#I get they couldn't show he was that injured to the townspeople

[sylvancastor]

The second they rolled up into King's Landing with that covered cart I was like...ugh they really have Aegon in there, don't they? Could they not have put him in a carriage? Or hell, even a litter with closed curtains and claimed it was a wounded noble or something?

I swear the writers do everything in their power to disrespect Aegon. I can't even be mad any more bc it's almost funny how determined they are to keep knocking him down. Guys that's the KING and you hid him in a BOX with rags in top? Genuinely almost comedic in the ridiculousness of it all.

[igetthedisneybox]

So.

Kids always get up to wild shit. Especially when their little.

Everyone's parent has a story of how their kid nearly gave them a heart attack.

What stories do the madrigals have regarding your next gen fic?

Oh god, so many.

Like, soooo many.

I decided to do just the biggest heart-attack inducing event for each kid.

Miranda: She's well-behaved, so the biggest moment was when she first got her gift at age eight and almost floated off into the stratosphere XD.

Amelia: At fifteen, she snuck out with her girlfriend and they got caught kissing....rather passionately.

Sofía: Got angsty one time at age ten and decided that she wanted to live in the walls like her father did. She was missing for half a day, and everyone was panicking.

Princesa: At the ripe old age of six, she was experimenting with her gift and almost caused a rock slide.

Fuega: She was twelve, and got so angry at one of the townspeople that instead of bursting into flames, she just straight up passed out for a minute.

Leta: That time she tried to climb the walls of the Encanto and fell like fifty feet, breaking her arm. I'd say she was around sixteen or so.

Andrés: When he first got his gift and just straight up vanished from sight lol.

Carlos: When he duplicated his birthday cake one too many times and made himself sick. He was five, this was the night he got his gift.

Avila: When she was nine, she wanted to see if she could freeze herself in time. Turns out she can, but when she's frozen, she can't unfreeze herself until it wears off. The family was actually very worried that she'd be stuck like that forever.

Amada: Got angry when she was eleven, and went to go sulk in the town's canal. Turns out, her water powers also let her breathe underwater, which no one knew.

Tomás: Tried to hover a giant wagon with his powers, and almost dropped it on his head. He was around eight or so.

Rómulo: When he was seven, he used his super speed to jump out of one of Mariana's portals, and ended up running himself straight into the ground. He was very injured. Did that stop him from doing it again? No.

Zoe: Straight up wandered away from her family while in town when she was five. They spent hours looking for her, only to discover that she'd found a tree to take a nap under.

Hugo: He befriended a big-ass spider, and let it crawl around on his head for a few months, until it died. He was nine.

José: Swindled a few men from the city for around 100 Colombian Pesos. They were not happy, and were actually probably gonna hurt José if they didn't get their money back. Luckily the family were able to yeet them out of the Encanto before anything got bad. José was nine, and very very very grounded.

Héctor: When he was five, he turned into an elephant to show off, and passed out after three seconds of transformation.

Óscar: Soon after he got his gift, he had a huge meltdown because he was seeing ghosts and things that other people couldn't see. The family was worried he was seriously hurt or something.

Beatriz: Was trying so hard to keep a surprise birthday party a secret, she projectile vomited all over the kitchen table. Poor kid was six, and so embarassased.

Lidia: Had a temper tantrum at age five, and made a scribble monster that wrecked havoc on the town until Pepa made it rain.

[acandletoguide]

@flavia8 Very bad, honestly. The premise is interesting but the execution is so shitty, it's almost unbelievable.

Sorry for the rambling! This ended up longer than expected (though I could go on ugh). One of the worst things I read this year.

The good

The writing style was okay.

The bad

Everything else.

It's meant to be enemies to lovers, but they're barely rivals. They want the same position at their workplace, she sometimes moves his stuff around on his desk like a toddler, they have some "snarky" exchanges. That's it, really. He apologizes ~70 pages into the book for his behaviour, and she constantly asks to eat out together or if he needs help with his articles. They are only mildly irritated at each other at best (because they are both stupid), but the novel keeps insisting that they absolutely despise each other; it's annoying.

They're meant to be war reporters. We get exactly one article written by any of them in the entire book! (And it's painfully generic too.) They later get shipped to a town closer to the front to talk to injured soldiers and write down their stories and write to their relatives and whatnot, and they just... never do that. Even when they are briefly sent to the front and mingle with active soldiers, they don't do shit. There's exactly one soldier in the entire book who very briefly tells his story when he is dying and no one even writes that down and it gets forgotten.

They also don't really interact with any of the remaining townspeople and get their stories at least.

The war aspect is really just windowdressing to make it a "tearjerking" story without having to put in any effort. War = sad after all. You feel "automatically bad" for the characters just because there's a war in the background. (There's no food rationing whatsoever, they go upstairs when there are air raids, etc. At some point, the female protagonist ratters down a list of "things someone in war should remember/do" or sth. That's honestly the extent of the author's "research", essentially copy-pasting a wiki list...)

It's an important plot point that the girl writes letters that get magically send somewhere. She thinks they reach her brother at the front, so she keeps writing even if she gets no answer. Only they aren't send to her brother but to her "rival" - who knows from the beginning who is writing the letters! He just keeps silent and continues reading her very personal thoughts and feelings like a shithat. He eventually writes her back, saying he's not her brother but someone else. However, instead of giving his name and saying he's her "hated" co-worker, he just gives her his middle name which she doesn't know. He "befriends" her that way which is so icky. (They then have deepTM conversations.)

That guy also has stalker tendencies, following her everywhere. To the front, to the battlefield. She doesn't want him there but he needs to cling on her because "uwu, can't let a woman go to dangerous places alone!" Die. (Early on, he also just enters her flat when she doesn't show up at work. Just straight up walks in without permission.) I hated that asshole so much.

Anyway, she eventually finds out that he is the letter guy and this leads to one of the worst confession scenes I have ever read and I nearly threw up reading this shit like??? She confronts him, saying he deceived her, and he has the audacity to go "I deceived you?? No! I didn't deceive you! I told you my middle name, so I did give you my actual name, so I couldn't have deceived you :)". He also told her earlier that he "couldn't" return the letters meant to her brother, making her believe that they got lost or he threw them away. Because that was only what SHE thought though, he didn't lie to her here either! He couldn't send the letters back because he needs them because he likes reading them and they're his emotional support letters! He likes how vulnerable she is in them, and refuses to return them - and hey, she did send "him" the letters, so they are his anyway, right? 🙄 And then they kiss????? It's a mess.

I cannot stress enough how nonexistent their chemistry is.

The book is all "tell, no show". Side plots get dropped with more frequency than any bomb. Pieces of worldbuilding get forgotten (there were magical buildings early in the book and then just... disappear without a note). The side characters just exist to further waste ink.

The ending was just nonsense drama after nonsense drama taped together. Bombs drop down, and she gets dragged away to safety. The love interest runs after her and trips but they can't go back to get him because the five steps they would have to take back are just TOO MANY and there's a terrible gas that does dogshit in the air!! The girl's rescuer then strangles her unconscious for no reason??? I wish I was lying.

(And when the girl returns home, the flat is still there even though was gone for over a month and so poor, she couldn't have paid rent in advance.)

If you still want to read it, I wish you the best of luck.

*looks at G-R winners*

*sees the Y-A Fantasy winner*

Oh, love is dead, I see.

[mako-muses]

“ you good? “ ( for Red! )

"Are you... talking to me?" Nanaki asked, looking around to see if maybe he was talking to anyone else. He was quite a well known folk legend in Traverse Town by now, nobody would dare go up and speak to him.

He'd seen this man around so many years ago, bringing people to traverse town and helping those in need. He had also seen Cloud and the man interact.

He'd made many attempts to interact with Cloud before he left the town, Aerith, Yuffie and Cid too, but all of them failed. Something or another had gotten in the way, and he was forced to keep living in the backstreets of Traverse Town, where nobody would find him. Just some stray dog, that's what his life has come to. Folks around the town call him "The Red Hound".

While Cloud was a loner, the others liked to stay in the populated parts of town, where he couldn't get to them without someone else trying to drive him away.

For a town so forgiving of others, Nanaki had hoped they'd at least give him a chance. Instead they saw his teeth, claws, and flaming tail, and branded him as an enemy.

Anyway, Nanaki had figured the best way to get knowledge on where Cloud went was to find the man that he was with. He bided his time, waited for him to show up again, carefully lured him to the backstreets under the guise of being injured, and finally spoke to him.

He kind of assumed the man would just run for it. People tended to flee at the mere sight of him. However, this man actually asked if he was okay. Peculiar...

"Yes, I am quite alright." He moved from the laying position he'd been in to a sitting position, "I'm sorry for the trick, but I couldn't walk up and talk to you in the middle of town. You see, there's a group of people I used to know long ago..."

So long, his memories of them were starting to fate now, even despite the longevity of his species. Time was something that was precious to Nanaki, because one day he'll wake up the they'll all be gone. It killed him to go so long without being by their side.

"I recall seeing our group leader, a man by the name of Cloud Strife, speaking to you once. I was wondering if you still have contact with him. You see, I have been away for far too long now, making a living on these streets because the townspeople are too afraid of me. Not you, though... when I feigned being injured, you came running. Most peculiar."

[avastyetwats]

Why was this happening!? WHY!? They've left the pirate life behind months ago. Though, okay, maybe not completely considering they still stole from the nearby town(s) and the townspeople, and they regaled to the townsfolk, and even their guests, stories of their time engaged in piracy. Of course, Edward had many more stories to tell, and stories far more entertaining than Stede, but he loved listening to them just as much as the guests did. Though, perhaps he was biased considering he was deeply in love with the man, so of course he loved hearing him talk and hyping him up with words of praise, compliments and applause. Stede was his biggest fan. And admittedly, in those moments, Stede began to miss those days...

Days that were behind them. Days, he wondered, if Edward missed, too. If he thought about like Stede did. If he ever thought about one day going back... but the subject never came up. Edward was ready to leave that life behind and Stede wanted to follow. And so he did. They both did. He didn't want to upset Edward or make him think that he was unhappy here. As long as he was with Edward, that's all that mattered to Stede. They were good. They were happy. Everything felt wonderful.

Until now. Until they showed up.

Somehow they heard about the two of them leaving piracy and making home here and it was probably Ricky in charge of this attack, coming back to finish them off. Which brought up the more important question: what happened to the crew? Did they...? Were they...? No. No. Stede couldn't think about that right now. They had to be okay.

Edward had to be okay.

And when he hears him calling out his name in return, relief floods Stede's body. "I'm out here, Ed! I'm--AHH!" He screams ducks again when another bullet flies passed him, then he turns, aims the gun and pulls the trigger. Somehow, a bullet collides with one of the soldiers on the boat, knocking him off and into the water. "I got one! Ed, come look! I--- SHIT!" Fire is returned and Stede dives onto the ground in hopes to avoid them, crying out when one bullet grazes his right arm, but he keeps still and covers his head. The other bullets hit the house one after the other and eventually stop, prompting Stede to lift his head and look around. Did they give up? He looks out at them, then up at the house where he finds Edward standing in the doorway, dressed in... his leathers? Huh. "Did you just put those on for this, Ed?" Stede questions, but then goes quiet to take in the sight before him. His boyfriend dressed in those leathers Stede loved so much, covered in blood and soot, with smoke surrounding billowing out from both behind him and the sides.

Now wasn't the time to be aroused or in awe, but Stede certainly was.

Fuck, he was hot. Extremely. Probably literally because of the fire and-- right! Fire. Gunshots. Soldiers.

He gets to his feet while holding his injured arm just before Edward throws the sword down and when he does, Stede kneels down to pick it up and the second he does, he feels powerful. Adrenaline pumps through his body even more now and he feels as though he could take on anything and anyone. Not just because of the sword in his hand, but because of Edward by his side. They could fight. They could do anything together. So when Edward states their two choices, Stede smiles at him - one that's full of confidence - and he takes a deep breath.

BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.

Shots ring out yet again, flying all around them and Stede ducks. "Shit." He curses, waving his sword as though to try and knock away any of the bullets. "Run. I definitely think we should run!" With as many soldiers approaching them, and likely more behind them, they were likely outpowered. "Go, Ed! I'm right behind you!" First they'd run and once they were somewhere safe, well, then they'd talk about where to go next. But first they had to survive.

Gone with the Inn

@fxckin-blackbeard

"I can't believe my trapped worked! Oh, Ed's gonna be so proud. Got us a good one here, didn't I? Sorry about this little guy." He apologizes to the dead prey in his hand, having just cut it from the trap he set overnight. He holsters his knife before dropping the squirrel into the brown sack, separate from the one that holds the numerous berries he found in some bushes earlier. "If this one worked, maybe the others--"

BANG.

A swarm of birds erupts from the trees all around Stede after that gunshot rings out. A gunshot that made his own heart jump into his throat, not only because it scared the shit out of him, but because of how close it was. Because of the direction it came from. "Ed..."

Dropping both sacks from his hands, Stede takes off in a run back towards the cabin where Ed had stayed behind while he came out to check traps and gather resources. He doesn't remember the last time he's ran so fast, if he's ever ran this fast, but the panic coursing through his veins, the adrenaline pumping through him, is what gets him back to the cabin within seconds. But just as he's about to emerge from the forest another gunshot rings out and he drops to the ground to take cover, hidden behind some bushes. After another second or two, Stede peeks out over the bush he's hidden behind and his eyes widen at what he sees out on the water. A large ship some miles out and an empty dinghy perched right on the sand. It's then that Stede notices movement on the right side of the cabin... a soldier comes from around the corner, movements slow and quiet as though to avoid detection, while aiming his weapon right at the window. At their bedroom window.

Stede doesn't hesitate. He surges from out of the bushes and the soldier turns just before Stede can grab him. Instead he grabs onto the soldier's rifle and uses it to push him up against the wall before kneeing him in the stomach. He drops to his knees and, using the butt of the rifle, Stede knocks the man unconscious and face first into the sand. He drops the rifle and heads towards the front only to realize his stupidity. How could he leave the weapon behind!? Idiot, Stede, come on! He berates himself before grabbing the rifle again, then he makes his way to the front of the cabin. "Ed!?" He calls out his name not once, but twice, as he approaches the steps and then more gunshots ring out, as well as screams. "Ed!? AHHH." Stede lets out a high pitched scream when a bullet flies right by his head, hitting one of the wooden support beams, but when he realizes it didn't come from inside the building, he looks behind him and finds another dinghy with more soldiers approaching the beach, still a good few minutes out but clearly close enough to shoot from afar.

"ED SAY SOMETHING IF YOU'RE ALIVE!" He yells over the gunshots from inside, knowing if he ran in, he'd be doing it blind considering he didn't know where the soldiers were or Edward even was. But the constant gunfire was a good sign, wasn't it? It meant he had to be alive and was still fighting.

...Is that smoke? Oh, god, REALLY?