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true-king-of-monsters · 6 years

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EreHisu Week: Martyrs

A/N: What better way to start off this with a tale of heroics?

In an age before man emerged from the caves, Earth belonged to the Kaiju. Colossal beasts of unimaginable power that shook the ground with their footsteps, take to the skies and cast shadows over vast patches of land, cause tidal waves with their tails, and reshape the world with their brute strength. But despite their destructive power, they were ruled by one who was the strongest of all.

The king of Kaiju was none other than Godzilla, for he was the strongest of them all with a tail longer than his whole body, three rows of spikes along his back, teeth that could rip his prey to shreds, claws used for close combat, and an armored hide as black as hardened lava with scales. He was known to destroy mountains, burn entire islands to the ground using the energy that radiated from his mouth, and brawl with even his own shadow in blind rage.

Yet despite his infamous wrath, Godzilla was never alone. Wherever he wandered three Kaiju would never be far behind. Anguirus, who was adorned in an impenetrable shell covered in spiny needles, was his closest friend and brother in battle. Rodan, a flyer and master of the skies, who would squawk about for laughs and temper the King’s rage with humor. Finally, there was Mothra. Her domain was over the skies and the land, but she was never that much of a fighter for she was more of a peaceful Kaiju. The only time she would rise up into battle was when those closest to her were threatened, be they her offspring or her closest friends.

But not all was peaceful as the stars seemingly fell from the sky and brought forth legions of ships that housed demons called Xillians scorching the world in fire and brought monsters of their own to battle against the King.

Ghidorah, a golden three-headed dragon, with wings larger than his own bodies was infamous for his maniacal cackling. His gleeful demeanor radiated from his draconic faces adorned with antlers and sharp teeth. Spewing forth lightning from his mouths, Ghidorah reveled in the carnage.

His compatriot in battle was Gigan. His body was an unholy fusion of flesh and metal with hooks replacing his hands, a saw on his chest, and a singular red visor with a red gem atop that blasted energy. His screeches of sadism echoed loud across the battlefield.

Megalon was the destructive brute of the invading armies. His drills were able to bore through the rocks and earth along with his beetle-like horn atop his head that blasted lightning enabling him to scorch the land and foe alike. His chitin carapace made his body durable enough to withstand blunt force trauma.

The Xillian invaders thought they managed to have an easy victory so that they could conquer the world and harvest its resources, but did not expect resistance to emerge in the form of a massive Kaiju army.

In a matter of what seemed like minutes, their ships were reduced to ashes by Godzilla’s Atomic Breath. Rodan and Mothra took to the skies to blast away the remaining ships with powerful gusts of wind, fire, and lightning.

However, the Kaiju and the Xillians battle lasted for hours longer as the swarms of ships that crashed onto the ground. Ghidorah and Godzilla battled amidst the flames, Gigan and Anguirus fought with teeth, claws, and metal. Rodan and Mothra used their advantage of flight to outmaneuver Megalon and fly circles around him.

The battle shook the very earth with each blow dealt to one another. The roars echoed across the air and the waters rippled with violent waves. Pieces of the Kaiju, both friend and foe alike took damage from the violent clashes as teeth, claw, scale, spike, and wing alike littered the ground.

The Xillian mother-ship escaped the battle, but her fleet was not so fortunate. The Kaiju had won and Earth was reclaimed and returned to their domains.

As man emerged from the safety of the caves, their minds could barely grasp what had occurred. These ancient beasts defeating an army of monsters that fell from the skies seemed as if it was formed from a fever dream.

Over time the earth healed from the war as history turned to story, stories turned to myths, and myths traveled the world. The Kaiju may have disappeared from Earth, but none knew where they went. Most presumed they died off, others think they simply slumbered all over the world. Despite the questions asked about, remains of the Kaiju were found in the forms of bones, scales, imprints, and footsteps.

Thousands of years later, the Kaiju were worshipped as gods by man. Seen as divine beasts, their mark on the world caused many to question and revere them. Some prayed to them for bountiful harvests, others to drive away evil, but they would all pray one would dare not return: Godzilla. The Omega. The Ender of Worlds. The God of Rage and Destruction.

But the tale of a King of Monsters is not about him. It is now an age where a new King must be crowned. One that is born of both man and beast. And that is where the journey begins.

Eren Jaeger, a man with a troubled past, found himself in an unfamiliar situation. Delirious from whatever occurred the night before, unable to comprehend what was being whispered by the shapes in front of him. His heart beat faster as he struggled to move. His arms and legs were restrained on a metallic slab reinforced by railing while the only thing he had on was a dark blue jumpsuit.

One of the shapes came into focus. It walked like a human but it’s facial structure was anything but. Silver skin, an elongated skull akin to a shark fin, blood red eyes, and sharp teeth.

“You think he’s awake?” it asked.

Eren faded in and out of consciousness unable to grasp his situation. He wondered how he got into this. All he remembered was drinking with his friends one night in The Gaslamp District of San Diego.

“Where….” Eren mumbled in a haze, ”Where am I?”

Silence. The lack of a response caused something in him to become more assertive.

“Hey. I’m talking, you freak!” Eren spoke. “Where am I?”

The creature leered over and noticed that the patient on the table was coming out of his haze.

“Don’t worry, human. It’s just a hospital and you’re being prepped for surgery.” it spoke.

“I thought alien invaders were better liars.” Eren snarked. “Judging by the failed lying, I’m probably on a space ship somewhere in Earth’s orbit that’s highly advanced enough to dupe any radar systems this blue planet has.”

“Wow…” the alien remarked. “How did you guess?”

“Eh, I’m just savvy based on being raised to appreciate sci-fi stories, both high grade and the pulp variety.” Eren shrugged. “Plus, the whole ‘Earth Hospital thing’? No hospital looks this creepy.”

The alien chuckled at the spunk displayed. “I dunno where he found you, but seems he always did appreciate your smartass temper despite dating his daughter.”

Eren felt his mind surge and priced together what was going on. Even though he tried to not show any hostility to his future father-in-law, he never did get along well with Rod Reiss.

Historia, Rod’s youngest daughter, took a liking to Eren during her years at college. She happened to encounter him in a theatre class working on his monologues. She asked him for help with character analysis for a literature class. Over their four years at college, they grew close. His two friends Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlett, one the Basketball Star for the Women’s Team and the other having a degree in aviation engineering found those two to be inseparable.

“Rod, you fucking slime.” Eren snarled as he was being held down by the monster. A sharp sting hit his neck as he felt an injection from a syringe labeled G-LP-WB-2014 of some unknown fluid enter his blood stream. “The fuck was that?!” he asked.

“Just a little something to help you pass our challenges we set up.” it chuckled. “Figured you and The Big Guy would be a match made in heaven.”

“Big Guy?” Eren asked, feeling drowsy.

“Just a king of monsters you humans seem to really love.” the Xiliian shrugged.

The alien pressed a button that teleported Eren to an arena, similar to a cage for MMA fights. The bright white lights irritated his eyes. In the distance was a gilded room where the Xillian and Rod were sitting together on a lavish couch.

“ROD!” Eren yelled! “YOU FUCKING BASTARD! HOW COULD SELL ME OUT LIKE THIS?!”

The Xillian, now in a human disguise, grew highly amused by Eren shouting. “He’s a fighter. Now I know you didn’t like him, but I can see why your daughter does.”

“Now, X…” Rod sighed, “Please don’t agitate him.”

“It’s no biggie.” X said. He then pressed a yellow button that caused the floor in the ring to reveal Eren’s opponent.

In front of him was an eight foot tall humanoid cockroach with a somewhat human face and musculature. The vaguely human appearance made him freeze up with fear as its humanoid maw revealed a large set of teeth like that of an actual humans.

The first strike from the cockroach monster sent Eren flying into into one of the walls. His whole body was wracked with pain. His ears rang as the beast lumbered closer and grab him. Eren landed back on the ground with a sickening crunch. His arm broken in three separate places.

X and Rod watched as Eren was being pulverized by the insect. “I thought he was a good candidate for this.” X shrugged.

“The boy probably needs a push, is all.” Rod suggested. “Play that recording of Historia screaming.”

X turned around to see Rod’s blasé demeanor. X may be an alien criminal hellbent on destroying the planet for shits and giggles and harvest humans like cattle, but showing apathy for his own daughter? That makes him look like a saint.

“Okay, Jaeger.” X hissed into the microphone. “Since you’re not gonna fight, maybe this’ll help.”

A loud scream from the speakers pierced the air. Eren could tell it was Historia, crying in agony. The scream of her sent him into a catatonic shock. His heart raced as his body shook. Every cell in his body was wracked with new power. The injection he received was altering his body.

He felt new details emerge from his body. Sharpened claws jolting from his hands as black scales crept upwards from his fingertips. His legs bulked up immensely along with his torso broadening and forming new muscle mass. His teeth sharpened into terrifying fangs as his ears pointed upwards. His green eyes flashed yellow as he screamed in terror while his neck split open to form armored gill slits. After what seemed like an eternity, two minutes in realtime, Eren was now something inhuman. Part human, part Kaiju. A god among humans. The perfect mix of Human and Godzilla DNA.

In his anger, Eren let out a horrifying roar that could instill terror in the hearts of men and monsters alike. It was as if a metallic screech and the screams of hell merged into a cacophony of rage.

The roach could only stand in horror, the primal horror a primitive human felt when he wandered too far from the warmth of a fire in the cave. All it could see was the pitch black void and a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

Eren’s newfound strength allowed him to charge at the insect and land a devastating right hook on its head. The resulting shockwave could be felt even in the safety of the viewing room where Rod and X could only watch in horror and amusement.

“He’s perfect!” X yelled in delight.

“Perfect?!” Rod gasped. “You call that thing perfect?! He’s a monster!”

Eren grabbed the downed cockroach and twisted its head until a sickening crunch echoed through the air. He then ripped the monster limb from limb, a sadistic grin forming as its innards spilled out in a gelatinous white mess.

“Whoa, momma!” X yelped. “This guy is a fighter!”

Rod could feel his stomach lurch as the sight of Eren mangling the cockroach mixed with the sounds of squishy organs falling onto the floor.

Eren looked up at Rod and X and roared in blind fury. His clawed hands ripped apart a steel pole for the cage and hurled it at the glass window separating Rod and X from harm. The metal beam crashed through impaling the wall behind them.

“Tell me you have a backup plan for this.” Rod pleaded.

“Indeed I actually do.” X remarked as he detonated the floor below Eren and sent him plummeting into darkness as the floor exploded.

Eren’s cries grew further and further until his body landed onto solid ground with a crunch. Eren felt something feel out of place as he regained his senses. A pulsing throb growing stronger and stronger followed by the sting of nerves in pain. His right arm had been shattered upon impact with his radius jutting out like a bayonet.

The pain caused his eyes to widen. Within seconds, Eren could see the bone sliding back beneath the surface of his scaly appendage and snap back into place. The resulting sting of nerve ending caused his jaw to clench as he hissed as his nerves became exposed to the air and become concealed by the growing patch of scales.

The sound of footsteps interrupted his thoughts of how he’s now a monster. More roaches. It just meant more insects to smash. But judging by the soon to be victims swarming him, they must be guards. Eren punched his way through the swarm, causing more to surround him. The ensuing numbers piled on him, causing him to feel a burning fire in him, a literal fire growing hotter and hotter until if couldn’t be kept contained.

Eren roared in fury as a blue flash of light emitted from his whole body. The roaches were pushed back by the ensuing blast only to be vaporized to charred husks by the blue light.

Eren followed the metal pathway from where the roaches ran from. The heat radiating from his body made his clothes singed until the only thing clinging to his new muscled and scaled body.

“A wall?” Eren growled. His newfound power made it easier to create dents in the metal with his fists. “Must be hiding something behind.” he snarls.

The metal framework crumpled like tissue paper in a matter of seconds. Eren’s eyes adjust to the light to reveal a sinister laboratory with a chained woman dressed in a yellow tank top and panties in the center being tortured by mechanical humanoids with syringes, scalpels, and lasers.

Her hair was a silver glistened white with a pair of antennae jutting out from her forehead. Her skin was a pale hue from the lack of sunlight and her eyes had an unusual blueish tint. The most striking feature of all was her wings, shaped like those of a moth but with the vibrant orange, yellow, black, and white patterns of a Monarch Butterfly. Mothra, according to ancient texts, was said to be a beautiful kaiju, worshipped as a light goddess. Her DNA, now infused in Historia Reiss, created an angelic beauty. One that is now chained and weakened by the hell she is enduring.

“His..Historia..” Eren gasped. His mind surged with every powerful emotion that could hit him. Rage, fear, helplessness, violence. All swirling in his body. His eyes flashed blue as the mechanical foes approached him. His mouth spewed out a blue flame that turned one into a superheated pile of molten slag.

The other watched as its companion was now melted down. Eren grabbed the head of it and pressed inward as it slowly buckled and caved in like a tin can in a press. The robot jolted and cracked until its head was flattened as Eren took a disturbing level of catharsis in watching it fall. Eren’s foot slammed into the twitching metal frame in order to make sure it was dead.

“Eren…” Historia gasped. Her eyes widened in terror as her lover was now more monstrous and could easily break her.

“I’m sorry.” Eren moped as he freed her from the restraints. “I wish I could have made it sooner, and I know you don’t want to see me looking like this. I-“

“Eren.” Historia groaned. “It’s alright. I’m just glad you’re safe. I…I..” and she collapsed in his arms with her face marked with a contempt smile as she lied in his embrace motionless. Her faint breathing did not catch his ears, making him think she died.

The memories of every happy moment flooded his head. The first time he saw her in class. The awkward bump-in at the college cafe. Days spent in the library studying together. Meeting Rod and being cheered on when he punched him in the stomach for slapping her. Their first kiss on a warm August night as they got ready to head into another year of college.

The tears streaming down his face gave way to heavy breathing in a staccato rhythm. His love for her was the only thing he could hope to cling onto in his lowest moment. And it all came out in a violent cry, pleading to any god that was listening to heed his plea.

The sound of the beast he had become rang beyond the decimated laboratory. The cry rang across every corridor awakening more like him. These hybrids, born from the splicing of human and Kaiju DNA, could hear the faint cries, but in their minds, the instinct to rise up kicked in.

Armin, now infused with Rodan’s DNA, perked up his triple crested head and raised his arms up to spread his wings and soar onward towards the sound. Jean, embed with spikes on his back forming a shell thanks to his Anguirus infused mutations, broke through his restraints. More and more hybrids followed through and rose up against their guards and rallied forth.

The rumbling of this army echoed until it reached the ears of X and Rod.

“Oh no….” X hissed.

“What?” Rod asked. “Is that shaking bad?”

“No, it’s not bad.” X chuckled before dropping down to a serious tone. “It’s worse.”

“And that roar?” Rod gulped. His skin drenched with sweat as his body shakes.

“Jaeger did it…he actually did it.” X sighed. “He’s ruined everything!”

“There has to be way to stop it.” Rod suggested.

X remembered his other project. Similar to what he did, a project involving Kaiju and Human DNA, but the donors were of alien origin and some from Earth. Metallic cylinders reaching human height labeled with names such as Ghidorah, Gian, Megalon, Orga, Destroyah, BIollante, Megaguirus, Gaira, Sanda, more than what many assumed there were in terms of viable Kaiju donors.

X slammed down on a fairly obvious red button, sending the canisters hurtling into space. The amassing army rallied to the cry of Eren while powering through the ship’s hordes of roaches. All the insect could do was hold the line, but the combined might of the hybrids trampled them down to gelatinous bits as they reached the epicenter of the cries.

“What now…” Eren asked as his eyes adjusted to the sight of these newfound compatriots through his tears.

“Eren?” Armin asked. “Is that you? And is that-“

“Armin.” Eren gasped. “You’ve gotten…wings? And Jean?”

“In the flesh.” Jean chuckled.

“It’s definitely an improvement.” Eren smirked. His face soon felt the impact of his fist. “Good to know you never change.”

“Same with you, you ugly fuck.” Jean chided.

“Move it!” A voice cried out. Frieda Reiss, Historia’s older sister pushed through the chaos. Her body now carried the DNA of Battra which changed her drastically, resulting in red eyes, a triple spiked forehead, black claws, and black wings embedded with gold and red swirling patterns.

“Frieda…” Eren sighed. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t save her.”

“Eren.” Frieda said as she looked him in his eyes. “Give her to me.”

Eren handed Historia to her sister. Frieda cups her face and focuses a wave of energy into her hands. Her whole body illuminates as the energy leaves her older sisters hands forming wave of yellow orbs no bigger than fireflies.

“What are you doing?” Eren asked.

“Watch.” Frieda answered. “I used this trick on myself when I discovered my powers.”

“Hmm, wha?” Historia moaned. Her eyes adjusted to the light as the blurry shapes formed the faces of Eren, Frieda, Armin, Jean, and others. “What happened?”

Eren couldn’t speak, but his body instinctively grasped onto her. His eyes welled with tears as he could hear her breathing again. “Thank god.” he sobbed.

“Eren, it’s okay.” Historia strained as she felt a bit compressed by his muscles. “Now, just let me breathe, honey.”

“Sorry.” Eren sheepishly said. “Got carried away.”

“So what happened?” Historia asked.

“No clue.” Eren shrugged. “But I guess your dad teamed up with some alien terrorist to create super weapons, kidnapped a lotta people for genetic modification, and now it’s backfiring?”

“Sounds reasonable.” Armin shrugged.

“Are there any escape pods?” Jean asked.

“Dunno.” Eren shrugged. “They have to have it hidden somewhere. Now, where’s that sack of shit?”

Sasha, a stocky woman with claws, magenta scales, and a yellow horn protruding from her head pushed through and flared her nostrils at Historia’s body. “He’s up there.” she pointed towards the ceiling thanks to her sense of smell being enhanced a billion fold.

“Perfect.” Eren snarled as his lips parted into a toothy grin. “Armin, Frieda, find a way out for everyone. Jean, shut the fuck up and don’t fuck it up.”

“But, I haven’t done shit.” Jean huffed.

“And that’s how I know you aren’t fucking it up.”

He readied his body for his either ballsiest or practically reckless attempt at hauling ass by leaping towards the ceiling and tearing through the levels.

“Fucking asshole.” Jean hissed as he watched Eren carve a trail of destruction. “Still, it’s good he’s not crazy. Well, crazier.”

Rod started to panic as the shaking grew closer and closer until the floor burst open in a blast of debris. Eren emerged from the explosion with a focused glare, like that of a wild beast stalking its prey before grabbing his neck and crushing his windpipe.

X watched in horror as his accomplice was begging for his life. “Jesus…” X winced as he could hear Rod’s windpipe being crushed. His only instinct is to fire his side arm, holstered on his hip. The metal slug only bounced off Eren’s skin, but the sensation of something hitting his body caused him to drop Rod like the dead weight he was and focus on the alien that realized that he was unarmed.

“Please….” X whimpered. “Mercy…”

Eren, now lost in his anger, grabbed X’s arm and tore it off. The flow of blood combined with the shock of torn muscle exposed cause X to shake in horror before his skull was struck with his severed arm.

“You think you won?” X hissed weakly. “You think killing me will satisfy your revenge?”

X revealed a small switch held in his attached hand and flicked it. The lights flashed red as if it was warning any one on board the ship will explode.

“Enjoy your victory, while you still can.” X laughed as he picked himself up and scurried to a human sized pod and entered it. X then shut the door and ejected out of the ship knowing that his work will continue somewhere in some way.

Eren looked down at the hole he crawled from to warn everyone below. “Get going! Now!” he bellowed.

Armin frantically looked for anything that could help save everyone. A hologram of the ship outlined that the lab itself was part of a medical drop ship. The mother ship could detach, but Armin, not knowing Xillian linguistics, slammed his hands on the control panel. A siren starts blaring signaling a departure from the mother ship.

“Get your ass down here, Eren!” Historia screamed.

“I’ll meet you guys soon.” Eren roared. “Just go.” He turned his attention to a helpless Rod who was now paralyzed with fear as the monster he inadvertently made was now walking towards him.

“Stay back…” Rod panicked. His body sprawled back towards the wall, which was now exposed with sparking wires. Rod’s hand made contact with the live wire and felt 200,000 volts shock his entire body. His whole body fizzled and crackled, his skin turning red and black. His flesh burned with a foul stench emanating from the husk.

“Historia and Frieda are gonna be pissed at me for this.” Eren sighed. Eren leapt down the hole only to land smack onto shut hatch of the medical ship. His heart raced thinking what the hell is going on.

“Hey!” Eren screamed. “What the fuck?!”

Historia scampered to the window where she could see Eren growing more and more frantic. “It’s stuck!” she cried out. “I can’t get it open! Armin can’t get this thing to detach!”

Eren saw the mother ship start to break apart. He saw two claw like locks clamping the ship and ripped them apart while Historia pleaded with him to stay with her. However in doing so, he had no way to catch up with the ship that was now falling in Earth’s orbit.

Historia had to be restrained by her sister to keep her from clawing at the door. She could see Eren growing farther and farther before the mother ship started exploding violently.

Eren held onto the piece of metal that was dangling on the mother ship in proximity of the oncoming fireball. Eren closed his eyes and accepted what would happen. “I’m sorry, Historia.” he muttered.

The heat of the blast and the shockwave shredded his skin, exposing his muscles and organs to a force roughly equivalent to 15 megatons, or equivalent to Castle Bravo. His charred body was launched from the exploding wreckage into free fall. The freezing air stiffened his burned body and all he could feel was the wind slowing his body and at 10 meters a second, his landing was a slap onto the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

Every bone in his body was pulverized. The nerves on his muscles made contact with the salt water causing blistering agony. The smell of blood in the water was enough to attract sharks for miles on end. This is how he would die. Alone. His last words directed to his love. The mother ship plummets in meteoric chunks into the briny deep

In the damaged medical ship floating in the turgid waters, Historia kept screaming at everyone pleading to look for Eren. “Please!” she screams. “I know he has to be!”

“There’s no way he could survive that.” Armin sighs. His heart starts to ache as the words come out of his mouth. Tears form as the blondes both embrace each other in grief as they try to remember happier times with Eren.

A red and black mass floats idly by in the waves towards them. Jean, Saha, and Frieda all scream in terror as the corpse floated towards them. It started to crawl upwards to the open door and into the occupied space.

“What is that thing?!” Jean asked. “Someone shoot it!”

The shambling husk then stopped moving. No signs of life. Dead.

The next sound that came was Historia’s wails as she saw the corpse. Eren’s eyes, wide and aghast, staring back at her. “It’s can’t be!” she cried. “Not him! It should have been me!”

Her heart broke seeing Eren’s body, but she heard it. A faint heartbeat coming back. Slowly, the beating heart added another pulse. First it was 30 beats a minute. Then 45. 60. 75. 80. 80 beats per minute.

His skin grew back in patches. The scales and human features blending together as his nerves felt everything, causing him to jolt upwards screaming. His hair slid out into a luxurious mane of dark brown hair that reached his neck. His lungs filled with oxygen as his body dropped down to his knees.

“Fuck!” Eren yelped. “Fucking fucking fuck! Shit fuckers, cocksucker, that hurts!”

He felt Historia’s arms wrap around his exposed torso and could only breathe as his anger wafted away. Armin could only marvel at how Eren wa still alive after all that.

“Welcome back.” Armin chuckled as he held Eren’s palm and compared it to his.

“Good to be back.” Eren sighed. He turned his attention to the petite moth sobbing into his pecs. “Sorry about the whole thing and also for kind of being kill stealer in regards to your dad.”

“I don’t care.” Historia choked. “I’m just glad you’re still alive.” She felt a pair of lips press against her forehead, causing her antennae to wiggle in delight.

All their worries resided as the sight to the California mainland came into focus. The crew sighed at how their newfound abilities will probably be trickier to manage but still allowing them a chance at living a normal life.

Elsewhere, in the void of space, X awoke to the sight of metal canisters that spread across the surface of the moon, away from Earth satellites noticing anything. X pressed a small button in front to call for the Xillian home world. “Project Hybrid was mostly successful, but suffered heavy casualties.” X recorded. “Notify home world that Project Hybrid 2.0 will commence once contact is made with cargo on dark side of Earth’s moon. X, out!”

#erehisuweek #Kaiju Hybrid AU #FINALLY GOT IT DONE!#HMU if ya'll want more #Erekuri

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thesnadger · 7 years

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Axolotl - Chapter Eleven: There's A Room Behind A Door

Read previous chapters on Ao3

Whaaaaaat? An update for Axolotl?! It’s a Summerween miracle! You won’t have to wait as long for the next chapter, that’s a promise.

Thanks as always to Scribefindegil for betaing!

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Dipper stepped into the darkened kitchen, yawning as he filled a glass with water from the sink. Between the day he'd had looking for clues, the news he'd gotten before dinner and then a couple hours of what Great Uncle Ford had called “debriefing” (which had been a mishmash of information about the mindscape that he'd had to absorb quickly and a number of long rambling tangents that he still couldn't connect to anything) Dipper was thoroughly exhausted.

He grabbed an apple from the basket by the window and took a big bite, looking out the window as he munched on his snack. He'd finish this, then get ready for bed. One way or another, tomorrow was going to be a big day.

Some noise from the back porch attracted his attention, and he opened the door, looking out. He saw Waddles first, ambling around in the moonlight. When he was smaller Mabel wouldn't take him outside unless he had his leash and harness on, but by now he'd grown so massive that she reasoned any flying archosaurs or viking hordes that had a mind to carry him off would be slowed down by his weight enough that she'd be able to catch them. Besides, there wasn't a harness or leash on the market that would fit him now.

A few steps further out and he saw Mabel watching her pig from the porch. At least, she seemed to be watching him. Her gaze was distant, and her knees were drawn up against her chest. Even through the material of her sweater, Dipper was pretty sure he could see the tension in her shoulders...or maybe he just recognized the pose.

He walked out onto the porch and whistled. “Here, Waddles!” he called. The pig glanced in his direction, then looked away. Typical. He held his hand out in front of him. “I've got, like...a third of an apple for you.”

Waddles's ears lifted up and he made his way over, snuffling the air. Dipper sat down beside Mabel, holding the apple out.

“Don't feed him too much, or he won't sleep well.” Mabel muttered beside him.

“I won't.” Dipper promised. He nudged her with his elbow. “How about you? Think you're gonna get any sleep tonight?”

Mabel sighed. “I should be asking you that. You're the one who's gonna have to face down Bill. I'm just gonna have to watch. And wait. From the outside.” She threw her arms in the air and flopped back on the porch. “Totally helpless and unable to do anything about it! I'm! Fine!”

“I can tell.” Dipper smirked. “Since you sound so fine and cool with it.”

“Super cool!” Mabel said, raising her voice to a near shout. “Never been better!”

Dipper smiled a little, then his smile slipped. “...Is that what you're upset about? Grunkle Stan picking me to do this instead of you?”

“No!” Mabel said, pulling the neck of her sweater over her face. “That would be totally dumb and childish.”

“...You know he probably only picked me because he doesn't want you to see all the gross, embarrassing stuff in his head, or something. I mean, you said it yourself, you know you're his favorite.”

“I know.” Mabel muttered. “And it's okay to say that because you're Grunkle Ford's favorite, and it's okay to say that because even if they have favorites they love us both very much. And we can both have favorites too, because fair's fair.”

“So what's the problem?” Dipper asked.

Mabel was quiet for a long time. Dipper sat beside her, letting Waddles gnaw on the apple core in his hand. When there was nothing left, he wiped his drool-covered palms on Waddles's back. By the time they were halfway to clean, Mabel had begun to poke her head out of the top of her sweater neck.

“...I think Grunkle Stan made the wrong choice.” she said quietly.

Dipper frowned. “Oh, thanks.”

“No! Not like that!” Mabel sighed. “I know you're totally badass, Dipper. That's not what I meant. It's just...if it were you and me, that'd be one thing...”

“...It's Grunkle Ford you're worried about?” Dipper raised an eyebrow.

“Yes! And also no!” Mabel sat up. “We're all scared of Bill. But it's different with Grunkle Ford. And with you. You know that, right?”

Dipper went quiet. He nodded. It was different with them. Bill might have kept Mabel prisoner in that bubble, but the whole time she was in there, she never saw his face. She had bad dreams about Mabeland, and once in a great while she'd wake up screaming about the monster that chased them in the Fearamid. But usually when she had Bill nightmares, they weren't about him hurting her.

Usually, they were about that note. About her not noticing that he was possessed in time.

Dipper held out a hand for her to squeeze, and she took it. Her grip was tight as a vise, and he winced, but didn't pull away. She looked him in the eye.

“What if something scary happens in there,” she said, “and it's just you and Grunkle Ford, and you're both too scared to think, and there's no one to make you laugh or remind you to be brave?”

Dipper squeezed back, even though the ache in his own hand was beginning to spread up his arm. Mabel had cried for a day and a half after the two of them split up to go to separate colleges. He knew because he'd kept calling her over and over, just to say goodbye one more time. It had been a while since then, and a lot of things had changed. But some things would always be the same.

Dipper thought for a moment. “Give me your hair thing.”

Mabel unclipped the barrette from her hair, handing it to him. It was one that she had made—a fuzzy, little green monster with one eye, felt feet, and a big, goofy smile. He clipped it onto his shirt.

“There. I'll wear this, and if I get too scared I can just look down at it, and I'll remember to be brave. It'll be just like your glitter.”

Dipper saw a weak smile start to spread across Mabel's face, and then he saw the roof of the porch as he was grabbed and knocked back by one of her full-body hugs. He laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

“Ow. You gotta stop doing that, you know.” He said, a smile still on his face. “You're way too old for it to still be cute.”

“Liar.” Mabel's voice wavered, and even from his mid-hug vantage point Dipper could see her eyes were tearing up, but she was smiling too. “I'll never stop being cute, ever.”

“You're gonna cutely give me a concussion one of these days.” Dipper reached up and ruffled the back of her head. “C'mon. We've got a long day tomorrow.”

Mabel's grip around him tightened a measure, but she nodded and reluctantly let go. Waddles followed her as she stood and headed for the door, with Dipper walking behind them.

“Think either of us will sleep tonight?” Mabel asked as they headed upstairs.

“Maybe, I dunno.” Dipper shrugged. “I heard Grunkle Stan snoring when I passed by his room earlier. With all that's going on his head, if he can still sleep, I guess anyone can.”

* * *

Stan heard Bill's voice deep in his dreams. It came from everywhere, echoing in his head even when he tried to cover his ears. It echoed in a way that wasn't natural, that had nothing to do with acoustics or ordinary sound. And why would it? The voice wasn't in his ears. It was in his mind.

It was so, so, so damned annoying.

“The game is called three-card Monte.” Bill's voice came from a spot in one of the corners of the room. “Find the lady! Nothing to watch, a dollar to play, who's interested?”

“I'm ignoring you.” Stan said, pulling the newspaper up a little higher in front of his face.

The newspaper was a prop, there was nothing to read on it. The letters on it swum and danced the way writing usually did in dreams, blurring as his eyes ran over them. Still, it was either look at that or look at Bill, and Stan didn't feel up to that. Not tonight.

When he'd first seen him in the dream, Bill had said they'd had that same conversation over and over a thousand nights before. Stan thought that was at least partly true...there was a deep sense of familiarity to this place, and not just because it looked like a room he knew so well in reality. Everything had a sense of deja vu to it. He'd shouted in surprise when he first saw the little demon, but his heart had barely been in it. On some level, he'd already known he'd be there.

Tomorrow they'd take care of all of this. He just needed to get through one night.

“Find the lady, find the lady!” Bill hovered over the card table in the corner, flipping a deck of cards between his tiny hands.“C'mon, there's gotta be a wagering man out in the crowd today!”

“I told you, I don't play rigged games.” Stan muttered.

“I gotcha, cards too complicated for your tiny human brain, huh?” Bill tossed the cards in the air and they vanished in a puff of smoke. He set three walnut shells down in front of him. “I've got something easier for you, then. Just find the pearl. Even an idiot can find a pearl hidden under a shell.”

Stan grunted with irritation and flicked the newspaper while Bill held a tiny black pearl out and placed the middle shell over it. He kept pretending to read while he heard the click of shells being moved around behind him.

“So, muppet-face, you think you know where the pearl is?” Bill asked.

“It's in your hand.” Stan muttered without turning around.

“You aren't even looking.”

“Don't need to. I know how that one works. You pinch it between your middle and ring finger and slip it out from under the ridge of the shell. Then you wait for the sucker to turn over an empty shell and you load it next to the one he picked when you turn it over. That trick's even older than I am.”

“Ahh, I see we've got an educated man in the crowd!” Bill said. “Tell ya what, smart guy. I like your face, so for you we'll wave the fee. Just tell me if you can spot me palming the pearl.”

Stan sighed and put the paper down. With a grunt, he hefted himself out of the chair and walked over to the table Bill was playing at, sitting down in front of it. Hell, it was a way to pass the time. Besides, he didn't feel up for a brawl, and the little glowing bastard probably wasn't going to stop talking unless he indulged him.

Stan watched Bill's fingers move with unnatural speed and deftness as he flipped the walnut shells back and forth.

“There.” Stan said, pointing. “When you moved the middle one forward.”

“Not bad. Think you can do that again?”

“Let's see.”

Bill moved the shells back and forth, twirling them around. Stan kept watching for the palm, waiting for him to lift the back of a shell just slightly while moving it forward. But it never seemed to come.

“Well?”

“...No idea. Didn't see you palm it.”

“That's because I didn't. It was under the middle one the whole time. If you'd been watching the shells, you'd have found the pearl.”

“That's not how the con works.” Stan protested. “Only a sucker watches the shells.”

“Unless the guy moving them knows you're paying attention to his hands, waiting for him to slip the pearl out. Then his best bet is to play the game straightforward.”

“You're nuts.” Stan said

“Sure I am, but I don't see what that has to do with anything!” Bill stacked the shells in his hand. “I still had you looking in the wrong place.”

“Fine, fine, I see your point.” Stan grunted. He smirked a little, “kinda like what Ford and I did with you, eh?”

Bill's eye briefly glowed red. He resentfully closed his hand around the shells, crushing them to powder which vanished in a puff. He produced three cards again. “You still remember how to play this one?”

“It's been a while.” Stan took the cards and started shuffling them between his hands. He was a little shaky at first, but muscle memory soon took over and he was throwing them down naturally again. “Okay. Here's the queen. Keep your eye on her. Easy enough for you with that big boiled egg in the middle of your face.”

“Sticks and stones can break your bones, meatbag, but I haven't got any handy!” Bill leaned forward on his hands, watching Stan flip the cards back and forth in an imitation of rapt attention. The pose was deliberate, Stan was sure of it. Something to make him look more childlike. He wasn't buying it for a second. This thing wasn't a child, and it sure as hell wasn't cute.

“Three-card Monte's all in the throw.” Stan said, tossing the cards back and forth. “It's best if you've got another guy in on it to help work the crowd, but in a pinch you can do it alone.” He stopped and spread his hands, inviting Bill to pick one.

Transparently playing along, Bill pointed to the card on the left. Stan flipped over a joker, then turned over the queen on the right. He stacked the cards and started shuffling them again.

“I look like I'm throwing down the queen, but I'm really throwing the top card down. That's what the sucker keeps his eye on while I'm shuffling.” Stan said. “Of course, half of it is working the rube. Keeping him entertained with quips and games so he doesn't see what you're really up to. Y'know. Like what you're trying to do with me right now.” Stan said, fixing a hard eye on Bill.

Bill ignored the bait and pointed to the middle card. Stan turned over a joker.

“Technically, unlike a shell game it's possible to beat three-card Monte if you know the trick and have a sharp enough eye to see the throw.” Stan said, shuffling the cards again. “Of course, if the dealer sees you're onto him he'll start throwing down the bottom card instead of the top. If he's fast and has a smooth technique it's almost impossible to see which he's doing.”

Stan spread the cards out and leaned forward, looking down at Bill pointedly. “The real con isn't in the throw itself, it's in making you think you can win. The dealer tries to convince you that you're the smart guy who's onto him, and that's how he beats you. The only way to win is not to play.”

Bill glanced up at Stan, looking irritated, and flipped the queen of hearts over with a gesture. “That's if he's trying to con you.”

“Why else would he be playing the damn game?” Stan folded his arms.

“Maybe he's bored.” Bill twirled his finger and the cards floated around it.

“So, what game are you playing, huh?”

Stan swore he saw a playful glint in the monster's eye as he picked the cards up again and shuffled them.

“The game's called three-card Monte. Find the lady.”

SDAJ JK KJA SWO HKKGEJC, IWXAH GJEPPAZ W OSAWPAN WNKQJZ PDA OPWPQA EJ PDA SKKZO. EP DWO PDA SKNZ “HKOAN” SNEPPAJ KJ EP. PDA K EJ HKOAN EO W DWLLU OQJ.

#axolotl #fanfic #post-finale #the second half of this chapter was #appropriately enough #based on a dream #that dream is actually one of the reasons i decided to write a story about bill being in stan's mind #so i've been waiting for like a friggin year to finally finish and post that scene

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tumblunni · 7 years

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I had some sudden more ideas for npcs in the monster petshop game, and a bit of worldbuilding and stuff!

I was just consideringwhether maybe this should be a fantasy setting with different non-human races, or one that’s just all humans. I dunno, games with catchable monsters seem to ALWAYS be just humans, that’s weird now I think about it! I guess its so the line between sentient magical beings and the pet ones isn’t blurred, but in my petshop idea the monster pets can all talk anyway so that’s not an issue. Tho I dunno if it’ll be to the same degree as in the Monster Rancher anime where monsters are all so similar to humans that they can live their own entirely separate lives without a human partner, and like.. start shops and hold property and stuff. Seriously that worldbuilding is so surreal and cool, you get to see stuff like a giant golem running a little metalwork jewelry store in the background of a crowd scene. I wanna see the story of that guy! Tho it gets a bit confusing cos some monsters can’t talk, and some monsters seem to have more petlike intelligence, and those two things don’t often coincide. I still cry forever about that episode with the guy who abused his giant worm monster, and how with its design and how it doesnt talk you’d probably assume its a mindless evil monster but its actually just a quiet sad good guy and like.. how its full sentience level is revealed by it choosing to refuse an offer from the bad guys to join them, and dying trying to save the life of its abusive trainer. And how it actually does succeed in making him realise how wrong he was to treat it like an animal, and to treat animals like mindless toys! And how he breaks down crying and then how he cradles the lil baby worm and promises to do better this time, and then how his original worm comes back to life way WAY at the end of the series and I CRY FOREVERRRR ... Anyway, sorry, where was I before I got distracted?

OH YEAH! Fantasy races! Which really should be called species, but I guess it stuck cos they’re often used as metaphors/replacements for actual racial diversity, especially in traditional fantasy. IM GETTING DISTRACTED AGAIN!!! So yeah that thought led me to an idea for a particular fantasy “race” I could add. But then it somehow developed into... I dislike designing overly humanlike fantasy races, like seriously what is the point of even bothering if they look identical to humans except short or with weird ears? So I thought.. what if this “race” is actually a disease instead?

MORE LONG THOUGHTS BELOW THE CUT!

So, I was thinking they could look like just normal humans but with a greyish skin colour, odd coloured eyes, and some sort of flower growing on their head. They’d be like ‘flower spirits’ but in kind of a negative way? They look like humans because this is a sort of magical genetic condition that turns humans into this. Though they still get predjudice because people are afraid of ‘catching’ a disease that isn’t actually contagious through touch or anything, but people are happy being ignorant fucks and excluding them from society ‘just in case’ their paranoia comes true.

But anyway! The details! At any moment an inherited carrier could manifest symptoms, and rather literally manifest a glowing flower from their forehead. It grants you enhanced magical powers, but at the cost of your life being tied to that magic. The flower is like if your soul has been forcibly pulled outside your body in a very fragile form! You have to tend to it like a normal flower, and you also have to sorta feed it by doing enough magic or absorbing the energy from magical objects. (So these guys’s magical power is to negate other magics.) If left untreated it will eventually be fatal, and if the flower wilts it’ll also kill you even faster. If you fail to take care of it, it drains energy from your soul instead, which leads to the grey skintone and general weak health. But even if you keep the flower alive it’ll eventually grow too big and you’ll be unable to drain enough magic to keep up with its energy consumption. By the time the story begins, medical technology has actually advanced enough to find life extending treatments for this, even if we don’t have a complete cure. You can’t get rid of the flower but you can take medicines to slow it’s growth. I mean, really the problem is just that this thing outpaces its host, its a really impractical parasite! It ends up killing itself by getting too greedy! (Which makes me think probably the predjudiced slurs around these people would be like... ‘you got that disease cos of your greed/sin/etc’. Even though its just genetic.) And then I think the final breakthrough to save people from this disease wouldnt really be a perfect cure, just to regress it to a budlike inactive state. You’ll always be physically marked as a victim of this disease, and you’ll always have the ‘demonic’ magic-draining powers. And it’ll probably be a long time before people stop treating the sufferers like shit, even after this...

So umm.. yeah. Its kinda gonna be like an analogy for the horrible HORRIBLE way the AIDS outbreak was handled by the government, and how it happened because the victims were ‘undesireables’. And how in this post-outbreak world the whole thing’s practically been covered up, lessened, forgotten. And people still deny it, and still treat gay people like shit, and its taken so damn long to make all this progress and just... gahhhh... How pretty much every LGBTQ person who’s that old lost a dozen friends, how people got so desperate they used to hold ‘die-ins’- protesting by literally saying ‘leave me here on the doorstep’ when they were about to die. Make the politicians see exactly what they’ve done! And similarly the massive MASSIVE quilt full of patches commemorating everyone who died. God... And seriously just HOW LITTLE EDUCATION there is on this subject! Even amoungst modern LGBTQ communities! How eager we are to sweep things under the rug, even if its LITERALLY a rug made of dead queer folk! *sigh* umm.. sorry for the heavy subject matter there.

So yeah, this would be a ‘race’ in this setting, or rather a minority group, but in fantasy terms its a ‘race’ but.. whatever. Dumb language rules! Very small community of flower disease folks, treated like demi-humans. And this leads to a bunch of new ideas for npcs that could deliver this plotline! Of course, the main one would be an actual member of the flower disease folks.

I’m imagining her as just an absolute sweetheart shy gentle giant sort of lady. She’s introduced being this terrifying presence walking into the town, your protagonist being the only one who doesnt understand why everyone else is being all hushed whispers and closing all their shops. Since you come from a sheltered rich kid background, you’re very out of touch with common issues and had no clue this disease even exists. (Even though rich folks are the ones who had the power to help them, are the ones who refused, are the ones who spread the propeganda and then tried to cover up all their own failures...) So you’re the only one who treats this seemingly terrifying vagrant as a normal person, even though it’s (initially) just because you didn’t know the situation. Because of this, she ends up seeing you as a friend and coming back again. And then its up to the player whether you fall for all the predjudice and decide to cut all ties with her from here on, or whether you continue to stand up for her rights and try and change the way society treats her.

ANYWAY, her personality once she opens up to you would be the total opposite of her imposing appearance. She’s a chronic sufferer of self-hate issues, who’s been living completely alone in the forest for a long time, after being kicked out by her family and having no-one to turn to. I’m thinking she constantly speaks like... shy equivelant of Fuujin from FF8? One word sentences, but whispered instead of yelled. And like.. “.......ah..............s-....sorry........?” *questioning inflection of silence* “......uhhm........?” *unfurls hand hesitantly from under cloak and points at loaf of bread* *counts out coins meticulously, making sure to spread her hands and show she’s wearing gloves, she’s keeping them in a pouch, she hasn’t touched them* *places them on the very edge of the counter and backs away slowly, assuming you’re thinking the worst of her* *won’t take the bread directly from your hands, just in case* *struggling to speak again* “... th-.... ah-...... t-thank....... you.....” *mumbles her way out of the store quickly and awkwardly* This is kinda how she’s had to deal with buying supplies from EVERYONE EVERYWHERE. This tends to happen with like the one store in town that’ll take pity and throw her some food, at a greatly inflated price. She’s just had to like.. keep trying. Wear them down. If she keeps coming to a town repeatedly they’ll eventually get frustrated enough to give her what she wants.... or they’ll call the sheriff to chase her off. Either way she finally gets a yes or no answer on that place, and can tick it off on her cross country map of spots to find actual supplies. So she like.. CAN NOT function in a regular shop environment anymore. Probably the first hint that she isn’t really scary is how she’d totally freak out at you treating her normally! She’d be TERRIFIED!! There’s no way she’d actually agree to talking normally, she’d adamantly refuse to taking anything for free, seriously WHAT IS YOUR DEAL, ARE YOU A DEMON??? *sobs into the complimentary bread* It’d be a few visits before she actually opens up to you, and even then she’s very monosyllabic. She literally hasnt talked to anyone for years, she’s become so hardened to loneliness and cruel treatment that she can’t remember how to react to kind people anymore. And her voice is so hoarse both from this and from.. well.. the disease. She hasn’t even had the minimal treatment that’s available nowadays... for the rich, at least. So along with her sidequest being to help everyone understand her, you’re also searching for a doctor who’d treat her, and trying to save up the ridiculous amounts of money it would take. Its far easier if you succeed at destroying enough of the town’s ignorance, and make at least a few friendship links between her and your other sidequest pals. You can start having a town-wide fundraiser to get her the lifesaving medicine! Tho probably that leads to its own sidequest of having to track her down after she runs away, worried that she doesn’t deserve it and she’s just gonna cause more problems for her new friends. NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Anyway, the general structure of her as a customer is that she kinda accepts ANYTHING, and doesn’t have much money to do it with. She’s very lonely, and only built up the courage to come to this town on that first day because she heard about your petshop that sells to lower class citizens, and the idea of getting her own monster friend was like a ray of hope in her life! If you decide not to chase her away from the town, she settles in the nearby forest where all the stray monsters live, and becomes like the scary local cryptid. “I totally saw an eight foot tall woman feeding the crows!!! What the fuck!!!” She has a problem with sacrificing herself to protect all these wild animals, they’re just SO BEAUTIFUL and MAKE LIFE WORTH LIVING!! She’s always going hungry cos she gives all her food to them, and then they start to love her in return and she gets a veritable army of feral pals that’ll defend her from anyone who tries to burn her tent down again. So she starts off desperately trying to buy a monster from you, any monster, and then after she gets her first one she starts befriending the forest monsters with its help, and becomes your biggest customer of monster supplies instead. She wants to give all these wild babies the closest life to a normal pet as possible! But she also still will buy literally any monster from you, ever, anytime. Doesn’t matter that she already has fifty, she can always take care of more! Though you do get better results if you give her ones high in defense stats and etc, cos its tough to live out there in the forest, even if your trainer is going hungry to ensure you get the best snacks. Oh, and she’d probably be ABSOLUTELY OVER THE MOON if you could sell her a monster that also has flowers or flower patterns. (Tho i think protagonist would be worried it would be insensitive, but she actually does like them cos they make her feel less lonely) She’s also an incentive to help out with your cookery crafting skills! Cos initially she’s having trouble being able to access any of the other shops in the town, she’ll just buy whatever spare food you have lying around. Even your absolute worst failed dishes are like heaven to her! So you can get more exp from cooking and also make a profit from it, thus helping you get better at crafting fancy dishes for your sweet monster pals. (And your strange tall pal!) Oh, and it’d probably also be an element that people in the town try and ‘politely’ advise you that you shouldn’t sell to her ‘for your own safety’. Because of the flower people’s magic draining powers, there’s the very real worry that one of them could be buying monsters from your store just to drain them dry and slow down their own death. But it sucks to assume the worst of her before you even know her, and honestly even if someone was doing that it’s dishonest to frame them as evil and predatory when seriously they are only committing a crime TO SLOW DOWN THEIR OWN DEATH! I bet that would be the most terrifying depressing situation for them, having to kill a small animal cos you’re having an attack of your symptoms and you just desperately don’t want to die...

And now on to the other supporting npcs I thought could be useful to this plot!

I thought of maybe there being bakers cos... well, the first scene I thought of while planning her personality was her trying to buy a loaf of bread. SIMPLE BRAIN PATHS! WOO! But somehow these bakers ended up gaining a way bigger plot role than I intended O_O I’m imagining them as some sort of Super Duo, just cos this plot idea requires one who starts off sympathetic to flower lady and a boss that provides an obstacle in this. I’m thinking maybe the good guy baker sneaks bread out to flower lady, and their greedy boss is all like ‘no! There are laws in place! Food waste must be destroyed! No giving to the homeless!’ (THIS IS AN ACTUAL THING THAT EXISTS. Almost every major fast food company does it! You can get arrested for stealing food from the bins, or for being an employee who tries to give the food to someone, even if it’s excess food that would just be binned anyway.) But then I ended up humanizing the grumpy boss instead of having them JUST be an enemy. I started imagining this as a family business, and the grumpy boss is their grandma? And then i thought maybe that would be a good vehicle to deliver the backstory worldbuilding about this disease, and now I am REALLY SAD about this grumpy grandma! I was thinking maybe she’s actually someone who lost a lot of friends in the initial outbreak of flower syndrome, and used to protest against it, and became all bitter and depressed after what happened, which is why she’s such a cynical mess nowadays. I think maybe the plot would work better if its like.. the grandkid baker just THINKS that grandma would object to serving a flower disease customer, and then when grandma actually sees who’s been ‘stealing’ her profits, she breaks down crying. Nobody in her family even knew she was so close to the tragedy, she’s been keeping it secret cos even though she isn’t infected she could still be ostracized for being part of that community and all. I’m thinking its gonna just be a very direct analogue, I’m gonna say that LGBTQ people were demonized as the ‘cause’ of this disease back when it was poorly understood. ‘Its caused by greed and sin’ = people pick whichever subjective ‘sin’ they wanna blame... So grandma shows you all her quilt that she’s been keeping secret, full of patches commemorating everyone she knew who died, and tells you about how the tragedy went down and how she got her start as such a cold and untrusting person out of the fear of ever loving anyone again in case she lost them. And everyone gets to have ALL OF THE HUGS, even though hugs can’t erase what happened :( But finding a family that can support her can help flower lady right now, grandma is determined to find a way to save this one person and make up for everyone she couldn’t save! They help you on your quest to track down a doctor, and they give flower lady a place to stay as part of their family, no matter what anyone thinks! And then i think maybe after flower lady manages to get her medicine, grandma actually leaves on a journey with the doctor, to learn how to become a doctor too. She was in medical training when she was younger, before she had to drop out of education due to all that happened. And she just ended up inheriting the family bakery, even though she personally sucks at baking and hates it. (Which is why employee/grandson does all the work and stuff) So now she sees this as a chance to redeem herself, you help convince her that its not too late! She’s gonna use however many years she has left to help people! if she has to be cursed with outliving everyone, she’ll use this long life to make a difference! So its sad cos grandma has to leave on her journey, but grandson takes over the shop and flower lady is employed as an assistant. And they keep in touch with grandma in the mail. (You can sell them a good carrier pigeon monster to help!)

Another npc there could be is... another greedy guy!! I started thinking him up cos i was just wondering about who could be a friend to the grandma. I mean, the npcs have to have relationships and rivalries between each other, its not like the protagonist is the only one who matters, lol This idea i have is (for some reason) someone who looks like a younger AZ from pokemon, wearing a cowboy hat. Kinda? He’s a travelling merchant and ssssssort of the same greedy archetype as grumpy grandpa, but sort of not? He’s an even more huge penny pincher than her, but he doesn’t seem to have his heart in it. He’s constantly desperately wringing any potential money out of anything, overcharging as much as he possibly can, getting himself hurt doing silly get rich schemes. But then he’s not really a jerk about it. He’s very friendly and cares about his customers, unable to actually scam them even as he announces his intentions to do it. He’s constantly betrayed by his own kindness, and ends up giving away free stuff to anyone who has a sob story! He also never seems to actually really spend his money on himself, its not like he actually has any of the luxury he’s always rambling about. I mean, he does indeed seem to have a genuine greed and a few lofty dreams, but then he just puts all his profits in his savings no matter how much it hurts him to do it. *crying over a fancy hat as he dumps his purse in the Swear Jar*

So anyway, his connection to this plot about the flower disease is that his Secret Reason For The Greedy is only revealed if you befriend both him and the flower lady. After you progress the story enough to get her first Happy Ending of getting adopted by the baker family, her second Happy Ending of finally getting the medicine, and her third Happy Ending of becoming the new assistant baker after grandma moves away, the plot still stubbornly continues because really no ending is an ending, yknow? I’m thinking this sort of formula could work really well with a game that has no real overall plot, and is more of just a slice of life theoretically endless thing. When you’re playing Monster Rancher there’s never really any huge changes in the town you still always have the same shopkeepers and nobody even ages. And even though Animal Crossing has villagers moving in and out, its also kinda the same, there’s never any real character development or shifting of the status quo. So I’m thinking having changing generations of the town and continuity between them could be a good way to keep stuff engaging even as you keep playing the same sort of gameplay forever. Maybe some people move away, maybe some people move in, maybe some people get married or have kids, who knows!

So yeah, after the status quo change of the baker grandma moving away and flower lady leaving her homelessness tent to become a full time resident, thats’s when this new sidequest starts. Stuff still isnt instantly perfect for her, she’s still facing predjudice from some people, especially now she’s in a rather public position as an employee. All the controversy over having her work with food, even though SERIOUSLY, DUDE, you can’t catch it from just touching someone who has it! I think she’d feel absolutely terrible, she’d be worried that she’s causing her benefactors to lose business because she’s here. And she’d also have just normal social anxiety adjusting to doing her first job ever, and having to do so much talking. She was homeless since she was very young, she even has trouble with complex mathematics cos she never finished school. Another reason merchant guy could be a good friend of the family, he could help tutor her on this stuff! And general shopkeeping techniques, cos both her and grandson are both super good guy pushovers and all. (”Don’t worry, I’m a wimp too, and even I can manage to be greedy with these five simple steps! ....that’ll be 50 dollars.”) But the main plot for him and flower lady is how he finally reveals his secret reason for being so greedy. One day he just comes along leading a little girl by his hand, and lifts her up so she can see the lady at the bakery counter. “Daddy, she’s got flowers like me!!” He’s been sending all of his profits home to pay for his kid’s medical bills, and he finally decided to let you know once he met someone else with the same condition. He’s been keeping it a secret because people hate flower sufferers so much, and he desperately needs to keep up the trade route with this town otherwise he can’t afford to look after her. he’s so damn relieved to be able to stop lying to you, and to finally introduce his lil bundle of joy! And to let her see someone else with the same condition, for the first time in her life! And then the lil girl could become friends with tall flower lady, and be all like ‘you look so pretty!’ which is something nobody’s ever said to her since she got sick, and just... HEARTWARMING TIME And it could help flower lady keep hope even though predjudice hasnt completely stopped in the world. At least now she’s found some good people, and she can see that her bravery in working at this job is inspiring young sufferers to feel that their life isnt completely over. So they all send off another letter to grandma together, and have a nice family dinner with this other family, and with yours too. :3 (...also, merchant guy apologizes for lying to his close friend grandma for so long, and they laugh at how they both had so much in common and never found out until now! And she is HELLA EXCITED to meet his daughter when she comes back ^_^)

#monster shop game #thats gonna be the new tag #i need to go re-tag all of the earlier posts

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kyanmaaaa · 7 years

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Okay so i had another long ass interesting dream last night

think this one actually has some world building potential! putting under a read more for mentions of abuse and drugs and also its long af

also notable for having both real people and fictional characters in it along with original characters, locations where also fairly consistent in size, so very difference from my usual dreams, also the first non nightmare in a while! i dont like writing abt those so i dont tend to put them here

okay, so! dont remember quiiiite how the dream started but i got the impression i was on a bit of an adventure that eventually took me to take down the big bad

so, big bad was in a big older elementary school looking building, seemed like a bit of a cult place where people where drugged and then i dunno but it made them scarily obediant, they also seemed to not really notice the same some things the way i did, these things being giant floating monsters, i only had 3 appear in the dream but it seemed the floating part was actually pretty important as none of them had legs

all of them were unable to leave a specific area, may have been assigned there, or may have been where they were summoned, size of area did not affect the strength of the summon, first one i saw was a large genie with grey blue skin and a darker color for hair, had a large triangular chest plate with a carpet design on it in gold and tan, this one guarded the entrane which had fences on either side of the front of the school to create the boundaries necessary to summon

so i arrive at the place to try and stop the big bad with sans, literally, it was literally sans, didnt know that in the dream though there was kinda a big reveal at the end of the dream, think he may have been human now but might not have been at one point, magic or whatever also seemed to be able to alter the physical form, or maybe mario, i dunno my dreams just mash people together sometimes,

so we get to this school, fight our way through different rooms with different summons, first being a monocolor red chinese style dragon, this room had no ceiling but the next few did, and then we got to the main building avoiding people inside as much as we can, at one point i got separated which made things a lot harder as my companion had most of the knowledge and i just had to hope that he got out okay, people kept trying to make me do things if they saw me but i always tricked them into letting me get away before anything happened

so i get out of the building, i have not even seen the big bad, and it was either at this point or slighty before this point that i sat on a drugged pin or brushed against a flower but somehow i got drugged, which made me very whoosy and out of focus, bit sick too, my friend lea and some guy, not her boyfriend tho he was too tall to be him, came and drove me out of there, we had trouble finding their car so we almost stole one, had to be quick too since the area was still split up with walls to allow potential summons also all the cars looked abt the size of kiddy cars, only size problem in the dream besides small doors

end of the dream was a flashback to when sans was initally taken away from his brother, father figure was not gaster, seemed to have been human at some point but had changed his form too the point he could change it at a whim for a short amount of time, could not change voice tho, seemed too cocky to bother, so father figure tries to kill/sends away sans and then imitates him poorly to try and prevent his favorite from noticing, who does anyway cause hes not a fucking idiot, doesnt mention it though to not anger him

also the only reason i thought my companion might have been mario is because in this section i literally, could not tell if it it papyrus or luigi,

so papyuigi is living tormented with a figure imitating someone he has no idea where they are, dont know if theyre even alive, and then father figure just gets bored and is like, he’s dead but he never really mattered anyway and i didnt see much of him just the a few oily blackish tentacles, almost greasy really, and uh...... well i mean we all know what tentacles are used for the animes......

so side plot of the the brother person who may not have actually been a brother and main plot of trying to take down this guy

#drug mention #ut #dream journal #mostly interested in the genie and the summon system #genie seemed to be powerful but was so cocky he didnt even see us

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tumblunni · 7 years

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For no reason out of nowhere, I’m gonna ramble headcanons/how to combine the dub and sub into a better dub ideas for the second digimon movie, Hurricane Touchdown! Aka the one that was awkwardly stitched on as part of the first movie in english, aka ‘that one where lopmon is fuckin terrifying and also american’ (oh and I know its a nitpick, but to me it makes sense to call it the second movie instead of the third?? the greymon/parrotmon fight bit wasnt a ‘movie’, it was the pilot episode for Adventure in japan. its more like an ova I think, but i dunno if the company ever gave it an official status in the movie listings...)

ANYWAY WHATEVER WHERE WAS I oh yeah Bunni Really Liked This Dumb Movie And Wished It Was Its Own Season And Kinda Wants To Make A Dumb Rpgmaker Game Of It So, ideas!

* Well... couldnt it have worked as its own season...? One of the only flaws I can agree was a significant problem was that ‘willis steals the spotlight’, tho i dont really think thats totally bad since I liked him a lot more than the 02 protagonists. But yeah, honestly you could kinda have the same movie if all the 02 characters were written out, or if Willis met with literally any group of digidestined from any series, or even completely new ones. The dub made it worse by writing out all of the scenes with the Adventure digidestined, thus writing out the 02 kids’s entire motivation for the whole plot :P And i think honestly this plot could have been a whole season if it was stretched out, and if it had original characters replacing the 02 ones. It would be unique and odd to have our protagonist be a super loner sassy asshole tamer who outright refuses to team up with anyone, fearing they’d just get vanished away by this giant terrifying digimon that’s stalking him. If the backstory was revealed slowly throughout the season it could be a very good mystery to keep us all hooked! And if there were more scenes about the other kids breaking past willis’s shell and becoming a team, rather than just ‘davis cries a joke, suddenly everything is over’. plus there’d naturally be stuff to pad out the season length if we had to be introduced to these characters and give them all their own amount of screentime and development. Or, seriously, if this was just like... a longer movie, or a mini season like Tri... Maybe we could have had the 02 kids in it and not had them feel overshadowed and useless? Maybe everyone aside from Davis could get some screentime too :P

* Maybe it could be an excuse to show off all the armor and jogress digivolutions that this series canonically has yet never used? I think it was budget constraints or not enough time in the season or something, but there was a HUGE amount of unused designs for every potential combination of crests! And all they ever got was to be trading cards and occasionally enemies in miscellanous videogames. (Oh and Lynxmon got to be an enemy in Tamers and Frontier, probably cos its the one that looks coolest animated lol!) Oh and it was odd how Cyber Sleuth seemed to retcon some previously-unrelated digimon into the Imperialdramon of Silphymon. Now Valkyrmon is something Silphymon can digivolve into, and shares the same character model even. Odd! But man it would be cool if it did get officially added to the 02 version of the evo line!

* Potential for giving Yolei and Cody a bigger plot role in the whole thing, maybe Yolei is trying to research into the mystery digimon cos she’s the computer expert? they almost never let her actually do computer stuff compared to how much izzy got to do in the first season :P It could also help thread the plot together a bit! Like, have various scenes of the different kids finding out that the Adventure kids have gone missing in different ways- Yolei could be freaking out cos she cant contact izzy, maybe Cody had a study session with joe and arrived to find his entire house empty. And maybe have a lil plot of Yolei being like ‘oh god how can we do this without izzy’ and being able to prove herself and gain confidence instead of just living in his shadow. Also she’d just be useful in finding out stuff about mysterious dissappearances that happened in the past, via the internet, and maybe the gang could encounter willis in less of an accidental way and more like they were actively trying to track down wendigomon and THEN bump into him by accident? I dunno, just make them actually DO more. Do more to save their own damn friends. Not just the willis and davis road trip show where davis only exists to tell willis how to do various digivolution stuff :P

* I feel bad that my brain kinda defaults to calling him Willis, even though I still have no clue why they changed it from Wallace. ‘Hey this american name could be a different american name!’ I think its just stuck in my head cos i watched the dub version so much... So lol I dunno, smash them both into canon! Make him wallace but kokomon calls him willis since they’re this child-minded monster thing. (Could also keep calling terriermon gummymon and maybe even mistake the 02 kids for various people wallace used to know as a kid?)

* Dub-added stuff to keep and to toss out! I like the idea of Willis being the person izzy talked to on the internet in the previous movie. I dont like the idea that he somehow created diaboromon! You could write that out and still keep the scene, maybe even still have willis saying ‘its all my fault’ because he’s just recently lost his digimon partner to a mysterious virus and he thinks maybe the same thing is happening here/that kokomon is causing the chaos rather than diaboromon. Oh, and I like the idea of it being stated to be a virus corrupting a digimon, rather than just being... never explained wtf happened. A virus that’s the remnants of diaboromon would even make sense, though the continuity order in the dub kinda makes it impossible. (SO MANY PLOT HOLES lol)

* PLAYABLE FLASHBACKS YO and/or maybe an omake type epilogue thing after the ending like srsly give us a chance to play as willis with both his digimon and how not dead and not evil they are An epilogue would be good as a way to add some more fanon-y headcanons and ideas for what happened after kokomon came back. (or if he even did) I feel like a lot of people complain that the dub ‘changed too much’ by confirming that kokomon came back, and that somehow a happy ending is worse than an ambiguous bittersweet one. Which we didnt even have in the first place cos we saw kokomon’s digiegg in the sub anyway, even if we didnt see it hatching. BUT ANYWAY My idea for keeping that bittersweet element even if we have Happy Kokomon Is Alive Time! Its.... the dub! Or rather taking literally something that was actually just a shameless footage-chopping lazyness XD Cos the dub just showed kokomon in endigomon form in the added scene where he totally came back. Making it rather obvious even to kid-bunni that it was a dub edit, lol! BUT WHAT IF THAT! What if the bittersweet aspect is that kokomon is forever changed by the whole experience? Still having aftereffects of being corrupted, even though he isnt evil anymore. So his evolution line is still a super scary virusized one and he’s stuck unable to de-digivolve from champion level. So we could have funny/cute/sad scenes of Willis trying to live with this very large very destructive digimon, kinda like that one episode of tamers. How do I hide a seven foot tall cyborg rabbit man from my mom?? And it could also be bittersweet because kokomon’s spent so long frozen at the time when he was taken away, and now he has to cope with his two best friends having grown up without him. He’s still this childlike personality stuck in a scary body, even if he’s not dangerous anymore. And it could be very stressful for everyone involved, but also heartwarming! I mean imagine giant scary kokomon being all shy and holding his tiny big brother’s hand while crossing the street! Imagine him hugging willis and squishing him! XD So it could just be a short epilogue episode of willis and partners fighting some sort of villain of the week, and showing slice-of-life antics with them. Just establishing that their problems arent all over yet, but also that they’ll probably be strong enough to deal with it, after all they’ve managed to survive so far. And maybe some cute mini scenes of them still keeping in touch with the 02 kids as pen pals! And maybe even something like an emotional scene of willis finally introducing his digimon partners to his parents, after failing at keeping them secret? Itd be nice to see his parents tbh, i always wondered what they were like! (or does he have a single mother? since he was only talking about her during the movie)

* Random but: personality headcanons for terriermon and lopmon/kokomon! We honestly dont really get much of a personality for terriermon in this movie, he just seems like a sort of generic nice cute partner compared to the Tamers terriermon’s snarky personality. And, naturally, we dont really learn anything about kokomon’s real personality, considering the circumstances :P So! Headcanons! I always headcanoned kokomon as being a really sweet, kind and shy lil babbu before all this tragedy happened. Someone who always relied on his brother and his human friend, so being separated from them hit him extra hard. I feel like if terriermon was the one who was infected he would have had his eldritch horror take a very different form, whatever the virus is its something that feeds on the personal anxieties of the digimon it infected. Also, yeah, it’d just be cuter this way in my hypothetical epilogue fanfic ideas! Scaredy-cat wendigomon!! :3 And I kinda feel that maybe terriermon could stand out more from tamers-terriermon if he wasnt just the more level-headed equivelant, but if he was MORE OF THAT! Like... a more grumpy loner matt-type personality. After all the tragedy that happened to him ans willis he’s become quite toughened and determined to protect his tamer even though he’s too small to make an impact against his giant infected brother. And maybe like how willis has stopped having human friends, terriermon has become more cold too, and they could perhaps have more conflicts together because of it? And like.. the reason terriermon never digivolved to champion could be because of this rift between them, rather than just ‘literally the only reason the 02 kids are here is so that they can tell willis how to use his digivice’. Like seriously HOW DID GUMMYMON DIGIVOLVE TO TERRIERMON THEN?? Plus it’d just have more dynamic to their friendship and flesh the story out more. It could prove how absolutely fire-forged their friendship is, that these two grumpy sassmasters that even sass at each other still care so deeply even if they suck at showing it. Also the idea of a badass tiny terriermon is just aweome to me. Imagine him with a cape flowing in the wind, and sunglasses at night, and then imagine someone who feels like that even when theyre not wearing them. Thats how movie-terriermon always felt to me during the scenes of him fighting wendigomon! And I cheered a whole load at him digivolving and being able to fight toe-to-toe with wendigomon in the BEST FIGHT SCENE IN THE SERIES with the running up walls and GUN PUNCH TO THE FACE and just EVERYTHINGGGG the animation in this movie was too strong

* have i mentioned that i love this movie

* a lot

#i dunno what to tag this as so i can find it later #dumb digimon thing #there you go

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