Colour Printer's blag blog

Tag: Treboot

  • 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)

  • LGBT+ Within My Characters

    Now, lets just get this straight, I’m non-binary (agender, they/them please) and some kind of asexual (current thoughts on the subject are ace-flux between straight up repulsed and extremely bi) and 100% aromantic (neutral on the matter, love it in fiction but I can promise I’ve tried IRL, I got love but I just can’t feel that romance). Outside of that, I’m the diversity quiz equivlant of plain bread, white, British…. I am left handed, is that neat?

    But one thing I’ve always added a dash to in my characters is a dash of me, even if it’s completely unintentional 😀

    So, from humble beginnings to the gosh darn woke central, I just wanna look at my characters, see if there’s anything fun with them and I hope that someone can see themselves in whatever combo of labels end up below (and tell me, I’ll make more stuff of them because that’s cool as heck and I’m eating well on the character I feel reprisented by so might as well pass that on ^-^)

    And if you’re thinking, “Hey, turn those darn like 2010 emojis off!” No can do, buddy, this stuff is totally fixed in me now >:3

    Without further ado, enjoy the silly little list of silly little characters, seperated by the world and then time setting they appear in! (Common characters at the top, if any one version is different, they will be put under that world)

    Please note: Some details may not be shown as the characters are not open about these things while others will be (characters that are implied but never stated to be trans for example). I also do not exprience all of these myself so if you have any advice or want to clarify something, please, feel free to contact, I want to do my best here.

    Common

    • Haloes “Colour Cube” Colour
      • Gender: Gender Neutral (Any/All)
      • Presentation: Masculine (No transition)
      • Sexuality: Demi/Aro (Romance neutral)
    • Wendy “Colour Wing” Colour
      • Gender: Female (She/Her)
      • Presentation: Fem leaning
      • Sexuality: Bisexual
    • Chi Colour
      • Gender: Genderfluid (Changes between He/Him and She/Her, will accept They/Them but not like totally jazzed about it)
      • Presentation: Masc/Fem leaning, transitioned to be more androgynous
      • Sexuality: Bisexual
    • Sofia “Colour Splatter” Colour
      • Gender: Female (She/Her)
      • Presentation: Feminine
      • Sexuality: Bisexual (fem leaning)
    • Fiona “Colour Imagination” Colour
      • Gender: Female (She/Her)
      • Presentation: Feminine
      • Sexuality: Pansexual
    • Arthur Lowlight
      • Gender: Male (He/Him)
      • Presentation: Fluid (note: shapeshifter)
      • Sexuality: Pansexual

    Zeta Universes (PunkPunk/Reignboot)

    Contemporary (ProtoPunk/Reignboot)

    • Reign
      • Gender: Agender (They/Them)
      • Presentation: Androgynous (Baggy clothes and hoodie, literally cannot see a body shape)
      • Sexuality: Aro/Ace (Repulsed)
    • Brodee
      • Gender: Male (He/Him)
      • Presentation: Masculine
      • Sexuality: Gay
    • “Del” (Reignboot)
      • Gender: Female (She/Her)
      • Presentation: Feminine
      • Sexuality: Aro/Ace (Neutral)
    • Del Colour (PunkPunk)
      • Gender: Female (She/Her)
      • Presentation: Feminine
      • Sexuality: Bi
    • Riley Colour
      • Gender: Female (She/Her)
      • Presentation: Feminine
      • Sexuality: Bi

    Cyber Future (FuturePunk/ReignPunk)

    • Conner Colour
      • Gender: Male (He/Him)
      • Presentation: Masculine (Note, he is a shape shifter but is very firm on this, he is very much a minority in this regard)
      • Sexuality: Aro/Ace (Repulsed/Neutral)
    • Maria Colour
      • Gender: Female (She/Her)
      • Presentation: Androgynous
      • Sexuality: Bisexual
      • Extra notes: Mute

    Fantasy Time Crash (Treboot)

    • Mapel
      • Gender: Female (She/Her) (previous data lost)
      • Presentation: Feminine
      • Sexuality: Aro/Ace (Neutral/Neutral)
    • Lote David
      • Gender: Demigirl (They/Her)
      • Presentation: Androgynous
      • Sexuality: Demi/Aro (Positive/Neutral)
    • Aaron Fleetfoot
      • Gender: Male (He/Him)
      • Presentation: Masculine
      • Sexuality: Gay
      • Extra notes: Comes out and transitions throughout story
    • Cal
      • Gender: Demiboy (He/It)
      • Presentation: Androgynous
      • Sexuality: Ace/Biromantic (Neutral)
      • Extra notes: He’s a calico cat fur, if you know anything about calico cats, it’s safe to assume it’s trans

  • 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

    A FreeBoot (Treboot Universe) story

    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

    A Freeboot (Treboot universe) story
    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 ↩︎

  • The Halo of Flowers

    A Treboot story prequel

    The grasslands are peaceful at this time of day, then again, they’re always peaceful when the woman that has come to be known as Kind Keeper is around. When she’s not tending to her inn to keep the adventurers, travellers and all sorts happy, she maintains the area around her inn. The biggest place that she maintains is the haloes of flowers, two perfectly circular rings of flowers, one inside the other, no matter what happens, the flowers have never been affected, no fire or fury has harmed a petal on these flowers, not since her parent’s time, not since her grandparent’s time.

    She approaches the flowers as she always does, a gentle smile on her face as she tends to the grass, making sure there’s no muck, and that the grass is healthy, no big jobs but something she takes as seriously as the peace in her inn. Despite being a topic of discussion, despite people always being here, she never sees anyone here, anyone to talk about it in the moment, always after seeing it and the initial fascination and confusion have worn off.

    But this time, this time she sees… something, a glimmer in the corner of her eye, a small purple glow and a figure inside. As her eye focuses on the figure, it and the glow vanish. She lets out a small sigh, a small rub of her eyes, a small mumble that she needs to rest some more. Soon enough, she finishes up and makes her way back to her inn, hopefully the paladins and bandits staying in the inn have learned to get along in her time away, don’t need a fifth fight to break up.