One day in Robloxia City, all the villains find themselves with a letter.
“You are cordially invited to a villain assembly”, with a location attached.
Who sent this letter? Who is the sender? Questions run through the villain’s heads. If this was a trap by the heroes, wouldn’t they just attack their lairs? They clearly know where they are, after all. But whether they want to meet a new friend, make the most of this opportunity, or interrogate the sender…they all go.
RBBTober has begun once again and here I am with my drawing which I posted in most places yesterday but accidentally didn't hit post on here. Sorry.
Or: What if Tanqr made a different choice of ally in Season 3?
So like, I'm cheating in more than one way here. Firstly, the prompt says angels and demons, not angels and devils. Therefore, Pink and Tanqr still apply despite Tanqr not being a devil in my headcanons.
Secondly, the drabble for this prompt is an edited draft of a fic from...almost exactly a year ago, actually! I'd intended to write it into a full fic for Halloween, but then Nerdy Prudes Must Die came out and suddenly all I could think about what what eventually became Antithesis. I only got to the first 2 scenes. I'm super busy at the moment, so I decided to repurpose that draft to make the drabble, with some changes to give it an actual ending.
Said drabble under the cut!
Somewhere in the RB Battles universe, PinkLeaf is practising his parkour.
It’s tranquil here in the lobby, with no one else around. The hosts made a private server for the finalists to practise on, and he’s been getting as much use out of it as possible. Apparently he’s the only one of the finalists with a somewhat healthy sleep schedule, because it’s early morning, and no one’s here. He was under the impression that Kreek and Bella and Denis were also training a lot, so clearly they prefer to train late in the day.
He doesn’t mind that at all. It’s so much easier to focus when no one’s around, when no one’s yelling at him, when no one can disturb his thought process. Plus, he’d rather not have to talk to people in general. Instead all he can hear is the whistle of the wind flowing past him as he leaps through the air from building to building, getting ready to head into some minigames.
He heads back to the centre, not paying attention to anything around him, when a voice cuts through the silence.
“Morning, PinkLeaf. You’re up early.”
Pink turns to the direction of the sound to see Tanqr leaning up against a pillar near the centre of the map. They make eye contact and Tanqr waves, waiting for a response. PinkLeaf waves back and tries to ignore him, but it doesn’t work.
“Where are you going? C’mere, let’s chat.”
Pink sighs and jumps down to a tree that’s a little bit taller than where Tanqr is standing, trying to keep the high ground, ensuring Tanqr has to look up to talk to him. Tanqr accepts that’s the best he’s going to get.
“What do you want?” he asks.
“Listen, uh…” Tanqr walks up to the tree and hushes his voice. “Denis and Kreek are making an alliance in the run up to the finals. Don’t blame ‘em, they’re going to need some help to do any good.” he explains, laughing at his own taunts. Pink just finds it annoying.
“I suppose so.” He’s not really surprised. Kreek’s probably going to try to get all the help he can get to try to beat Tanqr.
“Those two - and, Bella, I guess - are very much a threat. To both of us.”
“Don’t…imply Bella’s not that good. She is.” Pink interrupts, much to his own surprise. When since did I care about Bella that much?
“Oh? Didn’t know you two were friendly.” Tanqr raises an eyebrow.
“...We’re not. I’m just saying, don’t…don’t put the others down.”
“Not trying to, just that she’s not who I’m worried might beat us. Kreek’s been gunning for my title, and I’ve seen Denis honing his parkour skills and he’s good at it - he knows that’s your strong point.”
“I think most people know that’s my strong point.” Pink responds. He didn’t mean it as an insult, but Tanqr takes it like one, and he purses his lips.
“Well- anyway-” Tanqr grits his teeth before he puts himself back on track. “Seeing that, I had a thought. Why don’t we get ahead of the game?”
“What do you mean?”
“Here’s my offer. An alliance, of sorts. We work together in the finals to crush the others. You’ll be the speed, I’ll be the manpower. Together we can make up the brains.”
PinkLeaf pauses in shock at the offer, waiting for Tanqr to start laughing and teasing him. It takes a second to realise Tanqr’s being totally serious.
“Are you…asking me to team up?”
“Yeah, obviously.” Tanqr snarks. “I’m going to admit something here, so don’t mock me over it, but you scare me, y’know? Not that much, of course, but…enough. You’re powerful. Where I fail in speed, you make up for it. If I’m not careful, you could beat me. And vice versa. So instead of that…” Tanqr holds his hand out. “Let’s work together. Just you and me against the world, what’dya say?”
Pink doesn’t know what to do. On the one hand, he doesn’t trust anyone easily, let alone Tanqr. He would not be surprised if Tanqr was just using him. But on the other hand, allying with Tanqr would give him a much needed edge, a little confidence boost if someone has his back during the finals. And then again, if Tanqr’s using him to win, surely he can do the same?
Pink weighs his options. He either risks having Tanqr as a direct enemy, have Tanqr’s sheer strength and brutality poised against him, or he gets to use it to his advantage even if Tanqr turns on him. And if he does, at least he’ll expect it.
Ah, what the hell.
“Okay. Sure. I’ll do it.” Pink replies, finally settling on a decision.
“Sweet.” Tanqr smiles widely, in a way that Pink can’t tell if it’s sinister or not. “Uh, take the handshake, make it official.”
Pink does as he’s told, shaking Tanqr’s hand as quickly as possible. Tanqr chuckles a bit at his reluctance before outlining his plan.
“You’re free for the next few hours, right?”
“...Yeah.”
“Okay, cool. We can train together then. Stay here, I’ll join you in about fifteen minutes - I need to grab a bite to eat. Haven’t had breakfast yet.” Tanqr turns away from Pink, giving him a wave. “See ya.”
“Oh, uh, bye.”
Tanqr pulls out his phone, types something in, and he’s gone.
Pink’s alone once again. The call of the wind blows in his ears and he shivers. He hops down from the tree and sits on a railing, contemplating.
MAN this is a throwback. I made the Mythos AU in…2021? It’s basically the RB Battlers as mythical creatures living in a magical forest. I don’t plan to make more content of it, but it was fun to return back to it for a while, it had some fun lore.
For the record: Ashley is a Unicorn, Denis is a fae-owned human, Hyper is a fog-creature, Kreek is a Phoenix, and Tanqr is a slightly more stereotypical demon (and also an alchemist).
Alright, drabble under the cut! CW for alcohol, bc (spoiler, ig) Denis gets wasted.
It's an ordinary day in Ashley's tavern.
And by ordinary, she means just as chaotic as usual.
Denis, the sole human in these woods, is back from being dragged off to yet another nightmarish realm by Sketch. Now he's here to get drunk and forget the whole thing. He's retold the whole story to her at least three times - the drunker he is, the louder he gets. Every day Denis regrets messing with the fae, and every day Ashley has to remind him that he very much brought this upon himself.
Hyper is standing quietly beside Denis, not really contributing much but intently listening into their conversation and trying not to fade into mist. Rumours around the woods say he would relate to Denis's plight - apparently he used to be human too. Ashley does levitate a glass of water over to him, but he doesn't take it. It would probably fall through his hands.
Tanqr's in the corner, looking over the display rack. Ashley reckons he's probably here to get supplies for whatever potion of mass destruction he's concocting this week - and she keeps a close eye on him, so he doesn't steal anything again. Still, she can tell he's getting annoyed - his tail is smacking against the floor and he's snarling.
He's probably annoyed because Kreek is flying behind him, asking about everything on the wall. He was doing that just last week. Pestering Tanqr is one of his favourite hobbies.
She puts the glass Hyper never took onto the counter before proceeding to grab Kreek with magical chains and pull him on the floor. Tanqr lets out a chuckle before going back to his usual dour expression.
“Hey!” Kreek yells, having been snapped out of whatever train of thought he was on. ”Rude!“
“No flying in the tavern, how many times have I told you this?” Ashley reminds. She'd give him the benefit of the doubt - he went up in flames again just last week - but she knows full well that Kreek doesn't forget everything again when he regenerates.
“Okay, I get it! Just give me a little bit of warning before you slam me to the ground next time, that hurt.” Kreek rolls his eyes and goes right back to pestering Tanqr, now leaning on his shoulder.
Ashley sighs in defeat and returns to pouring Denis’s fourth beer of the night.
This, my dear friends, is a self-indulgent crossover between RB Battles and Empires SMP S2. Because I can do what I want.
Yeah, this one was fun. Poor Kreek’s getting bullied.
Drabble under the cut as always, as well as an explanation on who’s who- both for the characters in the drawing and in the oneshot!
Sheriff Kreek sits on the bridge after gathering his things and thinks about all the times he's been disrespected.
Disrespect. It's the one thing he put on the list of laws for himself, so that people would listen to him for once- and yet- and yet- don't they realise? Don't they realise who they're riling up?
Tanqr, over and over, calling him a 'toy', doing whatever it took to humiliate him, including forcibly shrinking him down to a perceived size. Denis, his former deputy, his partner in enforcing the law- now slandering him at every opportunity. Pink constantly mocking him alongside Tanqr. Hell, Denis and Pink- they watched and they mocked him as Ominous shoved him off a bridge and killed him, Think refusing to let him take down the 'wallpaper'- even Ryguy and Sketch got in on it as soon as they came from Hermitcraft. Peetah, Jack, Jake, Bella, Flamingo with that stupid tea party- do they think he can’t tell when they’re mocking him? All those little things add up over time, and that stab that Ominous just gave him has made him explode.
What was that Pink said? That there was a 'villain arc' incoming? Sure. He'll give them a villain.
He's tired of being disrespected. Now he'll make them respect him. Whether they like it or not.
(And hey. If he gets to show off his abs too, that's just a bonus. Yes, he has abs. Of course he has abs, he's constantly hoarding animals and lasso-ing criminals and building, shut up.)
——————
So, for the record: Kreek is Jimmy, Tanqr is Joel, Pink is Sausage, Denis is fWhip, Ominous is Gem, Think is Pix, Jack is Scott, Jake is Lizzie, Flamingo is Oli, Ryguy is Scar, Sketch is Grian & Peetah is Keralis.
Originally, my plan was to post some old doodles from previous AUs. However, I recently watched that one 2-hour-long Wreck-it-Ralph analysis, and suddenly this AU appeared in front of me, so I decided to give it a few concept sketches. Think of these as beta designs - if I want to continue with this AU, the designs might change, idk
To summarise the AU: Think of it like a Wreck-It-Ralph Pibby fusion thing. These five are all characters from video games, however, a virus only known as JP starts to take over their games so *it* can be the only game people play. A group of hackers/coders (the hosts) rescue the survivors and put them into a heavily safeguarded game while their games are recovered so elements of the games can stay intact and the whole games aren't lost.
Tanqr and Pink are from an Angels VS Demons shooter, Kreek is from a mascot horror, Bella is from a kids-edutainment-superhero game (notably, her game is the one that the survivors are placed in), Denis is from a dating sim. It's just a bit of fun, really.
I do have an RBB related halloween project, but it won't be done for a while I don't think, unfortunately. So keep an eye out for that when it comes out! Otherwise, I'd say that's RBBTober done for me :)
The writing drabble for today is under the cut, and will also be posted on my writing socials (you know the ones)!
What I’m also going to do, is where relevant, I’ll put images of the AU that never got posted here on Tumblr. So I'm not drawing like 3 drawings at once, the drawings made specifically for the prompts will be labelled as such, lol. The Swap AU supplementals are also under the cut, as well as some further discussion on the au!
“Do you truly hate Tanqr?”
Kreek lays back against the chair the interviewer so helpfully provided for him (though it's very uncomfortable). He adjusts his glasses and takes a second to think of a good response.
“Nah. I don’t see why I would. Sure, he's annoying, a little bit of a man child, incredibly braindead at times, loud and overconfident, a little bit too bloodthirsty for me, but I don't hate him, not really. We play it up for the cameras, yknow? He's the only person I think I would've been happy with beating me in RB Battles, even if he likes to boast about it way too much and uses it to get on my nerves half the time. I try to win everything I can, and when I don’t I get annoyed with myself and others, but after he won, I didn’t feel that way. I never have. He's a nice guy, even if he has trouble showing it sometimes, I respect him and I respect his drive to win, his competitiveness, his determination. We're similar in that way.”
“I...see.”
~~~
“Do you truly hate Kreek?”
“Of course not!” That was an instant response. Even with only one visible (the other being covered by an eyepatch), the surprise in Tanqr’s eyes is obvious. “How dare you!”
At the interviewer's mild discomfort, Tanqr settles down and laughs it off.
“I'm just pulling your leg. I'd call us...best buds who like to torment each other a little bit too much. He's so smug about everything and thinks he's better than everyone, he's super smart and charismatic and he knows it, he's aloof and loves to take the mick outta me, but...I can't hate him despite it all. He sucks, but in a way that it's not hard to be his friend once you get over the initial hurdle. Plus...I like the fact he didn't get too upset that I beat him. Any other person and they would've hated me. The fans already hated me, I don’t know if I could have handled anyone else. But not Kreek. I appreciate him for that. What can I say, tryhards stick together!”
"...Got it."
~~~
So, as you can tell, Swap!Kreek & Tanqr are...very different from C!Kreek & Tanqr, because they're actually friends. This actually isn't really a roleswap AU - it's closer to a personality swap AU, but the roles stay the same. Because of that personality swap, Kreek took losing Season 1 a lot better, meaning that his and Tanqr's rivalry never got worse than something friendly and now they're best friends who beat each other up on occasion. But it's very "I'm the only person who can tease him, thanks very much!"
