack, Bradley brings her to the ceremony)
Traditionally the bride wears white, but the fabric can be decorated with her future pack's colors (for Ronnie, a bit of red)
The bride walks down the aisle alone, however, a symbol of that separation from her family/the pack that raised her.
And joins her mate who waits by a great bonfire (love a good bonfire)
They cut each other's palms and their hands are tied together, a symbol of their union and the joining of their bloodlines and the sheer weight of their covenant and promise to one another
the alpha and the luna memorize the traditional vows (which I haven't come up with yet don't come at me) before the ceremony, no one presides over this. it's just the two of them making this covenant with one another. The Moon Goddess is presiding technically I guess lol
they say those vows to each other, then they cut each other's bottom lip
this is more of a symbol of their unending love for one another and their connection through the mate bond
they kiss and taste each other's blood (and that is just cause it's hot as fuck)
so now TRADITIONALLY right after the ceremony, the alpha is supposed to take the luna into their Pack House/Den and consummate the marriage
with all the other wolves present
listening to everything and smelling everything
it is just important to werewolves that a bond is properly settled and that their alpha is full of virility and that their luna is satisfied. it's just important.
This consummation is supposed to be the first time the mated pair have sex, but that rarely ever happens these days
but anyway, there we go! the echo or the answer universe werewolf marriage ceremony! she do be dark, she do be slightly violent, she do be sexy.
werewolf!topgun taglist cause Important and Cool:
@blue-aconite @darkestbeforethedawn16 @supernaturaldawning @illisius @hope-love-equality2 @wanderingdetectives @sqrlgrl22 @dempy @theforevermorereject @the-untamed-soul @emandems10 @xxshea-barnesxx @piceous21 @sopheeg @ollyoxenfrees @luckyladycreator2 @newlibrary @himbos-on-ice @gigisimsonmars @agentminnesota187 @indynerdgirl @mellark-studio @smoothdogsgirl @kkrenae
#annie answers#fic: the echo (or the answer)#fd: top gun#werewolf au#werewolf!topgun#alpha!jake#alpha!hangman#werewolf!jake#werewolf!hangman#werewolf jake#werewolf hangman#jake hangman seresin#jake seresin#hangman#the echo lore
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first sentences of fav books:
• It's a weirdly subtle conversation.
• Als erstes ist da der Geruch von Blut und Kaffee. [the first thing is the smell of blood and coffee.]
• Neil Josten let his cigarette burn to the filter without taking a drag.
• Joost had two problems: the moon and his moustache.
• On the White House roof, tucked into a corner of the Promenade, there's a bit of loose paneling right on the edge of the Solarium.
• "Oh dear," Linus Baker said, wiping the sweat from his brow.
• I am aware as I step into the common room that the majority of people here are almost dead, including me.
• I walk to the bus station by myself.
• One summer night I fell asleep, hoping the world would be different when I woke.
• There's these two kids, boys, sitting close together, squished in by the big arms of an old chair.
● "Can you come into my office?"
● My father was a king and the son of kings.
● The love of my life wants to die.
• Death Cast is calling with the warning of a lifetime - I'm going to die today.
• Yadriel wasn't technically trespassing because he'd lived in the cemetery his whole life.
• It makes sense that, when the times were desperate enough, when the people were frenzied enough, at a certain point we went past praying to deities and started to build them instead.
• I'd been envisioning what it would be like to behead the Vile One since the old wizard had shown up at my door the day after I turned seventeen and told me my destiny - that i would be the person who ended the dark shadow of evil that ruled our realm.
• When Gwen woke up, she knew she’d had the dream again – and that she’d been loud.
° It was a nice day
° In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
° Dear friend, I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have.
° Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite
a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.
° The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.
- Nichts rührte sich im Tal der Drachen. [All was still in the valley of the dragons.]
- Es war Herbst in der Stadt des Mondes, als Victor zum ersten Mal von Prosper und Bo hörte. [It was autumn in Venice when Victor first heard of Prosper and Bo.]
- Der Fluss wirkte heute grauer als sonst. (There should be an english translation of this saga but i can't find it, it's called = Alea Aquarius)
- Meine Mutter wurde als kleines Mädchen fast entführt. (this book is apparently not very well known even in germany, so there isn't an english version sadly. i reread this every few years and it gives me so much joy. everything you want to happen in it actually happens. it's called: 'Wie eine Nuss mein Leben auf den Kopf stellte')
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Into The Dragon’s Den (last episode)
*at the new studio*
Ben: okay, we’re here but haven’t told us where exactly
Uma: did you kidnap us? >_>
Harry: aboot time someone did
Director: please if anyone were to kidnap one of you, they’d bring you back within the hour
Evie: only an hour? *thinks for a bit* are we tied up or..?
Mal: *snickers covers her mouth* not yet
Jay: anywho..so who are they?
Director: *opens a door* welcome to Hulu!
Carlos: damn I thought it was HBO
Audrey: or Dreamworks..
Ben: honestly I was hoping for Pixar just a little bit
Lonnie: Nickelodeon would’ve been *remembers ICarly & Victorious* no I take it back
Director: *deadpans* will you weirdos just get in there, you all start your next show in a week
Mal: a week?! That’s so little time!
Director: well you better get in there before the pick the kids from Euphoria
Evie: we don’t talk about them
Carlos: *dragging her* we’ll chat about it later, let’s go already!
Director: *chuckles watching them all run inside excited* I’ll miss them…*turns walking away* good luck kids, you’ll do great
Hey guys! This is the end of the Into The Dragon’s Den series. I know some of you really look forward to these but my motivation for it is dieing. It feels like it’s getting old and I’m running out of inspiration for it.
So, I decided to end it while it’s still somewhat good in my mind.
I didn’t want to abandon it like I did the other two I had. But, the good news is, I have another series I’ve been working on. So I’m not going anywhere and the content won’t stop. Just this will. I truly love this series and I’m proud of myself for how long I kept it up.
Thank you guys for sticking around. I really appreciate it. Keep an eye out for the new series coming up (sometime next week)! It’ll be less meme and more story so I hope you all enjoy. Until then, wicked dreams
~DysphoricDragon
#malvie#ao3 writer#descendants#i write too much#jaylos#ao3fic#i write fanfiction#blue and purple#pansexual#umaudrey#mal#carlos i’m sick of their shit de vil#Evie#Jay#Audrey#Ben#Lonnie#Harry#Uma#Carlos
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Eddie Character Development Drabbles for an AU that has been swimming in my head for months. Putting it out here so maybe someone can hold me accountable, lol.
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Eddie Left home at 17 (2012), (dead beat dad, dead dead mom.) Uncle Wayne exists but Eddie never lived with him. Loved him though, with all his heart. Wayne was the one who supported him as much as he could, he had encouraged eddie to get out of his environment and gave him a nice little stack of cash (“it was supposed to be your college fund, but you’ve always been destined for better things.”)
Eddie had a penchant for the 80s metal scene, wasp, Metallica, Black Sabbath, his beloved Dio. All because Wayne had poured so much of himself into Eddie. Wayne knew how bad Richard was, he had always intended on Eddie coming to live with him but Eddie was fiercely loyal, to a fault. When his mother, Lydia had passed away due to ovarian cancer, Eddie was only 12 (2007) Richard had dove to the nearest bottle, never left any scars on Eddie, but Wayne knew. Eddie knew Wayne knew, but he couldn’t leave his dad. He loved his dad. Dick had started getting into the darker shit when Eddie was 14. (2009) Wayne had begged him to come stay with him and Eddie had begged Wayne to let him handle it. When he finally snapped to his senses in 2011, he had simply grown into the adult he didn’t have and still couldn’t inconvenience Wayne, “you have your shit, I have mine Wayne, help me by figuring out how this emancipation garbage works.” Wayne knew his nephew was just as (more so) stubborn than he was, once Eddie was able to produce his GED Wayne had helped him file. As always, supported him financially where he could. His Eddie, was always meant for bigger, for better, for more than small town Colorado
Once he left small town Colorado, he moved to Indianapolis, he always intended to end up in New York but his van (his fathers van that Eddie straight up stole from him, but Richard (dick) Munson was too high on his latest find that he hardly noticed) broke down in Indy and he just made it work, he always does.
He didn’t graduate, but got his GED. (Thanks Wayne) Very smart socially, (street smart angel) and honestly academically but had a hard time focusing on school when he’d rather draw or write.
Works at Inkwell Tattoo Studio he doesn’t own the shop but is a very well known artist and brings in a large amount of business for the shop and the owner (also the man who had let eds apprentice under him) Spike (Mike) loves him like his own son
Eddie specializes in neo traditional, however he’ll scratch whatever itch you ask him to. (Cmon capability)
But all of his work on his own body (he’s got a lot, gentleman) is black and gray
(“you are my yellow, you are the color Steve.”)
He was still fiercely loyal, but incredibly reserved about it. Dick had really fucked him up. Once he had settled in a painfully small Studio apartment in Indianapolis, he shut off anything that made him weak. He had picked up a job at a little game store “dragons den”, worked as many hours as they would allow him, that’s where he met Gareth. His best friend (only friend for quite sometime.) they had bonded over both having battle vests, (“holy shit man, you know wasp?”) Little gareth had never been more excited to meet someone like him.
Gareth had been buying a new set of dice and everything kinda formed from there. D&D once a week.
Eddie had taken on role of DM as he didn’t have school to worry about, so while gareth was sweating over finals, Eddie was enamored by a silly little fantasy game, it was through drawing the thoughts he had planned out that he had realized tattooing was something that could be in his wheelhouse.
Stick and poked himself, ultimately Gareth let Eddie give him a matching bat tattoo (it was the only tattoo Eddie hadn’t had covered with anything else once he had started getting his own body done.)
Eddie started his Apprenticeship when he was 19 (2014), He’d been at Inkwell with Spike Nelson ever since.
G and E had started their band around the same time. Eddie had convinced Gareth to move in with him as soon as G graduated. (2013) Good bye small studio from hell, hello, small one bedroom. (Eddie slept on the couch, fiercely loyal) Eddie had essentially given Gareth his job at Dragons Den, once he was too wrapped up at Inkwell. They lived modestly and rock and rolled indecently until Eddie had started blowing up on social media for his tattooing.
He blew up in 2016, he was 21, he should’ve been ecstatic but continuously found himself bitter, all he wanted was for his uncle to know that he had made it to the bigger and better. Wayne had seen quite a bit of his art, but he didn’t get to see what it brought for him. he was always overconfident, exuded it. But behind closed doors he was a mess. Gareth saw bits and pieces but Eddie knew how to shut it off around his friend, his band. Eddie moved out of the apartment Gareth and he shared when he Bought a house in 2018. 3 bedrooms, 2 bath. He was alone, and that’s how he preferred to be. His trysts were not allowed anywhere near it.
The only people that had been inside were The Corroded Coffin boys. Not Spike, not his trysts, not any one else. Gareth, James and Easton were the only ones.
Eddie had converted his basement to a practice space for CC in 2020. He had intended to convert the garage but his beloved baby (2020 Mercedes G Wagon with a gorgeous red interior) had to be protected.
Eddie was reticent, reserved with who he spoke to, always polite (you didn’t want to see him if someone struck a nerve, promise.) but quick, never spoke too long, (unless he was with the few he trusted), but he was unabashed, and unapologetically loud when it came to his style. He always had been. Uncle Wayne had told him to never back down from who he was even if others (Dick) gave him hell for it. So he never did. Eddie pushed the boundaries as dramatically as he could. Between the flowing blouses that he never fully buttoned, the clashing of patterns and prints and chains and the shoes, some heeled, some pointed, most black, most importantly the miles of leather; pants, vests, whips (cheeky), he drew attention to himself. He wanted to make you look. And look the city did.
Eddie had become somewhat of a spectacle to the city. Everyone knew Eddie Munson, and as of 2021 everyone (at least for a long stretch of Indiana, and few surrounding states) knew Corroded Coffin.
Always always has a black bandana in his back left pocket, even in his leather numbers, his favorite (only, but he was the father figure E never had) uncle Wayne had told him all about the hanky code and explained to him that was how people like he and Wayne (gay Wayne supremacy) would know they were in like minded company, broke down who was into what, made it easier so people like them could talk less and enjoy more, “life is short as it is, but it felt shorter and riskier back then.” Wayne had only cocked an eyebrow when Eddie started sporting the black bandana around the same time he left town. As long as he was safe, what his nephew got up to wasn’t his prerogative. Regardless of connotation (Cmon sadism!)
Eddie only grew more attached to proudly sharing his sexual interest because if Wayne could in 86, Eddie could is 2022. (Wayne passed in 2015, Eddie was 20 and it was the darkest place he had been for a long time. He had received a little bit of an inheritance and was shocked that his uncle loved him that much.)
Wayne hadn’t bat an eye when a 12 year old Eddie wracked with the pain of his mother passing, had told Him that he likes boys the way his uncle Wayne likes boys. “Nice work, kid, it’s more fun this way.” He would never let Eddie feel bad for who he was, regardless of Dicks commentary on it. (In reality Richard really couldn’t care less, he had grown to resent his son, gay or not, after his Lydia had passed, often times wondering why it couldn’t have been the boy to go instead of his wife.) Eddie had never looked back once he had his Uncles undivided support, he was a big old homosexual. No shame in hiding it.
#Eddie munson#Eddie munson drabbles#obviously this is a steddie deal I mean#you are my fucking yellow Steve#I have about 3000 words for Steve too#steddie#Steve harrington#stedds#worm brain#stranger things
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(007) Die drei ??? und der unheimliche Drache
Klappentext
Ein paar entlaufene Hunde zu suchen – naja, das ist normalerweise kein besonders verlockender Auftrag für drei clevere Detektive. Doch kaum beginnen Justus, Bob und Peter mit der Suche, da erzählt ihnen der Hundebesitzer, Mr. Allen, von einem Seeungeheuer, das er an der Küste gesichtet haben will. Wie bitte - Seeungeheuer? Doch Mr. Allen hat nicht gescherzt. Die ??? stoßen bei ihren Nachforschungen nicht nur auf einen anscheinend leibhaftigen Drachen, der unheimlich hustet, sondern auch ein mysteriöses Höhlenlabyrinth, auf verschiebbare Felswände, bewaffnete Froschmänner und manch andere Merkwürdigkeiten …
Veröffentlichungshistorie
Buch (Random House): 014, 1970, Nick West, The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon
Buch (Kosmos): 009, 1972, Leonore Puschert (aus dem Amerikanischen übertragen)
Hörspiel (Europa): 007, 1979
⁉️ Allgemein
Handlungsort
Rocky Beach
Kategorie
Spuk, Diebstahl
Figuren
Justus Jonas
Peter Shaw
Bob Andrews
Sekretärin
Alfred Hitchcock
Patrick (keine Sprechrolle)
Mr. Allen, arbeitet in der Filmbranche
Mr. Carter
Mr. Shellby, war mal Ingenieur (😈)
Mr. Morton (keine Sprechrolle)
Harry und Jack, Gangster
🏖 Rocky Beach Universum
Orte
Seaside, Städtchen, 35 Autobahnkilometer von Rocky Beach entfernt
Einrichtungen
Zentrale
Stadtbibliothek
Studio von Alfred Hitchcock
Sonstiges
Seaside hatte ein Untergund-Bahnprojekt an der Westküste
🛼 Sonstiges
Lustige Dialoge
Peter: „Ich hab gar keine Forschungen angestellt.“
Bob: „Ich drück’ mal die Bimmel.“
Bob: „Und was machen wir jetzt? Warten, bis uns Patrick hier aufliest?“
Peter: „Ich wäre ja eher dafür, das wir einen Spurt bis Rocky Beach einlegen. Was sind schon 35 Kilometer, wenn man bedenkt, dass man sich am anderen nicht vor Schrotflinten zu fürchten braucht.“
Bob: „Hey Just, was ist? Warum geht es nicht weiter?
Justus: „Die Treppe! Die müsste mal repariert– AaAAAAaaHHH!!!“
Peter: „Die Treppe bricht zusammen, Bob! Halte mich!“
Bob: „Ich kann nicht! Ich– Ich falle auch!“
Bob: „Wir überlegen uns gerade, was wir tun sollen, Peter.“
Peter: “Also für mich ist das ganz klar: Wir geben auf!“
Anrufer: (unverständlich, betrunkenes Lallen)
Justus: „Hallo! Ihr Name!“
Peter: „Also, jetzt, jetzt reicht’s aber! I-i-i-ch muss nach Hause!“
Bob: „I-i-i-ich muss zum Essen!“
Justus: „Bob! Aber Bob, bleib du doch wenigstens!“
Blacky: (Krächzt)'
Peter: „Ruhe da oben! Du bist kein eingeschriebenes Mitglied unseres Vereins! Du bist nur als Gast geduldet.“
Peter: „Aber was ist, wenn deine Theorie falsch ist?“
Justus: „Sie darf nicht falsch sein, immerhin setze ich dafür unser Leben auf’s Spiel.“
Peter: „Ich lebe sehr gern. Und Bob wahrscheinlich auch. Nicht, Bob?“
Bob: „Klar doch. Wenn ich tot wäre, wer würde euch dann die Akten führen und Recherchen anstellen?“
Justus: „Ein ganzer Schrank voller Hunde!“
Phrasenschwein
Off to a good start
Fall startet in Zentrale
Mitgehört!
Verstärker wird eingeschaltet
Fat shaming
Justus wird beleidigt
Lass aufgeben!
Peter will aufgeben
🏳️🌈 Queer/diversity read
Shippy moments
Peter: „Wie kommt es nur, dass er immer entscheidet, auch wenn wir beide dagegen sind?“
Bob: „Ist doch klar Peter, Justus regelt immer alles demokratisch.“
Peter: „Er hat eben den größten Dickkopf von uns dreien.“
Bob: „Wie gewohnt, stellt er es hin, als sein wir an allem Schuld."
Peter: “Natürlich.“
Bob: „Dabei sind Treppe und Geländer unter seinem Gewicht zusammengekracht was hätten wir tun sollen? Über ihn hinwegfliegen?“
Peter: „Bob, was meint er (Justus)?“
Diversity, Political Correctness and Feminism
"Ehrenhafter Selbstmord wie Kamikaze-Flieger"
#die drei fragezeichen#und der unheimliche drache#folge 007#007#spuk#diebstahl#rocky beach#off to a good start#mitgehört#fat shaming#lass aufgeben#Nick West
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youtube
Announcing Lilah Parallel! Lilah Parallel is a 32-part text-based audiodrama inspired by Steven Universe. Focusing on the titular Lilah Parallel, the series explores the question of what strength truly is as Lilah, the daughter of the late leader of the Crystal Rebellion, tries to master her burgeoning powers while her guardians try to find the last of their corrupted fellows & prepare for the potential return of the forces of Homeworld.
You can support the show on Patreon, link below!
#steven universe#lilah parallel#dragon's den studios#trailer#white diamond#blue diamond#yellow diamond#pink diamond#fanfiction#audiodrama#jasper#lapis lazuli#peridot#garnet#rose quartz#announcement#su rewrite#steven universe rewrite#Youtube
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Robert De Niro, the famed actor known for his roles in iconic films such as The Godfather and Goodfellas, recently put his acting skills to the test in an unexpected way - by helping to calm down a dragon.
The dragon, which was part of a segment on the Irish TV show ‘The Den’, had become agitated and was threatening to cause chaos in the studio. De Niro, who was visiting the show as a guest, stepped in and managed to soothe the dragon by speaking to it calmly.
The dragon, which was made from a combination of animatronics and real-life performers, appeared to be calmed by De Niro’s soothing words and even seemed to bow its head in respect. The segment’s host, Ray D’Arcy, was delighted with the actor’s performance and praised his “great control” of the dragon.
The footage of De Niro’s dragon-taming skills has since gone viral, with many viewers amazed at the actor’s quick-thinking and gentle demeanor. It’s also been a reminder of De Niro’s impressive range and ability to take on any role, even one as unexpected as a dragon whisperer.
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DreamWork's How To Train Your Dragon Deluxe Edition soundtracks.
The 'How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World' Deluxe Edition soundtrack by John Powell was released on the 26th April.
It is the third and final deluxe album instalment that has been released since the first in 2020.
Each album was released by Varèse Sarabande and distributed by Back Lot Music and Universal Studios Music.
They are available to stream digitally on major platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube.
The albums also come in CD format as well as a 'limited edition' Vinyl format. Each CD album contains 2 CD discs. They were released on physical formats first and then released digitally a month later.
The deluxe editions of each score features all of John Powell's music used in the movies, including extended versions of tracks and bonus unused track demos.
Each track is labelled with a time-stamp which shows when it is used in each film.
The original soundtracks came out with the movies when they were released in 2010, 2014 and 2019. All of the music was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.
Scroll down for information on each album, year released and number of songs.
How To Train Your Dragon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Train_Your_Dragon_(soundtrack)
December 2020
42 songs
This is Berk (Alternate Film Version) [1m2alt]
2. This Is Berk (with Original Opening Version) [1m2]
3. Anybody See That? [1m6]
4. War Room [1m7a]
5. Training Out There [1m7b-c]
6. Hiccup Comes Homes [2m8]
7. Dragon Training [2m9]
8. Wounded [2m10]
9. The Dragon Book [2m11]
10. Hiccup Focus [2m12]
11. Offering [2m13]
12. Forbidden Friendship [2m14]
13. New Tail [2m15]
14. Teamwork [3m16]
15. Charming The Pziiffelback [3m17]
16. See You Tomorrow [3m18]
17. Test Drive [3m20]
18. Not So Fireproof [3m21]
19. This Time For Sure [3m22]
20. Astrid Finds Toothless [3m23]
21. Astrid Goes For A Spin [3m24]
22. Romantic Flight [3m25]
23. Dragon’s Den [3m26b]
24. Let’s Find Dad [3m26c]
25. Kill Ring/Stop The Fight [4m27-28]
26. Not A Viking [4m30]
27. Ready/Confront [4m31]
28. Relax/Stroke/Hell [4m33-34]
29. Over/Less Okay [4m35-37]
30. Wings [4m38]
31. Counter Attack [5m39]
32. Where’s Hiccup? [5m40]
33. Coming Back Around [5m41]
34. Sticks & Stones (Written and Performed by Jónsi)
35. The Vikings Have Their Tea [5m50]
Bonus Tracks:
36. The Vikings Have Their Tea (Alternate Version) [5m50alt]
37. This Is Berk (Demo) [1m2]
38. New Tail (Demo) [2m15]
39. See You Tomorrow (Demo) [3m18]
40. Test Drive (Demo) [3m20]
41. Romantic Flight (Demo) [3m25]
42. Coming Back Around (Demo) [5m41]
Total: 1 hr 47 mins (107 minutes)
How To Train Your Dragon 2:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Train_Your_Dragon_2_(soundtrack)
May 2022
40 songs
1. Dragon Racing (1m1-INS) [Alternate Film Version]
2. Dragon Racing (1m1) [Original Opening Version]
3. Where No One Goes (1m2s) (performed by Jónsi)
4. Together, We Map the World (1m3-4)
5. Hiccup’s Gonna Be Chief (1m5)
6. Eret Educates Hiccup (1m6)
7. Drago’s Coming (2m7)
8. Eret Has Visitors (2m8)
9. Me Likey (2m9)
10. War is What He Wants (2m10)
11. Hiccup and Toothless Attached (2m11)
12. Dragon’s Lair (2m12)
13. Should I Know You? (2m13)
14. Valka’s Dragon Sanctuary (2m14)
15. Hiccup & Valka Bond (2m15-16)
16. Valka’s Flash - Good Alpha (3m17-18)
17. I Grew Facial Hair For You (3m19)
18. Flying With Mother (3m20)
19. Can We Start Over? (3m21)
20. Meet Drago (3m22)
21. Stoick Finds Beauty (3m25-26)
22. Get’ Em You Son of Eret (3m27)
23. Courting Song (3m28s) (performed by Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson & Mary Jane Wells)
24. Courting Song Instrumental (4m29)
25. Battle of the Bewilderbeast (4m30)
26. Hiccup Confronts Drago (4m31)
27. Stoick Saves Hiccup (4m32)
28. Off to Valhalla (4m33)
29. Riding to Drago’s (4m35)
30. Alpha Comes to Berk (4m36-37)
31. Toothless Comes Back (5m38)
32. Challenging the Alpha (5m39a)
33. The Chief Has Come Home (5m39b)
34. Where No One Goes Reprise (5m40)
Bonus tracks:
35. Dragon Racing (1m1) [DEMO]
36. Together, We Map the World (1m3-4) [DEMO]
37. Valka’s Flash - Good Alpha (3m17-18) [DEMO]
38. Flying with Mother (3m20) [DEMO]
39. Off to Valhalla (4m33) [DEMO]
40. Toothless Comes Back (5m38) [DEMO]
Total: 1 hr 48 mins (108 minutes)
How To Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Train_Your_Dragon:The_Hidden_World(soundtrack)
April 2024
33 songs
1. Rescue Mission-Busy Busy Berk (1M1-21-B)
2. Marry Her - Grimmel's Terms (1M26-3)
3. Legend Has It (1M4)
4. Mysterious Creature (2M5)
5. Toothless In Love (2M6)
6. Dart Trap (2M6B)
7. Grimmel Visit - First Fight (2M7A-B)
8. Town Hall Speech-Exodus (2M8A-B)
9. Setting Up Camp (2M9A)
10. Valka's Warning (2M9B)
11. Forbidden Courtship (3M10)
12. Toothless Flies Alone (3M11)
13. Near Miss Valka (3M12A)
14. Romance In The Clouds (3M12B)
15. New Berk Feast (3M13S)
16. Ambush - Cage Fight (3M14A-B)
17. Stronger Together (4M15A)
18. New Island (4M15B)
19. Into The Hole (4M16A)
20. The Hidden World (4M16B)
21. With Love Comes Loss (4M17)
22. Grimmel's Surprise (4M18)
23. The Hiccup I Know - Armada Battle 5M19-20)
24. Ultimate Sacrifice - Freedom (5M21-22)
25. Viking Wedding - Boat Epilogue (5M23-24)
26. Jónsi — Together From Afar (6M24S)
27. The Hidden World Suite (6M25)
Bonus Tracks:
28. Busy Busy Berk (1M2A-B) Demo
29. Legend Has It (1M4) Demo
30. Forbidden Courtship (3M10) Demo
31. Toothless Flies Alone (3M11) Demo
32. Romance In The Clouds (3M12B) Demo
33. Viking Wedding (5M23) Demo
Total: 1 hr 56 mins (116 minutes)
I really enjoyed listening to the 3rd movie deluxe soundtrack. I think it is a fantastic journey through 'The Hidden World' and a great addition to the How To Train Your Dragon deluxe soundtrack.
I have added it to my Spotify library along with the other two deluxe albums and other music from various animated movies I like!
Overall each deluxe album completes the franchise and tells the stories in each one really well.
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Neil Newbon und Amelia Tyler, bekannt für ihre Sprechrollen im hochgelobten Videospiel Baldur's Gate 3, haben ihre Bereitschaft bekundet, ins Dungeons & Dragons Universum zurückzukehren. Sie hoffen, an zukünftigen D&D-Spielen teilnehmen zu können oder sogar Möglichkeiten in filmischen Adaptionen wie einer Fortsetzung von Honor Among Thieves zu erkunden.
Unvollendete Angelegenheiten mit Astarion
Neil Newbon, die Stimme hinter dem geliebten Charakter Astarion, fühlt eine tiefe Verbindung zu seiner Rolle, die über die Narration des Spiels hinausgeht. In einem Interview mit teilte Newbon mit, dass trotz des Abschlusses ihrer Geschichte durch Larian Studios mit der Baldur's Gate-Reihe, seine Reise mit Astarion sich unvollständig anfühlt. Die Komplexität und emotionale Tiefe von Astarion haben einen bleibenden Eindruck bei ihm hinterlassen, und er ist hoffnungsvoll, diese Figur in künftigen D&D-Projekten weiter erkunden zu können.
https://youtu.be/BOOdku5dMug
Amelia Tyler: Die Stimme der Saga
Amelia Tyler, die ihre Stimme als Erzählerin lieh, spiegelte dieses Gefühl während Diskussionen über zukünftige Projekte wider. Ihre Rolle erforderte ein dynamisches Spektrum an Erzählungen, das sich basierend auf Entscheidungen der Spieler anpasste und fügte der interaktiven Erfahrung eine einzigartige Tiefe hinzu. Tylers Engagement für ihre Rolle und die D&D-Welt war tiefgreifend, da sie ihr nicht nur einen kreativen Auslass bot, sondern auch persönliche Resonanz in herausfordernden Zeiten.
Mögliche Erweiterungen und zukünftige Rollen
Beide Schauspieler sind daran interessiert, ihre Rollen in neuen Formaten zu übertragen, einschließlich Live-Action-Adaptionen. Newbon erwähnte insbesondere die Möglichkeit, Astarion in einem zukünftigen Dungeons & Dragons-Film zum Leben zu erwecken, eine Aussicht, die ihn enorm begeistert. Die Möglichkeit, eine Live-Action-Dimension für Astarion zu erkunden, kann die Lücke zwischen Videospielnarrativen und filmischem Erzählen schließen und diese reichen Charaktere einem breiteren Publikum vorstellen.
Die Wirkung von Baldur's Gate 3 und sein Vermächtnis
Baldur's Gate 3 erwies sich nicht nur als ein monumentaler Erfolg für Larian Studios, sondern setzte auch neue Maßstäbe für RPGs hinsichtlich Charakterentwicklung und Spielerbindung. Der tiefe Einfluss des Spiels auf seine Sprecher und ihre Bereitschaft, ihre Rollen wieder aufzunehmen, unterstreicht den anhaltenden Einfluss gut gestalteter Charaktere und Erzählungen. Da Wizards of the Coast das D&D-Universum mit neuen Spielen und Adaptionen erweitert, bietet der von Baldur's Gate 3 gelegte Grundstein fruchtbaren Boden für die Entwicklung dieser Charaktere.
Blick nach vorn: Mehr als nur Spiele
Die Begeisterung der Spielecommunity für Charaktere wie Astarion und die immersive Welt von D&D zeigt ein robustes Potenzial für crossmediale Unternehmungen, einschließlich Serien und Filme. Da die Spieleindustrie ganzheitlichere Unterhaltungserfahrungen erforscht, bieten sich neue Wege für Charaktere und Geschichten, über ihre ursprünglichen Plattformen hinaus zu wachsen.
Abschließende Gedanken
Neil Newbon und Amelia Tylers Bereitschaft, ihre Reise im Dungeons & Dragons Universum fortzusetzen, ist ein Zeugnis für ihre Hingabe und Liebe zu den Rollen, die sie verkörpert haben. Während sich die Landschaft von Gaming und Unterhaltung weiter vermischt, scheinen die Möglichkeiten für diese Charaktere, in neuen und spannenden Formen zurückzukehren, nicht nur plausibel, sondern unvermeidlich.
Für einen tieferen Einblick in Neil Newbons Erfahrungen und Gedanken zu seiner Rolle als Astarion besuche Temple of Geek.
Weiterlesen: Warzone Season 3's unterschätzter Champion: Das Sturmgewehr MTZ-556
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Nightingale kostenlos download
Nightingale ist das Erstlingswerk des kanadischen Studios Inflexion Games (eine Tochtergesellschaft des britischen Unternehmens Improbable) unter der Leitung von Aaryn Flynn, einem ehemaligen Geschäftsführer von BioWare, der an den Spielen der Serien Mass Effect und Dragon Age mitgearbeitet hat. Das Survival-Spiel zeichnet sich durch eine märchenhafte Realität aus, die mit ihrer Quasi-Steampunk-Atmosphäre und dem unverwechselbaren Design der Kostüme und Ausrüstungsgegenstände an das viktorianische Zeitalter erinnert.
Handlung
Nach dem Zusammenbruch eines Netzwerks von Portalen, die magische Welten miteinander verbanden, wandern die überlebenden Menschen (die Spieler) auf der Suche nach ihrer verlorenen Heimatstadt Nightingale zwischen diesen Welten umher. Die Länder, die sie durchqueren, sind zwar wunderschön, aber voller feindlicher Fantasy-Monster. Die nach der Katastrophe zurückgelassenen Portale, die Hoffnung auf Zuflucht, können sie ihrem Ziel näher bringen oder sie in die Tiefen eines alptraumhaften Labyrinths führen.
Nightingale Gameplay
In Nightingale erlebt der Spieler die Handlung aus der Ich-Perspektive. Allein oder mit anderen Spielern erkunden wir märchenhafte Orte in einer Vielzahl von Umgebungen, während wir uns mit den Mitteln zum Überleben ausrüsten: Wir bauen Unterschlupfe, errichten Farmen, stellen Waffen her (Schusswaffen oder Fernkampfwaffen - einschließlich schwarzer Gewehre, die den Waffen des 19. Jahrhunderts ähneln) und treffen unterwegs auf NPCs, die sich nicht an unseren Kämpfen oder unserer Suche beteiligen, sondern uns mit Informationen versorgen oder Aufträge erteilen. Ständig müssen wir uns der tödlichen Bedrohung durch die Märchenwesen stellen, die uns nicht nur das Leben schwer machen, sondern auch die von uns errichteten Gebäude zerstören. Mit einigen von ihnen können wir aber auch friedliche Beziehungen aufbauen - zum Beispiel, indem wir ihnen ein Geschenk versprechen.
Spielmodi
Die offene Welt von Nightingale wird von Spielern bevölkert, die über ein Netzwerk miteinander verbunden sind. Sie können Gruppen bilden und miteinander kooperieren oder alleine spielen.
Nightingale kostenlos download
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