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gamestop-compendium · 2 months

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Cat Frenzy (FUN UNIT, 2012)

ah, cat frenzy. takes me back, this one does. originally sold on the dsi shop for 200 Nintendo Points (roughly 2 USD), Cat Frenzy is a match puzzle game where you slide rows or columns of cats to match 3 of them and clear them from the board. easy! you can only slide them left, right, or down, and you can push the cats out of the playboard. the stock button adds more cats to the board to work with, and once you run out of cats the game ends. there are also bonus cats! cats in cans that add 10 to the stock, cats with 2x multipliers that double the points you get from that match/chain, and cats with fish that clear every cat of that type on the board. nice way to make the game more interesting ...or at least, that's how it is in quick play. in mission mode you have to clear all the cats it tells you to, increasing in difficulty over time. most of the missions consist of "get a chain of [x] with [y] amount of moves" with different twists, such as rocks on the board or certain patterns of cats you have to work with

i played SO MUCH cat frenzy when i was a tadpole. like SOOOOO MUCH. it still holds up fairly well, but i will admit that it gets kinda boring after a while. its largely just the same type of thing over and over again. quick play is a fun diversion especially for car rides with nothing else to do, but not really for big road trips of the same nature. good tool for getting a baby frog addicted to puzzle games though! plus it has a save/load feature in quick play, which i think is pretty cool

the mission mode is pretty solid. i feel like id be better at the missions if it wasnt currently 2:25 AM as im writing this line. the first 8 serve as a tutorial for the game as a whole, and the other 40 are actual missions. unfortunately it is 2 in the morning. i cant get past mission 13 as of writing this, but honestly i sorta stopped trying. still a good mode! my brain is just drifting in and out of focus. whoops

the music is an odd beast. cat frenzy has a total of 2 songs -- one for the title screen and one for the gameplay -- and while theyre good, they can very easily get a little grating. theyre real catchy though! ive had the title screen song especially inscribed into my neurons for about a decade ...this is normally where id link to the ost or something, but from what ive seen nobodys ripped the music for this game yet. go figure. ill see what i can do about grabbing the 2 songs from this thing, but i havent done it before, so it might take a little while. stay tuned! (or dont, we advocate for free will and autonomy on this page)

the overall sound design, however, is somewhat lacking and bizarre. there are sounds for things -- moving cats, hitting buttons, etc. -- but i cant say that they make much sense. each type of cat meows differently when you tap it to move it! theres a drum hit when you match cats!! you get cute fanfare when you hit a new level in quick play/clear a mission!!! those are fun!!!!! but the buttons make weird and baffling sounds, most notably:

the stock button is a spring sound

the hint and retry buttons are squeaky toy sounds (same for the menu button in mission mode)

hitting the "to the main menu" button in mission select just makes a cartoon bonk-honk sound (zonk? whonk? idk what it would count as. very likely youve heard it before at some point in your life though)

the menu button in quick play makes a sound thats a mix between paper shuffling and cicada wings (paper cicada?)

the main menu buttons make a weird kinda cork squeak-esque sound i cant describe and, most importantly,

hitting all the other buttons makes a sound i can only possibly transcribe as a swift and soft (squeedle-eek!) noise its confusing. some of these are only tangentially cat related, but most are just completely unrelated to anything in the game. whats the deal here????? did they just buy a buncha stock sounds for this game? so strange to me. regardless, the sound design just isnt all that good. these sounds are funny at first but eventually even the meows become incessant and droning. the best way to get the idea of the kind of experience it is would be to play it yourself. there's very little gameplay of this game online, and what we do have is either mostly silenced in lieu of an admittedly pretty cool song that nonetheless appears nowhere in the game or has about the same video quality as a stick of celery

i will note -- i dont fucking know WHAT that image from the dsi shop page is. i completely wiped it from my memory over the years, but looking back that pink cat is probably why i even bought it. the official page and trailer also claimed these cats are "stuck in a well" and need rescuing, but the board is very clearly a house and these cats are clearly not in any sort of distress. what gives? the cats in-game are more than cute enough to be marketable to 2012 audiences! tell me why you did this, fun unit! i need to know!

overall rating: 5.3 - It's Alright. cat frenzy is a cute little diversion. not the best, mind you, but it's good. it's serviceable. with some kinda-repetitive music and gameplay that starts getting stale in the same timeframe as an apple oxidizing once its cut, youre still better off playing it for the more boring stretches of time you encounter in your life. unless you have a kid who likes cats! it's damn good fun for anyone under 12, but slowly loses its luster every year afterwards. Do Play.

#dsi post #recommendation: do play #rating: it's alright #cat frenzy #nintendo dsi #dsiware #fun unit

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mossy-paws · 6 months

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Cutiespace (PHIGHTING!)

The bubblegum bitch at his finest

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xbomboi · 1 month

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hello Ever After High tumblr community, i humbly request your attention briefly.

so basically, i have a lot of Ever After High ideas clogging my head, ranging from misc. concepts, to plans for entire storylines/arcs. (this includes world building regarding both what we’ve already seen and what we haven’t yet seen, character arcs and development, fairytales and fairytale characters we have yet to actually meet onscreen, etc.)

i doubt anyone cares that much, but i have this vision for how the rest of the Ever After High story (in the tv continuity) would go. i have tentative plans to write this continuation using the 4 episode per story arc format that eah later switched to, while staying in line with the tone and writing style of the specials/webisodes so that it feels like it could naturally work as an official, canon continuation of the series, all while still telling a compelling narrative.

currently i have a rough outline for the first four-episode story arc that i’ve come up with (though i still have a few things i wanna workshop with it) written out. (side note: i typically write the finished draft of stuff in screenplay format, so the rough outline is written with eventually being transferred into that format in mind.)

i just wanted to post this to see if there’s any actual, palpable interest in this at all. and because my friends think i’m insane for keeping my work to myself & the select few people i’ve chosen to show it to as opposed to publicly sharing it because they at least think it’s good enough to be shown off.

so, yeah, just putting this out there incase there are people who wanna know more. i’d be willing to share the aforementioned rough outline i’ve written.

tldr; i want to write—and finish—the story of Ever After High.

#i also have several little ideas for potential webisodes #again keeping in line with the tone and structure of an official eah webisode #part of that means maintaining the show’s rating and not switching it to be targeted towards older audiences #despite quite literally writing this for (at least i’m assuming are) older audiences #but the themes & narratives i have in mind still have a good amount of complexity #plus mature concepts #plus nuance that would be pretty engaging for older audiences #in the same vein that the contents of all official ever after high media is #alright i’ll stop yapping now before i get carried away pouring out my heart to a crowd of zero.#eah #ever after high #raven queen #apple white #briar beauty #maddie hatter #madeline hatter #darling charming #faybelle thorn #ashlynn ella #daring charming #dexter charming #blondie lockes #hunter huntsman #cerise hood #cedar wood #ca cupid #c.a. cupid #duchess swan #sparrow hood #lizzie hearts

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bisamwilson · 10 months

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MOVIES ARE BACK BABEY

#155M!!! 80M for an R rated three hour biopic!!!!! hello!!!!!#iirc this is the first time ever that one movie has hit $100M and another has hit $50M at the same time during opening weekend #like!!!! cinema!!!!#i spend the vast majority of my free time at the movie theater alright. and like.#the last time i’ve seen the lobby as busy as it was thursday night was during fuckin endgame #and i tend to see major events the day of release #anyways!! we’re so back!!#mak rants #mak watches movies #barbie #oppenheimer #barbenheimer

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en-chi-la-da · 1 year

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sure my comms are closed for now but yknow what? some christmas hinadam just 4 you anyways anon (just in time for gundhams birthday too lmao hbd king 👑) so consider these a freebie 👌🏼

#all i read was christmas hinadam and i popped off LMAO the worms will never leave at this rate #hinadam #sdr2 #gundham tanaka #hajime hinata #danganronpa #GUNDHAM TANAKA MY SCRUNKLY HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :))) YAY!#ari art #ask draw #hhhngnghgh i didnt HAVE to draw the chibis yknow.... but i couldnt help myself tee hee!#tho i feel like you cant really see some of the smaller details/lines...sweats #also if you cant read the text then just open in new tab yadda yadda #ALRIGHT BUT FR i gotta stop making ask doodles for now i still gotta finish the six chars meme thing and also its almost christmas EEEEEEEK #gundhamronpa

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asjjohnson · 4 months

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Today I decided to test how my new camera does with snow.

honorable mention background snowflakes:

...I don't see much point in adding image descriptions to all of these. They're just close-up photos of snowflakes.

The snowflakes are on the metal railings on either side of my front steps, but it's impossible to tell that from the photos.

Most of these are dendrite snowflakes (the large type with a lot of branches), but there's a few other types of snowflakes in some of the photos. One photo has a small hexagonal snowflake. I don't know it's classification, but it might be a short cylinder (it's two hexagons on top of each other, but the angle and my camera aren't good enough to get the exact details).

The last photo is smaller and blurry. It shows a small, simple six-armed snowflake on top of a large dendrite snowflake.

#asj post #snowflake #photography #macro photography #there's around 80 photos that turned out alright out of 192. Which is really good odds.#My last camera (which I broke last December) didn't have good enough odds to go out for snow photos. The lens wasn't retractable enough.#The camera I had before that was better with snowflakes than that last one and had a retractable lens but it still hadn't gotten 40%.#Though it's possible today is a first-time exception. The good-photo rate could be lower next time.#(I have a better photo of the last flake but the lighting's different and the small snowflake on top is invisible besides its very center.)#(all of these photos are cropped by the way.)

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kingkenzieofmold · 2 months

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Hello! Been sick for the past 3 days and did what any artist does at one point in their lives, draw art about it. So enjoy a drawing of me in stick form suffering while bubbles talk about the past 3 days I’ve been sick.

Content Warning: Discussion of nose bleeds, sickness and mental health.

Side Note: wanted to add a bit about me going through a crisis but didn’t know where to add it. So here is some lore about me. Every time I get sick I go through a mental crisis over what ever is happening in my life. Crisis this time was me getting sick after years of not getting sick. Last time was about my relationship status I believe. Now enjoy the art, all of it is exaggerated so fear not, I have done a mental health and physical health check in. I am safe and alright!

[Text: *Internally Screaming*

(Rebooted up 2DS to play Pokémon Moon Rowlet Beloved)

(They are ready to Fight God or Become God they’ll decide once they finish walking their dogs)

(Been sick for 3 days is completely over it)

(Pokémon Go addiction returned)

(Gets chronic nosebleeds. Whenever the nose is dryed out of to soft. The nose will bleed. They have bleed enough blood need for a sacrifice to a high power)

(And this was my prayer “Save me from this terrible Nightmare” the tornado - owl city)

(tiktok edits getting them through the day new crush acquired what is this madness)

(Unable to sleep for more than 8 hours they tried send help) ]

#tw nosebleed #tw blood #tw sickness #tw mental health #Honestly made this to make me laugh #It did #I wanted to highlight some of the stuff that has happened #Thought to share with you guys as a scope into me and what has been going on #Getting better almost cured #It was a common cold btw #So common yet took me out back lol #Final check I am Alright and my health is improving at a fast rate #Do not worry about me as I am going to be good in the end #Will still be ill for 2ish or more days till for recovery but a 5 day cold is not bad #till then #moldy art

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sparring-spirals · 2 years

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The Bell's Hells, who blew up ONE tower early on and had to haunt their way out of it and now finally have a scapegoat: I can't believe TRESHI blew up the Moon Tower! i can't believe that him and HIM ALONE, ARMAND TRESHI, BLEW UP THAT TOWER. How dastardly, who could do such a thing. Oh! Armand Treshi, of course. All by himself. How dare he.

#critical role #cr spoilers #c3e35 #cr liveblogging #armand treshi #bell's hells #shitpost #alright im flagging a bit so ill be potentially be playing video games or something simultaneously so the post rate will slow down.#hopefully. ideally. we'll see. my apologies.

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leonsliga · 10 months

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Thomas Müller gushing about his bf Manuel Neuer while determining what his FIFA 17 ratings should be (X)

#oh Manu’s handling is top class alright 😏#we’re not going to talk about my video editing ok #the biggest missed opportunity in this video is that they didn’t have Manu try and decide Thomas’s ratings #neuller #thomas müller #thomas muller #manuel neuer #fc bayern munich #fc bayern münchen #fc bayern #videos

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front-facing-pokemon · 5 months

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im so sorry for starting the front facing plushie trend

ohohoooo don't worry it's not just plushies. here you go i'm throwing these all at you

from friend of the blog lurantis. two whole angles of the scorbunny, prime, and this sobble who looks like they're waiting for you to tell a funny joke after you just told one you thought was funny. they didn't think it was funny

this sandile from daluckycat. a very lucky cat indeed

this munna figure from spacialsquid. this could be a squid in space, theoretically

imallergictomyself says their pichu says hi. i say hi back to him but you should probably get that checked out, imallergictomyself

good to see the fennekin line getting the ratings they deserve so far, though i would have rated higher. i'm wondering if the anon nose rater is capable of giving anything outside [4/10, 9/10]

this, veritably, would not be copying my idea, then..! it also sounds like it would be a helluva lot more work

#not pkmn #nose ratings #PHEW. littlevandalist you've started something‚ alright #but we're out here. we're out here!!

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sundayswiththeilluminati · 1 year

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It’s Week 3 and I promised I’d commit to my theory for Season of the Seraph’s story arc if hubris didn’t come knocking for me before then, so time to put my money where my digital mouth is. I’ve seen folks talking about the first part of this theory, but not the second, so here goes: 1) Clovis will try to make himself the new Warmind and 2) in the process breach the Ascendant Realm and open the way for Xivu Arath.

Clovis, by the way, gave away the game like two minutes in because he can’t keep his dang mouth shut. Clovis couldn’t resist a good smug gloat. He gave it all away when Ana said god, fine, hop on this disk and we’ll go. He said, “Once I am in control, all will be as it should be. The Warmind will rise again.”

As it should be? That line stopped me cold. Clovis hated that Rasputin was in charge. He couldn’t believe he, the genius Clovis Bray the first, was expected to take orders from a jumped-up calculator he used to own. A restored Rasputin is not “as it should be” in Clovis-land. What is “as it should be?” It’s Clovis, so that’s easy: the way things should be is with him in charge. He doesn’t say, “Rasputin will rise again.” He says, “The Warmind will rise again.” Clovis is going to get all the subminds together except put himself at the center instead of the Rasputin core Ana has, and try to make himself the new Warmind. All of which would just be fun to watch as we wait for Red to break him, but: there’s Xivu Arath to deal with.

We’re all worried about Xivu getting into the warsats. I don’t think she wants them at all. In the Judgement of Kelgorath lore she doesn’t order Kelgorath to go get her some warsats. She says: possess the Warmind. Xivu Arath has plenty of weapons already. What she needs, as Mara points out, is a way in. Mara comments in the encounter dialogue that moving an army through the ascendant realm is very hard. But Xivu did it over Torobatl. How? Sav showed her the way: she did it by getting someone on the other side to build her a gate.

I was surprised in Season of the Hunt by the extent of control Xivu displayed. I thought her unlikely to go for subversive powers like Oryx’s Taking or Sav’s manipulation. But she’s a lot smarter than I gave her credit for. Her Wrathborn contagion is effective, coercive, and quick-spreading. It makes sense metaphorically: violence is a kind of disease, an insidious way of thinking that spreads and snares people till they see everything as a conflict to be settled by force. Xivu invaded the Cabal by infecting Caiatl’s co-ruler Umun’arath, general of the Cabal legions. Driven further and further into obsession with the conflict Xivu Arath makes herself synonymous with, Umun’arath invoked her in the rituals of warfare - the same ones Eris and Eido were discussing - opening the way for Xivu’s armies to pour into the skies over Torobatl.

For Xivu to repeat that trick in our solar system, she needs another Umun’arath. But Umun’arath was a singularly convenient target: the military chief of the war machine of a huge conquering interstellar empire, or in other words, someone you might call...war-minded. When scouting our solar system Xivu probably heard the name “Warmind” and thought hell yeah, that’s my ticket in. Except it’s not, because Rasputin’s a) not coherent right now and b) not fundamentally the personality she needs. That’s what we’re already exploring this season: at his core Rasputin was never a martial system. He was a pretentious art nerd who got drafted. They made him a Warmind. Xivu Arath needs someone coterminous with war for its own sake, with conflict as the apex of existence, with the supreme violence she represents. And ironically it turns out the Warmind Rasputin is not sufficiently war-minded.

But Clovis is.

Clovis Bray already sees life as endless contest and conflict via his pseudo-evolutionary legacy bullshit. He’s Xivu’s dream target. When you first see her forces attacking him Clovis is like “they want my precious braaaaaain!” and Osiris goes, “no, they want him. Brought to submit.” That’s exactly what Clovis wants of Rasputin (and to a lesser extent Ana and Elsie): brought to submit. He’s neck deep in Darkness on his own, no convincing needed. And he’s a coward. If Clovis hasn’t cut a deal yet with either Xivu or the Witness to ensure “humanity’s” (his) survival in exchange for his allegiance, he will as soon as he has the reins. After all, let it not be said that he left humanity to fend for itself, right?

So that’s her plan: Xivu Arath attacks the warsat infrastructure to force us to go to Clovis and give him access to Red’s enclave. She waits while we do all the hard work of laying out the subminds to conjure back Rasputin. Clovis inevitably betrays us to slot himself in instead and take control, rousing Rasputin’s entire apparatus of violence to impose his own command on the solar system, helped along by the Wrathborn contagion already brewing in his subconscious. In doing so he invokes such immense rites of war that he opens the way for Xivu to step through. It’s Torobatl all over again...except I don’t think trying to “become the Warmind” is going to work out the way Clovis thinks.

Clovis still doesn’t understand what Rasputin is, and he still doesn’t understand - as he doesn’t understand with any of his kids - that Rasputin is no longer as Clovis designed him to be. Even Ana hasn’t fully gotten there yet. Both Brays are still thinking of Red as a sort of jigsaw puzzle to be pieced back together. But assembling himself was the first thing Rasputin ever did. Ana still hasn’t cracked the real reason “plug engram into Exo, receive Warmind” isn’t working: because Rasputin is a distributed intelligence. He lives in connections, literally and metaphorically - between warsats, between worlds, with Ana, with humanity. He’s a creature fundamentally built on network and communication. Rasputin is already still out there. He’s in that engram, but he’s everywhere else, too. He’s still in the warsats. He’s talking to us through the Sleeper nodes. He’s going to fight Clovis for control of that Exo Frame; that’s why the frame has red eye-lights in all the season art even though Clovis uses blue ones.

And in the larger paracausal sense our entire solar system still bears the marks of the Warmind’s influence. He’s synonymous with the Golden Age. The same way Oryx conjured back Savathun and Xivu Arath by recreating the shapes they made, Rasputin will be conjured back by the shape he traced out in a huge web of connections and actions and effects on others that Clovis, an isolated point, fundamentally doesn’t understand. So Clovis is going to pull his little coup, possibly smashing that engram along the way, and he’s going to think it’s working, too - right before Rasputin cracks him open like an egg, because the Warmind never left. I think this season ends with us fighting Clovis in full Wrathborn mode while Xivu Arath’s armies stand ready just on the other side in the Ascendant Realm, hammering to get in, and Rasputin will deliver the final blow from inside - or maybe not, since killing Umun’arath completed the ritual last time, maybe we just wedge Clovis into his own Pillory engram - stopping Xivu from getting her beachhead and leaving her angry but stranded in the Ascendant Realm.

Hopefully. Either way I can’t wait to see what happens.

#Destiny 2 #Season of the Seraph #the Warmind Rasputin #Clovis Bray #Xivu Arath #and that's what I think about that #alright I've publicly placed my bets #I've got skin in the game now #let's see how amazingly wrong I'll be #I have like a negative hit rate when it comes to guessing Destiny plots #I'm also a little nervous about how clearly Seraph Station is aimed at the Traveler #I really hope we don't end up looking down the barrel of what's left of LOKI CROWN #thanks to Clovis being a dickweed #ra ra Rasputin Mars' greatest war machine #overthinking is my superpower #loremind #this is the wager of existence

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ninja-knox-ur-sox-off · 8 months

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Day 3: Patience/Focus

Prompt List

Pt. 3 of The Empire of Samadhi AU

Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 (you are here) | Pt. 4

Wordcount: 3k

Summary: Red Son is the son of an old empire, Mei is the daughter of a new one. Red Son, consumed by fire, was put into an induced stasis sleep to stop the world from burning until his family can find a way to safely remove the fire. They find a way but he never wakes up. Hundreds of years later he awakes to discover his power resides within another as she stares at him with wide eyes on fire.

To wield the fire of Samadhi requires focus. To survive around such idiocy, Red Son requires more patience than he practised whilst creating said fire of Samadhi. But before that, Mk wakes up with a spider on his nose.

Mk woke up warm.

He hadn’t been warm in a long time.

Well, honestly he hadn’t really woken up in a long time. It was all muffled sounds, freezing cold and blurry bits of scenes unfolding in front of him here and there while he was unable to move or think clearly. It was… weird to be warm and be able to twitch his fingers without first being told to. But… nice. He really thought it was a dream at first.

He could hear muffled voices, two of them. One familiar and one not. His body ached despite the warmth as he slowly gained consciousness. His vision started out a little blurry when he opened his eyes, then adjusted after a few moments and he was greeted with a small black spider sitting on his nose.

Mk screamed.

He was already halfway up the cave wall, cramming himself into a space he could fit by the time Someone came running in, fire flickering around them. They looked around wildly, alarmed, fists clenched and guard up.

“Mk!”

The voice was loud and panicked and Mk would recognize it anywhere.

“Mei!”

He didn’t really think before he was practically launching himself off the cavern wall and at his best friend. He realized maybe it wasn’t the best course of action when he noticed how high up he’d been--and when he processed the fact she was on fire--but by then it was too late.

Mei yelped as he slammed into her from above and they both went crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs, rings and fire.

Fire filled the cavern in a small, startled explosion. Mk’s skin burned with a distant memory of pain he couldn’t place the origin of, but before long it was clear the flames weren’t actually touching him. Despite the realization his breathing still came more shallowly than usual for some reason.

Mei grabbed his hand and pulled him through the smoke and flames to the mouth of the cavern. Mk shielded his eyes and gripped back tightly, the warmth of her hand seeping into his fingers and even up his arm. She was really there.

They stumbled out coughing.

“What is wrong with you people?” came an incredulous voice, one Mk didn’t recognize.

He glanced up, coughing and waving away smoke to try and see who it was coming from.

“Oh!” Mk said when he saw him. “Hello! You’re really scary looking!”

And he was pretty scary looking. With hair about as red as it could get, like, ripe tomato red, or maybe hot pepper red. It was reminiscent of many of the vegetables and different fruits he had seen in Pigsy’s kitchen over the years. He was dressed like Mk remembered his Shifu’s distant ancestor dressing in paintings and books. The clothes of a king, or maybe a prince or emperor, unmarred and pristine aside from it being a little dusty with streaks of ash and soot. His scowl was probably the scariest thing. That and his eyes, dark enough to be compared to coal, with just as little life in them. Honestly he looked like he was missing something very important, though Mk couldn’t begin to tell what it was. A smile maybe?

The man before him puffed out his chest a bit, looking almost proud. “Well at least someone knows I-”

“Don’t mind him,” Mei said to him dismissively, “he’s a big ol softie. He’d faint if we held hands in front of him.”

He spluttered. “I would not-”

“Oh,” said Mk, beaming. “Well, that’s a relief! It’s nice to meet you then, mister.”

The man spluttered.

Mei held up their intertwined hands for the man to see, grinning widely. “Look, grandpa. Holding hands.”

The man's entire face went nearly as red as his hair. He spat curses at them as he turned around and stomped away, kicking up ash as he went.

“Um…” said Mk. “He seems nice.”

“You get used to him,” Mei shrugged. She squeezed his hand lightly and glanced at him. “You okay?”

Mk blinked. “Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m good. Uh… how are you?”

Mei laughed.

At first, Mk was going to start laughing along with her, despite his confusion. But then he realized it was different from her normal laugh. It wasn’t light or giggly. It lacked that unrestrained joy that always erupted from her when she laughed. It was drenched in heavy, heavy relief. The shaky kind of relief that Mk had felt after a close brush with death during training.

Then it stuttered.

His best friend in the whole world sucked in a shuddering breath, and suddenly she was crying. Her voice was shaking between a laugh and a sob as she pulled him into a hug and held on so tightly and crushing that it made it hard to breathe.

“Mei?” He choked out. “Are you okay?” His voice was muffled by her shoulder and a piece of her hair got in his mouth. He half-spat half-blew it out of his mouth. He made a mildly grossed out noise. “Ew, ew, hair in my mouth-”

Her next laugh was torn from her like a sob and he could feel it through his entire body.

She gripped him tighter.

Something wasn’t right here.

“Mei?”

She only buried her face in his shoulder, her entire frame trembling. Mk could feel the heat from her and from the rings hovering above them. They were heavy. It almost felt like massive weights hovering over them, threatening to crash down and crush them.

With her hair out of the way Mk glanced up to look at the angry red-haired man questioningly, but whatever he was going to ask died in his throat before he could even lay eyes on him. For the first time, he saw beyond the cavern and the people in front of him.

And there was nothing but black.

Nothing but a desolate wasteland of ashes as far as he could see.

Mk gripped Mei back tightly, knees suddenly feeling like jello.

“What… What happened?”

Mei held him tighter still and all Mk could do was glance at the angry man with a lost look.

The man rolled his eyes at him. “Don’t look at me, peasant. I’m not the one with the fire.”

Mk glanced at his best friend in his arms and startled as he saw his hands for the first time.

Burns stretched over his fingers, his hands, small ones, and bad ones that looked like they would never ever go away.

Mk let out a small choked sound.

“What-?”

“I’m sorry, Mk,” Mei choked out between sobs. “I’m sorry-”

Mk wasn't sure what was happening, what had happened. He didn’t know where they were or who they were with or why his hands and everything around them was burned, or why he was afraid to look at the rest of himself, or why the clothes he was wearing felt scratchy and uncomfortable and unfamiliar. He didn’t know what the rings were floating over their head or why the fire in the cave hadn’t burned him. He didn’t know why he could only remember being cold for so long, or why now he felt warmer than ever. He didn’t know why a tiny part of him buried away in his chest felt nervous near his best friend.

Mk didn’t know what was happening, but the one thing he did know is that his best friend was crying. His best friend was crying and needed him right now. That was something he could understand just fine.

He hugged her back just as tight, squeezing until she could feel like her shaking sobs were steadied by his arms. “It's okay,” he said. “It's okay, Mei, I’m here.”

He held her tightly and Mei fell apart in his arms.

Mei and her friend talked just outside the mouth of the cave for a long time. Far too long in Red Son’s opinion. They had places to be. But when he’d attempted to tell the Dragon girl that, she’d actually snarled at him. Her friend’s hand on hers seemed to be the only thing that stopped her from actually trying to barbeque him.

The amount of patience he required just being around the two of them was already exhausting. He missed the days he could simply incinerate annoying people like them.

Eventually they stopped talking. After Mei had stopped crying. After Mk had stopped crying. After they had both stopped clinging to each other like children and crying, they finally approached him, still holding hands in a disgusting display of affection.

“Teach me,” Mei said.

“No,” Red Son said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Please?” Mk said, shuffling in place. He didn’t seem to know what to do with his free hand so he tapped it on the side of his leg awkwardly, arm swinging out away from him a bit after every tap. He was such a strange one. There was something about him, Red Son couldn’t put his finger on it, but it made him suspicious.

“No,” Red Son snarled again, this time with more venom. It was highly entertaining to watch Mk flinch, up until he glanced at Mei and saw absolute murder in her eyes. Red Son cleared his throat and looked away. “I’m not teaching you anything.”

“You taught me how to use the fire to save Mk,” Mei pointed out, infuriatingly correct.

“That’s different,” Red Son hissed out. “You weren’t fighting, so I did what I had to.”

“Well,” said Mk, chiming in in the most annoying way possible. “Wouldn't it be easier to get places if Mei knew how to use the…” he faltered a bit, glancing up at the rings hovering above Mei’s head. One of them was nearly directly over his head. Red Son narrowed his eyes and watched how Mk’s grip on Mei’s hand tightened. She squeezed back which seemed to give Mk enough steadiness to continue. “I just mean if we run into any other problems it would be better if one of us with big ol’ world-destroying power knew how to use it.”

He made a good point. A horrible good one. Good enough that it made Red Son grind his teeth and dig his nails into his arms until it hurt.

“It’s my fire,” Red Son said through gritted teeth. He missed the way his hair would flame up when he felt this way. He missed how his eyes would spark and people would stumble away, terrified of his power. As it was, the two in front of him simply stood, unphased. Mk was the only one looking even the slightest bit uncomfortable.

“Duh,” Mei said, rolling her eyes at him. “But if any of us die you won’t be getting your fire back-”

“The only one here capable of dying,” said Red Son, “is your friend here.” Mk flinched. Red Son pretended not to feel satisfied by it.

“Alright, your highness,” Mei said suddenly, releasing Mk’s hand and stepping forward. Although he’d suggested she call him your highness on several different occasions, the way she said it was devoid of any real respect. The rings above her got hotter and brighter, the fire lashing and reflecting in her eyes from within. “You shut up and listen. If you die, you won’t get your fire cause you’ll be dead. If I die, you won’t get your fire because everything will probably burn to nothing. And if Mk dies you can kiss your sweet fire goodbye because I will burn you and everything else myself if anything happens to my best friend, got it?”

Truly, her tone was something reminiscent of Red Son’s mothers. Threatening, scolding and terrifying all at once.

Red Son very nearly took a step back.

He cleared his throat. “Well… I suppose things would go… faster if you were not quite so useless.”

“Right,” Mei said, crossing her arms, unamused.

Red Son straightened up, keeping his chin tilted up. “I am not doing this because you tried to threaten me.”

“Of course not,” Mei said dryly.

Red Son bristled. “Whatever, dragon girl. Pull yourself away from your friend and I’ll show you how not to be a useless sack.”

“Thanks, grandpa!” Mei chirped, quite suddenly smiling brightly. She skipped back to Mk and took his hand in hers once again, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Red Son scoffed.

“Um, yes, thank you Mister uh… Mister…” Mk trailed off, looking a little lost.

Red Son groaned. He tilted his head back for just a moment to pray for the long-suffering patience required to hold a conversation with these uncultured peasants. “The Demon of Samdhi. Or at least I’m told by your friend that it is now my title.”

Mk jolted. His head snapped up and he gaped at Red Son.

“Wait- you’re… you’re-”

Mei patted his shoulder. “Oooo… Yeah… I forgot to mention. Um. Mk…this is… well, the Demon of Samadhi!” She paused then waved her free hand back and forth. “Surprise…aha….”

Mk made a small choking sound. He looked quite pale. “M…Mei are you sure um… are you sure traveling with the… him is a good idea…?” He nervously glanced back at him.

Red Son bared his teeth at him in a wide grin. Mk took a step back.

It was horribly satisfying.

At least until Mei shoved her hand into his face to cover it and shoved him down out of Mk’s sight, completely ignoring his indignant cursing and outrage. “Ah, don’t worry about him. He’s a big softie.”

“I will kill you,” Red Son hissed.

“See?” Mei said. “Softie.”

“Oh,” said Mk, like he had complete faith in Mei’s judgment of character. “Phew, that’s a relief. Glad to have you on our side Mr. Demon of Samadhi!”

“I am not on your side-” Red Son attempted to choke out to no avail. They completely ignored him.

“Well, Sifu,” Mei said. “When do we start?” “When you get your hand off my face.”

“Samadhi is a meditation and a form of concentrated focus. Its meaning is a form of… bringing things together. I harnessed it to create the most concentrated form of fire that exists in this world.”

Mei sat cross legged on the ground in front of Red Son as he paced before her, his arms held behind his back loosely. She had a bored look on her face, one elbow resting on her knee and her chin in her hand. He ignored her blatant disrespect and continued.

“A true wielder of my fire, should be able to become one with it, to make it their own and wield it through the practice of meditation and focus.” His lip curled as he watched Mei glance at where a gust of wind was blowing up some loose ash. “Though I doubt you will be able to do such a thing.”

“Ehhhh… what was that?” Mei glanced back at him.

Red Son sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If you want to learn you are going to have to listen.”

“I’m listening!” Mei said, rocking back and forth. “I’m listening real good.”

“If I could kill you right now, I would,” Red Son said.

“But you can’t,” Mei sing-songed. She giggled and winked at him.

“I hate you so much. You are a disrespect to my fire.” He turned to Mk and barked. “You there!”

Mk nearly fell backwards where he was balancing on a blackened boulder. His arms windmilled and flailed until he got himself steady and he stood up ramrod straight, with his arms at his sides.”Yes! What? I’m listening!”

Red Son groaned into his hands. “Of course, of course I’m stuck with two of the biggest idiots-” He exhaled sharply and looked up at them. “If either of you want to understand my fire you are going to have to start paying attention-”

“But I’m hungyyy,” Mei complained, continuing her rocking back and forth. “There’s nothing to eat around here.”

“And thirsty,” Mk added.

Red Son squinted at them both. “Idiots.”

He bothered to glance around. He had to admit, there was some concern to be had for the lack of resources. Red Son, of course, could go a very long time without those types of substances. Mei as well if his fire sustained her the way it had always sustained him.

But Mk was another matter.

He was more mortal than either of them. Lack of sleep got to him quickly. Even more quickly in the form of eating away at his attention. Food and water were another thing he clearly could not do long without and there was no telling how long he’d been without it already under the white lady’s influence.

And as long as Mk was distracted Mei would likely also remain distracted due to her worry for him and they’d blame him for it because of course they would.

“Fine,” he said. He planted his feet firmly on the ground to get their attention before he started his declaration. “We will continue this lesson after you two get yourself some sort of substance to consume.”

Mei blinked. “Uh… Samadhi Sifu… I don’t know how to tell you this, but… there’s not really… anything here…”

She gestured to the wasteland stretching around them. Red Son could still feel the fire going on under his feet. The only thing for miles around were half-melted boulders and rocks in a pattern that made Red Son assume it had once been a stream or river of sorts. The fire had long since eaten up any water that had run through it previously.

Mk blinked slowly, one eye closing and opening sooner than the other, a little off-beat.

“I know that,” Red Son snapped. “That’s why we’re going somewhere else.”

“Uhhhh…” said Mei. “Where… exactly?”

“I don’t have time to explain,” Red Son threw up his hands. “Ugh. Just- stand up, fool.”

Mei rolled her eyes but she did as she was told.

“Give me some fire.”

Mei blinked. “Huh?”

“Fire. Just-” Red Son sighed. “Just light the rings.”

“Oooookay…” Mei said slowly. She closed her eyes and after a moment the rings above her flickered to life.

Without missing a beat, Red Son snatched a bit of flame from the rings. Mei made a little surprised sound, leaning forward curiously. He tried not to bask under her clear admiration. He may not have been able to create his own fire now that it had been stripped from him, but he could still wield it just fine.

…In small amounts at least.

“Cool…” Mei said as she watched him draw the circle of flame on the ground.

“This,” Red Son said, “is a gateway. It will take us outside of the range of the fire, but only for a temporary time. Then we will be transported back here.”

“So… it's like… yo-yo teleportation?” Mk asked, glancing over Mei’s shoulder to see the circle.

Red Son spluttered. “What? That-that is an offensively simple way to put it-”

“But he’s not wrong,” Mei interrupted with a grin.

Red Son contemplated throwing them both into the circle and then running away, but that would simply be foolish and separate him from his fire. Instead he cursed their ashes under his breath and finished drawing the spell out.

“Do you want food or not?” He gritted out.

That at least got them moving into the circle and shutting their mouths. At least temporarily.

“Let’s go, Sifu Samadhi,” Mei said.

“I hope the saying of mortals melting in these portals is true for you two,” he said before activating it.

“Wait,” Mk said. What-?”

The portal burst into flames.

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#KNOX WRITES (me)#Monkie Kid the Empire of Samadhi AU #LEGO Monkie Kid #Monkie Kid #Monkie Kid Red Son #Monkie Kid Mei #Monkie Kid Mk #Monkie Destiny Challenge (2023)#Wooooo #ALRIGHT THAT'S THAT #The last bit of this I was gonna put into the next prompt but eh i needed the focus bit here so if the cut seems awkward that's why #you know my plan wasn't to only write snippets from this au for this prompt month but at this rate we're just gonna get thirty days of THIS #*WHEEZING*#HG;LSKFJAWEOF #ANYWAY GOOD MORNING REMEMBER TO HYDRATE #i really didn't edit this one much but #NO BETA WE DIE LIKE LBD'S HOPE FOR THE WORLD #EAT A SNACK HUG UR FRIEND HAVE A GREAT DAY

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