The Wayfarer: A Fullmetal Alchemist Fanfiction

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'The Wayfarer' Masterpost First Half

CW: Swearing, Violence, Cannibalism (Gluttony my dude), Terrible Parents, Cadaver Crimes, and just the worst decision making ever.

'The Wayfarer': #1: | | | | | #2: | | | | | #3: | | | #4: | | | | | #5: | | | | | | | | | #6: | | | | | | | #7: | | | | | #8: | | | | | | | #9: | | | | #10: | | | | | | |

Second Half: <3

Third Half: <3 Short Stories: <3

Maze: <3

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Holy smokes! Thank you for the huge love for 'The Wayfarer' :"D I wasn't expecting so many notes (it's usually a very quiet Fanfiction Blog). Once things have settled, I'll be able to break loose 'The Escapist' 's first chapter soon!

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Reblog if you want Asks/Messages from your followers in your inbox

[makeshiftstory]

Please flood me, I love answering questions!

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Short Story: Midsummer Pt. 3

 “Greed, when did you manage to get one of those portable televisions?” Envy asked, surprised that Greed was able to get his hands on something that nice before they could. “Got it last week, I got stupid lucky during my jog around the town and saw it right there in the packaging still.” Greed grinned widely as he showed off his stolen little pride and joy as the awful Lions enjoyed watching some gruesome cartoon.

 “Great so you stole it? I thought you turned a new leaf with the circus.” Freddy asked as he pieced the true meaning rather quickly. “Well yeah, it was out in the open at the warehouse. It was begging to come home with me and the troupe. It’s been a very well loved member ever since, we call ‘em ‘Scarlett’.” Greed puffed his chest out proudly at the theft and the name chosen for the stolen product. “You name your things now?” Freddy raised a wrinkled brow that Greed was copying the Mancer tradition. “What can I say? When you named that death trap car ‘Gherkin’, I sorta decided to try that myself with all my stuff. Gotta say, I really enjoy it.” Greed grinned widely upon bringing back the dreadful green truck from Freddy’s past.

 “I’ll have you know Gherkin was a very fine truck.” Freddy was still mad about the destruction of the rusted death trap called ‘Gherkin’.

 “Freddy no, that truck was horrifying to be on.” Dolly had a flashback moment of being on that horrific vehicle all those decades ago. “Face Fur, no it wasn’t, that thing nearly took off our heads when the roof flew off.” Envy wrinkled their nose in disgust over that hideous car and how horrible that ride was. “Envy, I'm like a hundred and one years old and I can proudly say my memories of that car are spotless.” Freddy grumped a bit, remembering that ‘beloved’ green truck that apparently brought joy.

 “Good for you, you’re no longer a little toddler bitch compared to my long existence, we all still remember that nightmare when it spontaneously exploded.” Envy snarkily responded as the train pulled over at the first stop in the journey.

 “It wouldn’t have exploded if you weren’t behind the wheels.” Freddy grumped and huffed at what Envy said, remembering Gherkin through rose tinted glasses. 

 “Excuse me? I’ll have you know that I’m THE best driver of this entire group. It was more or less you having an absolute lemon of a car that was a hazard from the start.” Envy narrowed their horrid little reptile eyes right at Freddy as they tore into him about the car and the audacity of being accused of being a bad driver.

 “Guys shut up, we’re reaching the first stop!” Greed raised his voice, grabbing his things, getting ready to transfer to the next train for the final destination.

 As the train came to its stop at the next station, the entire Mancer clan started to disembark for the next train to Resembool. Sure, back in the day it was just a nice single ride to the rural village, but as things changed over time, especially once Central was declared uninhabitable and the mainstation there was no longer an option, new rails were set in place amongst other things. Sure the planes have made things a breeze in recent times, but to Dolly and to an extent, Dorian, trains were the only things to trust to not implode thousands of feet up into the air. Envy grumbled a bit, finding the whole changing trains a nuisance as something caught their little eyes on the over looking television by the drinks stand. At first, it didn’t seem like anything at first, just some ‘oh no, some campers spotted bigfoot by the outhouse’ spiel on some garbage show, until he came into frame. The entire interview on the television was interrupted when the host of the program was grabbed up by some horrible, prehensile tail covered in scales as the host got shoved into the maul of what looked like Hohenheim's face grafted onto the chest of an abomination. At first, Envy smirked watching the broadcasted display of violence on the television, happily knowing the suffering Hohenheim was enduring before realizing one very important problem: Hohenheim was back and in Resembool now. 

 “Wayfarer, what’s wrong?” Dolly asked as her eyes followed towards the screen Envy was watching before looking disgusted.

 “Damn….Hohenheim has seen better days..maybe a bee makeover is in order.” Dorian commented as he peaked his little green lion head out of the cat carrier.

 “Worse…the bastard is in Resembool too.” Envy stated as they just watched the television in morbid amusement at the suffering Hohenheim was going through. “I’m gonna call up one of the Elrics then to give the heads up..” Freddy wrinkled his eyebrowless forehead, starting to make that trip to the pay phone.

 “Good call Facefur, good call.” Ernest muttered watching the television now too in shock. “Dude, you made a pun!” Dorian pointed on as he poked the absolutely horrifying weapon of mass destruction known as Big Brother Ernest. “Oh gods I did! I’m weirded out from this! That fucker should’ve died from exposure!” Ernest covered his face in embarrassment, the clicking of the bottle cap chain vest rattling as he moved. 

 “What’s going on now?” Greed asked, annoyed that he had to stop on the progress of reaching the next train.

 “Hohenheim evolved into that ugly thing on the television.” Envy simply answers as blurred images of Hohenheim are being shown on screen, clearly the camera person is fleeing for dear life from the horror that is draconic Hohenheim.

 “...Damn…though this is an improvement from the flesh stealing rotted skeleton he was earlier.” Greed was impressed with the huge design shift on Hohenheim, debating if he could capture that thing for the circus. 

 “Guys, I’m going to be taking Carmilla to the restroom, is there a place we’re meeting back up at?” Lust had arrived with Carmilla on the toddler lead and Gluttony closeby as she noticed the group looking on in horror and awe on the television, “Is that Hohenheim? I thought he died during Yule.”

 “I know, apparently the man offended the gods or something cause he just won’t stay dead.” Dolly said as Hohenheim unfortunately caught the fleeing camera person finally for a chow down.

 “Do we even continue on with Resembool at this point? I mean Hohenheim is clearly loose and they’ll likely close off the location until something is done.” Lust asked as she pretty much knew just how bad this was turning out for the group. 

 “We continue on with the Resembool vacation, train or no train.” Envy made the unilateral decision for the entire family group without anyone elses’ objections.

 “Envy, you know I can’t teleport the entire family like that without basically getting a ticket to the lemon filled void like before.” Dolly gave Envy that very pleading look of not having to do a massive group teleportation.

 “No need for it, I got the perfect solution!” Greed butted in, his eyes full of dollar signs at the idea of capturing Hohenheim for the circus.

 “What’s the solution?” Gluttony asked before Lust had to grill into Greed, the years of being around them had conditioned Gluttony to intervene before a fight broke out.

 “I know a guy here in town that can fix us up a nice rental deal on vans on short notice.” Greed grinned widely as the words leaked from his mouth like an overflowing faucet. “Otherwise known as blackmailing. Also back from the payphone, Edward said that the town is going into lock down until further notice.” Freddy interjected, annoyed with how this vacation was turning out to be.

 “Okay, this is fine, we can work something out in the meantime with the family. The town is known for its circus museum, right? We can take a detour there until the vans are ready.” Dolly planned, needing to keep things from boiling over from the sudden change as well as the fact Hohenheim was now a man eating monstrosity. 

 “That is true and I’ve heard some pretty good things about that museum too, but be wary of Greed, Dolly. He’s up to something and I don’t want the entire family in Resembool right now.” Lust advised since Envy wouldn’t be much help in the situation as they only had murder in their brain. 

 “Okay, let’s gather the family right away to discuss the plan changes.” Dolly compromised as she agreed on that sentiment, the entire Mancer family shouldn’t be dragged into a dangerzone. 

 “But Hohenheim is loose!” Envy started to protest, wanting to watch more of the destruction on television being replayed.

 “Envy, this town has an alchemy store I can go to to make that clay construct. You want that, don’t you?” Freddy had no more fucks to give as he drew out the key compromise to get Envy on board to stay a bit in the town until a plan can be formed.

 Envy puttered and hummed before finally agreeing to the arrangement Face Fur Fred had offered to them. Never in Envy’s long existence had they ever agreed to what some flesh bag human offered, let alone something that’s been a thorn on Envy’s side. Times truly had changed Envy, much to their disapproval. Oh well, Envy had won, they’re getting that awful clay construct they’ve wanted and that was all that mattered. Freddy could only mentally smirk at himself since he did have that awful plan of making a living embodiment of a glitter bomb as a form of revenge for Gherkin. With that settled, the massive Mancer family that would put rabbits to shame, gathered at the lobby to go over the change of plan and started calling about booking a hotel on short notice. While the entire family was distracted with last minute bookings, concerns for the elderly Elric family, and gods forbid, a bored Envy, Freddy slipped away to do the shopping for that horrible, awful clay construct to piss Envy off with. The town was busy as old man Freddy wandered about on the old cobblestone sidewalks, his eyes soon catching a sign for an alchemy supply store. What an excellent encounter that Freddy thought to himself as he entered the shop, looking for what could be the most obnoxiously sparkling materials he could use.

=======================================================================

 Deep in the woods of Resembool, Hohenheim roamed sluggishly after gorging himself on the flesh of the film crew and host. It had been a long trip down to the rural village, but it had been worth it. Warmth, food, and now a shelter as Hohenheim entered the cavern to sleep off the feast he had moments ago. Resembool truly was the best pick for the unholy abomination and mockery against alchemy to live in, truly a superb choice in location as the cold cavern floor rested up against the scaly hide of Hohenheim. As Hohenheim rested beneath the earth, troops started to roll in by the droves to hunt down the amalgamated flesh of horror lead by Major Reese Mustang, his cold brown eyes gazing about the landscape. Reese had inherited a lot of his grandmother Riza’s disposition and his grandfather Roy’s determination as he ordered a proper sweep of the location for any signs of the wretched creature with a taste for human flesh. 

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Short Story: Midsummer Pt. 2

Freddy’s head tilted back a bit while inside of the van, his eyes beginning to shut for a quick nap thanks to the prepping going on. It’ll be nice to enjoy summer down in Resembool, the lilacs should be in bloom down there with their calming spiced fragrance. That was something that both Freddy and Dolly had been looking forward to once in Resembool, the lilacs have always been a massive prize of sorts to the family. With the thoughts about the lilac bushes, Freddy smiled softly as he slowly started to drift into sleep before being abruptly woken up by a shrill screech and some grotesque face pressed up closely to the old man’s face. The shock startled Freddy back into waking up and looking at the hideous hand puppet pressed up against his face. The lipstick was caked on horribly on the fabric of the puppet’s lips with a messy yarn wig on top and googly eyes bouncing all over the place as a familiar grin of the puppeteer appeared from over the seat. “Goddamnit Greed! Why the hell did you do that!?” Freddy screeched, nearly jumping out of his own skin from the puppet based intruder.

 “Because this is the prettiest Dante Puppet I’ve made for my circus act so far! I no longer need to use super glue on my hands for the eyes.” Greed grinned stupidly as Freddy glared at him for the interrupted nap.

 “Yeah that thing sure is a fucking super model level of gorgeous there Greed…” Freddy only deepened his glare at the hideous little fabric monstrosity as Greed could only laugh away.

 “Yah think? I should really enter her into the Miss Universe pageant then.” Greed was grinning away at his horrible masterpiece of garbage theater.

 “Greed, why are you pestering the Face Fur? That’s my job in this household.” Envy had arrived with their gremlin survival pack as Ernest and Dorian followed them into the van.

 “Aww I wasn’t pestering, I was just showin’ him my newest puppet.” Greed pouted that he can’t do his older brother style of pestering Freddy anymore. “That thing? Seriously?” Envy wrinkled their nose a bit at the puppet of horribly done makeup and style. “What? Don’t you think she’s the prettiest lady ever?” Greed faux pouted as he held the wretched construct. “It belongs in a bonfire.” Envy plainly said, wanting to toss it into a fire the moment they made it to Resembool.

 “That’s the one thing I can agree on with Envy.” Freddy said, in awe of being in a time where he could actually agree with the green jackass with bad naming skills. “Nevermind, Greed, you get to share a room with Face Fur for the trip.” Envy noped right out with being on the same level as that Face Fur.

 “I think my grandkids would be up in arms over that one.” Freddy sourly said, making Envy flinch a bit at the fact Freddy had in fact managed to spread his seeds and multiplied much to their disgust.

 “Mertle is such a tacky name for a grandchild..” Envy grumbled their disgust over the naming of the Freddy progeny. 

 “It's better than the name ‘Grody Gertie’ that you seem to be obsessed with.” Freddy fired back, catching Greed’s full attention at such a marvel of bad names.

 “Dude, seriously, you were pushing for that name? Why?” Greed was fully ready to pick on Envy over the name, big brother mode fully activated.

“Envy wants another clay construct, told them if they can come up with a better name with Dolly, I’d reconsider it.” Freddy explained before Envy could get a word in edgewise. 

 “You realize Envy is a stubborn asshole, right?” Greed pulled up the grotesque little sock puppet, using the obnoxiously high pitched voice as he moved its mouth.

 “Yes and don’t ever use that ugly fucking thing ever again.” Freddy begged as he fought the urge to rip the puppet apart with his teeth.

 “Oh my..” Dolly said as she arrived with her luggage and the snack box, looking at the ugly puppet in horror.

 “Dolly, I got good news!” Envy interrupted to avoid that spotlight stealing cloth crime from ruining everything.

 “You apologized to Freddy and became good friends?” Dolly asked hopefully as Ernest and Dorian scampered up into the transport van for the train station. “No! I got Face Fur here on board with making us a third clay construct! All we have to do is come up with a far more superior name than Grody Gertie together!” Envy smiles widely showing off their awful, awful teeth for all involved.

 “Well…that was progress still..” Dolly said, a bit grateful that the name of ‘Grody Gertie’ was officially off the table.

 Freddy shook his head, all hopes of having a restful nap dashed away as the four noisy trouble makers and Dolly were now in the vehicle. It would be another half hour or so for the rest of the massive Mancer family to load up for the long journey ahead. Once everyone was aboard the line of vans, the vehicles started to take off for the train station to ride into Resembool in. Ever since the day that airplanes were declared as a form of transportation, Dolly had been firmly against boarding one. The combination of being in a cramped small space, thousands of miles up in the air, and the fact these things could violently explode made Dolly fearful of this form of transport. There was absolutely no convincing of Dolly otherwise on the matter, planes were the bane of her existence and were the devil in Dolly’s mind. Trains were the only way to go when the whole family was involved and stayed that way as the vans pulled up to the station. The station braced itself as the swarm of Mancers stormed its halls, tickets in hands trailing with luggage behind. The Mancer family had essentially bought out the entire train from how much they multiplied over the decades as they all boarded in. Greed, Envy, Freddy, Ernest, Dorian, and Dolly boarded the cabin, situating themselves for the long ride ahead. 

 “So what do you think of Carnage as a name?” Envy offered as they wanted to give their clay construct a violent name to make up for a possibly cute-ugly appearance. “I think I’d have to politely veto that one.” Dolly wasn’t going to let Envy name their clay construct after a synonym for massacre. “Okay okay, how about Despair?” Envy always felt that Despair would’ve been a great Homunculus name. “No, we’re not going with Despair as a name.” Dolly shot that name down right away, feeling like it’d give the construct depression. “Then what about Bloodbath?” Envy was getting desperate to name the construct after something truly terrible. “I say this in the most loving way, but that sounds like a metal band name that we’d likely play air guitar with. Let’s name our sibling ‘Fairfax’ after our favorite cartoon dragon!” Ernest interjects, wanting in on the naming scheme. “Please name our baby sibling ‘Fairfax’! It’d be so funny to name our sibling after a cartoon!” Dorian supported his brother on the conquest of naming their younger sibling after a cartoon dragon for laughs.

 “I’ll consider it, for now.” Envy huffed to humor their favorite boogers, considering having ‘Despair’ as a middle name instead as a compromise.

 “That's strangely the most reasonable name I’ve heard during this topic..” Freddy said in surprise that the awful clay lions could come up with a better name than Envy.

 “You’re telling me, I was expecting Puke Master Three Thousand from the dogs..” Greed was just as surprised as Freddy even though the construct would be named after a popular cartoon dragon. “We’re lions, LIONS.” Dorian glared, the temptation to bring back the yellow jackets was strong, very strong at this point.

 “Chill, I was just pulling your legs.” Greed pouted that no one appreciated his absolutely funny joke. “Changing it back to the topic, I rather like Fairfax, that’s a lovely name.” Dolly said, trying to prevent a full on train brawl.

 “Well Face Fur, you heard Dolly, we both agree on Fairfax as the name.” Envy went for the throat, wanting to get that clay construct made and the fact everyone did in fact like ‘Fairfax’ as a name.

 “I hate that you all managed to come up with a better name, but a deal is a deal. I’ll make the construct AFTER the family vacation.” Freddy relented, dreading the fact there was a chance the new construct could take a bite out of his flesh like before with Ernest.

 “Perfect, we get to have a shared construct.” Envy wrapped a scaly arm over Dolly, grinning away at the success of getting a third construct as Ernest and Dorian slammed a very gross sounding high five.

 Freddy sat there, gears turning on a design that he knew Envy would be pissed about along with making sure the construct would be aesthetically pleasing for Dolly. Glitter, tons and tons of glitter will be used in the construct, making it shine more than a disco ball. A smile spread on Freddy’s withered old face as he decided on not only making it glittery, but also a unicorn, would fit in with the alchemy theme going on along with Dolly adoring unicorns. Perfect, simply perfect in Freddy’s mind as Greed pulled up a box like object with a handle and dials. The screen was shiny as the rest of the group checked it out in awe as Greed turned on the box to display a television program. 

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Short Story: Midsummer Pt. 1

 The months have passed since Hohenheim became a cocoon in a cave, the container’s green glow dimming as its fibers loosen. Silver tone streams of fluids poured from the opening of the cocoon after a boot-like appendage ran its wing-like groves on the weakened fibers. Heaving its first breath from three heads, the thing once Hohenheim pulled itself out of the cocoon. The body pulsed for the next few minutes, wings expanding with each beat of its heart. The beast’s body was scaled and shined like bubble solution in the sun with the face of Hohenheim embossed on its chest, gasping for any form of relief from this hell as it made its way out of the cave with renewed needs. The three writhing heads twitched and wriggled in the frosty air before realizing a very important detail: it was too cold to ensure the creature’s survival. The snow was too much, too cold for such a specimen of Hohenheim’s degree. Using the once human brain in its possession, Hohenheim stealthy made its way towards Resembool by wing for the warmth it promised as well as the readily available food source. 

=======================================================================

 The winter came and passed into the new year of 1990, the weather being unusually mild as midsummer preparations in the household of the Mancers. There hadn’t been a flaying in months since Gluttony had chased off Hohenheim into the wilderness with threats of being devoured hideously, most figuring Hohenheim died from the injuries. Because there was the ease of Hohenheim likely being dead and no longer a dangerous presence, plans were made to head down to Resembool for the Midsummer of this year’s celebration. Carmilla the dreadful had mellowed out ever since being placed under the care of Lust after winning full custody rights from Thomas and his now ex wife. Thomas, after the events of the Yule festivities was fully exiled from the Mancer Household, rumor being he got a job on a crab fishing boat elsewhere to make ends meet. At least, that’s what Envy had wanted everyone to believe as they sat on the bottle cap adorned chair like a grody dumpster gremlin as Dolly backed her luggage. Ever since not getting custody of Carmilla, Envy had been dead set on getting a mutant ever since that topic came back once more. “Wayfarer, we’re not going to build a monster from the spare body parts in the morgue.” Dolly calmly stated to Envy as she rolled her luggage towards the exit from her bedroom. “But it’d be fun!” Envy argued, the idea of a frankensteined abomination had absolutely tickled Envy’s fancy. “I might be great with sewing, but I’ve never sewn organic body parts together to make a fully living person. Besides, we have Ernest and Dorian.” Dolly placed her luggage with the familys’ collective suitcases that’ll be rolled out to the van.

 “Exactly! I think we should make them a new sibling!” Envy pointed out, clearly that would be the winning argument. “If that’s the case, then why not go with the clay like before?” Dolly pointed out as the fight for reanimating a nightmare of spare body parts fell apart right away. “Because patchwork monstrosities are better. Besides, I’m sure Face Fur isn’t wanting to make us another clay monster.” Envy clearly wasn’t going to let go of the reanimated monster path as they sat on that damn chair as though it were a throne. 

 “True, Freddy was traumatized by both Ernest and Dorian, but we’re still not going to craft a patchwork reanimated corpse.” Dolly waited a bit on Envy to conclude the debate and hoped they would start packing their bag soon.

 “Fine, dash our hopes for another mutant in our lives! But, I’ll needle Face Fur for another clay asshole instead.” Envy gave a very melodramatic swoon out of humor much to Dolly’s dwindling patiences. 

 “Just don’t get your hopes up on that, Wayfarer. Like I said, Freddy was pretty messed up after the creation of Ernest and Dorian, especially given that Ernest did eat a chunk of his arm back in his youth.” Dolly cautioned as continued to wait for Envy to get their things together for the family vacation.

 “Fairytale please, I’m a master at the art of convincing! I’m sure I’ll get Face Fur on board with making us another clay monster, Grody Gertie will be reality I promise you!” Envy said, clearly proud of the name they had picked out for the hypothetical monster and was clearly determined to have that name. “Oh my gods Wayfarer we are not naming our potential lifeform Grody Gertie!” Dolly paused upon realizing she just agreed to making a monster with Envy as they just gave a shit eating grin at the response.

 “Hey now, I just got you to say ‘our’!” Envy teased immediately, thrilled that Dolly was now sold on another clay monster for Ernest and Dorian. “Envy.” Dolly gave a very deadpanned look at Envy’s antics and was prepared to just pack Envy’s bag herself. “Alright, I’ll get my bag packed now, but we’re definitely going with Grody Gertie.” Envy just had to get that one last shot in for Grody Gertie as an official name before they started packing the bag with what could only be described as a gremlin’s survival pack from the hallway closet.. “No, we are not naming our monster Grody Gertie, we can come up with a better name later once we’re in Resembool.” Dolly gave a sigh at the fact Envy was very much dead set on Grody Gertie and would have to formulate a better name to get Envy hooked on.

 Dolly made her way out of the bedroom to go check on fixing up snacks for the long train ride out to Resembool, the very idea of using planes was not even an option with her. Envy watched as Dolly left, smirking away as making Dolly flustered was now a new fun thing to do. To Envy, Dolly was super adorable when flustered like that as they finished packing their garbage gremlin bag with their favorite Kuromi plush and placed it with everyone else's luggage. Sure, it would be a lot of convincing on Envy’s end to get another clay monster made towards Freddy and just as much convincing to name it ‘Grody Gertie’ once that’s been achieved. Envy stopped for a moment to debate on what to do. They could go straight for Freddy and pester the living hell out of the ancient man to make another clay monster or be a turd in the kitchen while Dolly is packing their snacks for the long ride out. Though it was to make things easy for snack prepping, it was also a bit of an economical move on having each family member book their own cabins on the train in small groups. Envy would be riding in a cabin with Dolly, Ernest, Dorian, Freddy, and Greed as he found a break on tour for it. 

 The fact Greed would be in the same cabin had Envy a little on edge for that pestering of the Face Fur for another clay monster plan. They would have to forgo the snack pestering and head for hunting old man Freddy down for just this occasion. It didn’t take Envy very long to locate Freddy, a smirk coming on their face upon noticing the old man was alone. Perfect, everything was going as planned for getting that shared alchemical abomination. Freddy had been resting in his favorite cushioned rocking chair, relaxing after having to help load up his father into the van for the family vacation. This was possibly the last family vacation Joel could have, seeing as his health finally started to go into decline after Talia’s passing last year. Talks of death and funeral plans had been the topic for the past couple of months, Freddy doing what he could do to make the last moments as pleasant as possible. Freddy had requested to be the one solely responsible for his father instead of Dolly for a change. There came a grip on Freddy’s shoulder, strong and firm as the aging Face Fur sighed knowing who that could be. “Yes Envy, what do you want? Are you even packed?” Freddy sighed as he looked up to greet the family’s garbage gremlin in full view grinning away.

 “Of course I’ve packed, Face Fur! I’m not that lazy now, am I?” Envy scoffed indignantly at being called out in such an unfitting fashion. “Would you care if I responded with yes?” Freddy sniped at Envy rather quickly, having grown tired of this game.

 “Ha ha, you’re such a comedic genius. I’m not here to joke around though, I’m here to talk to you about a possible favor.” Envy shifted topic, their being bruised a bit from that come back. “You realize when you say ‘favor’, it usually revolves around me getting harmed horrifically in some form.” Freddy narrowed his eyes as he said it, a pit forming in his stomach of what was to come next.

 “Well it simply depends on how well you pull it off. Dolly and I have been speaking about getting a third clay construct, how’d yah feel about making that for us?” Envy grinned as widely as possible to sell this plan to old man Freddy who looked at Envy as though they gleefully spoke about a homicide. “Envy, I have that fucking scar still on my arm from Ernest..I rather not get my flesh dissolved once again if I made a third little bastard.” Freddy stated blankly that Envy would even request something as awful as the first time.

 “It could be less flesh hungry than Ernest was when he was made, like Dorian. I’m sure Grody Gertie would be a very fine addition to our little clay based family.” Envy said reassuringly as they revealed that dreadful chosen name for the poor construct. “....Are you being serious with that name?” Freddy had to hold back a laugh at such a ridiculous name that Envy produced. “Why is everyone so against me naming the third clay construct Grody Gertie!?” Envy looked frustrated that their picked out name was being trashed once more. “Because it’s a terrible name!” Freddy finally began to laugh at the absurdity of that name alone and the fact Envy was so determined for it to be official.

“I’ll have you know that Grody Gertie is the most superior name I’ve come up with on my own!” Envy didn’t care much for being mocked like this for a beautifully crafted name such as Grody Gertie.

 “Envy, it’s clear Dolly didn’t even like that name since you left her out in that comment just now. Tell you what, if you and Dolly can come up with a better name than that travesty, then maybe I’ll play nice in making that clay construct.” Freddy was morbidly curious what other dumb names would potentially come out of Envy’s mouth as he gave that offer.

 “You’ll make it if Dolly and I come up with the perfect name? It’s on.” Envy readily took up that perceived offer and ran off to the kitchen to tell Dolly what that old Face Fur said.

 “I said maybe….goddamnit I’m too old to be dealing with this  bullshit…” Freddy mentally declared his chair time was over as he went to get his own luggage into the van to stay there instead until it was time to leave.

[makeshiftstory]

The felting needles arrived just now and I managed to finish Fairfax :'D Here she is in full horrid clay unicorn glory :') I'm really happy with how Fairfax came out and is currently chilling with her brothers. Everyone will be seeing her once more once the Fourth comes up twice this year (Family related stuff has gotten a bit weird lately).

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Cross Posting from the main blog :') Here's Fairfax!

[makeshiftstory]

Figured I'd show the sewn together fabric body for Fairfax since I didn't get to do the same with Ernest and Dorian. Before all the limbs, ears, face, and mane goes on, the body basically looks amazingly like a peanut, a deflated peanut. That deflated peanut will soon look more like that sugar icing gum ball decorations once the fixings goes on for this new clay based abomination. Will be working on the clay stuff this weekend and getting Fairfax all set for working on when the time comes >:3c

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

A little appetizer crosspost from the main account until the Midsummer short comes up >:3

[makeshiftstory]

Getting this up as Memorial Day will be insane tomorrow, Here are The Foxlings, The Aludels, and Mojave in their Summer Holiday outfits X3 Basically these outfits (Except for Moe) come out when for certain summer holidays arrives. Also The Foxlings Outfits also double for Mermay! Please have a safe and happy Memorial Day or safe and happy Monday :')

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Crossposting from main to Fan Fiction account! Please have a safe Holiday season or a nice Monday :')

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Maze Masterpost First Half

(Doing it as a first half as to play it safe given Tumblr is weird about text limits on links now.) TW for: Body snatching, Violence, Coma, Cursing, Death, Body Horror, Absolutely Filthy Living Conditions (Gany :( ), Survivor's Guilt, and The Amazing Human Process of Aging :D

Maze: #1: | | | | | | | #2: | | | | |

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Maze Chapter Two: Renegade Pt. 5

The island shook violently as the jump commenced, Orion having to cling onto the table as the island vanished into the portal. It was pure hell and pandemonium the moment the phantom island entered the portal. Objects, people, everything except Ophiuchus was twisting and warping from the unstable tunnel through as panic broke loose throughout the inhabitants. From the other room of the royal chamber, Orion was cursing out their husband for being such a stupid twat as the warping intensified as the island drew nearer towards its end goal. It was fixable, truly it was as Ophiuchus planned to vaporize those that were horrifically disfigured by this in order to make them regenerate back into working order. Soon the panicked screams would die down as the warping and twisting subsided as Nibiru in disarray reached its end goal. The waters of the world next door crashed softly against its biomechanical surface, the silence deafening as Ophiuchus exited the command chamber to inspect the collateral damages caused by the jump. Orion had melted into the angriest puddle imaginable as eyes bubbled to the surface just to glare at their stupid husband.

 “Ophi…you motherfucking block head…” Orion gurgled out in anger from having been melted from recklessness.

 “Shit…sorry hun, I’ll vaporize you right away.” Ophiuchus prepared to vaporize their liquified spouse before being told to stop.

 “No… you are to put me into a jar for the next two days so you can think long and hard about what this has cost you..” Orion instructed, they were going to make Ophiuchus live with the consequence of his shortsighted actions.

“Now that’s a bit unreasonable..” Ophiuchus was caught off guard by the request as Orion’s glare deepened.

“Are…you shitting me…right now..? You ordered this jump…and now you have to live with the consequences for two fucking days…” Orion was bubbling a bit in anger like scalding hot soup as Ophiuchus got their spouse into the jar.

 “Okay hun, you can stay in the jar like soup for two days. I’ll be right back from fixing the rest of the island so we can finally start hunting Crom Cruach down like the rat he is.” Ophiuchus rolled his eyes a bit as he dropped some fruits into Orion’s jar to eat like an amoeba.

 Ophiuchus, unaware of just how dire his actions were, exited out of his chambers to be greeted by the mother of all nautical messes. While some managed to survive being warped beyond recognition, namely Ophiuchus’s batch siblings, the rest were not as fortunate. Others were disfigured to the point of agony, some were lucky to have just melted, and the very unlucky few were turned inside out. The buildings had been severely damaged from the intense warping while some had completely been converted into a mass of molten clay. Ophiuchus had his work cut out, the resentment from each and every member of Nibiru being visible for all to see as he went about the vaporization process. The task was long and tiresome, so many needed to be vaporized in order to rematerialize into their original body format. Then came the new panic once the crew was back into working order: how did the crops and livestock do during such a rough jump. The animal husbandry and the agricultural sections went into full panic mode as both were not spared from the disastrous jump. The appearances of the unfortunate animals that couldn’t make the dimensional jump were indescribable, hard to tell which part was the body or head, not even being able to tell if they had merged together. The real only course of action to do in that situation was to humanely euthanize the unfortunate livestock to spare them further pain of being alive like this.

 “Ophiuchus.” Virgo arrived, unharmed and pissed off that her warning was ignored with the catastrophic results to show for it.

“What is it now!?” Ophiuchus whipped his head around in frustration and stress of just how poorly the jump had gone.

“Strange aquatic life forms are trying to climb aboard the island.” Virgo plainly said as she brought even more bad news.

“Damn it, first it was the crew situation, now this.” Ophiuchus grumbled, knowing full well he was going to have another round of vaporizing coming up.

 “I think I now know why we haven’t had angry deities yet along with why they didn’t respond. This fucking world they made ate them.” Virgo threw her hands up, realizing that her brother, the queen of this island, had essentially dragged them into a god-eating world of death.

“I don’t want to hear this right now Virgo.” Ophiuchus hissed in anger that Virgo had indeed been the one with common sense.

“Oh no, I think you do, I think you truly do need to hear this Ophi. Was it worth it? WAS IT TRULY WORTH GOING AFTER CROM CRUACH!?” Virgo questioned and prodded at her brother, her fury over everything knowing no bound.

 “WHY YES IT WAS! THAT FUCKER IS GETTING OFF TOO EASILY BEING EXILED INTO A GOD EATING PLANET! WE CAN SURVIVE THIS! LET’S JUST EAT THE FUCKING MONSTER CLIMBING UP ONTO MY BROKEN ASS ISLAND SINCE OUR FOOD SUPPLY HAS DWINDLED!” Ophiuchus spilled in his screaming match with his enraged sister who looked very much ready to gut a reptile.

“OUR FOOD SUPPLY!? YOU’RE TELLING ME WE LOST A HUGE ASS CHUNK OF OUR FOOD SUPPLY!? ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME!?” Virgo’s eyes widened at the revelation that the island was now indeed facing a food shortage crisis thanks to the sheer recklessness. 

 “NO, NO I AM NOT!” Ophiuchus threw back his head a bit after admitting to the fact that his actions had truly cost the island dearly.

“DAMN IT OPHI! THIS IS ALL YOUR FUCKING FAULT!” Virgo screeched as both she and Ophiuchus got into a slapping fist fight with one another before being interrupted by a stormy gray colored Dobhar Chu who was about as angry as everyone else.

 “Virgo, Ophiuchus?” The Dobhar Chu asked with her yellow eyes, hiding a rage that was unmatched by the two fighting parties.

 “WHAT IS IT AQUARIUS!?” Ophiuchus screeched as he pushed Virgo off from the slapping fight.

“We managed to receive telecommunications with the mainland from the humans in this world. How do you want to proceed with this information?” Aquarius didn’t even flinch at the screeching as she stood there to deliver the message.

 “...You’re telling us that somehow, SOMEHOW, this planet not only ate their own gods but the humans here are thriving off of it?” Virgo asked, flabbergasted that the humans were not only the ones to survive in this environment, but were also thriving as well.

“It would appear to be so.” Aquarius calmly said, awaiting what the order should be in regards.

“Fuck it, we got nothing to lose here, we’ll just get our human glamor on and hopefully receive supplies from them.” Virgo said, taking full control of the entire trainwreck situation that had been this island.

 “I didn’t..” Ophiuchus was about to protest before being hushed by Virgo who was clearly done with everything.

“No, you don’t get to make anymore demands for the day, not unless you want a full scale mutiny on this island.” Virgo put her foot down on Ophiuchus, the stress causing her to lash out.

“I will proceed with the contact with the mainland then.” Aquarius dismissed herself for the telecommunications station that managed to remain operational. 

“I can’t believe you would undermine me like this.” Ophiuchus growled out the moment Aquarius was out of view.

“Well get used to it. You want to stay in control? Then keep fucking low for the time being, otherwise Scorpio is going to take her opportunity with this situation.” Virgo started to walk towards the telecommunications station, ending the discussion with Ophiuchus for the time being.

 Ophiuchus was left to stew in his own anger over everything with the added knowledge of having his island receiving assistance from humans of all things. In the shadows of the chaos brought upon by the jump, a shimmering purple serpent-like being that shone like an amethyst slithered along menacingly, happy with just how bad the outcome was for brother dear. As the island awaited assistance from an unlikely aid, the focus shifted over thousands of miles away towards the city of Yorknew. Up in a penthouse style apartment, the small queen in the photo Kurama received looked out in the city waiting, her company being the three small animated plush dolls. The three plush dolls, her familiars, hopped off of the ottoman they sat upon to follow along. It had been some many months since arriving in this world by that freak accident back at home as the small queen got up from her seat to get a glass of water. The small queen had been waiting a few hours for this person she was staying with, having left for errands to fill up the fridge amongst other things. A part of the small queen had a feeling that her friend had likely gotten into another fight with somebody else or received a target since they are a blacklist hunter. The door to the apartment started to twist as a man with long white hair tied back in a pony tail came in. He was incredibly well built and tall as his only eye looked over to where the small queen was, offering a smile after reaching back home.

 “Sorry for the wait there Dolly, had to get the cleaning solution for my prosthetic eye. I couldn’t believe just how poorly stocked it was at the market.” The man said as Dolly came over to help them out with unloading.

“They really need to do better with having that solution more available. How are you holding up after that, Caspian?”  Dolly asked as she went to take a bag off of Caspian’s load, surprised they got that many items.

 “To be fully honest with you, not too well. I was nearly ready to rip a man’s head off over it. I’m just glad to be out of there and back here to relax.” Caspian admitted, a bit of blood thirst was clear in his stare about the whole interaction.

 “That sucks, let’s get you decompressed then after having to deal with that. Do we want to order pizza for our lunch today?” Dolly asked as she started getting the groceries put away into the fridge, having a strong feeling today wouldn't be a good day to cook.

 “I think pizza sounds like an excellent idea, I think our favorite pizza parlor has the pretzel crust out right now.” Caspian was more than happy to agree for a pizza lunch for the day as he got the higher shelf items placed away.

 “I like the sounds of the pretzel crust, that would be really good with their smokehouse meat lovers topping.” Dolly smiled before her attention shifted to something else as the sound of thumping upstairs could be heard.

“Damn it, I thought we were quiet enough this time to not alert Gany..” Caspian grumbled as they knew full well who that could be.

“I swear, Ganymede has some sort of built in pizza radar in that skull of theirs…” Dolly remarked as the thumping intensified.

“I’ll go and see what pizza Gany is going to want this time around.” Caspian shook his tired head as they made the way towards the attic before being stopped briefly by Dolly.

“Hang on, I have some soda here you can offer to Pepe, I don’t think Gany has trained his construct yet.” Dolly said as she handed Caspian the mini bottle of soda as a sacrificial offering to the attic monster.

 “How could I have forgotten Pepe…I’ll be right back, Dolly.” Caspian accepted the mini soda bottle before making the dreaded journey into the attic of the penthouse.

 While the main area of the penthouse was nice and very easy on the eyes, the attic was an entirely different story. Boxes of pizzas past had been built up into mini towers of decay as the smell of stale bread crusts and expiring cheeses lingered. It was incredibly harsh on Caspian’s sense of smell as they navigated through the trash heaps that were the domain of Ganymede. A strong feeling of dread crept into Caspian’s stomach, knowing full well if the penthouse manager, Joel Mancer, were to find out about the state of the attic, it’d be complete blood shed. The ghastly sounds of something scurrying caught Caspian’s attention as he looked down to the ground. The dreaded mobile trash heap known as ‘Pepe’ had shown up with the temperament of a chihuahua wanting to take a good bite out of Caspian. Pepe had always been like this, even when Caspian was just a small child as they took out the soda bottle and offered it to the trash monstrosity as payment. Pepe eyed the soda for a moment before taking it from Caspian and shuffling off to a little house made of pizza boxes. With a sigh, Caspian continued his journey towards where the soft sounds of a muffled television could be heard. There, sitting on a worn bean bag chair in a stained sweatshirt and yoga pants was Ganymede, a humanoid being that had been freeloading in Caspian’s family for as long as anyone could remember. Long, white, feather-like hair was pulled up into a messy bun, dark eyes piercing from a face that was attractive as a low swan-like honking sound emitted from Ganymede’s throat.

“I take it you wanted some pizza too?” Caspian asked as he looked at the family deity who couldn’t give five flying fucks on how they’re living.

 “Yes, but also tell Dolly that I just picked up two disturbances right now on my radar.” Ganymede croaked out in a voice likened to a sailor who had been smoking since birth that starkly contrasted her good looks.

“What do you mean by that?” Caspian raised a concerned eyebrow upon hearing that come from Ganymede.

“Exactly what it means, two groups have managed to enter this place somehow. Looks like the second group decided to make contact with the humans though, figured it’d happen though given how messy both entries were.” Gany snorted as he rummaged a bit through their bag of stale popcorn.

 “Is this to be on the very worried scale?”  Caspian asked, needing to know if they needed to get armed right away.

 “Depends, the second group is way too far away to be a concern. The first group though, that has my attention, they’re not too far off in Meteor City.” Gany explained after getting their fix of popcorn into that grody mouth that was in need of washing.

“That group is going to get eaten alive by the freaky body collectors if they’re not careful. Did you contact them?” Caspian inquired, knowing full well about Meteor City from the mafias he’d sometimes get employment from.

“I thought about it, they do have fae tech that I can reach them with if needed.” Ganymede answered, petting Pepe the trash construct after coming out of the pizza box house.

“Then why didn’t you?” Caspian gave Gany the look of annoyance now given that a group of people not familiar to this world was basically heading into no man’s land.

“Because you told me not to do anything on my own, remember?” Ganymede snidely reminded Caspian, evidently holding a grudge from some unnamed past incident.

“This is exactly why I prefer spending my time with Dolly. Go and contact the close group immediately.” Caspian grumbled their grievances with Ganymede before giving the sloppy fae the okay to contact the group.

 “Hey, that was uncalled for, but you’re still my favorite out of the whole Nightpelt family so far. I’ll go contact them now since you are my favorite.” Ganymede rummaged through the piles of garbage, pulling out a radio transmitter of sorts, starting it up to make that long distance communication.

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Maze Chapter Two: Renegade Pt. 4

 “Lord Jorge, I’ve located the van and it would appear that the occupants inside arrived unharmed. I am not suited to apprehend them myself since they hadn’t passed on as anticipated.” The armored figure said into the radio as they watched the van moving into the infamous city.

“Please don’t call me Lord, thank you for confirming that they’re somehow still alive. I will forward the news to Koenma at once. You are free to return to your post.”  Jorge sighed as he never got used to being called a lord after his long time of being the secretary for Koenma.

 “Thank you sir.” The armor figure sighed as they hung up the radio and disappeared back to the base.

 Back in Spirit World, Jorge slumped over his desk of papers waiting to be signed as he debated on what to do next. This mess had managed to become bigger than the time he had to deal with sorting out those damn ants after having to reconfigure a specialized judgment for each one to keep things fair. That was a fiasco that Jorge never wanted to deal with ever again as he looked over the file waiting for approval for a probation idea that caught his eye. This was something Spirit World had done in the past with Kurama and Hiei when the mess with the Saint Beasts came up. Jorge focused on the proposal, gears turning for a while, reading over the person who was up for probation as an idea came into mind. With some calls and favors, Jorge had arranged for a monitored meeting with Rando, a demon with over ninety nine techniques that could survive in the lethal younger world next door. While waiting for the arrival of Rando, Jorge sent out the message to Koenma about the development in the stolen Urameshi body ordeal along with the plan of sending Rando out to retrieve the culprits. It would take twenty minutes before armed guards brought a restrained Rando into Jorge’s office as he sat up to have this meeting. Rando was covered in wards and special spirit world devices to reduce the risk of breaking loose while before a very public figure. 

 “I thought my probationary trial was at the end of this week, did something happen?” Rando inquired as he was made to sit down by the surrounding guards before Jorge.

 “It’s your lucky day Rando, we had a situation that made itself apparent this morning and I have decided to give this chance to you. If you succeed in doing this for us, you do not have to go on the probation trial and instead regain your freedom with supervision reduced to three months instead of eight.” Jorge held up the file to his face, reading some of the information carefully as he informed Rando of the offer.

 “I’m listening.” Rando’s eyes flickered upon learning he could bypass the trial and straight to freedom in a shorter time. “Yusuke Urameshi’s body was stolen this morning and was illegally transported into Earth’s off limits younger sibling world next door. Because of your rather unique ability of housing multiple abilities and tracking skills, I have deemed you as the prime candidate for this mission. There will be some precautionary measures to ensure that this goes without any unfortunate ‘accidents’.” Jorge gave a rough rundown of what had transpired briefly as he filled out the proper paper forms necessary to allow Rando this chance.

 “What would happen if I should decline the offer?” Rando sat back a bit as he weighed the option for a moment.

 “You would have the probationary trial instead and stay with the eight month long probation period along with the ankle tracker.” Jorge reiterated along with the add in of a tracking anklet should the offer be declined. “Who am I to disagree with such a handsome deal such as that? I’ll do the mission.” Rando smiled a bit as he took up the offer as the guards removed him from the seat. “Excellent, we’ll get you prepared then to head into the world in question with a bit more information on it. We expect Mr. Urameshi to be returned to us in pristine conditions.” Jorge watched as the guards took Rando away to the prepping station for his task of locating and retrieving Yusuke Urameshi’s body.

 It had been decades since Rando last felt that taste of freedom when he would hunt down human martial artists for their techniques before killing them off. Those lost decades in Rando’s life that could never be replaced, though what made up for it was the advice Rando was given before detainment. Practice and perfecting the techniques he had stolen had been something Rando held pretty close to heart when in prison. Oh was that advice a treasure during that time when he’d train in secret, getting better with each passing year behind bars. When Rando felt he’d perfected all ninety nine techniques, the next phase of the plan came into action, playing nice in prison to get early release. That was the hardest part for Rando, resisting the urge to punch out his fellow inmates or gutting one of the guards if they snickered at his expense. Oh no, everything had gone to Rando’s plan perfectly with the added bonus of handing him the man responsible for that imprisonment; Yusuke Urameshi. It was funny how the fates played this game, truly it was, saved Rando the time of having to hunt down the hospital that man was in along with the rest of his family. This saved the demon so much time in such a task too, it was like gold in Rando’s eyes. A promise of three new techniques to add to the list was in Rando’s grasp as he was prepared to enter that neighboring dimension. Things couldn’t get better than this as Rando just kept smiling for the job ahead.

=======================================================================

 The phantom island of Nibiru was in a rush as technicians and navigators prepared the island for the dimensional jump into the forbidden neighboring world after Kurama had cracked the code. Virgo could only watch on with her fellow batch siblings in the dining hall while Ophiuchus was at his chambers with the second in command, his spouse. Everyone at that table looked uneasy with this plan especially given that the portal the fox made had been rushed and unstable. Sure, it was something they could refine if given proper time, however, due to the time constraints, the technicians and navigators on board of the island were in a frantic rush to carry out this order. The sheer stupidity of the situation that could have been avoided had Ophiuchus been of sound mind and listened to the rather merciful act of the nursery island of MagMell. Alas, the siren song of potentially capturing Crom Cruach had been playing about in Ophiuchus’s mind since the moment that signature was found. Everyone else would simply have to buckle in and hope, hope that this didn’t go without a hitch as Virgo got up from her seat as she was requested to report to Ophiuchus’s chambers.

 The soft clicking of Virgo’s cloven hooves against the iridescent tiled floors echoed as she made her trip back to the chambers, knowing full well what was to come shortly. If this plan works without major complications, Virgo would have to be the one to communicate with the resident deities that reside within that world, hopefully without potential hostility from breaking in. The chamber doors were opened as Virgo made her way inside to be greeted to Ophiuchus’s spouse, Orion, at the table. The dalmatian dullahan sat at the table with a mug of grog, looking rather annoyed about something as they traced their hand along the silver collar with delicately etched stars decorating the metal. It was clear to Virgo that a fight had broken out between the married couple over this stunt with the possible case of Ophiuchus being made to sleep in the guest bedroom thanks to it. There was a shared look between the two inlaws as they had a similar understanding of the situation, everyone on this island was going to suffer immensely. Things have gotten too far too soon with the potential of mutiny erupting aboard the island as Virgo reached a stewing Ophiuchus.

“Brother, everyone is scrambling with the order, can we not head out to the planes space  for the time being to give everyone the time needed?” Virgo started as Ophiuchus raised his hand in order of silence.

“No, we are so close right now and we need to get in there. Order the animal husbandry section of the island to secure the livestock for imminent dimension jumping.” Ophiuchus said dismissively, his mind strictly on the task in hand.

 “Orion already did, they’re pissed off at you right now. Shouldn’t that have been the wake up call you needed?” Virgo really wasn’t thrilled with her stubborn brother as he monitored the progress being made.

“We’ll make up later, it was just a minor disagreement.” Ophiuchus was sticking to his plan regardless of what it meant in terms of his marriage.

 “Ophi, your spouse is right now looking like they’re going to make you sleep in the guest room after this.”  Virgo pointed out in a very hushed tone, Orion likely listening in on the trainwreck in the works.

“Orion wouldn’t do that, but now that the livestock was already secured for the jump, I’m getting the count down going for it.” Ophiuchus’s patiences had run dry, wanting to move the jump quicker than intended.

“But the technicians and navigators are still trying to make it safe!” Virgo’s eyes widened in horror upon hearing that come from Ophiuchus’s mouth.

“Time isn’t on our side Virgo, we need to do this at once.” Ophiuchus sent the order in to start the countdown for the jump.

“It would be on our side if you weren’t such a stubborn idiot about this!” Virgo snapped as Ophiuchus slowly turned his head in disapproval of being called that.

“You are dismissed to your chambers at once. I will call you back once we’re secured in the neighboring world for diplomacy, is that understood?” Ophiuchus had no time to be insulted as the countdown commenced.

 “But Ophi!” Virgo attempted to argue this further before being shut down immediately. “I said you were dismissed.” Ophiuchus hissed as he forced his sister out of the command chambers.

 Distraught and unable to do anything now, Virgo had no choice but to obey the instructions given by Ophiuchus. Orion whispered an ‘I’m sorry’ towards Virgo as she left for her own chambers, not thrilled with the potential disaster that was in the works. Ophiuchus simply huffed as he went back into work mode on getting the island of Nibiru teleported over to the neighboring world just to get that bastard Crom Cruach. The island was in upheaval over the order of teleporting with the countdown forcing everyone's hands in making such a dangerous leap. Almost all of Ophiuchus’s siblings were messaging their opposition over such a reckless order, all except for one that made Ophiuchus pause for a moment. Scorpio, a sibling he had been rivals with for as long as anyone could remember, hadn’t said a word about the plan. Despite everything Virgo had said and done, it was the silence from Scorpio had Ophiuchus’s guard on the rise. With the counter drawing closer towards launch time, Ophiuchus would have to confront Scorpio afterwards as his attention was needed right there as the countdown sounded. 

10…

9….

8…

7…

6…

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…COMMENCING DIMENSION JUMP…

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Maze Chapter Two: Renegade Pt. 3

Hiei slowly lifted himself from Yusuke, getting a very good look at the former spirit detective before looking at his own arm as well. The planes jumper mostly did its job by protecting the occupants from the disfiguring injuries of the very unstable rift made from the rush job, but, because it was unstable, it had triggered Hiei and Yusuke to enter their demonic forms as a means of survival. Yusuke did resemble Raizen when he was still alive as Hiei went to shutting down his jaganshi form, the green and excessive eyes receding before making his way towards Kurama. There was a concern in Hiei’s mind that was only confirmed when he reached Kurama and his little horror show. Kurama, having his abdominal region being attacked throughout his combat career had caught up to him about eight years ago in the form of heavily scarred and damaged intestines that were getting infected due to age. The jump through the unstable portal had attacked that fragile spot on Kurama’s body, even the planes jumper couldn’t protect Kurama from that. The other thing that had Hiei concerned was the fact Kurama was fighting off the shift into his Yoko form which wasn’t helping the blood festival going on. “Goddamn it Kurama, just let your body shift into Yoko’s, you’ll be able to heal quicker that way.” Hiei growled as he climbed back to the front seat, annoyed at the stubbornness of Kurama.

 “When I said I would never become Yoko again, I meant it.” Kurama growled as half his face was fighting between Shuichi's and Yoko’s. “Kurama, I am not above hitting an injured person if they’re being stupid. It’s a lose lose situation, either you shift now to save that human body of yours or you let it die, becoming Yoko anyways but more permanently.” Hiei was very prepared to thwack Kurama if he continued to be stubborn.

“What happened to your code?” Kurama received a thwack to the back of the head for that question as Hiei just stared at the Former thief indifferently. “This is an exception to my code. Now let yourself shift so you can fucking heal.” Hiei readied a second thwack in case Kurama decided to carry on. 

 “Okay, fine, but if I shift into Yoko to heal, you need to drive the van while I recuperate.” Kurama relented, getting his cell phone out and preparing to let the shift happen. “What?” Hiei gave Kurama a very perplexed look at being asked such a task. “Drive the van, I can’t drive in this state until I’ve recovered.” Kurama raised an eyebrow, pausing a bit at Hiei’s reaction. “..fuck me..” Hiei grumbled as he stared at the hideous thing called the steering wheel. “Hiei, is there something you need to tell me?” Kurama returned to coughing up more blood as Hiei came clean. “About that, I never felt or had the need to learn how to drive one of those puny human vehicles before until now.” Hiei told the terrible but unsurprising truth to Kurama who just stared at Hiei for a moment after having the bloody coughing fit. “So you don’t know how to drive?” Kurama furrowed his brow a bit upon hearing that. “Kurama, you're talking to someone who basically lived in public parks while being exiled from the demon world. Do you think I’d have a license to drive?” Hiei glanced to the side, not wanting to talk about the years he lived outdoors without any sort of shelter. 

 “Alright, we’ll compromise, I’ll show you quickly on how to just pull over to the other side of the road so we’re not blocking it up.” Kurama moved Hiei onto the driver’s wheel so he could finally shift as the pain became a bit too great.

 “Fine..” Hiei said as he got pushed over to the driver’s seat, gripping the wheel as though it was a life line. 

 With a sharp inhale of breath, Kurama relaxed his body as he let it finally shift. Kurama’s shifts had always been an odd one compared to the others. Instead of just transforming like how Hiei’s would, Kurama’s was likened to a flicker of light so to speak. The nearly middle aged human called Shuichi Minamino had vanished as he was replaced by a much taller man with silver hair. His fox ears pinned to the back from the abdominal pain as his demonic body went to work on healing up the injury. The golden eyes darted to the back of the van to check on Yusuke for a moment before turning his attention towards Hiei. Yoko had temporarily returned as he instructed Hiei on how to drive the van to the side of the road with much annoyance from both having to focus on healing and the jerking motion of the van being driven by Hiei. It took a while to teach Hiei how to park the van and how to turn it off, much to Hiei’s displeasure of being reduced to driving a puny human vehicle. 

 With the van parked to the side of the road, Yoko went to relax a bit after a tiresome ordeal and started to check the cellphone for a moment. Having fulfilled that side of the commission, Yoko got up the number that Ophiuchus used before to send a text letting the arch fae jackass know. Hiei raised an eye as he watched Yoko click his sharp claws against the glass of the phone. The sound of the message being sent rang as Yoko kept his hardened eyes on the screen, waiting for an answer amongst other things. Deciding to risk it seeing as Yoko was in fact in the process of healing up, Hiei spoke up.

 “Now that we’re no longer running from spirit world authority, tell me, who is this employer of yours? There are not a lot of people running around with free fae technology at their disposal.” Hiei looked very carefully at Yoko, pretty sure he’ll put up an argument about it.

 “The employer? A soon to be very decommissioned Fae Queen once I get a photo of the person we’re needing to restore Yusuke.” Yoko responded coldly as he waited on the phone, watching the screen as though it had insulted him personally. 

 “...Kurama, you’re talking about a fae queen here. Those things are essentially magical nuclear reactors.” Hiei nearly shouted before regaining his composure about the entire situation.

 “It’ll be challenging, but there is no such thing as being invincible, not even for a fae queen. I’m a very patient man with time at my disposal for the moment.” Yoko calmly replied, much like a calm before a massive storm arrives.

 “I think the same can be applied to you there.” Hiei said, a part of him wanting to see Yoko dispatch a fae queen while the other rather not see a magical fallout of horrors.

“Not when the half arsed monarch over there insulted Yusuke and Kuronue like that, trust me on that one.” Yoko hissed a bit as he narrowed those cold, horrible eyes of death as the response arrived.

 The images that arrived earned Yoko’s confusion for a moment as Hiei looked over to check it out. It was two images, one from public outings and the other when amongst her own kind. It was a dobhar chu, a canine-like otter variety of fae, but something was off with the image.  This queen elect was super short for her own kind, especially for a dobhar chu with one ear flopped lazily to the side. Her fur was a creamy sort of off white with brown markings around the eyes like eyeshadow, lining the rim of her ears, and a stripe running along the back to her tail. The only thing that would’ve been considered normal for her kind was the bi colored hair, cream and brown stripes curled with fluffy bangs. Next to it was the fae’s human disguise, it kept the bicolor hair and the eyeshadow like markings on a ‘the sun will kill me on sight’ pale skin. This wasn’t the source of the confusion, the source was the fact that this person was often shown as part of the entourage for the earth settled faes’ queen rather than being said queen herself. The perceived queen was over seven feet tall and had always dressed in the most elaborate gowns imaginable, hair neatly done in rows of microbraids that led to a fluffed up faux mohawk unlike the small one that often dressed in more cutesy clothing rather than something fitting for royalty. It was pretty clear after a few messages for clarification that the images sent was in fact the queen for the human world settlement, somehow the entirety of their real queen going missing had been kept silent. 

 “I guess that was the stand-in the whole time, though I can see why, that queen is insanely small.” Hiei commented, catching Yoko off guard at the eavesdropping. “Whatever, if this is the person who’ll get the job done, then so be it.” Yoko placed the cellphone down, he now has a face to the signature and that was the only thing that mattered. 

 “I would’ve thought the settlement faes would’ve made a huge fuss that their queen went missing.” Hiei pointed out, unsure what to make of the fact that the whole ‘the queen is missing sound the alert’ thing wasn’t being treated as a major deal. “What do you expect from them? They’re like injured cats when it comes to internal conflicts, they hide it from everyone and only discuss it amongst their own kind. I’m not surprised at all that they wouldn’t breathe a word about a missing queen. Besides, the whole settlement is essentially an anarchist paradise, they’re likely getting along just fine without their figurehead.” Yoko said as he went back to focusing on recovering, having had enough about the fae and their antics that made his skin crawl in annoyance.

 “Changing the topic then since the fae really got you pissed off, why didn’t you have the idiot cut a hole into this world instead?” Hiei waited patiently to bring up the very one elephant in the room as Yoko shot him a scowl. “Hiei, it’s not wise to ask a dumb question around me. Kuwabara wouldn’t have done it given Keiko’s wishes. There is that and I didn’t want to drag a human into this fae contract, that wouldn’t have ended well.” Yoko responded as he carefully pushed himself off the seat to get to the back to lay down for a while.

 The van went silent for the time, Hiei having decided it was best to let Yoko have some quiet time as he healed. Yoko laid down for the time being to let the injuries heal themselves while keeping track of Yusuke on the makeshift life support. With a face to the signature, Yoko felt reassured that Yusuke will finally be brought back to his family and friends after being gone for so long. Whatever punishment that might be waiting for him and Hiei would be worth it in the end. The morning rush, the all night preparations, the rush job, and the recovery had taken a toll on Yoko as he slowly drifted to sleep. Hiei sat by the driver’s seat, keeping watch on his end until Yoko was awake and ready to travel once again. It would be another few hours of rest before Yoko would wake up and take back control of driving the van into the town up ahead. On the sign as the van passed by into its territory read simply as ‘Meteor City’ as Yoko and Hiei entered. Outside of the van, a few miles back, stood a figure dressed head to toe in dense armor that had been monitoring the recently appearing vehicle. The figure fished around in the armor for a moment before pulling out a two way radio as it hummed to life to deliver a message.

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Maze Chapter Two: Renegade Pt. 2

 “Kurama, how long is the barrier going to take?” Hiei asked, the waiting was getting to him in ways Hiei hadn’t expected. “I would say another half hour if I’m going on the right path. I don’t understand why a barrier like this would be made.” Kurama answered as the area around him started having a warping effect.

 “Clearly, whoever made the damn barrier was an absolute mad genius of some kind.” Hiei raised an eyebrow that Kurama was having issues with that barrier. “I’m not entirely sure, of course the demon world’s barrier is a challenge, but this barrier makes ours look like child’s play. Whoever designed it, clearly made it so nothing could get in or out. Unfortunately for the designer, I’m about close to cracking it.” Kurama said as he received a small shock before resuming on breaking the barrier.

 “Fuck, Kurama, you’re going to have to rush it..” Hiei stood up on top of the roof, noticing something coming through the woods. “That’s great, just great!” Kurama started to go faster with the barrier break down, the warping intensifying as a fabric like ripping sound could be heard from the rush job.

 The sound of vehicles approaching could be heard, as the rift to the next world had been opened. It was an ugly sight to behold this rift, jagged and horizontal like an opened wound, opened to both them as well as whatever was over on the other side of the rift to enter. There was a strong sickness in the pits of both Kurama and Hiei as they looked upon that horribly deformed rift, knowing there was no choice but to enter it. The sight of Kuwabara’s family van and the sight of Tomoko’s motorcycle could be seen around the bend as Kurama hastily picked up the dimension jumper, making a dash for the van. Hiei followed Kurama’s lead in entering the van like Kurama did as the fox youkai stumbled to get the keys into the ignition. Hiei looked on tensely, knowing full well what the consequences were going to be if they’re both caught.

 “Hurry up! They’re coming and I don’t want to deal with Kuwabara’s stupid ass face!” Hiei yelled as Kurama started the van. “I got it! Get the device onto the dashboard now Hiei!” Kurama revved up the van, ready to drive full speed into the gaping maul of the hideous rift. 

 “Kurama where the hell did you get fae technology!?” Hiei was horrified to even be holding the device as meaty tendrils came out from its shell to latch onto the dashboard, activating it’s interdimensional abilities.

 “No time, hold onto Yusuke!” Kurama gunned it, sending the van speeding towards the rift and entering it with a disturbing popping sound.

 Hiei launched himself from the front seat to the back, using his body to anchor and shield Yusuke from harm as the van sped through the twisting and turning seas of the broken barrier, the rift’s unstable nature warping everything in their perception as they drove on towards that destination ahead. Kurama clutched the steering wheel tightly, a familiar pain coursing from their abdominal region as blood slowly trickled down from his mouth. It’ll be fine, just perfect fine, a matra that repeated in Kurama’s mind as he kept on track of the bigger goal ahead. Back on the other side of the rift, Kuwabara, having seen the van go inside of the interdimensional rift, was about to enter it before a panicked Koenma forced him to stop the car. Bits of mud and grass kicked up in the wake of the car stopping, signaling to Tomoko to pull over her motorcycle as she watched Kuwabara exit the van with Koenma and her mother. Tomoko was ready to take action, not yet realizing the absolutely horrified expression on Koenma’s face as he gazed at the rift as though it was the hypercenter of a nuclear detonation. 

“We had this barrier up for a reason!” Koenma huffed as he ran a hand through his hair, rightfully freaked out. “This is a rift to the human world’s feral younger sibling, a registered godkiller world! How did Kurama even find out about this!?” “Koenma, you need to explain some shit right now cause Keiko is hyperventilating and Tomoko over there is looking ready to ram her damn bike into the portal!” Kuwabara consoled Keiko the best he could while Tomoko looked ready to commit brutal acts of violence on her motorcycle. “You’re not going to like this, my Dad told me stories back when Earth was new. They wanted a practice world, you see, to test out just how wild they could get with the flora and fauna before unleashing it into Earth.” Koenma watched the concerned expressions from the group.

 “Things were fine at the start, we got the tiktaalik that was brought over to Earth, but then evolution happened. That practice world, its evolutionary path, went wild, especially once humanity started to appear. The humans developed abilities that would eclipse Yusuke’s by leagues, easy god killers if they were given reasons to retaliate. It was a group decision to seal off the practice world and leave it to its own devices.” Koenma continued to the very shocked group upon learning there’s a murder dimension neighboring theirs. 

 “In simpler terms, the human world and demon world were considered the much more easygoing realms. We had no problems handling it. Let that sink in for a bit. We had to keep this world a secret, mainly because even my father didn’t wish a demon such a fate of falling into that realm. Sure souls are still collected, but we have a specially trained force to handle them for the hall of judgment.” Koenma finished that long explanation to the group as Tomoko’s face bore the same angered expression that her father once had.  “Are you telling me that my Uncle Kurama and that teacup-sized punk dragged my Father’s body into planet Australia!?” Tomoko revved the motorcycle, very much ready to go into that dimensional rift before being stopped.

 “Tomoko, don’t you even think about driving into that portal!” Kuwabara shouted as he stepped into the pathway, forcing Tomoko to park the motorcycle.

 “He’s right, don’t even go into that portal. I already lost Urameshi due to my own incompetence as a leader who couldn’t even stop a hostile takeover. I refuse to have that repeat with you.” Koenma took out a cellphone from the pocket of his sweatpants before making some calls.

 “My Dad is over there! He needs to be brought back to his family RIGHT NOW!” Tomoko protested as she got off the motorcycle, ready to raise hell in order to get Yusuke back for her Mom. “And we will! Just give Koenma time. He’s doing something that I didn’t think he’d do after all this time.” Kuwabara held Tomoko back from adding more trouble than the situation was already.

 “Come on ogre, pick up NOW… Kuwabara, I’m going to ask you to use your spirit sword incase ANYTHING tries to break through the barrier.” Koenma started grinding his teeth from the stress of the situation from just how bad things were.

 “I thought you said these things were god killers?” Kuwabara looked panicked as he got up the spirit sword as instructed, moving Tomoko to the side. “I know, but with how awful that rift is, there’s a chance whatever that exits it could be heavily deformed or injured from the travel. Even then, they still pose a danger to the humans here if something gets loose.” Koenma started pacing about as Tomoko looked horrified upon hearing that. “If that’s the case, what’s going to happen to my Dad!?” Tomoko looked at the hideous rift, the possibility of her father dying from disfiguring injuries instead of peacefully in a hospital horrified Tomoko.

 There was no answer for that question as Koenma paced about on the cellphone as Kuwabara looked on at the rift before them. There was nothing to do except wait on Jorge to pick up on the phone as Tomoko went to not only comfort her mother, but herself as well. The possibility of this becoming a body recovery mission hung heavy in their thoughts not just for Yusuke, but for Kurama and Hiei as well. Returning to the travelers in the rift, the scenery was simply grotesque of shifting shapes and colors one would have never thought possible if Hiei was actually looking on at this. Only one that is was Kurama as he struggled with the damages his internal organs were dealing with amongst other things as he glanced in the rear view mirror. There was a grunt of pain and frustration as Kurama pushed on through the rift onto the other side of it. The van came to a stop upon entering the otherworld, somewhere that looked like a desert with a city up ahead surrounded by junk yards as far as Kurama’s eyes could see before vomiting up blood from the hard ride.

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Maze Chapter Two: Renegade Pt. 1

It had been a major fight to drag Koenma from his solitude in the rented home, something about a dating sim with birds in it and working on some partridge doctor. Kuwabara couldn’t give a real flying fuck about the game considering Yusuke’s body was kidnapped, Keiko was having a mental breakdown, and the strong possibility Kurama was responsible for it as he loaded Koenma into the family car with his sons. Koenma had seen better days, his adult form having started growing a scraggly beard and worn out tee shirts that have seen better days as Koenma adjusted his oversized sweatpants after being forced out into the public. It didn’t help Koenma very much having to sit between two teenage boys who both decided this road trip needed a game of punch buggy with Koenma. 

 “Kuwabara, get your children under control! I can’t feel my arm anymore!” Koenma complained as snickering could be heard from Jotaro and Josuke.

 “Josuke, Jotaro, stop picking on Mister Koenma over there. We’re getting close to Aunt Keiko’s and we expect you both to be on your best behavior.” Kuwabara scolded as he started to make the turn towards Keiko’s Restaurant.

 Jotaro and Josuke grumbled out an apology, upset that their little bit of fun was ruined because of Koenma whining about it. Kuwabara couldn’t help but shake his head a bit before making the pull up to the sidewalk. Keiko stood at the entrance of the restaurant as she looked up to see Kuwabara and his family arrive. Keiko looked relieved to see Kuwabara before looking shocked to see Koenma in the group, it’s been a long time since she last saw him out in public like that. Taking the keys out of the pocket, Keiko opened up the door to the restaurant, not having been opened yet since it was still the morning hours. 

 “So, where’s Tomoko? Does she know about what happened?” Kuwabara asked as he made sure Koenma was keeping up with everyone. “She does, Tomoko is driving over now from art college. I still don’t understand where Kurama is or why he hasn’t been answering at all..” Keiko sat down, the stress was becoming too much after a short span of time. “Keiko, Kazuma and I spoke to one another earlier after you told us the news. As much as I hate to believe this, I have to agree that given the recent behaviors and actions Kurama displayed last night, he might be responsible.” Yukina decided to be the one to break the news to Keiko about who was likely behind the kidnapping.

 “Keiko, you have every right to never speak to Kurama ever again or even forgive him regardless if he’s responsible or not. We will find Urameshi and bring him back to you, I promise you Keiko.” Kuwabara tried his best to console while Koenma started to think very carefully about what could be done on his end.

 “If Kurama is behind it, I’m going to bet he’s taking Yusuke’s body to Genkai’s property. The entire estate is powerful in spirit energy if Kurama’s attempting to revive Yusuke. That’s the one location I can think of to try first.” Koenma finally spoke, Keiko and Kuwabara staring at him upon that statement.

 “Should we go?” Yukina asked as Kuwabara got the keys to the car ready without a second thought. “You can ride with Koenma and myself, Keiko, call your daughter and let her know what location we’re going to. Yukina, could you stay at the restaurant with our sons in case Tomoko doesn’t get the phone call?” Kuwabara looked over to Yukina, panicked over how his friend group had basically dissolved.

 As Kuwabara, Koenma, and Keiko loaded up in the family van, Kurama had made it to Genkai’s estate after blowing up the stairway with the cacti bombs to make it drivable. It was a bit of a tricky deal having to go to the woods behind the temple thanks to all the demons inhabiting it. Thankfully, the sunflower gun had done the job it was intended for, gunning down the hungry demons that were very much interested in the delicious flesh of Yusuke. Tiresome as it was, it was worth it as Kurama reached the wetlands where Yusuke had his match with the demon, Rando, parking the van and getting out. It was weird having to enter this area as Kurama went to work with the strong spirit energy for breaking into another dimension. It was understood from the grape vine that Rando was going to have a probation hearing due to good behavior in prison, something that had sent a chill up his spine. Sure, there was the chance that Rando had seen the light, but there was something else to it that Kurama couldn’t exactly place a finger on just yet. 

 “Kurama, what exactly are you thinking?!” Said a voice behind him, causing Kurama to whip out the sunflower gun before lowering it. “Goddamn it Hiei, how did you get here?” Kurama disengaged the sunflower gun as he frowned a bit at the intrusion of Hiei. “Simple, I followed. You were too busy with stealing the detective’s body over there to notice me. Age really has gotten to you.” Hiei said casually, motioning his head towards the parked van.

 “Let me guess, you’re here to take Yusuke back.” Kurama lowered his voice, having to make a mental choice of putting his own wellbeing on the line by fighting or not. “Depends on what you’re planning. I know you Kurama, you’re not the kind to do this unless you have something you know for sure is going to work. Now spill it.” Hiei narrowed his eyes, waiting to hear what exactly was going through the fox youkai’s mind. “I took up a commissioned job from someone who told me there’s a neighboring dimension that has someone that could regenerate Yusuke’s soul. If I can break the barrier, I can take Yusuke to this person to save him.” Kurama confessed, he knew better than to lie to Hiei of all people. “Okay, I’m in.” Hiei said, catching Kurama off guard by the statement. “What?” Kurama had to make sure he was hearing things correctly from Hiei. “You heard me, I’m in. Ever since the detective died, I’ve been blaming myself for not being fast enough to save Yusuke. I had Koenma next to me, I grabbed him the moment Yusuke picked that damn blue button and got ourselves out of there. It was simple damage control, Spirit World would’ve fallen apart at the seams if Koenma had died in it. No matter how many times I tell myself this, I still can’t get that image out of my head of Yusuke being incinerated before me. Therefore, I am in and there is no way of convincing me otherwise.” Hiei shook after unloading what had been pent up over two decades, the trauma of the event still very fresh in Hiei’s mind.

 “Hiei, I didn’t know…why didn’t you tell anyone?” Kurama asked as he felt terrible for Hiei given what he had to witness first hand. “Because it’s a sign of weakness! I cannot show that when I work, if I show it, it compromises everything!” Hiei couldn’t stop shaking, everything coming out suddenly had been a lot for the three eyed youkai.

 “It’s not, you’re being opened and that’s amazing..more than what I’ve been lately. Hiei, you don’t have to come, this is something I need to do.” Kurama said, a part of him knowing Hiei could decline to avoid getting caught should the barrier break fail.

“I’d still come regardless, you can’t fight, remember? You’re heading into an unknown territory with no fighting capabilities other than that flower gun and cacti bombs. I can, however, still fight and very much in my prime.” Hiei sat down on the wetland grounds, determined to come along for this ride.

 “Fine, but on one condition, you have to give Yusuke his sponge baths while over there, I’ll be dealing with the changing of his catheter.” Kurama conceded, realizing he would need some help afterall with keeping up to care for Yusuke’s body.

 “You placed him on plant based life support and mobility enhancements, but you couldn’t figure out a plant based catheter?” Hiei looked at Kurama, fully surprised that the catheter was still a thing. “Plants have their limits too, trust me, I’ve tried.” Kurama groaned from frustration as he went back to work on the barrier breaking.

 The spirit energy was superb as Kurama went to work, the planes jumper close by to help with figuring out on the dimension he needs to enter. Hiei sat on the roof of the van watching before growing annoyed at one particular detail he didn’t consider, Kurama having to take periodic breaks to change out Yusuke’s catheter. The incessant beeping it made when it needed to be changed annoyed Hiei’s ears, it rivaled that damn demon whistle that Botan blew so long ago. It didn’t take long for Hiei to fully take over the catheter ordeal so Kurama could fully focus on the barrier. Kurama felt relieved that Hiei took over, it would mean he could work faster in opening the barrier. The barrier was a fickle thing, knotted in ways Kurama couldn’t have foreseen. It was clear that whoever or whatever set up the barrier, clearly had no intentions of letting anything in or out of it. Sure, the demon world’s barrier was tough, but it was still breakable with the right tools. This one, this barrier proved to be far more challenging than the one demon world had. It only served to further Kurama’s resolve, not just for Yusuke’s sake, but for his own pride as well as a master of breaking and entering. 

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Chapter Twenty Three: Time After Time Pt.5

 “Oh goodie…mortals…fetch me honey nut stuffed dates now! I’m famished, cold and need to be pampered right now after having to chew my damn wings off!” The being demanded as it was clear, this asshole was a karen of sorts as he screeched that order.

 “Wait, you’re not going to eat us?” Bill asked, relieved that neither himself or Frank would be horrifically mauled to the bones. “Fuck no! I’m not some common peasant that would eat a human, you’re all gamey, too wormy looking insides, and bitter! I want luxury sweets and a feast at once!” The being huffed in disgust at them being suggested that he should eat something so unbearably lowly as a human.

 “Asides from that…okay that’s good to know! We can smuggle you into town in exchange for the diamonds from the sphere!” Frank pointed at the giant chunks of diamonds that were on the snowy ground. “Reasonable as well, sure you mortals can serve me in exchange for my crystalline sphere. I’ll call you Phiiliam and Georgeous.” The being wasted no time in renaming his new servants right away before motioning to be served at once.

 “That’s not our..” Bill was about to protest before being made silent by Frank the desperate. “Shove it Georgeous, we got a higher paying job just now and early retirement at hand here.” Frank hissed out a whisper into Bill’s ear, much to his displeasure of being renamed ‘Georgeous’.

 “Fine, PHILLIAM, we’ll do this job and you’re paying for the first two rounds of mojitos in return for going along with this.” Bill snapped back at Frank’s newly assigned name, pleasing the horrible eldritch being in front of the two men.

 “Excellent, now bring me to town and bring a good feast for me to replenish myself on!” The being clapped his hands together as though he were commanding a couple of dogs as the men led the asshole off the mountain.

 Crom Cruach smiled as he got removed from the dreadful mountain and was led to town for feeding on delicious luxury meals after being imprisoned for so long. Once he was full once more and powered up a bit better, then Crom Cruach could hunt down that little brat that was so rude to accept being abandoned by him of all things. Chrome Cruach glanced over to his two new pets that were serving him for the time being, humans truly were easy to manipulate with bribes and shiny rocks. Georgeous and Philliam should do the job just nicely to help rebuild Crom Cruach’s former lifestyle of self indulgent hedonism at everyones’ expense, thoughts of new fanciful outfits and rare cuisine danced in the self absorbed mindset of the eldritch horror as the town came into view. It would only be a matter of time for Crom Cruach to regain his strength and should be easy pickings to track down one little wet behind the ears brat with no formal training. With a horrible smile on Crom Cruach’s furry face, it would indeed seem like luck was finally turning towards his side for a change in pace as the group arrived into the town.

=======================================================================

 Father stood from his massive wired throne as he held the screeching, horrified infant in his massive hand as the eldest child, Pride stood, patiently waiting for the instructions. On the sideline, watching this new plan take voyage was Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, Envy, and the newbie, Apathy, much to Pride’s annoyance. Pride watched Father trigger a glowing phenomenon from the already frightened infant. The screeches from the small bag of meat and wind was annoying Wrath deeply as he clutched the sword in trembling hands wanting to strike the child into silence. A large wooden door of sorts materialized from the aether as the child passed out from being used to connect the two worlds together for Father’s new plan in the works. Pride glanced at the door, annoyed that he was the only one competent to be assigned to such a meager chore, more so than monitoring Sloth. 

 “You know what the task is, scout the new world to see if it’s worthy of being part of the promised day, recruit any new homunculi you encounter to our cause, and prepare to connect this world as well as our world together before the eclipse arrives. Are you ready to uphold this task my Pride?”

“With pleasure Father, I shall scout this world in preparation for your ascension and recruit as many Homunculi as I can for the cause.”

 “Excellent, go forth into the new world my son and do not fail me in this endeavor.”

With a stiff bow, Pride walked before the wooden door, shoving it open as hideous little shadow fetus hands dragged the eldest homunculus into the portal, the door imploding out of existence. Pride showed no real concern for these measly tendrils as he focused on reaching the other side of the portal as the light shined like sunlight. Closer, closer, and closer Pride came towards the end of that tunnel as he landed with a thud at the destination. At first, the eldest child of Father was dazed, the ride took a toil on his little vessel before his mind started to clear up. Pride stood in arrogance in the burning dance hall with disgust printed on his childlike face. How garish were the homunculi here to even attempt to mimic human living underground instead of the proud sewers that Pride had known throughout his expansive life? It was shameful in the eyes of Pride as he wandered around the smoke filled and charred hall as a large object connected with his tiny shoes. Looking down with fury at whatever dared be in his walking path, Pride’s eyes caught that all too familiar meat like shine of the philosopher’s stone, though much larger than the ones he was used to. Carefully, Pride lifted the giant Philosopher’s stone in his small hands to examine it and give regards to it possibly being used to refuel his energy when it spoke.

 “It’s about time you horrible monsters remembered to retrieve us from this dreadful pit of man made hell!” Tim the Stone scolded, much to the amusement of Pride who was holding the stone.

 “How very fascinating that you mentioned that or even can speak.” Pride cooed to himself, horrifying Tim the Stone that the voice wasn’t one of the members of this group.

 “Who…who the hell are you!?” Tim asked in horror as this wasn’t the group that he was with beforehand.

“I’m the eldest son of Father, Pride the Arrogant and you’re under my control now. Tell me, where are the other Homunculi of this world?” Pride just smiled rather wickedly as he now had a little ‘guide’ to this alternate timeline as he glanced a bit for a way out of the underground. 

 “But you’re not the Fuhrer! He went blood crazed and feral in his massacre!” Tim blurted out, Pride gaining a neutral, blank look upon hearing a blasphemous thing.

 “Are you telling me that in this world, that infant old man brother of mine was given my name, MY TITLE? Let alone sulling my name in an embarrassing temper tantrum? Show me this disgrace to my very perfect name that I alone should keep.” Pride stared upon the stone, waiting for some answers and an opportunity to correct this very troublesome error of some foolish sod sharing his perfect name. 

 “He’s out in the main blaze underground! I hear him roaming each night trying to break loose from the inferno..” Tim explained, unlike the homunculi he was with before, this one was clearly playing with a full deck of cards and was likely to use a harsher means to an end.

“I suppose that is an issue, tell me, where is there a nice dim place I could supposedly lure this contender to my perfect name?” Pride inquired as he waited ‘patiently’ for an answer as Tim dragged through the collective thoughts on what to do.

“In an underground blaze? Highly unlikely…”  Tim began before being cut clean off by the sharpen tongue of Pride.

“Let me put it in this way, I am very tired and very hungry from my long distance travel to your backwaters world. In fact, you being a giant philosopher’s stone is a very good nutritional boost to get me back into good shape.” Pride’s shadow began to morph with some eyes and teeth, ready to devour the stone should it continue to be less than helpful.

 “There’s a burnt out elevator that should work..” Tim sputtered, not wanting to be devoured again by something far worse than the dreadful creature known as Dorian.

“See? It's not too hard to get creative now, isn’t it?” Pride retracted his shadow of horrors as Tim instructed the horrifying abomination along to where that burnt out elevator is at. 

 The burnt remains of what was once a decadent hall were like the decaying remains of victims from a fire bombing as Pride followed the instructions from Tim the stone. It was sickening that these homunculi had absolutely no pride in themselves to be living in such a frivolous set up, not at all practical from what he’s seen so far and far less dignified as his home was. An embarrassment to be sure as the burnt out elevator stood before Pride as he went to make himself comfortable in this hunting post, leaving Tim out in the open as bait. With the loud shouts of protests from being made bait and the gentle prods of the tendrils to get the screams going, it was only a matter of time before that target would arrive. The slumping, staggering sound of something broken was moving towards the screaming stone as the horrific monstrosity that was once the Fuhrer came into view. Truly to Pride, this was a display of full homunculi embarrassment as the half skeletonized, mostly carbon based spikes that periodically flashed flames with broken limbs Fuhrer came into display.

 “Selim…you decided to stay with Daddy after the nasty old divorce from that bad Mother of yours?” The Fuhrer heaved as he staggered towards Pride who gave the look of disgust upon hearing that.

“Oh, so it would appear that the vessel named Selim never died to become my vessel in this world. How very fascinating. However, there are some issues I’d like to take care of; There can only be one Pride in this or any other world.” Pride growled from his safety hole of the elevator, catching the Fuhrer off guard.

“I’m your Father and this is NOT how you speak to me at all!” The Fuhrer roared as he started haphazardly charging at the small homunculus as shadows speared into the monstrous Fuhrer’s body, speckling the ground in blood.

“Oh no, you’re not, in the other world, I was your babysitter. I am, however, very famished from such a long distance trip though and you should nourish me just fine.” Pride calmly explained, licking his horrible baby lips as the maul of death opened up in the tendrilly shadows, lowering Pride inside.

 The Fuhrer stood no chance against Pride, learning from the last moments of life, there were always bigger fish out there and this giant fish invaded this pond. The blood splattered upon making impact from the grinding teeth of Pride as the bones and meat were reduced to mush inside of Pride, feeding him more power than previously. Lapping up the last of the remains of blood from the ground, there was no longer any evidence that the Fuhrer had once existed at all as Pride went to pick up a very traumatized Tim from the ground. Once the trauma stone was collected, Pride carefully looked over the elevator’s tunnel leading upwards. Figuring this was the best possible method of exiting out of the underground, Pride used his shadows to climb upwards to the surface with Tim in hand for guidance in this strange, new, world. Pride certainly didn’t waste time reaching the surface world, his eyes adjusting the brightness of the world above. The nature surrounding Pride gave a vague sense of hope that there was some dignity left over for the homunculi if they had possibly moved to somewhere more dignified like a cave. 

 The grass and debris crunched beneath the polished shoes as Pride investigated this area to see if he recognized the area. If things were in fact a different timeline, then possibly, the world would have the same map layout as home did. After gaining a better footing of this world upon recognizing the route, Pride confidently strode upon the road towards where the gates of central would be. Pride froward his young brow at seeing the heaps of smoke billowing out of the old capital. How was he supposed to commence the linking of the two worlds for the Promised Day once that eclipse arrived? As Pride prepared to grill the stone for some information on exactly what happened to render the focus point uninhabitable for the transmutation, a crunch of a stick drew the elder homunculus’s attention. Pride’s already irritable eyes narrowed at the source of the disturbance as he launched a faux attack upon the site. Jumping out of the foliage and into the open was a still recovering Wrath having escaped his captors as well as the inferno city. Pride paused for a moment after looking over Wrath before noticing the ouroboros imprinted on the bottom of Wrath’s foot.

“Oh, you’re a homunculus like I am?” Pride lowered his assault upon Wrath as he inspected the other younger homunculus on the ground.

 “I don’t remember you being with Envy and the others…” Wrath answered, surprised to see an unknown homunculus in front of himself.

“Envy? Is that the head of your group?” Pride raised an eyebrow that the head eldest homunculus in this world was Envy of all homunculi to be picked. 

 “Yes..” Wrath’s eyes darted back and forth for an escape path since the homunculus child was in fact scaring the living shit out of him.

 “What exactly are you able to do?” Pride pried further to see just how useful the other was for his own nefarious purposes.

“I can use Alchemy…” Wrath decided not to tempt the fates around Pride as he demonstrated some alchemy before the older homunculus, turning his arm into a sickle.

“Fascinating, one last question, what are your views on humans in general?” Pride raised an eyebrow upon seeing the pent up rage and anger towards humanity after the hell Wrath went through.

 “They’re terrible monsters that deserve to kill off one another! I HATE THEM, ALL OF THEM!” Wrath broke loose the pent up animosity after being placed on a lead like an animal earlier and having barely escaped the destruction no thanks to the humans involved.

“Then this is the start of a beautiful brotherhood. I am the eldest Homunculus, Pride the Arrogant. Father, the first homunculus that my siblings and I were born from is working towards a world where nothing remains of the human race, only a world full of us Homunculi. I will mentor you properly as a homunculus while you lead me about in this area and in return, you will lead me to where the others are since the underground is vacant.” Pride offered a hand to Wrath to help him up, satisfied with the answer given.

 “Big brother Pride?” Wrath asked, getting used to being upgraded to a more ruthless and cutthroat mentor than before.

“Exactly, I am now your older brother Pride, a far more superior elder brother compared to the blathering idiot Envy if they’re anything like the one back home. Now, where do you think the others may have ran off to?” Pride figured having two guides, one of which being a much more superior homunculus was the best option at this point.

 “I think Northern Amestris…that’s where the screeching baby target came from..” Wrath had to think a bit before remembering the target that Big Brother Envy was babysitting beforehand.

“I see, I will require you to accompany me to the North so I can convince the other homunculi there to join Father’s cause and be rewarded for their services after the Promised Day happens.” Pride simply stated, the destination now set in his rancid mind as he ordered the younger homunculus to lead.

 Tim remained silent in the clutches of the monster he had unfortunately found himself gripped by, wishing that someone had remembered him instead of being left behind. The two homunculi and the talking stone started making the long hike towards the north. It was truly a match made in hell, a highly intelligent murder machine with little remorse and the other a skilled tracker. Tim and the other souls within the philosopher’s stone could only pray that someone or something could stop these two. Maybe life would’ve been better had they all still been brewing in the oven-like stomach of Dorian instead of facing such a nightmare. The forest grew denser and denser as the pair disappeared into the woods. Back in the home timeline, Father sat in his throne, an eerily eager expression spread across his normally stoic face at gaining more souls to fulfill his destiny of becoming god. Amongst his homunculi, the others grew concerned for the first time of being around their creator had spawned in their minds. Never had they seen something like Pride, THE Pride be dragged into another world as though he were nothing but a ragdoll. There was no telling if Pride even survived that forced transfer or what exactly Father was thinking at that moment. The only homunculus that was confident was the horrifying newcomer, Apathy, who could not care less about the situation before them.

 All that the alternate timeline homunculi could do is watch and possibly interrogate the rotting skeleton lady they had in captivity about the world next door. Lust, being the first to leave, motioned for Envy and Gluttony to follow after her. There were some things that needed to be dealt with before they could safely interrogate the skeleton without repercussion from Father catching wind of their doubts. None of them wanted to end up like how Greed ended up in the molten gold and returned to Father’s body. With a passing glance back at Father, Lust felt a chill down her spine like it had when Greed first ran away from Father and was made to bear his fury to keep her younger siblings safe. The storm was coming both for this world and the world neighboring it, not knowing this storm was one of three about to merge into a supercell of sorts. The calamity was coming and there was nothing anyone on either side could do about it.

(Thank you everyone who has been reading the first act of ‘The Wayfarer’ from start to its very finish. It means so much that the story was given so much love and attention the past couple of years it has been around. I look forward to seeing everyone once again in the second act of ‘The Wayfarer’, ‘The Escapist’. I will see you all soon, till next time, be kind and be merry <3 )

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Chapter Twenty Three: Time After Time Pt.4

 “....yeah no Ernest and Dorian will not be free roaming upstairs..” Dolly for the first time in a very long time felt like she was in danger standing on the second floor of the house.

 “Okay so the floor is a little damaged, but it’s not that bad! Come on, you gotta see this view!” Envy just shrugged off the danger floor, it was just a minor inconvenience. 

 “A little? Try ‘this place is a death trap fit for making the Face Fur live in!’” Ernest remarked looking out from the carrier.

 “Unfortunately for us, the Face Fur is gonna live in Briggs before moving into some barn. Besides, I’m gonna turn this place into a cadaver palace of sorts once I’m done!” Envy declared, their arms spread out to show just how determined this garbage gremlin was in turning this dump into a spectacle a serial killer would be proud of.

 “Does this mean we get to decorate the skeletons with shiny objects?” Dorian asked, his curiosity perked and eager for some memento mori projects to tackle. “I can’t make that promise, but if we can be sure, then why the hell not!? Let’s glamorize some human skeletons!” Envy was feeling pride over what they could potentially turn this decrepit space into as the floor creaked in response.

 “To be fair, it isn’t just some barn, it’s the barn that everyone avoids up until now.” Dolly regained some composure from the bold declaration, wanting to take her mind off the dangerous house. “You’re joking? What’s so scary about a barn?” Envy scoffed a little, doubting Freddy was that brave to purchase a building of ill reputation. “History makes it scary, I still remember the incidents from it before being forcibly shut down by the government. Some alchemists up here tried to breed some chimeric sheep for stronger wool that was resistant to the cold weather. Upside, there was some success. On the downside, the sheep had a thing for eating children and spitting corrosive acid.” Dolly grimaced as she recalled the horrible acid spewing mutant sheep that alchemy created, Envy on the other hand had a starstruck look of remembering the incident. “Shit I think I remember that place! The Pride during that was annoyed that we had to put down the barn as it was pretty hilarious to all involved.” Envy explained, overjoyed by the fact that they knew what Dolly was talking about and the ‘fond’ memories of the entire incident.

 “For real?” Dolly couldn’t be surprised anymore given that she was talking to Envy the Jealous, gremlin for eternity. “Yeah! I only got to hear stories about it. I wanted to keep that barn running so we could use those sheep elsewhere, but the hag was against it.” Envy admitted, a part of this gremlin strongly debating on breaking into that bar to see if the skeletal remains were still there for fun. “Somehow I’m not surprised by this at all. Thank you Wayfarer for desensitizing me to your rather wild statements.” Dolly said in a deadpanned fashion, picking up on Lust’s mood for the first time after sharing that awful story. “Well it’s my job isn’t it? Now, let’s go look at what I wanted to show you.” Envy grinned widely, wanting to chance a fall with the decrepit floor upstairs. “Envy, I say this with all the love in my heart, but that floor is horrifying and you’d be insane to try walking about on it.” Dolly clutched the carrier full of alchemical abominations as she stared at the floor in horror. “Good news! I CAN CARRY!” Envy said as they lifted Dolly and the carrier with ease, marching on in a foolhardy fashion with the murder floor. “Seriously!?” Dolly yelped as she got picked up to be carried about towards the widow. “I’ve been waiting to do this since you carried me back in the woods.” Envy smirked as they deposited Dolly by the window to get a good look outside. “Oh my gods, Wayfarer, this has the perfect view of Corpse Mountain!” Dolly was in awe of the view of the horrifically corpse riddled mountain range of forlorn. “Figured you’d like that, I think in a few more months, we’ll have that meteor shower again like before.” Envy grinned as they felt pleased that the view of the horrible mountain was the biggest winning point for them. “Ah yes, the meteor shower, the one that contained a very hungry and pissed off Crom Cruach that you still haven’t told Dolly about yet.” A voice chided gently in Envy’s mind who simply made a grimace at the moment being spoiled a little.

 “Everything alright there, Wayfarer?” Dolly glanced over towards Envy who regained their composure around Dolly much like a cat hiding an injury. “Oh nothing, just something we can talk over some drinks. Shall we get going? I’m sure the fashion frenzy at the main house has died down a bit.” Envy changed the subject, not ready to tell about the looming danger and the fact that a group of sideshow freaks were coming to collect Dolly.

 “Sure that sounds good to me, but do be sure to continue carrying me about since I don’t trust teleporting in this place just yet.” Dolly was very adamant about the horrifying injury trap the aging building was.

 ‘Survive is going to have a pissy fit over hearing that.’ Envy thought as they carried Dolly out of the upstairs towards the exit down below.

 Dolly wasn’t the only one not amused at the situation as Survive in that hammerspace dimension carefully glanced from the ramshackle death trap in the scrying bowl towards the mountains as that very thing she had feared began to stir. Yes, far up in the mountains, far from the city fire were the two state alchemists that bore witness to the escape of Ernest and had their donuts stolen by the most diseased cat in known times. They had both called in paid vacation time after the cat incident and as though the fates were merciful, managed to avoid the dreadful burning of central. The hike had been long going along the trail of Mount Kaiser as the winds whipped about as if it intended to knock the two men off the side of the murder mountain to add to its extensive death toll. 

 “We should set up camp now Frank, the wind isn’t dying down as it should!” The one man said, raising his voice to be heard over the whistling winds. “There’s only like five more markers to go though! Just hang in there until we get to the fifth marker!” Frank yelled back as he trudged along the snow and hidden corpses as something glistening caught the mens’ sight. “What is that thing?” The man asked as he looked carefully at the shimmering object coming from the side of the killer mountain. “I don’t know Bill, I don’t know. I think it might be a giant diamond from how it’s shining!” Frank exclaimed as the reptile part of his brain went off on its instinctive response towards a shiny object. 

 “Frank, we should bring that thing down to town with us! WE CAN RETIRE EARLY AND VACATION IN XING!” Bill stated as he started walking towards the massive object in the mountain side. “One step ahead of you there Bill! Think of all the tropical locations we could travel to as well! Early retirement, here we come!” Frank started bounding over the snow to follow Bill towards the treasure that promised early retirement and memorable vacations. 

 Frank and Bill carefully ventured towards the crystalline object of sorts that was poking through the snow. After some time of digging and dusting away the snowy coating on the diamond like sphere, it dawned pretty quickly to the two men that the sphere that was launched into the rocky interior of the mountain was likely as big as an island as they both paused for a moment. How exactly were they going to get this entire massive sphere into town? Carefully, Bill brought out the pick axes from the pack to start pecking and chiseling away at the massive sphere, hoping the bigger chunks could get them enough to retire on. Taking up a pick ax, Frank and Bill began the task of breaking down the crystalline sphere to take to town in hopes of getting to retire early. About seventy strikes in on chiseling for wealth,  Frank and Bill paused as they heard something digging inside of the sphere as well. Unable to move, the two men watched in frozen horror as something clawed its way out of the crystalline prison, screeching in its first fresh breath of air after such a long time. Beautiful, matte black fur bristled from the cold as the rabbit-like being stood on its two feet, towering over the men as one single eye looked them over in regard, its iris shimmering in peacock-like colorations. Truly a beautiful being that was intimidating to be around as it opened its mouth to speak for the first time in a long time.