Category: Story

All stuff about my characters and stories!

  • Character details: Reign

    • Age: 23
    • Gender: Agender (they/them)
    • Race: British human (The British part is weirdly relevant)
    • Eyes: Green
    • Hair: Shoulder length curly blonde hair
    • Class
      • Weapon set: Mini crossbow
      • Fighting style: Sharpshooter
      • Position: Backline
      • Party role: Attack/Support & Commander
      • Stat spread
        • Phys Attack: ★★★☆☆
        • Phys Defence: ★★☆☆☆
        • Tech Attack: ★★★★★
        • Tech Defence: ★☆☆☆☆
        • Speed: ★★☆☆☆
        • Reflexes: ★★★★★
        • Luck: ★☆☆☆☆
      • Skills
        • (Automatic) Commander’s stand: As party lead, Reign can survive a fatal blow, recovering 30% of their health and receiving a small all stats buff. Can activate once per battle
        • (Unique) (Automatic) Last Reign standing: If Reign is the last party member in a fight, they will recover 40% of their health and gain a large all stats buff, and unlocks Panic stance skills, this lasts for 4 turns. After 4 turns, they will gain a large all stats debuff and the exhausted status condition (Cannot dodge attacks and skills cost 25% more) for 2 turns. Can activate once per battle
        • (Unique) Explosive multiquickshot: High damage multishot that bypasses or explodes past defenses, explosive element. (Hidden: Bypasses most states that typically would dodge or block attacks)
        • (Fusion) Projectile overload: Reign and Brodee fire everything they have at an opponent, overwhelming their defenses with high damage. Highly effective against opponents with high defense or actively blocking
        • (Fusion) Up close and personal: Del creates a shield for Reign to charge in close, changes Reign’s position from backline to frontline while keeping their higher defense and dodging ability for 3 turns
        • (Fusion) London welcome: Fiona covers Reign’s bolts with elemental paint which is followed up by a basic rapid trickshot, omni-elemental (bypasses all elemental resistances), has a random chance to trigger any elemental status effect (3% chance to trigger, one check for each effect per hit, going burn > freeze > shock > stuck, one status per overall attack) and carries the typical properties of a standard rapid trickshot (part of the sharpshooter skillset)
        • (Ultimate) Rain of bolts: Reign pulls out a second crossbow, putting all their effort into aim, rapid trickshot with double the bolts and damage upgraded from small to high for each bolt
        • (Panic) (Automatic) Berserker: Automatically triggers when in Panic stance, charges into the frontline and greatly raises attack, deactivates when Panic stance ends
        • (Panic) Fists and arrows: Extreme physical damage, lowers reflexs and defense for 2 turns
        • (Panic) Fast fist/arrows: Slap on some e-gel (preferred) or e-spray and use Fists and arrows, uses 1 e-gel/e-spray, has a higher skill cost and lower accuracy but prevents the stat debuff, does not apply the normal effect of e-gel/e-spray
        • (Panic) Throwing hands: Attack with all their might, heavy phys damage and low skill cost but deals small phys damage as recoil
        • (Panic) (Ultimate) Headshot: No holding back, aims for the head, deals extreme phys damage which scales up with opponent health, causes all allies to become demoralised (all stats lowered by 20% calculated before stat buffs/debuffs) for the rest of the fight
    • ‘Verse: Reignboot
    • Story role (Note, side denotes the main team, A is Reign’s Musketeers and B is the Rainbow Stripes)
      • Side A – Story 1: The Search For Milk: Protagonist
      • Side A – Story 3: Big Welcome Home: Protagonist
      • Side B – Story 4: All Good Things: Party member (Epilogue only)
      • Side 🆎 – Story 5: Where we Fall: Party leader (Team A)
    • Karaoke song
      • Human – Flavour Foley (with Del)
      • Mr Roboto – Styx
      • Built to Last – The Protomen (With Brodee)
      • Pinkie’s Coffin – KOA (With Fiona Colour)
    • Occupation: Web developer, later R&D assistant
    • Hobbies:
      • Loves watching cartoons and anime
        • Enjoys stuff that’s mind bending
        • Loves shows that focus on robots and androids
      • Lurks in online fandom spaces
      • Avid gamer
        • Typically plays turn based JRPGs
        • If a game has in game non-monetary gambling, they’ll be into that
          • Dice roll dialogue checks mostly
        • Also into FPS games
          • Typically does sniper builds
      • Loves doing photography in the woods
      • Has learned to bounce objects around their home with a shocking level of precision
        • Loves doing trickshots (throwing bouncy balls into a small cup), doesn’t film them or anything, just loves doing them
    • Background: London born and raised
      • Born and raised in Lewisham, doesn’t talk details past this
      • Moved to the US for a good job, joining a couple of social groups but quickly dropped out. The only person they really spoke to is Brodee, who they kept in frequent contact with
      • Eventually they moved to their current home after saving up for the move, putting them outside of town
    • Strengths:
      • If given a reason, will push through any obstacle to see their goal
      • Second level tech wizard
      • Crack shot
    • Weaknesses:
      • Crippling social anxiety
      • Not great at taking a hit
      • Mentally not able to go through with a long term adventure

    Character notes that don’t belong above:

    • Reign is someone with autism, showing the following symptoms throughout the story (if any of this is incorrect then please tell me! I have researched as much as I can and matched Reign’s behaviour to the symptoms I’ve seen)
      • Limited speech pattern when anyone else is around, getting words out in 3 word bursts
        • They are aware and do their best to communicate with this
        • Speech typically comes out blunt and to the point, not like they have words to spare
        • For a lot of info, they tend to quickly type on their phone, they’re fine with texting and online messaging
        • Alone, they can talk their own ear off for hours about the style of one of their favourite game series out loud without pause
      • Very much prefers life alone
      • Struggles to form relationships with people,
      • Speech is monotone
      • During most interactions, they carry a neutral expression, sometimes giving a small smile or a serious expression but only sometimes
      • Likes to stick to a daily routine, mostly in their own home so they can control as many variables as possible
      • When adventuring, they focus on the task at hand or whatever their friends are doing, as to distract from the lack of routine and lack of home
        • Note that they typically don’t start any detouring, they just follow along with others doing it
      • Finds beef biltong extremely comforting to chew on
        • With the whole video gamesk thing going on, while a bit of biltong is minor healing for most, it’s a full heal for Reign, oh no they’re eating the packet, oh no they’re begging for more, how can you say no to that face
      • Becomes quickly overwhelmed in stressful situations
        • If the whole panic thing isn’t a tell, being stripped of their friends for support is a trigger
      • Touch averse, even if someone is being friendly
        • Brodee gets a pass, he’s way too chill
      • At the end of story 1, suffers from a shutdown after Brodee is critically injured
      • Feels other than human, feels awkward even walking and feels they don’t walk properly
      • Can have strange reactions to social interactions
        • For example, when being given praise, instead of feeling good, they instead feel pressure of living up to the praise and worry about keeping it up and if they will end up disappointing in the future
    • Reign deals with Agoraphobia, struggling without someone there to help ground them
      • Dealing with strangers makes their anxiety much worse, even with someone there to ground them, they don’t talk much
        • Weirdly great for the whole video game style thing going on if they barely talk but that is a coincidence, Reign is like this outside the context of this story
    • Brodee is the only person that is in their life before they discovered themself, not that either of them will ever talk of such a time
      • Brodee is proud they’re living their best life

  • Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 4

    Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 4

    ← Chapter 3

    Chapter 4: Last Hero Standing

    TW: The post credits scene of this story contains a brief description of a gory scene

    “She… she will be fine” Del looks to Reign, a confident expression betrayed by her tone, “Well I am not aware of what fine might be for her but she’ll get out of there when she wakes up. Now, you have one of those healjectors for our fallen brother or am I going to need to practice CPR?” She taps her foot to an unknown beat, stabilising to the beat of chest compressions. Reign rolls their eyes with a tiny smile, throwing across a syringe which is caught and quickly injected into the recipient. His body carefully taken to a nearby park where he is seated, giving the carrying duo a few minutes to rest their heavily used arms.

    Brodee’s eyes finally open, enough rest for now, he has work to do! The world is a blur for a moment before his eyes focus on the elegant blue sky, the sun beaming down, the flowers of the park, all different bright colours, standing out from the basil green grass and bushes. “… Did I die…?” His words collapse out of his mouth. Eyes go to his sides, on the lovely little park bench is Del to one side and Reign to the other, “Guess not, you’re still hiding behind that hoodie” he produces a weak chuckle, as much of a grin as his tired little mouth can produce. Reign gives a blush and looks away, not too impressed at the comment, but tries to turn things around by producing the funky fresh Brodee basketball, spinning it on their fing- it falls, leaving them to chase it down the path, hunched over and repeatedly kicking it away from their hands. 

    “……..” He watches for a minute or so before remembering that it might be rude and turning to Del, “So… Do you have any tricks for me?” He offers a smile to her, feeling his senses properly coming back to him. “Well I did want to ask if you are feeling well” Del looks to him with a strange, deadly serious look aimed right at his chest, “You… for lack for a better word, snapped in the fight, so I would like to ensure that you are feeling well enough to continue” nanobots swarm around her wrist, forming some form of X-ray scanner, letting her see through to the bone, she takes a look all over him, wincing a bit at his torso. “Look, you’re not going to get hit by something like Wendy again but after this, you need to rest, a big fall or fighting Wendy again could ruin your bone structure. At the very least, do your best to stop torso attacks” she nods, happy of her assessment. Brodee gives a soft sigh, “Please don’t tell Reign about this, they’ll think this was their fault or start on a mental spiral, I won’t hide it, just… after we have the milk” he shoots an apologetic smile and gets a solemn nod in response, right on cue for the third amigo to return with the ball, they’re panting pretty hard.

    After a few unsuccessful moments of catching their breath, The hooded leader holds up the ball, “Ball,” is all they say in their deadpan tone, passing the ball back to its owner, getting a small chuckle from the party. They stare blankly for a few moments, studying the reaction as if encountering humanity for the first time. Del soon takes notice and stares back with a light head tilt, they quickly look away, mumbling a quiet “Sorry…” Now it’s Del’s turn to stare in confusion, “I… uh” they look away but feel a pair of eyes boring into them, their feet start to shuffle on the ground, “Wait… let me” they grab their phone and start rapidly typing. Fingers like lightning, sweat on their brow, tap tap tap, the physic begging of the eyes to get off of them, not that they have any kind of way to push these thoughts into anyone else’s mind. A lot of taps later, their eyes run over the screen multiple times before showing it to the group. “Sorry, I’m not great with social skills or… people at all really, I can be really weird, not like I don’t try to talk more or anything like that, I just find other people really hard, moreso IRL. Del, you seem really cool and being tech dorks sounds really cool but this isn’t something I can turn off” they were sure their heart could be heard through the bench.

    Brodee is the first to speak up, “Reign, you don’t have to be so hard on yourself” for the first time in the adventure, his tone is dejected, his chipper tone replaced with sorrow and worry.

    Reign quickly replies, “Three years” their eyes divert away, this was meant to get eyes off of them.

    His eyes are pinned on them, “Three years? What’s three years?”

    “Since we met” they close their eyes, “Been three years”

    “So?” his tone is unreadable, mixed between pushing back and genuine aggression, “Reign, you show up at my door and have I looked upset or anything? We chat all the time online”

    They don’t look, they can only imagine the look on this face, their hand starting to shake, making the message rather hard to read, “But I-”

    “Right, I’m not being clear enough” He sighs, leaning in and pulling them into a tight hug, a move catching them so off guard, they drop their phone, “You’re not a bother for being yourself, I get that this has probably been exhausting for you, but please, it seems like you’re making friends, don’t…” he pauses, trying to find the wording he wants to use, “Don’t lock yourself completely off, you don’t have to push yourself but Del and Fiona seem pretty friendly, it doesn’t have to be constant meetups or anything, just saying high and catching up sometimes” his usual chipper tone has completely disintegrated, leaving behind pleading words of a close friend.

    They don’t know how to react, heart racing the hardest it has in years at the physical contact, their arms spread out and confused, “I…” they look to Del who has their phone safe and sound and appears to be abstaining from the conversation but gives a friendly smile in agreement to his words. “I can try” one arm faintly wraps around him, “But I dunno” the other arm joins on him, “If I can” they take a deep breath in, a slow breath out, “So, who’s d’Artagnan?”

    “Who’s…? You mean the Musketeers? I guess Fiona, I think Del is part of the trio at this point, she’s really stepped up our game. I guess it’s the reverse though, us three trying to get the favor of the knights” he lets out a soft chuckle, “Sorry to get serious on you, sometimes I just need to remind you that at least one person outside your bubble of one cares, alright?” His arms slowly remove themselves as he sits back up, passing the phone back to its owner.

    Del finally speaks up, “If it helps, I would like to formally be friends and I can ask Fiona on the matter when she’s feeling more awake, if you would like” a small nod of acceptance is given in response, “Wonderful, well it is nice to make a friend”

    “So” the sportaholic looks to the people on both his sides, expression brightening up yet again, “Let’s get this milk before one of us breaks down in some way” voice back to its chipper tone, he springs to his feet, getting a couple of stretches in as the others got to their feet. “Final stop on this heroic tour?”

    Reign stretches their arms, a small smile on their face, “All for one?”

    Del rolls her eyes with a smile on her own face, “And one for all, let’s go, Athos, I can take a guess at where the big guy will be, not like Wendy was in any state to tell us” and with that, she leads on, a spring in her step.

    The walk is neither long nor arduous, for Reign it might be with their double layers in the sun but for everyone dressed for the weather, it was fine. The trio walk side by side, warm breeze blowing in their faces, the final fight in sight, talking to the strange woman they keep encountering on their journey. Tall, long brunette hair, dressed in a jumper because there couldn’t be one person badly dressed for the season. As they approach, they catch a bit of the conversation.

    “… I dunno, mix something up, like you think it he person that managed to get legally recognised non-binary markers on local IDs would be called something other than ‘he’ this or that” Haloes thinks for a moment, “I mean, I don’t want to be like-” he looks up and sees the group, quickly zipping it and giving a wave. Mapel turns and gives a bright smile, eyes sparkling brightly!

    “Hey guys! Sounds like you had quite a day” she beams, her voice sounding softly ethereal, “Wanna tell me about it before you take on the big leader? You know how much I love your perspective,” Reign nods, the trio spending a bit of time explaining what has been happening today, the twists, turns, the fights, and sweet moments. They soon run out of memories to gush about, “Wonderful, I’ll let you all be, give my regards to the next me you meet!” And with that, she walks past and out of the soon to be fight radius.

    “So,” Haloes waits until it’s the trio and himself, “you three look like you’ve been through a lot, you still want to go through with this?” Unlike when he was speaking with Mapel a moment ago, his tone has a lot more confidence, a much more typically heroic tone. Reign simply nods in response, hand shooting to their holster. “You don’t have to grab that thing too quick, I’m not going to surprise attack or anything, if I really wanted, I probably could have you all passed out on the ground by now. You’ve probably noticed a couple of people you fought here have powers, well I’m no exception. To make this fair, I won’t use my usual sword or armour, I’ll even let you get the first hit, just don’t expect me to be easy on you after that,. The only people getting through are emergency services and people strong enough to see whatever they’re doing through,” he glares at them for a moment, taking in the details, the final judgement, “I would prefer not to call an ambulance so if you do feel like this is too much for you at any point, just say and I’ll stop,” his final warning has a stern edge to it, a genuine warning under the heroic bravado. Reign and Brodee both look to their third member.

    “… huh?” Del looks back, “Oh, you want info? Hmm……..” She puts her hand on her chin, goes deep into thought, seconds extend into minutes, minutes extend into hours, hours extend into days. And after 2 minutes of pondering, “… If we are to treat this as a real fight, I believe we are, what’s the common word for it? Ah yes, we are screwed,” she gives a bright smile, she did find the right word after all but after a bit more awkward pleading staring, “look, if he wanted to kill us, he could have crushed our brains by now, do you have a counter attack for that? And before you ask for a weakness, based on everything I have seen, there is no weakness we can strike. He is possibly mortal, though I haven’t seen him age at all so that could be incorrect,” she continues mumbling her thought process out loud but none of it provides a solution. She does eventually stop, ponder for a few moments, “Oh!” a spark in her eye, “He’s not as strong as Wendy, if we beat the snot out of him before he does the same to us, we might be able to win! He is smart though, that’s why I didn’t hold another planning session, he would see right through it,” she gives a thumbs up to a bewildered duo.

    Reign sighs, digging through their pockets, “Hit hard, together,” they grab out a stack of bolts with shining tips, “I shoot explosive,” they point to the hero ahead, “Hit them together,” the other two nod. One basketball bouncing and one set of nano bots forming a fist roughly the size of its user. Bolts loaded into a smaller than normal crossbow, the leader of the group steps forward, “Go” they fire all bolts in the stack around the area, fist and ball charging straight ahead, hero casually standing with no stance or guard up at all. For a second, time appears to slow, 8 bolts all around the hero, ready for an explosive impact, followed up with a dual full force beatdown from a duo, how could this possibly go bad? Even if the bolts are punched or knocked, they’ll still explode on impact!

    8 simultaneous explosions land with two fighters launching themselves into the resulting fog, Reign quickly reloads with plain old bolts, waiting for the visual to clear so they know where to shoot if needed. Before they can see what is happening, the basketball they bought shoots at them at lightning speed, a perfect headshot causes them to almost fall backwards but they’re able to just about to keep their footing, keeping an eye on the ball in case it’s needed soon. The scene ahead soon becomes clear, Haloes hasn’t even moved, shattered crossbow bolts scattered no closer than a foot away from him, and to top it off, Brodee and Del are frozen in place, fists a few inches from his face with red translucent chains wrapped around their arms. They struggle to no avail, arms locked tight.

    “So…” Haloes looks between the three of them, “… this is what you three can do?” He finally makes a move, getting a closer look at the struggling arms, “This is what took out Wendy?” He looks a slight bit insulted by the effort put up, “Look, if you can’t even touch me, let alone break through my basic power then I really can’t let you pass. And sorry Del,” a swift gut punch to Brodee and neck chop to Del takes them out of action, the chains fading away and letting them drop to the ground, his eyes move to the group’s leader.

    Del has taken a fatal hit!

    Brodee has taken a fatal hit and has been removed from the fight!

    “Unless you have something up your sleeve, I highly suggest you take your friends and take your leave, we can take care of things as soon as we have the evidence to intervene,” his stare is detached and deadly serious, not a hero giving a light warning but a guard telling a citizen to back off.

    “…” Reign’s eyes were not focused on the hero ahead, their ears were not taking in his warning, their eyes were focused completely on their fallen allies, their breath becomes uneven, eyes undulating, what little colour in their face drains, “…” their mouth moves but no words come out, “…” they plan for something to say but nothing comes out “…” eyes are on them but nothing comes out. Their body tenses, heart racing, mind running faster than it was ever meant to, before they register what is happening, they’ve loaded a stack of bolts, eyes shooting up to see the target, a burning intensity behind them.

    Reign has gone berserk, all stats increased

    “Look, I’m not an enemy, I just needed to prove the point, you could be dealing with someone-” a bolt is fired, Haloes blocks it without effort, a small red shield appearing around him for a split second for the bolt to bounce off of. “We’ve had reports of a massive operation that has stripped the local area of milk, someone that could put that together could be extremely dangerous!” His eyes move away from the last bolt launched at him and… wait, they’re gon- another bolt, deflected. “What are you even trying?” he looks at the ground around him, nothing wrong there…

    Reign uses e-gel, speed further increased!

    His eyes look up just in time, a bolt bounces off the ground as Reign has launched themself from a nearby building, the extra speed from their current state stacked with the additional speed from the gel allowing them an extreme speed and with it, a lot of power behind the fist currently pointed at the hero’s face. He blocks the bolt but doesn’t have time to put the full force of his power behind blocking the fist, he puts what he can up but it shatters like fragile glass. The fist connects, launching the both of them multiple feet.

    Haloes has taken a fatal hit! He holds on through Heroic Resolve!

    Haloes landing on his back with Reign on their knees on top of him, quickly aiming their crossbow at his face. Not a flicker of the meek person or any humanity behind those eyes, he looks to them with wide eyes, his eyes flicking to the crossbow. Their trigger finger moves, pulling the trigger, as it gets halfway to firing, a red hand appears behind their head and neck chops them.

    Reign has taken a fatal hit! Their heart races and won’t let them stop!

    Haloes pauses for a moment, expecting them to stop or pass out or collapse or something that indicated that a neck chop, his go to move for a quick take down of someone weaker and this group are a group of random people, heck, wasn’t this person meant to be some kind of shut in?! Regardless, time is running out for him to act, his hand clenches, launching up into their unguarded chin. Reign launches a foot into the air, landing to the ground with a heavy thud.

    Reign has taken a fatal hit!

    The party has fallen

    The failure of a trial means the road forwards will remain blocked!

    You must persist!

    You must

    take your

    life in

    your hands…

    “You good??????????” Brodee’s voice rings through, “Come on, I know you’re not that much of a sleeper, I swear if you’re dead I’m not going to forgive you” Reign’s eyes slowly open, a groggy groan coming out of their mouth, standing over them are their two buddies of course! “Oh thank god, I would have actually killed him if he killed you, I mean, I would have tried” he smiles but there’s a serious edge to his words, his hands are clenched into fists and shaking. They sit up, feeling sore in the jaw, “It happened again, didn’t it?” In response, they look away, hiding their face behind their hair, “I’m not saying that you need to fix yourself or anything but that was a friendly fight, not life or death” while carrying the firmness of this being wrong, his tone is gentle and caring, his words catching in his throat, “wait I don’t mean to be harsh or anything” his breathing hitches, his eyes darting away from his friend. “I just mean, you don’t have to worry so much about us, we’ll be fine”

    “… alone,” they softly mumble to themself, “being alone,” they finally look back to him, tears in the corner of their eye, “away from home,” their heart is racing again, but different this time, “it hurts,” why does it suddenly feel hard to breathe? “Fight to stop,” they take a deep breath through their nose and slowly breathe out of their mouth, “stop the hurt,” they look away without hiding their face, taking a few deep breaths.

    “The worries can wait until later” Del chips in, “We do have a job to do, don’t we?” She offers a hand up which is taken with some reluctancy, “I’ve had a chat with the big guy and we’re allowed through, with a stern warning to be careful of course” her tone is carefree, given how she was found, she’s likely heard this kind of warning before and didn’t listen that time either. They simply roll their eyes with a smile, “So musketeers roll out?” She gleefully repeats this saying or possible inside joke with a bright smile, like they hadn’t been beaten a short time ago, a thumbs up given by Reign and a small chuckle by Brodee. A shared deep breath is had as they step on the newly opened path, the path stretching far into the distance. Finally, they have proved themselves enough to get through this darn roadblock, hopefully the end is in sight, Reign would very much like to deflate at home soon.

    Watching them go, Haloes sees the prince approach “How’s the B team doing?”

    Arthur sighs, “Better, the bolt wounds have healed and Fi is rested”

    “Good, can you have them follow the group from a distance? I have gotten word from the city that we can finally move in”

    “From a distance? Why not just send them in? Hell, why not go yourself?”

    “Well that group going off into the distance can probably actually get everything done, they’re a tight knit group but some backup wouldn’t be bad in case something happens, and someone has to stick around to guard while we wait for Wendy to wake up”

    “… fair enough, I’ll go and get everyone,” and with that, the prince gets his phone out, quickly making calls.

    Next time?

    The trio walk through the desert, following a well driven road to their destination, the hours pass, the sun moves across the sky. As the sun gives it’s last gasp of light in today’s sky, they see it, what could best be described as a dark wizard’s tower. The sands around it are well driven and many loading bays surround the ground floor. This is the final stop on the local tour.

    Credits

    • Colour Printer – Writing & Cover art

    Thanks

    • Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through

    ???

    The credits have finished rolling but something is still there, a static that clears to be some form of interview room, Haloes sitting on the provided chair. “You have to understand that…”

    The scene cuts with static, Chi is standing in front of armed guards in some form of prison, arms spread to protect unseen people “Get behind me!” After a few seconds, a gunshot rings out and statics back to Haloes.

    “…sadly, in this world…”

    Static again, clearing to Fiona, a gleeful smile on her face as she looks ahead, “With this power, I can help everyone!” She sounds thrilled beyond anything seen within the story, static back to Haloes.

    “…heroes…”

    Static to an image of what appears to be a blonde Haloes locked in a cell, curled up on the floor, static quickly returns to the interview.

    “…can’t be made clean…”

    Static to a point of view shot, vision blurring as Wendy looks to her hands, coated in blood, then past her hands to a pile of corpses, ripped apart, insides mixing from the number of open wounds, back to the interview.

    “…there’s always a scar”

    The image cuts.


    Afterword

    Okie this is actually over now

    Some words from our god and creator (the author)

    You know, like Colour Printer, the person that made this?

    You can stop looking at this weird now please, you’re making me nervous I just wanted to say hi

    Thank you for reading! This has been new and different and wonderful to make. Some of these characters have been in my head since September 4th 2013 (Haloes has anyway) and I love them all dearly even with how much they are tortured. And if I end up writing every part of this world, I apologise to Wendy, girl suffering the sins of someone else.

    Here’s a Q&A based on questions I imagine people have, I’m always willing to answer questions directed to me on my Bluesky profile

    • What are these characters? We did start half way through the story
      • Reign is a web developer with serious social issues. They learned how to throw and shoot small items to pass the time alone at home. Their usual interactions with others is online work meetings and chatting with Brodee (online of course), they tend to keep to their home and the private area around it, they live outside the local town
      • Brodee is a retail worker that plays basketball on the side, he’s the only person that Reign has in their life from before they realised the whole non-binary thing, well afterwards too but that’s less impressive
      • Del is the lead (and only) engineer at the local Delta Tech R&D lab, focusing on robotics and AI (not like LLM, actual AI). She’s encountered after a panic state is triggered within the lab, causing a barricade to block the path forward with comms not working to check if she was alright. After being rescued from her own machines, she joins the group as thanks
      • The Rainbow Stripes…. you’ll have to see, I will say that there are at least a couple more of them though :3
    • What the heck was that post credits thing?!?!?
      • Glimpses of the Rainbow Stripes, silly little goobers
      • But really, it’s a teaser of the heroes side of things,
    • What were the items being used?
      • egel/espray
        • When used on receptive characters (typically fem characters, but there are exceptions), gives a speed buff
        • When used on an unreceptive character, gives a attack/defence down
        • No effect on nonhumans
      • tgel/tspray
        • When used on receptive characters (typically masc, but there are exceptions), gives a speed buff
        • When used on an unreceptive character, gives a speed down
        • No effect on nonhumans
      • Healjuvinator
        • Provides a full heal outside of a fight, needs time to work, not great to use in a fight
        • Works on humans and zeon
    • You have plenty of character cards but the descriptions don’t match the characters here! >.<
      • That… that isn’t a question, but anyway most of those character cards are for my TreBoot project, a total revamp of my characters from scratch
      • Reign has a card but that was for a different project showing my self inserts, I want to do cards for this story like my existing cards!!!
    • Do you have some kind of class system or are you just throwing stuff at the wall?
      • There’s a 5 part class system consisting of
        • Weapon set
        • Fighting style
        • Fighting position
        • Party role
        • Powers/skills
      • For example, Reign’s fighting spread is mini crossbow, sharpshooter, Tier 2 commander/Ranged damage, trick/elemental arrows
      • There are some special options for some options
        • Commander party role, this is an additional party role that provides buffs to the party and provides the commander a one time chance to power through an attack that should take them down when said character is in command of the party
        • Polymath weapon set, allows use of all weapon types with basic skills, may also include a specialised weapon
        • Characters with powers may also have a skillset
        • Haloes exclusively has 2 powers, there is a lore reason for this
    • Are you going to make more of this? You left a lot at the end there
      • If I can, I’d love to write the whole thing, it’s a story of 3 times
        • The present of Reign and heroes
        • The dystopian far future
        • The greener fields of far far far far future
      • At the very least, I’d like to write the first 2 parts of this era, one covering the whole of this journey and the other covering the history of the Rainbow Stripes. The rest of the era is close to my chest but there is another Reign story and Rainbow Stripes story as well as an epilogue

    Again, thank you again for reading, it means the world to me that I’ve been able to share this, thank you for reading. Please leave any comments either below or on my Bluesky linked above!

  • Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 3

    Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 3

    ← Chapter 2

    Chapter 3: Worries of Wendy

    Arthur sighs with a smile, “Just for the record, she always thinks I’m cute, pom poms or not. And don’t worry, I think you got the energy out of her, she was long overdue some rest” he picks her up, shoulders on one arm and knees bent around the other. Carefully pulling out a couple of syringes, he passes them to Reign, “Fast heals, they tire you out but supercharge the healing process, your friends might need some from the whipping, sorry about that, if I thought there was real danger, she would have stopped” he offers a soft smile, “Get them healed up and I’ll walk you to a cafe to have a break, it’s near the next text and on my way to the castle to drop Fi off” 

    Reign doesn’t hesitate to sprint over to the party, quickly giving them their jabs. The process takes a few minutes but by the end of it, both the wounded are healed up, if a bit winded, Brodee flashes a smile, “Just that easy… can we agree that whips are off limits? Don’t need to get hit like that again” he offers a small chuckle, standing tall while still taking deep breaths. Del gets to her feet, heavily breathing herself, “I agree, the whip was a bad idea, at least the shield seemed to help?” Reign gives an eager nod, “Shield works” they look to their arm where the shield was, “Hard to reverse” they wander back to Arthur, party behind them. “Let’s go” and with those words, Arthur leads on. “So…” Arthur starts, “… Why are you doing this? I mean, you just took down Fiona so I presume there’s a good reason” 

    Reign softly chuckles, “I want milk” Seeing the look on the prince’s face, they decided to elaborate, “Asshole took it” this seemed to be enough for the prince, “Going to be honest, kinda crazy that you’ve come this far just to get some milk back, h-how did you even get multiple people on board with this? Well I guess you really put your heart into things so I bet people just follow, wouldn’t be the first group I’ve seen. If you make it past the members of the A team, you better get your milk back, I heard Rainbow Bright tried but he was stopped due to not having the evidence, that’s what Fi was dealing with all night. And if someone has done something to make her upset, you know the whole team will be behind you” in response to full support, Reign… hid their face, turning their head away, their heart rate increasing. “Oh urr… did I say something wrong?!” Arthur appeared panicked that his words didn’t have the intended effect.

    Brodee put arms around both chatter’s shoulders, “Prince, you didn’t do anything wrong, Reign’s just… themselves, that was a good speech, would have probably worked on most people” their tone is a cheerful one, “And Reign, we’ve got your back, we’re not gonna make you do it alone, lighten up if you can, I’m happy to shoulder everything with you” at these words, they both visibly relax. His point made, Brodee slows down a bit behind the leaders, walking next to Del once again.

    Arthur speaks up again, “So anyone outside of your party that you’d do anything for? Clearly I don’t need to ask about who you’re traveling with” Reign thinks for a few moments, shaking their head, “Brodee’s my friend” they smile, a warm, lost in thought, smile “He’s the best” their words are much more warm and less deadpan than usual, “He’s… always there” Arthur is extremely clear with his facial expression that he wasn’t expecting that answer, “Well… glad to hear you’ve got someone firmly in your corner” he looks down to Fiona, a warm smile on his own face.

    He soon stops, producing out a card for Reign to take, “Just show this in the cafe, they’ll get you whatever you want, and don’t worry, they do a good English breakfast if that’s your kind of thing” after passing the card, he points over to a building labeled ‘Rainbow Cafe’, “Please take the time to plan your next fights, Wendy and Rainbow Bright are literally made for fighting, they’re not going to make a possibly dangerous journey easy to start. And have a good stay, aside from the local guard attacking you, you are all honoured guests here” he does his best to bow before walking on, being gentle with the woman in his arms. The party bow in response before heading their way towards the cafe.

    They quickly find a table and look over the menu, the specials on the menu named after the group they’ve been fighting all morning. Brodee grins, “So, what are we having? I’m looking at the Chi special myself” Reign is next to speak up, “Fiona special please” and finally Del “One set of small cheese twists and one set of small bacon twists please” her eyes light up bright at the idea of mini pastries. Brodee takes the prince’s card, going up to the counter.

    Del smiles to Reign, “So, it seems like we might have similar interests, have you ever tinkered with electronics?” Reign thinks for a moment before nodding, “What do you do for work and stuff?” Reign once again thinks, “Developer for corp” they lightly frown, looking down. “If you’re not feeling good about it, how about you come work for me? I think I’m going to need an extra pair of hands, developer, good with precise movements and has at least tinkered with electronics. It’ll be on site but I can arrange transport for you. I won’t push you on it, but I’d rather have you than some rando off the street” she starts frantically writing down on a napkin, “It won’t be too high stakes unless we really mess up and have to put a bot down” she finishes writing and slides it over to Reign.

    “Delta Co R&D assistant

    In this role you may be required to do the following tasks:

    • Assist in the development of cutting edge Delta Co technology
    • Ensure the facility is up to date and operating correctly
    • Report to the R&D lead (Currently Del)
    • Assist the R&D lead in tasks asked of you relating to the operation of their role or the facility, including administration work

    The following benefits will be provided:

    • Healthcare (full coverage)
    • Personal ownership of tools and developments at the discretion of the R&D lead
    • Personal transport to and from the job site
    • R&D site events
    • Bonus may be provided at completion of a successful product development

    Salary: $175,000 per annum”

    Reign’s jaw drops, “………….. Think about it” they carefully put the napkin in their pocket, “Seems like pressure” they feel their teeth scraping at the side of their mouth, “and big change” Del responds with a nod and a smile. 

    Brodee returns with drinks, “I had to take a punt but I hope you like what I got!” A decaf iced coffee for Reign, a sports energy drink for himself, and a peach energy drink for Del. Reign gives a thumbs up while Del… takes a moment before she gives it a sip, then going for a chug and giving her own thumbs up. Brodee gives a small sigh of relief to himself, sipping at his own drink, “So, today has been tough, I think we can agree” he looks to Del who has her can of drink turned upside down and chugging it as fast as gravity will allow her. Eyes then moving to Reign, they don’t look peachy keen on a good day but they clearly will sleep for a couple of days when this is all over. “… So, how about we actually discuss what we’re doing? I know you guys aren’t too fond of sports but strategy is the key to winning, we’ve done pretty well just swarming and doing things on the fly but we need to know what we’re dealing with and what we can do to counter them, we got the info and the three of us can put our heads together” a bright spark lights up behind his eyes, a grin on his face, for the first time all day, he’s felt truly in his element.

    Del shakes her can over her mouth, the last few drips of drink falling onto her tongue before laying the can on the table, “Right, that’s me! So our next opponent will be Wendy, I think we may need to make sure our medical information is up to date” after a few moments, Brodee gives a go on gesture, “Oh right, so she punches hard, very very hard, like she accidentally broke one of my titanium training bots, she put Rainbow in the hospital when they had a serious fight. The only thing she has outside of a hand to hand fighter is she can do a short range hard light style energy projection, usually using it for movement or to double up on attacks. Her fighting style is slower but she can give and take a good punch, simple but very effective” she looks down, her hands are shaking, “She’s nice but I don’t know if she knows how to hold back” she holds her hands to the table to stop them from shaking.

    Reign sighs, “So, let’s plan” they take a sketchpad out, writing “WENDY” at the top of the page, “Any ideas?” The trio relax just a little bit, getting themselves ready for the next step, enjoying their meals and enjoying a few drinks they didn’t have to pay for. 

    The trio eventually make their way to a training lab, a touch underground, a few stairs below the boring, regular training lab. Inside a woman with flowing, blonde hair facing away from the door. As they enter, 3 metallic training dummies spring up from the floor, the woman rapidly destroys them with one punch each, shattering the dummies, which quickly sink back into the floor. “As much as it’s good seeing the fighters around, this blockade idea is dumb as hell so don’t expect to remember how you leave”

    Brodee bursts out laughing, “Are you serious with that? Did you stand there for like an hour waiting for your dramatic speech?” He struggles to stand, even Reign gives a small chuckle. “So, you gonna fight or just give us another speech on the pointlessness of doing this?” He revs himself up, bouncing his fresh basketball around, starting with a bit of basic up and down but quickly progressing to bouncing it between his legs. Reign and Del give action poses as well, Reign popping out their mini crossbow and pointing it forward and Del giving a strongman pose with power fists around her hands.

    Wendy turns, eyes locked on Brodee like a predator locking onto prey, both of them tuning into what the other is going to do and charging forward. Wendy goes for a direct punch to the face while Brodee mirrors the attack with his ball in his hand, both dodging at the last moment with the ball being launched. Wall bounce, wall bounce… it hits the back of her head! “W-was that it?!” She sounds more perplexed than angry as she pulls back, looking towards the ball and it’s user, wordlessly kicking back as if to give an infant back their toy. He appears to ignore the possible taunting and starts bouncing the ball again to regain his flow, giving Reign a flick of a thumbs up as he rapidly bounces that ball around like no one will ever bounce it again!

    Reign starts rapid firing trickshots, off the walls, off the ceiling, even one off of Del, who creates a shield to deflect the shot. Brodee uses the bolts surrounding Wendy to charge in for a slam dunk with a path clear in front without the danger of bolts getting him in the back. Knees bending down he launches, ball overhead, he was ready to take a punch or kick if it meant the bolts would hit.

    Wendy takes in the scene, sporty guy, Brodee, looking like he’s completely opened himself up with an overhead smash, pure attack but he’s easily countered. Around her, 8 bolts coming from all angles outside of dead ahead, moving at speed so it doesn’t look like the hooded one, Reign, is holding back at all, either they’re charging into everything full force or Del warned them about her. Speaking of Del, she’s just… standing there, not seeming to be doing much, she’s reported to be supporting but right now all she’s doing is standing, did she give the info and that’s it? Wendy, for the split second ponders that she may be missing something, but runs out of time and has to act. She spins, a blue aura emanating from her fist as she knocks as many bolts off course as possible, finishing the spin, her fist launches into Brodee’s gut, after a beat, a burst of energy follows her fist, launching him away towards his party. Two bolts made us through the deflection, one landing in her left shoulder and the other landing in her lower right side back, there’s a small flinch as they dig into her flesh but nothing to indicate pain.

    Reign and Del run to get their buddy out of the crack in the wall he ended up making when he was punched away, needing a bit of a tug from them both to get the guy out. Brodee rubs his head as he gets to his feet, ball casually rolling up to him like some form of pet, “Alright, she hits real hard, get me some of that power gel, I’m going to need a boost” without hesitation, a bottle of tough gel is thrown to him.

    Brodee uses t-gel, attack and defence increased!

    “Gonna be honest, not sure why you have this much of this stuff but heck, it works in a pinch” he chuckles, charging right back into the fight, “Cover sides!” He calls out behind, Reign loads a set of bolts and starts firing again, as instructed, the bolts only go to the side. As soon as he’s in the right place, he launches his ball off the back wall again, this time at such a speed that it leaves a crack in the walls and rebounds to Wendy’s body.

    Wendy again takes in the scene around her, she’s only really got time for the bolts or whatever the guy was doing, not both, and in her experience, crossbow bolts hurt a bit more than a punch and a bit of a knock from a ball. Her arms swing around her sides, deflecting all the bolts. One thing sticks in her mind, she hasn’t seen Del do anything at all, just watch, hasn’t made a move, hasn’t pulled out some over the top gadget to attack, just watch it unfold. The attack comes, one hard blow to the upper back from the ball and one devastating gut punch at the front, the air is thrown from her lungs from the force of his punch, she keeps her footing but just barely. She gasps deep for air before her knee launches up, smashing into his jaw and launching him a full metre in the air, she stands stall, knee launching into his lower back while a fist meets in the middle as it launches to his chest.

    Brodee has taken a fatal hit!

    The crack that comes out of Brodee’s body freezes the air in the room, he falls to the floor, knocked out. Wendy looks at him with a look of pity in her eye, “He has promise” her eyes instantly shift to Del, “But… What are you doing? You’ve done nothing but watch the fight, no tool? No… gadget to launch at me?” her voice comes with a harsh serving of annoyance, her eyes glaring holes into the technomancer. She goes to take a step forward but her legs are fixed in places she struggles but she can’t lift them at all!

    “Incorrect” Del starts with a soft smile coming onto her face, “I have been launching gadgets the whole time, the bolts, the ball, even Brodee’s fist were laced with nanobots, nanobots I currently have magnetically pulling towards these Delta-tech tiles” she snaps her fingers and suddenly Wendy is finding it hard to stand, “Apologies, I was mostly making sure that the bots found their target, my friends are great at delivering them” she provides a bright smile, snapping her fingers again, Wendy is brought to her knees.

    Wendy does her very best to push herself up, but the moment she drags her body up, a tile from the wall snaps off, smashing her face and knocking her back down. Then another, then another, a pile of tiles raining down onto her struggling body until the pile stops moving. One last snap of Del’s fingers and the pile relaxes, lucky for Brodee, the pile ends just before his knocked out body.

    In the next chapter!

    “…am I going to need to practice CPR?”

    Reign sits in a park, blushing and looking away, hiding their face quickly

    “Please don’t tell Reign about this…”

    Haloes delivers a heavy punch to Brodee’s gut

    “All for one”

    “…something other than ‘he’ this or that”

    Haloes delivers a back of the neck chop to Del

    “It happened again, didn’t it?”

    Multiple projectiles explode on a rather casual standing Haloes

    “… One for all”

    Next time in Chapter 4: Last Hero Standing

    Chapter 4 →

    Credits

    • Colour Printer – Writing & Cover art

    Thanks

    • Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through

  • Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 2

    Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 2

    ← Chapter 1

    Chapter 2: Third Fight of Fiona!

    Brodee simply sighs, looking around for something to distract him from the fact that he’s probably broken a couple of ribs from that katana handle to gut, not that his ribs are there or anything. His eyes eventually settle on a sports shop. He’s entranced by the sight of his hobby, deviating from the group to take a look in the window, his eyes lighting up at high quality sports equipment. His eyes are then brought to the price tags, high quality equipment requires high quality funds, funds that a guy like him doesn’t have. “Want it?” Reign appears next to him without a sound outside their words, “… Late birthday gift” their visible cheek reddens a small amount.

    “Wait, you sure?” Brodee’s tone is of pure disbelief, not that he felt forgotten but Reign wasn’t one for getting gifts, not because they don’t care, they’re just horrible at remembering other people, a habit they appear to be trying to improve on. “It’d be great if you can afford it, the material is thicker so it’d be better for bouncing and it should stand up to more hits than the cheap one I’ve got” his eyes light up yet again, fully pulled in by the allure of better equipment and the idea of what could be done with it.

    “No worries” Reign offers a small smile despite their deadpan tone, “I’m well paid” they head inside, coming out a few minutes later with both a basketball, a pair of designer sports shoes, and a lighter bank account. Brodee excitedly bounced the ball around, oohing and ahhing at the better bounce, the more secure feel, and the improved grip. But then he stopped, Reign wasn’t putting on the trainers, “… last birthday” they put the trainers in front of Brodee, “Said your size…” they think for a minute, “… 3 years ago…” he removes his trainers, a size too small, and puts on the new trainers, a perfect fit. “Sorry for forgetting” Reign’s tone shifts ever so slightly, the voice just a tiny bit shaky. He sighs, enjoying the feel of the trainers for a small moment before pulling them into a tight hug, hoping that a quieter show of emotion would get through to the quieter person. It takes a few seconds but the hug is reciprocated, a sigh being the only verbal response, a sigh of letting out hot air, unknown stress, and other such bad things.

    “I am so glad I slipped a tracker in your pockets when we were leaving the lab” Del walks up with a smile, “… Nice shoes” she points finger guns to Reign’s shoes, waits a second, then goes back to walking to the next fight location without a care in the world, the rest of the group following along, a bit more of a spring in the duo’s steps. They soon find themselves standing outside a sparsely populated pub, no one outside and only small flickers of movement can be seen in the windows, Del’s hand stops inches from the handle, “Want to know about her before we go in?” She looks back to the group, getting nods in response, “Alrighty, Fiona Colour is fast, fashionable, and fearless, she is an elementalist through her giant paintbrush weapon and an illusionist through her own powers. Digital eyes aren’t fooled by the illusion, so I’ll be at an advantage but you two will be on your own unless you want to risk pulling out a camera… that enough?” Once again a couple of nods.

    The door slowly opens, all eyes drawn to a pair of people, serious expressions on their faces in the darkened room as one grabs a bat, they move to uncover an object roughly the same size as them, underneath was… a piñata! The area in front of the bar was cleared, outside of the piñata, a young man and a young woman, the both of them appearing to be the same age as the party. The woman is blindfolded and swinging a wooden stick around with a large grin on her face. One swing and a miss, two swing and a miss, three swing and a hit! Small sweets litter the ground as the man gives a little cheer, the woman removing her blindfold and looking around, eyes lighting up at the sweets.

    The party simply waits in an awkward silence around the entrance as the couple sweep up the sweets with their hands, finally noticing the party once the floor had gotten as clean as a couple of people scooping with limbs could make it. “Del!” The woman beams, dashing up close, “These must be your friends. I am Fiona Colour, protege of the Rainbow Stripes and leader of the B team… want a sweet?” Getting a closer look at Fiona, she has a different air around her, while the previous members seemed itching for a fight or at least wanting to get it over with instant attacks, she looks more ready to party, the arms of sweets not helping. The young lady stood with near flawless features, long blonde hair, and fashionable clothes from a classy autumn jacket to stylish shoes, a beaming expression on her face.

    Despite everything that could be said on a first meeting, Reign had their typical few words, “Accent… Mayfair” they immediately stand a bit straighter, “From Catford myself” Brodee and Del share a very confused look, outside of the accent of… British, they clearly had no idea how it could be pinned down like that. “Nice seeing Londoner” Reign offers a smile, a much warmer smile than they’ve given so far.

    Fiona beams even brighter, “Ah, a Lewisham lass-” her face quickly drops, she looks ready to facepalm but her sweet filled hands won’t let her, “……………………. shitting hell, sorry, label my posh butt dumb for that one” she looks to Reign who looks more caught off guard by the language than being called `lass`, giving a sigh of relief, she finally continues, “-well you don’t get many people with a London accent around here, good to have someone around here that knows the city, not that I don’t like the local accent, but the rest of the family either are southern English or American” there’s a sparkle in her eyes, “Do you get me?” Reign simply replies with a hurried nod, “Well win or lose, I’m gonna make you a pen pal” she gives a playful wink and a giggle.

    The man approaches, putting his armfuls of sweets on a nearby table and pulling Fiona away for a second to do the same, “I’m Arthur, don’t worry too much about me, I’m not the one you’re fighting, but I am the zeon prince so I should probably watch” next to Fiona, Arthur looks extremely plain, short, somewhat messy jet black hair, casual black clothes. Something out of the corner of his eye makes him jump, Fiona’s just pulled out pom poms! “Oh can I just watch, official duty and all that?” given Fiona’s quick change into a pounce like pose, watching wasn’t an option. Like lightning, she tackled him to the ground, securing his hands around the pom poms, a moment of pause as they just stared at each other before bursting out laughing, struggling but eventually getting to their feet. “I guess you also…” he doesn’t get to finish the sentence, the look he gets is enough to know the answer.

    The prince, resigned to his fate, started to change. In a couple of seconds, he had completely changed to a feminine form, while for the most part he looked the same apart from… woman, his haircut changing to a long pixie cut being the biggest change outside of this. Reign and Brodee looked at Arthur in amazement, mouth agape and all. Fiona speaks up with a smirk, “I hope you’re reacting like that because of the shape shifting and not because he’s hot, he’s mine!” She wraps an arm around him and holds on tight, using her free arm to fan away at the party, “… Wait why am I doing this, I gotta beat you guys up anyway… sorry Del, not going to go easy on you” she peels herself off of Arthur and leads everyone outside. 

    Once everyone got into position, she stomped her foot onto the ground, a giant paintbrush launching up in a rapid spin, she grabs it out of the air, pointing the brush end towards the party, standing on one leg with her free hand making a peace sign. Arthur quietly cheers with the pom poms. “Now would be a good time to get your weapons out” she paints on the ground, jumping on it, cannonball style, causing the paint to explode and launch her high into the air causing her to become a silhouette in the beaming sun.

    Fiona in front of the sun, ready to slam her paintbrush at terminal velocity

    She rolls a couple of times, holding her brush above her head and aiming right as Reign with the thick wooden handle. Then she falls, falling, falling, falling, as she gets ever closer to breaking a skull, Reign feels something on their arm, a nanobot formed shield, circular and already strapped in for Reign to raise their arm up and……

    Fiona phases through them and through the floor. A flicker of something catches their eye as they throw their arm around behind them, a heavy impact hitting the shield and pushing them back but they hold their ground. The culprit flickers into view, Fiona’s face appears with a wild smile and a deep fire in her eyes, pushing her full weight onto her paintbrush and into Reign’s shield. “You better not disappoint me now, Catford” Fiona flashes a cocky grin, flipping back and onto her feet to avoid a basketball which would have hit her head. She takes a simple moment to stretch, out of nowhere a large rocket propelled metallic fist clocks her in the face, sending her spinning on the spot.

    She orients herself, watching the scene around her, grabbing the rocket fist on its return trip, putting her hand inside and using the power of the rocket fist to punch the returning basketball directly towards Reign, the fist quickly collapsing into nanobots and returning to Del. Reign uses their shield to deflect the basketball back to Brodee with good enough timing to actually get it to him. Fiona sighs, “Gosh, you do have a good eye,I might have overplayed my powers already, if you’re expecting me to fool you with illusions, you should better know that I love a good twist” 

    With a twirl of her brush, she splatters blue paint on the ground, a wall of ice erupting from it, creating a wall between herself and Reign, another splatter of paint at her feet and a blast is sending her straight towards Brodee and Del. She sprays some brown paint ahead of her, hardening into small fragments not unlike shrapnel, both targets jumping to the side but suffering some cuts, nothing too deep or sticking in. She skids to a halt on her feet, followed by one crossbow bolt scraping her right shoulder and another bolt sinking into her left shoulder, she gasps but otherwise doesn’t react to the bolt lodged in her, instead splatting some red paint behind Brodee, causing an eruption of flames behind him as she threw herself towards him, already at a half swing.

    He goes for a trickshot off the ground, slamming his basketball into the ground and putting his arms up to block the strike the best he can, closing his eyes and putting everything into his feet and arms. The blow comes, a hard hit at full force slamming against his arm but unlike the blow against Reign, the force on his arms unexpectedly stopped, he opens his eyes, looks like the basketball got her in the gut and in the moment, Del was able to wrap a whip around her arm, able to keep her fixed in place in a clash of strength.

    She looks below herself, using her foot to kick the basketball used to attack her behind her, distracting Del enough to pull the whip from her hand and take control of it, whipping in front of and behind her, landing strikes on Brodee and Del, leaving deep wounds across their chests but not taking them out of the fight yet. “Del, blunt arrows!” Reign calls out, crossbow pointed directly at little Fiona. A whip comes Regin’s way, aiming for their shield but the shield collapses into nanobots before the whip can land, the nanobots clinging to Reign’s full clip of crossbow bolts, bolts that were soon fired as trick shots in Fiona’s direction, her looking at the pathing of the bolts, whipping a couple out of the air to make an opening to jump though to avoid where was aimed for.

    However, the bolts continue to bounce around, an unclear reason for so much bouncing until Fiona feels the punch of 4 separate blunt bolts, all hitting her chest and back, completely taking the air out of her lungs. As she attempts to get her breath back, Reign kicks her to the floor, crossbow pointed an inch from her face, the intent was clear enough. “Fine… you win, good game, Catford” she smirks to them, pushing the crossbow aside and getting up and finishing that stretch from earlier, “Dang you put on a good show, thought I might have had it in the bag when Del pulled out an old style whip and let me take it” she carelessly pulls out the crossbow bolt from her shoulder as she speaks, throwing the bolt in a nearby bin.

    A big yawn escapes her lips, “I think it might be time for my prince to whisk me away” she throws her arms up in the air and slowly starts to fall backwards, like lightning, Arthur was behind her for the catch, “Well since my prince is here, you know a true love kiss from a prince heals all… darn I love it when you’re so cute” she giggles frantically to herself, getting weaker and weaker until it’s pretty sure that she’s fallen asleep, a gentle smile on her face.

    In the next chapter!

    “Get them healed up…”

    Brodee casually throws his arms around Arthur and Reign

    “I had to take a punt…”

    ‘WENDY’ is written on the top of a sketchpad page

    “… don’t expect to remember how you leave”

    Next time in Chapter 3: Worries of Wendy

    Chapter 3 →

    Credits

    • Colour Printer – Writing & Cover art
    • skelaxo – Fiona story art (Comm him, his art is amazing!)

    Thanks

    • Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through
  • Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 1

    Reign’s Musketeers Vs Rainbow Stripes Chapter 1

    Chapter 1: Eyes Awake for the B Team

    Sunlight flickers through the window of the inn room, tiny peeks of the world outside the lightly furnaced, rustic room. In the room’s single bed is a mess of blonde hair emerging from the hood of a thin, grey hoodie. The figure under the hair starts to stir, suddenly sitting up and moving the hair to one side to reveal the left side of their face. Reign spins around, legs thrown over the side of the bed, before getting onto their feet with a gentle thud then another few thuds as they stumble forwards before getting steady.

    “Need more sleep” they mumble to themselves, “…Later…” Grabbing into their backpack, they get a replacement set of clothes, including a hoodie and regular fit jeans, before stumbling their way to the ensuite. The ensuite is much more modern, though a wooden shower unit probably wouldn’t be too useful, with the basics for a fresh morning all supplied and ready to use,  the room like stepping from a fantasy style inn to a small, sanitary home bedroom. Reign puts their things to one side and looks in the full length mirror, taking the time to remember how they ended up in the inn in the first place.

    It all started when they woke up the day before and couldn’t find their milk, so they looked around Hometown and all the milk had been taken! They’ve partially taken any clue and wandered in the clue’s direction, ending up in this inn. Their left arm holds a tattered sleeve, the arm itself covered in lightly covered bandages. They carefully remove the bandages, cringing at the small stings of movement, they sigh as they see the splattering of cuts, still open, “… No more panicking” they unceremoniously reapply the bandages. Next bit of patching themselves up was a healthy helping of burn cream to their waist, while much more painful to touch, the memory of this one is a bit better, a very small smile on their lips between pained cringes of actually applying the cream. Final thing to check was the hidden side of their face, moving their hair to the side to inspect a peppering of pinprick cuts on their cheek, thankful that this one doesn’t need any covering.

    After the beating they clearly took yesterday, they’ve ended up in a rather new town, forming within the last 20 years, though they don’t remember the details too well, they were only a toddler at the time, and they’ve had no reason to leave their hometown in their life, all they know is that the town is almost completely occupied by space aliens! After bumping into the leader of the (assumed) human group, Rainbow Bright, they were informed that they won’t be through without completing a trial, but before even describing the trial, he got them a free room for the night to rest up first.

    Completely rushing the shower, Reign used their own shampoo but outside of that, was happy to use the supplied toiletries. They emerge from the ensuite freshened up with their blonde hair exploding out of the front of their hoodie, covering the right side of their face, emerald eye taking in the room one last time before they pack their damaged and dirty clothes and make their exit. The door to their room faces the top of the stairs down, they take a moment to look at the door of the room next to theirs, the door is open. They nod to themselves and take the first step down. A voice unsubtly runs up the stairs.

    “A TRAIL!!! From THE Rainbow Bright!” That young adult losing his mind is Brodee, Reign’s best (and totally only) friend, one quick look at him sitting at a table quickly confirms it, messy hair, loose sports clothes, basketball Reign thinks, but they actually have no idea. “I really hope this trial is a bit less tough than your robots though” he beams with a glint in his eye, bruised from a sucker punch. His fork wielding hand bruised around the knuckles where he tried to punch out a robot… it didn’t work, for the record.

    “Yeah, he’s pretty cool, I mean, I do know him… remember?” sitting opposite him is Del, the head engineer of the local robotics R&D site, her hair obscuring her face as she appears to be making repairs on some form of controller. “Always good for testing stuff too” a bit of oil from the controller drips onto her button up shirt and slim jeans, she appears completely unbothered by this and continues to tinker with the controller. Luckily for her, she has only just joined the group so she is free of battle damage for now, minus the fresh drop of oil, at least her plate is already empty.

    “Hey guys,” a rather unemotive tone from Reign as they take casual steps towards the duo, taking a seat at the table and looking at the food menu behind the bar, the chalkboard menu mostly features parts of a full English breakfast. After mulling it over for a minute, they’re back on their feet and towards the bar, behind the bar was a professional looking man in casual clothing, on his chest a name badge reads ‘J.K.’, when Reign approaches, he stops cleaning glasses and diverts his attention to the hooded person. “Bacon egg muffin” they look to the man behind the counter for a moment, “… Please.” J.K. nods and gives a thumbs up, firing up the hot top and preparing to make some food without a second delay with Reign nodding and returning to their seat.

    “You sleep well?” Brodee finishes up the last of his food, looking to Reign brightly

    “Yeah, burn still…” Reign gestures to the area of the burn mark, “… Hurts though” 

    “Sorry about that!” both Brodee and Del reply in unison

    “Don’t worry” Reign smiles softly as they look between the duo, “it’s all good”

    “Good to hear” Brodee gives a thumbs up, “I got some practice in this morning so that shouldn’t happen again” a small fire brewing behind his eyes, a promise behind his words.

    “Yeah, and I’ve got a stealth drone overhead to throw down some bots” Del clicks her controller back into one piece, “Should be a good bit of help”

    “Good to hear” Reign slumps into their seat a bit, letting themselves relax as they see J.K. approach the table, putting a double bacon and egg muffin down. “Thanks” they take no time in chomping it down, devouring the food before J.K. makes it back to the bar.

    Stepping out the inn into the heat of the sun, the trio make one step before a voice calls out to them. 

    “I hope you rested up well,” a figure they’ve all seen already approaches, its Rainbow Bright, sporting a casual T-shirt and shorts.

    “Oh yeah, thanks again for setting us up for the night” Brodee beams, “So what was the trial we gotta do? Not to rush, but I’m ready for it!” 

    “I do have one question first” Rainbow looks the group up and down a couple of times with a judging expression, “Have you ever encountered individuals with powers? Like beyond basic science type stuff”

    Del quickly steps forward before Brodee can think of a response, “Well I think I can spill the beans on that when it comes up, isn’t the point to keep everyone on their toes?” 

    “… Sure, why not?” Rainbow provides a casual shrug, “Since Del knows so much on the area, I’m sure she can guide you around as well. The first trial is in the small basement lab” he then gives an overdramatic bow, “And with that, I’ll be off, Del has my number if you need any assistance and I think there was a robbery a block away I need to chase down!” With those words, he runs off, turning a corner out of view.

    “Soooooo Del….” Brodee looks to Del with a harsh judging expression, “If you knew these guys, you could have said yesterday instead of me going in front for first contact”

    Del returns the eyes on her with a look of pure confusion, “Wait… did we talk to him yesterday? All I remember is walking and working on my new controller” the eyes on her quickly grow more judging “Really! If I saw any of the team, I would have said hi!” The eyes on her get more harsh, “I was working on a controller to help out, I very much doubt how well I can throw a punch but you both know how well my machines can!”

    “……………….. Alright” Brodee is clearly not convinced but drops the matter. “Well either way, we gotta get to the basement lab, so lead the way” he over dramatically throws his arm out to let Del walk ahead, before Del walks the other direction, seemingly completely obvious of what just happened.

    One short, boring, annoying, uneventful walk later, they stop outside a suspiciously bland building, so bland that within the block of normal buildings, it’s the blandest of them all. Reign takes stopping as a sign that this is the building they need and buzzes the electric doorbell/speaker that offices all seem to have, waiting for a response.

    “‘ello ‘ello, this is Alex, what can I help ya with?” The speaker speaks out with the extremely compressed voice of a woman, sounds cheerful at least.

    Brodee steps in, “Hey, we’re here for a trial? Rainbow Bright sent us here” after a second pause, the door unlocks, after another second of the trio looking at each other with no words, they walk in and head down the set of stairs at the entrance. The entry was, again, plain office style, a couple of signs showing companies upstairs but all of the companies have either rainbow or general colour theming. Down the stairs and past a keycard door Del has the key for, they enter the underground lab.

    The lab is more plain, more sterile, tiles line the walls and floor, the only thing interrupting the look of the room is a young, casually dressed woman under a stack of boxes, reaching for a computer terminal before seeing that people are already in the room. She starts to speak but before any words come out, she locks eyes with Reign.

    Like lightning she slips out from under the boxes, a catlike hiss coming from her mouth, picking a bulky sniper rifle from the floor and flicking a couple of switches on it. The sides of the rifle explode out, forming a barricade that spans the width of the room, the only hole at the centre around where the sniper scope pokes out. By this point, Reign has pulled their small crossbow from their waist, pointing it dead ahead, an uncharacteristic look of angured determination on their face.

    Brodee makes the closest sound to a bunch of question marks possible, Del looking over the scene for a moment before speaking up, “You said Reign is a developer, right? Well they’re both similar but not compatible maybe, I mean, if you had a new guy come in that’s chatty and sporty, you’re probably gonna hit on him or something, so that’s all good. I think myself and Alex have seen… the way Reign looks at other people, it’s not bad, but they give an aura of not wanting to flirt or anything like that, and if it’s not a flirt, it’s a fight” this does not stop Brodee’s confused noises but he trusts the explanation given Del’s knowledge on artificial intelligence, there has to be some overlap… right?

    Reign fires the first shot, hitting the barrier, the bolt gives a weak bounce off before falling to the floor, the barrier not even getting a paint scratch. Retaliation, only a split second of aiming before a shot, as fast as sound, launched towards Reign, it aimed towards the side of their face hidden by hair, while aiming to hit where Reign has a harder time seeing, it presented its own problem. The shot bolted through their hair… and right though the back of their hoodie’s hood, missing the head entirely. Taking a second to inspect the damage, they were able to gleam that the shots are non lethal by the damage to their hood tearing the fabric much more than a straight up bullet would have. 

    Reign only mumbled one word in response “… Trickshot” they aim their bow to the floor, taking a moment to line up, before firing, the bolt starts bouncing off the walls in a spiral, getting over the barrier! The bolt continues its path until it hits the back wall, rebounding towards the back of the barrier. One moment later, a pained noise is heard from behind the barrier followed by a barrage of shots.

    All of the shots missed, not even a mistake like the precious shot, none of the shots are even close to hitting. Reign rolls their eye(s?), taking their sight to the scope of the rifle, possibly the perfect size for a perfect shot. The rifle still aimed in their direction, Reign focuses their eyes, takes a deep breath, steadying their body. Next was the aim, focus fully on the aim of the crossbow, lining up a shot with an unsteady target. Finally, time to fire.

    The bolt fires, even with an unsteady target, the bolt enters the rifle’s barrel, scraping the insides and getting quickly jammed with part of the bolt sticking out. A hesitant moment, she could be hearing to see if the bolt hits the floor or even that the bolt didn’t make it through the small gap around the barrel. But in the end, another shot can be heard, this time no bullet escapes, a loud bang like a PSU breaking ring out throughout the room.

    Soon after that, the barrier comes down, reverting to a bulky sniper rifle form, Alex available to see once again. Her eyes are much more tired than before, her arm heavily bleeding with a bolt sticking out of it. “… You pass… I’m going to hospital” her voice is completely deadpan, a far cry from her cheerful tone before entry. She doesn’t look towards anyone, walking towards the exit and leaving the room without another word.

    A moment passes as the trio look at each other, “We win?” Brodee offers an over the top shrug. Reign pitches in with what sounds to be a very deadpan JRPG victory tune made of ‘do’ noises before checking their hair, adjusting it to hide the hole made in the fight, their hoodie damage, not as easily hidden. Del quickly gets behind them and like lightning, she had the hole patched, not invisible but better than a hole.

    She then pulled out her phone, tapping away at it for a moment, “Alright, got the next location, you good to go?” She looks to Reign who plainly nods in response, they stretch a bit, Del leading the group outside and to their next destination. On the way they pass many stores, Del occasionally veering towards one and looking through the window to take a look before getting back on track, mostly electronics and tech related but a disappointed sigh from the tech head.

    Brodee stops for a moment, “So… what’s the game plan here? Like I’m gonna be honest, I just almost saw my bestie get shot in the head, why are we not freaking out about this?!” Reign just gives a halfhearted shrug in response, Del fiddles with her remote a bit having not listened at all. Brodee just sighs, “You two are crazy, I don’t understand how the hell you’re so calm” he simply sighs in defeat.

    One step forward, Reign’s hair on the back of their neck stands up, they fire ahead, their bolt hitting something and pinging off to the side. A katana clatters to the ground in front of Brodee, “This is it” Reign mumbles, keeping an eye on the katana to see if its owner shows up. Before the mystery person makes the move to the katana, something is rolled to the group, rapidly spewing out smoke that covers a small area. It only lasts a few moments, a figure standing just outside of the smoke, katana in hand.

    “You’re really pulling out the stops, aren’t ya, Chi?” Del speaks up with a smile, another friend to her. The figure wears a brown hoodie and loose trousers that hide their figure, spiked up brown hair on the top of their head. From their head and hands, they appear to be slim and their skin is tan in colour. “My guy, you don’t have to be like that with it, you don’t gotta try and be that cool, it’s just me and these two people that got me out of the lab” Del beams.

    Chi rolls his eyes, “Sorry, Del, you guys have got a test and I’m not going to hold back” he sounds lightly hesitant, his voice also sounding a bit put on, forced a little lower. He grasps the katana with both hands, pointing it towards the group in a fighting stance, “So, we gonna see if you got the metal?” He takes a great leap into the middle of the group, spinning his blade around, the group jumping away.

    A moment of respite, Reign pulls an item out from their hoodie pocket and gets a good spray on their opponent with it, ecstatic spray, known as e-spray, good for friend or foe alike. Chi stops for a moment, looking at the sprayer with pure bewilderment for a few moments of stillness before he bursts out laughing, moving in a zigzag, his steps faster, his katana hungry. His sword barely misses Reign, who uses another spray, this time tough spray, known as t-spray, his downswing slows down but the force of the swing lodges the sword into the ground, without pause he effortlessly pulls it out.

    Chi looks to his target’s somehow unscathed body, “D-did she not tell you? I take either spray so I guess now you gotta pick your poison. Wanna keep me strong or want me even faster?” The look in his eye was one of pure confidence, he has full control of the situation and has practically pinned down the leader of the group, if there’s a time to be confident, it’s now.

    As he moves his sword to land a surefire blow, he instantly turns around, slashing at a small rock that was thrown at him, he takes a step towards Brodee, throwing his sword in the air, letting it twirl and catching the handle without looking away from his new target before suddenly stopping, putting his hand to his chin as if in thought. After apparently thinking something through, he turns back around, sights back on the leader. Brodee rolls his eyes, pulling Del in and making some silent gestures, ending with a worried thumbs up, getting a nod in response.

    “Hey, Chi, wanna try out my new toys?!” Del shouts out, multiple small flying drones shooting from her sleeves, hovering behind Chi for a simple moment before rapid firing small pellets. The noise of the firing combined with the angle of the attack allows Brodee to game legally dribble his basketball around the side, a leap in the air to full force slam dunk the ball right onto Chi’s dumb, distracted head, the movement, the timing, the placement of all of the pieces was perfect!

    “Del, you have to not agree to plans I can see through, sets a bad scene for the party” Chi turns around, the handle of his blade launching into Brodee’s gut, he was completely defenceless with how surefire he believed the plan to be. “So now that this basic distraction won’t work and what looks like the most sporty of the group is gasping for air, what will you do no-” the sound of one of the drones being hit rings out, quickly followed by a squelch. Chi looks down, seemingly not too phased by the crossbow bolt currently in his leg, “… this is probably why they don’t let me on the A team” he lets out a sigh, keeping more of an eye on Reign and their crossbow now.

    “Del… more power” Reign calls out, firing out multiple crossbow bolts as Del calls back her drones, soon sending out bigger ones. The bolts are near misses, the threat of them being enough for the drones to set up and get a few shots, Chi having to put his focus into blocking the drone shots lest he get pelted by actually harmful pellets. Seeing the opening, Reign takes a direct shot at Chi’s other leg, him blocking the bolt but letting his guard down, the drones focusing fire on his sword wielding arm to stop him getting his defence back up. A couple more near miss bolts divert his attention before he sees the endgame but it was too late, too much happening at once to do anything about it, Brodee had the slam dunk inches from landing.

    One major head impact with a sports ball later and Chi was down for the count, he was still awake but dazed, on the floor, and with one leg being completely spiked through. Del quickly makes a call “Hey, Rainbow… yeah it’s pretty good… no we’re not having trouble… Just saying that you might wanna pick up Chi, he’s kinda pretty badly beaten… concussion, probably some bruising, and he’s got a bolt through the leg… yeah I think it’s about the same spot he got shot… great, thanks” and like that the phone was put away, “He’ll get picked up in a moment, so want to move onto the next one?” There were shrugs between the rest of the party before Reign gives a thumbs up and Del leads the way, completely unphased by her first major fight involvement, humming a little song and tinkering with her small remote as the group moves ahead. “I think Fiona’s in the local inn, from the sounds of it, she got put on the boring jobs recently so she might be itching for a fight”

    In the next chapter!

    “…3 years ago…”

    “I am Fiona Colour, protege of the Rainbow Stripes and leader of the B team…”

    A bat swings, a loud grunt can be heard

    “I am the zeon prince…”

    Reign bends their arm across their body, a circular black shield attached

    “…you should better know that I love a good twist”

    Next Time in Chapter 2: Third Fight of Fiona!

    Chapter 2 →

    Credits

    • Colour Printer – Writing & Art
    • ObliterationEgg – Giving pointers for the start of the story

    Thanks

    • Molrcore – Giving the push to see this through

  • Gwen, Fionas, and alternate counterparts

    (Note that for the purposes of making the amount of Fiona used reasonable, the original Fiona will be referred to as PP!Fiona (PunkPunk, the first human OC versions), the adapted Fiona will be referred to as TB!Fiona (TreBoot, the newer story))

    (Also note that Gwen is referred to using they/them pronouns, the gender exploration for them is still happening but they’re at a confident she/they starting out)

    One thing I focused on when creating the characters and setting for my TreBoot story is to honour everything I had created before it, the mix of fantasy (The Original MLP OCs), contemporary (PunkPunk, the human reinvention), and dystopian future (FuturePunk, the decedents) in a time crash type world with the original OCs (Haloes, Peter, and Wendy, all created in 2013/2014).

    The thing is that further down the line, I didn’t know what to do with Fiona, I mean, I’d always wanted to do some silly concept doodles of her but I didn’t know if I would draw just the existing version in the TreBoot world or make a version that would fit the differences within the world. I pondered for a while before I had a thought, why not both?

    First I created TB!Fiona, she looks like PP!Fiona but has the big twist of being a polar opposite, like injected her with Oliver Twist or something, twists all around! The reason for her existing is magic, not like I don’t have a reason but during a rather intense moment, her father, Peter Colour, warped reality in a panic and accidentally created her, fully formed as a teenager. Her personality is a mix of PP!Fiona as well as the people Peter was actually trying to save in his reality warp, this is indicated visually by the thread she uses to repair her clothes matching the characters.

    • PP!Fiona’s Shockingly optimistic outlook and ability to instantly to instantly charm anyone she meets
    • Haloes’ desire to help those in need no matter the personal cost
    • Peter’s smarts, the desire to learn and teach what has been learned
    • Wendy’s guts, to throw herself at anything that comes at her
    • Mapel’s (Note, new character for this story), instinct to put everything on her own back

    And while she has PP!Fiona’s identity, her backstory is completely different, she grew up on the streets, learning the ways of the world from probably really shady homeless guys but being inspired to be a guiding light for those who had dealt with the world as she had. She makes her own network, earning money and food in exchange for helping out locals (mainly stopping thieves for free food) and taking care of the local little kids that don’t have their own home and teaching them life skills as well as the usual education skills. Despite all that, she can still somehow put an outfit together from discarded clothes and a sewing kit, like her outfit is one of the best I’ve drawn, no version of Fiona can possibly look bad, ever.

    So, if Fiona already exists in this story because magic, what the heck happens when Peter has another kid?! Well you get Guinevere Colour, but everyone calls her Gwen, as a point on the name, Gwen and Fiona have similar meanings but I chose Guinevere as she is a push away from the almost purely good image, the Guinevere of legend being portrayed as both a noble lady and completely villainous, while the meaning of Gwen isn’t too dissimilar to Fiona so ya know, similar and different!

    So Gwen, they carry most of the history of PP!Fiona, the family, the love and care of a couple of parents really doing their best in a stable environment, the tales of adventure from her father and uncle, the fearless aunt that will charge into anything, the caring older sibling that will always have their back (not the same sibling but close enough). But they have a different identity completely, kinda a ying and yang thing going on with these two.

    But one factor that influences Gwen is a different character, from a different age. One thing about Gwen is that her story primarily takes place in the cyberpunk part of the world and well there’s one direct decedent of PP!Fiona that fits the mark, Conner Colour.

    Conner is the protagonist of my FuturePunk story, set 200 years in the future of PP!Fiona’s time, he usually quite chill but the moment events start to touch on the place he calls home, he charges in, he cares a lot and is repeatedly punched into the dirt for it but in the end he ends up as a larger than life hero in a world where heroes have been extinct for a long time. By the time he gets his big break, he’s been traumatised and punished for pushing back.

    Now unlike most of my major characters and unlike Conner, one thing I want to make clear is that Gwen is a street level character, her family might have been fighting gods and the like but she is on the streets of the city doing jobs. This is like going from Avengers to Daredevil, which is a good transition into something I wanted to highlight, Gwen has a disability, a bit over a year before the story starts, her right foot is lost in a car accident. Gwen took a cybernetic foot over just healing it up (her aunt is a cleric with god and anime on her side so it would have been simple to heal) however, Gwen has the unique weakness that lightning and electrical attacks short out her cyber foot, this happens to her aunt Wendy as well but Wendy has magic and can just zap her cybernetics to start them back up, Gwen’s foot has to do a full self repair cycle before being usable again. In universe this weakness is believed to be due to her father’s side of the family having magical blood so she channels the zap and it strikes the foot. Having a cybernetic is similar to Conner but for him, it’s just a way to hit harder, for Gwen, it is a concern and a real weakness, if her foot goes down, she has a backup stand she can deploy from her foot connector but it throws off her balance and she loses her big damage dealer in a brawl. She does learn to handle herself without her foot but there’s a difference between handling herself and getting the job done.

    A more easy comparison between Conner and Gwen is that they both express their gender outside of the norm. Conner is a strange case that I jokingly describe as “The only cis man in a gender fluid world”, he’s part alien (blame PP!Fiona for this, she’s the one that had babies with an alien) shapeshifter, most of the aliens are either agender or genderfluid (note, there are human non-binary characters in this story) but Conner rejects this norm to the point that he completely forgoes shapeshifting, even when it would be good for him. Gwen is similar, being Demi and exploring being more masculine some days, she figured something was wrong when she asked a group about having days where being a woman just sounded like forced effort and got a bunch of confused stares back, not really rebellion but just wanting to feel comfortable in their own skin, even without having a real guiding light on what they are or feeling in the moment. They also have a stubborn pride to take help even when they need it. The only real freebees they take are the cybernetic foot itself and the training from aunt Wendy to learn how to use it, they even take living in a cramped apartment with 5 others over just asking for help from their family. Conner being stubborn in his ideals, pushing forward or taking the impact himself, even when it’s a terrible idea is reflected in Gwen, whereas someone like PP!Fiona would call for help, Gwen and Conner take whatever it is head on without regrets.

    I will say that the Fionas and Conner are some of my fav characters of mine and I hope that Gwen is at least as good as those that have inspired me to make them, if not better! I didn’t even touch on how Gwen fights, that’s because she fights less like her sorcerer family and more of a multistance brawler!

  • Guinevere “Gwen” Colour

    • Age: 19
    • Gender: Demigirl (She/They)? (May be gender fluid between Demigirl/Demiboy, could have trouble with binding? Need to think more about this, not going to just slap a label on a character and call it a day)
    • Race: Magic blood human (father’s side) with cybernetic prosthetic
    • Eyes: Deep pink
      • Inspiration: Her father’s eyes
    • Hair: Upper back length, black with rainbow tips
      • Inspiration: Natural black hair like her mother, rainbow tip inspired by original version of character that had rainbow hair
    • Cybernetics: 27th gen (at the time of story, this is the current mass market gen) standard right foot, software modified to remove unneeded software and harden security by family member
      • The cybernetic is heavy but designed to allow Gwen’s usual fast moment, if it is depowered, she is completely unable to move the attached leg
    • Class: Fighter
    • Stance system: Can change stance when needed but needs a few seconds between changes, each stance having strengths and weaknesses. Stances can develop with training
      • Imagined: Standard stance, good all round stance, uses light punches/kicks to make openings for a heavy cyber foot attack. Only stance she starts with
        • Trainer: Wendy Colour (Aunt)
        • Training focus: Natural type offence
        • Strengths: An all around style that can take down most foes, can use flow to combo attacks and dodge more effectively
        • Weaknesses: Requires her to commit to heavy attacks which are more easily countered. Focused on dealing damage more than avoiding it herself
        • Inspiration: Tiger style from Judgement, Brawler style from Yakuza 0 (in terms of being a good first stance)
      • Flow: An evasive style that focuses on dodging and rapid light attacks
        • Trainer: ??? (Local record shop owner)
        • Training focus: Natural type flow and dodging
        • Strengths: The light attack and dodge structure dramatically increase survivability, flow allows effortless fast combos and dodges
        • Weaknesses: Terrible against armour, without a flow state, this stance suffers from slow speed and lackluster impact without a flow state
        • Inspiration: Rush style from Yakuza 0 (including bad combo speed without requirements), Hi-Fi Rush dodge/parry mechanic, Breaker style from Yakuza 0 (in style more than how it’s used)
      • Freefoot: Backup style, if cybernetic foot has been disabled, it can be detached with a backup powerless stand being dropped from the foot connector on her leg, the stance does what it can to protect the weaker leg
        • Trainer: Luna Raven (Friend met at a protest)
        • Training focus: Natural type stability/damage recovery
        • Strengths: Removes the need for working cybernetics, defensive stance, focusing on body blocks and small evasive movements, quickly reattach foot to change stance
        • Weaknesses: Unable to use cybernetic foot, slower movement due to change of balance, foot replacement fragile
      • Enviro: Use the environment to attack and defend, rocks, ground dust, and office equipment, none of it is off limits!
        • Trainer: Fiona Colour (Older sister)
        • Training focus: Armed type attack speed, weapon equip/pickup speed, status duration
        • Strengths: This stance features sweeping attacks and all kinds of status effects. Allows for feats like jumping off walls and gambits to lore opponents rather than head on assaults. Allows for extremely basic use of all weapon types (imagine smacking someone with the side of a katana)
        • Weaknesses: … If you’re in the right environment for the right opponent (Throwing a bomb is going to be more effective against a mech than a knife)
        • Inspiration: Beast style from Yakuza 0, environmental pick up system from LaD: Infinite Wealth
      • Wield style: Batter up! All manner of weapons are available in this stance as long as you know how to use them! Gwen won’t even use weapons she doesn’t understand at a basic level in this stance, that’s more Enviro’s thing
        • Trainer: Haloes (Melee) & Leia (Ranged) Colour (Aunt/Uncle)
        • Training focus: Armed type, skilled weapon usage, weapon type specific abilities
        • Strengths: Good for any situation, added range to attacks so the fleshy and blood don’t get hurt as easily, allows her to use her arms to deal heavier damage than unarmed strikes
        • Weaknesses: Weapons and break or run out of ammo, keeping care of both the weapons and training to use new ones is required. Need to train in each weapon before use
        • Inspiration: LaD: Ishin’s styles, Shinada from Yakuza 5
    • Fighting style: Strikes like lightning, using fists to disorientate/distract and cybernetic foot to deal heavier damage, later learning to mix things up to catch opponents off guard, other stances add new options as she trains
      • Inspiration: Yagami from Judgement, mainly Lost Judgement where style switching is a core mechanic to get the most out of his move set
    • Flow state:
      • Primary: Flow source
        • A flow source is needed to keep flow, without it, Gwen’s movements will become clumsy and her stances less coordinated. This is on or off, no partial states here
        • Common sources are the music she plays herself, the sounds of the city in the background and the sound of cybernetics moving. If her current flow source is stopped (i.e. her headphones are broken), she will need to take a second to select a new source, this changes the rhythm of the fight and the BPM she flows with
      • Secondary: Flow movement
        • When the sounds are flowing, all Gwen has to do is move to the flow! She typically finds this easy enough, but missing flow timings can weaken her current combo making it come out slower and with less force than intended
        • Flow movement can be interrupted by anything that disorientates, something like a flashbangs would cause a might higher rate of flow misses
    • ‘Verse: FutureBoot time crash (Time skip future of TreBoot/FreeBoot set 20 years after FreeBoot’s ending)
    • Occupation: Low level solo merc for hire
    • Hobbies:
      • Keeping up with fashion
        • Constantly changes outfits, usually wears casualwear, something that lets the body move
      • Reading the latest on strange goings on, strange magical creatures, cryptids, and any stories that stick out as odd
        • While keeping herself to the most human and tech focused part of the world, the world surrounding it still fascinates her
        • She can’t help trying to learn new things, she’s just scholarly by nature
        • Inspiration: My own father who used to read the Fourteen Times magazine, thought it’d work well for her given her father is scholarly as well
      • Part of the largest anti-corpo movement that’s sweeping the youth
        • She’ll take corpo jobs but isn’t happy about it, usually charging more or requesting an extra incentive (extra resources she can keep after the job and the like)
        • Given that a corpo tried to steal some tech a family member made then beat said family member into a coma, she gets no pushback about this from her folks
      • Loves some good music, typically uses headphones and moves to the beat (yes including when fighting)
        • The beat helps with her flow, fighting ability suffers when not in the flow
        • Music pumping into her ears isn’t the only way of getting flow, the world around her can in inspiration, music is just a quick and easy shortcut
        • Inspiration for music theme: Hi-Fi Rush and Dead as Disco, both use rhythm based mechanics and music based fighting as a plot point
        • Inspiration for getting flow in the world around her: JoJo Steel Ball Run, Gyro uses nature to find the golden ratio, focusing on the environment to get what’s needed more than the perfection behind the ratio
    • Background: Heroic family
      • Her family stopped genocides and fought gods, coming out on top
      • She has no problem with this but does want to make her own path, heroic or not
      • 4 of her family members were involved in stopping the city being wiped off the map, while it’s not the most common knowledge within the city, her name does carry some weight, not that she would name drop unless there was a very good reason
    • Strengths:
      • Lightning fast with reaction speed to match
      • Able to look over a scene and quickly get her bearings
      • All round well educated, able to take on any task with a manual and a bit of reading time
      • Has the spirit to see anything through
      • Stance system allows for fighting in any situation
    • Weaknesses:
      • Light as a feather, outside of the cyber foot, there’s not much weight behind her attacks though the foot weighs her down enough to stop her from being easily launched
      • Raised in a mostly safe, fantasy environment, the current home she has is taking time to adjust to
      • Learned to fight hand to hand, not great against armour or cybernetics
      • Despite having magic blood, appears to be unable to use it (note, her aunt had the same issue but the magic surfaced when she was older than this)
      • Being hit by lightning causes her foot to overload, causing it to reset which leaves her unable to move that leg for a short time as without power, the foot is an extreme amount of dead weight to her body (power allows it to move like it’s her own foot, it’s still very weighty though)
        • This only seems to happen with her and her aunt, likely an interaction with the magic blood that baseline humans don’t have?
      • Not too physically strong, having to rely on being more of a trickster in fights drawing her to fight more like her older sister (similar situation) than her father (high level sorcerer, he can just wipe you off the map with a thought)
    • Notable life events:
      • Highly educated from childhood with a focus on adventuring and heroics
      • Learned to fight from childhood, focusing on hand to hand and close-up combat
      • At age 18, involved in a crash that took her left foot, replaced with a 27th gen cybernetic foot
        • She had the option to have it magically healed (aunt is a cleric with that focus) but got the cybernetic to be a reminder, like a scar
      • At age 18, heavily retooled her fighting style to focus on kicks and foot focus defence, putting her cybernetic foot out front and using her fists to create openings rather than the fist first approach the learned with
      • At age 19 moved away from parents home to live in the sprawling cyber city

    Possible routes to grow:

    • Train with her sister, Fiona, to learn about using the environment to fight with (i.e. using tables and chairs in an office for both offence and defence), adding tricks and more dirty fighting plays to her skillset
    • Train with her aunt for more hand to hand and fighting with a cybernetic to get more in tune with using her flesh and blood and the metal as well as more knowledge of how the cyber city works
    • Train with her friend, Luna Raven, to get more attuned with changing balance and a defensive stance for when Gwen’s foot is disabled and she has to use the backup leg stand. Started helping when she was complaining about an incident with a stun gun taking her leg out of action. Luna teaches balance, how to adjust it and how to keep herself up, she does this in exchange for field testing her teachings
    • Train with her uncle to get a grip on some form of armed combat, from as simple as a pole on the street to actual ranged combat allowing for much greater use of weapons than just throwing herself at them and hoping that smacking hard enough will work
    • The owner of the local record shop notes that she always has a movement to her that matches the music he plays in the store, offers to help her hone the flow in exchange for one of his best customers not dying, man’s gotta keep in business! At this point in the world, CDs have been mass developed so a record enjoyed so young is extremely rare. He mainly invites her to train to see how she can move and to see how good she is at picking up on the world around her, her first lesson being listening for the sounds of his cybernetic arm before he punches in a musicless back room which unlocks flow and Gwen’s ability to find it in the world and use it in combat

    Character notes that don’t belong above:

    • Moving to the cyber city is partly inspired by her aunt who did the same thing and partly because she doesn’t like being magicless in a magic world, the cyber city is mostly without magic so she’s just one of a crowd here
    • She is one of 2 alternate counterparts to the previous character Fiona Colour, the other being this story’s Fiona Colour
      • This story’s Fiona Colour is a “What if?” Where she has to make herself from nothing, having the identity of the alt Fiona but not the background (she straight up looks like Fiona). Gwen on the other hand has Fiona’s background but her identity is much more strongly tied to the world she’s in (She looks nothing like Fiona but has similar parents)
      • Gwen fights bad corps like her original counterpart
      • Gwen has a cheerful spirit that does have limits, just doing her best to do good like her original counterpart
      • And much like her original counterpart, she’s inspired by the life her family has led, wanting to make a path to help those and continue on their footsteps
    • The stances have 2 sets, Inspired, Flow, and Freefoot are natural stances, using her own body as the focus for attacks. Enviro and Wield are armed stances, using weapons and items to take out enemies. Training a natural or armed stance can improve both stances (i.e. learning to wield a long 2 handed staff for Wield stance allows her to apply this to a long metal pipe in Enviro stance) and some skills may just apply across stances
      • Natural is focused on Gwen’s body, the stances being able to be used in any situation, all skill on her part
      • Armed is focused on equipment and the environment around Gwen, it’s purely situational but when the conditions are right, these stances can deal with a lot more, a lot more effectively
    • In a world of magic and monsters, Gwen is a human look at life, it’s all too easy for her to think that she doesn’t have to be careful because she has the contacts to just have her body put back together if she dies with a touch of magic. She aims to make the most of her life and while understanding that magic monsters are probably more scary than a guy with a sword but she doesn’t want to act like dying is a regular thing for her
      • Inspiration: Conner Colour from my original story, much like Gwen here, he was a young Colour family member that wanted to improve things in a cyber world. Much like Gwen, he rejected something that would have his life easier, in his case it was the shapeshifting he was able to use due to being a part human hybrid, it would have made his life easier but he wanted to take on the world as a human. Note that the only times he does shapeshift, it’s completely unclear if there is any higher brain function or if his body is acting on instinct
        • Also note that being a different gender than given at birth (Gwen being demi) matches up with Conner being similar (cis male, where his nonhuman/shapeshifter side are all either agender or genderfluid)

  • The fleeting feeling

    A Treboot(?) story

    CW: This story contains scenes of violence including decapitation, brief organ harvesting, brief mentions of gore, and cuts and blood including drinking of said blood

    CW: This story contains brief mentions of a sexual nature including a brief mention of sexual violence and one mention of lustful thoughts (note, interrupted before they got too graphic)

    CW: This story contains instances of it/it’s pronouns being used in an “other than human” way, this is not used as an attack and is used for a character to minimise their thinking of a traumatic situation, used in ignorance, not intentional harm

    Haloes laid his head on the grass, enjoying the feeling of calm that came with a new morning and a job well done, next to him, the projection of Leia, a purple and translucent copy did much of the same. But in this temporary, newfound peace, a question nagged in the back of the flesh and bodied mind, “Hey… I know you don’t really talk about it much but what was it like to take an innocent life? Like I mean, I’m not pacifist but I don’t think you dismembering that one guy was the first time you’ve done something like that” Haloes’ head flops to one side to face his laying partner, a curious tint in his eye, like he was asking her birthday.

    Leia rolls her eyes as if shrugging off a lovestruck fool, “I thought you were gonna comment on the sunrise or something, you know I can just flash that image in your mind if you want, could flash anything in your mind, could show you my own head split open on an operating table if you wanna see someone messed up” her eye locks with his, a cocky grin on her face, “Look, next time we’re solo fighting someone that’s going to die anyway, I’m happy to make it surgical if you really want, though me doing it with your bare hands was a one time thing, that guy deserved it”

    Haloes takes his turn to roll eyes, typical deflection, it was amusing more than anything. “That’s not what I meant, I could cut up a body if I wanted to, I could take 5 steps off the road and see a caved in head. I want you to tell me how it felt, not what it looked like. There’s another person out there like you” he sees her face twitch, just a touch, “I mean in the whole violently killing people kind of way, and she isn’t going to tell” he offers a soft, gentle smile those pure eyes boring into her spirit, “I am dutybound to not let something that happen again, so understanding would help and you kinda still haven’t paid me back for almost getting me killed” his voice got a touch higher pitched with every word, ending up sounding like a mouse, a bright goofy smile spread across his face.

    “Sh-” she mumbles to herself, “Wait I can swear here, shit” she looks to him, some form of blush appearing on her cheeks, like she’s been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, “Look, you try being unable to swear for… I’m not counting the lifetimes, and see if you gotta zip it out of habit!” She turns away, fuming so hard steam appears to come off her head, a few moments pass before the steam stops and she turns back around, looking as unbothered as always. “I guess you got me, you can’t stop pestering me and I did almost get you killed and then leave you for dead afterwards. Fine, I’ll do it but I won’t deal with any nightmares that comes from this, I’ll tell you the first time, the first time I felt that rush, remember that in a past life, we be all equine so account your mind for that”

    She begins her story, her eyes fixed up at the clear blue sky…


    I was an outcast, an edgy character with an edgy backstory, a loner, a thinker, a mare of ideas, ideas forbidden in this horse based society or something like that. But one day, I was taking a stroll around the calmer woodlands on the edge of town, I heard something, something rapid, something scared, something wanting to break free. I was a somewhat tough little creature so I walked up to the noise, it was a shed with banging on the door, so naturally, I opened it, wouldn’t you?

    A bloodied and bruised creature collapsed out of the door, finally out of energy. The creature lay motionless for a moment, I could see bruises mainly around the eyes and stomach, small cuts around it’s body where the blood had already dried. Before I could move from my frozen analysis of this creature, it’s dragged back inside, I felt fear, I felt scared, why? Because the one responsible was staring right at me.

    Darn it he was so cute, the ways his eyes relaxed when he looked at me, the way his wings gave a little buzz, cute as hell I will say. In retrospect, when he turned the knife to me, lightly shaking like I could easily overpower him, he was even more cute. But at the time, a knife pointed right at me was rather scary, “B-best get in before I…!” He prodded the knife towards me, threatening more than just air being thrown at me. In the moment, I panicked, I wasn’t so brave anymore with real danger in my face and I suggested that maybe I could help him, the shake in his eyes and hooves lessen as I slowly enter the shed and slowly close the darn door.

    My eyes scan the room, lotta tools, lotta dried blood, I mean, this place needed a clean and a tidy, who just leaves blood on the walls?! I get that he wasn’t expecting a freely moving guest that would see past the walls again but geez, have some class. Moving on with the story, the guy flopped the creature onto this big examination looking table, a strap prepared for every limb, the creature appeared to have strained all but one of their limbs, seems like the guy had done some sloppy work and one of the restraints were loose. Well I didn’t make that mistake, making sure that it was tied properly to the table, taking my time, thinking that I could come up with some kind of plan.

    With his little lab coat on, he gave me a tool to make the first cut, a small scalpel, he just told me “First cut’s yours, just don’t kill her too quickly” I think I was the first he shared this with, he had the voice of someone quiet and reserved the look of someone that wants to hide in the background but I was in his world now and if I didn’t do it, I’d be next, either someone to share this with or another round to go after. At least he had stopped shaking, that tipped him from sinister to adorable.

    I’d like to quickly break the this messed up story, just to explain something, I’ve seen like 3 versions of, me… You… Us, myself. Based on what I’ve seen, I appear to be an outlier, you and the equine you both have this strong sense of justice, both do what’s right, charging into frankly insane situations just for the sake of someone who can’t defend themselves. I don’t know if I never got the chance or just would have always ended up like this but I’m not a hero, I’ve never been the one to put others first. I wanted to explain this because you probably would have used that tiny blade to attack the guy or break the restraints or something of the like, saved the creature. But I’m not like you. Alright, continuing on…

    So I’ve got this cutie guy I could totally rule over glaring at me, like a wild animal trying to tell if a creature is friendly, I mean, behind the mean look he was going googoo and not for me. I decided “Well I guess I got no shot of leaving, might as well?” And put the blade into it’s hind leg, just a millimeter, enough to bleed, then I cut down and tried to block out the jump from passed out to screaming, the cut was a couple of inches down the leg. Before I could even take the knife out he was lapping up the blood that even threatened to come out, despite the kicking of the leg threatening to send the scalpel right into his tongue. After lapping up and down quite a bit, he flashes a smirk to me, a slimy, mask off smirk, pushes me to one side, pushes the blade in further, and gives a rough pull down.

    The noises I heard in that moment almost made me throw up, but I held it together, my life on the line after all. “You try” he yanks the blade out with a wing, pointing it to the readily bleeding wound, “Try what?” I ask, my voice giving a small squeak, I could assume but I wasn’t making this go further on my own, “The soon to be pour from it’s leg, give it a lick” I sigh, of course he’d have to say that.

    I’ve eaten meat before, heck, I’ve probably eaten horse without knowing it, but there was something different, something really really different about lapping up the blood fresh from the wound, the warmth of it was like a flicker in my mind, eroding away at my want to stop, I wasn’t past the line yet but step one wasn’t good.

    I felt a wing wrap around my body, thinking I’d done a good job, I pull away, letting the blood pour free but soon feeling a blade poking at my neck, but this didn’t feel like a threat, like he was teasing me, I don’t know if he was flirting or what but he was happy to pull it away when I didn’t react.

    “Your blade is precise, I find it hard to have such a gentle touch” he tells me, “Have you had experience in such things before?” The thing is that he asks me like it’s a casual question, there’s no malice in his tone, he’s just straight up asking me about myself.

    “Oh, well I’ve used a utility knife for boxes and cutting out photos before and I have cooked for myself, also I didn’t want to make a mess, also I didn’t want to hurt it” my eyes lock with the creature, but I quickly dart my eyes away, the feeling physically causing my stomach to ache, that or the fact I injected blood for like the first time and my body wasn’t reacting well to that.

    He moved his wing from my back to hold my face towards him, despite the… Atmosphere that he actively caused, his eyes failed to meet mine, he probably saw the dead look behind my eyes and decided to just not, I wasn’t quiet yet the romantic for blood, ya know? And with that, he simply gave me the blade back, stepping away to probably think about what he’s doing, he didn’t think it through well enough to stop.

    “… Why do you think I would just like continue? You urr… You aren’t a threat, like I’m gonna be honest I could easily just-” my lovely little rant got interrupted by him slinging a knife at me, real big one. He missed but you know, at least he tried, “As I was saying, why would I not just cut this pony free and stab you instead? I’m trained enough to beat you in a clash of blades” the guy had the darn audacity to look dejected, like I said I didn’t wanna play a board game with him.

    He approached me, a sad, dejected walk, a puppy without a ball. “No more suffering…” I could hear him mumble to himself as he recovered his big knife. Reminder, I was confident I could take him which is the only reason I let him recover that knife. So he walks way back to the operating table, takes the knife in his wing, and with an overhead swing… decapitates the creature. My stunned silence speaks volumes as he looks to me, “That face was distracting you too much, I prefer the blood pumping in their warm bodies but needs must” he lets out a small giggle, like a child that has just recovered his darn toy.

    I use my magic to sling my blade between his eyes but he catches the darn thing with his free wing, I grab as many instruments of torture as my magic allows, slinging at him sharp side forwards but he deflects every single one with that big flipping knife. Eventually I plain run out of objects, I hadn’t developed my magic skills enough to effectively defend myself and he’s able to get in close.

    With one wing pushing the big knife into my chest, one slip and it’d most likely be in my heart, and the other wrapping around my head, the scalpel dragging across my cheek leaving a thin red line of pain. “Would you like to help me operate now? I am in dire need of an assistant” his eyes were full of life, so full of energy, like he bounced on a trampoline in the pit of despair right back into the field of bliss. “I’ll treat you well, don’t worry about that, you don’t even need to operate much, just lend a helping hoof when I need one” his tone was that of a genuinely good job offer, like any of this was the most normal thing and I’d be doing paperwork in an office. He pulled the blade away from my cheek, “It simply gets so lonely out here, and since you know, I can’t let you leave so I wish to make this good for you so you don’t feel a need to, you are much much better with warm blood pulsating through you” his knife suddenly pushes forward, only enough to bloody the tip.

    “……………………… Fine” I replied, my word rather hollow, like my insides would be if I was to refuse, “Fine, whatever, I’ll make the tea or whatever” I put a firm hoof on his knife and force it out of me, using a touch of magic to stop my own blood coming out before he got that look in his eye and started trying to lick me, I mean before that I wouldn’t have minded but it wasn’t the moment. I look to the lifeless body he was using his own life full body to block, whoever it was hadn’t been here long so it wasn’t like he kept people in cages, it was straight up bag over head wake up in a lab kind of deal.

    His eyes lit up like nothing else in the world mattered, he tried to full on hug me but I put a hard leg between our bodies before he was able to wrap around me again, not that it dejected him at all. “Right, so I’ll need a fresh set of tools, there is a box outside around the back of the shed, could you get me a box while I tidy?” There was no hint of trick in his voice, I had just attacked him and he seemed to trust me not to leg it the moment I was out of his sight, he was even nice enough to open the door and hold it for me.

    I gave him a kinda weird ‘are you actually serious?’ look, not because he asked me to do something as I had just said I’d do, but because he straight up opened the door for me! He either didn’t acknowledge it or straight up didn’t notice because I got no response, so I made my way outside, out into the fresh air of the world, outside of his bubble. I could have ran, I probably should have, the town had heroes that could have done something, at the very least more than I could have done on my own.

    But, you probably know that I didn’t run, didn’t get help, didn’t sell out a guy that straight up decapitated someone right in front of my eyes. Why? You’re probably asking, and that’s a great freaking question and I believe one of the keys you’re looking for. I stayed because he didn’t care that I was thrashing out at him, he didn’t care that my eyes straight up had lights in them, he didn’t care that was clearly hesitant to help him. I had found something no one else had given me on this strange world, I had found someone willing to be completely open with me, regardless of my disposition, someone not afraid when I sling a knife, someone that doesn’t see some strange creature in front of them or don’t like when I ramble on and say dumb stuff. He was completely willing to open himself up to me without hesitation, he wanted me to be a part of his world and I was so alone, such an outsider, my flame dying down in the cold before he found me. From what I’ve seen and heard, you’ve had quite the support network since you came into being, I didn’t have anyone, I believe that may have been the biggest difference between you and I. Before you, no one would stay with me.

    That was freaking sad so why don’t I give the guy a name instead of calling him ‘The guy’ like I’m in a kids film? Let’s see, I think Scotch works, it’s what I drink when I remember what we had…

    Where were we? Right yes, getting tools, so I go and grab the backup tools, the little storage box they were in was super unassuming and had like some tape and some stuff to calm animals. I get back and enter to a much tidier looking shed inside, the tools that had been thrown about were now in the bin, I put the toolkit to one side, looking around the small lab room shed thing for it’s owner.

    And just like that, he poped out of a little side room thing, holding a lab coat, “Thought you’d want one so you don’t get messy, it may be large for your frame but it should work until I can get you a more fitting one” he took a tentative step towards me as if to check my reaction, looks like he cooled off a bit from when he had a knife in me. When I turn to my side, guard down, he gets in close, laying the coat over my back and sorting out my collar while I get my legs in them leg holes, the coat was a bit big but I wasn’t about to fall over myself. “So if you’re helping, you should probably know what you’re doing, if you wouldn’t mind, I can provide an anatomy lesson” he looks to the body still on the table, still restrained.

    I gave a blank look to the body, no more screaming, no more eyes to lock with, just a sprawled out headless body, “… sure” my eyes shift to him, “But a question, if you wouldn’t mind” he provided a curious glance so I continue, “Why did you pick me? I mean, you’re probably undressing my skin and bones right now right? So when you had the chance, why didn’t you just knock me out or whatever?” I asked as casually as asking why a boyfriend bought one brand instead of the usual but using the current closeness to lean in, pressure the answer out of him now that he’s not high on sucking blood.

    His cheeks flared up a soft pink, actually leaning away a bit, “Well I don’t have anywhere to keep more than one creature, so I thought why not get some help?” he let out a soft, gentle, awkward chuckle. Leaning in, I give a look, a look for more information, a look demanding that he spill it, “Well I urr, I’ve umm seen you around town, usually I don’t look at anyone but you looked to be really concerned about hurting or disrupting the animals and insects, stepping over ants, slowing down when you see a cat on your path. It would have been a shame to leave someone like you on the table” he closed his eyes, turning his head away as if he was asking me to prom, body completely tensed up.

    “Aww, not because I look good in uniform?” My tone teasing him, I couldn’t help myself, had to do it to him. “Well good to know my love of letting animals live their lives saved mine at least…….. you can open your eyes now, that is way less bad than what you could have said” I put a gentle hoof to his cheek, a gentle look in my eye, “Look… I…”Another look around, to get the right words, “I have comments about this hobby, but honestly, I think we can drop our guards” I take a deep, steady breath, “I mean, I doubt you got worse than this and if you’ve been seeing me and you’re still like this to me, you’d be the first” I remove my hoof from his face, “So, look, if we can be friends, I’ll help but I better not get nightmares”

    He nodded in return, “Friends…” a flicker of a soft smile to himself, “Well how about we do the lesson, and then we can get to know each other” he grabs the set of tools, putting them on a small stand up tray next to the table, softly humming to himself the whole time as he puts all the tools in an manner he has clearly done plenty of times. One the stage had been set, he turned his head to me, “My name is Scotch, and I will apologise for my attitude earlier, you didn’t need that”

    “Look, I’m not going to apologise because how in the world am I meant to react? You’re lucky I really want a friend” I rolled my eyes, walking over to the tools, “Leia, I… I got history, and friendship is apparently really hard for me”I offered him a smile before looking at the tools, “Alright, what are we looking at here? What in the hay am I doing?” I take a look at every tool, not sure what most of them were for.

    He takes the scalpel, passing it to me, “Cut along here to get to the ribs and internal organs” he adopted a strange kind of stance, seeming to completely ignore while he spoke and showed, I doubt he was comfortable with me just yet so I assume wrapping himself in the guiding put that step between us. Either way, Scotch used a wing to trace the lines, me following and the both of us getting that pesky muscle and fat out the way.

    A few smashed ribs later and get got to he good stuff, I’ll be honest, seeing that body cut open by my hoof, helpless to me just going ham inside and wrecking it all… I’d say that feeling of power, the thrill of doing that, the glee of free access to a liver or heart of intestine, it filled the void of isolation, filled that missing space inside me, and with that, me and Scotch truly formed out bond in blood.

    He taught me how the digestive system worked, getting me to carefully extract the organs as he explained everything in plain terms, given that being an equine was still new to me, knowing how my body worked was actually really good. I was listening but also enjoying the feeling of disassembling a living creature part by part, felt like I could put one together with the best parts like a computer if I wanted to try hard enough. There was a lot of blood which, I admit, I was licking up as much as he was, wanted to make sure the outside of the organs were clean after all”

    After freshly disassembling the creature, taking it apart completely, down to stripping meat from bone, on my own with guidance, honestly, I felt accomplished, the poor sod wasn’t cut super well but I wasn’t new to using tools so the guidance was enough. My main regret at the time was not making a glue joke with the hooves, my main regret now is that I didn’t get him help, like I love him more than anything, and I would have done without the whole blood murder stuff…


    “… Sooo that’s it?” Haloes looks to Leia, a spark of curiosity that hadn’t flickered out just yet, “And before you go” he then puts on his mocking voice “Oh it’s too graphic, someone got a head chopped off and we looked at the INSIDES of a creature!” With an over the top gasp to accompany it, “I got decapitated last week and I’ve seen you turn a guy’s face into paste before removing his limbs by hand” his glance to her is one of a shock that never came and the disappointment that is currently following.

    “Well…” Leia smirks, the curl of the lips that promises something truly devious, a quick thought bursting into her head, “I could tell you about the time I used my blunt horse teeth to rip a penis off in segments, one comment, chewy” she bursts into laughter as if the thought is the funniest thing she’s ever heard as Haloes recoils, looking like that would be enough for him.

    Once she eventually calmed down from the barrel of laughs, Leia decided to pipe up again, “While I can say a lot of bad came from that time, without it, I wouldn’t know how to do all the weird mind stuff I can do, you know, the stuff that keeps us in relative harmony as opposed to us both shouting at that body of yours? And before you ask, yes I did use it to take control of corpses that had been messed up, you want some more fun facts or is that enough for now?!” It appears the floodgates may have opened, Leia’s eyes having a small sparkle of magic in them that he’d never seen before.

    Haloes held a polite grin, obviously put on but he wasn’t about to back down, “Yeah, I think we can stop there, I think I got what I needed from that so thanks” his smile quickly becomes more genuine and relaxed, pushing the thought of the previous couple of comments down to where they will never bubble up again. “And you’re good with me, I’ve not been alive a year so I’ll probably encounter worse than you at some point… Right?” He looks to her for an answer, really looks to her for an answer.

    “Not if I can help it, just don’t leak this out or I can and will ensure that your existence will be pain” she offers him a sickly sweet smile because he’s trapped here forever and a matching giggle of childlike glee, “Just urr… If I go too far, you are dutybound to scream at me to snap me out of it, but I should only go out of control for a good reason, as you’ve seen, you do us wrong, your limbs are gone”

    “Will do, going back to your lovely story,” this is the reason they’re talking rather than laying in the quiet sun after all, “what I got what that you felt alone, needed a connection that no one else would try and provide. You were reluctant at first but relented when given a moment to calm down and process. The deal was sealed when you felt the power of pulling someone apart and the fact that you could do that gave you some form of emotional high” he locks eyes with her, cracking the case, all he needs now is a sidekick that actually will 100% not kill him, “Have I got ya?”

    In return she puts the back of her hand on her forehead, letting out a sigh that would make a diva roll her eyes, “Oh no, the case has been solved, how can we end this like a children’s show?!” Quickly, she changes to mimicking writing, “Dear princess, please know that I must make sure that I know someone isn’t a killer before wanting to bang their brains out out and yes I mean me doing the banging because he’s a cute littl-“

    “Alright!!!” Eyes glaring daggers at Leia now, she stops the voice and writing, “So I’m bang on the money, good to know” he gives a cheeky wink, case closed for now. “Also… What’s a children show that you’re talking about? Like a stageplay?” The look on his face shifted like he was the smartest man in the world to the most clueless.

    “Like TV, like a couple of places have, happy boxes, some of them do shows for kids and they’re kinda cheesy and obvious with the moral, you can ask Mapel about that one, I’ve bled my traumatised heart enough for you for one day” she twists herself onto her back and gazes to the sky, wondering how she’s managed to dodge going to super hell multiple times at this point.

    For once, her voice turns completely sincere, lacking any of that usual deflection or clowning around, “Probably good that I told you that, don’t need more mes running around, I’m bad enough and that woman is probably going to be dealing with everything for the rest of her days, at least I got a couple hundred years to be a bit better.” A tired release of air escapes her mouth, letting her pause and reflect for a moment. “I’m gonna nap, think I’ve let enough out for a few years, wake me if you’re about to be killed or see Mapel” with one last quick look to Haloes, an honest direct look, the magic construct fades away.

    Haloes, alone, looks to the sky, to the vast universe past the sky and mutters but one thing to himself, “Dang, TV sounds kinda cool”


    Author’s note

    If you’re reading this, thank you so much for reading through this story, this is something I’ve wanted to write for years but always talked myself out of it, in total, Leia’s backstory has been in my head for about 13 years!!!

    I’m just going to drop any questions I expect to get about this below

    • Who is this even for?
      • It’s for me, don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy if others like it but this is something I wanted to write for myself
    • Ew, why did you even write this gross stuff?
      • Because I like it? I had a friend ask if I was alright after describing this to ’em and I had to explain that I’ve written worse for school projects
      • Just so I’m clear, this story is light on the messed up stuff, I can and probably will do much much worse, the biting off a penis line is as canon as anything else Leia says here
    • Why did you write this?
      • Reason 1: I got into my yearly ultra edgy phase and needed an outlet
      • Reason 2: I wanted to look back at Leia’s origin with a more mature perspective both in and out of universe
    • Equine???
      • Horses, ponies, that kind of thing
    • What do you mean horses, ponies? Why have you got talking winged and magic horses??????
      • Do you know what fandom was queen of the flipping world 13 years ago?!
      • I’m not going to say it directly in case someone comes to smash in my knees, the great C&D spree is forever fresh in my mind
    • Why was Leia some form of ‘equine’ and is now some magic purple thing?
      • The equine thing will be answered later, more edgy 13 years ago stuff that I won’t be able to write around what it is
      • The magic purple thing is because Haloes caused an unstable reality warp which caused a crack in the fabric of reality of which Leia was pulled in, her soul fusing with Haloes’, two souls, one body. The purple construct lets her get stretches in but it’s useless in a fight
    • What was with the random action scene and knife throwing?
      • The actual content of what happened in that moment isn’t too important to the story, I’ll leave it up to you to guess what really happened
      • Basically Leia lied to look cool because it didn’t impact the story
    • Why was the ‘creature’ not elaborated on?
      • Why would it be? It’s just a hunk of meat for the chopping block
      • But really, Leia was trying to distance herself from the image, note the it/it’s pronouns, not used to respect identity (+1 to the Leia accidental bigotry count) because Leia canonically doesn’t know it/it’s pronouns are a thing yet. They’re used to distance herself from the situation
    • Is there anything else Leia lied about? How do we know the story is even real?
      • Trust that Leia has a tight enough bond with Haloes, knows when to not stretch a story, and in this case agrees with Haloes’ mission
      • Haloes was already aware that someone had influenced Leia to drive her in the direction of a killer but did not know the specifics, just that they got along when Leia felt alone
    • How does Leia owe Haloes?
      • During a critical moment when Leia was in control of their body, she froze up in shock, allowed them to take a moral blow and then disappeared, leaving Haloes alone and actively dying, luckily he was able to reach a friend to get help in the nick of time
      • The character that did the fatal wound was a lot like Leia, pulled into the killing life by someone else, that’s why Haloes doesn’t want a repeat, the first time for him was bad enough
    • Who’s “that woman”/that other person like Leia
      • Susie Walker, she went a bit wild after getting picked up by a serial killer. She’s currently under a town arrest, being let off a bit due to switching sides later on and a HEAVY insistence by Leia and Mapel
      • Fun fact, I got commissioned art of Susie on my wall
    • Why even bother adding more gruesome/sexual stuff after the main story? Wasn’t it enough already?
      • Gonna be honest, the main story came out a lot less violent and gory than I expected, like this is way waayyy toned down from my original thoughts
        • I decided to take a slower more calm approach, showing Leia more of a victim easily pulled in than a messed up killer from the get go
        • Haloes’ comment about going “that’s it?!” Is meant to reflect how this came out compared to how I thought it was going to come out when I started it
          • Also it’s a small in joke where my partner super warned me about some violent content, when it happened, I turned to her and gave a blank “Was that it?” I’d like to think she actually knows who I am now XD
      • The sexual stuff is mainly from the fact that Leia is very comfortable with Haloes and doesn’t filter what she says around him, heck, the best her bestie can get out of her about her past is that she loved equine creatures and knows about tech
      • I wanted to add some more gory thoughts, reflect a bit on their shared journey
    • If Leia is meant to be good, why the fuck heck was she ripping someone apart by hand?! (This one is an excuse for me to ramble on about Leia for a bit :3 )
      • Leia isn’t some pure goodness, she’s still extremely messed up by her history, I will now provide moments where Leia has lost it and the reason why
        • 01 – Fight against a cyborg guard
          • Why? The cyborg had beaten her bestie Mapel into a coma
          • What happened? Leia went feral, adopting a 4 leg stance, using Haloes’ teeth to rip out chunks of the cyborg’s organic flesh until they stopped moving
        • 02 – Killer in the fight club
          • Why? After a real attempt to bring a killer that had taken in a woman to join him (much like what happened with Leia) in without any more bloodshed, he attempted a kill while Haloes’ defences were down
          • What happened? Leia took control just in time to use a spell to block the attack, and after everything that has happened mixed with the fact that there was an arena of people cheering this on, she beat his face to a pulp, removed his limbs by hand, and collected his parts in a bucket so a cleric she knows could revive the killer and actually bring him in
        • 03 – Freedom Fighter
          • Why? Given her own form with limitless power by an ascending god and the promise that any deaths at this moment won’t stick, she lets loose for real in a war that has her against her family
          • What happened? What didn’t? Basically the only person spared was Haloes, who she quickly killed before he was forced revived (she quickly killed him again), one person on the opposing side also had limitless god energy but that was just good for free heals and revives, Leia was currently hating this person, she caused 20,000 deaths on a battlefield of 10,000
    • Why no art?! ;-;
      • Do you really want me to make a visual idea of what’s going on? You want me to draw a big horse dick being violently bitten off?! You make me sick
      • But really, the words are enough, maybe I can add some art of the two laying on the grass but for now, don’t let me start drawing this

  • [Draft] A Lote of questions

    [Draft] A Lote of questions

    CW: This story contains language that can be seen as bigoted/transphobic, used to show a character’s ignorance and is to show them not understanding rather than being hateful

    Leia more info

    Currently without their main soul, Leia is on an adventure to find the soul that’s meant to be in their body, tagging along with Lote and Mapel to get the help of the new land of the unicorns

    While the duo look into eachother’s eyes, getting completely lost in the future they could share, walking side by side, throwing silly comments, and more formal and less silly comments back and forth… not too different from the present, something stirs from the nearby bushes, a violet aura surrounding a beaten and bloody body that has just collapsed in full view of the not lovers.

    “Leia?!” Mapel is first to get up, running towards the brunette with multiple large scratches through the back of her leather armour and flesh. Mapel looks her over, rapid blood loss, must have been attacked by multiple large animals or something the group does not want to cross again.

    A golden aura surrounds Mapel, a spell crossing her lips as a matching aura surrounds Leia. The wounds quickly close, the blood loss stops, Leia jumps back to life and onto her feet. “Good news, I’m alive and with intel. Bad news, there’s a LOT a bears around and they do not like humans putting up campsites” Leia pauses to take a breath, “I swear there were something like 8 bears trying to take chunks out of me, I’m good but I’ve got limits!”

    Lote takes a look at the healing handy work, a small smile on their face, “Have you considered that they simply don’t care for a quarter of the nonbinary flag that you constantly emit?” they wave their hand in Leia’s aura, disrupting it as the hand moves through it, if only for a moment. Mapel gives a little giggle at the rather deadpan joke.

    Leia looks between them, looking for some glimmer of an inside joke but sees nothing of the sort, they’re fully expecting her to get it, but instead of that, she tries to make some kind of joke back, “I’m plenty binary, I was a robot brain in a past life” she’s either way too proud of that or simply deflecting not understanding… again.

    Mapel sighs with a facepalm, full slap of hand to forehead, it probably hurt, “You go by she/they, how do you not know what non-binary is? I thought you spent years travelling someone that goes by it” both her and Lote give a look, the old look of that weird woman is speaking nonsense again

    Leia gives a dismissive “Pssh” as she quickly thinks up a reply, “Well I guess the obvious is that the they is from me and Haloes being kinda…” She punches her fists together a couple of times, “together in one body, literally two of us so yeah. As for my fur friend, I thought it was because he like is completely out of place here? Like there’s no other furs that look like him at all, are we sure it didn’t skip through some weird crack in reality like I did?” She finally takes a glance towards the rather horrified looks of the rest of the group, “Wait wait wait, you don’t see it? Like if I appeared with my old body, I’d totally think the same way about myself, designed outside of the sight of that God Above All you liked to like. Like seriously, it looks nothing like any other fur I’ve seen1, less towards the human of humanoid than even it’s bestie” she gives a quick nervous chuckle, “Seriously, I can’t be the only one seeing this, I’m not thinking this to other it! It’s like when we found that sign about nonexistent mobile phones, just really out of place and I can’t explain why… Not like I can ask about it’s history, guy probably thinks it’s only lived in this world” her eyes grow more tired as she looks towards the floor, her tone losing its usual energy, “Hard to find someone that understands, ya know?” Her eyes dart up to look between the duo, “You both look like you know, I assume the chat went well”

    Lote offers a soft chuckle, “Let’s not start changing the subject here, but yes, just so you do know, the chat did go well, thank you for taking over tent duty” they look to Mapel, a gentle smile on their face, before it suddenly drops and the attention is back on Leia, “As a quick summery, a non binary person is someone that does not identify with a binary gender so male or female. It covers many identities, for reference, I’d refer to myself as a demiwoman, I don’t feel discomfort being a woman but I don’t feel like I connect with it at all. Jeder ist anders2, so how I feel may not apply to your fur friend and, as far as I am aware, does not apply to yourself” they hold a teacher like composure during the explanation with Mapel nodding and thumbs upping along with it.

    Leia thinks for a moment, full hand to chin, looking to the sky, “I think I get it? Like you don’t feel much of connection to being a woman but don’t feel like a guy, like just neither” her tone completely lacking confidence but a nod from Lote seems to help a bit, “I mean, I really only use they because there’s usually a guy here too, dunno if that counts if I myself uses she… I mean, I guess that’s my choice” she simply sighs and gives an over the top shrug, “Come on you two… Whatever your relationship is now, we should probably reclaim our camp site and supplies, you might wanna explain that too so I don’t mess anything up”

    Mapel whips out her electro pistol, “For the record, we’re together, we still gotta figure out what that really means, you know what I’m like” the pistol buzzes with a sharp buzz. Lote rolls their eyes, pulling pulling duel knives from their leather armour, “Yes, we will need to find out what that means, do not worry about being das fünfte Rad am Wagen3, we are always great together” they flash a casual smile, twirling the knives before walking into the bush. The rest of the group follow along, ready to fight for their tents!

    1. The character referred to here was not created by me and 100% doesn’t look like my fur characters ↩︎
    2. This (should) mean “Each to their own” ↩︎
    3. This (should) mean “Be the fifth wheel on the wagon” ↩︎
  • [Draft] A Lote to work with

    [Draft] A Lote to work with

    Mapel more info

    Mapel is a cleric that turned against her god to help Lote and develop a plan to rid the world of gods and fix some outstanding issues she noticed over the past 7 years. In this new world, she travels with Lote, enjoying a casual time while it lasts

    Lote more info

    Lote has succeeded in her mission to rid the world of gods and has offered to take Mapel to their homeland, currently travelling to a newly created land which has the best port to depart from. They owe Mapel a great deal as her assistance on guiding the changes to the world have made things a lot better than if she was to go it alone.

    The Sun slowly decended below the rainbow filled sea, Unicornucopia marking the land’s edge before reaching a port to new lands unknown. It’s a day’s travel at this point, not too far but it will be a long day to get there and hope there’s a people sized bed, how big are the unicorns or equine or whatever creatures live there? That’s the problem with casually reality warping a new territory into existance, no one knows what to expect!

    A tall figure sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking everything, cozy green jumper keeping her warm, though a bit tattered from bandit encounters and just falling on her face when her legs decide they hate her. Her brunette flowing hair catching the breeze as her eyes scanned the scene in front of her, something new, something different, something she’s never seen before. She sat, hunched up with her head reading on her pulled in knees, enjoying the calm and the wind. She isn’t truly alone, her companions are simply preparing a camp for the night, not her area of things to do, she knows her pals can handle putting up a few tents.

    From the nearby bushes, a shorter figure appears, “Mapel, you doing alright?” the voice is lightly gruff and raspy, a voice Mapel knows very well. The smaller figure wore light roguewear, simple leather armour with underclothes, not much for fighting but they make do, their expression typically extremely chilled out has a twinge of nerviousness to it. The larger figure looks over, offering a soft smile and a nod, patting the space next to her. The smaller figure gives her own smile and puts their butt on the previously patted ground.

    Mapel looks out to the sea below, the waves crashing with colours below, “You sure you can leave Leia alone with the tents? She might try stabbing them into place” her tone is playful and teasing, as if messing with a sibling. The smaller figure offers a soft chuckle, “She was insistant that I go and relax with you, she was like ‘You better have a nice relaxing time while I beat up these tents!’ and I’m not going to argue with that, she’s a lot you know” they sit with their legs hanging off the edge, swinging their stick legs above the sea below. Mapel giggles, “I thought you were a Lote” Lote’s face changes to one trying to fight bursting out loud and wanting to sigh so loud she’d alert every animal nearby to their location.

    Ultimately, no noise is made, much to Lote’s relief, they just smile in that casual cool way they always do, “I did have something, I wanted to ask you” their voice suddenly not as calm and casual as usual, a small tense pull on their words, “If that’s alright” they’re not sure why they would even say that, of course a question would be alright, a question is always alright, They really don’t know what is happening in their mind, is this an internal conflict of what to do next?

    Mapel’s eyes jump to look at her sitting partner, “Sure thing, of course!” she offers a soft and gentle smile, it’s been a good while since they got to know eachother, she outright betrayed her own god in the hope that Lote was true to their word, which turned out to be the right call in her eyes. So the long and short is there is a lot of trust between the two, would be kind of awkward if they hated eachother and sat like this.

    Lote’s eyes divert away to their destination in the distance, “We’ve known eachother for a while and it’s been great, I mean, you’re not a kissass like the followers were and you’re not… quite so gung ho like Leia is, you’re…” they pause, a rare struggle to find the wording, “…different, in a good way” she runs her hand through her hair, her bangs flopping back to join the rest of her hair. “I just think, and worry that, once this is all said and done and we have some fun in my homeland, we’d end up going our seperate ways”

    Mapel looks to them with a mix of concern and confusion, confusion…. those words are too easy to fuse together, even have the word fusion in there. Anyway, she lets out a small sigh, “I’m not going to say that hasn’t happened before” she fidgets her hands, aimlessly squishing them together, “But, that was a mutual split, the others had their lives to get back to and I had my work to do. Besides, until recently I would have called them family, we were that close and continued to be” her tone gave away that she was confused by the topic but her words are of reassurance.

    Lote’s expression changed, completely, their messed up hair mixed with a borderline distraught expression is a fresh look, not a good one, but a fresh look nontheless! “Well, I don’t want to be like family” is this how anxity feels? The hitched breath, the swear on their brow, the beating in their heart. For once, they aren’t sure of the outcome, not sure of what could come of what they want to say and the outcome really does matter. “Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright. Well now I’m sounding like you” she goes to give a chuckle but gives a short burst of laughter before cutting herself off, “I was thinking that maybe we could get together, like I don’t know about dating or anything like that I ju-” Mapel’s hand snuck up and landed on her shoulder with a shockingly firm grip.

    Mapel stares deep into Lote’s eyes, while the stare is firm, there is a small glint of reassurance, “Breath, focus on your breathing and take a second to get your thoughts together” she offers a soft smile, “And, if it helps, from what you’ve said so far, if it was a hard no in that direction at all, I would have said already, but I gotta hear the whole thing” she slowly removes her hand from Lote, like releasing a reset button and letting them start back up.

    Taking the friendly advice, they relax their breath and close their eyes, for a few moments, just existing. Their hair flops back down into bangs and the shakiness in their body starts to subside, not completely but the improvement is great. When they eventually open their eyes and lay their eyes upon their sitting partner, the shine of the setting sun on her face, the crashing rainbow waves as a backdrop, it’s now or never. “Mapel, I have loved travelling with you, you’ve been the best and I believe you will continue to be. I don’t believe I… can like people like other’s can, I don’t want to go on romantic dates, I don’t want to have big acts of love or anything of the sort. I’m happy as we are, I don’t want to have to see you go. Ich hab dich lieb1” she felt like she was going to die having it in the open, like her heart was going to explode.

    “I sure hope you didn’t just put a curse on me or something at the end there” Mapel giggles softly, “I think I understand how you feel about love and relationships, and I accept your feelings, I don’t want to flake on you, I want to be close to you. So of course, I wanna be with you, not like lovers but like… together” she gently takes one of Lote’s hands with both of hers, “I don’t know what we’d call this but I’m thankful for meeting you. And we can be… a bit closer than friends if you want, if only to save inn fees”

    The silly comments, always with the silly comments, Lote smiles warm, “Of course, I didn’t want to pull you into anything more than how we’ve been but being a bit closer sounds nice. I presume we will just see where we end up and how we express our relationship” they chuckle softly, “The worry feels silly now, I suppose you feel like this a lot, like a final trial to understand you better, I swear I’ll stop talking like you once I’ve calmed down”

    1. German is not a known language in lore, also I cannot speak it so I made sure to research to ensure the right phrasing is used, this is not meant to be a romantic romantic line but of love nonetheless ↩︎