Widdershins

Well, it is the restaurant's award winning recipe! Finally! A chicago cubs joke about them winning! Waiter! What's this soup doing in my soup?!!? or... Waiter!! What's this Draconequus doing in my soup? *camera swings around to point at the spoon being held in his claw over the soup* No, wait, its also me! Blub! Somebeing throw me an oyster cracker to hold onto!

...can't...stop...myself... Maybe I'm mislead by what your avatar represents, but you seem a sporty type, a dependable type. You have that sense of flippant humor to you that's both welcoming & reassuring. I.../blush...I could maybe see you being a s-suitable mate...p-perhaps... That, and you did just involve sugar. How could I say no? Sweet mercy, I'll just die if I come back to this thread...

Well Hellooooo Doctor! I certainly seem to have sustained a sickness, you sultry snake stallion! And the only cure... IS MORE COWBELL!!! *bursts into a cloud of confetti & mariachi music, his head ricocheting off the wall then rolling back to the center of the room & landing upside down* .....aaand if you could help me reassemble my body again, that'd be totes nifty...

It has been something I've thought alot about, that it seems odd that nobody has tackled the idea of a hydra before. Many complicated things come together to form our personality to the way it is today. A fact that is even further complicated when your several beings sharing the same body. Since it would likely help you to first read a bit about the description of Gallimaufry or "Mauf" and his backstory; you can find out more about The Cephalli Family here. Feel free to direct your questions to whichever head you feel like, though as it is a hydra the other heads can, and likely will, interrupt to give their own two bits too. Which works out fine, between the six heads you're likely to get the truth. Each head will be represented by their own color text; feel free to let me know if some of the colors don't show up too well or hurt your eyes. As I will essentially be roleplaying as six simultaneous characters, give me some time to untie the necks out in their proper orders, heh. From henceforth on, I shall spend the rest of this thread in Character(s)! As you've heard rumors around Ponyville of some sort of hydra that wrecked the town up a bit a few months ago, but seemed more or less repentant afterward, you took it upon yourself to explore a bit of the Everfree where the creature was last seen shambling towards. After a few hours you find a rather large cave that leads into the earth that is a short walk from the edge of the forest. Judging by the size of the mouth of the cave, the wide trail of flattened, smashed & chewed on trees that lead directly to it with a deep rut in the ground from a massive tail, you wouldn't be surprised if this happens to be where the hydra headed. You don't hear much noise coming from inside, apart from a low rumble of breath, so you assume rightfully so that the beast must be sleeping right now. Perhaps you can sneak inside to take a quick look & sprint back out before the behemoth notices you and come back with a tale to brag about Ponyville about? As you slowly walk down the cave entrance you notice how most of the bottom half seems worn down by the dragging hulk of the monster, while the upper half of the cave has dents along the upper sides with a few stalactites having been recently broken off, giving the impression that one of the heads hit itself and blamed the others and started attacking itself, which seems to confirm your impressions of hydras. You begin to start doubting the course you chose to take for today... As you round a corner, you finally see it. What appears to be a massive scaly ball & wall of muscle taking up a healthy portion of the room you just entered. While part of you considers that something that huge probably wouldn't notice something as small as you unless you shoved a spear in that fat hunk of flesh; that thought is rather drowned out by the other thought of "Okay, job done here. GET going now!" You carefully turn to leave, but as you do you inadvertently kick a small pebble out of your way and it noiselessly skids a few feet away. Almost immediately you hear a large honking noise like someone just stepped on a chicken, as one long & rubbery neck of the hydra shoots out behind the heap of scaled flesh, hits a corner of the ceiling and starts loudly squawking. "Warning! Warning! Warning! Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Doom, Death! We're being invaded, invaded! Death, Doom! It's gonna eat us alive! Help me! I don't wanna die! Help, help, help, help, help....." "Wurrgh...will yeh bloody well shut up already, yeh stupid, boneless, noneck..." And from that, the cave begins to fill with the sound of the hydra shuffling & awkwardly, but loudly trying to rock itself back onto its legs. As the thought reaches your brain that running would be a good idea right about now, the Hydra succeeds in righting itself with a forward somersault and in the moment its thick, tree-trunk like claws hit the ground with all of its weight behind it, the ground quakes with so much force that rocks and stalactites crumble off the walls, you're knocked off your hooves & you're pretty sure this place is caving in. As the dust settles & you quickly scramble back up, you get a quick look at the behemoth. Some of the heads look limp & as if they were still sleeping, and what ones aren't are up and looking in your direction groggily & grumpy. You turn to run, and as you do a deep, throaty, raspy roar rises up behind you. " Who dares disturb the sleep of the great Hy-" " *snuffle* I taste something *****able around here..." " Every! Bloody! Time!!" *the right & left heads continue bickering in not-so-quiet whispers as the more wide-eyed and slender center head leans towards you & starts quietly talking to you in as reassuring a manner as it can* "I try to set up a good entrance, and what do you do but ruin it with your senseless, stupid..." "Pfft! Hee-Hee! Ya cute when ya ain' got ya sleep!" " S-sorry about that, *yawn* Didn't mean to scare you or anything...Oh, uh, hey, are you from Ponyville? Been meaning to learn more about society. Feel free to ask us anything!"

Well, I know this has been something that the fandom has been begging for for a while now! Judging by the old thread I've been on before about your OC being in a fighting game. Though as I said over there, I don't really know much of anything in regards to fighting games & my OCs tend to be hard to fit into anything. An interesting fighting style, no doubt, but whether that it applies to the medium at claw, I dunno! Though was considering throwing my shade & pirate griffon up over there...

Just got done reading A Remastered Guilt! I get a sort of Lovecraftian esoteric feel to it, the prose & way you take your time for a scene reminds me of older writings & something that is sorely missing of media these days. And yes, I am aware I am sounding significantly hipster right now! Lol! There's a few bits and pieces here & there that are a bit askew in grammar and maybe a few sentences that don't really add anything and could probably be taken out entirely. But then again there's published authors who get a few good inches of book that way. Of the few problems I came up with: when he finds the mask & likens it to the one from the dream, the only other one mentioned was described as "pallid" and I think that means pale, right? Not black and bejeweled? Also, I kind of feel that his wife's SPOILER!!! death kind of came on a bit too quick. Though I like the air of ambiguity you gave it, as we don't really know what caused it much in the same way these things can snowball in real life. All in all, rather thought provoking of a short story! Will come back and edit in my thoughts of the second story once I get around to it!

Went to bed like, 2 in the morning then my parents woke me up at like seven to say they were shovin' off so while I ought be happy they're outta my house now, after like, two weeks of constant stress & bad sleeping patterns i'm working at 6% energy right now. Why look, i'm not even bothering to use Courier New font! That's just how tired I am, lol

Virtue seems a bit harder to pin down. Isn't that always the case? I'm not too particularly good at self-control, so chastity & temperance are clean out. Charity & Kindness seem close together, though charity is more about giving and generosity. Which...is something I can run into problems with, more about that later... Ditto for patience, I do try my best to be understanding & kind, and I likely am moreso then most, but I still loose my calm rather easily. I am rather humble, I suppose. But that comes from being extremely self-introspective & the sort of self-hate that comes from depression, so maybe its not the most genuine of humility. For lack of a better word, I'll go with Diligence. Sloth certainly is my second biggest sin, but at least I am fully aware of it being a problem and try to combat it. Really though, I consider my honesty, loyalty & sense of honor to be my biggest traits, though I can't figure where those would fit under the Seven Holy Virtues. Heh...funny how we usually only ever hear of the sins. Since their always so much more fun! I think what genuinely makes it a sin, is if you know it is and you still do it anyway. If the rule is that just one of these gets you into Hell then mine is definitely Gluttony! Sure, now I'm greedy too, I collect as most people do & squirrel them away in my room & if someone so much as pokes one of those pony figurines a few centimeters off I'll fly into a comical, miserly rage, but it makes sense. I've not had much else in my life, but if you looked me in the eyes & I could tell you genuinely would love & care for it, I wouldn't mind parting with a piece of my hoard. But Gluttony! HOOO! It's fun! You can't keep food from me! Heck, right now I'm working off a good foot-high pile of discount Halloween candy as I type this! You can't leave food out anywhere near me if you expect that to be there when you come back! Good example, I hate bacon & I'm trying to stay away from pork for admittedly wimpy personal reasons, but the other day my Dad left a few pieces of bacon out when he left & I sucked it down solely because it was unattended. I've intentionally eaten a piece of pie my sister was saving right after I just had Thanksgiving dinner! And that's what Gluttony is as opposed to Greed. Greed spills over into Avarice (the want for power) & vice versa. A want for things & keeping it to yourself, for you can be greedy about food as well. But when you intentionally take far more then you need, knowing full well it could be better used elsewhere, regardless of whether its food or not, that! That is Gluttony my friends!

Ah, up on here is probably the better idea, bigger audience that way in case you want to get someone else to chip in too. And don't worry, time is a vague concept for me, I don't let nothin' die!

Now, I'm not sure what would this would fall under, as its hardly a story as that requires a coherent thought process and in terms of even applying to Equestria is dubious as its contents are sort of...periphery. This will be more of a self-exercise in the sort of things that accumulate when you have a character that treats such things as the laws of nature as more of a guideline. As Widdershins is an interdimensional traveler, and a rather irresponsible one at that, the "Holes" that he leaves behind can sporadically reopen and some things may wander in or intentionally follow him through. While the portals take a trained (or infected) eye to see & track down, once through it can be pretty easy to tell where Widdershins has visited. His intermittent flippant disregard for other beings' sanity will tend to leave a trail of grudges behind him. To track him down a being would need to hit every world Widdershins did in the same order and have a sufficient enough determination or sheer blind luck to wind up on the same world as where he resides now in Ponyville. Matters are made all the more complicated as the more magical worlds are a lot easier to punch holes into and Equestria happens to be one of the more magical of the worlds he's been to. Three interdimensional holes surround the small city of Ponyville as it just so happens to be built over the major nexus of magical leylines in the land of Equestria. One medium sized one between two oddly warped trees just past the Two Sisters Castle deep in the Everfree (which likely accounts for how scholars have yet to figure out a way to fully catalogue every beast in the forest, as new ones are constantly appearing & disappearing), one small one in an empty field on the opposite side of Ponyville, and one gigantic hole covering most of the town's skyline. While these portals are greatly unstable, they are usually pretty hard to see by a normal eye unless you know how to, or are just used to seeing things while unfocused. While usually too unstable for regular, dependable use the absolute sheer amount of Holes Widdershins has put up over his unaccountably long lifespan & the fact that they'll even tend to redirect themselves without warning will tend to leave mysterious lifeforms stranded in dimensions they ,or the worlds they visit, are unprepared for. In short, if you've ever heard of tales of cryptic, otherworldly creatures or been in a situation that smelled of a bad crossover fanfiction, you would not be remiss in blaming Widders for it! Think I'll start with the more sentient & intentional of Widdershins' pursuers. Pirate Captain "Bleakbeak" McQuay and his First (and Only) Mate Mangepatch: Captain Bleakbeak hails from an aquatic-centered world that revolves around a green sun. The light of its green sun covers their world in a slightly dim light that causes most of its inhabitants to be a bit moody, primal & aggressive. As the light is a bit brighter & easier to stand near the world's many oceans most of its cities have gravitated to becoming port towns, leaving its interior landlocked countries to become essentially untamed wilds. With so many ornery folk gathering on the waterside, piracy has become not only a way of life, but the major source of "trade." Bleakbeak McQuay was once the mighty griffon Pirate Captain of the huge, Iron-hulled, leading ship The Busted Shin, and had the huge fleet of countless crew & alcoholism that comes with being a renown pirate. That is, until the fateful day he met & befriended Widdershins. One night after having unquestioningly accepted one too many free rounds at a wharf-side bar from Widdershins, he awoke the next afternoon with his "good drinking claw" stolen clean off his body & Widder having skipped dimension on him. After resolutely shoving a peg in the hole where his front right claw used to be, he set sail & swore to track down & blow to bits that "Trait'rus Grae' Grey Worrm!" Unfortunately, at the time Bleakbeak had no idea Widdershins was an interdimensional traveler or his method of travel, and spent years in a maddening search for him, eventually his health deteriorating & his crew dwindling down to nothing as they became well aware their Captain no longer cared for not only pirating anymore or for anything else that didn't relate to his revenge. Eventually being reduced to a crotchety, old man on an abandoned boat in the middle of the ocean, McQuay finally had a good stroke of luck while dumping out his eyepatch over the railing. Though his rheumy, diseased and usually covered bad-eye he could see a massive, shining portal hovering just over the oceans surface, and taking his chance, sailed his ship though it and on through the dimensions to continue his mad quest for revenge! Mangepatch was the only remaining crew member to stay onboard with Bleakbeak McQuay's plot for revenge, though not really though any dint of loyalty. He's just exceptionally lazy and having to actually get up and find a new "Boss" is just far too much work where he's considered. In Mangepatch's home dimension the diamond dogs evolved instead to be more active hunters instead of digging down and harboring their greed for jewels, they grew lankier, taller & and developed their trademark tactic of chasing down their prey & hounding them until they got too tired to fight back. Because of their habit of "wearing down" their prey, Widdershins only refers to his species as "Wear-woofs." Mangepatch is considered large even by the standards of his already muscular & large species; towering in at close to ten feet tall he cuts an incredibly imposing figure. He was quickly kicked out of his pack in his teenage years not because he used his size to bully, but because he refused to help with the hunting & quite literally threw his weight around and leaned on his packmates until they gave up with a sigh and just tossed him their food. Mangepatch first met up and joined Bleakbeak's crew as a flagrant & impudent stowaway. He had fallen asleep in broad daylight on one of the rum barrels McQuay made a habit of keeping a steady stock of in his ships. As no one could wake him or hoist his immense carcass off and McQuay would rather die then leave good booze behind, he ordered they just shove the whole mess onto the boat and just make him part of the crew when he woke up. And its a good thing he did too, now days as his ship tends to land on land or other material not conducive to sailing, a good vigorous couple minutes of pecking from McQuay can get Mangepatch's lazy tail up to crawl off the ship and hoist the boat around with his monstrous strength like it was another piece of luggage. Though not for too long, as Mangepatch tends to not go for more then ten to fifteen minutes at a time without falling down for a nap, regardless of whether he's carrying an entire ship at the time or not. Maybe I'll get more into a detailed description of them later when I throw them up on the rp character lists. Sir Gacious Fume of the Interstatial Law Firm of Fume, Crush & Dampen: When you disregard such things as societal norms, proper etiquette & physics as often as Widdershins does you tend to collect enemies & large legal reparations. Dimension hopping takes alot of getting used to, the rules always change, you pick the wrong side to work for, you pick something off the ground for a snack and wind up dooming an entire hivemind race, it stands to reason that after long enough a lot of voices start crying out for you to pay for what you've done one way or another. And with those accusations thrown, it summons a universal evil. Lawyers. That's just what the Interstatial Law Firm specializes in. Tracking down those who think they can ditch their subpoenas, court costs & legal responsibilities and hide in another dimension just because the "rules" are different there. As each of the three partners are made entirely out of simple chemical bonds that represent the states of matter, they use this to better flip though the dimensions & yet remain stable, but unstable enough to pass unheeded though most matter in whatever dimension they hunt their "clients" down to & coerce them into an agreed upon interdimensional court before they have time to flee. Gacious (Gah-SHE-uhz) is made entirely out of what he calls the most noblest of gasses, Helium. While a good strong gale can scatter him, he easily reforms from any blow & can leech his way though any wall or obstacle between him & hunting his mark down to get them in court, and subsequently, his lawyer fees. As an accidental, side power Gacious does tend to get inhaled by passing organic creatures and for a few hours before he is fully exhaled out he can "legally commandeer native resources for intent to apprehend via peaceful negotiations of assimilated second-hand culture acquisition." This also happens to be a trait he shares with his colleague, Mr.Moist B. Dampen but to a much more awkward & messy result. Sir Gacious Fume considers himself a protector of the downtrodden & put-upon and a champion of your right to the money you have so clearly earned from your hardships. Though judging by his aggressive self-marketing he wants as many vict- clients that he can defend. All three partners in the law firm are in constant argument as to what order their names should appear on their promotional material & signs, usually between Sir Fume and Prosecutor RumbleCrush and as he's rather spineless Mr.Moist's name usually winds up last. There does happen to be a fourth partner in their law firm, but he's rarely met and generally considered to be unstable. Heather Trunter, Treasure Hunter: Heather hails from a a dimension not unlike Equestria. One major difference is its dim, brown sun. Their world is awash in varying shades of sepia tones that tends to weigh heavily on one's mental state enough for crime to be easily considered as an outlet in this world. Though as the sun is just bright enough to color the shadows as well, a life of subterfuge takes on an air of theatrical suspense. Heather Trunter is a freelance archaeologist that is often hired out to procure artifacts & other ancient items for her clientele, usually without too many questions asked. While she typically doesn't care to what ends you use the things she's ordered to fetch, she has had to frequently "repossess" them as hostile planet-wide takeovers & apocalypses would seriously crimp her business. On one mission she came across an ancient civilization that worshiped Widdershins as a god (as tends to happen when your a giant serpent-like creature with vague, inexplicable powers) and discovered a magical amulet & an unusually stable portal that Widdershins had used to escape when the natives started getting a bit too ritualistic. The knowledge of both of these items she kept a secret, using the portal to easily obtain mundane items from alternate dimensions & bring them back home to sell to scholars who enjoy stumping themselves with things they can't comprehend. The amulet she found was likely meant to emulate the long, boneless form of their "god" by allowing its wearer to stretch beyond their physical limitations. While she uses it to escape last ditch dire situations, its power is unstable due to its age & having been made by jungle dwellers. If used more then once a month it can begin to take a dangerous toll on her bone density and so Heather can often be found chugging milk, spinach or iron pills in an attempt to counter its side effects. Though aside from this, Heather has always been an athletic & flexible mare of a rather gymnastic build. With a light tan coat, and a long, blond mane usually done in a ponytail to match her equally tied actual pony tail. As is most ponies from her dimension, she's rather tall & leggy as well. "That belongs in the hooves of a paying customer!" "Archaeology isn't entirely about the adventure, there's still bills to pay after all." Just a few odds and ends I felt didn't count enough to put over in the rp lists. Since they weren't entirely characters in their own right. Will likely come back to this after a while with another chapter on the more beastly & unnameable horrors that have fallen on Ponyville due to Widdy's negligence.

Hahaheee....Sweet mercy, that's some beautiful alliteration! Definitely gets my vote! Do get a very sort of Film Noir look to her, though I ain't very familiar to the genre. As to cutie mark, you did mention wanting flowers, perhaps a rose petal shower? But then again, from a distance it'd look like drops of blood on her flank and that could worry some ponies... Hmm...though what to do to symbolize Noir style? Something classy....maybe...a toothpick though an olive sitting at an angle inside a martini glass? Kind of complex but at the same time still simple enough to count for a cutie mark. Though what it symbolizes... What, your done already? Not while I'm around this thread ain't dead! You oughta know I've got terri- TIMING!!

Shields count as weapons. To quote: Which is the better weapon? The sharp one in your hand your enemy expects, or the blunt one that they don't? Have this real good mental image, but I can't ever get the shape right when I sketch it out. Two twin, interlocking shields. General shape of each shield is a sort of a tapered, downward triangle coming to a point, and together a shape somewhat like the carved, faceted diamond you see for the rankings of motels & whatnot. Basically, two Isosceles triangles that come together to make a Kite shape. From the sides & at rest they look like their wielder is enclosed in a set of parenthesis. Color I'm not settled on, but perhaps a golden-bronze metal trim. Wider towards the top, but they bend further back then the rest of the shields, so that when held out to the sides & not in use they curve over the shoulders of your typical humanoid. About halfway down to two-thirds of the way down, the shields are welded to a pair of gauntlets/bracers that fit firmly around the hands, this way neither of them can be disarmed without...well, disarming. Past the point where the gauntlets form, at about the knuckles the rest of the pointed ends of the shields retract inside past the gauntlets leaving the shields to look more like finned arm-guards. While still dull, the pointed ends still are sharp enough to be driven into the ground and the shields used as temporary cover. The shields interlock together via pegged teeth on the inner ridge (forward facing when arms are at rest) these teeth attach together firmly enough for both shields to act as one when its wielder forms a sort of inner flex (I dunno, I ain't got experience flexing). When these edges are brought together fast enough, can catch & break most swords or at least disarm most heavier weaponry & seriously bruise any trapped limbs. When held in the forward flex position, and due to their curved front & perhaps with some rather heavy back armor equipped too, the wielder can do a fast forward somersault & turn into essentially an unstoppable bowling ball. Or a metal human hamster-wheel, depending on your humor. Though this does have the downside as to not knowing where your charging at after the initial leap, not to mention intense dizziness that will likely leave you open to attack if you don't flatten whatever you aimed at. Does strike me that something like this would be in some sort of video or RPG game, but I have yet to find any example of twin shields anywhere. If this does remind you of something, don't hesitate to shoot me a message on my profile!

Immediately looked, before I even opened the thread. Lllllava Lamp. So...how much time do I have to heat the darn thing up before I bash the zombie over the head with it?

Hmm, the ability kind of comes out of left field, but because of that I can't find fault as to how it couldn't just be something she could be born with. Implausible enough to be plausible, I say! As plausible as cutie mark talents are to begin with anyway! * Widdershins shrugs so hard that his head wobbles a bit on his neck* Ooh! The S.E.B! Think I've heard of that! That the thing that Bomb-Bomb mare or wossnames she called is in? A jolly good notion! Enforcing the Supernatural! Can't have any uncontrollable magical beings around, No Mare! *Widdershins gestures so enthusiastically with his ears that his head pops off to the ground & starts rolling away into the distance.* Now if weee could only find oneeee!.....