Knocking on Heaven's Door [MtG/Multicross/SI]
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
- Crossover
Ryven Razgriz
I need a Gun and I'll let you know 'What's up?'.
- Location
- South East Asia
Whaddya expect? He's THE Doctor.
Imadaman
Has no clue, but keeps going.
- Location
- Finland
Well, Nadia was thrown in lockdown for breaking rule 1 and she didn't kill anyone to the... Death? End?
Chapter Eighty-One (Suisei No Gargantia)
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Eighty-One (Suisei No Gargantia)
The sea was a placid, and welcoming sight. Countless tiny nanomachines scurried about the ocean's surface, a byproduct of a long forgotten age. Thousands of thousands of light years away two split-off remnants of humanity fought one another in a never-ending war for the supremacy of their thought on the species' evolution. Meanwhile, I stood with a fishing pole in hand, my back pressed against a creaky wooden chair upon a wooden pallet of sorts, and while no fish was biting, I also wasn't really in this for the fishing.
I was in this because I wanted to catch a fish without having to use Blue mana, or Red Mana, or any mana whatsoever. A straw hat covered my head, and as a tiny white flag extended atop the pole that held the tattered sail of my proud vessel, I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be disturbed for the following weeks at the very least. The currents of time were calm, especially when there weren't any pesky humans hammering around them, or Planeswalkers to toy with them either.
My teeth abruptly gritted as I felt a flash of pain echo across the back of my head, the water's surface briefly agitating itself before returning to its prior calm. Even countless dimensions away, even thousands upon thousands of worlds away, the sealing of the Rift was having its effects. I was no longer tied to it, nor had any idea what the Doctor had planned with it, but it was no longer any of my business. Once the sealing occurred completely, the Dimensions would stop multiplying, parallel histories would be sealed, and the worlds would know a sort-of peace.
Well, most certainly they'd no longer see me in any shape or form, since I, by principle, didn't belong to the same dimension as the rest of the Planeswalkers. Any dimension which held a fictional character as a Planeswalker was, after all, not the Canon dimension of my own. Hell, I would abruptly become the loneliest of them all, from thousands upon thousands to zero or maybe one or two new, and different, ones.
A fish actually decided to take my bait as my mind drifted. I blinked and hastily stood up, planting my feet and pulling in order to catch it. A couple of seconds later, and I now had a...a fish of sorts, most definitely, in my hands. It had to be a salt-water fish too, but asking me what kind of fish it was wouldn't really work.
"Well," I muttered as I held the slimy thing in my hands, which was twitching and desperately gagging for air. "Back in you go." I threw him back, and as it hastily swam away, I wondered if it would return to its fish-friends and remark on the God that stood beyond the surface of their sky who had mercifully allowed him to return home to his family...or perhaps, since the fish was just that, a fish, it wouldn't even remember anything and come biting once more in a matter of seconds to the same bait that had caught him before.
Predictably, five minutes later the fish returned.
"Do you have suicidal tendencies mister fish?" I asked it, holding it by the tail and sighing, before throwing it back in once more. "Maybe I should try duck hunting?" I hummed. "With a fluffy dog and its panting tongue going anf, anf, anf...uhm...now that's an idea," I muttered. I sat back down on my wooden chair, and extended a hand to grab from the nearby ice cooler a can of cold coffee. I closed my eyes as I took long, meaningful sips from the can. I then clenched my fingers, flattening the aluminium.
My left hand plopped down by my side, and as a soft, squishy thing held it up, the jelly-like creature rubbed its head affectionately against my open palm. I glanced down towards it, and then chuckled. "Hello there, Anthrax," the Sliver purred, its form milky white as its tendrils were rapidly growing from feeding in the water. "Be nice to the ecosystem." My words didn't need to be said, since he knew them already through my thoughts alone. Like a mass of rolling, warm flesh Anthrax hopped on my knees, demurely assuming the form of a blob-like blanket. "I missed you too," I said gently, "I knew you'd find me first."
Anthrax happily gurgled, and then shifted his body. Long, silver hair and a cute button-nose soon emerged through the sores and the pustules, crystal-clear blue eyes and a blinding white smile that would rival the shiniest of pearls spread across the cutest of faces. "Blurble," he said as the rest of his body shifted in form, assuming the semblances of the cutest of children and sitting on my lap without a care in the world, his legs dangling from my knees. "Glurgle."
"Yes," I acquiesced. "I'm enjoying peace."
"Blargle," Anthrax nodded his cute little head, and then stretched a bit before crossing his arms in front of his chest as a navy outfit had meanwhile appeared over him.
"Discordia can handle things," I muttered. "I'm on vacation."
"Snargle," Anthrax said while shrugging daintily, humming a happy childish song as he swished his head right and left a bit to get my chin to rub it.
"I don't care about what the rest of the Planeswalkers are doing. I'm fine here, fishing," I pointed at the fishing cane, and gave it a back-and-forth swing. Anthrax didn't appear convinced, and so decided to huff and color his hair bright pink. "I've decided to leave that life behind. We're going to enjoy a nice vacation, let the young ones do whatever they want to do." Anthrax's cheeks began to glow rapidly. "Now don't be like that!" I said hotly, "There comes a time when children need to fly on their own wings, away from their parents. You can't keep on being a snuggly-cutely-wuffly Sliver or you'll never find your own place in the world!"
"Blurgle-Gurgle," Anthrax said with a small, but firm nod, closing the argument on his side as he filled his cheeks with air and closed his eyes, snuggling against my chest with his fingers tightly gripping on to my shirt.
"Fine, fine," I sighed. "You should be the one setting the example, not the one sticking to my shadow. Did I forget to give you the rebellious teen phase when I crafted you, or are you a natural hugging-lover of sorts?"
"Snurgle," was his last remark before quite calmly letting his synapse rest, thus entering what could be described as a hybrid between hibernation and sleep. Even his soft snores were cute. Truly, Anthrax had been the best creation I could ever have made. A yawn left my mouth as his sleeping cycle rushed across my mind, carrying me towards pleasant dreams and happy snores. My heartbeat slowed down in turn, and as my eyelids grew heavy, I closed my eyes and fell asleep in turn.
This world was peaceful. Its inhabitants kind.
"I feel like I'm forgetting someone," I mumbled.
Anthrax' pink hair turned a brilliant white.
I stared at it, and then my eyebrows rose.
Well, whatever it was, it couldn't be important.
I wouldn't have forgotten about it otherwise, would I?
The sea was a placid, and welcoming sight. Countless tiny nanomachines scurried about the ocean's surface, a byproduct of a long forgotten age. Thousands of thousands of light years away two split-off remnants of humanity fought one another in a never-ending war for the supremacy of their thought on the species' evolution. Meanwhile, I stood with a fishing pole in hand, my back pressed against a creaky wooden chair upon a wooden pallet of sorts, and while no fish was biting, I also wasn't really in this for the fishing.
I was in this because I wanted to catch a fish without having to use Blue mana, or Red Mana, or any mana whatsoever. A straw hat covered my head, and as a tiny white flag extended atop the pole that held the tattered sail of my proud vessel, I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be disturbed for the following weeks at the very least. The currents of time were calm, especially when there weren't any pesky humans hammering around them, or Planeswalkers to toy with them either.
My teeth abruptly gritted as I felt a flash of pain echo across the back of my head, the water's surface briefly agitating itself before returning to its prior calm. Even countless dimensions away, even thousands upon thousands of worlds away, the sealing of the Rift was having its effects. I was no longer tied to it, nor had any idea what the Doctor had planned with it, but it was no longer any of my business. Once the sealing occurred completely, the Dimensions would stop multiplying, parallel histories would be sealed, and the worlds would know a sort-of peace.
Well, most certainly they'd no longer see me in any shape or form, since I, by principle, didn't belong to the same dimension as the rest of the Planeswalkers. Any dimension which held a fictional character as a Planeswalker was, after all, not the Canon dimension of my own. Hell, I would abruptly become the loneliest of them all, from thousands upon thousands to zero or maybe one or two new, and different, ones.
A fish actually decided to take my bait as my mind drifted. I blinked and hastily stood up, planting my feet and pulling in order to catch it. A couple of seconds later, and I now had a...a fish of sorts, most definitely, in my hands. It had to be a salt-water fish too, but asking me what kind of fish it was wouldn't really work.
"Well," I muttered as I held the slimy thing in my hands, which was twitching and desperately gagging for air. "Back in you go." I threw him back, and as it hastily swam away, I wondered if it would return to its fish-friends and remark on the God that stood beyond the surface of their sky who had mercifully allowed him to return home to his family...or perhaps, since the fish was just that, a fish, it wouldn't even remember anything and come biting once more in a matter of seconds to the same bait that had caught him before.
Predictably, five minutes later the fish returned.
"Do you have suicidal tendencies mister fish?" I asked it, holding it by the tail and sighing, before throwing it back in once more. "Maybe I should try duck hunting?" I hummed. "With a fluffy dog and its panting tongue going anf, anf, anf...uhm...now that's an idea," I muttered. I sat back down on my wooden chair, and extended a hand to grab from the nearby ice cooler a can of cold coffee. I closed my eyes as I took long, meaningful sips from the can. I then clenched my fingers, flattening the aluminium.
My left hand plopped down by my side, and as a soft, squishy thing held it up, the jelly-like creature rubbed its head affectionately against my open palm. I glanced down towards it, and then chuckled. "Hello there, Anthrax," the Sliver purred, its form milky white as its tendrils were rapidly growing from feeding in the water. "Be nice to the ecosystem." My words didn't need to be said, since he knew them already through my thoughts alone. Like a mass of rolling, warm flesh Anthrax hopped on my knees, demurely assuming the form of a blob-like blanket. "I missed you too," I said gently, "I knew you'd find me first."
Anthrax happily gurgled, and then shifted his body. Long, silver hair and a cute button-nose soon emerged through the sores and the pustules, crystal-clear blue eyes and a blinding white smile that would rival the shiniest of pearls spread across the cutest of faces. "Blurble," he said as the rest of his body shifted in form, assuming the semblances of the cutest of children and sitting on my lap without a care in the world, his legs dangling from my knees. "Glurgle."
"Yes," I acquiesced. "I'm enjoying peace."
"Blargle," Anthrax nodded his cute little head, and then stretched a bit before crossing his arms in front of his chest as a navy outfit had meanwhile appeared over him.
"Discordia can handle things," I muttered. "I'm on vacation."
"Snargle," Anthrax said while shrugging daintily, humming a happy childish song as he swished his head right and left a bit to get my chin to rub it.
"I don't care about what the rest of the Planeswalkers are doing. I'm fine here, fishing," I pointed at the fishing cane, and gave it a back-and-forth swing. Anthrax didn't appear convinced, and so decided to huff and color his hair bright pink. "I've decided to leave that life behind. We're going to enjoy a nice vacation, let the young ones do whatever they want to do." Anthrax's cheeks began to glow rapidly. "Now don't be like that!" I said hotly, "There comes a time when children need to fly on their own wings, away from their parents. You can't keep on being a snuggly-cutely-wuffly Sliver or you'll never find your own place in the world!"
"Blurgle-Gurgle," Anthrax said with a small, but firm nod, closing the argument on his side as he filled his cheeks with air and closed his eyes, snuggling against my chest with his fingers tightly gripping on to my shirt.
"Fine, fine," I sighed. "You should be the one setting the example, not the one sticking to my shadow. Did I forget to give you the rebellious teen phase when I crafted you, or are you a natural hugging-lover of sorts?"
"Snurgle," was his last remark before quite calmly letting his synapse rest, thus entering what could be described as a hybrid between hibernation and sleep. Even his soft snores were cute. Truly, Anthrax had been the best creation I could ever have made. A yawn left my mouth as his sleeping cycle rushed across my mind, carrying me towards pleasant dreams and happy snores. My heartbeat slowed down in turn, and as my eyelids grew heavy, I closed my eyes and fell asleep in turn.
This world was peaceful. Its inhabitants kind.
"I feel like I'm forgetting someone," I mumbled.
Anthrax' pink hair turned a brilliant white.
I stared at it, and then my eyebrows rose.
Well, whatever it was, it couldn't be important.
I wouldn't have forgotten about it otherwise, would I?
Zergslayer
Drive me closer. I want to hit them with my sword!
- Location
- Sweden
Well that's not ominous at all, no siree
Ryven Razgriz
I need a Gun and I'll let you know 'What's up?'.
- Location
- South East Asia
Dude. You like... Forgot about your own sons and daughters especially that hidden one. Also your goddamn sliver waifu.
Chapter Eighty-Two (Suisei No Gargantia)
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Eighty-Two (Suisei No Gargantia)
The whole plot of Suisei no Gargantia could easily be defined with but a few key words, which were meaningless to the likes of me, since I was merely enjoying my time fishing with the cute sleepy-head that was Anthrax, who seemed to relish simply staying in a puddle-like form near me. The sea's surface remained calm, and tranquil. Though there were life currents sparkling with electricity, it hadn't dawned on me how to turn on a microwave I simply had to throw the plug of it off in the water. Wasn't that just ironic? Throw the plug in the water and bam, rather than get electrocuted, you get power. Yet the nanites were smart enough to recognize living beings, and didn't shock them by mistake.
My feet were dangling in the cool water, my hands resting on the sides of the makeshift raft which I increased in size to welcome Anthrax' addition to my crew. A couple of fishes drew near enough that from Anthrax's puddle-form a tendril emerged quick and fast enough to grab hold of them. He threw them in the center of the raft, where a pan greased with oil stood in wait. It was no La Trattoria's cooking, and most certainly there would be no strange and bizarre food-orgasm that led to unmentionable events.
Anthrax happily shot one of its tendrils up in the air, and then dragged it back down together with the squawking of a seagull trapped in its grip.
"Fish and bird cooked together?" I scrunched my nose up, "We aren't picky, but I think that's an offense to every single cook out there in the world."
"Snurgle-Burgle," Anthrax most politely replied.
"Just because you don't want to bother growing taste buds doesn't mean that I, your father, should go without them," I quipped. My brows furrowed a bit as I stared at the white plumage of the seagull. "There's no land in this place, so where did the seagull come from?"
The answer was forthcoming just like the noise of a boat engine, a fast and nimble vessel covered in a light sheen of rust which was closing in on my raft. Aboard it, two men held assault rifles slung over their shoulders, but were quite actually uncaring of the situation since they reckoned I wasn't a threat. They were both right, and also terribly wrong. Perhaps the shifting of the dimensions had forced a change in the currents of events, since last I checked I shouldn't have been found by anyone for months yet.
"Make way!" one of the two pirates spoke, deliberately crashing his ship against my raft in order to break it. I allowed it, my body hitting the water surface with ease as Anthrax hid within my clothes. His thoughts were a multicolored variety of insults, but even so my little Anthrax was the cutest even when he went around insulting people. In the back of my mind, he was a cute little kid going all Tsun-Tsun with B-Baka! exclamations.
"I am a tranquil soul," I whispered. "Like the ocean's waves, I do not rise to the challenges." The pirates' motorboat stopped a shirt distance away from me, one of the two leveling his assault rifle in my direction.
"You get to choose," he spoke. "Since we're all free men here. You can either join us good-looking fellows, or become fish-food."
I sighed and spat out a small amount of seawater. "I'll join. Not that I've got much of a choice now, do I?"
"He's a sassy one," the other fellow said with a dry chuckle, "Won't laugh when he's sent to clean the deck."
I didn't laugh once I was pulled out of the water and onto the boat, nor did I laugh when the pirates decided to leave me in peace in a corner of their skipper as they resumed whatever patrol they were currently doing. There wasn't much to say. Perhaps it was a way of living of the folks of these parts, then again there were two men armed to the teeth in the middle of the sea with nowhere to go but their pirate fleet. A human being in my situation would have been thankful for having been saved.
The skipper made a few more rounds, and then began to return. One of the pirates radioed in that they had found new fresh meat, and as I hummed to myself nonchalantly, the duo set about laughing as they explained how everything was going to change, how being a pirate wasn't that bad of a life, and if I ever felt like running away, or stealing from the pirate fleet, then they'd hang me by my bowels. I was half-tempted, only half truly, to whistle for a leviathan-sized Sliver to emerge from the depths of the sea. I held myself back.
I had so many good intentions, and it wouldn't do to ruin them by acting differently from what I had planned. I was just a simple Planeswalker, in a simple setting, fishing, enjoying life, and while being able of committing all of the possible crimes against humanity in less than a second, I wouldn't do any of it. I would enjoy myself and the part I had been cast into, for that was my will.
"The new recruit will wash the bridges if it wants dinner!" one of the men laughed raucously as I was left without supervision, but with a mop in my hands, in the middle of one of the largest bridges of the fleet. Great, this felt like the hazing in the army all over again. And funnily enough, it didn't matter the dimension, or the world, new recruits always ended up suffering from some form of hazing. It built character, made them stronger, and showed whether or not they had what it took.
In this circumstance, it wasn't that bad of a thing. Five hours later I was done without much worry, and I actually got to eat.
Anthrax didn't understand, but he remained quiet. He couldn't understand, but he could see why I was doing what I was doing. In the end, whatever his father did was his father's business, just as long as he kept himself somewhere he could see him. Being a colony of miniature Slivers tightly linked with one another, Anthrax was quite the clingy fungi-like Sliver.
Funnily enough, the main group of pirates which hung around the cantina-like ship of the whole fleet didn't bother with the new entry. The point of having someone scrub the decks was perhaps to make them seen by the others, so nobody would question one's presence. Perhaps I was reading too much in it. There was no subtlety to be found in this sort of things, and if that was the purpose of the exercise, then it had long since been forgotten.
"You're new around here," a lanky man said as he sat down by my side. He had the smile of a man with a great plan. "I can show you around—"
A metal pot landed neatly on the man's head, courtesy of a large woman with a matronly smile. I narrowed my eyes, my senses tingling as Anthrax quickly grew wary of the situation at hand. This was a common enough shtick that happened. The fact it was happening to me, however, wasn't as common.
I had long since passed the point where I wished to view the lives of people through the lenses of being a part of their plots, or character archetypes. Honestly, being the filler-character that has no spoken lines suited me better.
"You're a man of few words," the lanky man said, "I can respect that, but see, unless they took your tongue when they caught you, you ought to know how it works. Can't have you lack of respect to those who've been here longer than you, understood?"
I raised an eyebrow in his direction, and then made a single nod of my head.
Anthrax helpfully supplied the thousands of way such an insignificant ant could be crushed beneath the soles of our feet and made to experience everlasting pain.
I ignored him. This was...rehabilitation. Without a doctor to watch over me, but still, rehabilitation.
"Great man! Then, you're just not the talkative type. Totally respect that! Here's what we're gonna do. You'll be bunking on my ship and in exchange, you're going to clean the ship's baths."
I nodded once more, keeping my mouth tightly shut less I say things I would rather not say and complicate everything further.
This would be a nice, new thing of mine. There would be no fighting, no intriguing, nothing but simply living a simple life like in a virtual simulator which—
The canteen-boat abruptly shuddered and creaked menacingly, scattering everything on the floor as loud noises echoed over my head, coming from the upper levels of the fleet.
...
The smell of Green Mana was abundant, as were the inhuman screams and the screeches which weren't, however, Sliver in nature.
Great.
A Planeswalker had either found me, or made this place its playground.
What must I do to get some peace and quiet?
Causing the heat death of the universe was starting to look like a nice idea, all things considered.
The whole plot of Suisei no Gargantia could easily be defined with but a few key words, which were meaningless to the likes of me, since I was merely enjoying my time fishing with the cute sleepy-head that was Anthrax, who seemed to relish simply staying in a puddle-like form near me. The sea's surface remained calm, and tranquil. Though there were life currents sparkling with electricity, it hadn't dawned on me how to turn on a microwave I simply had to throw the plug of it off in the water. Wasn't that just ironic? Throw the plug in the water and bam, rather than get electrocuted, you get power. Yet the nanites were smart enough to recognize living beings, and didn't shock them by mistake.
My feet were dangling in the cool water, my hands resting on the sides of the makeshift raft which I increased in size to welcome Anthrax' addition to my crew. A couple of fishes drew near enough that from Anthrax's puddle-form a tendril emerged quick and fast enough to grab hold of them. He threw them in the center of the raft, where a pan greased with oil stood in wait. It was no La Trattoria's cooking, and most certainly there would be no strange and bizarre food-orgasm that led to unmentionable events.
Anthrax happily shot one of its tendrils up in the air, and then dragged it back down together with the squawking of a seagull trapped in its grip.
"Fish and bird cooked together?" I scrunched my nose up, "We aren't picky, but I think that's an offense to every single cook out there in the world."
"Snurgle-Burgle," Anthrax most politely replied.
"Just because you don't want to bother growing taste buds doesn't mean that I, your father, should go without them," I quipped. My brows furrowed a bit as I stared at the white plumage of the seagull. "There's no land in this place, so where did the seagull come from?"
The answer was forthcoming just like the noise of a boat engine, a fast and nimble vessel covered in a light sheen of rust which was closing in on my raft. Aboard it, two men held assault rifles slung over their shoulders, but were quite actually uncaring of the situation since they reckoned I wasn't a threat. They were both right, and also terribly wrong. Perhaps the shifting of the dimensions had forced a change in the currents of events, since last I checked I shouldn't have been found by anyone for months yet.
"Make way!" one of the two pirates spoke, deliberately crashing his ship against my raft in order to break it. I allowed it, my body hitting the water surface with ease as Anthrax hid within my clothes. His thoughts were a multicolored variety of insults, but even so my little Anthrax was the cutest even when he went around insulting people. In the back of my mind, he was a cute little kid going all Tsun-Tsun with B-Baka! exclamations.
"I am a tranquil soul," I whispered. "Like the ocean's waves, I do not rise to the challenges." The pirates' motorboat stopped a shirt distance away from me, one of the two leveling his assault rifle in my direction.
"You get to choose," he spoke. "Since we're all free men here. You can either join us good-looking fellows, or become fish-food."
I sighed and spat out a small amount of seawater. "I'll join. Not that I've got much of a choice now, do I?"
"He's a sassy one," the other fellow said with a dry chuckle, "Won't laugh when he's sent to clean the deck."
I didn't laugh once I was pulled out of the water and onto the boat, nor did I laugh when the pirates decided to leave me in peace in a corner of their skipper as they resumed whatever patrol they were currently doing. There wasn't much to say. Perhaps it was a way of living of the folks of these parts, then again there were two men armed to the teeth in the middle of the sea with nowhere to go but their pirate fleet. A human being in my situation would have been thankful for having been saved.
The skipper made a few more rounds, and then began to return. One of the pirates radioed in that they had found new fresh meat, and as I hummed to myself nonchalantly, the duo set about laughing as they explained how everything was going to change, how being a pirate wasn't that bad of a life, and if I ever felt like running away, or stealing from the pirate fleet, then they'd hang me by my bowels. I was half-tempted, only half truly, to whistle for a leviathan-sized Sliver to emerge from the depths of the sea. I held myself back.
I had so many good intentions, and it wouldn't do to ruin them by acting differently from what I had planned. I was just a simple Planeswalker, in a simple setting, fishing, enjoying life, and while being able of committing all of the possible crimes against humanity in less than a second, I wouldn't do any of it. I would enjoy myself and the part I had been cast into, for that was my will.
"The new recruit will wash the bridges if it wants dinner!" one of the men laughed raucously as I was left without supervision, but with a mop in my hands, in the middle of one of the largest bridges of the fleet. Great, this felt like the hazing in the army all over again. And funnily enough, it didn't matter the dimension, or the world, new recruits always ended up suffering from some form of hazing. It built character, made them stronger, and showed whether or not they had what it took.
In this circumstance, it wasn't that bad of a thing. Five hours later I was done without much worry, and I actually got to eat.
Anthrax didn't understand, but he remained quiet. He couldn't understand, but he could see why I was doing what I was doing. In the end, whatever his father did was his father's business, just as long as he kept himself somewhere he could see him. Being a colony of miniature Slivers tightly linked with one another, Anthrax was quite the clingy fungi-like Sliver.
Funnily enough, the main group of pirates which hung around the cantina-like ship of the whole fleet didn't bother with the new entry. The point of having someone scrub the decks was perhaps to make them seen by the others, so nobody would question one's presence. Perhaps I was reading too much in it. There was no subtlety to be found in this sort of things, and if that was the purpose of the exercise, then it had long since been forgotten.
"You're new around here," a lanky man said as he sat down by my side. He had the smile of a man with a great plan. "I can show you around—"
A metal pot landed neatly on the man's head, courtesy of a large woman with a matronly smile. I narrowed my eyes, my senses tingling as Anthrax quickly grew wary of the situation at hand. This was a common enough shtick that happened. The fact it was happening to me, however, wasn't as common.
I had long since passed the point where I wished to view the lives of people through the lenses of being a part of their plots, or character archetypes. Honestly, being the filler-character that has no spoken lines suited me better.
"You're a man of few words," the lanky man said, "I can respect that, but see, unless they took your tongue when they caught you, you ought to know how it works. Can't have you lack of respect to those who've been here longer than you, understood?"
I raised an eyebrow in his direction, and then made a single nod of my head.
Anthrax helpfully supplied the thousands of way such an insignificant ant could be crushed beneath the soles of our feet and made to experience everlasting pain.
I ignored him. This was...rehabilitation. Without a doctor to watch over me, but still, rehabilitation.
"Great man! Then, you're just not the talkative type. Totally respect that! Here's what we're gonna do. You'll be bunking on my ship and in exchange, you're going to clean the ship's baths."
I nodded once more, keeping my mouth tightly shut less I say things I would rather not say and complicate everything further.
This would be a nice, new thing of mine. There would be no fighting, no intriguing, nothing but simply living a simple life like in a virtual simulator which—
The canteen-boat abruptly shuddered and creaked menacingly, scattering everything on the floor as loud noises echoed over my head, coming from the upper levels of the fleet.
...
The smell of Green Mana was abundant, as were the inhuman screams and the screeches which weren't, however, Sliver in nature.
Great.
A Planeswalker had either found me, or made this place its playground.
What must I do to get some peace and quiet?
Causing the heat death of the universe was starting to look like a nice idea, all things considered.
Mockingly-Tricky
Ketchup Enthusiast
- Location
- Happy Funtime Candyland
Tsk, tsk. Poor Shade, don't you know that peace and quiet are but mere myths for you?
- Location
- Elsewhere
"Oh Mighty and Ancient Tyrant, what was the most delicious meal you have ever eaten?"
"I have never done such a thing."
"What do you mean? I know you eat, are there too many to choose one delicacy? ...or perhaps this is a koan of some sort, the most delicious of meals is the one you have not yet eaten?"
"No, it means that no such event has occurred. Definitely. And the event that definitely didn't occur shall definitely never be spoken of. Understand?"
Unfortunately his "dere" side involves flesh destroying diseases.
Is it Sussie?
Though truth be told, any character from The Amazing World of Gumball would make a good planeswalker character!
- Location
- Greece
So it's either Yuuki Rito, a different member of the Rebellion or Douchebag McFuckbrains #4567. Ah well, whoever it is will probably very painfully and horrifically if he doesn't let Shade have his beauty sleep.
troyamonga
Caffeine Dependent Hero
- Location
- United States
God im so glad this is alive again.
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
I am feeling very conflicted on the one hand: Yay, it lives!
On the other: Oh dear god, what have you done to my wise Tyrant!
I honestly respected the Tyrant and his view...having him swayed to the power of piece and love and "everything will work out in the end as long as we're nice" just seems cheap. I mean, just look at the girl at the beginning and what happened to her? Or how bum fuck crazy things would have gotten if he didn't step in and form his own crew ready to get their hands dirty to "smother the monster in cribs" as he put it earlier?
Sigh, still, I am happy he's trying to get some piece and quiet and recenter himself. Felt bad for the man, especially after finding out what happened to the last woman he loved.
He'd been carrying the wait of everything on his shoulders......meh, I guess if he wants to leave it to the new kids on the block thats okay. Let it, and their mistakes, be their problems.
On the other: Oh dear god, what have you done to my wise Tyrant!
I honestly respected the Tyrant and his view...having him swayed to the power of piece and love and "everything will work out in the end as long as we're nice" just seems cheap. I mean, just look at the girl at the beginning and what happened to her? Or how bum fuck crazy things would have gotten if he didn't step in and form his own crew ready to get their hands dirty to "smother the monster in cribs" as he put it earlier?
Sigh, still, I am happy he's trying to get some piece and quiet and recenter himself. Felt bad for the man, especially after finding out what happened to the last woman he loved.
He'd been carrying the wait of everything on his shoulders......meh, I guess if he wants to leave it to the new kids on the block thats okay. Let it, and their mistakes, be their problems.
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Vaalintine
Wild Wondorous Wolfalope
Goddamnit shade, this story was good in the beginning but now I can't even continue reading, because its just repeated curbtomps by a miserable mary sue ultragod edgelord.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Yeah, that's kind of the point of this story.
It's literally 'An End-Tier Planeswalker shouldn't have problems with anything, right?' and then I go and try to deconstruct it.
Imadaman
Has no clue, but keeps going.
- Location
- Finland
I'm sure it's all according to plan.
Tyrant was/is great though. Fucking kids messing around with shit they don't bother to try and comprehend and wrecking the multiverse.
Chapter Eighty-Three (Suisei No Gargantia)
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Eighty-Three (Suisei No Gargantia)
The screams died as soon as I stepped upon the deck. No, to be more precise they were already dead, but with my arrival they stopped twitching and moaning their last breaths. The figure was muscled, and hunched. Dark eyes shone of pitch-black Mana as dirty cursed veins spread across the frame of a bulky-looking man. A two-handed ax strapped to his back, his clothes having seen better days and froth leaving his mouth copiously like a mad beast, an animal devoid of interests if not for the desire to sate his hunger. It made a throwing motion with his right hand, no words leaving his lips, and a threatening bear weaved with darkness and things from the beyond emerged.
Its frame took one step upon the dirty, rusty halls of the ship's deck, and then stilled. It coughed, it rasped, it angrily cursed and then it bled and died as whips of fungi-like materials began to grow from the flesh of the summoned animal.
"The most ferocious hunter of them all is the flesh-eating bacteria," I pointed out calmly, eyes narrow. "And who would you be, that you come face me?"
"No...mercy," the man growled, launching himself forward as the ship we stood on cracked in half, mighty tentacles crafted from the depths of the abyss and other, unworldly powers merged together to create not a simple Kraken, but something far more dangerous and evil.
The ocean's surface trembled in fear, the icy waters forming icebergs as heat seemed to abandon this place, death looming over us as if we were the only survivors in a world filled with darkness. This was the sensation of Black Mana. Power, honest and brutal, without compromise nor desire to hide one's own greatness. Black Mana was the greatest of colors when it came to desiring more power, but also one of the weakest when it came to misdirection or lying. Black Mana was honest, and that honesty was its undoing more often than not.
The large ax sailed for my head with speed, and had one of my talons not emerged from my sides to intercept the blow, it would have proven quite nasty. The talon itself broke, more forming to immediately repair the damage wrought by the blade as death seemed to spread across the tendrils of the smaller Slivers that formed most of my body. They regenerated. They tried to, and yet they died.
Death, apparently, was absolute when it came by the hands of this Planeswalker.
I stepped back, a new level of threat rising to my mind as the man smirked, the lips dark as the cruelty behind the smile wasn't lost to me. The tongue licked the upper lip, a sign of joy and anticipation for the incoming end to the quickest duel I had ever been a part of. This wasn't Nicol Bolas, who would rather bring down the suns. This wasn't a hidden assassin in the dark, ready to lurch and strike from the back to sever a spine. This was...an altogether different threat.
One that hurt my children.
"I was enjoying my peace of mind," I said, clicking my tongue against my teeth as the ax came swinging down for my head. My tail swished on the deck of the ship, sending me backwards as my spine reinforced itself, sharp scythe-like limbs coming forth only to rot as they came in contact with the ax of the Planeswalker in question. The hardened chitin died, the bones and the marrow within began to ache and pulse as if an ongoing infection was ravenously devouring them with gluttonous want. I disliked facing Black, because sometimes there just wasn't a choice to make.
I disliked it even more when it was prepared.
"Is this all that you are?" the Planeswalker growled. "I thought you would be worthier prey."
"Sorry to disappoint you," I retorted as the monstrous' kraken's tentacles squeezed and shattered the deck of the ship, three pairs of leathery wings sprouting from my back to enable my flight, even as my talons regrew faster and slicker than before, "But I've wasted more energies than you will ever dream of, and lost too many to the Dragon. I'm enjoying my retirement, youngster. Come back in a thousand years if you want a real challenge."
"No mercy for the prey," the Planeswalker replied, extending a hand as a bolt of purple, sickly energy left it. I swung to the side with my wings, avoiding the attack which abruptly changed trajectory, homing in on my frame even as I began to pick up flight. My muscles, meanwhile, were aching fiercely as if losing cohesion. I felt it then. No, rather than feeling it, it was the lack of feeling that made it clear to me.
I was losing pieces.
I was losing parts. The Slivers which composed my body were rotting away, dying by the million and at such an accelerated rate that it was impossible for me to recover them. No, they weren't dying. They were...they were being eaten alive.
My mind pulsed. The Leylines of pure Blue mana shattered free from their confines, the seas recoiling abruptly as what made them breathe and live died out, devoured hungrily as the scales upon my frame shifted and changed color, metallic glints overtaking my muscles and fibers.
"Are we born to die, or is our purpose forged by the storms we survive?" I whispered as electricity danced and crackled across my entire frame, the plague receding, recoiling and dying as rather than face it through the might of flesh, I made it starve through the lack of it, through the replacement and the ozone that gathered and pulsed with the heat of lightning. The moment I stilled to purge my body was the moment the homing sickening light struck, sending me to spiral down as most of the Slivers that composed my body died, turning into cinders and ashes. Aetheric energies rushed across the multitude, shredding the synaptic hivemind and leaving each Sliver for itself, to scuttle about and lose cohesion with the rest of its peers.
The Planeswalker' ax impaled my rotting body through my chest, as if I were nothing more than a prize to be dangled about for the world to see. He stood upon the tentacle of the deformed Kraken as if it were solid ground, and while I still breathed and lived, yet I couldn't muster any will to fight, any strength. There was a certain tiredness claiming my limbs, my eyes, my body and everything around me felt hazy, strings of Mana shifting through my—
The Kraken screamed and died as the air changed, the smell of the sea overpowering the stench of rot that I had ignored forcefully. Tendrils of rot grew and devoured hungrily throughout the overgrown squid's frame as bright orange bubbles spread across its skin like sore pustules. My body was pulled off the ax by hundreds of fast tendrils of flesh, which even as they suffered, yet they held on steadfast and regrew. It was the principle that mattered. It was the desire, the spark of survival at all costs that made the Sliver so worrisome. Though it had taken time, the first clutch capable of surviving whatever new deadly plague had been prepared had now been born, and thus their traits were now shared with the others.
My limbs regrew quickly, my tail hitting the surface of the sea as the Kraken's tentacles exploded like countless birthing chambers for a new type of Sliver, crimson pus-like liquids swimming in the waters of the sea with purpose.
"There is no strength in you," the Planeswalker growled from the top of a whale made of deformed bones and grisly-looking flesh. "I was told the Tyrant would be the strongest beast, the ultimate monster," the man snarled, "Yet all I find...is weakness."
I looked at the Planeswalker, and then chuckled.
My chuckle turned into laughter.
My laughter became maniacal.
"I am done playing games with you people," I spoke, "I am done giving a damn about you lot. I am done with your desires for greater power, your treacheries, your deceits, your intentions! Go fuck yourself with a rusty hatchet! What do you people even want with me now? I'm done! I just want to be left alone with my creatures! Alone with my—" I stammered on my next words, I stammered, and then shut up abruptly.
I took a deep breath.
"Alone with my family," I whispered.
The ocean's surface rippled as the air itself burned. There had been something in the air. There had been something in the air that had acted to make me forget, but because Anthrax had gone away, he had regained his thoughts, and so I had in turn. "Your next words," I snarled, my eyes ignited as the sun disappeared, an eclipse ongoing. "Will be...that is no moon."
"No," the Planeswalker growled as he jumped off his beast, ax swinging with all of his strength downwards.
"In thousands of years—" I growled as new talons grew to replace those I had lost, "Not once did I manage to get someone to say it!" I flew out of the water's embrace with enough speed that they could have strapped a rocket to my back, and it would have still gone slower. My talons met his ax, and this time they did not break. "Do you know how nerve-wracking it is!? How many times do you think I summoned it forth?" The weapon was as deadly as it was slow. Though beasts appeared in their deformed selves to aid the Planeswalker, Slivers emerged from the pools of crimson pus to defy them. They couldn't near us, the Planeswalker fighting with both of his boots planted on the water's surface, my own body halfway submerged.
And meanwhile, my speed increased. The talons sharpened. The muscles increased in their strength.
A sweet symphony spread across the synapses, a chorus that was in equal parts angelic to my ears, and yet also as natural as a second set of lungs and countless hearts, all beating in a rhythm that was endearing, and homely.
The chittering grew in intensity the moment they broke through the atmosphere. Tendrils and wings, lungs expanding beyond their flesh as glowing liquids rained down with white brilliance to cleanse the world before it was too late for it.
"I am no beast," I hissed as I pushed, my tail twitching as I gained ground on the Planeswalker, who stumbled as he was pushed back. "I am no hunter, nor prey. I...I am a father," I chuckled warmly, "And it's my duty to teach my children how to live proper lives." A new tendril grew from my chest, and struck through the Planeswalker's guard. The next instant I broke free from my Sliver's battle form, my right foot hitting straight against the Planeswalker's face, stomping him backwards as I grabbed hold of a blade of Aetheric energies from thin nothingness.
My battle form's eyes burned brightly as it gained a sentience of its own, roaring in tandem with the rest of the Hive, which was descending upon this planet like raindrops during a hurricane.
The Planeswalker's roar was accompanied by a burst of green and black Mana gathering around his frame as he grew in size, his ax swinging sideways and sharpened by energies the likes of which would have killed countless lesser men. My blade impacted against his, and my teeth gritted as I held him back there.
"And because we are a family," I growled, my eyes glowing with the colors of Mana in all of its forms, "We never fight alone."
The sea's surface broke as a snake-like Sliver emerged, its hardened plates breaking free to reveal the countless Slivers attached to the skin beyond, all with eyes glowing blue, all with blades in place of claws and serrated armor-plates merged with their bodies. They jumped and flew on wings of pale, leathery skin, buzzing as they circled us, acidic spit and sharpened quills leaving their tail-like appendages.
The Planeswalker extended a hand up in the air, a blast of Black Mana shimmering into existence and dying out, fizzling as it was contained, and then harmlessly countered by other, bluer Slivers which swam beneath our feet.
My battle-form slashed at the man's face with its right talon, carving a deep scar that didn't heal, as much as rot into a scar of its own. The Planeswalker screamed, his mouth frothing and spewing a foam-like black substance. The air shimmered with fire and death, the veins of the hunter turning darker by the second.
There had been something inside his skull. Something which had shattered.
"Uh-uh," I muttered as the flames and the darkness spread and swirled, the Slivers shrieking as they pulsed as one to hold the thing at bay. "You know what," I said nonchalantly. "We're doing this the old-fashioned way."
You never change, do you?
"Queen, my darling dear! Let us use the ancient technique that our family knows since generations!" I turned on myself as I increased in altitude, the other Slivers quickly following me upwards as darkness spread across the surface of the ocean, Anthrax's one form spiraling out of the sea and lifting itself up like a balloon filled with helium. He landed with a sickening splorch against the back of my battle-form, while energies left the tips of my fingers.
The Moon that was no Moon slammed a beam of Mana through the air, shattering asunder the barrier between this world and the Blind Eternities, crafting a highway of sorts that saw us leg it faster than anyone could blink, slingshot across the Blind Eternities both in dimensions and distance.
There was no way I was sticking behind to watch a Demon Planeswalker be born.
The young ones would deal with this.
I had found a new calling, and in the little amount of time I still had before it came to an end as all dimensions split, I would do exactly that.
I had children to teach.
And squishy cheeks to pinch.
The screams died as soon as I stepped upon the deck. No, to be more precise they were already dead, but with my arrival they stopped twitching and moaning their last breaths. The figure was muscled, and hunched. Dark eyes shone of pitch-black Mana as dirty cursed veins spread across the frame of a bulky-looking man. A two-handed ax strapped to his back, his clothes having seen better days and froth leaving his mouth copiously like a mad beast, an animal devoid of interests if not for the desire to sate his hunger. It made a throwing motion with his right hand, no words leaving his lips, and a threatening bear weaved with darkness and things from the beyond emerged.
Its frame took one step upon the dirty, rusty halls of the ship's deck, and then stilled. It coughed, it rasped, it angrily cursed and then it bled and died as whips of fungi-like materials began to grow from the flesh of the summoned animal.
"The most ferocious hunter of them all is the flesh-eating bacteria," I pointed out calmly, eyes narrow. "And who would you be, that you come face me?"
"No...mercy," the man growled, launching himself forward as the ship we stood on cracked in half, mighty tentacles crafted from the depths of the abyss and other, unworldly powers merged together to create not a simple Kraken, but something far more dangerous and evil.
The ocean's surface trembled in fear, the icy waters forming icebergs as heat seemed to abandon this place, death looming over us as if we were the only survivors in a world filled with darkness. This was the sensation of Black Mana. Power, honest and brutal, without compromise nor desire to hide one's own greatness. Black Mana was the greatest of colors when it came to desiring more power, but also one of the weakest when it came to misdirection or lying. Black Mana was honest, and that honesty was its undoing more often than not.
The large ax sailed for my head with speed, and had one of my talons not emerged from my sides to intercept the blow, it would have proven quite nasty. The talon itself broke, more forming to immediately repair the damage wrought by the blade as death seemed to spread across the tendrils of the smaller Slivers that formed most of my body. They regenerated. They tried to, and yet they died.
Death, apparently, was absolute when it came by the hands of this Planeswalker.
I stepped back, a new level of threat rising to my mind as the man smirked, the lips dark as the cruelty behind the smile wasn't lost to me. The tongue licked the upper lip, a sign of joy and anticipation for the incoming end to the quickest duel I had ever been a part of. This wasn't Nicol Bolas, who would rather bring down the suns. This wasn't a hidden assassin in the dark, ready to lurch and strike from the back to sever a spine. This was...an altogether different threat.
One that hurt my children.
"I was enjoying my peace of mind," I said, clicking my tongue against my teeth as the ax came swinging down for my head. My tail swished on the deck of the ship, sending me backwards as my spine reinforced itself, sharp scythe-like limbs coming forth only to rot as they came in contact with the ax of the Planeswalker in question. The hardened chitin died, the bones and the marrow within began to ache and pulse as if an ongoing infection was ravenously devouring them with gluttonous want. I disliked facing Black, because sometimes there just wasn't a choice to make.
I disliked it even more when it was prepared.
"Is this all that you are?" the Planeswalker growled. "I thought you would be worthier prey."
"Sorry to disappoint you," I retorted as the monstrous' kraken's tentacles squeezed and shattered the deck of the ship, three pairs of leathery wings sprouting from my back to enable my flight, even as my talons regrew faster and slicker than before, "But I've wasted more energies than you will ever dream of, and lost too many to the Dragon. I'm enjoying my retirement, youngster. Come back in a thousand years if you want a real challenge."
"No mercy for the prey," the Planeswalker replied, extending a hand as a bolt of purple, sickly energy left it. I swung to the side with my wings, avoiding the attack which abruptly changed trajectory, homing in on my frame even as I began to pick up flight. My muscles, meanwhile, were aching fiercely as if losing cohesion. I felt it then. No, rather than feeling it, it was the lack of feeling that made it clear to me.
I was losing pieces.
I was losing parts. The Slivers which composed my body were rotting away, dying by the million and at such an accelerated rate that it was impossible for me to recover them. No, they weren't dying. They were...they were being eaten alive.
My mind pulsed. The Leylines of pure Blue mana shattered free from their confines, the seas recoiling abruptly as what made them breathe and live died out, devoured hungrily as the scales upon my frame shifted and changed color, metallic glints overtaking my muscles and fibers.
"Are we born to die, or is our purpose forged by the storms we survive?" I whispered as electricity danced and crackled across my entire frame, the plague receding, recoiling and dying as rather than face it through the might of flesh, I made it starve through the lack of it, through the replacement and the ozone that gathered and pulsed with the heat of lightning. The moment I stilled to purge my body was the moment the homing sickening light struck, sending me to spiral down as most of the Slivers that composed my body died, turning into cinders and ashes. Aetheric energies rushed across the multitude, shredding the synaptic hivemind and leaving each Sliver for itself, to scuttle about and lose cohesion with the rest of its peers.
The Planeswalker' ax impaled my rotting body through my chest, as if I were nothing more than a prize to be dangled about for the world to see. He stood upon the tentacle of the deformed Kraken as if it were solid ground, and while I still breathed and lived, yet I couldn't muster any will to fight, any strength. There was a certain tiredness claiming my limbs, my eyes, my body and everything around me felt hazy, strings of Mana shifting through my—
The Kraken screamed and died as the air changed, the smell of the sea overpowering the stench of rot that I had ignored forcefully. Tendrils of rot grew and devoured hungrily throughout the overgrown squid's frame as bright orange bubbles spread across its skin like sore pustules. My body was pulled off the ax by hundreds of fast tendrils of flesh, which even as they suffered, yet they held on steadfast and regrew. It was the principle that mattered. It was the desire, the spark of survival at all costs that made the Sliver so worrisome. Though it had taken time, the first clutch capable of surviving whatever new deadly plague had been prepared had now been born, and thus their traits were now shared with the others.
My limbs regrew quickly, my tail hitting the surface of the sea as the Kraken's tentacles exploded like countless birthing chambers for a new type of Sliver, crimson pus-like liquids swimming in the waters of the sea with purpose.
"There is no strength in you," the Planeswalker growled from the top of a whale made of deformed bones and grisly-looking flesh. "I was told the Tyrant would be the strongest beast, the ultimate monster," the man snarled, "Yet all I find...is weakness."
I looked at the Planeswalker, and then chuckled.
My chuckle turned into laughter.
My laughter became maniacal.
"I am done playing games with you people," I spoke, "I am done giving a damn about you lot. I am done with your desires for greater power, your treacheries, your deceits, your intentions! Go fuck yourself with a rusty hatchet! What do you people even want with me now? I'm done! I just want to be left alone with my creatures! Alone with my—" I stammered on my next words, I stammered, and then shut up abruptly.
I took a deep breath.
"Alone with my family," I whispered.
The ocean's surface rippled as the air itself burned. There had been something in the air. There had been something in the air that had acted to make me forget, but because Anthrax had gone away, he had regained his thoughts, and so I had in turn. "Your next words," I snarled, my eyes ignited as the sun disappeared, an eclipse ongoing. "Will be...that is no moon."
"No," the Planeswalker growled as he jumped off his beast, ax swinging with all of his strength downwards.
"In thousands of years—" I growled as new talons grew to replace those I had lost, "Not once did I manage to get someone to say it!" I flew out of the water's embrace with enough speed that they could have strapped a rocket to my back, and it would have still gone slower. My talons met his ax, and this time they did not break. "Do you know how nerve-wracking it is!? How many times do you think I summoned it forth?" The weapon was as deadly as it was slow. Though beasts appeared in their deformed selves to aid the Planeswalker, Slivers emerged from the pools of crimson pus to defy them. They couldn't near us, the Planeswalker fighting with both of his boots planted on the water's surface, my own body halfway submerged.
And meanwhile, my speed increased. The talons sharpened. The muscles increased in their strength.
A sweet symphony spread across the synapses, a chorus that was in equal parts angelic to my ears, and yet also as natural as a second set of lungs and countless hearts, all beating in a rhythm that was endearing, and homely.
The chittering grew in intensity the moment they broke through the atmosphere. Tendrils and wings, lungs expanding beyond their flesh as glowing liquids rained down with white brilliance to cleanse the world before it was too late for it.
"I am no beast," I hissed as I pushed, my tail twitching as I gained ground on the Planeswalker, who stumbled as he was pushed back. "I am no hunter, nor prey. I...I am a father," I chuckled warmly, "And it's my duty to teach my children how to live proper lives." A new tendril grew from my chest, and struck through the Planeswalker's guard. The next instant I broke free from my Sliver's battle form, my right foot hitting straight against the Planeswalker's face, stomping him backwards as I grabbed hold of a blade of Aetheric energies from thin nothingness.
My battle form's eyes burned brightly as it gained a sentience of its own, roaring in tandem with the rest of the Hive, which was descending upon this planet like raindrops during a hurricane.
The Planeswalker's roar was accompanied by a burst of green and black Mana gathering around his frame as he grew in size, his ax swinging sideways and sharpened by energies the likes of which would have killed countless lesser men. My blade impacted against his, and my teeth gritted as I held him back there.
"And because we are a family," I growled, my eyes glowing with the colors of Mana in all of its forms, "We never fight alone."
The sea's surface broke as a snake-like Sliver emerged, its hardened plates breaking free to reveal the countless Slivers attached to the skin beyond, all with eyes glowing blue, all with blades in place of claws and serrated armor-plates merged with their bodies. They jumped and flew on wings of pale, leathery skin, buzzing as they circled us, acidic spit and sharpened quills leaving their tail-like appendages.
The Planeswalker extended a hand up in the air, a blast of Black Mana shimmering into existence and dying out, fizzling as it was contained, and then harmlessly countered by other, bluer Slivers which swam beneath our feet.
My battle-form slashed at the man's face with its right talon, carving a deep scar that didn't heal, as much as rot into a scar of its own. The Planeswalker screamed, his mouth frothing and spewing a foam-like black substance. The air shimmered with fire and death, the veins of the hunter turning darker by the second.
There had been something inside his skull. Something which had shattered.
"Uh-uh," I muttered as the flames and the darkness spread and swirled, the Slivers shrieking as they pulsed as one to hold the thing at bay. "You know what," I said nonchalantly. "We're doing this the old-fashioned way."
You never change, do you?
"Queen, my darling dear! Let us use the ancient technique that our family knows since generations!" I turned on myself as I increased in altitude, the other Slivers quickly following me upwards as darkness spread across the surface of the ocean, Anthrax's one form spiraling out of the sea and lifting itself up like a balloon filled with helium. He landed with a sickening splorch against the back of my battle-form, while energies left the tips of my fingers.
The Moon that was no Moon slammed a beam of Mana through the air, shattering asunder the barrier between this world and the Blind Eternities, crafting a highway of sorts that saw us leg it faster than anyone could blink, slingshot across the Blind Eternities both in dimensions and distance.
There was no way I was sticking behind to watch a Demon Planeswalker be born.
The young ones would deal with this.
I had found a new calling, and in the little amount of time I still had before it came to an end as all dimensions split, I would do exactly that.
I had children to teach.
And squishy cheeks to pinch.
Shade really likes the moe
troyamonga
Caffeine Dependent Hero
- Location
- United States
I like how Shade has gone from Nicol Bolas wannabe to Sorin tier levels of "I just dont care anymore, you moronic youngins can kill yourselves for all I care."
shadowace2400
Planeswalker Extraordinaire
- Location
- Texas
I know right? He seems like such a better character when he loses the angst. Papa Shade has some children to spoil now, can't be looking like everything he's known and loved is dead when visiting his kids, now can he?
Chapter Eighty-Four (????)
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Eighty-Four (????)
My fingers were kneading into the hard, chitinous plates of the Queen's shoulders, the titanic Sliver purring pleasantly under my ministrations. I hummed contently, sinuous slivers wrapped around every inch of my skin as they purred in tandem, doing their best impressions of happy puddles desiring nothing but warm hugs. I was lacking a couple of Sliver Hive Fleets to the remains of the Grand Sliver Armada, but judging by how things were, Discordia had taken them for some unknown reason.
Unfortunately, until the Synapse-relaying Slivers didn't increase in numbers back to their prime it would be impossible to communicate through long distances, and with the lack of Dominaria's rifts, there was no way I could communicate through dimensions by using myself as a relay. Honestly, any Sliver left in another dimension would eventually shift back into the main one that had seen their birth.
You should go see her.
"Discordia? She can handle herself."
We both know I was not referring to her.
"Ah..." I swallowed, "You think? Well, the dragon won't be a threat for a while now, even more...so maybe I could..." I shook my head. "We could be together again. I miss her smile."
We know. Go.
"Very well," I exhaled, shaking my head softly as the Slivers whined a bit, like spoiled children, but aptly obeyed and slithered away. My wrist was held by one of Anthrax' tendrils, his frame glittering and shining with countless colored pustules like a Christmas tree. "You want to come too?"
Anthrax bobbed his wobbly head up and down, and as I silently acquiesced, he disappeared within my skin, not a trace of his passage left behind. I extended my right hand forward, a ripple growing in the air as the ground shook softly, the ripples dissipating within seconds. I furrowed my brows, and then extended both hands. Energy poured through my pores, the hole in the fabric of reality stretching itself as I ground my teeth.
It was getting harder to travel through dimensions, but still doable. My body shifted through the Blind Eternities, the path I needed to take so familiar I could have gone through blinded. Yet I stopped as I met the barrier to a dimension that wasn't the one I was seeking. The Blind Eternities were collapsing, merging and pulsing, altering the locations of their dimensions to the point where familiar tracts of nothingness became different, foreign, new and yet old at the same time.
I stretched my senses, seeking out the familiar place that stood at the end of an eternally still universe, in which nothing grew and nothing died. I found it, of course, but it was further away than I had thought it would be. Perhaps Discordia had gotten lost too, and once I got Tessa back, I'd go look for her and Superbia. I hoped they hadn't been causing too much trouble without any supervision.
My feet finally touched the soil of the grave left undisturbed at the far end of a dead universe, and as I extended a hand towards the soil, I waited. Nothing happened. I blinked, furrowing my brows. I swallowed and knelt. Had the corpse been taken? Had someone found out, and dared? Not even Bolas knew of the location of the place. Not even the Hive knew. This was my sanctuary. My one place which only I could reach, beyond grasp of everyone. Sure, they knew I had lost my wife. They knew she had died. They didn't know, nor need to know, anything else.
My fingers dug through the soil, the wooden casket that should have held a perfectly conserved body giving way as I pried the lid open with ease.
Within was just a slip of paper, written in a calligraphy that could be none other than mine.
"Dimension Ninety-Seven of Borderlands," I whispered as I stared at the note, "The child is there."
I looked at the emptiness of the casket. There was a small, glinting crystal of memories within a corner of it. It glinted and hummed gently as Mana left my body to grasp hold of it, the memories etched within slowly returning to their rightful place within the back of my head. Memories that I had long forgotten. Memories that I had done my best to bury, and lock away.
"One life is all I need dear, so...when I'm gone, just destroy me completely, all right? Promise it," her white hair shone under the light of the twin moons of a world that I had found just for the occasion. A romantic picnic, something so cheesy it would have made my past, and perhaps even my future self, hurl. Her expression was firmly determined, even with the childishness of her face not having truly abandoned her, even later in her years.
"That's—" I began, but was interrupted.
"Promise me. No cheating allowed." She made the most adorable of pouting faces. There was no choice but to obey to that hurt, puppy-eyed look and pout.
"Very well. I...I promise," I caved in, as I always did.
"Now we're going to need a name for him," she giggled next, as if the morbid conversation had never been made.
"Him?"
"Of course, dear. A woman knows certain things way before anyone else—what do you think of..."
Anthrax' tendrils were out, slowly wiping away the tears that were falling down from my eyes. I swallowed noisily, closing them as my shoulders trembled, my fingers tightening to the point where my nails drew blood as they dug into the skin of my palms.
The Blind Eternities themselves could not stop my advance, nor could they slow me down as I materialized in front of the one place that reeked of the smell of Slivers in an entire plane. In this place, a Vault stood sealed. My hands reached for the large, metallic door firmly closed by countless seals of both magical and technological might, and yet as they slid open effortlessly, my heart drummed louder than ever in my ears.
When the final lock clicked open, the massive doors of the vault swung open.
Silence welcomed me as I could feel the faint whiffs of Blue Mana being used as a sort of temporal stabilizer and stretcher. Whoever stepped within would have probably aged really slowly when compared to the outside world. The engines which allowed such a thing to happen were hooked to the main leylines of the planet, and at my passage within the depths of the vault they turned off, blazing lights of Blue mana departing their frames. Conduits of power zigzagged across the surface of the floor and of the ceiling, Red mana burned within the depths of the vault, Black mana rushed through the defenses and Green grew food within a garden kept alive by the skittering of mechanical Slivers, which stopped and buzzed happily at my arrival, their fake synapses eagerly delivering countless logs about the growth of the child.
The growth of a child who wasn't present.
Had...had he left?
Had he found a way out? Had he become so smart, like his mother, that to him locks and magic meant nothing? Perhaps he had tricked the system. Perhaps he had done something of which there was no trace to leave and now he was somewhere around Pandora, maybe seeking him out.
I stared at the bedroom which I had crafted without a doubt, and of which I had no memory because of course, leaving memories for the Dragon to find would have invited him to come and make use of this weakness of mine. My children—My children were the Slivers, but I had had a child of flesh and blood and bones and muscles which weren't chitin or talons. I had had a child. The pictures taken from the cameras of the place showed me a white-haired red-eyed kid, a rabbit-like thing really, which scampered off to play with the mechanical Slivers. The audio recordings made me hear his voice, his laughter, his questions at the Slivers who couldn't answer him.
He had learned how to speak by himself, without anyone else. Was he a Whispered, like his mother? Had knowledge come to him through his genetics? Had the computers done a good job at being his teachers? Was there something he was missing of his education, something he needed to know?
I grabbed with my fingers an old cloth, a shirt that had clearly seen better days but which was imbued with his smell.
Anthrax piped in there and then. His microscopic selves had already begun dispersing through the atmosphere of Pandora, infecting the birds, the Skags, the tiniest and largest of creatures. Within hours, everyone on the surface of the planet would be infected, and my son would be found.
If he was still upon this world, he would be found. If he was within this galaxy, he'd be found eventually.
If he wasn't...If he had left, then—could it be possible that he was...No, the Spark of a Planeswalker wasn't something that genetic could transfer. Otherwise my Slivers would all be capable of travelling through the Planes.
They had to puncture reality's barriers with abundant doses of mana, acting like sledgehammer's to my scalpel's ability.
New synaptic connections suddenly sprung into my mind, a hive of wild Slivers left behind as a token guard revealing themselves from deep below the ground, having burrowed into the depths to survive and wait for the day of my return. As their thoughts mixed and merged with mine, their memories soon turned to the latest events, and my breathing hitched.
I stepped out of the Vault, Anthrax slithering in tow.
"If they hurt him," I whispered as the Slivers began to emerge from the ground all around me, sharp talons and armored plates emerging from their skin, "There will be only death."
The Slivers hissed and clicked around me as they rushed away, the gathering of this world's Mana having to proceed, the desire to turn this entire dimension into a Mana-Gathering battery clear and crystalline.
A couple didn't make it far because a fireball turned them into cinders, their ashes floating away as Chandra appeared wreathed in flames, Applejack and Gideon by her side while Jace remained hidden from view, but most definitely within the premises eagerly waiting for the moment to strike.
"You put a sensor inside the vault," I said. My eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"
"Call your Slivers back from this world's ecosystem," Applejack said gruffly, "Then we're gonna talk with the likes of you," she sneered.
"Tell me if my son lives first, or there will not be any talking to be had," I growled back in turn, my eyes narrow.
"He's so different from the likes of you that there was no point in hurting him, Tyrant," Gideon shot out, "He's somewhere safe, but under escort. If you want to see him..."
"You will collaborate," Jace Beleren finished Gideon's sentence, appearing behind me, more than an arm's length away, and yet within striking range for whatever magic he wished to. "Our powers...are diminishing rapidly. A great threat woke on Zendikar, and we cannot deal with it."
I blinked. "Another?"
"An ancient planeswalker," Jace's lips tightened thinly, "You will deal with him."
"And if I don't?" I retorted. "What if I simply go and seek my child by myself?"
"You won't have time for that," Jace quipped. "Already, our powers are diminishing, and so too are yours. We will deal with this threat, by asking you...or asking the Dragon."
My eyes turned golden, sharp like those of a cat as my teeth turned into fangs. "You wouldn't dare," I hissed.
"We have your weakness," Jace replied calmly, "Now...will you obey?"
"I will need time to recover my strength," I spoke, "Worlds will need to be devoured. Are you willing to let that be the price, Jace?"
"No," Jace shook his head. "There is no time."
"So it's a death sentence you wish to carry out, isn't that right?" I replied. "Youngsters truly don't change."
"You're the last person who has the right to say something like that!" Applejack snarled, one of her hooves thumping on the ground, her eyes ablaze with fury. "It's justice for all the lives you've taken! That's what this is!" a sword of brilliant white Mana formed in her right hand. "But if you prefer, I can deal with you right now!"
"Calm down," Gideon spoke roughly, extending a hand on Applejack's shoulder. "Not yet."
I hummed, my eyes glancing from Jace to the trio in front of me.
"Will you swear?" I asked in the end, turning to face Jace. "Will you swear that once I have aided you against this foe who has awoken, you will tell me where my son is, and let me go?"
"Yes," Jace nodded.
"Then...what if I swear I will help you, once I have seen and spoken to him?" I replied, and silence met my words. The silence stretched for a few minutes. "I see how it is," I sighed in the end. "I'll keep on looking for him by myself then. Deal with your own problems."
I extended a hand in front of me, only for the guttural scream of rage to interrupt my next words as Applejack charged ahead, fury in her eyes.
Her hooves clopped against the ground as she covered the distance between us faster than I had anticipated, or perhaps faster than what I was used to. Twin-bladed Slivers intercepted her midway, emerging quickly from the ground to block her advance long enough to allow me to depart.
Jace did not pursue me. Somehow, I reckoned he knew it would be a lost cause.
I would find my son through my own means, especially when it was clear they would try to milk my weakness for all of its worth.
I had a track already. They had to have brought him to Zendikar without a doubt, to be looked at by their stupid council of theirs. From there, I would be able to pinpoint where he had ended up.
I was a father on a mission.
They couldn't hide my son's squishy cheeks from me forever!
My fingers were kneading into the hard, chitinous plates of the Queen's shoulders, the titanic Sliver purring pleasantly under my ministrations. I hummed contently, sinuous slivers wrapped around every inch of my skin as they purred in tandem, doing their best impressions of happy puddles desiring nothing but warm hugs. I was lacking a couple of Sliver Hive Fleets to the remains of the Grand Sliver Armada, but judging by how things were, Discordia had taken them for some unknown reason.
Unfortunately, until the Synapse-relaying Slivers didn't increase in numbers back to their prime it would be impossible to communicate through long distances, and with the lack of Dominaria's rifts, there was no way I could communicate through dimensions by using myself as a relay. Honestly, any Sliver left in another dimension would eventually shift back into the main one that had seen their birth.
You should go see her.
"Discordia? She can handle herself."
We both know I was not referring to her.
"Ah..." I swallowed, "You think? Well, the dragon won't be a threat for a while now, even more...so maybe I could..." I shook my head. "We could be together again. I miss her smile."
We know. Go.
"Very well," I exhaled, shaking my head softly as the Slivers whined a bit, like spoiled children, but aptly obeyed and slithered away. My wrist was held by one of Anthrax' tendrils, his frame glittering and shining with countless colored pustules like a Christmas tree. "You want to come too?"
Anthrax bobbed his wobbly head up and down, and as I silently acquiesced, he disappeared within my skin, not a trace of his passage left behind. I extended my right hand forward, a ripple growing in the air as the ground shook softly, the ripples dissipating within seconds. I furrowed my brows, and then extended both hands. Energy poured through my pores, the hole in the fabric of reality stretching itself as I ground my teeth.
It was getting harder to travel through dimensions, but still doable. My body shifted through the Blind Eternities, the path I needed to take so familiar I could have gone through blinded. Yet I stopped as I met the barrier to a dimension that wasn't the one I was seeking. The Blind Eternities were collapsing, merging and pulsing, altering the locations of their dimensions to the point where familiar tracts of nothingness became different, foreign, new and yet old at the same time.
I stretched my senses, seeking out the familiar place that stood at the end of an eternally still universe, in which nothing grew and nothing died. I found it, of course, but it was further away than I had thought it would be. Perhaps Discordia had gotten lost too, and once I got Tessa back, I'd go look for her and Superbia. I hoped they hadn't been causing too much trouble without any supervision.
My feet finally touched the soil of the grave left undisturbed at the far end of a dead universe, and as I extended a hand towards the soil, I waited. Nothing happened. I blinked, furrowing my brows. I swallowed and knelt. Had the corpse been taken? Had someone found out, and dared? Not even Bolas knew of the location of the place. Not even the Hive knew. This was my sanctuary. My one place which only I could reach, beyond grasp of everyone. Sure, they knew I had lost my wife. They knew she had died. They didn't know, nor need to know, anything else.
My fingers dug through the soil, the wooden casket that should have held a perfectly conserved body giving way as I pried the lid open with ease.
Within was just a slip of paper, written in a calligraphy that could be none other than mine.
"Dimension Ninety-Seven of Borderlands," I whispered as I stared at the note, "The child is there."
I looked at the emptiness of the casket. There was a small, glinting crystal of memories within a corner of it. It glinted and hummed gently as Mana left my body to grasp hold of it, the memories etched within slowly returning to their rightful place within the back of my head. Memories that I had long forgotten. Memories that I had done my best to bury, and lock away.
"One life is all I need dear, so...when I'm gone, just destroy me completely, all right? Promise it," her white hair shone under the light of the twin moons of a world that I had found just for the occasion. A romantic picnic, something so cheesy it would have made my past, and perhaps even my future self, hurl. Her expression was firmly determined, even with the childishness of her face not having truly abandoned her, even later in her years.
"That's—" I began, but was interrupted.
"Promise me. No cheating allowed." She made the most adorable of pouting faces. There was no choice but to obey to that hurt, puppy-eyed look and pout.
"Very well. I...I promise," I caved in, as I always did.
"Now we're going to need a name for him," she giggled next, as if the morbid conversation had never been made.
"Him?"
"Of course, dear. A woman knows certain things way before anyone else—what do you think of..."
Anthrax' tendrils were out, slowly wiping away the tears that were falling down from my eyes. I swallowed noisily, closing them as my shoulders trembled, my fingers tightening to the point where my nails drew blood as they dug into the skin of my palms.
The Blind Eternities themselves could not stop my advance, nor could they slow me down as I materialized in front of the one place that reeked of the smell of Slivers in an entire plane. In this place, a Vault stood sealed. My hands reached for the large, metallic door firmly closed by countless seals of both magical and technological might, and yet as they slid open effortlessly, my heart drummed louder than ever in my ears.
When the final lock clicked open, the massive doors of the vault swung open.
Silence welcomed me as I could feel the faint whiffs of Blue Mana being used as a sort of temporal stabilizer and stretcher. Whoever stepped within would have probably aged really slowly when compared to the outside world. The engines which allowed such a thing to happen were hooked to the main leylines of the planet, and at my passage within the depths of the vault they turned off, blazing lights of Blue mana departing their frames. Conduits of power zigzagged across the surface of the floor and of the ceiling, Red mana burned within the depths of the vault, Black mana rushed through the defenses and Green grew food within a garden kept alive by the skittering of mechanical Slivers, which stopped and buzzed happily at my arrival, their fake synapses eagerly delivering countless logs about the growth of the child.
The growth of a child who wasn't present.
Had...had he left?
Had he found a way out? Had he become so smart, like his mother, that to him locks and magic meant nothing? Perhaps he had tricked the system. Perhaps he had done something of which there was no trace to leave and now he was somewhere around Pandora, maybe seeking him out.
I stared at the bedroom which I had crafted without a doubt, and of which I had no memory because of course, leaving memories for the Dragon to find would have invited him to come and make use of this weakness of mine. My children—My children were the Slivers, but I had had a child of flesh and blood and bones and muscles which weren't chitin or talons. I had had a child. The pictures taken from the cameras of the place showed me a white-haired red-eyed kid, a rabbit-like thing really, which scampered off to play with the mechanical Slivers. The audio recordings made me hear his voice, his laughter, his questions at the Slivers who couldn't answer him.
He had learned how to speak by himself, without anyone else. Was he a Whispered, like his mother? Had knowledge come to him through his genetics? Had the computers done a good job at being his teachers? Was there something he was missing of his education, something he needed to know?
I grabbed with my fingers an old cloth, a shirt that had clearly seen better days but which was imbued with his smell.
Anthrax piped in there and then. His microscopic selves had already begun dispersing through the atmosphere of Pandora, infecting the birds, the Skags, the tiniest and largest of creatures. Within hours, everyone on the surface of the planet would be infected, and my son would be found.
If he was still upon this world, he would be found. If he was within this galaxy, he'd be found eventually.
If he wasn't...If he had left, then—could it be possible that he was...No, the Spark of a Planeswalker wasn't something that genetic could transfer. Otherwise my Slivers would all be capable of travelling through the Planes.
They had to puncture reality's barriers with abundant doses of mana, acting like sledgehammer's to my scalpel's ability.
New synaptic connections suddenly sprung into my mind, a hive of wild Slivers left behind as a token guard revealing themselves from deep below the ground, having burrowed into the depths to survive and wait for the day of my return. As their thoughts mixed and merged with mine, their memories soon turned to the latest events, and my breathing hitched.
I stepped out of the Vault, Anthrax slithering in tow.
"If they hurt him," I whispered as the Slivers began to emerge from the ground all around me, sharp talons and armored plates emerging from their skin, "There will be only death."
The Slivers hissed and clicked around me as they rushed away, the gathering of this world's Mana having to proceed, the desire to turn this entire dimension into a Mana-Gathering battery clear and crystalline.
A couple didn't make it far because a fireball turned them into cinders, their ashes floating away as Chandra appeared wreathed in flames, Applejack and Gideon by her side while Jace remained hidden from view, but most definitely within the premises eagerly waiting for the moment to strike.
"You put a sensor inside the vault," I said. My eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"
"Call your Slivers back from this world's ecosystem," Applejack said gruffly, "Then we're gonna talk with the likes of you," she sneered.
"Tell me if my son lives first, or there will not be any talking to be had," I growled back in turn, my eyes narrow.
"He's so different from the likes of you that there was no point in hurting him, Tyrant," Gideon shot out, "He's somewhere safe, but under escort. If you want to see him..."
"You will collaborate," Jace Beleren finished Gideon's sentence, appearing behind me, more than an arm's length away, and yet within striking range for whatever magic he wished to. "Our powers...are diminishing rapidly. A great threat woke on Zendikar, and we cannot deal with it."
I blinked. "Another?"
"An ancient planeswalker," Jace's lips tightened thinly, "You will deal with him."
"And if I don't?" I retorted. "What if I simply go and seek my child by myself?"
"You won't have time for that," Jace quipped. "Already, our powers are diminishing, and so too are yours. We will deal with this threat, by asking you...or asking the Dragon."
My eyes turned golden, sharp like those of a cat as my teeth turned into fangs. "You wouldn't dare," I hissed.
"We have your weakness," Jace replied calmly, "Now...will you obey?"
"I will need time to recover my strength," I spoke, "Worlds will need to be devoured. Are you willing to let that be the price, Jace?"
"No," Jace shook his head. "There is no time."
"So it's a death sentence you wish to carry out, isn't that right?" I replied. "Youngsters truly don't change."
"You're the last person who has the right to say something like that!" Applejack snarled, one of her hooves thumping on the ground, her eyes ablaze with fury. "It's justice for all the lives you've taken! That's what this is!" a sword of brilliant white Mana formed in her right hand. "But if you prefer, I can deal with you right now!"
"Calm down," Gideon spoke roughly, extending a hand on Applejack's shoulder. "Not yet."
I hummed, my eyes glancing from Jace to the trio in front of me.
"Will you swear?" I asked in the end, turning to face Jace. "Will you swear that once I have aided you against this foe who has awoken, you will tell me where my son is, and let me go?"
"Yes," Jace nodded.
"Then...what if I swear I will help you, once I have seen and spoken to him?" I replied, and silence met my words. The silence stretched for a few minutes. "I see how it is," I sighed in the end. "I'll keep on looking for him by myself then. Deal with your own problems."
I extended a hand in front of me, only for the guttural scream of rage to interrupt my next words as Applejack charged ahead, fury in her eyes.
Her hooves clopped against the ground as she covered the distance between us faster than I had anticipated, or perhaps faster than what I was used to. Twin-bladed Slivers intercepted her midway, emerging quickly from the ground to block her advance long enough to allow me to depart.
Jace did not pursue me. Somehow, I reckoned he knew it would be a lost cause.
I would find my son through my own means, especially when it was clear they would try to milk my weakness for all of its worth.
I had a track already. They had to have brought him to Zendikar without a doubt, to be looked at by their stupid council of theirs. From there, I would be able to pinpoint where he had ended up.
I was a father on a mission.
They couldn't hide my son's squishy cheeks from me forever!