Don't get me wrong BotW and TotK rate even in my opinion to be the best Zelda games, and among the greatest games of all time (up there with Skyrim, Halo, Kingdom Hearts II, Metal Gear Solid 2/3 and such) but I feel the enemy variety, while much better in TotK than it's predecessor, is extremely lacking. And it's not like it's from a lack of options. Sooo many enemies have been lost to Zelda History:
For example (a fairly comprehensive list. Let me know if I missed some) :
Gekkos,
Tektites (glad those are gone),
Peahats,
Leevers,
Skulltulas (RIP),
Dead Hand (My Fave)
Wallmasters,
Floormasters,
Miniblins,
Takkuri,
Dodongos,
Armos(es),
Deku Babas (would have been super easy to replace Dazzlefruit plants with Deku Babas and Dazzlefruit with Deku Nuts they do the same damn thing),
Deku Scrubs,
Business Scrubs,
Aerolfos,
Wolfos,
Zolas,
Moldorms,
Redeads (that scream),
Freezards (thank Hylia those are gone),
Staldras,
any species of Roc (Kagaroc, whatever the ones in Twilight Princess were called),
Gyorgs,
Helmasaurs,
Bubbles (Red, Blue, and Green),
Zols,
Pols Voice(s),
Garo (and Masters),
Stalfos and Stalchildren (I guess they've been replaced by Stal"blins")
Bow Wows (technically a Mario Enemy, being a Chain Chomp),
Guays,
Flame Dancers,
Stalmasters,
Darknuts (T_T),
Iron Knuckles,
actual Poes/Big Poes,
Gold Skulltulas, (arguably better than Korok Seeds)
those Snow mound dudes from Majora's Mask,
Technoblins,
Skull Kids
Twilit Messengers (also called Shadow Beasts. Don't count because it wouldn't make sense for them to be back)
Big Octos
Seahats
Did I miss anyone? I don't know every enemy from ALttP/ALBW. (Never played 'em. Started on OoT back in the day) Or Skyward Sword (haven't played it in years)
What enemies do y'all miss the most and wish they were in TotK?

1/ Is Kazuha a must pull?

No one in this game is a must pull, but Kazuha lives up to his hype. He is very good and very f2p friendly. Most likely you will not regret.

2/ Weapons choice

Most powerful: Freedom-Sworn (his 5-star)
Powerful and comfortable: Xiphos' Moonlight
Comfortable: Skyward Sword, Favonius Sword, Sacrificial Sword, Skyrider Sword
F2P: Iron Sting (craftable, require 1 northlander billet), Toukabou Shigure (event weapon), Dark Iron Sword (talk to Chen the Sharp in Liyue to obtain).
Note:
Skyrider Sword is a 3-star gacha sword, technically it's a gacha weapon, but everyone should have plenty of them after pulling.
Freedom-Sword and Xiphos' Moonlight are luxury options. Not recommended for f2p players and light spenders.

3/ Artifacts

Viridescent Venerer (VV) set. Ideally Kazuha want EM mainstat and ER substat. Crit rate substat is welcome if you plan to use Favonius sword.
Pieces with EM mainstat can be tricky to farm, here are some small tips while farming VV set:

• VV pieces can be obtained via strongbox method. Farm a more efficient domain (Deepwood domain, Emblem domain for example) and exchange the useless pieces for VV pieces.
• Having 4 pieces to trigger the effect is the utmost important. For example, if you don't have EM sand, but only ATK sand, you can use it temporarily.
• Use off-set piece. Keep at least one EM sand, one EM goblet, one EM circlet, if it has ER substat, then even better. Sub in where you see fit.
• If you actually go to the domain and farm (not recommend), then you should check all 4-star pieces you get. A 4-star EM sand is better than a 5-star ATK sand.
• Flower and Feather pieces have mainstat fixed, choose whichever pieces have more ER and EM substat.
• If you really have trouble in getting his ultimate recharged, consider use an ER sand. Because of that, it is recommended to keep an ER piece, just in case.

4/ Teams

Kazuha is really versatile; he can fit almost anywhere and bring tons of value. If your team doesn't have Itto, Noelle, or Eula, then it's likely you can fit him in, and he will shine.
Example: In current 3.7 Abyss, a team consists of Kazuha/Yae Miko/Fischl/Kirara or Yaoyao can be pretty strong and comfortable for the first half.
That's all for now. There are some other advanced stuffs, but you can explore later after you get him. Good luck pulling Kazuha!

Time had barely passed, the memory of her presence was still so fresh as to be palpable, when I entered the Deathgrounds of Love. For many, unrequited love diminishes before it can mount further and poison the heart. It fades as life goes on, and infatuations are forgotten; paramours become little more than half-remembered follies. But my love for her grew even as we drifted apart, even as her disdain for me blossomed into a multi-thorned and blackly petaled flower. Almost ironically it grew, until it finally manifested as a material, tangible thing: a heart, which came to beat with malignant autonomy upon a veiny stalk, in the midst of that graven place where unchecked love evilly flourishes.
Unguarded—at its gates, at least—were the grounds when I arrived, doubly delirious with grief and wonderment. I had not known of the place beforehand. It was only with the impossible manifestation of that heart, born of my anguish, that I became suddenly and providentially aware of the the graveyard and its unwholesome, reality-defying contents.
Despite what had occurred—and what apparently always occurs among the worm-riddled, blood-sodden soil—the place was not a garden; life found itself thriving there, yes, but not any life born of God's design. And death was chief above all, no matter how many vital organs beat ceaselessly from stalk to arterial stalk.
I entered ignorant of what I may find, beyond that which I had been drawn to upon waking suddenly earlier that morning. The outer grounds were rank with an earthy and coppery smell, like the dank, pulpy earth of a fresh battlefield. I got the impression that lives had been spent upon the grey soil, hundreds if not thousands of them; and yet there was only the dismal land, overhanged by a subtle atmosphere of mist, and environed by old trees. Beyond this mist I could just barely discern the inner plots; and I knew that therein I'd find my second heart.
Further in I progressed, until I entered that sepulchral garden, with its rows upon rows of vegetative hearts, sprouted with unsettling plumpness from the soil like overly ripe fruits. The audibility of their beating was maddening; it was as if thousands of people had been stripped of their flesh, leaving only their still-animate hearts. Even worse, they beat not in unison, but in horrible discordance - no two hearts held the same rhythm.
And yet somehow through the tachycardiac chaos I sensed my own - that is to say the heart to which I'd been tirelessly drawn.
Like an automaton I trudged on, my shoes sinking into the blood-laden soil; my sight blurred by the newly emergent haze of crimson. My mind befogged by the increasingly humid air.
With an automatic gentleness I pushed through the rows of unfamiliar hearts until I came upon my own. There it was, visually indistinct among the others, and yet I knew without a shred of doubt that it was mine. It pulsed with a steady rhythm, bleeding from its valves as if there were arteries to carry away the blood; a vascular system through which it could circulate. Despite the morbidity of it, I found it beautiful, as if it was something I'd searched for my entire life; some long-sought treasure of my nightly dreams.
So marveled was I, that I didn't notice the approach of the stranger. It wasn't until he had placed a hand on my shoulder that I became aware of him. I recoiled, but was kept from jumping back by the firmness of his gloved grip. He was a tall old man, dressed in a long grey overcoat, at the waist of which sat some kind of multi-pocketed workman's belt. There were several pouches affixed to the belt, and all bore black splotches of some unidentifiable substance. He wore what I assumed had once been black boots, but were now stained a deep crimson - undoubtedly from having spent innumerable hours trudging through the blood-rich soil.
His face was old and severe, with a blackly stained beard that trailed thinly down to his chest. His coal-black eyes met my own, and for a brief moment I felt as if was being pulled from my own body and examined in some outré, incorporeal pocket of space. A moment later, the phantasmal feeling passed, and the man released his iron grip on me.
"You've come for the heart, that it?"
I nodded, not yet able to form words; the shock of his appearance still fresh.
He grunted, and his voice reminded me of a dying animal I'd once seen on the road: harsh and guttural, defiant against pity and death. In his other hand he held a pair of garden shears, and with these he gestured towards the heart.
"Ye can have it, it's yers. But I'll have to take the one ye got in ye. An exchange. Don't fret about the pain. Ye won't feel it."
This proposition reigned in my mind from the state of fantastical acceptance it had gone to. Suddenly I became acutely, frighteningly aware that I was standing in a cemetery full of human hearts, all of which had somehow grown from the ground; and that this caretaker had actually offered to cut out mine in exchange for the one beating before me. It was ludicrous, macabre beyond measure.... and yet it was real.
"Ye should know: that in taking this here heart, you'll be happy, happier than you've ever been. But you'll forget the person you're longing for. They'll be wiped from yer memory. That's the price. Or the relief, depending."
The thought of a future without the nightly anguish of having lost her—made doubly terrible by the fact that it had been my fault—seemed almost too good to be true. But the idea of losing her completely, of having her smile erased from my memory, her voice lost to the mental void....it was inconceivable. To have loved and lost, and all that.
As much as it pained me to, I denied the man's bizarre offer.
His eyes narrowed, focusing on my chest - my heart. He pointed his empty hand at me and said, "Are ye sure? If left unchecked, it could kill ye. The grief. The sorrow. I've seen it, time and time again."
Had I not come to my senses about the utter weirdness of the situation, I probably wouldn't have noticed the almost imperceptible changes in his demeanor and posture. There was a yearning in his stance, a predatory hunger. Given the circumstances, it felt vampiric.
I backed away from him, again reiterating that I'd like to keep my heart, no matter what trouble it could cause me down the line. The stranger sighed, exhaling a visible cloud of what appeared to be black smoke or vapor.
"Too bad. I'm damn hungry."
That was the final kick my brain needed to fully recognize and piece together all the little clues laid around me. The soil, whilst predominantly a deep red, also held clumps of black matter in places - almost always near the beating hearts. This was plainly not mulch or any kind of gardening substance; the clumps were fleshy, some slick with what was obviously blackened blood. And that led me to two other points of observation: the man's belt, with its stained pouches, and his darkly stained beard - as if he'd been eating something that leaked black juices.
"Ah. You've put it together, have ye? No matter."
His eyes must've followed mine as I surveyed the scene before me. Still, the truth, the horrid reality, hadn't yet come to me.
"I eat the hearts given to me. Turned black they've been, in their grief. Fat, poisoned things. Only the most terminal are drawn to this place. Ye have a sick heart, and are better off without it. Serves ye no purpose to keep it. Why not let me eat it? Keeps me full, and keeps me own inklings towards love at bay. Stamps em down, so I never feel a thing. Never have to love, and lose. Never again..."
He seemed to mentally close upon himself for a moment, so I took the opportunity to begin my retreat. With much less care than before I pushed through the rows of hearts, heedless of how much damage I dealt to the organs and their repulsive stalks. Quickly I returned to that barren terrain before the plots, where the soil was a much more tolerable grey, and where the atmosphere was free of that delirious scarlet haze and its stifling humidity.
I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. Just as I did so, a shriek echoed into the night, and a voice full of mad demonic fury tore through the trees, sending the nesting birds skyward.
"Give me your fucking heart!"
I should've continued onward, the gate was only a few yards away; but the Satanic magnitude of the voice was irresistibly attention-grabbing. I felt compelled to see what kind of odious creature could've projected such anger, even though I'd seen the man just moments before.
The ground began to shake, and the withered trees trembled, loosing half-dead leaves onto the ground. And that awful scarlet haze came rolling over the boughs, deeply tinting the atmosphere as if it were a living thing. A sentient cloud of evil.
And from amidst the malignant haze came a thing that might have once been a man, but had undergone a transformation so repugnantly profound that any remaining elements of humanity appeared as mockeries of the form. It towered above the feeble trees, even using their tops as points of stability as it lurched toward me. It's body was vaguely anthropomorphic, distantly human, but outwardly fish-like; the flesh of some selachian nightmare draped over the skeleton of a man.
A face, contorted abhorrently to fit an angular, newly mutated skull, bared a broad maw at me. The teeth shone like an assassin's daggers in the night, sending chills throughout my body. Even as it cleared the tree line and revealed itself fully to me, I could not move: I was so completely transfixed by the depravity of its body, by the unreality of its existence.
"Ye could've given me your heart, and all would've been well. But now...now you've gone and made me take off me coat. I don't like to take off me coat. I don't like having to work for me food. I'm all out of it, and I won't let the thoughts of love come back to me. I won't allow it. Now, c'mere and let me pull you apart."
Despite his hideous transformation, his voice was largely unchanged. Just deeper, more guttural, his ire made plain. The lack of any overt monstrous intonation only made the only whole ordeal more terrifying.
Wrenching control away from the panicked part of my mind, I forced my body to turn and move towards the gate. The thing bounded after me like some frenzied animal, shaking the ground with its every step. I pumped my legs to their absolute limits, reaching the gate just as the humidity of the haze tickled the back of my neck.
I threw it open, leapt through, and slammed it just as that colossal nightmare reached it. I wouldn't have thought the old gate any real match for its massive frame, but the rusted iron held against the horror's assault. The haze was also somehow kept at bay, not a single particle of the mysterious vapor breaching the bars despite how thickly it pressed upon it.
Before it could pull some trick or transform into something capable by bypassing the providentially sturdy gate, I turned away and ran back to my car. And while the creature didn't follow me, its hateful voice did.
"The heart! Bring back your heart!"
I drove away without looking back.

Time had barely passed, the memory of her presence was still so fresh as to be palpable, when I entered the Deathgrounds of Love. For many, unrequited love diminishes before it can mount further and poison the heart. It fades as life goes on, and infatuations are forgotten; paramours become little more than half-remembered follies. But my love for her grew even as we drifted apart, even as her disdain for me blossomed into a multi-thorned and blackly petaled flower. Almost ironically it grew, until it finally manifested as a material, tangible thing: a heart, which came to beat with malignant autonomy upon a veiny stalk, in the midst of that graven place where unchecked love evilly flourishes.
Unguarded—at its gates, at least—were the grounds when I arrived, doubly delirious with grief and wonderment. I had not known of the place beforehand. It was only with the impossible manifestation of that heart, born of my anguish, that I became suddenly and providentially aware of the the graveyard and its unwholesome, reality-defying contents.
Despite what had occurred—and what apparently always occurs among the worm-riddled, blood-sodden soil—the place was not a garden; life found itself thriving there, yes, but not any life born of God's design. And death was chief above all, no matter how many vital organs beat ceaselessly from stalk to arterial stalk.
I entered ignorant of what I may find, beyond that which I had been drawn to upon waking suddenly earlier that morning. The outer grounds were rank with an earthy and coppery smell, like the dank, pulpy earth of a fresh battlefield. I got the impression that lives had been spent upon the grey soil, hundreds if not thousands of them; and yet there was only the dismal land, overhanged by a subtle atmosphere of mist, and environed by old trees. Beyond this mist I could just barely discern the inner plots; and I knew that therein I'd find my second heart.
Further in I progressed, until I entered that sepulchral garden, with its rows upon rows of vegetative hearts, sprouted with unsettling plumpness from the soil like overly ripe fruits. The audibility of their beating was maddening; it was as if thousands of people had been stripped of their flesh, leaving only their still-animate hearts. Even worse, they beat not in unison, but in horrible discordance - no two hearts held the same rhythm.
And yet somehow through the tachycardiac chaos I sensed my own - that is to say the heart to which I'd been tirelessly drawn.
Like an automaton I trudged on, my shoes sinking into the blood-laden soil; my sight blurred by the newly emergent haze of crimson. My mind befogged by the increasingly humid air.
With an automatic gentleness I pushed through the rows of unfamiliar hearts until I came upon my own. There it was, visually indistinct among the others, and yet I knew without a shred of doubt that it was mine. It pulsed with a steady rhythm, bleeding from its valves as if there were arteries to carry away the blood; a vascular system through which it could circulate. Despite the morbidity of it, I found it beautiful, as if it was something I'd searched for my entire life; some long-sought treasure of my nightly dreams.
So marveled was I, that I didn't notice the approach of the stranger. It wasn't until he had placed a hand on my shoulder that I became aware of him. I recoiled, but was kept from jumping back by the firmness of his gloved grip. He was a tall old man, dressed in a long grey overcoat, at the waist of which sat some kind of multi-pocketed workman's belt. There were several pouches affixed to the belt, and all bore black splotches of some unidentifiable substance. He wore what I assumed had once been black boots, but were now stained a deep crimson - undoubtedly from having spent innumerable hours trudging through the blood-rich soil.
His face was old and severe, with a blackly stained beard that trailed thinly down to his chest. His coal-black eyes met my own, and for a brief moment I felt as if was being pulled from my own body and examined in some outré, incorporeal pocket of space. A moment later, the phantasmal feeling passed, and the man released his iron grip on me.
"You've come for the heart, that it?"
I nodded, not yet able to form words; the shock of his appearance still fresh.
He grunted, and his voice reminded me of a dying animal I'd once seen on the road: harsh and guttural, defiant against pity and death. In his other hand he held a pair of garden shears, and with these he gestured towards the heart.
"Ye can have it, it's yers. But I'll have to take the one ye got in ye. An exchange. Don't fret about the pain. Ye won't feel it."
This proposition reigned in my mind from the state of fantastical acceptance it had gone to. Suddenly I became acutely, frighteningly aware that I was standing in a cemetery full of human hearts, all of which had somehow grown from the ground; and that this caretaker had actually offered to cut out mine in exchange for the one beating before me. It was ludicrous, macabre beyond measure.... and yet it was real.
"Ye should know: that in taking this here heart, you'll be happy, happier than you've ever been. But you'll forget the person you're longing for. They'll be wiped from yer memory. That's the price. Or the relief, depending."
The thought of a future without the nightly anguish of having lost her—made doubly terrible by the fact that it had been my fault—seemed almost too good to be true. But the idea of losing her completely, of having her smile erased from my memory, her voice lost to the mental void....it was inconceivable. To have loved and lost, and all that.
As much as it pained me to, I denied the man's bizarre offer.
His eyes narrowed, focusing on my chest - my heart. He pointed his empty hand at me and said, "Are ye sure? If left unchecked, it could kill ye. The grief. The sorrow. I've seen it, time and time again."
Had I not come to my senses about the utter weirdness of the situation, I probably wouldn't have noticed the almost imperceptible changes in his demeanor and posture. There was a yearning in his stance, a predatory hunger. Given the circumstances, it felt vampiric.
I backed away from him, again reiterating that I'd like to keep my heart, no matter what trouble it could cause me down the line. The stranger sighed, exhaling a visible cloud of what appeared to be black smoke or vapor.
"Too bad. I'm damn hungry."
That was the final kick my brain needed to fully recognize and piece together all the little clues laid around me. The soil, whilst predominantly a deep red, also held clumps of black matter in places - almost always near the beating hearts. This was plainly not mulch or any kind of gardening substance; the clumps were fleshy, some slick with what was obviously blackened blood. And that led me to two other points of observation: the man's belt, with its stained pouches, and his darkly stained beard - as if he'd been eating something that leaked black juices.
"Ah. You've put it together, have ye? No matter."
His eyes must've followed mine as I surveyed the scene before me. Still, the truth, the horrid reality, hadn't yet come to me.
"I eat the hearts given to me. Turned black they've been, in their grief. Fat, poisoned things. Only the most terminal are drawn to this place. Ye have a sick heart, and are better off without it. Serves ye no purpose to keep it. Why not let me eat it? Keeps me full, and keeps me own inklings towards love at bay. Stamps em down, so I never feel a thing. Never have to love, and lose. Never again..."
He seemed to mentally close upon himself for a moment, so I took the opportunity to begin my retreat. With much less care than before I pushed through the rows of hearts, heedless of how much damage I dealt to the organs and their repulsive stalks. Quickly I returned to that barren terrain before the plots, where the soil was a much more tolerable grey, and where the atmosphere was free of that delirious scarlet haze and its stifling humidity.
I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. Just as I did so, a shriek echoed into the night, and a voice full of mad demonic fury tore through the trees, sending the nesting birds skyward.
"Give me your goddamn heart!"
I should've continued onward, the gate was only a few yards away; but the Satanic magnitude of the voice was irresistibly attention-grabbing. I felt compelled to see what kind of odious creature could've projected such anger, even though I'd seen the man just moments before.
The ground began to shake, and the withered trees trembled, loosing half-dead leaves onto the ground. And that awful scarlet haze came rolling over the boughs, deeply tinting the atmosphere as if it were a living thing. A sentient cloud of evil.
And from amidst the malignant haze came a thing that might have once been a man, but had undergone a transformation so repugnantly profound that any remaining elements of humanity appeared as mockeries of the form. It towered above the feeble trees, even using their tops as points of stability as it lurched toward me. It's body was vaguely anthropomorphic, distantly human, but outwardly fish-like; the flesh of some selachian nightmare draped over the skeleton of a man.
A face, contorted abhorrently to fit an angular, newly mutated skull, bared a broad maw at me. The teeth shone like an assassin's daggers in the night, sending chills throughout my body. Even as it cleared the tree line and revealed itself fully to me, I could not move: I was so completely transfixed by the depravity of its body, by the unreality of its existence.
"Ye could've given me your heart, and all would've been well. But now...now you've gone and made me take off me coat. I don't like to take off me coat. I don't like having to work for me food. I'm all out of it, and I won't let the thoughts of love come back to me. I won't allow it. Now, c'mere and let me pull you apart."
Despite his hideous transformation, his voice was largely unchanged. Just deeper, more guttural, his ire made plain. The lack of any overt monstrous intonation only made the only whole ordeal more terrifying.
Wrenching control away from the panicked part of my mind, I forced my body to turn and move towards the gate. The thing bounded after me like some frenzied animal, shaking the ground with its every step. I pumped my legs to their absolute limits, reaching the gate just as the humidity of the haze tickled the back of my neck.
I threw it open, leapt through, and slammed it just as that colossal nightmare reached it. I wouldn't have thought the old gate any real match for its massive frame, but the rusted iron held against the horror's assault. The haze was also somehow kept at bay, not a single particle of the mysterious vapor breaching the bars despite how thickly it pressed upon it.
Before it could pull some trick or transform into something capable by bypassing the providentially sturdy gate, I turned away and ran back to my car. And while the creature didn't follow me, its hateful voice did.
"The heart! Bring back your heart!"
I drove away without looking back.

Time had barely passed, the memory of her presence was still so fresh as to be palpable, when I entered the Deathgrounds of Love. For many, unrequited love diminishes before it can mount further and poison the heart. It fades as life goes on, and infatuations are forgotten; paramours become little more than half-remembered follies. But my love for her grew even as we drifted apart, even as her disdain for me blossomed into a multi-thorned and blackly petaled flower. Almost ironically it grew, until it finally manifested as a material, tangible thing: a heart, which came to beat with malignant autonomy upon a veiny stalk, in the midst of that graven place where unchecked love evilly flourishes.
Unguarded—at its gates, at least—were the grounds when I arrived, doubly delirious with grief and wonderment. I had not known of the place beforehand. It was only with the impossible manifestation of that heart, born of my anguish, that I became suddenly and providentially aware of the the graveyard and its unwholesome, reality-defying contents.
Despite what had occurred—and what apparently always occurs among the worm-riddled, blood-sodden soil—the place was not a garden; life found itself thriving there, yes, but not any life born of God's design. And death was chief above all, no matter how many vital organs beat ceaselessly from stalk to arterial stalk.
I entered ignorant of what I may find, beyond that which I had been drawn to upon waking suddenly earlier that morning. The outer grounds were rank with an earthy and coppery smell, like the dank, pulpy earth of a fresh battlefield. I got the impression that lives had been spent upon the grey soil, hundreds if not thousands of them; and yet there was only the dismal land, overhanged by a subtle atmosphere of mist, and environed by old trees. Beyond this mist I could just barely discern the inner plots; and I knew that therein I'd find my second heart.
Further in I progressed, until I entered that sepulchral garden, with its rows upon rows of vegetative hearts, sprouted with unsettling plumpness from the soil like overly ripe fruits. The audibility of their beating was maddening; it was as if thousands of people had been stripped of their flesh, leaving only their still-animate hearts. Even worse, they beat not in unison, but in horrible discordance - no two hearts held the same rhythm.
And yet somehow through the tachycardiac chaos I sensed my own - that is to say the heart to which I'd been tirelessly drawn.
Like an automaton I trudged on, my shoes sinking into the blood-laden soil; my sight blurred by the newly emergent haze of crimson. My mind befogged by the increasingly humid air.
With an automatic gentleness I pushed through the rows of unfamiliar hearts until I came upon my own. There it was, visually indistinct among the others, and yet I knew without a shred of doubt that it was mine. It pulsed with a steady rhythm, bleeding from its valves as if there were arteries to carry away the blood; a vascular system through which it could circulate. Despite the morbidity of it, I found it beautiful, as if it was something I'd searched for my entire life; some long-sought treasure of my nightly dreams.
So marveled was I, that I didn't notice the approach of the stranger. It wasn't until he had placed a hand on my shoulder that I became aware of him. I recoiled, but was kept from jumping back by the firmness of his gloved grip. He was a tall old man, dressed in a long grey overcoat, at the waist of which sat some kind of multi-pocketed workman's belt. There were several pouches affixed to the belt, and all bore black splotches of some unidentifiable substance. He wore what I assumed had once been black boots, but were now stained a deep crimson - undoubtedly from having spent innumerable hours trudging through the blood-rich soil.
His face was old and severe, with a blackly stained beard that trailed thinly down to his chest. His coal-black eyes met my own, and for a brief moment I felt as if was being pulled from my own body and examined in some outré, incorporeal pocket of space. A moment later, the phantasmal feeling passed, and the man released his iron grip on me.
"You've come for the heart, that it?"
I nodded, not yet able to form words; the shock of his appearance still fresh.
He grunted, and his voice reminded me of a dying animal I'd once seen on the road: harsh and guttural, defiant against pity and death. In his other hand he held a pair of garden shears, and with these he gestured towards the heart.
"Ye can have it, it's yers. But I'll have to take the one ye got in ye. An exchange. Don't fret about the pain. Ye won't feel it."
This proposition reigned in my mind from the state of fantastical acceptance it had gone to. Suddenly I became acutely, frighteningly aware that I was standing in a cemetery full of human hearts, all of which had somehow grown from the ground; and that this caretaker had actually offered to cut out mine in exchange for the one beating before me. It was ludicrous, macabre beyond measure.... and yet it was real.
"Ye should know: that in taking this here heart, you'll be happy, happier than you've ever been. But you'll forget the person you're longing for. They'll be wiped from yer memory. That's the price. Or the relief, depending."
The thought of a future without the nightly anguish of having lost her—made doubly terrible by the fact that it had been my fault—seemed almost too good to be true. But the idea of losing her completely, of having her smile erased from my memory, her voice lost to the mental void....it was inconceivable. To have loved and lost, and all that.
As much as it pained me to, I denied the man's bizarre offer.
His eyes narrowed, focusing on my chest - my heart. He pointed his empty hand at me and said, "Are ye sure? If left unchecked, it could kill ye. The grief. The sorrow. I've seen it, time and time again."
Had I not come to my senses about the utter weirdness of the situation, I probably wouldn't have noticed the almost imperceptible changes in his demeanor and posture. There was a yearning in his stance, a predatory hunger. Given the circumstances, it felt vampiric.
I backed away from him, again reiterating that I'd like to keep my heart, no matter what trouble it could cause me down the line. The stranger sighed, exhaling a visible cloud of what appeared to be black smoke or vapor.
"Too bad. I'm damn hungry."
That was the final kick my brain needed to fully recognize and piece together all the little clues laid around me. The soil, whilst predominantly a deep red, also held clumps of black matter in places - almost always near the beating hearts. This was plainly not mulch or any kind of gardening substance; the clumps were fleshy, some slick with what was obviously blackened blood. And that led me to two other points of observation: the man's belt, with its stained pouches, and his darkly stained beard - as if he'd been eating something that leaked black juices.
"Ah. You've put it together, have ye? No matter."
His eyes must've followed mine as I surveyed the scene before me. Still, the truth, the horrid reality, hadn't yet come to me.
"I eat the hearts given to me. Turned black they've been, in their grief. Fat, poisoned things. Only the most terminal are drawn to this place. Ye have a sick heart, and are better off without it. Serves ye no purpose to keep it. Why not let me eat it? Keeps me full, and keeps me own inklings towards love at bay. Stamps em down, so I never feel a thing. Never have to love, and lose. Never again..."
He seemed to mentally close upon himself for a moment, so I took the opportunity to begin my retreat. With much less care than before I pushed through the rows of hearts, heedless of how much damage I dealt to the organs and their repulsive stalks. Quickly I returned to that barren terrain before the plots, where the soil was a much more tolerable grey, and where the atmosphere was free of that delirious scarlet haze and its stifling humidity.
I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. Just as I did so, a shriek echoed into the night, and a voice full of mad demonic fury tore through the trees, sending the nesting birds skyward.
"Give me your fucking heart!"
I should've continued onward, the gate was only a few yards away; but the Satanic magnitude of the voice was irresistibly attention-grabbing. I felt compelled to see what kind of odious creature could've projected such anger, even though I'd seen the man just moments before.
The ground began to shake, and the withered trees trembled, loosing half-dead leaves onto the ground. And that awful scarlet haze came rolling over the boughs, deeply tinting the atmosphere as if it were a living thing. A sentient cloud of evil.
And from amidst the malignant haze came a thing that might have once been a man, but had undergone a transformation so repugnantly profound that any remaining elements of humanity appeared as mockeries of the form. It towered above the feeble trees, even using their tops as points of stability as it lurched toward me. It's body was vaguely anthropomorphic, distantly human, but outwardly fish-like; the flesh of some selachian nightmare draped over the skeleton of a man.
A face, contorted abhorrently to fit an angular, newly mutated skull, bared a broad maw at me. The teeth shone like an assassin's daggers in the night, sending chills throughout my body. Even as it cleared the tree line and revealed itself fully to me, I could not move: I was so completely transfixed by the depravity of its body, by the unreality of its existence.
"Ye could've given me your heart, and all would've been well. But now...now you've gone and made me take off me coat. I don't like to take off me coat. I don't like having to work for me food. I'm all out of it, and I won't let the thoughts of love come back to me. I won't allow it. Now, c'mere and let me pull you apart."
Despite his hideous transformation, his voice was largely unchanged. Just deeper, more guttural, his ire made plain. The lack of any overt monstrous intonation only made the only whole ordeal more terrifying.
Wrenching control away from the panicked part of my mind, I forced my body to turn and move towards the gate. The thing bounded after me like some frenzied animal, shaking the ground with its every step. I pumped my legs to their absolute limits, reaching the gate just as the humidity of the haze tickled the back of my neck.
I threw it open, leapt through, and slammed it just as that colossal nightmare reached it. I wouldn't have thought the old gate any real match for its massive frame, but the rusted iron held against the horror's assault. The haze was also somehow kept at bay, not a single particle of the mysterious vapor breaching the bars despite how thickly it pressed upon it.
Before it could pull some trick or transform into something capable by bypassing the providentially sturdy gate, I turned away and ran back to my car. And while the creature didn't follow me, its hateful voice did.
"The heart! Bring back your heart!"
I drove away without looking back.

Hey guys!
As a future Scara main i am currently making some preperations for my favourite Characer in the game.I saw in a post here that pulling for the weapon instead of a higher constellation is not recommended, as his weapon shares a banner with Kokomis (that i now know is referred to as the donut)Therefore im thinking of waiting for his next rerun to get the weapon which leaves me with the question of what weapon i'll give him in the meantime.
My best choices are a R1 Skyward Atlas and a R5 Widsith:My logic tells me The Widsith is the way to go. But as i am only playing the game for less than a month ,if i dont count the few weaks at release, i need some veterans to give me insight.
My understanding is that the Elemental DMG bonus the Widsith can give would be the best buff to get (havent understood quite why that is stronger than ATK but that is what i got from binge watching/reading about genshin)The ATK% buff would probably still give him more ATK than Skywards base atk + the boost from the substat. Crit DMG seems like a stat Scara likes a lot so thats also a plus.
So the question is how much worse is he whenever he operates under the elemental mastery buff and how good is the passive of skyward atlas? And is skywards consistancy better than having the EM boost from widsith 33% of the time on average.
Thanks so much in advance. Got a lot longer than i intended. Much love <3

I've always wanted to play noelle in both hyperbloom and monogeo, unfortunately i do not know how much er she needs for both teams to burst consistently.
I'm f2p and the only available weapon i have for her is whiteblind r5, favonius greatsword r1, and skyward pride r1.
As for the teams i plan for her: 1. Noelle hyperbloom -noelle main dps -xingqiu sub dps -nahida sub dps -raiden Full Em

1. Noelle mono geo -noelle main dps -geo traveller sub dps -ningguang geo buffer -zhonli shield

Pls help, i really want to play noelle.

(Please point out any flaws. I'm sure there's a lot, so bring em on)
Ganondorf is pretty clearly the same dude in every appearance (except one afaik). Or at least, the writers have been doing their best to establish that ever since OoT. Any differences or contradictions in his appearances is usually explained by how he exists in different timelines.
But this Ganondorf potentially showed up before OoT, despite how OoT was supposed to be his first appearance chronologically. But the Imprisoning War took place shortly after Hyrule was first founded, which presumably happened long before OoT.
There's two explanations for this: one is that the Imprisoning War happened after OoT, and Rauru actually founded a new Hyrule after a previous one was obliterated in some apocalyptic event.
The second explanation, which I think is the real answer, is that Rauru did establish the first kingdom of Hyrule. As in, there was no kingdom of Hyrule before it. AND OoT was the first appearance of Ganondorf, and ToTK Ganondorf and OoT Ganondorf are the same person.
Allow me to explain:
Skyward Sword didn't end with a "true" kingdom of Hyrule. Kingdoms take many years to get going, and by the end of SS, it only consisted of a handful of former sky people. I think the Zonai came down a long time after the events of SS, and with their technology they were able to create a bonafide kingdom with the power to unify the gorons, zora, rito, and gerudo. So in my theory, the Imprisoning War takes place between Skyward Sword and The Minish Cap.
This fledgling kingdom was an ideal target for Ganondorf. But he had a problem: he wasn't alive at that point.
His solution? Time travel.
Zelda did it. The Master Sword did it. Link did it constantly in OoT. So why not Ganondorf too?
I have several reasons to believe this is the case. First, he's noticeably older than he looked in OoT, and Nintendo is actually pretty good about having him look more or less aged depending on when in the timeline a game takes place.
Second, he has no explained origin in TotK. He shows up as the king of the Gerudo, though it's not established that he was born and raised in the desert. In OoT we got details about how he was the first male Gerudo born in 100 years and was raised by Twinrova. In TotK we get no such definite explanations. As far as anyone knows, he just showed up one day in Gerudo Town and took over as their king.
Third, he appears to recognize Link. He has a very curious reaction to Rauru telling him that Link will defeat him, and says he'd like to meet him, almost like he was familiar with the name. He also has a line before he transforms into a dragon about how he will give everything to defeat "you". It's clearly personal. This can only make sense if there was an instance of the Hero facing Ganondorf between Skyward Sword and the creation of the kingdom of Hyrule...or this Ganondorf is from the future, who has had many battles with the Hero.
So there's my theory. Ganondorf at some point after OoT went back in time to the founding of Hyrule, thinking it would be easier to take over the kingdom when it was young. He fights Rauru and gets imprisoned under Hyrule Castle for 10,000 years. And potentially, he's been there all throughout the events of the other Zelda games.
This also means there were two Imprisoning Wars. This one which happens before OoT, and one that happens after OoT in the Hero is Defeated timeline.
TL;DR: Time travel solves all plotholes.

Disclaimer: Registered trademarks and copyrights are properties of their rightful owners. As this series jumps realities very often it is hard to track that info.
DM, the Digitalman, the Scion of Variable is a creation of my good friend who does not use Reddit and is used with permission.
The Pokémon Lucario is © The Pokemon Company.
“To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.”
Euripides
The Daughter that Follows
Chapter 27
Reunited
Part 2
Anna woke up in a mostly bare room, the only decorations were a few pictures of animals and dinosaurs that her father had collected. Rio was sitting and meditating, facing the rising sun. Anna watched her for a few minutes before standing to get ready.
“Anna...” Rio asked, some small fear was hinted at in her mental voice. “What happens to me when this is over?”
Anna paused, she was slightly confused by the question. “What do you want to do?” Anna asked.
Rio herself emanated some confusion and fear. “I don’t know. My parents will not be happy I took off the stone or that I evolved.”
Anna hugged Rio. “Well you can stay with me and my dad. Like I said, I adopted you.”
“I’m serious Anna.” Rio sighed.
“So am I.” Anna pushed the thought. “As far as family is concerned, you’re a part of mine.”
Rio let a low contented rumble escape her, then stood and walked out.
A few moments later Anna walked out into her father’s small, but comfortable living room. He had apparently upgraded from a trailer to an on site home. Dr. Wu had also apparently insisted he do so, if only because the trailer had recently lost a roof to a mysterious glowing phenomena.
“So I got eggs, toast and if you can beat Rio, bacon.” Alan laughed.
“No one beats me at bacon.” Rio smiled and yipped.
Anna laughed as she took a few scoops of scrambled eggs with a few slices of toast and bacon. Alan joined the both of them and sat smiling. “So how’s V?”
“Probably driving Salem insane.” Anna nodded.
“Not hard.” Alan chuckled. “Once we’ve had the time to relax and reconnect, I’m gonna head out, you give me a week then you follow.”
Anna nodded.
“What, no objections?” Alan laughed.
“I’m going to get my people together during that time.” Anna smiled.
“You have people now?” Alan laughed.
“Uncle Stephen.” Anna nodded, “Endara, a few others like SideEffect.”
“Jesus!” Alan jumped up and looked around. “Sorry, the fact that he exists outside of Dross City has always left a permanent fear of him just finding me.”
Anna stared and nodded at her father. “I’d say I’d invite Wraith’s variant but I don’t think that’s a smart idea.”
“No Agatha or Danny.” Alan pointed at her, “They’ll be targets.”
Anna nodded, “Oh, I know. I might get Shepard...”
Alan burst into laughter and a glint of maniacal glee glinted in his eyes. “You leave them to me.”
“Kratos?” Anna asked.
“Go ahead.” Alan smiled.
Anna shifted, slightly uncomfortable at seeing her father become slightly unhinged.
“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna rip apart the multiverse, I just know more than a few Shepards I can call on for help.” Alan sighed. “Trust me, please. “
Anna nodded, then perked up. “OH! The Spider-Men!”
Alan smiled, “You get the ones you met, I’ll get the others.”
“The others?” Anna asked.
Alan sighed, “Look, the less I have to explain about the Spider-Verse and the lunatics there, the better.”
“Spider-Verse? Anna laughed.
“Don’t laugh, it’s a serious thing in their section of the multiverse.” Alan explained. “Keeps all their worlds held together.”
“Through a web, right?” Anna smirked.
“The Web of Life.” Alan nodded.
Anna stopped as she realized her father was serious. “You mean that, how does that work?”
“Reality is as deep as we can perceive, and the Spiders heroes in that part of the multiverse cna perceive just that much deeper than most others.” Alan explained. “The fact that the majority are absolutely fueled by doing the right thing is a benefit those realities don’t even realize they have.”
Anna stared and blinked.
“They’re more powerful than most realize and the ones who do, usually think they’ll break at some point.” Alan laughed and closed his eyes with a sigh.
When he opened them though Anna saw something different in his eyes. A mist of white just beyond the iris seemed to be there and it called to power deep in her. Anna gasped.
“I think we both know that though.” Alan smiled. “So, you’re gonna be heroism.”
Anna blushed.
Alan looked at Rio. “They got a spot for you yet?”
Rio shook her head.
“Give’em time.” Alan laughed.
Rio grasped her Megastone and nodded.
“Think I’ll go pick up Release.” Alan laughed. “See if he wants to go for one more adventure together.”
“I think he’d love that.” Anna smiled.
“Bonds beyond life and death.” Rio nodded as she looked at her own megastone.
“Exactly.” Anna smiled. “So what’s happening today?”
“Today, I’m either going to be working with a very picky pachy, or Billy’s going to give me a call.” Alan sighed. “Tuesdays.”
Anna nodded. “I’d like to help, either way.”
Alan nodded and smiled, then a dark though clouded his joy. “Anna, what else have you fought? I know the Heartless, the Organization and Atropos’ goons.”
“And Stockman.” Rio added.
Alan nodded. “He’ll be handled. Trust me.”
“What’d you tell Perfection last night?” Anna asked.
Alan smiled. “I gave a good friend an idea for a magic lesson for his student.”
Anna paled. “You didn’t.”
“Alex needs to learn.” Alan smiled.
Anna shook her head. “Well other than them, borg-Reavers, but only at a distance.”
Alan nodded with a look of worry. “I remember that story.”
“Draal...” Anna said with a murderous glare.
Alan telekinetically moved the sharp knives he owned back into their drawers. Rio stared at Anna with a look of concern.
“While I completely agree, I can’t help but feel maybe I should be the one with that much anger towards him.” Alan gave a nervous laugh.
“He kept showing up and insisting he wanted to help.” Anna hissed.
“Yeah, I’m Tiger Dropping him into a star.” Alan growled.
“Wouldn’t that hurt?” Anna asked.
“Tiger Drop negates all damage.” Alan smiled, “Not that you’d get that. Please tell me you don’t get that? I don’t want to have to kill a Majima.”
Anna stared at her father and shook her head.
“Good.” Alan smiled and nodded.
“Rio?” Anna asked.
“I have no idea.” Rio shrugged.
“Then there’s Dinal.” Anna said. “If I ever see her again, I’m gonna nuke her.”
Alan nodded. “Not if I see her first.” He smiled.
“I don’t think the Scareek can follow me but I think I made them think humans in that reality were psychic.” Anna explained as she continued, ignoring her father's prodding.
“Damn.” Alan laughed, “We can try and fix that after.”
Anna shook her head. “I kinda should have died. Perfection saved me but made it look like I did.”
Alan stared at his daughter. “Well then they get a wonderful news flash because if Perfection’s involved there’s a plan at work and someone is getting f’d in the a.”
Anna snorted at her father’s phrasing. “No saying hi. MAybe let them see us?”
“You feel guilty.” Alan smirked.
“I...” She sighed. “I messed up big.”
Alan nodded. “Then we’ll see what we can do.”
“Oh!” Anna slammed her fist. “Sindri and Odin!”
“Right, Thor is back there too.” Rio added. “He isn’t a monster anymore.”
Alan paused and looked at Rio. “I have a distinct memory of my barriers being casually obliterated.”
“He’s changed, for his daughter.” Anna explained. “To be better.”
Alan looked at Anna and nodded. If there was one thing he could understand it was that. “Kratos okay with him?”
Anna nodded. “They’re trying to make everything as peaceful as they can, but Sindri and Odin are working with Atropos.”
“Damn.” Alan hissed. “They weren’t kidding.”
“They’ve been keeping you informed, haven’t they?” Anna asked.
Alan nodded as his phone went off with a K-pop song. He answered the phone and watched his daughter fall out of her chair laughing.
“Yeah, I can be ready in an hour. Got my kid with me, she’s got the skills to help keep one of them calm.” Alan said in a serious tone.
Anna popped back up and shoveled food into her mouth as fast as she could.
“Trike herd and...” Alan paused as he wrote it down. “They made another I-Rex?” He sighed as he clearly received confirmation. “We’ll take the Rex, you guys can handle the herd and if we have to put this one down we can do it quickly.” He ended the call and nearly tossed his phone across the room.
“It’s not a normal dinosaur is it?” Anna asked.
“Made in a lab, originally to be a more ‘exciting’ dino.” Alan hissed. “Raised it and it’s sibling without other interactions.”
“Oh god.” Anna gasped.
“It went berserk once it got out, and it’s extremely smart. Part Raptor and rex with some squid thrown in to help it cloak.” Alan explained. “This one was specifically raised to be a weapon but it’s a juvenile, it can have a chance.”
Anna nodded. “I can keep us safe.”
Alan smiled. “I don’t doubt that. You keep us safe I’ll get in her head.”
Anna smiled as she again shoveled food into her mouth.
Alan laughed. “Eat, get your gear.”
“May I stay?” Rio asked.
Anna nodded. “Are you sure?”
Rio nodded, “This area allows me to meditate with ease.”
Anna nodded and finished her meal, then ran to get ready.
(T)(D)(T)(F)---(T)(F)(T)(W)
Hours later Alan was staring at Anna’s gear, she was dressed in her red hoodie, a shirt that had a t-rex with grabby arms, torn jeans and steel toed boots. Of course under all of that was some of the best light armor that the Sixth World could afford with some bonuses only a very mean man could obtain for his goddaughter.
“Punk.” Alan nodded.
Anna smiled. “Sheena is a punk rocker.”
Alan rolled his eyes, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given your sisters.”
Anna giggled. “At least Arlina was a proper lady.”
Alan burst into a fit of raucous laughter then stopped. “Oh, you’re serious.”
Anna blinked. “What was she for you?”
“Rebellious adult daughter who only listened to dad when she and her boyfriend caused more trouble to explode from tiny issues.” Alan smiled. “And a loyal daughter who went out of her way to protect her dad.”
Anna smiled. “She really was brave.”
Alan nodded. “Always was. She’s smiling on you kiddo.”
“All right.” The pilot said from the front of their plane. “We’re getting to the drop zone.”
“Awesome.” Alan smiled.
“Drop zone?” Anna asked.
“We’re jumping!” Alan smiled with a deeply disturbingly happy laugh as he handed his daughter a parachute and hit a button that opened the rear of the large plane they were on.
“We can fly!” Anna shouted.
Alan nodded as he put on his parachute, smiled and walked to the edge. “God I love a good jump!”
Anna watched as her father leaped out of the plane. Anna shook her head and dropped the parachute, ran forward and dove forwards as Hong Long roared to life around her. She looked over to see her father shaking his head, his parachute was still not deployed. He leaned into his dive, much to Anna’s shock. She and Hong Long Lurched forward, careening towards the ground, faster and faster. She watched her father’s parachute open two thirds of the way down. Then she felt the world pull on her less and Hong Long slowed down as a purple energy wave washed over them both. Then she passed her father’s parachute and he was no longer in it, he was now rocketing towards the ground.
“CHEATER!” Anna roared as she tried to push Hong Long’s power forward. She focused hard and grit her teeth as she watched Hong Long’s scales and mane turn golden, and they plowed straight through the field and past Alan, straight to a landing position on the ground.
Hong Long coiled and sat up straight to howl in victory.
A few seconds later Alan landed with just a flutter of the ragged edges of his now dull blue jacket. He looked his daughter and her tulpa over, then nodded in approval.
“So this is what Sayain energy does to your dragon...” Alan observed.
Hong Long nodded happily.
“Okay then.” Alan smiled, “Let’s see how much you’ve learned.”
Anna stared at her father. “What?”
“Find our target.” Alan smiled.
“I thought I was our defense.” Anna crossed her arms.
“Kid I can make a barrier that it takes a God of Thunder to break.” Alan snorted. “And I want to see you work.”
Anna gave a huff but closed her eyes to try and focus. She reached out as far as she could, which was admittedly a lot farther than it used to be. She could now reach out close to seven or eight kilometers. She felt nothing but random animals skittering and hunting, but nothing abnormally aggressive. She looked at her father and shook her head.
“Really?” Alan took a breath. “Can’t reach that far I guess.”
Anna nodded. “About eight kilometers at my highest focus.”
Alan nodded, “Well then we’re heading that way.”
“Is it that way?” Anna asked.
“Maybe!” Alan smiled.
Anna rolled her eyes but followed her father, pulling Hong Long back into her being. She was also really regretting wearing her hoodie as they had landed in a jungle, likely near the border of Central and South America. They walked for hours before Alan finally stopped and paused.
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked.
“What do you hear?” Alan asked.
Anna stopped and heard nothing. The animals had gone silent.
“There’s a predator nearby.” Alan said.
Anna focused and felt a mind focused on them. It was watching and stalking from above.
“Do they hunt in trees?” Anna asked,
“No.” Alan sighed, “They don’t.”
“Then what’s hunting us?” Anna asked as a tremble of fear rolled down her spine.
“Something that’s about to make a horrible mistake.” Alan sighed. “This one doesn’t belong here.”
“NO!” The voice of Ragnis bellowed as he appeared high in the trees and tossed the stalker to the ground. He then followed the creature and lopped its right arm off at the shoulder. “It doesn’t.”
Alan pulled the arm to him and with more than enough force to turn the bones in the arm to mush, launched it skyward where it exploded in a brilliant explosion about a minute later, well above the atmosphere.
The creature laid on the ground, clearly in shock. Alan wrenched a metallic mask that was covered in bones, off the face of the green-blooded stalker. Anna saw the crab-like face and flinched, she remembered the movie this creature was from.
“This is a yautja.” Alan explained.
“I thought it was a Predator.” Anna asked.
“That’s the name of the movie.” Alan said. “These guys can be a pain or a threat.” He bent down to inspect the alien’s face.
Anna felt something hungry approaching and pressed herself against a large tree.
Ragnis moved and pulled a trident from his back which he used to pin the creature to the ground through its gut.
“Bad-blood.” Alan nodded and pointed to a burn on the alien’s forehead. “He’s been disowned by his clan for breaking sacred rules. Likely hunting young prey or unarmed prey.”
“And he’s not from the neighborhood.” Ragnis scoffed. “Honestly, she tried this? I’m bored.”
“Get him out of here, will you?” Alan asked, “We have an Indominous Rex to find.”
“Dad.” Anna nodded towards where she felt the large hunger coming from.
“Well, enjoy the hunt!” Ragnis said as he winked and vanished with the hunter.
Alan focused ahead and nodded to Anna. “Now you take the defensive.”
Anna nodded and stood next to her father. She felt another set of eyes looking at her, then another set of eyes and she froze for a moment.
“There’s a second one, dad.” Anna hissed.
“Of course this one’s social with a sibling.” Alan nodded. “Okay, so we need to take one each.”
“Dad?” Anna looked at her father.
“What have you fought?” Alan asked. “You stood up to Daleks. To Dinal. We just need to calm them down.”
Anna nodded and focused, not bringing Hong Long forward, she did not want to be seen as aggressive to whichever of these dinosaurs ended up benign her opponent.
She watched for a few minutes and then the jungle blinked and nodded at her. Then jaws caming rushing at her and her father and they each went a different direction.
\\\\
First
Previous /// Next
SPOTIFY LIST!
////
S: So clearly I did not finish this over the weekend.
DM: Nope.
S: But like half my plans didn’t pan out so I was mapping the depths of Hyrule.
Wraith: The last one was so stupidly hidden.
Perfection: And now we have a Biggorn Sword Sword.
Wraith: I have to admit the fuse system is hilarious.
Perfection: Now if Only we could sword-chuck.
Wraith: No! We are not going back there!
DM: Everytime we go there there’s one less Black Mage in reality.
Perfection: Look, I can’t help it if he pisses Wraith off.
Wraith: SPINE-ECTOMY! (rage fueled sputtering)
S: Right, well the fight will continue into the next chapter with two I-Rexes.

Greetings fellow anticipating peoples. I will make an attempt to guess what Focalor's kit will be, based on the various information we have as of May 28, 2023. (Feel free to contribute in the comments)
Personally I love reading speculations written way before a character's release, and laugh at how wrong they are or be amazed at how right they are, and so I want to make my contribution to this hobby of mine.
(I'll only use Raiden and Nahida for reasons that uses archons. As an archon collectoenthusiast/mainer, I noticed Zhongli and Venti are crappily done for an archon, with features all over the place)
Firstly, and quite the most expected, Focalors will scale off HP. Electro resonance increases ER, and Raiden scales off ER. Dendro resonance increases EM, and Nahida scales off EM. Hydro resonance increases HP, this is an easy one.
Another no-brainer: Focalors' normals will suck. Every archon hyv has released just has sucky normals, or that other parts of their kit are just more note-worthy.
Next, Focalors' role will be a healer, or atleast a semi-healer. This is kinda at contradiction with the leaks where she's supposed to increase party member's damage in exchange of HP, but I like to think that there will be a Kuki kind of style here where party members will eventually gain back lost HP. Being able to fully manipulate HP whichever way is a good feature for the archon of the HP element. pls hyv my divine rainbow team needs a healer
Then, Focalors' skill will be a good hydro application tool. Raiden's E is a coordinated electro attack, while Nahida's E is a bit more conditional dendro application. Maybe this time it will be a placed skill like Mona's or Zhongli's. Maybe it also has some heals but by then it would be too similar to Kokomi's.
This whole paragraph is a leak spoiler:
Focalors' burst will be where her anti-heals and damage buff will be. Archon Q's have always been game-changing, to the point where you can't properly play an archon without their Q(except Nahida I guess? maybe I'm just underestimating her Q). This Q would be the very reason why you would bring Focalors, and it would be the (presumably) insane damage buff she will give.
Focalors' Signature weapon and BiS(or very close) artifact would have a very similar passive. This is a bit less about the kit and more about the build. We've seen this trend with Raiden(EL and EoSF) and Nahida(Thousand Dreams and GD). This is also one of the reasons why I didn't like talking about Zhongli and Venti, whose signatures(Vortex and Skyward) just suck for them.
Lasty, C2 will be godly. start earning now, C2 is big performance boost. It will probably be the constellation that just stops her from killing your teammates sooner than they kill the enemy.
Edit(May 29, 2023): Focalors will be able to reduce cooldowns of party members. Engulfing Storm(electro leyline disorder) reduces the energy of characters, which is in opposition with Raiden's role as battery. Slowing Water(hydro leyline disorder) increases the CD of your characters, so Focalors might end up giving the opposite effect too.
Again, feel free to contribute your personal speculations in the comments. Maybe when we finally get to see what her kit actually is, we can all go back here and ridicule about how far off we were(like when Raiden's Q was supposedly a time-stop or something and everybody believed it).

Asia AR60 51x5
​
Godly Builds — 36:star_outline: Abyss Clearer
​
32x5 Characters + 19x5 Weapons
​
Ayaka w/ skin + BiS
Kokomi + R2 BiS
C1 Kazuha + BiS (1K EM)
C1 Shenhe + Spine/Fav
C1 Yelan + BiS
C1 Eula + BiS
Nahida + BiS (1K EM)
Raiden + BiS
Yae Miko + BiS
Wanderer
Yoimiya
Zhongli
Childe
Nilou
C4 Keqing
C2 Mona
C2 Qiqi
C1 Diluc
Jean
​
Weapons: (All BiS mentioned)
Aqua Simulacra
A Thousand Floating Dreams
Kagura's Verity
R2 Everlasting Moonglow
Engulfing Lightning
Song of Broken Pines
Mistsplitter Reforged
Freedom-Sworn
Skyward Atlas
Skyward Spine
R3 Skyward Blade
R1 Skyward Blade
x2 Aquila Favonia
The Unforged
Skyward Pride
​
7k+ Primos
140+d Welkin
EB Pity: 25
WB Pity: 55+
SB Pity: 45+ — 24 Acquaint Fate
27.8m+ Mora, 1.5k+ Hero's Wits, 7.3k+ Mystic Enhancement Ores
Extremely Well Maintained and Rich in Mats
I have receipts

Behind the larger moon of Nebo, the large hulking mass of ship named Glazier, was holding its geostationary orbit as the battle commenced below on the planet of Valhallah. Injured and inactive Marines, Sol Stellar Infantry, and Vaalorian Navy personnel walked the halls of the great ship, or were held in the Medical bay. Medical suites were filled to capacity and overflowing with casualties. Injured Vaalor and Humans were everywhere. Several Cariolinous could be found to be bandaged or missing bits or limbs. Blaine woke to the sound of a medical examination table beeping away in the background, and instantly regretted moving his head, which pounded like a bass drum. “OOooh, fuck! My head! What the fuck happ- UNJHH! Mmmff, fuck! That’s not good!” He said, looking down at his ribs which were bandaged and bloody. Looking around, he noticed he was alone, and so tried to heal himself. The flames ignited around his palms; and as he focused, a rib snapped back into place, almost rendering him unconscious. He cursed under his breath, and was about to try again, when Constance walked in. “Ahh! Captain! You’re awake! Good! Good… So, you’re not going to jump up and break my wrist so you can get back into the fight, are you? I must say, I’m no longer interested in trying to stop you. But, my sister is.” She said, looking him over. “What? Why would Glam want to stop me? She was all for getting away from the Aquila, when we were on our way here…” Blaine asked, puzzled. “She’s a mommy, now.” Constance said. “Oh.” Blaine croaked. “Are you sure you should be sitting up? You don’t sound too good. You do understand, you got lucky. You caught a round just as you came onto the shuttle, and therefore the others were able to slow the bleed long enough for you to make it aboard the Glazier. We were able to stabilize you with some donor blood, luckily enough. There’s two universal human donors on this craft right now, but there was three. Contingency Captain Richter was killed in action yesterday.” Constance said. Blaine groaned again. “Fuck. I’m gonna miss that asshole.” He said, a heavy weight seeming to slam into his heart. “You knew the Contingency Captain well, I assume?” Constance said, trying to gauge his mental state. “We were in a lot of situations together. We used to refer to him as ‘the human earthquake’. He was a demolitions specialist, Ms. Helsbane.” Blaine said. “How many made it out of Zubrim?” “Well, thanks to your quick efforts, Zubrim was lost without many casualties. We expected more. Twelve Sihn Rifles and all of Zubrim Air Defense made it out. General Sihn is alive and well, and you even saved two Seals. Marconia Traviar, and Ah’lahn Capia, both Seals of their own respective SkyKnight contingents. Here… you read the report. I expect you’re not going anywhere for a few days…” Constance said, and handed him a qwikslate. “Your translator is working flawlessly, Constance. Thought I’d say…” Blaine said, as he accepted the qwikslate. “The translator is off. I spent the last three months learning English. How am I doing?” Constance said, smiling expectantly. “Really freaking good! That’s really impressive! Three months?!” Blaine said, astonished. “I’ve always been a fast learner.” Constance mused, happily. “That’s good…” Blaine said, distracted by the qwikslate. “I’ll… um… Leave you to it, then?” Constance said, and walked out, not waiting for an answer. “Yeah…” Blaine said, not paying attention. He tapped the qwikslate screen, and looked at the HUDvid recordings for Zubrim, and Operation Black Watch. He played through several recordings, taking in separate angles of the battle, trying to recreate a 3-d picture in his mind of the chaos. He rewatched his HUDvid, and realized what had really happened. As he’d run from the crash site to the Fort, he’d unknowingly passed within a hundred yards of the Mahl front lines. They had seen him, but he’d been too busy with trying to reach the Fort to notice. His HUDvid had recorded their positions, however. Five rows of at least a hundred Mahl warriors, had watched him limp passed, within a mere twenty yards of them. They hadn’t reacted, or broken cover at all. But, they had obviously taken notice of him if his HUDvid was to be believed. Blaine realized then, that these were no ordinary Mahl. These were well trained and disciplined warfighters, and they were leagues apart from the Mahl that had attacked Sol, in both space and capability. They were well armed, with plasma rifles and several recognizable firearms in their midst. Some of them, American made. Blaine saw the rifles from his homeland, and felt a pang of guilt and hatred in the same moment. He found new drive in that moment, and reignited the blue flames, trying again to fix his shredded insides. He felt things twist and knit, and a feeling of intense nausea welled up within him. Finally, he could handle the nausea no more, and he extinguished the flames and promptly vomited bile. Laying back against the bed, he felt his mind wander, and fell unconscious again. Sometime during his slumber, Constance came back in to check his bandages, and almost lost her mind when she saw the healed wounds. She remained silent, but quickly left and returned with Captain Krinski, and Glam. They waited in the medical suite until he woke up. “Mmmuh, Mornin’ Cap’n. What’s up?” Blaine said, coming around groggily. “I muzt know… how? Jhoo are healedt! Just jyesterday, jhoo ver on Deat’s doorshtep! How are jhoo alife?” Anastasia said. “Uhh…” Blaine said, hesitantly. “Look, I don’t care if whatever you did was illegal. We have a lot of injured who could benefit from the technology.” Constance said, eagerly. “Uhh… It’s… not technology?” Blaine said, hesitant still. “Then what is it?” Constance begged. “I need to know! There are people who need this, desperately!” “Spirit Fire.” Blaine said, looking at Glam. “Like, what happened to Fern when he died?” Glam said, curious. “Kinda. Spirit Fire cannot be wielded by the dead. But, the dead are the source. It is the power to heal, or destroy by fire. And it’s extremely rare. My great grandad could barely do what I can, and it’s got serious side effects…” Blaine said. “How does it work?” Constance said, desperately still trying to bottle it for later use. “The Ancestors choose an individual to heal others, by the energies of the Ancestral Eather, through the conduit of the chosen individual. Depending on the physical strength of the individual( I presume), the power can be super-strong, or mild. The energies are specific to the one being healed and the virtuosity of the act. What’s more, the energies can cause women to become fatally attracted to the individual if it’s a man, and vice versa. Also, healing oneself can be a horrible experience, let me tell you!” Blaine said at length. “Now, promise me on pain of death, that you’re never going to tell anyone. I’m serious!” He added, with a glare. “Y-yes! Of course!” Constance said, taken aback. “I don’t belief jhoo, Captink. Show meh. Or, I vill hafv jhoo trown in shainz, for lyink tooh jyur feddow vorfighterz!” Anastasia said, snarling slightly. “Captain, I believe him-” Glam said, trying to intervene before things went awry. “VELL, I DON’T! Andt ziss is shtill mine craft! VHAT DO I HAFV TOOH SAY OR DO, TOOH MAKE ZHAT CLEAR, CAPTINK?!” Anastasia roared. Three Brasscar stepped into the doorway, all sporting tasers, at that moment. “Uhm… This is going to get a hell of a lot more complicated the more people you involve, Captain. By the very nature of what they might see or experience! You do understand that if I am telling you the truth(which I really am), that you cannot keep it a secret with so many involved, right?” Blaine replied. “Corrinda, Please brink zeh Corporal in? I’m churr Captink Preiss vill not argue againsht healink hiz own crroo…” Anastasia said to one of the Brasscar. “Yes, Ma’am. “ Collinda said, and went to retrieve the aformentioned individual. “It doesn’t matter, then, if you end up getting me killed. Fine… So beit.” Blaine sighed, and sat up. At the same moment, Collinda walked back in carrying a very gravely injured Japfey on a stretcher, aided by yet another Brasscar. Blaine stood up and walked unsteadily to where the two Brasscar held the stretcher between them. “Corporal… You can’t tell anyone, clear?” Blaine said, as Corporal Japfey looked up at him with a wan smile and a distant stare. “Sure, Cap! I’ma butterfly!” Japfey said, his eyes crossing slightly. “And I’m a lepidopterist.” Blaine chuckled. He focused on the blue fire, and heard seven separate gasps as everyone collectively drew a deep breath of astonishment. Japfey shook his head, and looked around him. “Cap? The fuck, Sir? What’s going on?” “I’ll let you read the report and watch your HUDvid, Corporal. After which, you will speak of it to nobody. Is that clear?” Blaine repeated. “Y-yessir! I’m just slightly confused- how did I get here, and how did you get better? I watched your drop, remember?” Japfey said, stunned. “Watch the HUDvids, Japfey.” Blaine said, wearily. “Satisfied, Captain Krinski?” “I’m… Yah, Captink. I ahm satisfiedt. Jhoo may leave unhinderdt, andt ooll here are svorn tooh secretsee, jah.” Anastasia said, still in shock. “But-” Constance began. “No… C’mon, Sis. There’s other ways.” Glam said, realizing that what Blaine had been saying about his life being in jeopardy wasn’t just idle chat. Glam guided Constance out, who was still struggling to keep Blaine in her sight. “But, Glamrica! He could… Stop, dammit! I can walk on my own, girl!” Constance protested. “Then DO SO! The Captain needs to leave, and get some rest on his own ship, for HIS safety!” Glam snapped at her, shoving her out of the room. “Jess… for jyur safety, Captink… Please return tooh zeh Aquila.” Anastasia said, suddenly realizing the implications as well. “Yess’m. Are any others of my crew on board, Captain Krinski?” Blaine asked, as an afterthought. “Jess. Narah Sihn arrived ziss mornink. She’s vell, just berry scaredt. Her Fadder didn’t make it tooh zeh Imperial Palace, and zerr is no vord on his veraboutz…” Anastasia said. “Vy? Vhat is zoh important about zhat?” She added as Blaine made a beeline for the door. “James.” Blaine said, walking out. He searched the Medical suites first, finding them full of injured personnel. His heart ached to help them, but he knew the cost was too high to do so. Moving quickly, he found Narah staring blankly at a wall in the second to last Medical suite on that wing of the bay. He touched her gently on the shoulder, and smiled when she turned to look at him. Narah jumped up and wrapped him in a hug, so quickly it startled him. She held him like a vise, and started to cry silently. Then, stepping back from him and letting go reluctantly, she voiced her desperate fears. “He’s missing, and nobody knows what happened! One minute they were flying along, and the next they just disappeared off of the comlsink and tracking scopes! Nobody has heard a single thing from them since, and no demands from any would-be kidnappers! It’s like they just…” Narah stumbled through, and sniffled. “Disappeared. I understand. Get me a suit, and a dropzone.” Blaine said, his eyes flashing reddish behind the normal soft brown. Narah didn’t argue, nor did she wait for confirmation of what she thought she’d just heard. Without a second’s breath, she was running full-out for the shuttle bay, and skidded to a halt at the S.U, Aquila, before smashing the code into the doorway keypad. She grabbed his rifle, a fresh Seraphim suit, and his sabre, before stopping momentarily to stare at the particle beam cannon on the floor. She shook her head, looked at it again, and then shook her head again, before rushing back out the door and barely stopping to close it again. Again, she tore off towards the Medical suite she had just left, and found Blaine staring at the same wall she had just been. “Uhh, Baby? I.. I’m not sure this is smart. I just… Maybe we should bring Rosey.” She said, looking at his feet, shamefully. “Maybe. Let’s not until we know. Where is Lisa, or Jupiter?” Blaine said. “Lisa is on board, with Hector. They should be in the Galley, right now.” She said. “Nav Officer Renhardt… She’s MIA, too!” “What? Wasn’t she flying the shuttle that brought me?” Blaine said, suddenly questioning just how long he’d been asleep. “Yeah, silly.. She… She went out after James and Daddy went missing, to try and find them. She’s a great pilot, but I don’t think she’s really qualified as a Spacejumper.” Narah said, hesitantly. “Can you take these? They’re getting heavy.” “Sorry.” Blaine said, taking the suit. “Then I'm going to need the Ortiz clan. Monster is always good to have in a fight. And Lisa can fly the shuttle and shoot, so we’re good for now.” “I’ll send her a.. Text?” Narah said, looking at him with a puzzled expression. “Yeah, a text would be a great idea.” Blaine confirmed, missing her query but answering it all the same. Narah stood in a corner with a qwikslate, typing like mad, while Blaine suited up minus the jetpack. This he carried with his rifle in one hand, and the sword in the other. Narah looked up from her qwikslate as he finished, and nodded. “Good. Let’s go shoot this goose, babe! I has a lot o’ questions what need answers.” Blaine said. Narah let out a short cackle, and smiled. “Yeah. Let’s shoot the goose! What’s a goose?” “Not important. C’mon…” Blaine said, putting an arm around her and guiding her towards the door. “Just what do you think you are doing, Captain?” Brashi’i said, standing in the doorway. “Where the absolute fuck did you appear from, and how do you guys keep doing that?! You and Jupiter both! And you, Narah! Just all of a sudden, Pop-goes-the-weasel, and you’re in my face!” Blaine said, finally letting vent to something that had been frustrating him for several weeks. “You really don’t know how well that neuro-link device works, do you? It literally retrained our bodies to walk much more quietly, after we took turns running through one of your sims. What do you think I was doing, when I was in the sim?” Brashi’i waved him off. “Well.. then you’re going to love learning this next trick… Love you!” Blaine kissed her on the cheek and Brashi’i promptly fell unconscious. “What was that? What did you just do to her?!” Narah squeaked, looking at the crumpled heap of woman on the floor. “Quickly, quickly… she’s not gonna be out for long…!” Blaine bustled her out the door. “But-” Narah said. “Goooo!” Blaine chided her. “It’s ‘the kiss of bliss’... a Martial arts technique I learned when I was a kid. She’s going to wake up in a few seconds!” “Fine! But don’t you ever-” Narah said, as he hustled her towards the Galley. “Shh! Hi! Yep! Just a human… Nothing to see here…” Blaine said, pushing her on, as people turned and stared at them. “Blaine… I’m not joking.” Narah said, stopping right in front of the Galley. “Neither am- OOF!” Blaine started to say, only to be lifted bodily from the floor by a hefty punch to his ribs. “What the fuck, you asshole! You just fucking punched a commanding officer in the chin, you human pile of gutless crap!” Brashi’i screamed from behind him as he collapsed. “dammit… Hi, Baby!” Blaine said, smiling through the pain. “Don’t you ‘Hi Baby’ me, you slippery fuck! Or I’ll punch something you can’t heal!” Brashi’i spat, turning blue as her rage welled within her. “Huuhhh…. GASP- I didn’t punch you… mmmnnngh… I pushed a vertebrae out of place, rendering you instantly unconscioussss… fuck! Why the ribs? Why always the ribs?!” Blaine said through tears and intense burning in his lungs, rolling slightly back and forth on the floor. “Whatever you did, IT FUCKING HURTS! You really thought I’d just let you walk out, no whatever and not a by-your-leave? You must be fucking crazy!” Brashi’i screamed, her fists still curled into tight balls and her face the image of twisted fury. “Yes. Precisely. Because, in fact, sweety… grunt… Enough time has already been wasted with being down. Which is why I’m not stopping, for fuck-all.” Blaine said, standing back up, still clenching his ribs. “And I’ll do it again, if you’re gonna try an’ stop me, Brash…” “Stop you? I just wanted to know what you were doing! Narah is on suicide watch until her father is located and retrieved. Or did you not know?” Brashi’i said, still snarling at him with intense venom. “Why would she want to kill herself? We’re literally going to get him?!” Blaine blurted out through the throbbing of his bruised ribs. “Why not say that, you stubborn fool! Why just knock me out, and run?” Brashi’i said, still breathing heavily. “Because..” Blaine wheezed, “I don’t have time for all of this crap!” “What the fuck is five more minutes gonna cost you?” Brashi’i spat. “Maybe my sister’s life, Brash. So, one more time… Get the ever loving fuck, out of my way!” Blaine said, finally catching his breath. Brashi’i said nothing, but stepped aside symbolically, using one hand to gesture forwards passed her. “Thank you! For Chrissake…” Blaine said loudly, and turned around to find Lisa and Hector staring at him, in utter amazement. “When and where, Caballero?” Lisa asked, seeing he was in no mood for small-talk. “Now. Shuttle.” Blaine said, nodding at Hector. Hector smiled and winked back. “On it, Cap!” Hector said, and dragged Lisa towards the shuttle bay. “Anything else, or can we go?” Blaine said, looking around at the crowd that was gathering to watch. With a lot of muttering and sheepish looks, people stepped back and made a thoroughfare for them, towards the shuttle bay. Blaine sighed, grabbed up his equipment, and walked the shame mile. Narah quickly caught up to him, and took his jetpack to carry for him. Blaine was grateful for the relief of pressure on his aching ribs. A shout sounded behind them, as Brashi’i vented her anger and strode into the Galley. “You ok? I heard the thump off that hit!” Narah said, trying to comfort him. “I’ll be fine! She used the wrong hand- probably the reason for the scream. Remind me to fix that for her if we make it back?” Blaine said, jokingly. “Yeah, right after I break my fist on her mouth.” Narah said, giggling. Blaine chuckled. “Damn, bloodthirsty, aren’t we?!” “Well, she did just try to stop us from getting my Dad. Thanks for not taking no for an answer, by the way…” Narah said, smiling at him. “I wouldn’t have, anyways. You know how I feel about our family… Now, imagine that I’ve felt that strongly about my sisters since we were little. You had nothing to fear… I was going with or without her permission.” Blaine said, and increased his pace. “So, this isn’t about my Dad?” Narah said, crestfallen. “I didn’t say that. I said that I have more than just him as personal investment, in this situation.” Blaine said. “Good save.” Narah said, smiling again. They walked onto the shuttle, and sat down, as Lisa negotiated their departure. This was made more complicated by the fact that they didn’t have any official orders or flightplan. Lisa finally got them clearance, by threatening diplomatic tensions between Humans and Vaalor. She turned off the comslink, and spoke solely to the four present. “We are flying into a shitstorm, with no backup, I’m pretty sure. Since that’s the case, I need to know, Cap- how much is this worth to you?” Lisa asked. Hector rolled his eyes, but stayed silent. “I’d shoot the President, to make it happen.” Blaine deadpanned. “My resolve knows no end.” “Ok… That’s good enough for me! Hang on… We’re in for a ride!” Lisa said, and dove for atmosphere. The walls of the shuttle began to heat up and glow, as they dropped through the atmosphere. Blaine felt as the shuttle began to shake from the buffeting, and Lisa pulled up on the yoke. “RRRrrr-you-son-of-a-bitch! Rah! Come about!” she grunted, as she pulled. The shuttle slowed, and started to become more aerodynamic. Lisa cruised to the coordinates that Narah gave her, and they came to a hover at 1500 feet. “We’re here…” Lisa said, and set the hover function to auto and stood up, stretching. Blaine stood up, and readied his rifle. Opening the door, he was met with a faceful of wind, and nearly sucked from the craft. He looked around at Lisa, with a smirk, and engaged his suit’s magnetic system. Looking back out the door, he asked, “You sure this is it? We’re a thousand feet up, at least!”
Lisa looked at him, and shook her head. “I can’t hear you!” “Helmets!” Blaine shouted, donning his. The rest of them pulled on their helmets, and the silence was shocking to behold. Everyone started talking at once. “We’re in the right area, right?” Blaine said. “Whoa, so quiet!” Narah said. “Middle of the fucking air! Narah!” Lisa shouted, crossing her arms. “God, thank you! I fucking hate HALO jumps!” Hector sighed. Unfortunately, all that was heard, was a cacophony of insane noise. “What?” everyone said at exactly the same time, which had the strange effect of sounding like a Beachfront quartet. This had the women giggling, and the men chuckling too! “Ok.. so… Are you sure this is the spot, Narah?” Blaine asked, as he got his mirth under control. “Yep. This is the marker from the computer. I didn’t change anything. We’re exactly where their beacon was last, before it disappeared. Lisa, spin us around slowly. Let’s get a good view of how this place looks.” Narah said, nodding. Lisa did as she was told, and sat back down in the pilot's seat. She disengaged the hover function, and started to rotate the craft. This caused the shuttle to slide forwards slightly, and suddenly the scenery changed. Instead of a windswept 1500 foot altitude without a bottom, they were a mere 50 feet up and maneuvering between trees in a tropical forest. “OH SHIT!” Lisa cursed, and quickly brought the yoke up as high as she could pull it without dislodging it. The shuttle shot straight up, and soon they were hovering over the top of the Amazon Rainforest on Earth, according to their instruments. More specifically, somewhere outside of Anza De Esparanza, Brazil. “What the… fack?” Blaine said, as a brightly colored Scarlet Macaw landed on the shuttle deck, and squawked at him. “Huh? Am I missing something?” Narah said. “Lisa, take us back! I need to check something!” Blaine said, a sudden realization dawning upon him. “Ohh, kay?” Lisa said, and hesitantly set the shuttle back towards its previously known position. They slowly maneuvered back through the trees, and then suddenly they were on Valhallah, again. Blaine smiled and shouted for joy, realizing the implications. “You wanna fill us in on what just happened, there? Or, should we just guess?” Lisa asked Blaine as Narah’s eyes got wide as saucers. “A laminar wormhole! A literal fucking laminar wormhole! BETWEEN EARTH AND VALHALLAH!” Blaine said, his face wreathed in smiles behind his visor. “Are you saying-” Lisa said, slowly catching on. “THAT THE LEGENDS ARE ALL REAL! THEY’RE HISTORY!” Blaine said, closing the door and smiling like a madman. “So, Thor, Meremere, and all that?” Lisa said, suddenly looking stunned. “Yeah, Thor, Moljnir, and all that!" Blaine confirmed. “So, if it’s a laminar wormhole, where is James, and where’s my Dad? Narah said, bringing everyone back to the reality before them. “They should be on one side, or the other. Your guess is as good as mine as to where. However, what’s bothering me, is why didn’t they just fly back through? James would have turned back!” Blaine said, at a loss for answers. “Just like you did. So.. Lisa? Take us back through, but keep the shuttle at 3000 feet, so that we can have time to deploy our wings.” Narah said, before sitting back down. “What’s on your mind, hun?” Blaine said, sitting down next to her. “Recon.” Narah said, stone faced. “Right. Well, where we came through at, I’m sure we hit a tree the first time. Perhaps we should start at the base?” Blaine suggested. “Good idea. Lisa, change of plans… I want you to get us as close to that tree we hit coming in, without landing right at its base, I want to make landfall.” Narah said. Lisa looked at Blaine. “What, you want permission?” Blaine said, smiling garishly at her. “Right. Back through. Don’t mind me if I change my pants afterwards! You SA’s are crasee!” Lisa said, and flew the shuttle back through the wormhole. “There’s a clearing over there… I’m gonna put down there.” “Ok, gear up, expect predators!” Blaine said, belting on his sword and grabbing his rifle. “What kinds?” Narah said. “Snakes, spiders, Caiman, Crocodiles, Jaguar, Ocelot, and Puma, to name a few. Big cats, and venomous snakes. Spiders as big as a dinner plate.” Blaine said. “I hate spiders, homie!” Hector said, staring at Blaine and turning pale as a sheet. “I fuckin’ hate ‘em!” “Then, keep your eyes peeled, don’t walk through any webs, and don’t panic if you see one. They’ll only chase you if you run.” Blaine assured him. “Ok… I’m good… Ok…” Hector said, nodding and psyching himself up. “Good. Don’t touch flowers. No matter how pretty.” He said, looking from Narah to Lisa. “Why?” Narah asked. “We’re in the rainforest. Everything here is trying to kill and eat something else. Nothing is safe. Even things that might seem so.” Blaine said, seriously. “Ok… So, what should we eat if we’re here for a while?” Narah said, being sensible about her questions. “Only what I hand you. Don’t eat or touch anything else, especially if it’s brightly colored.” Blaine warned her. “Why?” Narah asked. Blaine looked skywards for patience. Lisa came to his rescue. “Everyone knows bright colors mean venom or poison. Especially in the rainforest. With rare exception.” “Oh. You know, that’s not the case on Valhallah. Or my planet.” Narah said. “That’s why I asked.” “What’s your planet like, Narah?” Blaine said, trying to distract from the hike they were now embarking on. “Crazy enough, it’s a lot like yours. Just, venomous plants and animals are usually also trying to hide, whether predator or prey. Reds are normal. Yellows and greens, too. Most of the brightly colored plants only become so when fruiting. And most are not toxic. It takes an expert eye to be able to discern… What are you doing! You said not to eat anything brightly colored!” Narah suddenly shrieked, as Blaine peeled a banana. “Yes. I did. I also said don’t eat anything that I don’t give you. This, is a fruit known as a banana. It’s actually edible. Just, be careful when you pick them. See?” Blaine pointed to a large spider crawling across a banana leaf. “I’ll have to keep that in mind…” Narah said, as she stared at the slowly moving spider. “What’s that?” “One of the most deadly spiders known to mankind. Its bite would probably be harmless to you, but to us, it’s a very excruciating way to die, and very embarrassing as well. Basically….” Blaine said, before whispering in her ear. “Oh! That’s… both horrible and strangely … it kinda turns me on!” Narah said, smiling. “It’s not as nice as you think. It’d be like popping a bean, and never being able to rub it relaxed again, until you finally die from a heart attack. Us humans are naturally afraid of spiders, because of spiders like that.” Blaine said at length. “Yeah, sounds a lot worse when you say it like that.” Narah said, frowning. “Hey! That’s Archangel armor!” Blaine was suddenly right next to her, peering through the woods towards where she was pointing. A single scale stuck from a tree branch. Blaine looked down, and around the area across the ground. A large four-clawed bipedal print, told Blaine the worst was to fear. “Mahl.” Blaine said, as Lisa followed his gaze. “Oh, Christ!” Lisa said, terrified. “I thought they didn’t land on Earth?” “They didn’t, or these woods would be crawling with Brazilian and UN forces. No, this is a loner.” Blaine said, looking at the trail they left behind. “I’ll tell you this… James is being smart. She’s obviously being dragged. Your father is walking… With a limp, but walking.” He said, pointing to the trail leading from the tree through the underbrush. “How’s she being smart? She’s letting herself be dragged off by that brute! Why not just rip his arms off and beat him with them? She obviously can…” Narah pouted. “Precisely! She’s not! Which means there’s a good reason. Either she feels bested, or there’s a larger game afoot!” Blaine said, gritting his teeth and causing a vein to pop in his temple. “So, what do we do?” Narah asked. “Follow. In dead silence.” Blaine said, looking at her severely. Narah nodded, and followed him. They walked for the rest of the day, silent and slow. Blaine stayed in the lead, following the trail ahead. The Mahl stopped a couple of times, each time for water. They came finally to a tree, where the trail dead ended at it’s base. Blaine waited for the rest to catch up, and then smiled at Narah. Narah scowled at him puzzled at why he’d seem so happy at losing the trail. “Look up.” Blaine said quietly, grinning at Narah and the other two. A deep guttural growling roar, issued from a ball of fur halfway up the tree, sporting two others who were wearing Seraphim suits. “Hi, bonehead! I’m Blaine. You’ve got something that belongs to me. How’s about you give them back, and I don’t … make a mess…” Blaine said cheerily, smiling and waving to the Mahl. “GRRrrr, WHY SHOULD I?!” The Mahl said in a deep voice, which almost matched his growl. “Because! I’m allowing you to keep your arms. That’s more than she will do.” Blaine said, pointing to James. James smiled, and twisted around, grabbing the Mahl by his arm. “Ready, Freddy?” She snarled. “James! Wait-” Mordecai said, terrified. The Mahl made as if to bite her head off, and James changed. Her hair stood on end, and her face twisted grotesque. The Mahl stopped momentarily, looking at the savagely frothing woman in his claws, and suddenly had second thoughts about thinking her a mere weakling. That, didn’t matter, however. James ripped the Mahl’s head off of his shoulders, and spat down the creature’s esophagus. Then, they all came crashing out of the tree. Landing hard, Mordecai groaned as he lay still. James landed catlike, and ripped the offending Mahl’s bodily remains to dreg shreds, with her bare hands. Then, she roared, and passed out face first into the loamy soil of the rainforest floor. Blaine ran to Mordecai’s side, and looked him over. The elderly man had a broken wrist, and a large gash across his brow. Furthermore, he was completely unconscious. Blaine wasted no time, the blue flames glowing brightly in the failing light. Narah was at his side before he had finished, and watched, with tears in her eyes. “What about James?” Narah said, looking at Blaine as he finished and extinguished the blue fire. “Well…” Blaine said, and squatted next to her. He opened her eye, and checked the reactivity. He then became visibly worried. James wasn’t reactive at all. It was like her mind was empty. Like her soul had left her body. Blaine whimpered, as he held her hand to his lips. He looked around, like a scared child, and then closed his eyes. Blue light lit up the undergrowth, and blinded Lisa and Hector as they slowly walked closer. “SOB… GASP! Not yet, kiddo! Not yet!” Blaine’s voice could be heard from within the giant blue-white halo. “Please!” “Uhhn… Bean? Wha? OH! Fuck…” James’ voice could be heard saying. The light subsided and left Narah, Lisa, and Hector blinking furiously and rubbing their eyes. Blaine could be heard crying, as he hunched over, but nobody could see well enough to understand why for several minutes more. Then James slowly rolled over and stood up, weakly. “Bean… It’s ok… C’mon! We gotta go! It’s getting dark again!” She said, panic rising in her voice. “I…I-I thought… Yeah. Let’s go….” Blaine said, tears rolling down his cheeks. They ran flat out, for several minutes, before Blaine shouted at them. “STOP! We need to set camp! Don’t run in the woods at night!” “Scrape a clearing! I’ll get some firewood, and you, go get a bunch of banana leaves. You do know what those are, right Narah?” James said, helping as much as she could. “Yeah, I know what they are. I’ll be right back.” Narah said, and disappeared into the undergrowth. “Uhm.. Cap?... Do monkey’s eyes glow?” Hector said, as he stared into the gathering night. “No. Why, Monster? Find a monster?” Blaine said, and chuckled at his joke. “Nah, for reals, Cap! Look!” Hector said, pointing at two reddish orange orbs in the undergrowth. “Whoa! Hector! You found our monster, alright! It’s the apparatus that is creating the wormhole!” Blaine said, noticing where they were. “See? There’s the broken tree we hit earlier, Narah… Narah? Sweety?” Blaine looked around, worried. Then, he heard a muffled squeak which sounded oddly familiar. “I’m comin’ hun!” Blaine bellowed, and tore off through the cycads and the bromeliads. He found her being wrapped up by a massive anaconda, and drew his sword. Swinging deftly, he struck the creature clear to its spine with a fatal blow, directly behind the snake’s skull. He then roared mightily, as he peeled the massive jaws from Narah’s shoulder. Sobbing in terror and desperation of breath, Narah wriggled free of the snake’s coils, and slithered her way back several feet from it, wiping her skin like she was covered in some slimy sludge. Her heart raced, and she sobbed harder as she stared in terror at the thing that had just held her in its coils and tried to crush the life out of her. James ran up, and realized what had happened. She walked over to Narah and sweetly said to her as she helped her stand, “I’m so sorry! Come on! Let’s get you away from here!” The two quickly walked back to camp, James taking the chance to see to Narah’s wounds. Blaine sliced a huge chunk off of the snake, and carried it back to the fire he’d been starting just previously. Building up a pile of wood, he concentrated on the crimson and gold flames, and then the pile leaped to life with flames flickering merrily. The smell of cooking flesh, mixed with the day’s happenings, drew the six individuals to partake without argument or aplomb. Smiles were in short supply, but were certainly easier to manage with meat to fill their bellies. Narah was still clammy, and therefore wouldn’t let anyone touch her. Blaine made a joke about who would have died first, the snake or Narah, and Narah smiled at his attempt to cheer her up. “Maybe we should just sleep in the shuttle.” Blaine suggested. Nobody argued the logic, and so around an hour later, they were all back inside of the shuttle. They fell asleep, unaware of the several sets of beady little black eyes that watched them from the topiary level of the forest. Mahl clung to trees all around the clearing, hanging upside down from the vines and Burna trees. They didn’t make a sound, and simply watched until morning light, before disappearing into the jungle treetops, silent as a wraith. —----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brashi’i sat with her thoughts, mulling over her feelings on the previous day's activity, and wondering about the man she’d let go. Had he left and simply decided to not come back? Or, was there another, more sinister reason for his absence? She sipped her strong drink, and sighed to herself. If he was gone, then he would move heaven and earth, to come back to them. That much, she was certain of. A voice like a thunderstorm, pulled her from her revelry. “Vhat troubles jhoo, Madam Zeal? “ Anastasia said, as she sat down next to Brashi’i. “Nothing, Anastasia. I’m fine.” Brashi’i replied, haggardly. “I’m just worried about my crew.” “Vee hafv naht oolvays seen eye tooh eye, Brashi’i. Zhat does naht mean zhat I do naht vorry, tooh. I hafv mine own reasons, tooh vhant Captink Preiss tooh return unharmedt, jah?” Anastasia said, winking at the bartender. “I understand. Still, I’d rather not talk about it, kay?” Brashi’i said, delicately. “Zhat is fine. I vos only tryink tooh be friendly, Madam Zeal.” Anastasia said, accepting her drink from the slightly surly bartender. “Tank jhoo, Frankie.” “I have no idea what happened to them, where they went, or how to get them back. They vanished in the same place exactly, as Ensign Price and the General.” Brashi’i muttered, as a patron walked passed them. “Jyur man…. Zeh Captink… He is naht a childt. He vill be fine. Jhoo vill see!” Anastasia reassured her. “I know… It still doesn’t make it easier. Enjoy your drink, Captain. Good night.” Brashi’i said, downing the rest of her drink and leaving.

Asia AR60 51x5
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Godly Builds — 36:star Abyss Clearer
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32x5 Characters + 19x5 Weapons
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Ayaka w/ skin + BiS
Kokomi + R2 BiS
C1 Kazuha + BiS (1K EM)
C1 Shenhe + Spine/Fav
C1 Yelan + BiS
C1 Eula + BiS
Nahida + BiS (1K EM)
Raiden + BiS
Yae Miko + BiS
Wanderer
Yoimiya
Zhongli
Childe
Nilou
C4 Keqing
C2 Mona
C2 Qiqi
C1 Diluc
Jean
​
Weapons: (All BiS mentioned)
Aqua Simulacra
A Thousand Floating Dreams
Kagura's Verity
R2 Everlasting Moonglow
Engulfing Lightning
Song of Broken Pines
Mistsplitter Reforged
Freedom-Sworn
Skyward Atlas
Skyward Spine
R3 Skyward Blade
R1 Skyward Blade
x2 Aquila Favonia
The Unforged
Skyward Pride
​
7k+ Primos
140+d Welkin
EB Pity: 25
WB Pity: 55+
SB Pity: 45+ — 24 Acquaint Fate
27.8m+ Mora, 1.5k+ Hero's Wits, 7.3k+ Mystic Enhancement Ores
Extremely Well Maintained and Rich in Mats
I have receipts

Account's Character List includes: Xiao, Jean, Bennett, Zhongli, Raiden, Ganyu, Diona, Xingqiu, XIangling, Fischl, Beidou, Yelan, Sucrose, Kujou Sara, Mona, Diluc, Gorou, Noelle, Ningguang, Rosaria, Chongyun, Lisa, Barbara, Yanfei, Xinyan, Thoma, Kaeya, Amber, Nahida, Yun Jin, Sayu
Weapons: Amos bow, Engulfing Lightning, Primordial Jade Winged-Spear, Vortex Vanquisher, Skyward Spine, Everlasting Moonglow, Calamity Queller
Notable constellations: Jean C2, Raiden Shogun C2
Built Characters:
Xiao LVL 90: 65 CR and 202 CD
Jean C2 LVL 80
Bennett C7 LVL 80
ZhongLi LVL 80
Raiden LVL 90: 43 CR and 184 CD 61 EM
Ganyu LVL 80: 35 CR and 202 CD
XIngqiu LVL 80
Diona LVL 80
Xiangling LVL 80

i've been trying to figure out whether to keep him on mailed flower for the em boost and the passive or to give him skyward pride so i can adjust his artifacts while keeping his er high-ish. his crit ratio is 25/160 right now, and around 740 em, 170 er. thoughts?

Hi fellow Miko mains! I plan on wishing for Kagura's Verity once Miko's banner drops, and honestly as long as it's not a repeat, I could upgrade SOMEONE in my account. (Only 5 star weaps I got are Skyward Atlas, Pride, Blade, and Beacon).
Just on the chance that I get Lost Prayer, how would that affect Miko who's using Skyward Atlas? Better? Tiny bit better? Or actually worse? If I get Lost Prayer, I could swap her crit rate circlet for crit damage.
For contex, my Miko's got Skyward, 4pc Gilded, 2.3k Attack, 150 EM, 114 ER, and 64/166 crit ratio
I mainly use her with Fischl, c0 Kazuha, and Nahida/Yaoyao depending on who's available for the abyss.
​
Thanks in advance!

I've been vertically investing in Xiao for a very long time now and it has made me wonder what the best possible team would look like for him. What I mean is a team solely built around getting the most possible personal damage out of Xiao with 0 restrictions budget-wise. R5 weapons, 5* cons, anything. I'm definitely not a theorycrafter myself, so I'm hoping to find some answers from those who understand the game mechanics better than I do. Here's what I've thought of so far:

• Xiao: lvl90, C6, 4pcVH, R5 PJWS/Homa, 3x Crowned
• Faruzan: lvl90, C6, 4pcTOTM, Skyward Harp or R5 Fav Bow, Crowned ult for max dmg% buff
• Bennett: lvl90, C5+, 4pcNO, Aquila Favonia, Crowned ult for max atk bonus
• Jean: lvl90, C4+, Many options for artifacts; 4pcEoSF/2pcsAnemo&Atk/4pcOHC/4pcVV(ig), R5 Freedom Sworn

-If Faru/Benny/Jean is his best team then Homa will never proc, so pjws is clearly better here. Wish my VH pieces favored a crit rate weapon rather than Homa.
-I didn't list Elegy for Faruzan due to how the passive interacts with Freedom Sworn. One reason for this is the atk% buffs in their passives cannot stack and the EM Elegy offers isn't of much use to him. However, if they were run together, it gets a bit muddy concerning the way these passives proc over one another. Elegy gives EM & atk, and FS gives plunge atk dmg bonus & atk. Since the atk buffs won't stack, only one can be active at a time, leading me to believe that the most recently activated passive is the atk% buff you'll receive. If this is really how they work, then it would be a bit of a pain to have these weapons at different refines. Say your R1 Elegy procs after your R5 FS, the 20% atk from R1 Elegy would override the 40% atk from R5 FS. These weapons confuse me so much, I really hope I'm wrong about this. Not having either of them also makes it harder since I can't test them myself. In the case that this is true, it wouldn't be worth R5'ing Elegy just to ensure consistency with the atk%. While yes, Elegy has the highest base atk (for Faru A4) of the energy recharge bows, I'm on the fence about that being enough to justify it.
-I honestly have no clue what set is the best for Jean in this team, since Faruzan and Bennett are already using NO and TOTM.
Thanks in advance, guys. I'm a welkin player so I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything before I allocate my gems to certain things. :)

Is it worth it to level up my skyward pride (lvl 50) or can I keep using Mailed Flower (70)?
I use Em sands but i have nahida's particle generation.

Credits:
Created by Tanner #4959
Co-written by u/kiwispacemarine
Posted by u/kiwispacemarine
Original Story by u/Spacepaladin15
___________________________________________________________________________________________
POV: Reminel, Venlil
Date: [Standardized Human Time]: December 3rd, 2325. 2:10 P.M
Location: Earth, New York City, Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Bridge
As soon as I set my…er…’manga’ down, putting it in the glovebox with the rest of my stash, Murray started driving like a goddamn maniac! The inertia from ‘Ray’s insane maneuvers threw me around like a Venlil-sized ping-pong ball!
The psychotic human punched the accelerator, erratically twisting the wheel with his digits as he weaved in and out of NYC traffic at breakneck speed. I was just about to lose my lunch, when, suddenly, he slammed the handbrake, and drifted onto the exit lane for the Brooklyn Bridge. As soon as we were fully merged with the Bridge traffic, the formerly crazed primate instantly drove as if he was a part of normal traffic!
“That. Was. AWESOME!!!”, I squealed in awe.
‘Ray was hands down the best driver in our group. I dunno where he learned to do crazy shit like what he just pulled, (‘cause it was certainly not from stealing luxury cruisers), but it was so badass! Oh, and we were going to Coney Island to boot! This day kept getting better and better!
“You’re the only one that actually likes it when I have to become a human road hazard to make up time…”, ‘Ray muttered, “But hey, at least we’re finally on the bridge.”
Gyasim and Farasil were both unfazed from the brash display of a master wheelman at work, but a very nauseated Rocco seemed as if he was contemplating jumping out of the truck bed right then and there. As we drove down the bridge, I decided to poke my head out the window and get a good look at Manhattan.
The iconic Memorial Tower was a behemoth of a skyscraper, built during the 2160s soon after the close of the UN-Federation war. It was constructed on the detonation site of the AM-BOMB that destroyed the old New York City, signifying the perseverance of not just humanity, but all the combined races that managed to fight off the Federation threat. Standing at a gargantuan 2778 meters tall, it positively dwarfed the other buildings that stood around it, brooding over the skyline.
I got to marvel at the skyline for the whole of 10 seconds before I was abruptly interrupted by Murray.
“So, this chef, uh, ‘Sylvan’?”, he queried, “Which province is his body in, ‘Sim? I booked a flight to Kingshill International. Any distance more than 550 kilometers and it’s a no-go, and we’ll have to pick another target.”
“Eh, it’s in Ebbson province, a hop and a skip away from Kingshill”, the charcoal-black reptile replied nonchalantly, “Some tourist trap town called Sweetwater. It’s famous for a…diner? Daisy-something…er…Oh, the Lackadaisy Diner. Yes, it should be called the Lackadaisy Diner,” he said with confidence.
As we made our way off the bridge, we were met with a four way intersection. ‘Ray hung a right, passing by the galaxy-famous ‘Unity’ statue, which was an obsidian-black sculpture depicting 325 different species’ limbs pointing skywards, towards a hopeful future.
“How far is the distance from the airport to the town?” Murray inquired.
Gyasim wore a calculating look for a second, before replying.
“Should be some 300km out from our arrival, and we’ve got about…1200km of Hydrogen left now,” he explained, “Assuming we have... around half a tank left by the time we get to Venlil Prime, that’s well within this thing’s range. As for where he’s buried, I did some digging on the Lumnet, but I couldn’t find anything about a burial site. Guess we’ll just have to ask around town and find out.”
“Can we eat at the Lackadaisy when we get there? It’s a galaxy-wide 5-star, and it’s on my bucket list! Pleeeease?”, I mewled.
‘Ray shut me down quicker than a Shadestalker pouncing on prey.
“No time, man. Besides, we just ate.”, he pointed out, “Look, we’ve only got 49 days left to pull this off. Sorry.”
You didn’t sound that sorry to me…
My tail sagged and I donned a puppy-like expression as I moped in partially-mock-sadness
Murray boldly stated, “No.”
“Ugh, Whatever.”, I whined, “At least we’re finally going to the Coney Island fair! I’m a total sucker for rollercoaster rides, especially the Thunderbolt!!!”
“...only pitching along ‘cause the Intrepid sounds boring as shit, and I can’t bring myself to say no to Reminel…” Farasil murmured, half asleep.
“Look, just be at the Fair entrance by 3:40, alright? Y’know what, fuck it, be there by 4:00, I’ll lend ya’ 20 minutes extra, just cause I feel like being generous.”
“Thanks!!” I squealed, as my tail thrashed around my seat energetically.
Farasil sarcastically muttered something barely resembling a ‘great’, before dozing off.
We made our way down seemingly endless homogeneous city-blocks, until Murray eventually found the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The second we got onto the interchange, he fiddled with the numerous dials and knobs on the archaic infotainment system. ‘Ray settled on some classic 21st century EDM song, muttering something along the lines of “can’t believe this community) is still alive after 300 years”.
The primate punched the gas, pinning me, Gyasim, and the newly awoken Farasil to our seats. Rocco literally gripped the truck bed with his hands, as the 5.6 liter 9-speed V8 caroled it’s beautiful mechanical hymn comfortably past 110mph.
🎶 “I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW! THE WHOLE WORLD’S GOIN’ TOE TO TOE!” 🎶
As usual, Murray masterfully handled the pickup, as he calculatingly swerved from lane to lane. The suspension compressed, buckled, and expanded rhythmically, as the RPM needle sat between the 6,500-7,000 range. The tires squealed as his feet shifted from the brakes, to the accelerator, to the brakes again. It was just ‘Ray against the traffic, and it sure as hell looked like ‘Ray was gonna win.
🎶 “BOMBSHOCK!” 🎶
Gyasim, Farasil, and Rocco simultaneously shrieked in terror as Murray braked to 85 mph and swerved the pickup through a 2 meter gap in between two public automated roadcars, barely avoiding a collision. He then jettisoned the vehicle back to 115, and then…went into the HOV lane???
“By Intala, ‘Ray! You’re a great driver!”, Farasil chirped.
Huh? Normally he’d be livi-
“IS WHAT I WOULD HAVE SAID IF YOU CONSIDERED OUR FUCKING LIVES FOR A SINGLE SECOND WHILE WE’RE ON THE ROAD!! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?! INTALA, HOW DID YOU EVEN GET A LICENSE?!-”
And there it is, ladies and gentlemen!
Murray was too immersed in his own vibe to care, Farasil, despite the circumstances, managed to launch into a rant about road safety, Rocco was busy vomiting into the oncoming traffic, and Gyasim blankly looked ahead as if he had a severe case of PTSD. All I could muster was a ‘squee’ as I relished in the adrenaline rush that was ‘Ray’s highway driving.
As we swerved into the relatively empty HOV lane, the Primate fully floored the accelerator, taking the pickup to its top speed of 135 mph. The sheer thrill of the experience took my breath away, as everything around me faded into a gray metropolitan blur.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“Ey! Remi? Remi! Reminel! Wake up!”
Man! I feel way less energetic! That car-ride was more than enough thrill for me today…
I came to, finding myself strapped to my seat, the digital clock on the infotainment system now reading 3:40 PM, in italics.
Huh, guess I won’t be able to go to the fair. On second thought I’ve never really liked the awful hygienic conditions and spehing kids anyways. The plan comes first, Reminel. Stick to it!
“What happened, and where the hell are we? Where’s the rest of the gang?!”, I groggily bleated.
A green-eyed human came to my side, and gave a brief explanation.
“Well we were jammed in traffic some 15 minutes after you passed out. We’re in Manhattan, more specifically at the Intrepid Aerospace museum, Farasil’s nodding off in the truck, and the gang’s somewhere inside the ship right now. Oh, and that whole plan we had with the fair’s gone to shit, due to time constraints and general New York bullshittery. I had to turn tail and head to the Intrepid, lest I wanted to miss our ferry tomorrow. I know you get really excited about childish things like fairs and whatnot, so I’m genuinely sorry about the cancellation, man.”
I reassured Murray, affirming my thoughts.
“I know I was all hyped up earlier , ‘Ray, but…after giving it some real thought, I don’t really care for the fair, man. Honestly, I feel drained, and putting up with incompetent idiots for the sake of a couple rollercoasters doesn’t sit well with me.”
Murray seemed borderline shocked at my statement.
“The hell? I mean, I’m not complainin’ but, that’s sorta’ unlike ya’ man. Well, whatever, we’re goin’ to the Intrepid in about 5 minutes, so I hope your ready.”, he then leaned into my right ear flap, dropping his voice to a whisper, “I’m takin’ it as an opportunity to develop the plan in depth with Gyasim. You can join in on the discussion, if ya want.”
“Shit, sure, I-don’t-see-why-not”, I half assedly assented.
Why does it feel like all my energy just…vanished?
The human and I made our way into the Intrepid, where I was immediately greeted by Gyasim and Rocco admiring some sort of…bomber aircraft? It took up an absolutely gargantuan amount of space, the left wing alone dwarfing even ‘Sim, who was 8 foot 6! By comparison, I was about the size of a Dossur next to a Human. As I looked around the aircraft, I noticed that there was a plaque of some kind next to it.
Gyasim was analyzing every inch of the craft with interest, and upon noticing us in his peripheral vision, called us over.
“You guys! Look at this…this absolute behemoth of a craft! Sure, its weapons are extremely dated by today's standards, but by all means it’s still a respectable aircraft!”
We were close enough now that I could actually read the plaque.
THE B-72 BOMBER:
“MANUFACTURED c. August 2136, DECOMISSIONED c. 2234 MOVED TO THE INTREPID AEROSPACE, SEA, AND LAND MUSEUM c. 2286”, I narrated.
“200 years old, huh? And it’s been sittin’ here for the last 40.” Murray quipped.
Developed by Boeing-Grumman Aerospace Engineering Systems, the B-72 ‘Duppy’ Exo-atmospheric Bomber was one of the first human-designed space-faring weapons platforms. Designed in late 2136 in response to the dual threats of the Federation and the Arxur Dominion, the Duppy was essentially an evolution of the late 21st Century B-71 High-Altitude Bomber (see exhibit 35).
I chortled, “What kinda name is ‘Duppy’?”
“‘Based on the 21-Century B-71’, eh?” Murray quoted, “They must’ve been pretty desperate back then, modifying old pre-FTL designs!”
While mostly identical to the earlier design, the new spaceplane sported powerful plasma cannons and a warp drive. Duppies were used throughout the Predator-Prey wars of the mid-22nd Century, including the Human-Gojid War, the Defence of Earth and the Skirmish on Sillis, amongst others. The B-72 was typically deployed alongside other bombers, such as the B-109 ‘Exofortress’ Anti-Ship Heavy Bomber.
“Exofortress?”, Rocco confusedly exclaimed.
Its most notable deployment was during Operation Blindside, when several squadrons of B-72 bombers were deployed on a pre-emptive strike to eliminate Gojidi Defensive outposts that were being used as staging grounds for an invasion of Earth.
‘Ray seemed to sober up slightly.
“Blindside, eh?” he murmured, “I read about that in school once… They lost most of the craft that flew on that one.”
“Oh.” I mumbled. “What does it say about the armamen-”
Before I could even finish my sentence, the unusually boisterous reptile delved into more and more incomprehensible military jargon.
“Look at these!” he tapped the wing edge excitedly, “45-Series Plasma railguns! They had four of these things! Four! No wonder the Feddies didn’t stand a fuckin’ chance! Haha!” he exclaimed gleefully, “Ooooohh, and look at those ENGINES! Vintage Rolls-Electric G326 LA’s?!” he babbled, rattling off incomprehensible serial numbers.
“Oh, baby, imagine if this thing was still operational! Granted the Alcubierre warp on this thing is hardly 15x FTL, that still doesn’t discount the fact that this thing is a certified classic! And these…” he pointed to a pair of missiles displayed below the bomber, “These glorious ay-gee-em-seven-hundred cruise missiles, with double-you two-hundred, Five-megaton warheads!” he recited, seemingly from memory.
“How come you know so much about this plane, ‘Sim?” Murray asked, amused by the reptile’s mood.
“Well, it’s because my family’s involved in the shipbuilding business! Soon after the fall of the Dominion, my great-great-great grandfather, Hathoris, decided to invest in the newly reformed Wriss Senate, which was primarily composed of revolutionaries. With the money he made back from funding humanitarian efforts, he managed to start a shipbuilding business! Obviously, over-time…”
While the Arxur recounted the beginning of his love affair with the ancient spaceplane, I looked around the exhibit a bit more. Seeing a ladder leading up to the cockpit, I climbed up it. Peering down into the dull-gray compartment, I saw a mannequin dressed in an ancient, yellow flight suit strapped into one of the craft’s seats, as if it was flying the contraption. Looking across to the instrument panel, I saw the museum had managed to somehow make the various display panels run through animations of what they’d normally show while the bomber was flying.
Amongst the sea of colours, however, my eyes were drawn to the one control that wasn’t lit up.
It was a bright red handle, bordered by black and yellow warning stripes.
“MASTER EJECT,” read some text above the handle, Underneath the large, bright-red letters, was some smaller text.
“In case of EMERGENCY, pull handle,” I read, “Huh.”
I stared into the cockpit for some time, trying to imagine what it would have been like for those old pilots, flying through storms of plasma and missiles in a craft the old Federation would have deemed barely spaceworthy.
Would I have been able to do that? I thought to myself, before shaking my head in amusement.
What’s gotten into you? I wondered wryly, Getting sentimental all of a sudden? Hey, I wonder if they put any ‘special’ nose-art on this thing!
Turning away from the cockpit and the instruments running through their endless facsimile of a combat mission, I walked down the ladder and joined the others.
As we made our way down the insanely large lower decks of the Intrepid, Gyasim excitedly pointed out a group of sleek, angular, fighter jets that were painted in some sort of white paint as if he was a hatchling pointing at his favorite butcher store.
“What’s so special about this one?” Rocco groaned.
“White multiroles, huh?” Murray quipped.
“Not just any white multirole fighters, F-307’s!” Gyasim…squealed(?) with a childlike fervor.
Arxur can squeal?! Go figure!
Damn…those things look badass! Man, I wish I was a deep-space operative, flying kickass jets and arresting pirates! Hmmm, I wonder what’s on the plaque?
I moved my hindpaws over to the medium-sized jet, as the golden-bronze tablet in front of the exhibition became coherent enough to read.
“Hey, guys!” I called out, “Check out the plaque!”
THE F-307 MULTIROLE FIGHTER:
“MANUFACTURED c. August 2136, DECOMISSIONED c. 2193 MOVED TO THE INTREPID AEROSPACE, SEA, AND LAND MUSEUM c. 2314”, I chronicled
“Y’know, this entire generation of military space-planes seem to be decommissioned at the same time, almost like they were pretty much designed to be un-upgradeable after war-time.”
Murray audibly mumbled to himself.
“Are you nuts?” Gyasim rounded on the human, “A service life of over 50 damn years, and you’re calling it ‘un-upgradeable’? The war wasn’t THAT long!”
Developed by Lockheed-Dynamics in response to the Arxur threat, the F-307 ‘Starfighter II’ was the first true star-fighter fielded by humanity. First used in the defense of a space station in Venlil space in mid-2136, the F-307 was used throughout the Predator-Prey Wars. Thanks to its speed, maneuverability and ability to be networked with drones and other spacecraft, it played a pivotal role in U.N. anti-ship engagements.
“Hey ‘Sim!” Ray called to the still-incensed reptile, “How come it’s called the Starfighter-II if it’s only the first proper star-fighter?”
“Some Terran plane from your 20th century was called the ‘Starfighter,” the Arxur replied dismissively, “You know, you should really learn your own history.”
“Uh-huh. Odd naming for a 20th century craft, but it’s typical of human folks to aspire, I guess. Great. Well, anyways, y’all wanna take a peek at the cockpit?”
Gyasim practically scampered up to the viewing deck, while I trailed closely behind.
Who knew spaceplanes of all things could be so exciting!
Peering into the flight deck, the first thing I noticed besides the mannequin was a massive animation-looped touchpad taking up almost half the space in the cockpit! A lot of the animations and control schemes were similar to the B-72, possessing relatively few buttons. Most of the controls, like the bomber, had either been simplified to a handful of buttons near the joystick, or were relegated to the glorified holopad in the center console. However, the layout was radically different, courtesy of the different manufacturer and the fact that this was indeed a multirole fighter.
It’s unique in its own way. Might not be as cool looking as the bomber, but still!
There were two control levers, one being the joystick, and the other being throttle control. Most of the additional buttons n’ switches were dedicated to ejection and weapons firing. Deciding there wasn’t much of note here, I stepped down from the viewing deck, before Gyasim launched into another fuckin’ college lecture.
As I walked over to the others, I saw ‘Sim staring at another exhibit with a dumbfounded expression. Wondering what had got his attention, I glanced over to where he was staring. Half-expecting a female Arxur, I instead saw another fighter craft sitting in the corner of the museum. Although I couldn’t get a good look at it from this distance, it looked even older than the F-307.
How many more of these things do the humans have? I wondered.
I could just make out the title of the exhibit from where we were standing:
​
McDonnell-Douglas AV-8B Harrier-II ‘Jump Jet’.
“Protector, that thing looks like it’ll fall apart any second”, Rocco remarked.
“Jump jet?” I wondered aloud, “What does that…”
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” ‘Sim screeched, drawing several strange looks from other museum-goers, “A VTOL jet? HOW DID THE HUMANS GET VTOL THAT EARLY?”
The Arxur looked like he was about to storm over to the antique jet, but was stopped by Murray.
“No time, ‘Sim,” the human placed a firm hand on the reptile’s shoulder, “We’ve gotta book the Hotel we’re stayin’ at for the night. C’mon, let’s jet, heh.”
Murray practically dragged Gyasim out by his scales, while Rocco and I followed. We made our way out the exit of the Intrepid, and back to the orange Nissan.
“That was actually more fun than I anticipated!” I chuckled, “I might actually take an interest in planes once this whole gravedigging schtick is over.”
“Glad to hear it!” Gyasim replied, “Ooooh I’ve got so much to tell you about! Like-”
“Not. Now.” Murray scolded.
Farasil woke up, startled by our sudden entrance into the vehicle, as ‘Ray fired up the V8 and made his way out the Intrepid parking lot, and into the now 7PM rush of Manhattan traffic.
“Well, today didn’t go exactly as planned, but I guess that’s the Nature of Life, eh fellas?” Ray remarked.
“I’m glad I got some fucking rest, is all.” Farasil groggily cawed.
Rocco’s trunk made it’s way through the hole in the rear window, to the visible distress of ‘Sim.
“Eh…the food was nice, I guess.” Gyasim devolved into some sort of ten minute long lecture about general aeronautics. Almost everyone in the car zoned him out, so I spoke up.
“I had some actual fun at the Intrepid!” I said quipped, “Honestly surprised that spaceplanes could be that intricate, that interesting!”
Murray added on to my remark.
“Y’know, each one of those things has a story behind them. A pilot. A crew. Really good insight into the times, man.”
As we navigated through the dense Downtown Manhattan traffic, I found myself tiring, and began to nap in my car seat, dreaming of spaceplanes and war heroes.
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A/N: Sorry for the week+ it took to make this guys! I'm going to be pre-occupied with work for the next three weeks, so expect progress to be sluggish until Summer Vacation arrives here in America. I know most folks voted for some sort of fair or carnival, but I just couldn't make it fit with the story while developing the characters, so I defaulted on the Intrepid. As per usual, I'm always open to criticisms, comments on the story, who you would like to see in future installments, etc.