Potential future story idea #2- She-Ra/Skyrim (Patreon)

Catra:

“I’m ready”

Her voice is steady. Sure.

But she’s lying.

Catra knows Adora. She knows her better than anyone ever has. Better than everyone ever could.

Her voice is steady. And sure. .Its meant to reassure her, to reassure them both. To make it easier.

But she’s lying.

Catra  heard the hitch in her breathing between the words, she felt the  tremble of her fingers where she touched her. If she listens closely  enough she can hear Adora’s heart pounding beneath her breast.

She’s lying.

She’s not ready.

She doesn’t want to die.

She just feels like she has to.

So Catra’s hands rise; and when she grasps at Adora’s wrists her voice is steady. Her voice is sure.

“No.”

“Catra.” Adora sobs, and all the heartbreak and pain and misery; bottled up and  shoved down so hastily comes bubbling up in her voice in that one word.

But Catra had always been stubborn. She’s always hurt Adora; and this time it comes easier. “I’m not leaving!” She says with all the surety of the sun rising the next morning.

She  looks into Adora’s eyes, and tries to ignore the cracks of green  flecking through the sclera; the pulsing corruption of Prime infusing  the heart and Adora with it.

“Whatever happens I am staying right here!” She swears.

She won’t leave. She won’t leave.

She’s hurt Adora too much. If this… if this is the last thing Catra does she will be right here, no matter what!

She clutches at Adora’s hands and turns her eyes up to the beating Heart of Etheria itself.

For a moment; they were still, Catra wasn’t sure what would happen but she dared to hope. Prayed that the worst wouldn’t happen; that this would be painless, simple.

Then, Adora’s fingers clenched over her hands.

Her scream started as a breathless gasp, a sharp inhale-

Catra  snapped her eyes over towards Adora’s face, just in time to see the  muscles tightening, abject agony spreading across the blonde’s face  before she opened her mouth and screamed.

Adora’s  legs were the first thing to give; she’d already barely been holding  herself up, Catra lurched forward, struggling to catch her, Adora’s lips  were close to her pointed ear and her scream didn’t abate barely even  breathing as her whole body shuddered and convulsed,

“Adora!?” Catra calls-

But Adora doesn’t answer.

She  collapses on the ground, her heart now beating like a rabbits, too  fast, much to fast; her breathing coming in short, quick pants.

She’s dying, right infront of her.

“Nononono! No! No! ADORA!”

(X)(X)(X)

Entrapta:

“I can feel it- The Heart is MINE!”

“You can’t do this! The Heart is too unstable! It’ll take you and the whole universe with it!”

Prime doesn’t acknowledge her, doesn’t even turn to look at her as he speaks his order.“I’ve had enough of this chatty little rebel. Dispose of her.”

Entrapta  can feel her heart pounding, palms sweating under her gloves. She isn’t  afraid often. There’s little reason to be afraid most times. All  problems have a solution. Those solutions just have to be found. So  there’s no reason to be afraid. Fear would just make solving the problem  harder.

But she’s afraid now.

She’s  on her knees, the cold steel of the bridge feeling like ice under her.  Staring up at the clone, down the barrel of his arm mounted weapon,  glowing with green energy.

There’s nothing she can do. Nothing she can say.

She looks at the clone, her voice stuck in her throat; praying, hoping, pleading with him with nothing more than her eyes that he listen.

Everyone will die.

All of them. Glimmer, Bow, Mermista, Perfuma. Scorpia, Adora, Catra.

All of her friends, everyone and everything she cared about really cared about; even more than tech.

They would all die!

But the clone doesn’t blink. Doesn’t even see her. Just a blank face staring back.

She’s going to die.

Tears glimmer at her eyes. And Entrapta shuts them; if only to spare herself the sight of that blaster firing before the end.

“Did you not hear me, little brother? Do it now!” She hears Prime snarl from his dais. And that’s… strange.

She opens her eyes, and the clone infront of her is almost staring past her. She see’s a moment, an instant of something.

Then he whirls around.

She see’s the surprise on Prime’s face, reflected no doubt in her own a split second before the blaster goes off.

The  plasma bolt scores a burning hole across Prime’s armor, sending him  crashing forward, through the glass console and onto the edge of the  platform burning metal and flesh filling the air with a noxious smell,  the plasma reminding her of ozone as the Clone stalks forward.

“I am not your Brother.”

And  she knows that voice. Its not like the other clones. It’s not a copy.  It’s unique. Because it had been unique for so very very long.

“You made me in your image; but I am more than that!” He sneers. His voice carries with it all the certainty he’d lacked, all the conviction and confidence he felt he never had. “I gave myself a name, I made a life of my own-” He  reaches down; grasping Prime by the throat as he lifts him in the air,  Prime’s feet dangling over the precipice and Entrapta dares to hope  again. “I made…” He turns, Hordak turns. Looking at her and she smiles at the gentleness she finds there. “-a friend.”

Then he turns away and the anger, returns, the righteous hatred and scorn. “I am Hordak! AND I DEFY YOUR WILL!”

She has a moment of seeing Prime’s disbelief writ large across his face before Hordak lets go.

Prime screams all the way down.

She  screams, relief and joy and disbelief and every emotion piling over  eachother as it explodes from her insides through her voice. “HA-HA! YOU  DID IT I KNEW YO-”

But then Hordak turns around.

The smile on his face is manic, and hatred gleams in his eyes.

It's not Hordak.

Entrapta freezes.

In  another world, another version of reality. She would have tried to run.  She would have tried to get away. Fear overcoming her.

Here, today; fear holds its grip firm around her heart.

But she knows she can’t run. She can’t escape this.

None of them can.

If the heart is taken.

All of her friends die.

Her eyes dart to the shattered console.

She lunges.

Prime fires.

The heart shudders.

And something answers.

(X)(X)(X)

Catra

She  doesn’t know what to do. Catra’s hands shake, her whole body shakes,  abject fear and horror making her freeze in place; her normally sharp  mind blanking on what to do.

So she just pleads. Begs.

She’d never begged before in her life.

“Adora!  Adora stay awake!” She tries not to cry, she presses her ear against  Adora’s chest; the heartbeat that had been too fast a moment ago is  almost gone now- when Adora opens her eyes; they’re glassy, barely even seeing Catra herself.

“I’m sorry.” The blonde sobs. She’s so pale. Catra’s never seen her so pale.

“Ador-”

The heart shudders.

The failsafe, emblazoned across Adora’s chest pulses, the pale blue being overtaken by sickly green- and then… purple.

ALDUIN SU’UM

The voice thunders across her whole being; she’s aware of it, in the same way she’d be aware of an explosion in the distance.  Its far away; an afterthought. Her sole concern, her entire world is dying right infront of her right now.

ALDUIN SU’UM

It's  closer now; whatever it is. She doesn’t know if its Prime, or Etherea’s  final death throes or the end of everything. She doesn’t care. Catra  cradles Adora’s limp body close to her chest as her own lungs refuse to  work.

ALDUIN SU’UM

There’s a sound, something that makes her brain bleed, she shudders, her whole being begging to curl away, but instead  she curls herself over Adora, her arms tightening their hold.

If its going to end- she’s not leaving her! Not again.

(X)(X)(X)

Entrapta:

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?

The station quakes.

It’s an odd thing for a station in space to do, she notes distantly; but its happening.

She tries to move… but her legs aren’t quite working.

It might have something to do with the plasma bolt that… she’s pretty sure severed her spine.

She might also be going into shock.

Entrapta can taste copper at the back of her throat.

That’s… blood right?

She  pushes the floor with the one arm that’s cooperating, rolling onto her  back, staring up at the glimmering stars far in the distance of space.

She liked space…

She… wished she could have gone back there.

Prime steps into view, standing over her, sneering like Hordak, wearing his face.

“You’re… blocking my light.” She says, smiling at the memory.

Hordak… no. Not Hordak. Not her friend. Prime snarls at her, hateful and enraged. His hand moves; then trembles, pulling the blaster away as the muscles on his face twist and deform under whatever strain he’s feeling.

Her friend is still in there.

She wants to tell him to keep fighting. To beat Prime.

But black spots are darkening her vision, and its… hard to breathe.

There’s a flash, a bright flash of light that isn’t light, space, and something more quails. The very air grows still, she almost feels the blood seep back into her body as reality itself bends and shudders and breaks.

Then… There’s something here.

On the station.

Hovering above with the beating of immense, black wings.

Red eyes stare down at them. The air around them crackles. And she realizes its not air.

Its reality itself.

It’s  splintering; like slivers of crystal, peeling away from the whole,  little snowflakes of starlight and truth and universe, shaking itself  apart around her.

The Heart…

Nothing can stop it now can it?

Even through the fog, Entrapta finds the tears. The shame.

They’d been counting on her…

Prime stumbles back.

He’s surprised.

Maybe even, afraid.

Intelligent red eyes burn over their bodies as it watches.

Then… it speaks

Joor hi haalvut zeim hin golt

The  words send needles of pain through her bones, razors of fire across her  skin, ice through her eyes. Entrapta cries out, and tries to crawl away  even with her broken body.

The Monster doesn’t care.

Prime stares up at the thing, horror now etched onto her friend’s face.

“What are you!?”

The Monster glowers down at them, its mighty wings keeping it aloft.

‘Zu’u los ALDUIN”

His name. She doesn’t know how she knows. But there is no room for doubt in her very being.

That is his name.

Alduin.

Reality  breaks further, Entrapta looks down at her own body, the legs she can’t  feel anymore are shattering like delicate shards of glass. She can’t  feel that either.

Her fingers splinter, the very air itself seems to split and crack like a mirror cut down the middle.

Green fire begins to engulf the edges of her sight.

The Monster sneers.

“Tiid Klo ul!”

The world ceases to move.

Everything stops.

She’s aware of it. And she knows, somehow, it is responsible.

Alduin hovers low, its clawed talons crashing onto the dais, shattering steel as it sits, towering over everything, looking more a lord than even Prime had in this place.  As though its very presence made him entitled to, not just  subservience… but worship.

“Fin oblan du”

She doesn’t know the words. She doesn’t understand. But the words don’t seem meant for her.

The monster is staring directly at Prime, and no one else.

Prime sneers, dragging up the tattered remains of his courage.

“Prime is supreme. Prime is eternal. You-!” He points. “Are an abomination and you will be corrected.”

There’s a sound. Entrapta thinks the beast is laughing.

It leans down, and when it speaks; even as the world is frozen still- it shudders again. Breaking under the weight of its voice.

It leans close, almost whispering.

“Hi fen mindok hin oblaan

Hi, zu’u fen du ahst fin oblaan do pah”

The monster straightens, green fire begins to move again at the edges of her sight. She starts to bleed again.

The beast draws in a breath.

“Tiid Klo Ul!”

The world slows… then grows still.

“Tiid Klo Ul!”

Entrapta feels the strangest sensation… of her heart beating backwards.

“Tiid Klo Ul!”

Green fire devours the universe, as all goes white.

Far below, in the heart of Etherea, Catra refuses to let go as the universe dies around her.

(X)(X)(X)

Here's the other lil "future potential story idea" that's been ruminating round in my head for a bit.

So some backstory;

A  couple of months ago, when I was dealing with the whole family  emergency I didn't have a lot of "free time" to go out and socialize, I  was kinda stuck at home helping take care of the situation/recovery  while my family member was convalescing post surgery.

So  I took the time instead to watch a lot of shows that had piled up on my  "recomended" folder; this included shows like the Owl House, Amphibia,  Star Wars the Bad Batch, the various Mandalorian seasons, the Dragon  Prince and of course, She-Ra and the princesses of power.

I'm  gonna be *totally honest* I walked into She-Ra, not expecting very much  honestly. Like I usually keep an open mind with animated shows and  don't just write them off as kids shows (How to Train your Dragon's  entire trilogy can be a master class for damn near all writers for any  ages IMO) so I don't judge but-

For gods sakes its called "The Princesses of Power"

So I *really* wasn't expecting "a lot" at best I thought it'd be mildly entertaining.

Needless to say- it kinda blew me out of the water.

Now  I'm hardly going to sit here saying the show was flawless; there are  quite a few issues I have, Catra's "redemption" being the biggest one,  but *over all* especially considering the target audience of very young  kids to teens? Yeah. *solid* fucking writing and I'd be more than happy  to forward the recomendation to anyone interested.

Now- ALL that having been said;

This  idea in general, like the 40K one posted yesterday has a *relatively*  straightforward premise. At the end of the series rather than the power  of love and She-ra saving everyone; that kind of never happens, and  instead via Entrapta "pushing a button" the Heart of Etheria which would  canonically destroy that entire universe, gets the attention of a  "bigger fish"

Alduin from the Elder scrolls

Now  I know that a lot of fics kind of treat Alduin as a Joke; I mean, he's  basically just a generic dragon in skyrim and by the time you reach him  you've fought each of those about a dozen times already. He doesn't even  feel threatening by the end so a lot of people just dunk on him and  meme on him.

This fic would treat him as what he's supposed to be.

​THE WORLD EATER.

Alduin  is a creature who quite literally *DEVOURS* Universes whole. His voice  fundamentally alters reality and bends spacetime to his whims. He can  shatter mountains and call down meteors with just a whisper.

This thing in lore is an absolute *monster* in every sense of the word. So this is my attempt to do that lore some justice.

Basically  Alduin walked in on the Etherian Universe imploding in on itself due to  the heart of Etheria being activated and took exception, basically  saying "Hol the fuck up. This here is MY job. Not YOURS... whatever you  are" and so he basically, on a whim, stabilized the imploding universe  with "jumper cables" just to give him enough time to play with his food.  (Horde Prime)

In  this crossover; the cast of She-Ra is going to wind up in Skyrim (Or...  well Tamriel since I find it more believable that Alduin wouldn't  exactly specify). And I'm somewhat torn/deciding between wether it  should be them "as they are" as in wholesale just "plonked" down into  the new universe like fishes out of water or if I'd go for an "Catra  portal" deal where they first start out as "members" of the Universe  they've been placed in (Bow as a Redguard Librarian, Glimmer as a Breton  Noble, Adora as a Nord Imperial Soldier, Catra as one of the more  humanoid Khajits (yes they do exist)  before they each realize that  they're "ill fitting puzzle pieces"

Both  approaches have their ups and downs, of course. Fish out of water  stories can be incredibly entertaining we need look no further than  Vicky's time on Khashyyk and her sticking her foot in her mouth there.  But the "ill fitting puzzle pieces" approach can definitely have a lot  of benefits when it comes to dissecting/analyzing the various underlying  traumas and issues the show with its target audience/rating simply  couldn't adress or didn't have enough time to adress. Things like  Catra's guilt (and holy shit would I run with that one. Because lets be  clear Catra had a 'healing' arc, not a redemption arc in the canon  series storyline), Adora's inability to separate her value as a person  to her 'value' in terms of what she can do for others; glimmer's guilt  when she realizes over the course of "unlocking memories" that her  actions indirectly destroyed her whole universe- or Entrapta and how  someone like her would be affected after everything that just happened  and her perceived failure to save her friends- and so on and so forth.

That's  not to say those things can't be explored using the fish out of water  method but the "puzzle pieces" where memories are slowly being unlocked  lets them be tackled and dissected piecemeal

One  thing that will *definitely* carry over regardless of which version of  ethereians I use, is going to be the war between Alduin and Prime.

I  do plan to expand on that on some level, to show just how terrifying  Aldiun can be and some of the truly horrifying weaponry someone like  Prime MUST have in his arsenal of near magic level tech; but I will  admit it will *mostly* be happening in the background. That's my little  pet project, not the focus of the fic. The focus of the fic will be the  etherian characters

Let me be clear, Prime in this fic is gonna get backed into a wall and he's gonna get backed into a wall *hard*

I  have little doubt that Prime has near INFINITE resources to throw at  Alduin, which will certainly buy TIME for the Etherians to have their  adventures and time in Tamriel before they realize that their war was  just on pause, not over. But Alduin is going to win that battle. You  have a guy that conquers universes vs a guy that EATS them. There's no  contest to be had there.

Eventually,  Prime will go seeking the Etherians/Tamriel for a weapon that can help  him finally *win* which is when things will kick into high gear.

Now, for the Dragonborn.

Like  many of you, I have *plenty* of Dragonborn playthroughs. I've run  everything from an Argonian to a Khajit, to a redguard a nord Imperial  and anything else you can think of. So I can't really say *what*  Dragonborn I'll be using or if I'll be using one at all. IF a dragonborn  shows up, he/she will be paired with Serana; because that's the only  acceptable option and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.

So  yeah, this is potentially another future fic/idea for after the Weaving  Force is done. Let me know what you all think, or if I should shaddap  and watch a 'real' show or something :p