(03-23-2025, 11:01 AM)Norgarth Wrote: Beware of Chicken
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/beware-of-chicken-xianxia.910799/page-2260#post-110121578

Mr_Crocodile Wrote:When Australia's population is assailed by an insectoid and seemingly unstoppable threat, it falls upon the shoulders of a few crazy fools to call upon the gigantic rulers of the invaded landscape.

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Notes:
Having been originally published on 23/10/2020, Live Bait is -as some of you may remember- one of the earliest stories I ever wrote for OtSoT. As time went on, my skills as a writer have improved massively, and this setting's lore and timeline have also changed a lot. Because of that, this story has been rewritten, re-edited and included in the Monarchs anthology as it fits its tone and focus quite well.

Yrsillar Wrote:"The governor's manor?" Ling Qingge asked in disbelief as their household’s items were carried inside by their staff.

"I did say so in my letter," Ling Qi said. She drew a giggle from Biyu as she rocked the girl in the crook of her arm. She had to give it to Qiyi; her little sister was fascinated by the ribbons.

"I thought you must have been imprecise, referring to a household on the grounds." Ling Qingge pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh, by the gods, I am not qualified at all to train staff for a role like this!"

"You are, Mother. Do you think I have not seen what you've put your stipend towards,? The books, the scrolls, and observations of modern court fashions and etiquette? You've been much more dedicated to learning this than I."

She lifted Biyu up, grinning at her little sister as she spun a graceful circle, the furred hem of her gown flaring out. Biyu shrieked in delight, kicking her feet.

"And yet,” she continued, “Somehow, I have managed to become a respected diplomat."

Her mother let out a huff of breath, taking Biyu from her hands. It was a testament to the strength of even a first realm’s cultivation that her mother's arms didn't tremble under the growing girl’s weight. Biyu pouted as she was set on the ground.

"There is a great difference between preparations and reality."

"Mama will be good. Sis says so! Mama no sad," Biyu announced authoritatively. "New house is pretty."

"Outnumbered." Ling Qingge sighed. "I suppose I shall simply have to manage."

tealruby Wrote:Hermione escorts her young mentee on the first steps in becoming a real superhero. Namely, getting her own code name and costume! After first getting permission from her parents for this and getting lessons about this new community, of course. Plus the okay from faculty at her regular school. You know, the one in that old Scottish castle.

“Think of them as extended field trips as part of Muggle Studies, Minerva. Advanced classes with special professors.”

(03-25-2025, 10:01 PM)Norgarth Wrote: Beware of Chicken
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/beware-of-chicken-xianxia.910799/page-2262#post-110210858

(03-27-2025, 04:51 AM)Norgarth Wrote: Dial: Call Resumed (MCU SI/Ben 10)
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/dial-call-resumed.1005694/page-64#post-110245439

Femdjinn Wrote:Apologies to everyone; I mixed up the titles between chapters 12 and 13. It's been corrected, so their current titles are as intended. Also, due to changes to my workload, my updates may face a bit of a lag in the future. Please keep in mind that I have no intention of ever abandoning this fic; it just may take me longer to grind out chapters.

Thank you for your time, patience, and readership;

~FD

**TRIGGER WARNING: Discussions of teen pregnancy and child abuse. Implications of domestic violence**

Death the Younger has a realization.

At this point in their communications, the reaper understood that the other Great Old Ones didn't see him as himself.

It was understandable. He was his father's son but, like his father, he was thoroughly Order. Death, Order, had been imprisoned 800 years. And yet Kid's memories weren't even a century old. It had never been necessary for him to question his father on the matter of this discrepancy. It, in and of itself, was question and answer.

Great Old Ones didn't need true heirs.

And he had never been meant to be one.

He had been created not as a successor, but as a continuation. A hollow shell that operated to guard the Order of the world. There had never been a need for him to be anything else and, especially following the disaster of Fear, it had been a logical decision to keep him empty. Vapid. The current Death had no knowledge of this portion of his existence, the point wherein he had operated as a machine, enforcing the will of Order in a mad world that had lost its Lord. Death itself would continue as long as his father lived, the reaper's influence at the end remaining steady. But Order was another matter. Necessary and fragile, it was a concept that had to be continuously defended, had to insist on itself in a world of magic and madness and free will.

He had no idea what he had been, what he had done, what had prompted his father to grant him the luxury of thought. His earliest memory was of the Death Room. In body that was perhaps five years old. Consciousness hit him like a blow to the soul as he looked up at a being he instinctively knew to be his parent.

Just like the boy who saved the world....hello, Kid.

A will was a gift and a curse. It meant he had been able to think on his own, make decisions and mistakes, develop a personality and goals. Anxieties and humor, build bonds and memories that would forge together to create him. An entity apart from what Death had been, ever Order and yet simultaneously ever himself. The other Great Old One's would never understand this concept, not fully. To them, he was simply his father in a new vessel. A loophole out of his containment. It was pointless to be offended by this view though discussions with the others were made more complex. And never had he felt the consequences of this discrepancy more acutely.

Order had deemed it necessary to confine Desire. And he had no idea why.

He barely registered Rage's barking laughter and Knowledge's derisive snort.

“Ha! You don't even remember this much? Did he transfer anything to his Fragment?”

(03-28-2025, 04:20 AM)Norgarth Wrote: Beware of Chicken
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/beware-of-chicken-xianxia.910799/page-2264#post-110277503

Yrsillar Wrote:"If Baroness Ling has arrived, then begin the second stage of the operation! Shrink containment, achieve reduction, and prioritize prevention of crown burning." Unlike hers, Xia Lin's voice crackled and buzzed artificially, carried on the power of a simple amplification talisman. "Follow the procedures from your drills."

Ling Qi observed the soldiers snapping into action. To her eyes, they were not well polished, but she could tell they had been drilled. The tiny draw on her qi grew as they began to advance among the fires.

Her technique drew harm which they would have taken unto herself. While she could be a foundation to lean on, however, she was not the final arbiter of their lives. The pain of their choices was their own to suffer. Such was the technique she had put together from her own self and fragments of Kohatu's memories of absolute persistence.

"Where did this fire come from?" she asked. This time, she spoke just to Zhengui and Xia Lin.

"One of the groups testing and laying the groundwork to begin mining caused a deviation in the earth veins," Xia Lin's voice replied in her ear despite the distance.

"Gui warned Miss Chaser, and she brought the people, but we did not arrive before the flame-air went boom!"

"It is not so bad if it stays like this. I, Zhen, see that this place is much overgrown. A little burning is not bad."

She watched as the soldiers moved in, coordinating with each other. She spotted Xia Lin's shining armor among them where the conflagration was at its worst, calmly issuing orders. Heat and prickling needles washed over her here and there, but overall, the men were not growing sloppy under the aegis of her technique.

The small hurts of red realms fighting through peer spirits could hardly dent the qi cycling through her channels. The technique was flawed still in this initial state, but it was a foundation to build on how best to protect.

Like the roots she meditated over, she could not save every sprout and trunk. With her will, though, she could support and keep alive many who might otherwise perish in the pursuit of the distant dream which they now pursued.

A dream even she could not yet see in full.