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@Members @VIP - Just an FYI we've removed the necro bumping rule from the site (please let me know if there are still remnants anywhere!) We no longer feel the rule is necessary across the site, spam rules will still apply though.

NCM (nearly) a Year On I think I speak for everyone in saying that it’s certainly been an interesting year, from what feels like unending down time to what now feels like a new lease of life, communities are born and bred by people alone and you can’t force something to stick together when the cracks have already shown, and I think we’ve showcased that now more than ever, you’ll just continue to stick things back together as best you can in hopes that it will remain but, sometimes in life you need to move on and build something new up and that’s OK, nothing lasts forever but everything worthwhile only lasts for a period of time, and whenever this comes to an end I can only hope it inspires someone to pick up the mantle where it left off. That got a little… philosophical didn’t it? My fault, apologies, I just wanted to open a document and write down my thoughts and feelings with you all – bare bones you know how that stuff goes anyhow I think it’s important to reflect on how we’re doing and where we can go from here. So, how are we doing? That’s a great question and thanks for asking Torm! Fundamentally the site is stable, and activity is at an appropriate level, people are posting, RPs are… RPing? I guess you do roleplay in a roleplay so… ANYWAY things are good! There are some sections that have very little to no activity and I guess that’s something for me and the staff team to figure out together. I imagine it’ll be along the lines of consolidating “deader” sections together and making posts simpler to post but we’ll work on that. In fact, at the time of writing this we are roughly averaging 20 registrations per month, which are healthy numbers! It’s also probably a little more but I’m terrible at Math so… 20 sounds like a good enough number. There has been some considerable content committed to the site by many of our great users. I won’t go through all of them because honestly, I’ll be here all day and I think a couple of the staff team have ideas on events of their own accord for celebrating good content but stuff like .:Alive:. by Dad in the creative writing section, the NeoCardMaker Holy Grail War by Yui (whilst young, is a very creative take on the forum game genre) and RPs like Fire Emblem Curse of the Goddess which is so intrinsically Fire Emblem it’s great. So where can we go from here? Well personally I think I need to take on the leadership role a bit more, I just need to understand where the line is drawn with that and the like as we have a nice status quo going on and rocking the boat too much might cause us to get water on board when it isn’t necessary but I have ideas and thoughts for the site that I think will be healthy for the place. I would like to see a member of staff or two added to team at some point to help develop certain areas of the site, and perhaps cultivate new life and ideas into parts of the site but again it’s all about balance and that’s down to me to find that middle of the line, so please bear with me and provide criticism as and where it’s needed. I’ve yet to explore these ideas with Yemachu but getting the card maker more built into the site rather than relying on GitHub might allow for us to provide a better user experience for those of us who use the card maker on the regular, of course again I’m just vocalizing my internal thoughts so don’t take this as a “IT’S HAPPENING” (Yui please insert the appropriate gif in a reply thank you). It also seems the site is still struggling to send activation emails to gmail accounts… It’s something for me to look at as we are potentially missing out on active users, I’d rather publicly state this is an issue than it not be forgotten about (although I have mentioned it in the past). As for you guys? Keep doing what you’re doing. Maybe revive showcase for me I don’t have anything negative to say about the lot of you really, you’re all cute – except Cow, he’s a cow I mean they ain’t that cute maybe calves but like they don’t last very long in that state. So, thank you, for making this place what it is, and I wish you a fantastic Christmas, here’s to 2020 (we all legally have perfect vision now) ? @Members @VIP

Music So, it's been a while since we've really had a big statement put out or anything. We're almost at 2 years of NCM, and that's incredible! For a splinter community, that really stands out. All because people chose to take a chance and break away from simple numbers and the past itself. A sense of community that is more one of togetherness than obligation. I'm proud of us. Our little community. Sure, it's a quiet little corner of the internet, but it's far from dead. I'd almost go so far as to say that it's just right. Not too big, not too small, not too soft, not too hard. I just... really wanted to take the time, as a member of the staff and the community at large, to thank all of you. I know not everything is perfect. People have fights. Petty feelings can get in the way and blind us. Life gets in the way. People say things they don't mean. People don't say things that they mean to. Even so, there is a sense of community. Grudges don't seem to hold for long. Workarounds are found. Careless words are fixed, and overthought words eventually find their way to where they need to go. Our little home away from home isn't perfect, but it's a damn sight better than what it could have become if we hadn't had stood together. It's so different from what I remember, in general. I feel like I'm an old person looking at the forums and servers, even among people I actually talk to. So much history. So much time. But here you all are. People have come. People have gone. But the community is still here. And while I feel like a fossil, I still look forward to seeing you "younguns" a lot. So, thank you, NCM. For nothing other than being yourselves. Your kindness, your creativity, your intelligence, your humor, all of it. This quiet community means the absolute world to me. I can't speak for the team, in and of itself, but I can at least let you know how much all of you matter to me. And, as an absolutely personal note, I just want to say... if anyone is suffering. If anyone needs a shoulder to cry on. If anyone just needs to express something they don't feel safe to other places... I'm here. I'll listen. I'll give you my Discord if you want it. After all, life isn't easy. 2020 showed us that, if absolutely nothing else. But that doesn't mean you have to be alone. I see you. I'm with you. I'm sure a couple of you know who you are, and I hope you take this to heart... Yet I also hope anyone else who needs this right now sees it as well, and takes it as an opportunity. I love this place. And I love you guys. Thanks for two years, and I hope the third is great, too.

U.A. High. It had been a long time coming but Yasha was ready. He'd worked hard to get here, and now he had the privilege of attending Japan's most prestigious hero school. He adjusted his tie and collar, slapped his faceplate where cheeks would be on a regular head, and cleared his throat-- a sound like a stalling lawnmower-- as he approached. "Let's see here, are you--" "Yasha Yokuna, present SIR!" He said, standing rather stiffly at-attention. "I'm honored to be here-- and prepared to do my best!" "I... see. So, why is it that you want to be a hero?" Yasha grinned in response, showing off his teeth. Despite being abnormally sharp, they were also the only part of his head that looked even marginally human. The whole engine-block for a head thing wasn't going to earn him any points for beauty, that was for sure. "Because being a hero is hard work, and I LOVE HARD WORK!" His throat made a revving sound as his voice went up, and he covered his mouth with his hand. "Ah, sorry. I got excited there." "I never really got your type, kid. But go ahead and head on in. You'll probably make more sense to Ruby Heart." "THANK YOU, MISTER GLORY SIR!" The door to the classroom slid open and the sound of engines revving filled the air as Yasha entered, waving a pair of screaming chainsaw blades over his head. "HELP! MY HANDS ARE CHAINSA-HA-HAAAAWS!" He broke into laughter on the word 'chainsaws' and doubled over, the tools shrinking away. He straightened up and smiled, showing off his fanged grin, and waved his, now regular hands. "Nah, I'm fine-- 's just my Quirk. Hi!"

I think I might actually have a shot at getting my work published. This is crazy!

Inu wasn't happy. The field trip sucked, and while he was thankful it ended early, it seemed it didn't end for good reasons. The exact reason why, he actually didn't know though, he was hoping he'd find out in school today. Grumbling to himself, he popped a sunflower seed into his mouth as he walked into the classroom, hoping that it would distract him from a need to smoke. He walked in, scanning the room, looking to see if anything looked off or if people had some sort of gossip going on. Nothing really stuck at to him at the moment, and it was pissing him off. Did no one know what was going on? He sat down in his seat, sighing as slumped down. As if to signal that today wasn't going to get much better, it seemed a substitute teacher was here today. "So uh… I'm not Epicenter. You guys know that. I'm aaah… I'm the Destructive Hero - Dreadbolt. I'm a friend of Glory's, he asked me to sub for a bit while some of the staff is investigating some shi- errr, while the staff is investigating some bad stuff that happened yesterday…" Inu's eyes narrowed at that. So something did happen. He waited for some sort of explanation of what exactly the bad thing was, but instead, Dreadbolt moved on. "Fuck, why did I agree to this… Tomoaki you son of a bitch…"Quickly bringing himself to attention, he straightened his back and turned to address the class once again, "A-anyway, I'm sorry to inform you all that uhhh… Kikuchi Emi has dropped out of UA, for personal reasons. But there is good news, too! She will be replaced by the next runner-up in the entrance exam! Hoshinoooooo Rika!" With an unhealthy dose of melodrama, Dreadbolt pointed toward the classroom door with both hands… standing perfectly still in perfect silence for several seconds, before slouching in disappointment, "Is it too much to ask students to be punctual??? Can't I get one damn break???" "Don't worry about cussing, we're not kindergartners, we can taking some goddamn cussing without sullying our ears," Inu stated. "We'll probably hear worse out on the field," The new girl then went and made a fool of herself in front of everyone, but Inu wasn't going to hold that against her. At least she wasn't some joker that didn't take this whole thing seriously. Sun looked at the new girl with a sense of curiosity. She had a familiar look to her... well, kinda. It was more like she reminded him of lizards from back home. Now he was feeling nostalgic. But the poor girl seemed really scared, and that made Sun upset. He'd have to find some way to cheer her up... but, it seemed he wasn't alone in that endeavor. "Hi. I'm Hideyo," the happy sun man said happily. "And I think your quirk is the coolest thing I've seen. Ever!" "Aw, geez, I dunno about that really. Uh... I think if it was the coolest thing ever, I would've gotten in without having to get a little lucky." The chameleon laughed gently, her other hand rubbing at the back of her neck as she glanced up at the ceiling. "It's not, like... Terrible, at least! My dad had it bad, he didn't get any of the stuff mine can do. He was pretty nervous when I was born." She then began to look around the room. her eyes soon falling on the monkey king, who smiled at her. "Hello, I am Sun!" He greeted as he waved. "I like your quirk! It reminds me of home!" He hoped that despite his large size, she wouldn't be scared of him. "If you ever feel scared, just come find me! I'll protect you! You and Takehiko!" Before he could say anything else, the wolfman in the back raised his voice. "So... you gonna tell us what the fuck happened back at the beach?" Inu demanded at the sub. "Or are you really going to try to sweep some situation that was apparently so dangerous we had to leave right away, despite having three Pro Heroes there, under the rug?" Sun leaned over to Rika, whispering loudly. "Don't make the dog man angry. He looks very pettable, but he lights on fire, and fire is bad," "Shut the fuck up, monkey man," Inu snapped, causing Sun's eyes to narrow. That seemed like a direct challenge, and as king, he wasn't one to turn down challenges. However, it could have just been made in the heat of the moment, something that happened a lot back home. He'd wait for a second challenge from Inu before he showed him exactly why he was king of his home.

NEO is the best, most-well designed, efficient, responsive, and aesthetically pleasing yugioh card maker on the planet. In all seriousness, though... this has become a nice alternative hub for most active members of the community, and I commend your willingness and dedication to maintaining it as our beloved and reliable admin.

neocardmaker.com is still the best, most-well designed, efficient, responsive, and aesthetically pleasing yugioh card maker on the planet.

No longer unemployed, bois! Just got a job offer for designing custom pools. I'm so happy!

Yeah I cheated and gave u two Yeah yours is pretty sick so hard to beat tbh but here There abouts although I've seen @BGMキャノンs moustache and that thing is pretty stylish. I'm going to cheat and give you Fate stuff because hey, cheating is fine in moderation Finding art with just Kazooie is actually harder than I anticipated but this feels appropriate.

I hope you all like this (especially Dae) as I have poured countless painful hours into making this as perfect as the real Dae is.

I am non-binary. I am not he. I am not she. I am they. I am not Josh. I am not Black. I am Blake. It took me a long time to get to this point, but I want people to know how scary being different is, and how hard it is to just... say something like this. Cause someone out there could have poor designs. Or just be a dick. So fuck the haters. Thanks for a community where I can be me, NCM.

Well friends, I'm officially a homeowner.

Figured I'd post the cardless images I've drawn so far just in case anyone wants to use them for cards of their own. Canyon Battleguard Sword Slasher Mass-Production Model Malice Doll of Despair Gemini Metal Elf Identity Theft! Hopping Vampires Toon Swordmistress this one of Hungry Burger and the Bistro Butcher I don't actually have a card in mind for, but feel free to use it for something. The Snake Hairstyles Dark Scorpion Motivator Time Lizard I'll try to remember to add any more images here as I go along

A fic or series of mini-fics set in the Neo community based on superhero comics/cinema. The characters are the members, each having their own superpower (or not, depending on what they want.) This used to be in Misc, but I decided to make an official interest check thread in the writing section for more credibility. Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions? Let me know.

Hey, Tormey. Why haven't you given a public statement on the coronavirus? What're you doing to ensure the health and safety of the community? Where're the hand sanitzers in the threads?!

Good morning/afternoon/evening all, Im happy to announce Yemachu accepted a position of administrator for the site! He'll be focusing on development of the card maker within the site itself please keep all site requests and support queries in mine and the other members of staffs direction (unless of course it relates to the card maker) I think I speak for everyone in saying that the work Yemachu has done for this community and the last up until this point has been nothing more then incredible. We look forward to working with him moving forward. Please use this thread for any questions you might have for Yemachu. @Members @VIP @Yemachu

tfw single but killin

OOC TUESDAY NOVEMBER 01 180 DAYS REMAIN “This is an imaginary story… Aren’t they all?” -Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (written by Alan Moore) Do All Words Can Do “Fuck!” The events of the last few hours had taken their toll on Director Sekelsky. The reports of rioting were finally dying down, people were returning to their homes, and heroes were permitted to stand down, but that just meant it was time for the casualty numbers. Multiple people had been trampled in the initial panic, and several more were injured in what ensued afterward, including one of their own, a cape who went by the name of Spotlight. It was worth another few expletives. “Fucking goddamn piece of horseshit! Cass goes off the grid for who knows how long and then decides to pull this fucking stunt. Did they know? They must have known. Surely they realized what would happen next, right? So they just left everyone else to clean up their mess, huh?” There were four other people in the room, and each of them was in costume, so Director Sekelsky mentally adopted the standard name protocols. Cape names when dressed as capes. Easy. At the opposite end of the sweatbox of a meeting room (how could it be this fucking hot in here in fucking November?) were Override, Ember, and Aeon. They were the main recipients of this briefing, chosen for a number of reasons but there was really one big one: availability. None of them had been at Hallowmas or taken the holiday standby shift (and who could blame them? It was Halloween. Even Director Sekelsky had hoped to spend the night with his husband and daughter until whatever this shit was), which meant they were actually around this morning. The fact they all had some sort of criminal record was concerning but not work scrapping and waiting for someone else. Bard was there too, seated alone on the near end of the sweatbox next to the projection screen. His costume was positively ancient, and his mask one of those tacky theater masks that only covered half of his face, but he refused to change it, always citing more pressing issues of the time. The Director couldn’t fault him for that this time. He was taking this even harder than Director Sekelksy was; he had a pair of white-knuckled fists pushed as far into the table as he could manage, and he was shaking and muttering something under his breath. It was probably something to do with his Thinker powers, Director Sekelsky thought. It wasn't something he understood, but Bard had also been instrumental in G3’s response the last few hours and he’d been a wreck then too. As long as he was functional and managed to check in with one of G3’s counselors later, he’d be alright, right? He sighed. Thinking things through like this helped get the anger out of his system. The only emotion that remained now was a quiet determination. From an egotistical point of view, it was his best feature. He didn’t have any superpowers, but he wasn’t powerless. “First thing’s first, where’s DEUS?” “Helping with the riots,” Bard said. He eased up a little too now that the meeting had started. “He was spotted in Graceland a little before midnight so he actually wasn’t too far away when it started.” “For once,” Director Sekelsky said. “For once.” “But that means don’t count on it happening again. Not that we should ever count on him.” “Especially now that it’s daytime,” Bard said. “He’ll probably be too busy rescuing cats from trees or helping old women cross the street.” “Or rescuing old women from trees,” the Director snarked. “So Plan A, then. Alright.” Bard handed him a trio of folders and he turned his attention to the three capes in the back. One for each of them. “As you are no doubt aware, the Renegade Cape Cassandra predicted the end of the world at Hallowmas last night,” he said. “This is so obviously S-Class, it’s practically the definition of the term. Unfortunately, the actual words on the truces don’t agree here. They were written more for singular, concrete threats. A tornado, some supervillain who’s gotten too big for their britches, a bio-Tinker’s experiment run amok. Not something as nebulous and off in the distance as this. If we try to litigate this through the normal channels, that’s precious time lost we could have spent dealing with whatever the fuck this actually is, so we’re hoping to avoid that.” He tossed the folders down the table, one at a time. Landing them neatly at the edge right in front of his target without anything spilling out was something that had taken countless briefings just like these to perfect, but it was worth it every time. “We do have some language in our favor, however. We just need the leaders of each of the three main gangs to agree with us, and sign a document saying as much. You three will be facilitating that.” “In those folders are our profiles on the three gangs and the leaders,” Bard said, standing up as well. “Gibbons’ Caesar” -- he pronounced it “ˈsi zər” -- “The Zodiac’s Ophiuchus, and, of course, the Moray Clan’s three Fates. Most of it’s common knowledge, but make sure you’re up to date on it. It also has my best guesses as to how the negotiations are going to play out. Unfortunately, it is probably going to be a negotiation. Six months is a lot of time for Scarlet City’s underworld to play nice.” “We’re going to have to play nice in return,” Director Sekelsky said. “We were the ones with the most cape activity last night. Again, the extenuating circumstances favor us, and obviously so, but they’ll be looking for any concession they can get. Also included in those folders is a copy of a temporary S-Class agreement. It won’t last until April, but it’s something we can use when the Peacekeepers get their act together, so as long as you don’t do anything stupid like make a legally binding agreement without our negotiators present -” “Or start a fight,” Bard said. “- or start a fight, we’re giving you a lot of leeway on this. We need those signatures, you understand? The meetings are already set up. Catty Key buzzed everyone earlier, so be sure to thank her when you get the chance. Your first meeting is with the Fates in Echo Park, the other places and times are in there as well.” His eyes met Ember’s “Ember, you’re not going to that last one as per our existing agreement regarding Gibbons, report back here after The Zodiac meeting instead for a different assignment.” The last moment lingered a bit longer than Director Sekelsky intended, which mattered in the face of all the time pressure, but was still recoverable. “You have a few minutes to finish your reading, ask any questions, you might have, and then get going. Leave through the back while the sixes don’t have the building completely surrounded yet.” Hidden World Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos Lanthimos, the Moray Clan’s three Fates, arranged themselves in various positions about their lair’s (for lack of a better word) throne room searching for something that might fit the correct vibe. It was the new costumes that were the problem here. They’d just gotten three matching dresses from Rajawongse made out of Clotho’s fibers -- and they were the kind of dresses that came with pockets! -- but the room had been put together with their old aesthetic in mind. They’d started out so stereotypical, even getting one of those prop replica thrones from that one show, but the dresses were some kind of postmodern art. They had a flow to them that looked especially nice when they all stood together and the blotches of color started to blur. It was a total clash. The only pieces of fabric left from their old costumes were their blindfolds. “Blindfolds” was another one of those words that was technically true but not really. They were a solid black, but The Fates could all see through them just fine. Part of the magic of Clotho’s string was that its properties could be whatever she wanted it to be. That was one of the reasons Rajawongse had been so inspired in the first place -- a practically infinite amount of new materials, right there at his fingertips, who wouldn’t? But phrasing it that way would also sell the Renegade clothier short. He was a master of his craft even without his power. Rajawongse had created dresses that were identical down to the tiniest stitch. With them, the only way to identify which Fate was which was their distinctive manner of speech. “Maybe it’s the room that needs to change, not us,” Clotho said. “Sure,” Lachesis said. “But that doesn’t change the fact we need to figure out what we’re doing right now,” Atropos said. She was also identifiable by the butterfly knife she carried with her, a helpful outlet for not just her power, but idle hands in general. The swish-clack sound of its handles seemed to punctuate everything that particular Fate said, and frequently some of her sisters’. They settled on one of their standard formations -- Lachesis lounging on the throne flanked on either by her two sisters -- just as three of their underlings entered the room. Vi, Sibyl, and Demiurge were their names. The Fates gave them some time to get situated and even offered them some fruit in case they hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. It was still early in the morning, after all. It also gave them an excuse to get everyone up to speed on the previous night's events, the prophecy, the riots, everything. “The Stadium isn’t our territory, though it’s close enough that it might as well be,” Lachesis said. “And we’re going to have to deal with the smashed windows that are in our territory. Some of our people are already on it.” “It won’t be finished until later, though. Right now, G3 --” “-- The Generic Good Guys --” “-- The Group of Giant Goobers --” “-- is going to be pushing us for some kind of temporary truce until they can get their act together, and we don’t have any reason not to accept.” “But we also have reason to believe the Gibbons aren’t going to take the deal,” Lachesis said. “There are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that, like, it’s Gibbons. There’s no way Caesar” -- she pronounced it “ˈsi zər” -- “is going to let a land grab opportunity slip through his fingers, no matter how bad of an opportunity it is.” “That’s what happens when most of your territory is crap,” Atropos said. Swish. Clack. “Even when you have the most of any gang in all of Skitty.” “So it’s in character for him,” Clotho said. “But perhaps more damningly, he laid out his plans this morning while Worm still had one of his walls bugged, and later we hear some Gibbons capes are on the way to our territory. So we just- we know it’s going to happen. ” “Sorry to bury the lede like that.” “Our people cleaning up Nola Street already know this,” Clotho said. “There are some pretty hefty capes helping out there, both ours and otherwise, and DEUS is still in the area for at least a little bit longer.” “We’ll fight too if we goddamn have to.” The swish-clack of Atropos’ knife was especially forceful that time. “The point is, there’s a little time before anything goes down. There are still a few preparations to make, though. More thorough battle plans, making sure complementary powers are together, that sort of thing. Your job this morning is to keep Caesar distracted, and the way we’d like you to do it is to wreck some of his shit first.” “The target is a warehouse eleven point five nine kilometers that way.” Lachesis pointed in a direction she knew to be Northeast. This was her showing off her Thinker power and she relished the opportunity. “Pretty close to The Shimmer without getting up and personal with it, about as far as possible away from what’s going to be happening here.” “We think it’s a lab for a Tinker on Caesar’s payroll, which means it’ll have a skeleton crew of just that one Tinker and an assistant or two.” “The point is to get them calling for help. We’re not killing them or anything. Just roughing them up a bit to get Caesar’s attention, you know?” Clotho winked. “Of course, if they do go running to the hills leaving a trove of Tinker tech behind, you might as well take any of the interesting shit, right?” “At the same time,” Lachesis was quick to add, “if help does show up, that’s your cue to get out of there. Remember The Stanley Principle. You’re not invincible no matter how far ahead you might seem.” The Fates finally went silent as the invocation of that nearly-sacred rule brought a little extra weight to the proceedings. Both Clotho and Atropos shifted uncomfortably where they stood, and Lachesis had to stop lounging and actually sit in her chair. “Oh, that was a lot, wasn’t it?” Clotho eventually said. “Sorry about that.” “Anyway, the actual meat and potatoes planning of this mission, that’s up to you,” Atropos said. “We’ve given you the place and the goal, kinda want to just see what you come up with,” Lachesis said. “Call it a test, you know? Show us what you can do.” OOC

Time Lizard | LIGHT | Reptile/Effect ATK 500 | DEF 400 You can tribute 1 Reptile monster you control: Toss a coin and call it. If you call it right, Special Summon 1 Reptile or Dinosaur monster from your hand or GY. If you call it wrong, take damage equal to the ATK of the tributed monster. A quickie I drew up because of a pun. Juggled a few different effect ideas so I hope the one I went with wouldn't be overpowered, but I'm always open to suggestions.

So, I wanted to build off of the depression entry. To a degree, at least. I want to talk about abuse. And I'll start with personal experience. You can skip to the second divider, if you don't wish to read this section. --- My dad was abusive. He never got to hit me, beyond a belt on my rear, thanks to my mom... but he was extremely emotionally abusive. He looked for any and all opportunities to belittle me or scold me, and then took them out on my mother instead if she objected, only to redouble on me. To make sure I wasn't an embarrassment to him. That I never even considered crossing him. He was the MAN of the house. What he said went. His wife was to be a stay-at-home mother who cooked and cleaned. His son was to be a clone of him who would exist only to make him look better. The Bible "said" he was to be the head of the household and in charge. So, of course, having a woman who didn't simply bow to him bothered him. Having a child be a child was unacceptable. Even my cousins were given similar treatment, especially before I was born. Like attempting to beat my older cousin with a brush for touching his bag when he had just returned from a trip. Where he cheated on my mother. But that's another story. Or how about instilling his young child with fear so great that a 6 year old was scared of burning in hell for not being perfect? Scared that the rapture would take place and leave them behind? My mother's parents as well. There's a laundry list that's come from my mother and her siblings about their childhoods, but the present is more pressing. Treating everyone around them like slaves. Gma pitting every single family member against each other, if given a chance. Resenting anyone that doesn't follow the plan she's set up. My gpa hit my mother recently for disagreeing with him. He threatened to call the cops on me if I ever disagreed with him. Told me we never made a deal for me to drive, and that I was a lying thief. Threatened to shoot us for not serving a meal he wanted, and gma only replied "you'd shoot me!?". Trying to kick us out, with nowhere to go, because mom was too sick to prepare a meal for their very able-bodied selves. All the while, these people play the victim. They're just suffering because of everyone else. My dad is a martyr, a God-fearing man who goes to church every week and beyond. He's a father figure to some people. An upstanding deacon. Any grievances that could be expressed could only be done so by a member of the church, as opposed to an outsider who KNOWS him. And he has sooo many illnesses, needs so many surgeries, and so on. Gparents are even worse for the latter. Trying to call social services because we weren't being proper caretakers, when they were more than able-bodied and we never agreed. Gma has been faking a cough almost my entire life, as she's admitted. Uses any appointment as a guilt to get people to spend money on her. And so many more fake things, always something to guilt someone into spending money and rendering service, all while playing up how cruel everyone is to them... when they both left their own parents to rot as they got into old age. Even before then. But they're owed it, because they were 'good' parents. Kids are for taking care of them, after all! --- ... and that's just people I, unfortunately, share blood with. But why do I bring up all this anecdotal evidence, when I'm doing what is normally philosophical or purely stream of consciousness? Well... that's because of the relationship that abusers tend to have to abuse's after effects, as I see it. As I experience it. I am so, so scared of calling myself an abuse victim. I never thought of myself as one for most of my life, just assuming that... everyone went through those things. And, even after that, I still just assumed I had to push on. It was just a hurdle. Just a scar that would one day shine. I wasn't a victim. Victims were people that the world hated, shunned, ignored. People that used it as a crutch. Sure, there were exceptions that I had met, but... by and large, people like my abusers portrayed themselves entirely as victims, never taking any accountability for their actions. Turning around anything they did to me back on to me as a source. Yet here I am. The moment I hear hushed voices, I go still and try to hear if they're going to be about me, if I fucked up, if they hate me. Loud noises cause me to shut down. I am oftentimes scared to even leave my room, to the point that I earned the nickname "Bernie-Bear" from Mel's friends for just how shy and bad I was with people. Which, coincidentally... was the moment that me being a victim of abuse began to set in. And I tried so hard to look away from it! I was strong! I had to be strong! I just had some hang ups, that's all! There was no way I was a victim! It is so, so, so hard to call myself a victim. I think it is for most people, really. I don't want to be like those in my life who I was abused by. I don't want to be perceived like them. I don't want to be pitied or looked at like I'm weak. If I'm weak, then I've failed. I'm letting them control me. I'm letting my abusers control my present, as they did my past. That's letting them win... BUT THAT'S WRONG! That isn't true at all! It is not wrong to hurt! It is not wrong to have been hurt by people who DON'T have power over you, much less those that do! You are not weak for being abused! You do NOT deserve that abuse! And those people that fake? Those people that use it to chase clout? Fuck them! They're more likely than not abusers themselves, and you shouldn't worry about them! You shouldn't have to be inhibited about your pain, you shouldn't have to shove it down so that you don't "let them win"! Shoving it down IS how they win, because you leave the trauma inside to fester and bubble, allowing it to consume you whole! You have a right to be angry! You have a right to be sad! You have a right to FEEL! ... It's okay to be a victim. You didn't make the choice to be one. There's nothing wrong with acknowledging what happened to you, be it sexual, physical, emotional, or any combination thereof. People can be monstrous. I do struggle with admitting to myself that I'm an abuse victim. I almost cried talking to my mother tonight, because we both are so close to being able to say and accept how we've been abused, but the people we know are so fake and wicked that we fear association with their behaviors. It's admitting that you aren't fully in control to admit to being abused, and it takes a LOT of courage to do so. So, to abuse victims... You are stronger than you think. That abuse isn't who you are. You did not deserve it. Cruel people inflicted it on you for a multitude of reasons, but none of them were your fault. It was not a result of your choices, but the result of others taking your choice away from you. This world has so much potential for love. So many people truly wishing to help heal a broken heart, soul, spirit. Sure, there are more abusers out there... But I sincerely hope that anyone this applies to finds someone they can truly depend on. Someone who will not treat them as you may have become accustomed to being treated. I see you. I hurt for you. I'm here for you. And, if given the chance, I will open my heart and love you. Stay determined, everyone.

Made about a week ago for the sake of having something of the season in time xD I had no idea how to go about the background once I had the character made, so I kept adding violets, purples, blues, vaguely resembling a cave-like pattern and after enough time I grabbed a pen and have what you see here.... I think the green is a bit too light and lime-y but that's what you get when you YOLO it and hope it ends up well hahaha....

"Ah what's the matter Dog Breath. Someone need a scratch behind the ear?" At this point, Inu growled, baring his teeth at the cat. "Go get high off some catnip, Cat Bitch," he snapped. Before it could go any further though, the teacher went off, ignoring Inu completely as he began to talk about everything else. "Fuckin' bastard's ignoring me...," Inu growled under his breath, but deciding to let it drop for now. He'd just grill Epicenter when she came back. She didn't look like she could keep a secret. However, before he could even fully calm down... "And finally, Kagarashi Hideyo, Konpaku Rei, Sogin Hakaro, and Sasaki Inu, you will all be against the number 5 hero, your history teacher Ruby Heart!" "Wait, Sasaki? Is there any chance you know the pro hero Howl?" "Fuck," Inu muttered as he gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I know the indecisive bitch. What a-fuckin'-bout it?" He took a handful of sunflower seeds and chomped on them with an angry crunching sound, just as Spidey O'Bitch came up to him. After their pleasant little exchange, the hellhound found himself standing in a corner of the room, chew on sunflower seeds as he watched two of his teammates at each other throats. Maybe they'd injure each other and Inu could transfer to a new group. That wasn't how it worked, and he knew it. With a sigh, he walked over, plopping his butt on the desk's top next to Hideyo. "So... you think we should stop them from fighting, or just wait it out?" He asked, chewing on yet another sunflower seed. Sun was ecstatic. He made a new friend in RIka, and Takehiko was trying to be friends with Rika to! Now he had two friends! There was only one problem though. "Sun Sun, Kaenbyou Tsubasa, Ohara Ben, and the new student Hoshino Rika, you will all be up against your JET teacher, Xionglauhu!" So Takehiko was on a different team, meaning Sun couldn't defend them. He had just had to believe in the guy. It wasn't like this was life or death anyways, so he should be fine, right? Sun wasn't convinced, but he couldn't let the others know that. For now, his team had gathered to make a plan. Sun could make plans, very good plans in fact! He bet his friends would be blown away with his great plans! "Ah... Does the sheet say anything about whether we're expected to actually win? With a numbers advantage, I get the idea of us holding up at least a bit, but... Winning seems like a long shot any way I look at it." Rika asked. Sun blinked as he looked at her. Why wouldn't they be expected to win? That was the law of the jungle, win or lose, kill or be killed. It was the same here... except without the killing. Most people weren't animals, they'd stop before that. "Hey Tsubasa, Sun...and you said your name is Rika, right?" The man with the many spiders approached them, causing Sun to subconsciously scratch himself. "Ahem...sorry I didn't probably make a good impression when you walked in. I'm Benjamin O'Hara, but I usually go by Ben. Nice to meet you. So...I guess it's going to be us four as a team." "A team huh?" the mini jaguar girl suddenly spoke up, "well, then alternate winning or otherwise, you have nothing to work about Iroko. After all, you've got three people with you, and most importantly I'm here with you. So, as long as those things are true, we're definitely a sure win." Smiling more excitedly she said, "and besides, haven't you always wanted to fight a bear?" "I dunno what a bear is, but it sounds fun," Sun admitted. "Nothing... To worry about? I dunno, I think we've got plenty to worry about. We don't know what our actual task is gonna be, aside from trying to overpower someone with more practice and experience than us. ...Fight a bear? I can't say it really ever crossed my mind. Generally you're supposed to, like... Play dead against them, right? Maybe we can do that against the bear then. I'd say we should come up with a plan, but... What can we plan for when we don't know the specifics? Hopefully we can get some actual time before the exam to plot a bit." "Oh, oh, do not worry!" Sun said excitedly. "I, Sun, have a great plan!" He cleared his throat before he started to explain. "So, we're gonna have you all stand behind me so I can protect you all, and then, I'm going to throw a rock at the bear!" He paused, waiting for a response, before adding as an afterthought. "It's going to be a very big rock,"

As he stepped onto the bus, Yasha was confident he had everything he needed. He was a bit over-packed, even for the beach-- a beach umbrella, a tarp/blanket, a couple gallons of water in a cooler bag, enough sunscreen to give the sun cancer, spare batteries for his phone-- but he was comfortable with carrying all of it, as long as it meant he could do what he came here to do. "Oi, oi, oi. You coming, O'Hara?" He stopped in the doorway to look back at the lagging American on his phone. "Hm? ...o-oh...uh...were we just supposed to enter the bus? I thought...jeez...gotta remember I'm not in America anymore. Uh, yeah I'm coming..." The two ended up sitting together on the bus, and Yasha was practically vibrating the seat-- which was notable since, at this proximity, it nearly drowned out the engine of the bus. Benjamin noticed Yasha's general noises and shrugged some. "I take it you're excited for the beach, huh Yasha?" Yasha looked up. "Oh, uh." He cleared his throat. "No, not really. Saltwater gums up my tool hands, I'm at a greater risk of heatstroke than most, and of course there's... sand..." He shuddered, then shifted back to his usual cheerful tone. "Pretty much everything about the beach is a horrible experience for me!" He smiled toothily. "Yikes..." Benjamin shook his head slightly. "Annnnd you're still okay with going? Despite the threats and risks that it brings you?" Yasha nodded emphatically. "Oh, totally. It's all worth it." "Uh-huh...alright, I'll bite...why is it worth it to you?" Yasha's expression, to the extend he had one, became suddenly serious. He glanced around, as though there were someone listening, though of course, nobody was. "Alright, don't tell anybody, but..." He leaned in and whispered. "I really just came to see the girls in their swimsuits. Think about it: Seigi, Konpaku, Ukemei-- all of them. In swimsuits." Yasha's faceplate was already red, and he had no skin above the neck so of course he couldn't blush, but there was an actual puff of steam from roughly where his nostrils would be as he straightened back up. Benjamin was surprised by this sudden turn of events as Yasha confided this information to him. The general thought of it, actually caused him to blush some. He looked around, before putting a hand on the chair, having a spider crawl out from his hand to sit on the chair, just as a lookout. "...that's why you were gung-ho about this? ...also do we need to even add Rei into this category?" Benjamin whispered back to Yasha. No going back with this conversation. Yasha nodded and huffed again, producing more little puffs of steam and folding his arms. "Even a cold girl like Konpaku can look good in a swimsuit, O'Hara. Heck, even a plain-looking girl like Sanada looks good in a swimsuit. It's science." Benjamin was still silent for a bit, before raising an eyebrow. "...uh, isn't Ren a guy...?" Yasha's eye twitched. "Not again..." he wheezed.

Yay I got my first reputation point!

This is the NCM drawing resources, here you can learn to draw, see videos, programs, and etc that could help you. request drawings, learn to draw, get told how to draw, get critique, and etc. Only hand drawn things(from any program) are allowed, so no copy + pasting anything, but you can edit them however you like(warp them, put them in layers, overlay them, blur them, whatever you feel like doing), just not transplanting stuff from the internet. Some graphics programs you could use: Also, link your mobile phone to your PC to draw with it, if you feel like it. Use Chrome Remote Desktop or Teamviewer. A few throwaway tips of mine: Videos: A few of my drawings: Have fun!

pre-test jitters It was barely sunrise when Shoshiki arrived at the testing grounds. He would have left sooner, but decided that walking alone in the dark would be a bit too much for him. It wasn't a big deal, his hotel was only a few blocks away, but Shoshiki decided to play it on the safe side. He was simply being reasonable, nothing more. As far as he could tell, only one girl had arrived before him. She looked distracted, yet determined. Shoshiki figured she was probably friendly enough, but decided not to risk it. Who knows what kind of person could be here, she could have a quirk even grislier than his own. And so Shoshiki Kojin stood almost completely still at the edge of the waiting area, as the rest of the hopefuls arrived. It wasn't long before the gates opened, allowing Shoshiki and the rest of the applicants to make their way in. It seemed the testing ground had both a forest and a cityscape, two environments Shoshiki could only hope he would be able to use to his advantage. As a man in some kind of antique-styled armor explained the test, Shoshiki couldn't help but be distracted by the rest of the entrants, "To get this far…” was that a giant beetle? Did beetles eat meat? One of this size was probably very hungry... “forest type area, and a city type area…” a guy with blue hair and headphones was watching the samurai explain, but looked like he would rather be literally anywhere else... “your objectives will all be the same.” With this, Shoshiki perked up. He should probably pay attention to this part. “In each area are a limited amount of badges that resemble the U.A. logo. To complete the practical, one must obtain five badges and return to the gate before sundown. It doesn't matter how you get your badges. Just so long as you're here, you'll be permitted to attend U.A." Using wording like that is going to make people think we are supposed to fight over these. "So if I beat the snot out of some dude with three badges, and take 'em, I get in?" The question came from an angry-looking, muscular girl, who seemed to be about as tall as Shoshiki himself. Despite her apparent confusion over how many badges she needed, her strategy concerned Shoshiki. He had never really fought before, let alone with someone who had been training their quirk for that purpose for what could be ten years. He felt a terrible sinking feeling inside him as the people surrounding him changed from unknown entities to threats. “...our very BEST!" A loud screech interrupted his thoughts, as Shoshiki quickly pivoted to find its source. As best as he could tell, she had some kind of bat quirk. Wait. Wouldn't that make her a vampire? Was she going to murder Shoshiki and drink his blood as sustenance? The samurai/teacher hybrid had said that they weren't supposed to kill each other, but this was a vampire, do the rules even matter at this point? Even as the vampire was scolded by another scary girl with red hair, Shoshiki still found himself feeling like prey. Even if not literally, everyone around him was determined to get into this school, and Shoshiki standing in their way wasn't going to make them change their minds. He could feel the threads of nerve tissue moving just beneath his skin, his flight or flight response coming on in full force. Should he team up with someone so as to have strength in numbers should they be attacked? Or would that just put him at risk of being betrayed once they had found a total of five badges? As the rest of the would-be students were beginning to socialize, Shoshiki was overcome with fear. Even as he could feel himself shaking from head to toe, he forced himself to take a few deep breaths, before making his way to the least terrifying person he could see, a small girl with silver hair. He reached up to tap her shoulder, but hesitated before he could. She might have acid skin or something, I should be more careful. Averting his vision, he awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck, speaking in such a subdued tone that he was hardly audible, "So, if people are planning to take the badges by force, it might be a better bet to stick together... I don't know you, but, you seemed a bit more pleasant and a bit less violent than the others I see here..."

Getting up in the morning had hardly been a problem for Yuuka. She had merely figured what time would be the best to wake up to get through her morning routine and set an alarm for then. Having gotten up just when she should, the girl had made her way to school, and arrived with some time to spare before their exam had actually begun. As such, it did her good to see that there were those even more ready and on time then her, and so she simply smiled brightly and contentedly, awaiting their exam time to start. Standing around, the girl simply looked and studied the two instructors before her, head to toe while listening to the directions they provided. "Oh, this might be some trouble," the girl merely muttered to herself. While she had her own concerns as to how to approach this test, to her great pleasure it had seemed that there were a large majority of other heroes to be that did not. Though there was some to be desired she glanced from student to student as they talked to each other, stretching herself out as she was instructed to do so all the while. Two girls who definitely had the confidence and physicality to be a hero, though definitely lack in the tact of one. One girl who - Yuuka winced - definitely had the energy levels of one. A boy, Shiba Yuudai, who seemed to have proper manners. And then there were two other girls in particular that managed to catch her attention. Both being full of spirit and a certain righteous quality that set them apart from the others so far. The girl merely smiled in glee, wondering just what the test had in store for them, while also looking forward to seeing more of her classmates. Turning her attention to the blonde haired girl, she merely raised her own fist into the air with a smile on her face echoing, "<justice>" in a much more subdued tone than the girl's, but still in English all the same.

A while back I made a custom archetype named "Abystella" (stars of the abyss) consisting on marine life with patterns of glowing yellow stars. Here's the art I drew for it: Whale Narwal Jellyfish Squid Mantaray Sea Dragon/Sea Horse Isopod Marlin Fisher Nautilus Sea Serpent Mermaid Art for Spells or Traps

A Knight's Tale Ends "Sir Petrus...?" Petrus heard the cooing of Gwenllian, causing the red armored knight to turn away from his steed, to see the princess standing at the doorway to the stables. "My princess, why have you come?" he sighed, looking away from the beautiful one before him. "I had wished not to see you, before I departed." "Yes, Sir Petrus." Gwenllian responded softly. "But I could not, nay, I would not be alright until I saw you off. After your engagement with the dragon under Adrien's control and even stopping Adrien from his unfathomable techniques in the dark arts, I prayed you would stay for a bit longer." "Aye, and I would indeed stay." Petrus spoke, his gaze returning to Gwenllian. "But you know as well as I do, my princess, that the longer I stay, the more danger that would be caused by Adrien and his magic. It is the duty of a knight to protect what I care for..." he paused. "To protect who I care for." The two continued to stare at each other, until finally Gwenllian embraced Petrus, holding him tightly and not letting go. Petrus could hear the young girl sobbing, even hearing her tears colliding with his crimson armor. He tried his hardest to fight the tears that hung in his eyes, but it was not to be. From his eyes, the crimson knight began to cry as well, continuing to hold onto Gwenllian and not letting her go. The minutes seemed to tick away as the two continued to hold each other endearingly, but alas, this slowly was broken apart by the crimson knight. Petrus wiped the tears from his eyes and then Gwenllian's eyes, before he took her hand and slightly kissed it. "Gwenllian, I promise to you, I will return to you." he spoke, his voice cracking with sadness. "I will defeat Adrien and return to you." Gwenllian's hand remained held by Petrus until she put her other hand on top of his. She gave off a faint smile before slipping something into his hand. It was a small ring with the emblem of a spider engraved into it. "Then return to me, Sir Petrus." she said softly. "This will give you reason to return to me." The crimson knight remained quiet, only holding the ring in his hand as he looked at Gwenllian. A small nod came forth as he turned and mounted his steed, before trotting out of the stables. With a small jolt of his foot, the painted horse galloped away fast from the kingdom. He jolted his foot again, the horse ran faster. Then faster. And faster... Petrus tugged on the reins of the horse, before he stopped and looked back behind him. Now the kingdom of Orléans was but a faint glimpse, a far distant goal now. He looked away, directing his gaze only to the spider engraved ring. His mind could only drift back to Gwenllian and her beauty. Petrus couldn't stand being apart from the love of his life, but he swore an oath, and as a knight, he knew he would have to uphold it. He put the ring into the satchel on the horse, before jolting its side again, riding off towards the rising sun. The sunlight glistened over his crimson armor. And once more, the spider knight rode off, to finish his quest once and for all. He looked at his computer screen, letting out a loud sigh. Right now, that was the last page he had on the story he’d been working on and off entitled “Of Spiders & Knights”. This was a project that Marcus had started since he was fourteen. Of course, it would’ve been done quicker iiiiiiiiiif he wasn’t also moonlighting as the one and only arachnid based hero and saving the city. He finally got up from his chair, moving away from his desk as he moved around his apartment. “Okay you guys…hit save on that for me…I'll send it to Triple J by the end of the day.” he said, pointing at a small group of spiders that were by his keyboard and mouse, to which they immediately went to work on saving the document quite a few times. "Who am I? You sure you want to know? Alright then, let's start at the beginning, one last time. Same story, different beats." From the Top! "My name is Marcus Mattox. I solved an ancient tablet and got bit by a mystical spider, and for the last four years I've been New York's one and only Spider-Man Multi-Threader! Pretty sure the rest of the narrative you know, or at least the broad strokes of it. Became Anansi's ambassador, became a superhero, lost my dad, saved a bunch of people, saved the city...quite a few times actually, fell in love...uh...she's on the wrong side of the law currently...hopefully that'll change, wrote a book...well...attempting to write a book. Hey, you try and juggle being an aspiring writer while also being a protector of the city and tell me how easy it is! Ahem...anyway, even though I have to juggle the career I'm chasing and being a spider-based hero, I wouldn't trade it for the world. After all, I'm the only thing standing between New York and the ever oncoming threats that rear their ugly heads. It's my story that I've been blessed with...and I'm going to see it through to its final chapter!" “Grazie, the first of many tales that'll be written for the Daily Bugle Publishing. Now…let’s see if the city that never sleeps has anything new for me.” Marcus said, immediately flipping on a police scanner whilst grabbing his phone. He started flipping around it as the scanner crackled to life. “ALL UNITS! We have a situation…” the voice said immediately. Marcus knew that always meant something ‘fun’ was afoot. Whilst shoving a chocolate chip muffin down his gullet, he could hear the scanner continue. “...Repeat! Mysterio in Times Square!” “Oooooh, more waxing lyrical with the discount Sorcerer Supreme!” Marcus laughed, fastening his web-shooters onto his wrists. Hang On...! Let's review this... "Bit of background on one Quientin Beck AKA Mysterio. He was generally just an illusionist that played shows out here in NYC, but he had the aptitude and determination to do more. Apparently he went to study the Mystic Arts from our own Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange. So he had the drive, the aptitude and determination…he ended up getting to the top in terms of skill levels to an extent…so what happened? Well, you're Friendly Neighborhood Multi-Threader happened. Mind you…not purposely. See about this time, Strange sought me out for a potential candidate for his replacement and wanted to train me. Now, this was short lived, considering the guy was very strict when teaching anything in the Mystic Arts, plus he hated how I utilized tech with my powers. Nice guy though, we occasionally chit chat from time to time, play chess…even assists me with ideas for my books…annnnnd I'm rambling. Back to the present topic! Beck seems to resent me, not only taking away his chance to become the next Sorcerer Supreme, buuuuuuut I sort of saw him attempting to mess with the wrong kind of magic while he was at Kamar-Taj. We're talkin' like serious Dark Dimension stuff, the kind that would probably make Criss Angel blush. Downside, most of Beck's stuff is all just illusionary based, cause that's all he's good with. Maybe one day he'll surprise me though." HELLO NEW YORK!!! He grabbed his suit and immediately tossed it on, sliding the mask on last. He flung his apartment window open and took a running leap out of it, immediately launching himself outward, shooting a web as it caught the corner of a building, slinging him around to follow after New York’s Finest, already rushing to the scene. The exhilarating rush of the web-swinging helped Marcus…Multi-Threader…focus and clear his head. Right now, he knew how the former Sorcerer Supreme candidate operated, he was a sucker for the audience…a sucker for theatrics, so if he played his cards right…it would be simple. His thoughts, however, were cut short by the ringing of his phone. Luckily he had the earpiece in his ear. “Hellooooooo?~” he answered with a laugh. “I assume you overheard the news?” the young man’s voice on the other end said. “Oh hey, kiddo!” Multi-Threader laughed, doing a quick flip in the air during his web-swinging. “Yeah, it’s ol’ fish-bowl head. So, we know what’s going on at present, Terry?” Terry simply sighed on the other end. “Honestly, it seems like the same situation as usual, buuuuuuut…looks like he brought in a giant wyrm-like dragon.” “A wyrm?! Oh man, he’s really upping his game if he’s going that far for an illusion!” Multi-Threader smirked, flipping over onto a SWAT truck’s roof. “Either way, this should prove to be fun for me…gotta cut loose after finally finishing that final chapter! Anyway, talk with you later bro…enjoy the show!” He cut the call short, holding onto the truck’s roof, watching them turn sharply into Times Square. Even before the turn, however, he was already feeling that sensation. His hairs standing on end, a tingling sensation at the back of his skull and the general chills he felt: his Spider-Sense. Once the turn was made, lo and behold, there was the green scaled menace of a wyrm dragon, terrorizing the citizens. “Sheesh, he wasn’t kidding…talk about a humongous beast!” he whistled, flipping off the truck’s roof and onto a nearby building wall. "Let's see if Beck's taught it any cool tricks." “BEHOLD!!! The return of the master of the arcane arts: Mysterio!!” a figure spoke, simply walking down a set of green magical steps. The man in a green pressed suit with a smokey fish-bowl helmet descended into the Square. “Purveyors of this new age, attempting to banish the old arts from this world, see before you the wyrm summoned straight from the Dark Dimension! You must know now that your resistance to the old arts is futile!” “So does Dormammu know that you took his pet or did you borrow it without permission?” Multi-Threader piped up, waving a bit at the villain, who now turned towards him. “Awww, what’s wrong Beck, you don’t seem happy to see me. Then again, it’s always hard to tell with that small fish tank on your head.” “Wall-crawler! You shall not hinder my plan to become the new Sorcerer Supreme this time!” Mysterio shouted, his hands began to have a magical aura around them as two green triangles began to spin in front of them. “Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas!” He spoke, shooting out two green magical beams straight at the spider based hero. “-Well I tend not to smoke anything, it’s bad for the whole hero image!-” Multi-Threader shot back in perfect Latin, which seemed to make Mysterio grumble under his breath. The wall-crawling hero immediately jumped off the building’s roof, narrowly dodging the two blasts as he fired a web onto another nearby building and swung around Mysterio, flipping upwards as he shot a web ball filled with a few spiders right at the sorcerer. “Seriously Beck, I think you need to come up with some new ‘incantations’, and maybe ones that actually make sense?” “You insolent arachnid!” Mysterio shouted, already attempting to knock the spiders from the web ball off his clothing. “Totem of Anansi, you shall cease this mocking of the TRUE Sorcerer Supreme!!” “Hey, what can I say…I’m a mocker, I mock!” Multi-Threader landed on a nearby roof, immediately firing two webs at a nearby air conditioning unit that was on the roof. It was a bit of public property damage, but he figured New York would look past that part. “I’m also a puller…a tugger…a yaaaaaanker!” he grunted, pulling the unit off and proceeded to swing it around before launching it at the arcane lunatic. “Guess I’m just a general jack of all trades!” “Denique diatem efficacem inveni!” Mysterio fired off another set of magical energy in the direction of the flying air conditioning unit. “Beast of the Dark Dimension, dispose of this meddlesome spider!” he commanded the wyrm, to which Multi-Threader was now realizing..it was real, the damage it was doing definitely seemed 100% real. But luckily no one was injured that he could see…so it could’ve been much, much worse. “First, congrats on the new effective diet my guy. What did you decide to cut out…the fish?” he quipped, knocking on his head to refer to the fish-bowl helmet. “Secondly, color me impressed, Quentin! You managed to actually conjure something that isn’t a pale imitation and illusion! Maybe I should call the doc and have him inspect the impressive feat!” The wyrm roared as it slithered towards the wall-crawler, to which Multi-Threader leapt from the roof and proceeded to aim right in the direction of the creature’s face. “Let’s try and blind this guy…alright fellas, show time!” he said, holding his hands in front of him as he flung a few spiders that crawled along from them towards the oncoming beast. Once they were on the creature, Multi-Threader immediately moved mid-air to narrowly grab onto the wyrm. “Okay…time for some blindness. Go for its eyes!” For some, it would look like nothing was happening at first…until a loud, ear-piercing roar was heard from the wyrm…what truly was happening was Multi-Threader’s spiders were in the process of biting the creature’s eyes over and over again. “Alright, that’s Plan A…now…didn’t get to Plan B yet…” he grumbled, before running along the wyrm’s back, webbing one side of it’s head before swinging around it’s open mouth, narrowly avoiding it’s closing jaws, before webbing the other side. Now he held a makeshift set of webbed reins. “Alright boy…HEEL!!!” he shouted, yanking the reins upward and getting the wyrm to cease its moves.Eventually, it would stop, whether by the pulling or just due to the sheer exhaustion it was feeling. Regardless of the reason, he let go of the reins and stood victoriously over the wyrm…who…began to fade and disappear beneath his feet. “Awwww, so it was an illusion? Man, you had me convinced there Beck. Lemme take a guess…illusions with a sort of a Dark Dimension styled buff to make em feel more realistic in the moment? Gotta say, you're putting more work into this than you usually do. It's almost impressive…almost being the keyword." “Grrrr…you and your insistent meddling with my destiny shall not stand, wall-crawler!” Mysterio began to slowly descend, holding a hand out towards Multi-Threader. “Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere!” A quick bolt of magic was delivered towards the spider-hero, with another being prepared in succession. Multi-Threader glanced over, seeing a manhole cover and immediately fired a web at it, yanking it towards him as he used it as a shield against the first bolt of magic. He immediately spun a bit before launching it at Mysterio. “Cap…eat your heart out! Also, I'd kindly ask you to leave Elvis out of this. Let the King of Rock rest already, for Pete Sake!” Mysterio was hit by the manhole cover, trying to get his bearings back together, grumbling. “Nullae satisfactionis p-...” “Yeah yeah, you can’t get no satisfaction!” Multi-Threader was already right there in front of Mysterio, delivering a punch right into his helmed face, knocking him onto the ground. “Least you could do is not rip off Mick Jagger…first Elvis now Jagger, for shame.” he said, snapping his fingers as suddenly he was beginning to be webbed up like it was nothing. After a few moments, Multi-Threader had those few spiders start to crawl back up towards him. “Job well done, fellas.” he watched as the last one came up, noticing that it left the message: Baddie Bagged, courtesy of the Magnificent Multi-Threader. “Alright, time for us to go.” Multi-Threader chuckled. “Lest the news media decides to want to pin this on me…oh what am I saying, some most likely will anyway!” He grabbed onto a nearby light pole, swung upwards before firing a web to grab the nearest building, swinging away. Or at least…he would've, if something didn't immediately catch his eye. A bubbling black hole slowly opening nearby. Multi-Threader paused in his stride, sticking to a nearby wall, staring at the strange portal. He tapped his ear and immediately called Terry once more. "Hey kiddo…" "Marc! Saw everything, you really got him good this time round!" "Yeah…listen, there's a strange portal-like sight I'm looking at right now." Multi-Threader continued, sounding a little serious. "May want to cancel the plans with me coming to see you and the missus…" "...Marc don't do anything stupid, please…" A chuckle escaped his lips. "Me? Stupid? C'mon kiddo, it's more-or-less called creative curiosity. I'll be back, don't worry." he said, hearing his brother sigh on the other end. Once the call was over, the arachnid based hero made his way towards it, getting closer and closer…though it was beginning to be a bit too close…like at an alarming rate. "Okay…it's sucking me in like a Hoover…wonderful!!!" Multi-Threader shouted, trying to resist but ultimately took the plunge and was drug in. Hitchhiker's Guide to...the Spider-Verse? Multi-Threader wasn't too thrilled about this insane roller-coaster of a ride he was being taken on…even noticing a few of his spiders crawling on his arm and beginning to web a sign saying: S.O.S. "I doubt anyone's gonna answer that, fellas!" he shouted, falling or being drug along through wherever he was going even more. He did, however, eventually see quite a sight he'd never seen before. Was it…space? No…that couldn't be the case, as he could still breathe. Scratch space out of the equation for the moment. If not space, then what? He didn't have much time to ruminate on it, considering his eyes were glued on the grander picture before him. An infinite web…spread across this strange void. "Curiouser and curiouser…" he muttered, continuing to fall as apparently others before him did. As he passed by…he was stunned at seeing the sights he did. World's that were similar to his own…but vastly different. "It's a full on multiverse…interconnected by these weaved webs…" Multi-Threader guessed to absolutely no one. He had heard that it might've been possible, but this wasn't something he figured was. He passed by a few of these interconnecting threads…seeing the world's and even specific things. For instance, a young man being hit with an ancient arrow and obtaining a ghostly spider-like being that came from within… Then there was a robotic heroine dressed to the nines in black armor… And…was that a horde of spiders, dressed up in a spandex suit? That one there sort of hit home for him to an extent…just like how the world that was in front of him was planning to. "Oh damnit…" he gulped, bracing for impact as he was practically launched right out the portal into the air. It was a strange looking city, though at first glance he could've mistook it for Manhattan. Nevertheless, Multi-Threader exhaled slowly, immediately looking around as he found a nearby rooftop and a billboard on it. "Now…let's hope…my aim ain't off…otherwise this spider is going splat!" he muttered, immediately launching his web right to the billboard. It stuck successfully, allowing him to swing gracefully upward and land on top of the roof. "Alright, stuck the landing!!" Multi-Threader huffed lightly. "Now…where in the world am I?" He looked around, before glancing at the billboard and noticed the words: Metro City. "Metro City? Well, I officially know I'm not in Kansas anymore…and luckily no house was dropped on me." He took a moment to attempt to gather his thoughts, about the time a glider flew past his peripheral. Well, perhaps "flew past" is a bit of a stretch...it was more like it was stationary and hovering at about 50 feet above the roof line. Unbeknownst to him, it wasn't who he thought it was…but he wouldn't know this or care. "Oh goodie, looks like the Wicked Witch sent out at least one of her favorite flying monkeys after me. Well, better not keep ol' Norman waiting!" He began to jump building after building, eventually web-swinging towards the glider. "Ayyyyy Gobby! Been a bit! What's the plan this time? Drag me into a new dimension, attempt to squash the spider? Ooooh! Or are you planning to open that Goblin themed restaurant you've always wanted??" Multi-Threader called after the "Goblin".

High above the streets of Manhattan, a woman looked down from her rooftop perch. Through the black miasma that filled the world's atmosphere, she couldn't see the streets from up here, but she could still hear the traffic, always buzzing about. She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting up here, but she did know she was getting impatient. "Eden Brock, stop where you are!! We're taking you back to Alchemax, dead or alive!" An exasperated groan escaped Eden's lips. The kind one would make when simply trying to relax, but the same interruption gets in the way every five seconds. Her gaze did turn, but rather than behind her, it was to her right, where, stuck to the wall by what resembled a black, tar-like web, was a young man still struggling to break free. "Who's that?" One of the armed men demanded, nodding toward the trapped man. "What's he doing here?" "Bait." "W--" "Do you even know who you're trying to capture?" "...an Alchemax intern who got fired after stealing Project Venom. Fisk's orders are to bring that thing back to Alchemax so it can be disposed of. With or without you still intact." "Very wrong, very false, and very hostile too." From beneath Eden's jacket came a loud snarling noise. "Oh, we don't like liars, by the way. And we really don't like people threatening or badmouthing us." Getting up to her feet, Eden finally turned to acknowledge the armed squad of men behind her, counting them up real quick in her head before concluding that Alchemax had once again not sent nearly enough people. There was only six of them. "Now, you seem to have been fed false intel, so let's set the record straight, one last time." WE ARE... "My name is Eden Brock, though I've almost forgotten that a couple of times. Seven months ago, I was an unpaid intern at Alchemax who was dragged on-board - against my will, I should add - as the first human test subject for the top-secret Project Venom, which was designed to kill Spider-Girl. We'll give you the short version from there. We got fired, the project was scrapped, and we argued for a few days because two distinct life-forms sharing a body just didn't sit well at first. We reconciled, united under a common goal, and jointly decided to kill Spider-Girl, not because Fisk says so, but because that's what we want. Of course, we want Alchemax destroyed too, each for our own reasons." A black ooze worked its way up most of Eden's body, before branching off at the neck. From the suit of chemical armor, an extra head sprouted, looking directly at the squad of assailants. "We can never go back to our old life. One of us was powerless and afraid, and the other was a lab project not supposed to think or act on its own. Together, we perfectly compliment each other; we're able to do whatever we want, and don't have to be afraid of anyone or anything. We can't describe how liberating that is. And we're certainly not about to let you take that away from us. Not that we think you could, no matter how hard you try or how many of you there are." The head of the suit slid itself into place, wrapping itself around and over Eden's, encasing her entirely in its pitch-black form. "After all, we are Venom. We'd recommend running and saying we evaded your capture attempts, just FYI." "Like hell we're backing down from this kind of paycheck!" With that, the men opened fire, spraying bullets on Venom with every intent to bring the beast down. Only to stop in shock as the chemical suit of armor seemed completely unaffected, its form shifting and churning to push the bullets back out and spill them onto the ground. "Well, we tried." VENOM Venom shot one of their arms forward, as if to punch, despite the distance. From the symbiotic bioarmor's fist, an extra appendage sprang forth with the punch, its end taking a form roughly like the head of a spear, which thrust itself directly through one of the armed men. Their other arm, meanwhile, reached out toward a man on the side, extending into a long, prehensile tentacle. It wrapped itself tight around him, before flinging him up into the air, and he soon disappeared out of view through the miasma. The tentacle then grabbed the next man over, before slamming him into the roof beneath his feet and then dragging him closer to Venom. Once he was close enough, the armor's torso erupted into an array of tentacles, grabbing him and pulling him into the armor, where his form could be seen thrashing and struggling under the bioarmor before slowly stopping, followed by the Venom suit returning to its original size, leaving no trace of the man it had just swallowed. "Die, dammit!" One of the men had managed to reload his gun and open fire again in the time it took to dispose of the first three. Venom simply ran up to the assailant and put all of their might into a single punch, shooting him off the rooftop, across the street, and into the next building over. Their hand then reached out, simply grabbing the next man over by the neck and squeezing tighter and tighter until he stopped moving. Just in time for the man who had been flung up to land back on the roof. With five out of the six armed men disposed of in no time flat, Venom turned its eyes toward the last one. "Tell Fisk to use something much bigger than rifles if he wants to stop us." "So do you just never take a vacation day or something?" Immediately disregarding the last of Alchemax's men, Venom snapped their attention directly behind them, a hungry elation in their voice at the sight of the masked heroine before them. "SPIDER-GIRL! We were getting tired of waiting! We set up bait and everything!" From the back of the bioarmor, a singular tentacle emerged, reaching out and grabbing at the webbing keeping Venom's hostage in place before ripping it out, setting him free. No later than that, however, did the hostage find himself in Venom's grip, and promptly flung off the roof. "Why!?" Immediately, Spider-Girl sprung into action, sprinting past Venom and getting a running start to leap off the roof. Not even a second after taking the leap, however, her spider sense was already going off. Something was behind her and approaching fast, and it didn't take a genius to guess what, or rather, who. Spider-Girl swung her arm out to the side, shooting out a string of webbing to a nearby building, and immediately yanking on it to fling herself to the side. Not a moment too late, either, as she right after saw Venom dart past her, in a trajectory that would have definitely let them catch Spider-Girl had she reacted just a moment later. "DON'T IGNORE US!" Venom roared, as they fell past Spider-Girl and faded from view through the miasma. BATTLE ABOVE NEW YORK Ignoring Venom's demands to not be ignored, Spider-Girl started forward again, using the same method she'd used to avoid Venom's attack. She had to find that hostage, and catch him before he turned into a red splat on the pavement. She liked to think she was getting pretty good at the whole web-swinging thing, but even so, she was putting everything she had into a mad dash down the street. Not long after her initial dodge, however, she could sense it again. Venom wasn't giving up that easily, and they were leaping for Spider-Girl at a point in her swing where she didn't really have the ability to dodge well enough to escape. Venom and Spider-Girl collided, crashing into the walls of a nearby building where the pair stuck themselves. Once on the wall, Venom reared back their right fist, making sure to keep the left hand on the wall to prevent Spider-Girl from chasing down the hostage any further. Their fist shot forward, but Spider-Girl moved her head aside to avoid the punch, and all that happened for it was Venom's fist went through the steel walls of whatever building they were on. They tried to swing their arm from where it was, but Spider-Girl ducked out of the way, slipping out of Venom's range by letting herself fall through the gap between their legs, and leaving a gaping gash where once there was a fist-sized hole in the wall as the only sign either woman was there to begin with. "Spider sense... how annoying." "Maybe you should take some time off to relax," Spider-Girl called out, starting off in the hostage's direction again. "I bet a good spa day would do wonders for that complexion of yours!" As Spider-Girl sent out her next web line to continue swinging, Venom extended a tentacle from their hand, wrapping it around the heroine's leg and pulling back, stopping her escape once again. In return, Spider-Girl grabbed the tentacle with both hands, and with the full, unrestricted use of her strength, pulled on both ends, ripping the end that had grabbed her off from the rest of the tentacle. A surge of pain shot through Venom's bioarmor, and the pair let out a horrible, primal shriek as the sudden sensation shot through them, causing them to lose their focus and fall to the streets below, leaving behind a loud thud and a small crater at the point of impact as Spider-Girl started retreating yet again. "Ohhh... we're gonna enjoy killing her, and we're gonna do it slowly so we can savor the moment," Venom growled, as they got back up to their feet. Back above the streets, meanwhile, Spider-Girl could hear someone shouting for help. A wave of relief washed over her on the fact that, based on where it was coming from, Venom's unlucky victim had found himself something to hang onto before taking a fatal fall to the streets below. As she got closer, however, she heard something large and metallic from below. Even without the spider sense, she could tell Venom was up to something. From underneath her, a large semi truck quickly came into view, springing out of the miasma and heading straight for her. With no time to dodge, the best Spider-Girl could hope for was to take the truck head-on. Once she'd been hit by a projectile truck, Spider-Girl rolled over, moving herself to the side of the truck and using it as a springboard to close the rest of the distance to the hostage, scooping him up from his precarious perch before running up to the building's roof as fast as she could, setting him down on solid ground. "Sorry I can't take you down from here, but I've got a maniac trying to kill me. Call the police or fire department or something; they'll get you down." Next order of business: the truck. Spider-Girl perched herself on the edge of the roof, shooting out a pair of webs from her arms across the street to the building opposite her. Once those were connected, she disconnected the webs from her web shooters, and secured them onto the roof she was standing on. Then she repeated the process as many times as time would allow for, before the truck started coming back down. Once the vehicle came into sight, two things immediately registered in Spider-Girl's mind. One: The truck. Two: The familiar sensation of her spider sense alerting her that Venom was coming, and fast. New plan. Spider-Girl leapt off the roof, shooting herself through the air and landing on top of the truck. On the way, she made a point to check through the windshield for any occupants. Nobody was inside, and the driver's side door was open, meaning whoever was driving had managed to get out before Venom threw the thing. Good. Naturally, once Spider-Girl landed, Venom wasn't far behind. The latter landed with such force that the webs beneath the truck gave in faster than they would have otherwise, and the truck began to fall again. Something Spider-Girl already knew she'd have to deal with. Spider-Girl planted her feet and one hand firmly on top of the truck to stick to it, and with the other, shot a web line to the closest building. She was not looking forward to this next part. The impact of the truck hitting an entire building was enough to shake Venom off, giving Spider-Girl a precious moment to reinforce her web line, slowing her descent until she was able to set the truck down on the sidewalk, free of pedestrians who had since vacated its landing zone. It was a strain both on her web shooter and her arms, but a sigh of relief escaped Spider-Girl's lips when she realized she'd done it. But fans and other bystanders were of course not the only thing waiting for her down there. Spider-Girl jumped, leapt, climbed, and hopped around, but the distance was closed, and Venom was not somebody she wanted to take a direct hit from. While her spider sense was saving her up until this point, eventually, Spider-Girl's luck ran out. After enough time, she found herself in Venom's clutches, the villain holding Spider-Girl up by her wrist, keeping her at arm's length to prevent her from striking back effectively. "We finally caught you. Now, we are going to kill you - slowly - and then we are going to eat you so that nothing is left, and then we are going to destroy Alchemax." Venom's grip began to tighten. Spider-Girl could hear the cracking and creaking of one of her injectors getting crushed and eventually broken in Venom's grip, and the bioarmor began to crawl its way up Spider-Girl's arm, constricting everything it was able to wrap itself around. Spider-Girl began looking around for something, anything to get her out of this bind. The bioarmor had taken her arm entirely, and was making its way around to her neck and ribs. Then she saw it. Unsuspecting, red salvation! A fire hydrant. Spider-Girl took a deep breath, and with her free hand, she shot out one last web line of desperation, catching the hydrant by one of its valves, and subsequently ripping it off. The resulting blast stream of water knocked Venom off their feet, washed the chemical bioarmor clean off of Spider-Girl's own suit, and forced the dangerous chemical lifeform that was Venom to retreat into the body of its host as the combatants rolled and crawled out of the hydrant's aquatic assault. "Not the spa day I suggested, but you sure look better after a good rinsing," Spider-Girl said, shaking her arm to get the blood flowing normally again once she was back on her feet. "You think this is over?" Venom taunted. "We'll dry off, and we'll hunt you down, again and again. You can't escape us, Spider-Girl. We'll chase you to the ends of the earth if we must." "Sure will, champ." As she dismissed Venom's threats, Spider-Girl hopped over the stream of water to get closer to Venom, lifting them up and putting them against the wall, before spraying them down with webbing to keep them stuck in place. "We both know you'll just break out of whatever prison they put you in, so just stand there for a while and think about your actions. I'm getting out of here before the press shows up. See ya!" "You aren't going anywhere without us!" Venom shouted, struggling with all of their might to break free of the web Spider-Girl had ensnared them in. Alas, without the might of the symbiote, they were but a normal person, and escape was impossible. As Spider-Girl continued to leave, it was all Venom could think to do to continue trying to provoke the hero. "This is an underhanded tactic that a hero should not resort to! You haven't won anything yet! Get back here! Spider-Girl! Fight us, you coward! You... you're already gone, aren't you?" In Eden's throat, the feeling of a large, moving lump could be felt, before the head of the symbiote stuck itself out of Eden's body through her mouth. "Cutting us free," it said, lowering its head down to dig its rows of dagger-like teeth into the webs holding them in place, essentially eating its way to freedom before retracting back into Eden's body. We have lost once again. "That's fine. No matter how many times we lose, we only need to win once. We're going home, I guess." HOME SWEET HOME After a long day of heroics mixed with keeping up with her job at the Bugle, there was nothing quite like going home. Once she got her Bugle job, Joanna insisted on moving out to live on her own, and found a one-bedroom apartment before long. The place was cheap and certainly not something to be proud of, but it was well within her budget, and the landlord was a pretty good guy, too. She easily could've gotten a new place by now, but by the time that was on the table, Joanna had grown pretty fond of her little home, for better or worse. Plus, the neighbors were interesting people. Door's stuck again. That, however, was her one real complaint. The door. She'd brought it up several times, and by the sound of things, getting it fixed was definitely on the to-do list, but she'd yet to see any signs that it would actually happen. Putting about as much force into it as she would have been able to before becoming Spider-Girl, Joanna gave the door one push after another, until it finally gave way and let her into her own apartment. With a door like that, she probably didn't even need to lock it, but she wasn't about to test that the hard way. Inside the apartment, every sign pointed to the place being decently old, predating the chemtech boom of the 90s and having received no real renovations since. The easiest giveaway was the windows. They were sealed away behind an extra pane of glass now, but the windows themselves were an older type meant to be opened to let in fresh air. Not getting to live in a time where that was a viable option was something Joanna would have regretted, had she any say in when she was born. But it wasn't like she could control that, so moping over it would accomplish less than nothing. Plus, this was her place to relax after another day in the life of Spider-Girl. Joanna tossed the bag hanging from her shoulder onto the couch, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out a box of pizza she'd ordered the other day, grabbing a slice and sitting down without bothering to reheat the pizza. "Pizza time. Finally." As she worked her way through the piece of cold pizza, Joanna opened up the bag and reached inside. Feeling around past her Spider-Girl suit, she grabbed onto what felt like a bent, warped piece of metal, and pulled out the injector Venom had crushed earlier. Based on the look of it, it was - in her untrained opinion - completely fucked. "Damn. Parker's not gonna be happy about that." She'd have to drop by his place tomorrow to get that fixed. If something urgent came up between now and then, she could certainly manage with just one injector, but having both just felt better. The day was just about over though, so Joanna could kick back, eat her cold pizza, and watch some garbage TV programming. News channels were mostly talking about Spider-Girl's actions of the day, which she didn't need a recap on. There was one that mentioned one of Oscorp's lead engineers was getting laid off, but what Oscorp did was frankly none of her business; her beef was purely with Alchemax. Drama channels, nothing interesting. Movie channels, nothing interesting. Comedy channels, nothing new. Joanna chose to go back to the news channel talking about Oscorp; it was a story she wasn't aware of, which by default made it the most interesting thing on TV right now. It was also one of Norman Osborn's very rare press appearances. "Letting go of Doctor Octavius isn't a decision I made lightly. His contributions have been invaluable in seeing Oscorp develop into the chemtech titan it is today. However, over the decades, Oscorp's philosophy on chemtech has changed, and while I still see Otto as a dear friend, and a great man, the distance in ideology between him and Oscorp has only gotten bigger over time." "Mr. Osborn, can we get official word on the rumors that various national governments have denied extensions to the rights for Oscorp's chemtech testing fields!?" "I would like to keep tonight's headline focused on Doctor Octavius." "Mr. Osborn, what is--" "Mr. Osborn, would you--" "Mr. Os--" "Mr. Osborn, Alchemax's CEO Wilson Fisk has openly decried Spider-Girl's acts of vigilantism, does Oscorp hold the same negative view of Spider-Girl?" Joanna leaned in close to the TV for this one. Suddenly, she was invested in this press conference. And based on the time he took to think about an answer, it sounded like Norman was willing to answer this one! Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her body, and a bizarre, additional sensation she couldn't fully describe. It wasn't anything like an injury. More like... a feeling that she wasn't even there in the first place? And then, a hole appeared above her. Just, a hole, in the air itself. There was no chemtech in the world that could accomplish this, and before she had time to think about it further, she realized the hole was sucking her in. THE PORTAL Joanna tried to push herself back down, but that certainly didn't work. She could feel herself getting pulled up still. Her web shooters weren't even on or she'd use that, but she made certain to close and grab her Spider-Girl bag, stuffing the broken injector in as well for good measure. She reached down to the floor, hoping to stick to it like she would on any other surface. Which worked. For a bit. Soon, however, that too proved ineffective, and there was nothing Joanna could do but be swallowed up by this unknown hole above her. She did, however, manage to grab her pizza on the way out. The non-reheated familiarity of cheese and sauce on refrigerated crust was a small comfort in the extreme unknowns surrounding her. In her mind, the place she'd been flung into looked like outer space, not that she'd ever seen it herself. Moreover, it was as if a giant, infinite web was spread out across the entire... wherever she was. As she fell - though in what direction she couldn't tell - Joanna could see many other sights. Things that simply did not - could not - exist in the world she knew. Worlds of brilliant vibrance, bursting at the seams with color and sound. Worlds of cold, unfeeling steel, where all was machinery. Worlds of stark nothingness, seemingly devoid of anything at all but dry, gray dirt. Worlds of... was that a pig in red spandex? Eventually, the visage of one of these worlds was moving straight toward her. Or rather, she was moving straight toward it. Joanna braced for impact, crashing through the image of the world, and landing... IN ANOTHER WORLD... ...face-first on the pavement. "Oww..." Upon getting up to her feet, Joanna quickly noticed she was outdoors. In a sudden panic, she reached into her bag, grabbing her gas mask... before realizing something very unusual. She'd been breathing before she got up. She was doing it right now. Not choking on a toxic miasma, but... breathing. Like, breathing air. Slowly putting the mask back where it was, she realized more and more about her surroundings. The open feeling that came with not having your visibility cut down by the miasma. The breeze that felt more like a gentle caress from the air, rather than a clammy hand wrapping its gross fingers around her. People just going about their daily lives, without a care in the world. Okay, that last one applied normally too, but the general vibe was completely different! They dressed similar enough, but sometimes, something about somebody's attire just felt slightly off from what Joanna would expect clothes to look like. Plus, a lot of the windows she saw were those old-style windows, like the ones in her apartment. Some were even wide open, letting the surprisingly clean air just go inside. Okay. Calm down, Joanna. Use your context clues. Clean air, blue sky, all that jazz... this must be Latveria. The more she thought about it, the more that made sense. It was famously the last "clean" place in the world, owing to benevolent dictator Victor von Doom's affinity for chemtech simply being on an entirely different league from even the combined forces of Alchemax and Oscorp. At Doom's level of genius, suddenly, some mystery hole that sucks people out of their apartments and drops them in Latveria seemed fairly plausible, if not downright possible. But something bugged her about that conclusion. Latveria's foreign policy. "Nobody gets in. Nobody gets out." Latveria's isolation was infamous for how strict it was, so unless Doom knew Joanna was Spider-Girl, she saw no reason she'd be randomly abducted to this place. And how would he know that? He probably didn't even know Spider-Girl existed. As Joanna turned a corner to try and get some answers from the locals, another thing stood out to very clearly tell her this wasn't Latveria. A towering bronze statue. Dedicated to a man named "Mike Haggar" and the revitalization of a place called Metro City. That certainly didn't sound like a Latverian city name, but more importantly, Mike Haggar was NOT Victor von Doom. While his nation was infamous for its refusal to interact with the outside world, Doom's ego was nothing short of legendary. From what little she knew about the guy, there was no way Doom would raise a memorial to commemorate anyone else, and if one were to be raised without his approval, it would surely be torn down before dinner. So this wasn't Latveria after all. Which begged the question. "Where the hell am I?" As Joanna tried to get her bearings to figure out what this mysterious Metro City place was, a rather average-looking white collar salaryman looked straight at her. And then began to approach her. Quickly. Joanna's spider sense was telling her that this very average salaryman who was approaching her at a full sprint was trouble, but she had been on edge in general ever since that hole opened up in her apartment, so it could have just as easily been general parano-- Suddenly, Joanna found herself instinctively swerving to the left, barely dodging a punch thrown by this guy. AVERAGE DAY IN METRO CITY Okay, this guy's got a lot of anger to let out, apparently. Should probably deal with him. It wasn't really in Joanna's usual agenda to beat up random office workers, but he did start it. And he was clearly out for a fight, hands up and everything. Joanna was willing to humor him, not as Spider-Girl, but plain old Joan Joanna Jameson. It was a good opportunity to dust off her high school boxing experience. Joanna put her own fists up, ready to defend herself. At first, she wasn't sure if this guy was fighting her or some invisible foe in the air, based on his repeated kicking of the space in front of him. Joanna chose to believe his target was her though, as despite his bizarre tactics, his eyes were fixed on her. In high school, she wasn't much of the "bob and weave" type, but being Spider-Girl, that sort of thing came naturally to her. And so, she bobbed and weaved around his attacks, getting into punching range. As she approached, however, her spider sense alerted her to something. But even it didn't seem to be sure what. Probably just nerves. Joanna threw her fist out, hitting the man square in the chest... and stopping in utter shock at he was completely unaffected. Instead of hitting him properly, what appeared to happen was he was somehow immune to her strike, and was now shooting up with a strike of his own, catching Joanna in a rising uppercut attack. At this distance, even with her agility, there was no time to dodge, and Joanna felt herself get knocked off the sidewalk, shot up and away from this extremely normal person, and landed harshly on the pavement once again. What... the hell... just happened? As Joanna got back up to her feet, something unusual happened. The man who had assaulted her threw - of all things - a ball of sand at her. Not only was this extremely underhanded, it wasn't a very effective method of attack. Joanna simply closed her eyes, and was suddenly very surprised as the ball of sand struck her with all the force of a human fist. Physically getting her bearings back from the strike didn't take long, but in the time it took to mentally recover was enough that by the time Joanna opened her eyes, the man was right in front of her again, about to strike her with the same uppercut. Unable to react in time, Joanna was once again shot upward, this time staying down a while longer. Uuugh... wherever I am, I clearly need to be more on guard. Joanna watched the man who had just beaten the shit out of her then went about his day as if nothing had ever happened. Even the crowds that had stopped to watch the one-sided fight simply continued their daily routines, completely unfazed by what they had just witnessed. Joanna didn't get back up until her assailant was out of sight, upon which time she took in her surroundings again, watching for violent maniacs this time. It was definitely a city. Aside from the statue that wasn't of Doom, the only place that really stood out to her was a Japanese restaurant a bit down the street. Cold pizza was tasty, but it wasn't terribly filling. Maybe a good meal would make her feel better. And so, Joanna made her way over there, keeping herself on high alert.

Citron’s heart sunk as she watched the scene unfold. Even as Peaches arrived to help, something had seemed off; most cowered at a wyvern of any size before a bone-chilling roar, and yet… The ‘lord’ below had stayed strong. She felt her frozen blood begin to flow with the need for action however, as her suspicions were proven right, and he dropped the sack to heft a hunting bow. “Peaches!” she shouted, eyes going wide as she found herself moving without thinking-- And climbing out the window. It started with one leg, and then both as she began to slide out from the window, using her good arm to catch the window-sill and hang for a moment, getting her bearings before releasing. The roof below was close enough that her legs only rattled a bit, wincing as she took a deep breath and used the momentum from the fall to slide downward from the sloped roof. At the last moment, she found herself jumping and bracing herself as she hurtled towards the ground, using her good shoulder to tuck into a roll rather than force the full brunt of this fall onto her leg, even if it triggered another array of pain from her sling-bound shoulder. Still, she had to move. While her first reaction would have been to run the man down as soon as she came to her feet, she was caught off guard as the sickening piercing noise of an arrow, lodging itself in its prey echoed out - followed by a pained screech that she knew all too well. “Peaches!” She found herself repeating, heart sinking as she rose to glance towards Wyvern, staggering from the arrow in its chest-- And fear took hold, as she glanced at the man who hefted the bag with little care began to move again. He was much stronger than she had thought. Glancing around, she looked for something-- Any way to be of use, as a thrashing noise brought her attention towards the cellar door. “C’mon, c’mon, please--” she murmured to herself, voice stricken with panic as she rushed towards the Cellar-door. It was jammed shut with a wooden board as a familiar voice, Lincoln’s, she thought, struggled to escape. With a quick grab, and heavy pull, she yanked the door open as she pulled herself quickly to the side, panting as she looked up towards the Soldier who had come practically flying out. “Y-You! You gotta help-- You have to stop him! He-He shot Peaches! She’s hurt and he’s--! I can’t--” she’d point, tears forming at the corner of her eyes as the futility of her own actions came crashing down around her. “Please,” she paused, voice stammering as she glanced up towards the soldier again, even as he seemed nothing like she had known him to be prior. Up until now, she had regarded Lincoln as a a clean, proper soldier, someone who was… Controlled, neutral. It reminded her of her grandfather, in a way, that he never seemed angry or annoyed. Worried maybe, like in the house, but not angry, seething; something he… Most certainly was here. A ‘mess’ only really began to describe what she saw, eyes flickering from the blood on his forehead, to the splinters in his shoulder. All signs of neutrality had flaked away too, as a sword had flicked away from its sheathe in an instant, and was pointed at… Her. But still, this was her only hope, and so she stared down the blade with tears beginning to fall from her eyes. “Please-- Stop him,” she pleaded, panicked eyes for an instant meeting his own violent eyes, before he took off-- A single set of words being the only hope she had to cling to, at this point. "I'll handle it." --- Of all the stupid things humans did, Peaches had seen… Well, more than her fair-share, since she had fought alongside Citron’s Grandfather. And yet, every time, the wyvern found herself surprised as humans continually pushed their luck against creatures magnitudes larger than themselves. Still, the knowledge of how stupid an idea it was to test her did nothing to absolve the pain her chest as an arrow parted scales, wrenching a pained screech from her as she staggered back, and the portly man made for some comment she couldn’t understand. His bull-rush however, she understood perfectly. Angered by the blow, she once again opened her jaws even as blood leaked from around the arrow in her chest, lumbering forward as she lunged towards the rushing man with her jaws splayed wide in an attempt to bite him… Only to fail, as the top of his skull met the bottom of her jaw, snapping her jaws shut with a crack of teeth on teeth as she was sent stumbling backwards. The wyvern’s head buzzed with pain, and yet as her vision focused she watched as he attempted to move on unbothered, attempting to run past even now. Sic ‘Em! The command echoed again in her mind as she turned her neck to glance towards the fiend, entire body shaking with a mixture of pain and rage… As she swung her entire body to the side in a heavy motion, a single wing flapping with a heavy-beat as she threw her entire body towards him like a battering ram in a single, sobering moment, as she ever tried to fulfill the command she was given.

Moments Before the Duel "Team Wilding is making their first appearance today, led by their captain, Action Duelist Honey Froswald! Some of you in the audience may recognize her as the younger sister of Major League Champion Elliot Dritte! Cam she live up!?” “Her opponent is Daichi Raimu from Team Genesis! Not much is known about them, but perhaps we’ll learn some today! Can he measure up to the sister of a champion!?” Daichi looked at himself in the mirror of the locker room, as he just finished changing into his outfit, looking at the hat he'd be wearing. "Win or lose..." he smiled before nodding, putting the hat on. "It's showtime!" The Duel The lights in the arena cut off for a moment, until a series of spotlights started coming on one by one, moving in quite the rhythmic fashion...finally something cut through the hushed tones of the crowds. “Ladies and gentlemen!! If you would please turn your attention this way to the center field and you’ll see our illustrious challenger...miss Honey!” the voice boomed as the spotlights pointed at the Duelist on the field. But all but one suddenly left the Duelist in a swift fashion. “...and who comes to take the stage to meet this challenger? Why...none other than I...” The remaining spotlights converged on one fixed location and suddenly an explosion of purple smoke erupted in where the spotlights stood...and once it settled… “Ladies and gentlemen, the Moonlit Magician has arrived.” Daichi smirked, bowing slightly and facing towards the opponent, the lights immediately coming back on afterwards. “I’m Honey Froswald! I don’t have any special epithet, but I want to give everyone an entertaining experience, all the same!” “3… 2… 1… Duel!” LET THE SHOW BEGIN!!! Action Field - Grand Adventure...he was cool with this. It was something he'd spent some time on before, so he was in his element somewhat. "If you don’t mind, I believe I’ll take the first move.” Daichi drew his five cards and looked at them, nodding slowly. “I shall set the Pendulum Scale, using my Dragonpit and Dragonpulse Magicians!” Soon two magicians appeared at either side of Daichi before rising into the air above him, being surrounded by a pillar of light. “The scales of 1 and 8, meaning monsters Level 2 through 7 are fair game!” Taking another look at his hand, he nodded. “And now, I’ll use this moment to do just that! Using Dragonpit and Dragonpulse...time for the real show to begin!” Daichi watched as now a dowsing pendulum appeared between the two magicians and slowly began to sway back and forth. “Metronomic Pendulum, swing and sway to mesmerize the audience! Give way for the magicians to take the stage! PENDULUM SUMMON!!! Now, put your hands together!!!” Soon one light came from where the Pendulum swayed and in quite the light show and flair, one magician exploded in a bright colorful array of light and descended near Daichi. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the star of my performance: Oafdragon Magician!" Daichi proudly introduced as the magician took a slight bow. "Alas, it's the first turn and I cannot attack. So instead, I’ll set one card face down and relinquish my t-...” he said, simply placing one card face down just as he said, preparing to pass his turn...however, Honey didn’t seem to let him just yet. “Not so fast! I activate the effect of my Ursarctic Micbilis from my hand! By tributing another Level 7 or higher monster from my hand or field during either player’s Main Phases, I can Special Summon it! I tribute Ursarctic Mictanus! I then activate its effect! It allows me to summon another Ursarctic monster from my hand! Come down, Megapolar! When this one is summoned, I can destroy one spell or trap… and I choose your set card!” Ursarctic...that was something he wasn't expecting exactly. “Well well, now that is an impressive start from you!” he said with a smile, immediately flipping his face-down up: Pendulum Area. It did indeed shatter in front of him, but in quite the beautiful display. “I suppose my bait of Pendulum Area worked. Well, if that’s the case...then I shall now relinquish my turn...provided you have no other interruptions. Now go on, let’s see what we can do to entertain the masses!” “Then you’ll love what comes next! I use Megabilis as a tuner, with Polari as the non-Tuner…” She motioned to them as their forms became green rings for Megabilis, and a single black star for Polari, “to summon...Ursarctic Grand Chariot! When it’s summoned, it destroys two cards you control… So I’ll destroy Dragonpit and Dragonpulse!” The massive mech reared the scythe back as Honey hopped onto the mech’s shoulder before shooting forward, swinging the mech through the pendulums set as scales and shattering them, leaving Daichi with just one card in hand and Oafdragon. “Taking out Dragonpulse and Dragonpit...an impressive thing to do as of now...” Daichi nodded, before moving quickly towards an Action Card...however...he didn't get it whatsoever. Honey seemed to beat him to the punch as she was practically launched by Grand Chariot to grab it. “Now, Grand Chariot! Destroy Oafdragon!” As Daichi recovered from missing the grab, he shielded himself with his cape, only for his monster to be destroyed! His life fell to 3400 from the battle damage, as Honey walked back up beside her ace, panting. The crowd cheered for the display it saw, only a bit louder than Daichi earlier. “I’ll set one, then it’s your turn. Let’s see you beat that!” Surprisingly, Daichi was applauding Honey right now, the sounds of him clapping could be heard. “Impressive display...truly! But, we magicians don’t go down as easily...not when we still have so much to display and dazzle our audiences with! I draw!!” he said, drawing his next card. “From my hand, I activate Amazing Pendulum! Seeing as I no longer have any cards in my Pendulum Zone, I can add two Magician Pendulum Monsters with different names from my Extra Deck to my hand. I’m selecting Dragonpulse and Dragonpit!” Quickly removing the two cards from his Extra Deck, Daichi added them to his hand before swiftly placing them on his Duel Disk. “Time for a repeat performance, you two! Dragonpulse and Dragonpit now set my Pendulum Scale! Once more, metronomic pendulum! Swing and sway! Pendulum Summon! From the Extra Deck and from my hand!!” Two lights appeared from the swaying Pendulum as two monsters appeared in a kneeling position. “Oafdragon Magician returns and joining him is Rapid-Fire Magician in Defense Mode!” “In response, I activate the Micpolar in my hand!” She revealed the polar bear card, Mictanus in grave popping out to be moved to banish, “Summoning it in defense! And when I do, it searches for another Megapola!” As the polar bear mech surfed onto the field, Honey’s set card also rose up, shining as it activated. Her LP fell to 3300 as the name Ursarctic Quint Charge became clear. “Then I activate the first effect of Quint Charge! I add Megabilis back from Grave to hand, only to tribute it immediately for Megapolar!” The humanoid polar bear mech from earlier appeared once more, brandishing its hammer! It took aim at Dragonpit Magician, pulling the hammer back for a swing, and…! “Heh, truly trying to silence my performance with that. However, not this time!” Daichi ran off, giving a whistle to Oafdragon and Rapid-Fire to quickly follow him. He then found what he needed...an Action Card just hanging near one of the little ship fins. Running off the side, he held his hand out and immediately Oafdragon Magician caught it, flying him over towards it. In an instant, the ivory magician grabbed the card and added it to his hand. Once they were back on the ship, he immediately played it. “Action Card - Starry Night! This turn, all face-up Spells and Traps cannot be destroyed.” Once he played it, a shimmering set of stars seemed to shoot across where Dragonpulse Magician remained, protecting it from Megapola. “A valiant effort, but I believe that’s as much as you’ll be able to do there...and now, since I activated a Spell...to be accurate, a Normal Spell in the form of an Action Card, Rapid-Fire Magician’s skill activates.” The magician holding two scepters moved slightly for a moment, having various amounts of colored fiery orbs floating around him and the scepters. “Whenever I activate a Normal Spell, with him, I can inflict 400 points of damage to my opponent! Now, do your thing, Rapid-Fire!!” Rapid-Fire Magician nodded and began to wave the scepters in his hands, the fiery orbs dancing around him before being launched towards Honey, colliding and taking the damage out. Honey: 3300 -> 2900 LP “And with that, I shall end my turn!” Daichi declared with a nod. “Ahh, so that’s your strategy. I was wondering, but that’s pretty neat. Guess I have to take that out first!” Honey grinned as she drew for turn, looking over the board. “I Special Summon the Megatanus I drew from my hand, banishing Megabilis from grave for it!” As she placed the card on the disk, a black mech, not unlike Grand Chariot, appeared, though it stood not much taller than Micpolar and brandished a bow. It took aim at Rapid-Fire Magician, pulling the string back… and letting its arrow shoot true, flipping the monster to face-down defense! “When it enters, we’ll turn that burn off for now! On to battle! Megatanus, destroy the set Rapid-Fire Magician!” With a slight grit of his teeth, Daichi watched as Rapid-Fire Magician was attacked and destroyed by Megatanus. Luckily he didn't lose Life Points from that attack, but even still, that was an impressive move. He looked around for a moment, before finding another Action Card nearby. “Bingo!” he said, rushing towards the card. “Next up, Megapolar is going to destroy Oafdragon! Arctic Crusher!” “I don’t think so!” Daichi shouted, playing the Action Card he just picked up. “Action Card - Debris Shield! This prevents the destruction of one monster I control only once!” Soon a small shield of falling debris appeared before Oafdragon Magician and protected him from the incoming attack of Megapola. Or so he thought... “Useless! I activate Action Spell - Eclipse Event! During this battle phase, all action spells have their effects negated! Finish it off, Megapolar!” "W-What?! That's a trick I wasn't expecting!" he exclaimed, basically watching the shield of falling debris immediately vanish from in front of Oafdragon Magician. Daichi slightly gritted his teeth again, before attempting to outrun the incoming attack. Unfortunately, this put him at a huge disadvantage...now that he couldn't use any Action Cards during the Battle Phase. The attack struck true and it blew Daichi back quite a bit in the process. “Now, finish it off, Micpolar, Grand Chariot!” The two mechs mobilized at her command, Honey riding the synchro straight toward Daichi! The polar bear rammed him, then Grand Chariot’s scythe grazed him, knocking him down, and ending the duel. The area filled with the sound of clapping, and a bit of cheers. Nothing like a fully packed stadium, but enough to give Honey a little bit of warmth. As Daichi’s LP fell to 0, the area had lights appear around Honey as she rode Grand Chariot, showcasing her as the winner. The screens that showed their duel showcased such as well, while she stepped down to the ground, the duel fading away. Walking over to Daichi, she extended her hand and smiled softly. “Sorry if that was a bit… brutal. I actually thought you were really entertaining, good game!” The ivory magician simply was dusting himself off before extending his hand in response, a wide smile on his face. "Alas, my first Duel was one setting in loss...but, against someone like you, who was able to entertain and showcase to the audience in such a manner, I happily accept it. A truly entertaining game, miss Honey." Daichi smiled before holding her hand up high, practically doing a curtain call bow with her. "Ladies and gentlemen! Let's hear it for your victor in this Duel: Honey Froswald!" To this the audience began to cheer about this and once it was time for Daichi to take his leave, he exited the Duel field and made it to the locker room in order to change...taking the hat off, he simply looked at it. The smile on his face showed he had a fun time, to show that he enjoyed such an amazing Action Duel...but what laid underneath that smile? Was it...a bit of frustration? Sadness? No one but Daichi would know the answer to this.

Interview 3 - Ukemei Ayane by Yui

Only 8 Days in, ladies and gentlemen...

Hey all, so I was thinking about all of the different Roleplays (RPs) that are on this site, and how confusing it might be for a new person to navigate through all of that. I thought it might be helpful for them to just have a place to go to quick reference what all the active RPs are, who's accepting, etc. So without any further ado, here's the list. For the sake of people looking for RPs to join, I'm also going to include new interest checks and out-of-character threads (OOCs) that haven't yet started or closed out, which do not need the "accepting" label as they are, of course, accepting. These will be at the very top. For prospective hosts, I would appreciate if you would either let me know or announce it in the thread if you decide to close an interest check or OOC due to lack of interest on either yourself or the RPers' parts. If you do not, I will give the interest check or OOC three months without you having made an in-character thread (IC) before declaring it inactive and taking it off the list. If you find that there are any discrepancies, such as members not being in the RP anymore, or an RP being tagged wrong, please let me know either through Discord or here. If you want to know when this was last updated, just check the very bottom of this post. Credit to various people such as LordCowCow, Saikazo, Skaia, Cheshire Toon, and Yui for their help. Without them, this list wouldn't be nearly as extensive or thorough. Terms Interest Checks / New OOCs Start Date - RP Name - Host [ Cohost(s) / Rating ] List of Active RPs (Cow Note: Including "On Hiatus" here for ease) Start Date - RP Name - Host - [ Cohost(s) / Rating / Acceptance Status ] 06/16/23 - Pokemon: Mind and Soul (Retry) - LordCowCow - [Cohost: Skaia / PG / Probably Not Accepting] 01/30/23 - The Others - LordCowCow - [PG-16 / Accepting] 11/15/22 - Walpurgisnacht - radio414 - [PG-16 / Conditional Acceptance] 04/12/22 -Dragon Sign - Skaia - [PG-16 / Not Accepting] 04/09/22 - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Union of Stars - Sethera - [PG? / Probably Not Accepting] 10/16/2020 - Overlap - Lord CowCow - [ PG-16 / Accepting] 12/07/19 - Of Magic and Dungeons - LordCowCow - [ PG-16 / Accepting ] 01/11/19 - The Chosen: RP Hardcore Mode - LordCowCow - [ PG-16 / Accepting] 01/08/19 - The Grand Crossover RP - Pathway to Origin - Merci - [ PG-16 / Not Accepting ]

The two brothers listened, unsure what to do. The creator of the world itself was offering them a wish. What could they wish for? Power beyond imagining? No, that felt wrong. They made it this far on their own strength, they could continue to grow even stronger. Overwhelming riches? No, they didn't want money. At the end of the day, Denku at the very least knew what he wanted. Taking a step forward, Denku made himself know. "Can you heal my heart disease?" the older brother asked. "I mean, it might be possible Xerenas already healed it, but I don't know for sure, and I rather not risk passing up a chance to be rid of this damned disease forever," Arceus looked at him and nodded to Denku's utter relief. It seemed he didn't have to worry anymore about it. The older brother turned to the younger brother, tilting his head and waiting to see what Kazo would wish for. The Gabite didn't say anything at first, his mind whirling with ideas. In the end though, he really only wanted one thing, a single wish that could never be granted... he wanted to have a race with Latios. But Latios was gone now, and the dead wouldn't rise again. Nothing else really came into his head. "I... I guess I'll pass on that wish," Kazo said sheepishly with a shrug. "Everyone else made the wish I would, and... the only thing left can't be granted," He smiled though. "But, just seeing the world go on and seeing it become better is reward enough for me," Was Kazo an idiot for passing this once in a lifetime opportunity? Probably. The Years Pass By After saving the world, the two brothers did many more things, perhaps not worthy of legend, but grueling to them nevertheless. The two of them joined Randy in wrestling, becoming a popular tag team for several years. They had grueling training and hellish fights, but it was exciting to them, and they were together. After five years however, the two retired, and they went their separate ways. Denku, using his savings he gained from his winnings, had moved back to Juyu and opened an orphanage, where he took in many kids and helped them find new homes. Meanwhile, Kazo went to train even more, to become stronger, to become faster, to become better than he ever was before, and eventually, became a Disciple of Ideals himself. Ten years later Denku took a large sip of his drink to hide the smirk on his face. He was now a Tyranitar, with a big and sturdy body that was nearly a mountain, yet every kid in the orphanage was climbing all over Kazo, who desperately just wanted to get a drink of the hot chocolate Denku's wife gave him. While Denku hit a major growth spurt and his hair changed to a healthier shade of green, these changes seemed minuscule compared to how Kazo changed. The now Garchomp was even taller than he was before, and unlike his old scrawny self, the Garchomp had some muscle on him. The most drastic change on him however, was that his hair had partially turned white, apparently due to a mistake during his training under Zekrom. The kids seemed to think it was cool though, so Kazo didn't care too much. "Uncle Kazo, tell us another story!" a Joltik clinging to the dragon's arm begged. "Yeah, yeah! Come on, tell us!" A Totodile on his shoulder added. "It's been a whooooooooole month!" "Hey, hey, I'm runnin' outta stories here, you know?" Kazo joked. "I don't go around doing amazing things 24/7," "The most amazing thing you could do right now is get a girlfriend," Denku teased, not even reacting to the dirty look Kazo shot him. "Uncle Kaz doesn't have time for things like that!" The Totodile claimed. "He's too busy being a super hero!" "Oh, but what if Kazo had a partner to help him with the superhero-ing?" Denku asked. "Maybe someone like... I dunno, Latias?" "I should have never told you about that kiss," Kazo groaned. "That happened a long time ago... and... well... you know, I don't... well, I don't...," "Kaz," Denku sighed before looking at him. "You need to stop beating yourself up. Latios's death wasn't---," "Wasn't my fault, I know, I know, that's what everyone tells me," Kazo muttered. The two kids, sensing their uncle's discomfort, let go of his arms and wandered into a different room. With a sigh, Kazo picked up his cup of hot chocolate and took a sip. "Look... I just... it probably wouldn't work anyways, okay? Legend and all," Denku nodded as he took another drink, a thoughtful look on his face. "... Zygarde," He said simply as Kazo took another sip, causing the dragon to spittake, a bright blush on his face. "I JUST SAID THAT LEGENDS AND----," "You should of wished for some courage with women back when we saved Arceus," Denku interrupted with a smirked, causing Kazo to scowl. "Nope, nope, nope. I can't, I just can't, I'm out," Kazo said as he stood up. "Later kids!" Kazo yelled into the house. "Uncle Kazo's heading out!" Grabbing the tip of an invisible hat, he moonwalked away, heading out the door and heading outside. Kazo sighed to himself as he ran, the world just a blur around him as he moved. After all his training, he could run much faster and for much longer, letting him travel across the continent in a record breaking time. His current plan right now was to check in with Weynon first and figure out the rest of his week from there. He was coming up to the city of Oasis when he decided to slow down. He wasn't expecting to see Mac here or anything, but he could check in on her folks for her for the next time they met. As he slowed down however, he noticed a band of bandits attacking what looked like a group of two or three families. "Well... that won't do," Kazo thought as thunder rumbled in the distance. He walked forward with purpose, cracking his knuckles as he approached one of the bandits, grabbing the man's head and tossing him to the side as easily as one would throw away garbage. The taunting and jeering the bandits were doing to intimidate the families died down as everyone realized what had happened, all eyes landing on the Disciple of Zekrom. "Oy, who the hell are you?" One of the bandits snapped, causing Kazo to smirk. "I get called a lotta things, but right now, I'm feeling like... I'm the storm that's approaching," Kazo felt pretty good about that one, especially as thunder rumbled just as he finished his sentence. Even Zekrom would have to think that was badass, right? Each bandit began to move towards Kaz, but faster than they could blink, they felt Kazo's fist bury into their guts, causing them all to fall to the ground in less than a second. "Heh, not even using any attacks. You wanna just leave now or make me use a Draco Meteor?" The bandits were quick to run. Cowards. Still, that made it much easier. With a smile, he turned to the families. "Oasis isn't much farther, a ten minute walk at best! Safe travels!" Before he could run off however, someone called out to him. "Wait!" Turning, Kazo could see it was a small Bagon that had called out, barely looking over eight years old. "Do... do you think that I could grow up to be a hero like you?" Hero. He hadn't been called that in awhile. It brought back some good memories of some old friends though. "A hero, huh?" Kazo asked as he rubbed his chin playfully. He turned around, showing his back to the kid before looking over his shoulder. "Well, can you keep up with me?" The Bagon, to their credit, didn't back down, in fact, it seemed a fire was lit inside of them. "I'll keep up with you! In fact, I'll surpass you!" They answered with the confidence of a Helioptile from days long past. "Good answer," Was all Kazo said before he ran off, the dragon rushing to his next adventure. The Guardian and the Hero FIN

neocardmaker.com is still the best, most-well designed, efficient, responsive, and aesthetically pleasing yugioh card maker on the planet.

"AAAAAAAAAA--" Yasha's voice echoed down the road ahead of and behind him as he came flying out of an alleyway. Making a hairpin turn and sprinting through the mock city streets, followed by his own swarm of security robots, he came TEARING down the road towards Kio and Rei, screaming at the top of his lungs and pistoning his arms like his life depended on it. "--AAAAAAAAAA" And then he was gone, as swiftly and chaotically as he had come, still running at breakneck speed for the gate they came in from, making loud and distressed engine noises the whole way down.

Let it be on the record that I have officially bought both a house and a car during a pandemic.

BGM Another beautiful morning in April with the sun shining brightly. This was an important day for some...and it definitely was true for young Benjamin O'Hara...who was dashing down the stairs, all dressed up and ready for his first day at U.A. This was something he had been looking forward to for a long while. The young man skidded to a halt near the kitchen, seeing his mother, Felicia, nursing a hot cup of coffee. "Morning mom! Take it dad's off at work already?" he asked, shuffling a bit to make sure he had everything. "You know your father. Always the early bird." Felicia smiled, putting her cup down. "Don't leave without eating though, Benjy." Benjamin groaned, hearing his mother calling him that nickname. "Mom, I'm fifteen...you don't have to keep calling me that." he said, only to see her giggle in response. "As for breakfast, already got that covered." He said, putting his hand down. Once he did, a couple of spiders started crawling out of his hand and towards a small plate of muffins that were on the counter. Like clockwork, the spiders brought to their host the chocolate chip muffin and returned within. "See?" Benjamin smirked, taking a nice chomp out of the muffin. "Well, I'm off! Wish me luck mom!" With not another word, Benjamin rushed past his mother, kissing her cheek as he left before grabbing his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and heading out the door with another chomp of the muffin. Benjamin rushed down the streets, and it was a bit busier than what he wanted. No problem though, he could deal with this without having to use his Quirk anyway. A quick leap over some individuals who were moving a large dresser, a bit of parkour to dodge a few individuals who were just in the way...even snagging a small ride on the trolley...this time using his Quirk and the spiders to cover his hand with webbing. Of course, it wasn't too much of an issue...least he was hoping it wouldn't be. Though when he got far enough, he got off and kept going...taking a shortcut or two just to get to his destination. It was almost in sight...and he could hardly wait!! Finally he'd arrive at the destination...U.A., the school that would help him become the Hero he wanted to be....that he hoped to be. He stood there at the gate for a long period of time, before exhaling slowly. Calm down O'Hara...you got this. You can do this. he thought, finally steeling himself to move forward. His first steps into U.A. Benjamin began to make his way towards the school building, only to make pause when he noticed what was waiting for him. This individual, roughly mid-twenties...six feet...brown hair that was cut neatly and topping it all off with an amazingly stylish v-shaped visor on his eyes. It was clear that this Hero was definitely one not to be trifled with. The young man began to approach this Hero who was thumbing through a small stack of papers. No doubt these were the students that would be arriving here. Regardless, Benjamin lifted a hand to wave and gave off a smile. "Good morning. Benjamin O'Ha-...oh right." he paused, before rubbing the back of his neck. "It would be O'Hara Benjamin, sir." "You're an American? What brings you to hero school here in Japan?" "Yes sir. Actually, I moved here back when I was young." he began to explain. "My dad had a contract from work that needed someone over here. So that's pretty much how it happened." "I see. So, why do you want to be a hero?" The young man was silent for a moment, before looking to his hand. For the moment, the Hero would see a few spiders emerging from his palm, just forming a small circle. "...truth be told, I didn't want to be. Not with this Quirk...but...a Hero saved me." he paused, the spiders in his palm began to make the appearance of a small spider symbol. "She gave her life for mine. I want to do right by her. I want to be an amazing Hero like she was." "Yeah. Heroes have a habit of doing that. I knew her, you know." "I figured some people might've." Benjamin sighed, the spiders leaving his palm and returning within. "Didn't even get a moment to tell her thank you. Not only for saving my life...but reigniting that spark." "Sayaka was much more a hero than I ever was. All that before she even graduated... As heroic as I'm sure you are, I'm not going to let that happen to you." Benjamin was silent, before nodding at the Hero. "I'll keep that in mind, sir." "Go ahead any head in. Just... Don't make any slingshots on your first day." He really wanted to pry and figure out what the Hero meant, but he noticed more students starting to make their way to where he was. A question for another time, it would seem. With nothing but a shrug, Benjamin walked into the building and after being pointed in the right direction towards his classroom, entered the room. From what he could tell, there was already two other individuals here in the room. One looked like what Benjamin could only describe as a broody edgelord...maybe not even an edgelord...probably just a broody teen. The other, a blonde girl with her hair over her right eye. She looked cute...no lie about it. Benjamin immediately took his seat, sitting in the front row, at least a desk away from the blonde girl. Didn't want to come off as someone who was a womanizer, so he figured he'd make some space. He could've acknowledged the broody one, but he figured he'd let that sleeping dog lie. With that, he looked over to the girl and gave a bit of a smile. "Hey there. Benjamin O'Hara...nice to meet you!" he said, not realizing he introduced himself like he normally would when he was in America. Something he still wasn't used to...even after living here for as long as he did.

As of today, I am officially free of all credit card debt!

“I found this right here but I didn’t know what to do it,” Melissa said. “It says it belongs to someone named ‘Sai Kamezooka’. Is that you? I promise I just looked at the inside cover, nothing else.” Oh, ouch. Sai had to admit, having his secret identity revealed just like that was both anticlimactic and a blow to his own pride. He managed to go a long time without people finding out. Oh well, he should be more thankful about her finding his notebook. “Y-yeah, that’s mine… thanks for finding it,” He said as he held his hand out for it, a bit unsure if he was supposed to grab it or if she would hand it to him. Melissa did the latter, getting up from her spot on the bench and walking it over to Sai. There was a long pause afterwards, like she wasn’t entirely sure what to do next, but she eventually said, “You weren’t- you weren’t missing anything else, were you? I’m not doing anything right now if you needed help looking.” Well, that was nice of her for offering, but sadly, no, he wasn’t really missing anything else, at least nothing that he knew of. “Um… no, a-as far as I can tell, I have everything I need,” He answered. “Besides, I really should really be like… thanking you instead of bothering you more, you know…?” He paused, thinking to himself. He didn’t really have much in ways of thanking her, honestly… unless… “You… you wouldn’t just so happen to be looking for a club to join, would you?” At the very least, he could help her join a club if she didn’t, right? Right... Initial impressions were poor. Melissa didn’t jump for joy or smile with a twinkle in her eye or anything like that. Instead, she looked down at her shoes- no, that was her pocket and kind of just… stared at it. “Sorry,” Melissa said. “I’m, um, I’m not great at meeting new people. Especially a lot of people all at once. Um, actually the one club I am in just got five or six new members so that’s not been going great. She looked back up at Sai. “I guess the answer is, I don’t know, maybe?” she said. “I mean, I guess I’m trying, I’m trying to be social. It’s just hard, you know?” “O-oh yeah, I know that feeling way too well. Too many people gets overwhelming..., your voice gets lost in the crowd, and it’s just… it’s awful…,” Sai found it strange that he was the one being the social one here, that never happened. Maybe Entertainment Dueling was helping a lot more than he first thought. “W-well… actually, you know… the E-Entertainment Dueling Club just opened and well, it’s looking for members and… well… entertainment dueling helps me with… ya know… that problem with crowds and being social with people…,” Was he really trying to pitch this to someone else? “Like… it doesn’t solve problems immediately… b-but, if you want some help with your confidence… w-well, it’s helped me… I’m actually talking to you… probably couldn’t do that a-about six months ago…,” God, he sounded dumb right now. “You want me to what,” Melissa said. It sounded more like a statement than a question. But it wasn’t deadpan like that phrase normally implied, no, Melissa’s eyes had widened with just about every word Sai had said. “The size of dinner plates” was an overused expression, but it was certainly fitting here. And if it had been a question, it had been a rhetorical one. Melissa was still talking. “I don’t- I mean, I have what, uh, some people would call a costume already -- you’ve seen it, I think. It’s that, uh, It’s that nun habit and… and some other stuff -- um, the point is, I don’t think that really helps. For me, at least. I’m glad it’s helped you. “I don’t know what I would do with myself anyway. Like, I just want to help people. That’s all I want. The club I’m right now, um, that’s what that one’s about, or-” Melissa’s tone swiftly changed from frightened to bitter. “-I guess was about now.” “I-I… well…,” Sai paused to think about this. He didn’t have to push this. Even if Kyouko dropped, they seemed to have perhaps found a fourth member already. Still… he didn’t want to leave her with her own problems -- which she seemed to have with her own club -- especially since she helped him in such a big way. “W-well, there’s more to entertainment dueling then just a costume, you know? It’s also… well, a lot of things, synergy between yourself and your deck, b-but, anyways, what I think is more important is that maybe…,” Well, here went everything. “Well, i-if you have issues you wanna talk about, or just want to help people, entertainment dueling is a good way to go about it… as you do better and get more fans, you get a wider audience to raise awareness with, you know what I mean? You can even weave your message into the way you play. Your style can reflect your beliefs, you know?” Melissa frowned. Either she was lost in thought or she was trying to find a way to let Sai down gently, he couldn’t tell. And he didn’t find out for what felt like forever, though it was probably only like thirty seconds. Eventually, though, Melissa said, “I guess I can- I could probably attend one meeting. Were you headed there now? Is that why you’re in costume?” “Well… it’s more like I was in a meeting before realizing my notebook was missing… we… well, it might still be going on if you want to come now… or you can just… you know… just wait for the next meeting.” “Like I said,” Melissa said, “I’m not doing anything right now. I could just tag along if that’s okay.” “Yeah, that’s fine,” He said with a smile, tucking his notebook into his cloak. “Well, then, allow me to show you the way!” He said cheerfully as he began to head off back to Room 24.

With the group beginning to move out, Leon saw the two riders move to the side. Despite how roughed out they had come from time to time, Leon felt a bit more comfortable with them their, knowing that they would help keep whatever pincer attack these bandits had in mind at bay. Aiding them in trying to draw attention away from them as well, Leon moved through the center, also providing cover for Yue as a result. Edda, meanwhile, grumbled a bit at Raynor's comment, but with her grip tightly on her sword she began to move forward. The enemy, meanwhile, began to move forward as well. With a lance in hand, the first of the lancers charged the wyvern rider, stabbing at her. The thick hide of Cormag proved too much for the lance to do, well, anything as it bounced off his hide with a "tink" noise. The lancer looked at his weapon saying, "ah man that's not co- ow!" Being interrupted as the steel axe of Rona was struck against the man stomach and caused him to bleed quite a lot from the attack. Staggered but not downed, the man stood ready to run to someone different to fight, as his partner came up with a sword in hand. Striking at the wyvern rider, who had been focused on the lancer, he slashed once, nicking Cormag, and then again forming a small cut on Rona herself. Meanwhile, on the north side, Raynor had charged forward only to be met with similar resistance. However, the lancer that had charged at him was not able to fully close the distance, and so his axe wielding companion did the work instead. Providing a strong slash across both Raynor and Gojira, he too was met with a swift counter as the lance pierced the man's non axe swinging arm. With that out of the way, the rest of the bandits started to converge save for the ones in the back. As they hung back, one sword wielding one looked to his boss saying, "hey boss. Why aren't we moving up with the rest?" "Because...uh...a good boss leads from the back. Yeah. So, being the good boss that I am, I'm just going to wait here. And lead you all to victory and see how easy these guys will be to slaughter." The fighter looked a bit shifty eyed and nervous as he looked through his cart to see how the fight was going. "Oh. I see." The mercenary seemed content, only to then look back to the boss. "Hey Boss. Um, we've got an issue." "Another one!?" "Well...two more." The boss looked more stunned. "There's uh, people who aren't us also coming towards us. From the south there's a guy with red hair who looks like he'd fuck me wife, but I can't tell if he'd do it because he's angry or just because he could. One of those kinds Boss." Confused, the boss still gestured for him to go on, with the mercenary saying, "well, from the north there's a guy...girl? There's a person on a hippocampus coming towards us." "A what?!" "A hippocampus, you know, the horses with wings and- oh, my bad. Pegasus. My mistake boss." Groaning, the boss lamented that this was perhaps the worst day to deviate from his usual strategy. He was simply affirmed that all the legends were true in that traps never worked for bandits. Meanwhile, drawing out her blade, Edda was not feeling keen to just sit back and let the others do the work for her. Charging forward herself, the girl slashed at the mercenary who had seemed completely taken off guard by her sudden charge. Granted, he didn't seem to be all that bothered by it, as she had far less weight in her swing then the other Jouran Falcons.

De-Tailer Lizard DARK ✪✪✪ (Level 3) [Reptile/Effect] ATK/ 600 DEF/ 1750 If a Reptile monster you control is targeted by a card effect or for an attack: You can banish this card from your hand or GY; negate that attack or effect, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Tail Token" (Zombie/DARK/Level 1/ATK 0/ DEF 0). While this Token is on your side of the field, your opponent cannot target Reptile monsters you control for attacks. Concept and Wordplay: Design Notes:

I've had these in a notebook for over a year now. They are meant for my card-making schemes since I actually really dislike having to go with written cards when something occurs to me, or recycling older drawings over and over xD The Pentel Brush Pen has beautifully black ink but out of my brush pens it's the hardest one to control so sorry my little dragons, I used you to help me be closer to finish it up ^^" Hatching work by a micron though. The shading by pen is part of my old style that I wanted to practice after so long. I'm gonna have to get used to it again. Lance Trident Hammer Flail Sword Last one The last one was supposed to be a shield formed by the crossing wings but I couldn't figure it out. It also has a little drill on the tail but other than that it's the most normal-looking one so I'm making it the leader of the group xD

second image courtesy of rep