Tag: Haloes Colour

  • 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!

  • 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