#I was always planning to A rank him in that first BR run | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

laryna6 · 3 years ago

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I’m not going to start posting Lichverse yet even though I finished the novel because there’s worldbuilding stuff that needs to be changed after the reveal that Igris’ species are born from fruits of the world tree instead of being creations of the Monarchs as per monsters (or maybe the creator made monsters to serve the monarchs but canon doesn’t say so I can have fun) and also while I HAVE figured out when to have Jin-Woo’s chest open so people can see he has two hearts I haven’t given up on working in the creepy cute aesthetic and other stuff I want to do earlier.

Also the reveal that in previous timelines Ashborn zombie apocalypse’d humanity (probably bc we were too squishy to survive being ground zero and he couldn’t protect us so he wanted to gather our souls before we got slaughtered more painfully by other monarchs�� armies and ceased to exist - also bc needed larger army to fight other monarchs and keep Antares from killing him and all his shadows with him) as soon as he took over his new host body. So it makes sense that the rulers would ask a human to find a human host and like Il-Hwan would agree - his family lives in a major city. In the case of shadow blitzkreig, they’re all gonna get turned into undead mind-controlled into adoring Ashborn, nothx. Also the Architect didn’t want to pick Jin-Woo, Ashborn insisted, in times where Jin-Woo wasn’t Like That the Architect would have gotten to pick and would have picked an asshole. So Il-Hwan goes looking for the stuff an asshole would have done to level up in a setting where what happens in a dungeon... and then the monster who has repeatedly slaughtered Il-Hwan’s species like cattle is using his son as a host body.

So yeah, Dad has been highkey Suffering.

But, anyway, here’s the current draft of the first chapter of lichverse. Warning for like, canon-typical stuff + also frottage.

Abandoned by everyone, about to be crushed like a bug…

It seemed as though the stone blade paused for a moment, but maybe it was his perception of time slowing down as his death approached.

It was finally over. His sister… mother! The pain would stop… but Mother would die, and Sister… Sister would have to scrabble like he had. A teenage girl?

He’d sold his body to keep his mother alive. Jin-ah…

As the blade crashed down he fell and was caught. Was cradled.

Darkness… a soothing, cool darkness. No more pain, no more fear. But still… warm. This darkness didn’t have a beating heart, but still…

Jin-woo knew the heart of someone who had lost too much, far too much, and would do anything to protect the precious little they had left. He saw someone like that in the mirror, when he couldn’t avoid it.

This person… would never hurt him. Never let him be hurt. He was safe.

“Return to me,” he heard a voice he knew calling for him, and he knew he would always answer.

A black-armored figure before him, flickering with black and purple light. Too large to be human. A monster. A monster and still when Jin-woo found himself on his feet he took a step towards him gladly, eagerly. A step and another. This feeling… like when his Mom or Dad came home and called his name and he ran to them, happy to see them.

He stopped when he had to crane his head back almost painfully far to meet those glowing eyes – an undead – he was an undead…? And saw the concern in them. For him, for a weakling, for nothing, and he knew he was safe. He’d been so scared, everyone had left him to die alone. But someone… someone came. Someone saved him. The relief sent him to his knees as the last of the stress that had kept him on his feet for so long left him.

Slumping even further forward, he bowed his head and pressed against those armored legs. He trembled, the pain and fear he’d had to suppress for so long escaping his body. Day after day, knowing he was already far, far past his estimated life expectancy. Knowing he was going to die and it was going to hurt, and even if he lived he was going to hurt but he had no choice. There had been no choices since Mom was taken from them too.

And that great figure knelt and put a hand on his head.

That mana… it was terrifyingly powerful, but he knew why it didn’t terrify him. Something he’d tried not to think about for years: the moment he’d awakened, feeling mana, power all around him. Power that dwarfed his, could crush him. But it had never even occurred to him to feel fear, because this was his father. Of course his father was the strongest! Of course he would save everyone!

Instead he’d been so happy, running to his dad and saying he could be a hunter now! Like him! They could beat the bad guys together! And his Dad had patted him on the head and said, “Sorry, but you have to wait until you’re a little older before you can fight anything, and by that time I’ll have already beaten the bad guys that are making the gates appear. So you’ll never have to fight.”

“I won’t get to fight?” he’d asked, disappointed.

“Sorry,” his dad said, patting his head apologetically, but not sorry at all.

His dad… they hadn’t invented the measuring technology until a year after he vanished, so Jin-woo didn’t know how strong he was. It wasn’t until Mother was spending long enough asleep that Jin-woo could go get measured after school that he found out why his dad had fought so hard to keep him from ever having to hunt. He’d been proud of his Dad, believed he would have been an s-class, but… would an s-class really have had such a worthless son? But the mana in his memory, it was so much stronger than the a-class he’d seen once.

His father… His dad really was… tears fell from his eyes, and that hand remained to steady him, that mana still cradled him, as pathetic as he was.

He didn’t know how long he cried there, with loss and pain and fear and gratitude. No one… no one since Mother would have held him as he cried. He couldn’t burden Jin-ah or a stranger like that. If someone reported he wasn’t able to provide for Jin-ah…

That made him open his eyes. “Jin-ah…” he said, a plea. Part of him knowing that this person – monster – would understand how precious she was, how he couldn’t bear to fail her.

“You can return to her,” a deep voice promised him. That… the monster language. Was he still speaking Korean?

“Monsters attack humans,” he said, looking down at his hands, how they flickered with darkness too.

“Because they’re controlled by the Ruler’s crystals… but even without them the subjects of most Monarchs would see your kind as resources to exploit.”

Food.

That hand withdrew and the glowing figure shrunk until he met his own eyes, heard his own voice – speaking Korean this time. “You don’t need to be afraid. You know you will never hurt your sister. Or any of those you love.”

“I won’t hurt her?” he asked again, craving reassurance like a child. Like a weakling (the weakest of the weak).

“Never,” he was promised again, without a trace of irritation at having to repeat himself in his voice.

“I shouldn’t believe you.” Shouldn’t take that risk, with Jin-ah.

“Believe yourself.” This time he was scolded a little. “You went out there to die for her, over and over. You would never hurt her.”

It meant nothing that he went to hunt because it really didn’t do anything… he’d fail her eventually, and then she’d… “I failed her.”

“That was…” the other him – monster – the one who cared for him sighed. “That was my fault. I watched you, and how hard you fought to protect them, the wounds you bore… There was someone I wanted to protect. I fought knowing I would fail them, and yet… but you haven’t failed those you love. I am here because of all your struggle, all your pain and sacrifice.” A bottle appeared, was pressed into his hands. “I watched, I saw you, earn this a thousand times over. With this, you can cure your mother.”

Jin-woo drew in a breath, looking up with startled hope. The other him nodded, and he felt the promise. “You won’t have to be afraid anymore. You’re one of mine now. A human would have to gradually adjust to higher mana levels, but as a shadow I can fill you with my power. That wasn’t…” he sighed. “I was going to possess you, but when the Architect began to cast the curse meant to bring about your death, I couldn’t let him. …but I didn’t have enough of a foothold in that dimension to keep the stone from crushing you.” He scowled at himself. “I should have waited until you were safe, then killed the Architect and undone his curse. I have not done right by you. I’m sorry. You deserve better than than what happened to you. The least I owe you is making sure you can return to your life and your loved ones.”

Jin-woo’s eyes widened. An apology? An admission of fault? A being even stronger than his father, lowering itself to apologize to him? A nothing? The weakest of the weak?

Why? Who could force him to do it? Even S-ranks were beyond the law. He didn’t gain anything from it: his power could crush Jin-woo so easily, and if he could shape-shift then he could take Jin-woo’s place as he’d said he’d planned or maybe send another undead?

His hands curled around the bottle, pulling it to his chest as he began to believe it was real. Because the only reason he could see for this monster to apologize was if, if he really did think that Jin-woo deserved better. And if he deserved anything, then his mother deserved to wake, to live.

“The dungeon will close with the Architect dead. You need to return there and escape, or it will take some time for me to get another foothold in the human world and transport you there. My br-the Rulers are doing their best to shield it.”

He had to hurry. His mother… if it took too long they would take her off life support, and for her to die now, because he didn’t bring her the cure in time…

His mirror image nodded. “Go.”

That mana curled around him, bore him elsewhere, and he heard stone groan and topple to the ground a moment before he opened his eyes to find himself on the altar. Oh no, his foot…

His leg was still there!

…Why was he so surprised by that, when his entire body had been crushed, and yet here he was, intact even if he flickered with black and purple. He started to push himself up so he could get off the altar only for the altar to crumble beneath his palm. He stared down at it.

“…Ah. Humans wield strength only through channeling mana, but as a shadow the strength I’ve given you is yours. Until you can learn to control it, there are artifacts that seal all but a fraction of someone’s power, for negotiations. If I give you a few of them… and I know the curse the Architect designed, perhaps I can modify it…”

A window, like on a computer screen? Appeared before Jin-woo, then changed to show equipment? He felt weight after weight settle on him, then become as light as a feather, as thought it had vanished entirely.”

“The closest I can come is still half again as strong as you were before.”

He was stronger than before and this person was apologizing for it? At any time that thought would have stunned him, but how people treated him didn’t matter, not next to what he held in his hands. “That’ll only make me faster,” JIn-woo said, desperate to go.

The window swung out of his way and he jumped down off the altar. Out of the corner of his eye he saw it change once, then again. A bunch of squares. Inventory, it said? Two rows of those squares filled up with a graphic of.. he looked down. The same bottle he held. And in the lower right corner of the image of that bottle? x999

Was that… a thousand of these bottles per square? A potion that could cure Eternal Slumber? They, they’d be rich! He’d never have to run a dungeon again!

“With your power sealed like this, you’re vulnerable. I’ll send you Igris.” He felt another flare of mana, and a red-armored figure kept pace with him easily. “He has been my right hand since long before I became the Shadow Monarch.”

That feeling… Like Jin-ah. ‘One of the few precious people I have left.’

“He will protect you as if you were me.” Jin-woo turned his head to see an image of his mirror image running beside him. The other nodded to Ignes, who nodded in return.

Next to the other Jin-woo saw the status window. His status window. “So I am an undead… You can bring back the dead?” he realized belatedly. “My, my father…”

“He’s not dead,” the other told him. “He was the vessel of one of the fragments of brilliant light, he wouldn’t have died within a space they control unless there was a monarch there, and I’m keeping track of all of them.”

Jin-woo froze, skidded to a halt. “He’s not…” He trembled. His mother, enough money to secure Jin-ah’s future, even… even his father…

“I will try to find him, but I can’t promise anything.”

Jin-woo shook his head quickly before the other could apologize. Even a chance his father could come home, that he, his mother could see him again! “Yours,” he swore. “I’m yours.” Anything, for this. He sold his life and death and pain over and over just to buy time. To have, to have his family… His soul wasn’t enough. He could never repay this.

Was this why a part of him had felt nothing but devotion towards the other as soon as he fell into has grasp? Had he sensed this in the mana? Or not even this, just… the kindness that made someone willing to give him so much, to give a nothing like him…

“You are not nothing,” the other him insisted as Jin-woo fell to his knees, his gratitude overwhelming him again. “Igris.”

Igris scooped him up easily as breathing, and practically flew to the dungeon exit, carefully placing him on his feet, steadying him the way the other and holding him up when Jin-woo tried to go to his knees again.

“You do not kneel before me,” the other told him. “You never have to kneel before me.”

“But…” but then what could he give? What could he offer? He looked at him with desperation.

“I need you,” he was promised. “I need for your will to protect your family. But I’ll explain later. You should be with your family now.” The other him – the one who felt the same desperate wish to protect – looked down at Jin-woo’s shadow and it filled with hundreds of eyes. “You and your sister should get to see your crea- Your mother again. That’s… You should get to have that.”

And Jin-woo knew that the other would never get to have that, never again.

“You won’t fail them,” his other promised him, forceful and desperate and yearning, and Jin-woo heard you won’t fail them the way I did. “We can talk later, there’s time. Take him home, Igris.”

And giant arms held Jin-woo tight until he found himself in front of his apartment door.

He scrambled for his keys, turned them, flung the door open – half again as strong – “Jin-ah!”

“Jin-woo?” he heard her throw herself out of bed, scramble for her bedroom door and through the living room. “JIn-woo? Are you okay?” she asked him.

That wasn’t important. “Mom,” he said, holding open his arms. “Igris, can you take us both?” Red darkness tried to rise from his shadow but the hall was too small and Igris was forced to appear outside. “I found something that can cure Mom.”

Jin-ah stared at him, mouth slipping open as if to ask him if he was serious but he would never say that unless he was. When she could move, she flung herself at him. As a hunter he could already lift her easily, but it wasn’t just his strength that made everything feel so light right now. “Igris… do you know where she is?”

The red-armored giant shook his head.

“I can give you directions.” He went out the door and Igris lifted them both as if they weighed nothing.

“is he a summon?” Jin-ah asked, breathless. “A healer’s summon? Are they going to cure Mom?”

“That way.” A blur, and when Igris was still again, Jin-woo said, “Sort of? I don’t know how to explain, I want to get to Mom. That way.”

Jin-ah didn’t interrupt again, vibrating with eagerness. She didn’t want to make this take any extra time either.

“That window, there,” JIn-woo said when they were outside of the hospital. Igris sat them down, swept his cloak over them and there they were, in the room.

Jin-woo lifted up the bottle to look at it and a window with a description and directions appeared next to it. She just had to drink the entire bottle? That easy? They were that close? He dodged around Jin-ah to get to the bed, then stopped, forced himself to go slow, to open her mouth carefully. He was stronger than before. He couldn’t hurt her, not like this. Not when they were this close.

A progress bar. Lists of ailments – muscular atrophy, eternal sleep… And everything finished counting down as Jin-ah shook him and asked, “Is it working? Is it working?”

And then she opened her eyes. “Jin-woo…” A moment more, an intake of breath, “Jin-ah?” he saw his mother realize how long it must have been. “Then…” He saw her look past them. He knew who she looked for, who she had watched for for so long.

“He’s alive,” he told her. “He’s alive and I’ll bring him home, I promise.” He could make a promise like that, as weak and pathetic as he was, because he had help.

He saw her look at him and frown, the way she’d frowned when she found out he was doing dungeons. The, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m an adult, we take care of things. Your job is to stay safe and study.’

Study… those potions, they had money, he wouldn’t have to do low-level dungeon runs.

His other self needed him for something and Jin-woo would make it happen no matter what, do anything for the person who gave him this. But… tomorrow wouldn’t be like today. Tomorrow his mother would be home.

A nurse finally arrived, her head downcast and shoulders slumped, and he saw her look up, then stare when she saw his Mother sitting up instead of lying there dead. “I found potions in a dungeon,” Jin-woo told her to forestall questions. “I’ll give you five of them if you let us leave, now.”

“My clothes…?” Mom asked the nurse.

The nurse blinked, “Ah, we returned your clothes to your family…” Because they’d known she was never leaving that bed.

And Jin-woo hadn’t brought anything. He went to the window, yanked it open, jumped out. “Igris?” he asked, then hesitated. He’d just ordered around something – someone – so powerful? Was that really okay? But Igris appeared and swept his cloak over Jin-woo again, and Jin-woo found himself in the entryway at home.

He’d forgotten to even close the door, let alone lock it. Clothes! Right, his mom’s clothes! He threw some of everything into a bag, then ran out and looked up at Igris hopefully. “Thank you,” he said as the cloak swept over him again, putting him in the hospital room.

The fact he’d screwed up by forgetting clothes for his Mom… That was, that was the kind of thing that happened in real life. This was, this was real. He dumped the bag out on Mom’s bed, throwing the clothes down hard enough to make the mattress bounce a little. “Sorry,” he said, but found himself grinning. He hadn’t… He hadn’t failed them

They were okay.

He…

Anything.

He’d do anything for them. For this. Maybe he’d been turned into a monster, maybe he was going to be used to kill humans, but who cared as long as Jin-ah and Mom were okay?

He wanted the inventory screen open and it was. Reached and pulled five bottles out, one after another, as the nurse pulled over a curtain so Mom could get dressed.

“They just have to drink it all, every drop,” he told the nurse. “That’s it.”

“Potions are a thing now?” his Mom asked from behind the curtain.

Questions.

Oh shit.

Um.

He did not give a damn what was up with the other him or exactly how dead he was or anything like that, but he could not tell Mom that he died. He was not going to do that to her.

“I think Jin-woo reawakened and he’s a spatial mage now, Mom,” Jin-ah said helpfully. “Pulling those out of thin air is spatial magic, and he’s got a summon that can teleport us.”

She didn’t mention the flickering black and purple at all? Not that Jin-woo was going to bring up anything else he’d have to explain! It seemed ungrateful to claim that Igris was his summon, take credit for everything the other him had done, but it was better than making them worry.

The mana that was in Jin-woo now wasn’t his, but it felt like it could have been his, because the feelings in it… they were all feelings he knew. A lot of them too well. Someone so powerful wasn’t ‘another him,’ but… there were things that were the same. They were akin? Kind of like family.

So he said, “Igris can take us home.” They could be home, instead of having to wait torturous minutes on the subway. For him and Jin-ah it had been too long since Mom had been home. He needed to see her there, and then he’d be able to believe a little more that this was real.

But it helped, when she came out from behind the curtain. It helped so much when she wrapped her arms around him.

When they were home at last one of them wanted to go to sleep. Jin-woo desperately didn’t want his mom to go to sleep, but eventually she told them to get to bed and they went.

Shit. Did he have a bedtime again? He wouldn’t have to ride on public transit out to gates?

…when had he last gotten eight straight hours of sleep?

He’d been trying not to think about it. But he’d known. That he was wearing thinner and thinner. That it was only his youth letting him get away with how hard he was pushing himself. That he couldn’t keep this up forever.

…He lay down in bed and realized he didn’t feel tired at all.

…Did he need to sleep anymore? Mom had fed them, so he knew he could eat, but did he need to? He raised his hand to look at it. How energy flickered around it, but the hand itself didn’t flicker, as though he was solid or real or alive.

Thank goodness he still had body heat, or Mom and Jin-ah would have noticed when they hugged him.

…when had he last been hugged?

He wanted the menu thing open again. The status page. Sung Jin-woo the Enduring. General-class Shadow, Lvl. Max.

Shadow, was that what he was? Igris had appeared out of and vanished into his shadow sometimes, he recalled. ‘General…’ was… so he would need to fight. Something about protecting humans? If that wasn’t a lie.

He knew it wasn’t a lie. His hand went to his heart.

But he wasn’t an idiot, and things too good to be true… There had to be a catch somewhere. The fact he was so certain, the way he loved the other him the way he’d only loved Jin-ah, his mother and his father… He didn’t trust people like this. They knew he was worthless (he was worthless), so they treated him like that and he knew they were going to treat him that way.

But… someone who hadn’t wanted him to die… like his father had wanted to protect him, like his mother had wanted to take care of him, like Jin-ah had decided to be a doctor because she wanted to get better at patching him up… Someone who apologized to him like he was worth apologizing to.

The way his mom had apologized to him for being gone so long, for putting so much on his shoulders. She told him he was strong, was amazing, for bearing it, for doing so well.

In his status screen. ‘The Enduring,’ like he was worthy of a title, of anything.

The other him was something from the gates. That meant a monster. An enemy of humanity. But the more he thought about it, the more certain he became that he could trust him. Like family.

Jin-woo frowned.

…No, Dad would absolutely not have had a kid with a monster or something. He felt like he needed to say sorry even for thinking that.

“Igris?” he asked, and the knight appeared, sitting next to his bed in order to fit in his bedroom. “How do I talk to him again? Should I go inside a gate?”

Igris shook his head and raised his cloak again, tilting his head questioningly.

Jin-woo got into a sitting position and nodded. “Thanks, Igris.”

Instead of tensing up he relaxed when he found himself in the darkness, surrounded by the other him’s power. When he saw him. “Thank you,” he said. “I can’t ever thank you enough.”

The other him shook his head. “I’m glad you could have that. Your family, safe for now. I’m glad I was able to help bring it about. There’s still someone missing. I’m limited in what I can do without revealing I’m active. I’m sure the Rulers know since they’ve been using the blood they shed to time-travel, but the monarchs… The Architect was still willing to work with me, but the instant they realize I won’t help them loot your world they’ll go back to trying to make me stay dead.”

“Can they?” Sung Jin-woo asked, eyes widening. Could he lose this person? He couldn’t… to have a chance at having everyone home, and then lose the person who made it possible…

“No power is limitless. Even that of our creator.” The other him touched his replica of Jin-woo’s chest.

“…Do you have a name?” Jin-woo asked, to change the subject. Even if it sounded like he’d need to know about that eventually, he didn’t want the other him to have to try to explain it when there was so much Jin-woo didn’t know that an explanation wouldn’t help when he didn’t have the context for it.

“Ashborn, now. The Monarch of Shadows.”

“So I’m a shadow, and my class is General?”

“Not a class, but a rank.” Ashborn was silent a moment and then said, as though confessing. “Igris’ counterpart was trapped inside a barrier in the last battle. She couldn’t return to my shadow when her body was destroyed and her mana was torn apart. Unless you’re trapped in such a barrier, I’ll be able to bring you back no how many times your new bodies are destroyed. I sent Igris with you in case one of the humans hosting the power of the rulers finds you and realizes you’re mine. He can summon himself, but I must teach you how to quickly remove the limiters reducing your power and call your forces from your shadow.” He waved at the eyes gazing up at Jin-woo from his shadow. Or what pretended to be a normal shadow. “Once you know that much, it should be safe to let you return to the human world. For now. Once you have a serviceable knowledge of necromancy, Igris will teach you to dodge-tank, and after that you can choose your own combat training.”

“So I’ll be fighting?” Jin-woo asked.

“I’m sorry,” Ashborn said, as though that was anything to apologize for. “You will be attacked by all sides for being one of mine.”

And Jin-woo felt Ashborn’s pain in his mana, the pain of an old wound. How many of his had Ashborn lost…?

“But you’re good at surviving,” Ashborn told him, rallying. “I hope… Humans are so peaceful.”

There was soft longing in Ashborn’s voice, so Jin-woo didn’t say anything like, ‘what planet are you from?’ Jin-woo had attended that much school. Even before the gates, humans had huge wars and shit. But if idealizing humanity gave him something to hope for, then Jin-woo wasn’t going to burst his bubble.

“Compared to us,” Ashborn added, and Jin-woo realized that Ashborn’s mana was flowing through him and back into Ashborn. Right. So Ashborn would know his emotions too. “You hope that Jin-ah will never have to fight, not even to defend herself. The fact that you consider this a possibility… But I will show you how to assign her bodyguards.”

Trying to find out what exactly Ashborn wanted from him so he could deliver it on a silver platter could happen later. Protecting Jin-ah? He needed to know how to do that now.

“I will send an army with you, and show you how to summon them. If they are killed, they can be revived again and again, as long as you have mana. Let me give you this, to be sure you won’t be left unprotected.” A still beating black heart appeared in Ashborn’s hands, bleeding white flames.

He stepped forward. He’d had his ribs cut open before. For Mom, for Jin-Ah. Ashborn could do whatever he wanted to Jin-Woo, and he’d just be grateful he could be useful to the person who saved him. Who chose him.

But those hands and the heart just passed through his chest like a ghost’s, and there was no pain, just warmth in his body like drinking a hot cup of coffee on a cold night, and Ashborn’s mana flooding into him now that he could hold so much more of it. “Ah… Ah…” he gasped for breath, feeling that care melt him away, filling him so full it felt like he couldn’t take anymore and then something in him gave way – opened, and he jerked, head flung back, and panted even harder when there was more, the warmth in his chest and the butterflies in his stomach sparking heat that drove him to take a stumbling step forward. Seeking Ashborn, needing him. So amazed at arms around him, someone holding him up, helping him stand and he needed Ashborn. He’d needed someone, so desperate for so long, knowing no one cared but Jin-Ah and he’d die to keep her from having to bear this.

He craved Ashborn desperately, two hearts pounding in his chest loud enough to drown out all other sound.

For so long he’d felt so empty, so numb to everything but the pain of survival and dread of the inevitable, but now he was full, full of love and he wanted, wanted more, wanted to drink down more of what Ashborn gave him and drown in it, drown in him. He pressed against him, panting against his lips, moving his hips as he tried to bury himself inside the body that matched his – Ashborn thought he was pretty enough for it to be worth wearing that face himself, even if Jin-Woo didn’t have the money for plastic surgery and that was one more reason it was impossible to find a job that paid well enough to replace hunting.

Fire filled his veins and only Ashborn could quench it, and his liege held Jin-woo, warm arms around him, warm body against him, giving him everything he needed, letting him have everything he wanted, and more.

More and more, and then without warning white fire burned everything away.

When it receded, Ashborn was still holding him in his arms. “I could feel that you were alright, but you sounded like you were in pain.”

“It was good…” he moaned, hips jerking again, and then horror tried to penetrate through the warm lassitude. Had he just, just rubbed himself off against, against… the one he owed everything?! “I’m sorry!”

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who should apologize. I knew Baran conceived when his battle-lust reached its peak, I just didn’t realize that the pounding of his heart was connected.”

“Con- con-“

“The Monarchs and Rulers were made capable of bringing forth armies. I… After… I am no longer capable of that. All I can do is preserve what’s left of my children, and shelter the fallen children of others.”

“Am I….?!!” A terrified shriek escaped Jun-Woo.

“I thought your body wasn’t the type that created children?” Ashborn looked down at where their bodies were joined. “Your mother and Jin-Ah are the same type and you’re a different type, yes? Or was it your Dad who created the children and that’s why no more workers were produced to help support the hive after he left?”

“I’m an undead now, so, um…” He buried his head in his hands, feeling really stupid, and in front of Ashborn. He wanted to die. Again.

But Ashborn still held him, Ashborn’s affection and admiration for him still poured through him.

“I’m sorry,” he said though.

“I think it’s admirable, how dedicated you are to taking care of your family. Of course you would want to be sure you hadn’t created a child when you’re still learning to control your own strength and might not be able to protect them.”

Like when people assumed he was some kind of thrill-seeking idiot, Jin-Woo thought ‘I could explain, but I don’t want to have that conversation,” and kept his mouth shut.

#solo leveling #all of the fanfic #content warning #lichfic

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joezworld · 4 years ago

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📂

What in the HECK happened with Scotsman, Dominion, and Dwight during the Great Gathering?!

(Also, since Dutchess of Hamilton has also been to the US during the 1939 NY World’s Fair, did she get involved?)

Warning - extremely long post below

So, first of all, Duchess of Hamilton never went back to the UK.

Duchess of Hamilton (6229) and Coronation (6220) had their nameplates swapped by the LMS when an engine was sent over to the US. 6229, in the guise of 6220, went to the US.

Streamlined locomotives were all the rage at the time, and railroads practically fell over themselves to get Coronation (as she was now known) onto press trains. The B&O railroad in particular was so impressed with her capabilities that they extended a formal offer of employment to her for service on their streamlined Royal Blue service. The LMS were surprised to get an offer to "purchase" their locomotive, but accepted nonetheless, as it meant a welcome infusion of cash in the dark days during the beginning of WWII.

Coronation fit right in with the Americans, having only been about a year old when she was sent to New York. Following the end of steam traction on the Royal Blue in the late 40s, (the B&O were early adopters of diesels.) she and her B&O coworkers found good employment on the New York Central, where she still runs to this day.

Since then, she's fully "gone native", marrying a J3 Hudson, (yes one of the streamlined ones) adopting both an American accent and three children, and being fully repainted to NYC silver by 1956. Flying Scotsman met her in Albany in 1970, and neither one of them recognized the other.

Actually, most UK expats don't recognize her, to the point where a common interaction is for her to be held up as an example of "look at her, she's integrated well into the US", only for the British engines to say "that's preposterous, she isn't English".

When it's pointed out that she's still obviously an LMS Coronation, the next response is usually screaming.

All that being said, she has no interest to come back to the United Kingdom, and wasn’t asked by the NRM anyways.

---------------

Second of all, the Great Gathering was... an event.

So, there are (officially) 6 preserved Gresley A4s.

Mallard - static, National Railway Museum (UK). Also an asshole.

Bittern - running, private owner, UK based

Sir Nigel Gresley - running, owned by a trust, UK based

Union of South Africa - running, private owner, UK based

Dwight D. Eisenhower - static (officially), National Railway Museum (USA)

Dominion of Canada - static (officially), Exporail (Montréal)

This is the official list, and for the first 4 engines, it's the truth.

However, things are a bit hazier on the other side of the Atlantic...

-----

So the thing that needs to be made clear right up front that in a sentient vehicle world, museums aren't like the NRM, where locomotives sit static for years on end, although obviously the English have museums like that because of course they do.

Rail museums in the rest of the world are much more like Colonial Williamsburg - a living history center staffed by volunteers who act out a prototypical setting from [insert decade here].

British Rail, being British Rail, didn’t know that and didn’t care.

4496, Dwight D. Eisenhower, having been named after the General-turned-President, had been earmarked for preservation by BR, and was summarily shipped off to the US National Railway Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In an entirely unintentional move, this donation MONUMENTALLY snubbed the Smithsonian, who refused to have any dealings with BR for decades, even for archival purposes. This, combined with the fallout from Operation Smash Hit, and the fact that the Smithsonian is Petty AF, meant that there was virtually no official trans-Atlantic cooperation between British and US museums for decades.

Dwight hit the shores of the US in 1964 New York City and was greeted by a marching band, a ticker-tape parade, and Presidents Johnson and Eisenhower, who were on-hand to personally make the engine a US citizen.

Always keen to curry favor with the government, the Southern Pacific railroad had a job offer waiting for Dwight right alongside the Presidents and the parade, and when he accepted, he went off to Sunny Southern California - someplace so opposed to Britain the he fell in love with the place immediately and refused to leave!

The ladies may have also had something to do with it as well - while most engine classes fell into a typical 50-50 gender distribution, the SP GS-4 class was all female...

[Pictured above - one of 28 very good reasons to live in California if you're a single British steam engine.]

Dwight does not kiss and tell, but at his wedding in 1974, all 28 GS-4s showed up - and he was only marrying one of them!

Since the 70's, he's become a mainstay in California, having been repainted into Daylight Limited colors in 1969, and retiring from railroad duties in 1999. After that, he went into the movie business, and is currently the head of digital media development at Disney.

His wife Irene (SP 4437) is also an interesting figure as well - following in the wheelmarks of the great female locomotives before her, she had an eye for business and a Stanford education before she married her husband, and was an initial investor in multiple tech companies in Silicon Valley during the 70's and 80's, but stopped doing that after her investment in Apple proved very lucrative. In 1996, she was convinced by a few people in the Stanford Alumni association to invest in another tech startup, this one an "internet search engine" called Google.

So yeah, Dwight Eisenhower kept falling up and up and up all his life, and is now married to the richest woman in the world.

4489 Dominion of Canada was donated mostly by accident, having been forgotten in the back of Darlington sheds until 1966, when she was shipped off to the Canadian Railway Historical Society in Montreal.

As stated elsewhere, the Canadian Government considered any locomotive built in the UK to have UK citizenship, and therefore treated them as commonwealth citizens under existing Canadian law. (remember that Canada was still a colony at that time)

CN, the national rail carrier, was obligated to offer her a job under their charter, and she accepted, moving to Toronto to run intercity trains between Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.

Within two years she was displaced from those duties by the introduction of a new, shiny, jet turbine powered train, and was summarily demoted to local commuter runs in the Toronto suburbs.

Moving to suburbia did one thing more than anything else - expose her to the people who live there. They all had complaints, they all had problems, and they all had no idea on how to fix them.

Being a helpful sort, Dominion decided that she could help, and promptly ran for Toronto city council in 1974. She won, and has been a fixture in local Toronto politics ever since - she even got to be Chairwoman of Metro Toronto (the closest thing to being mayor because Toronto's governmental structure is weird) until 1998, when Toronto was merged with the surrounding area to create a massive new region.

Having then done everything there is to do in municipal Toronto government, Dominion went on to become the Chief Executive Officer of Metrolinx, the agency that controls almost all of the transit agencies in Ontario, because, as she puts it, "I'm still a commuter engine at heart".

She's now painted in the current GO Transit paint scheme, and still does commuter runs- which is really weird looking now that there are double deck commuter coaches in a push-pull configuration, with a Gresley A4 doing the pushing.

------

Now, I mentioned that those 6 were the only ones officially preserved - there were two unofficial preservations as well...

4486 Merlin was properly Shanghied - he was yanked off the docks in Southhampton by a cargo ship in August of 1965, and was spirited away to parts unknown.

Those unknown parts turned out to be South Korea. There, he was given citizenship by the US-aligned military dictatorship (Korean history is wild) and was employed by the State-run rail operator.

As the military government began a hardcore plan to increase their country's wealth and industrial output, rail lines were being built across the country, and Merlin was soon awarded a position on the fastest train in the network, the Seoul-Busan Saemaeul-ho.

Because of his experience in running high-speed express trains, Merlin not only became the public face of Korean high-speed rail, but also became an "honored elder" amongst the other Korean engines, a position he still holds to this day - as despite being over 70 years old, he still runs daily trains on the fast services, easily keeping time with the Korean schedules as well as training the new high speed trains, including the KTX sets. He's on his 24th boiler by now, and has more parts from Hyundai than Doncaster.

An additional fact - Merlin actually has had a linguistic effect on Korean railroading, as his strange amalgamation of an accent - a strong Yorkshire accent that tried to be Received Pronunciation for 30 years, mixed with almost 50 years of middle-to-upper-class Korean - has filtered down through the ranks of KoRail, because all of his students want to sound like him out of respect. Human British expats in Korea will occasionally hear a locomotive speaking in English, and the engine will sound like a Yorkshireman every time and the Brits cannot handle it.

---------

4495 Golden Fleece is the only A4 to preserve himself - he saw the writing on the wall in the early 60s, and hopped a car ferry to France at the end of 1962. From there, he bounced around Europe for a bit before making it to the United States in the late 70's.

Of the 8 surviving A4s, he's probably led the quietest life of all - he moved to Miami before it got nice, and basically got in on the ground floor of CSX when that merger happened in 1980. He's now the head of terminal operations for the Port of Miami, but he's generally kept a low profile - not even having a chance to meet Scotsman due to his time in Europe.

He's still in contact with Dwight and Dominion, and has no real bitterness over not being "famous" like they are - he likes the quiet, and still lives in a modest house in Boynton Beach with his long-term girlfriend.

----------------------

Soooo... the Great Gathering.

It was supposed to be a meeting of the 6 surviving A4s - a two year event held at the NRM in honor of the 75th anniversary of Mallard's record-setting run.

"Record setting" is a past-tense term here. While there have been no official runs, every single one of the Pennsylvania Railroad's T1 and S1 locomotives claim to have gone faster than 126 without meaning to, and numerous other locomotives on unofficial attempts done late at night on flat stretches of land across the country have hit 130+.

British Expats have also done better than 126 - Coronation claims to have hit at least 140 on a midnight mail train in 1980, and in Korea, Merlin claims to have hit 128 on a test train, although that was judged by timing mile markers as his speedometer wasn't functioning properly.

Problems arose before any of the engines had even reached the NRM, as Mallard's already sizeable ego had swelled to massive proportions, and several engines in the great hall were planning a justifiable homicide.

Then came the time restraints - none of the foreign locomotives were willing to uproot their lives and jobs for two years just to sit motionless in a shed. A two year exhibition was eventually negotiated down to a 6 month gala, much to the irritation and confusion of the NRM, who could not understand that the engines were still in service.

Then came the extra engines - Dwight and Dominion thought that the NRM knew about Fleece, and were quite insulted on his behalf when he wasn't invited - they threatened to not attend unless arrangements were made for Fleece to attend as well.

An utterly baffled NRM agreed, but also tore their record archives apart, as they knew that Fleece had been scrapped. The fact that his picture was plastered all over CSX's Florida Division website was all the more confusing as a result.

Meanwhile in Busan, nobody knew that Merlin had escaped the scrappers' torch and therefore did not invite him. He was only informed after K-Pop star Psy texted him from London to ask if he knew about the event, which was being advertised on television.

Merlin, having missed his friends from the LNER, decided that he would just crash the party, used some of his many vacation days, and took off for England on a cargo ship.

By sheer coincidence, all four foreign A4s hit the dock in Southhampton on the same day, and were delighted to see each other - especially Merlin, considering that everyone else had thought he'd died.

Meanwhile at the NRM, delight was not the word one would use. Befuddled, confused, shocked even, but not delighted. Their plans had revolved around 6 A4s, most of which wouldn’t be running - only to now discover that there were 7, all but one of which were functioning! (Mallard, the star of the show, was the odd one out, and it drove him crazy)

Then they got a phone call from their man at the docks saying that another one had showed up, looking like he’d driven out of a K-pop album cover, and they just gave up and started screaming.

Screaming is also what happened when the cavalcade of foreigners showed up in York - first of all, the quartet of new engines sounded nothing like they had when they left England.

Dwight had willfully unlearned his Upper Crust British accent by 1971, and had fallen deep into a California accent (quite similar to what Scotsman sounds like - coincidence? No.)

Dominion and Fleece hadn’t tried to unlearn their accents, but 40+ years of living in North America can really dilute the Britishness. It doesn’t help that Dominion has developed most Canadian vocal tics eh?

As stated above, Merlin has a weird fuckin accent, and now he speaks English with a strong Yorkshire accent, but will occasionally and without warning drop into a Korean/Yorkshire hybrid accent.

The screaming also happened because the NRM had wanted to repaint the duo trio! quartet?! into LNER garter blue, and were promptly informed that “we’re painted like this for work! Don’t touch it!” (the sole exception was Dwight, who hadn’t pulled a real train in 14 years, but he liked his Daylight Limited paint), so instead of the new arrivals showing up in LNER colours, they showed up looking like THIS:

Having their long-lost siblings show up looking and sounding like THAT had quite an affect on the A4s and the other NRM engines:

Bittern could not believe her eyes - to the point where she actually began making noise about seeing an optometrist

Union of South Africa almost backed through a wall

Sir Nigel Gresley was speechless for two days

Mallard was so angry that he actually chipped a tooth during one of his rants about “the impropriety of it all!!”

Evening Star laughed so hard that he managed to derail himself without moving

City of Truro almost cracked a piston from shock

Alycidon spent the entire gala coming up with more and more laser focused jabs at Mallard - who was so easy to fluster that the Deltic needn’t have bothered

Oliver Cromwell and Green Arrow made fast friends with the new arrivals, and spent the entire time learning ‘Americanisms’ to annoy the other engines with.

But what about Flying Scotsman? Where was he in all of this? He was generally considered to be the “leader” of the NRM fleet (much to Mallard’s annoyance), and was usually who the other engines turned to when things started getting out of control.

Did Scotsman calm things down? Like hell he did. The inmates were running the asylum from the moment that Scotsman saw the other A4s - more importantly saw Dwight - and immediately greeted them in flawless Californian.

This actually set off the building’s security alarm, as Flying Scotsman saying “DUDES! Wassup?!” caused such an uproar that the noise broke several exterior windows.

----

And all of this was in the first few days - there were six months left to go.

There was one railtour attempt. It was supposed to feature Bittern and Sir Nigel running in tandem, but instead featured Dwight and Merlin, mainly because Bittern wanted to see what would happen.

They exceeded the max speed limit for steam traction within 15 minutes, sparked a thorough investigation by the RAIB, and got all future steam powered railtours for the Gathering cancelled immediately.

On the plus side, the two engines did prove that it was still possible for a steam train to hit 100 safely.

One thing that baffled the other engines was the inordinately large number of people who turned up just to see Dominion, and the one person who kept turning up to see Fleece - it took a lot of explaining for them to understand that Dominion had been married three times, and had children (adopted) and grandchildren from all three marriages coming to see her. A similar amount of explaining was required to explain that Fleece’s girlfriend/partner wanted to see him too.

The normally chatty Dwight and Scotsman would suddenly clam up whenever Dominion and Fleece teasingly tried to ask about their love lives, something which wasn’t unnoticed by the other engines, but got similarly nowhere.

The answer to why they both shut the hell up was explained when a lot of shouting broke out in the yard of the NRM one day about a month into the exhibition:

Irene Eisenhower, not content to sit in California and count her billions, quickly grew bored without her husband, and decided to go to England and be with him. The fact that she definitely did not fit the UK loading gauge was never even a consideration, and so she just showed up in York on the back of a lorry, having informed no-one of her arrival, and content to just pay off the requisite people if a fuss occurred.

A fuss did occur, and it was only ended when Scotsman managed to convince the museum’s curator (who at this point in his life was regretting ever thinking of this damned gathering) that Irene was a ‘temporary donation’ to the museum.

[Scotsman, who definitely hid his Cali accent from museum staff the entire time, has one of the best poker faces in the world]

Dwight was overjoyed, and so was Scotsman, for initially unclear reasons. Then Irene managed to grab both her husband and Scotsman, dragged them behind a shed, and [THIS IS A PG13 HEADCANON] the both of [PG13]. Turns out that while Scotsman may have slept his way across the US a few times, he was actually ready to settle down with Dwight and Irene - they were a throuple way back in the 70s, and those passions haven’t faded. When Scotsman reluctantly left the US in 74, a lot of the reluctance was because of those two.

This bombshell of a revelation went over interestingly at the NRM. Some engines (Green Arrow) were happy for them, some were incensed (Mallard - although it was for anti-American reasons, not homophobic ones), and some were intensely curious about what was going on in the outside world (Bittern).

The ‘foreigners’ (as Mallard had taken to calling them), were deeply displeased at how their fellow engines were being treated - while a lot of them were ‘in steam’, some were not and might never be again, something they found abhorrent. Unable to do anything at that time, as the NRM was not a for-profit entity and therefore did not have anyone to bribe, (Irene’s solution to things is to throw money at the situation) the engines started talking about how life was different in the outside world - namely that engines were still working hard, even when they were over a century old and running on steam power.

This was of great interest to engines like Evening Star and (6220) Duchess of Hamilton, neither of whom were likely to be steamed again, and Bittern, who was growing more and more curious with each passing day. Dissent began to slowly build against the NRM curators, and the culture of the United Kingdom in general.

One thing the foreigners did try do something about was Ellerman Lines. The poor bastard had been sectioned to show his inner workings, much to the jaw-dropped horror of the foreign A4s, who made such a stink about it that he was moved outside the museum by NRM staff, who must have thought that the engines lacked object permanence or something, because that didn’t make it better!

Irene Eisenhower, who was beginning to get really sick of the nonsense that the NRM called preservation, (Scotsman was not in running condition, and had been hastily reassembled mid-overhaul in order to be cosmetically ready for the event, and let’s not forget poor Ellerman Lines) elected to bring the event to a close on her own after only three months. She did this by eventually putting her immense wealth to good use, and called for a haulage service to rescue the engines from the NRM without the knowledge of the museum staff. Aside from the A4s, she also took Ellerman Lines, Scotsman, and Bittern (who had asked to go) with her, and only bothered to inform Ellerman and Bittern - she was not about risk Scotsman having another “think of England” moment and staying.

The haulage firm was efficient and the cargo ship was waiting, so the engines were in international waters before the NRM opened the next morning.

Much swearing occurred in England that day, and the NRM’s image has yet to fully recover from the PR story that they had sold Flying Scotsman (and Ellerman Lines) to a reclusive American billionaire.

Privately though, the NRM does not care, as that story is a lot better than “Someone stole our engines and we’re not allowed to get them back because as it turns out we’re slaveowners, so no international court will help us.”

Also, despite their multimillion dollar “donation" from the I. Eisenhower Opportunity Fund, they still haven’t been able to fully pacify their engines, all of whom have somehow gotten the idea that they should be running in main line service like they live on Sodor or something...

--------

Dwight, Scotsman, and Irene all live happily together in the sprawling Eisenhower estate in Malibu. Irene is currently lobbying the California state government to legalize polygamy, with moderate success.

Ellerman Lines, after a lot of therapy and a full rebuild, is now working on a short line in Wyoming. He likes the scenery.

Bittern followed Dwight, Irene, and Scotsman to Los Angeles, and used her ‘connections’ (Dwight) to get a supporting role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Since then, she’s gotten several roles based on her own merits, including an Emmy nomination for Best Guest Appearance in a Comedy.

Merlin spent a few months in LA before he went back to Korea. He is very thankful that he was able to reconnect with his brothers and sisters, and that his homeland has good internet, as he video calls his family across the Pacific almost every day.

Golden Fleece still lives a quiet life in Florida, but finally decided to tie the knot, and married his girlfriend in 2017. The ceremony was supposed to be quiet, but Irene Eisenhower has no idea what that word means.

Dominion of Canada continues to baffle non-local trainspotters when she runs commuter trains into Toronto. She is now a great-grandmother.

7 years later, and the term “Great Gathering” is still a forbidden phrase in the back rooms of the NRM.

#ask response #long #really long #I wrote this for like me and two other people at most #national railway museum #flying scotsman #Headcanon #ttte #ttte adjacent #bittern #mallard #train headcanon #locomotive rights headcanon #extremely specific headcanon #headcanon

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guigz1-coldwar · 3 years ago

Text

'Only time' : New chapter for "Redemption in a Spirit in a Cold War" is out !

"Only time"

"Freya, what I need right now is only time....I'm trying to stay strong !"

Chapter Summary : Yirina has managed to survive & won during the trigger memories Stitch & Freya forced her to relive but since they thought to have won....she needed to play the second act.....

To read it on AO3, click here !

Words : +3300

Taglist : @snowgoldwaylon , @clxudtea , @efingart

------------------------------------------------------------------

They think they have won me....they think they have succeeded to break me and my control over my body by making me relive the same trigger memories that put me to reveal Perseus location 3 years ago and now, they wanted me to....put me back into their ranks but that didn't work and they don't really know that for the moment. I already faced that battle and I knew how things were going to happen, it was also the first time....I disobeyed in those memories, always thinking that I was doomed to follow the orders but I was wrong. Now....I only have to do one thing....

"She's moving her arms, she's awakening !"

"Her eyes are following too !"

I heard these voices back during my trigger memories but now, I could hear them well as my eyes were slowly opening up, blinded by the light that was almost above me, trying to move but still attached to that stretcher, my head hurting me like it did before, half in the vapes until my eyes were now widely open, discovering Freya near me, her hands on the stretcher with Dedov next to her, him looking to an file in his hands until Stitch arrived in the room, going in front of Freya at the other side of the stretcher.

"So, she's awake, it seems." He observed, looking at me before removing his eyes away. "It took almost 2 hours but she's back." He added.

"Her state was mostly stable during that time, nothing to worry about." Dedov affirmed, giving the file to Stitch.

"Where...I am ?" I asked in an low voice, starting my second...act of play....

"It's alright, Yirina." Freya replied, moving slowly to put her hands on my face, stroking my cheeks. "You're safe now with us." She affirmed again, having removed her mask from her face.

"Do you think she still has her memories or not ?" Stitch demanded, handing over the file back to Dedov before looking to me again.

"Guess an test is necessary to know that, sir." He proposed, putting the file away behind him as Freya get her hands off me in an gentle way.

"Well, to start easily, do you remember your name ?" Stitch started, his hands behind his back.

"Uhm...Yirina..Grigoriev ?" I muttered, fainting to think about it and the three nodded, Dedov biting his lips away.

"Good for the moment." He scratched the back of his head, looking thinkful.

"What's the last thing I remember, Yirina ?" Freya questioned, looking worried to be honest, thinking that she didn't want me to lose my memories.

"I don't know." I whispered as in my head, I was looking through some memories that was going inside my head, wanting to find an far away one. "Yes...Afghanistan." I claimed, having found the perfect one.

"Afghanistan ?" Freya & Stitch chuckled in unison, very curious towards me.

"Yes, you don't remember, Freya ?" I said, looking at her with an little grin and also an tear appearing on my left eye. "I...I proposed." I revealed, causing her eyes to go wide.

"You proposed...but to who ?" Stitch demanded, sounding an bit stunned to hear that until he looked at Freya. "Wait, she proposed to you ?" She nodded to him.

"Yes, she did." She grinned an little, taking my left hand in her owns before an feeling of sadness took over her face. "But...this was 4 years ago." She snorted.

"What....4 years ?" I sounded shocked, thinking at first that I was awakening from an coma to them. "What happened ?" I asked, seeing the concerns of their looks as they weren't ready to this. "Freya, tell me." I pleaded.

"I don't know but...." She started, her eyes mixing between Dedov & Stitch...she was surely thinking of an fake story in her head. "Listen, the most important is that you're back with us." She affirmed, suddenly avoiding the subject.

"Yes, she's right." Stitch exclaimed, pointing at her as for me, I knew that I couldn't remember of everything.

"Who are you ?" I faked to not knowing him before I looked at Freya. "Freya, who is he ?" I continued to question her.

"You don't remember Stitch ?" I shook my head to her, still 'wondering' who was that masked man with an black hood near me.

"Dedov, is there any explanations to that ?" Stitch wasn't sounding sad or mad....just normal.

"Well, it seems that the br-....the recovery...." He purposely coughed but in me, I was realizing that they will try everything to hide the brainwashing from me. "It could have saved some of her memories while the others are needing time to be recovered."

"So, as we see, she's still having her memories but they're kinda random." Stitch suggested, putting his hands on the stretcher and Dedov nodded to him.

"Yes but as we have seen, she's not considering herself as another person." Dedov added to that statement, making me 'wonder' why they were talking about another person. "We will might need to make others recovery tests but it will not be before 2 days." He continued, giving his thoughts on the situation.

"It's about the risks to not losing her, I'm correct ?" Freya theorized, still following by an nodding from Dedov.

"We will have more time to do the tests on the other woman." Stitch proclaimed, crossing his arms to look at Park's direction....she was asleep, an few doctors around her....they must have start to drug her, the same situation I faced for days and now, it was her turn...

"Do you know her, Yirina ?" It was Freya that was going to ask me that question for sure, feeling her voice near me as I was looking at Park unconscious.

"No." I lied, cracking in the inside to not acknowledge her. "Is she...someone you're trying to save too ?" I asked back, looking at the three of them.

"Yes, we're trying to save her too." Freya claimed, feeling the whole lie behind her voice.

"She's suffering the same fate as you, Grigoriev." Stitch quoted, trying to be funny to me, that wasn't working at all. "Anyway, Dedov, you continue to direct the test for Park to see when we can start." He ordered in an clear voice to hom, causing him to salute and join the doctors near Park, leaving me alone with Stitch & Freya. "What now ?"

"Now ?" Freya was an bit strangely happy to be honest. "I'm bringing her with me to my quarters." She admitted, sending me chills in my body to hear that.

"Wait, you're actually saying that you want her to be with you, to roam that base freely ?" Stitch protested, almost slamming his fists against the stretcher.

"She will stay with me all the time between each test, nothing to worry about." She exclaimed, trying to reason him.

"That might be the stupidest plan I have ever heard." He objected as Freya was starting to removing the links of the stretcher to set me free.

"She's one of us, remember ?" She seemed to correct him, removing the link that was avoiding my legs to move before finishing by my hands & chest, making me fully free after hours on that thing.

"Why I was attached ?" I demanded, making round with my both hands to relax them better from the links. "Was it because I did hurt someone ?"

"No, not at all, it was for your safety." Freya replied, helping to get up back on my feets, keeping her hands on me in case.

"Before you go with her, I need to talk to you about an important detail." Stitch interrupted her as she was starting to go away with me out of the medical room. "Without her, of course." He corrected him.

"Yirina, await me outside, okay ?" She ordered to me and I nodded, opening the door for me and let me go outside with me staying near the door, back closed by her.

Honestly, I could have run away and escape this place but...I wasn't going to let them have Park, she was still in that room behind me, been experimented on, surely going to brainwash her and I have to do something. I tried to put my ears to listen about what the two were going to talk about but it was mostly muffling and the only real audibles parts I could hear was about Sonya themselves but I couldn't listen to everything until the door opened again by Freya, having some luck to have removed my ears seconds before.

Then, I was now obliged to follow her for the first time, not been handcuffed or drugged but I was master of my own movements in those hallways and for the first time, I could discover the outside in days. Unfortunately, it was already the night and I couldn't exactly know where this location was but it was surely an military base. Freya was explaining that she was going to help me relive some memories of my life and for that, I was going to live with her in her own personal quarters in another part of the base in an building.

"Here we are !" She said after we got inside an big building that was near an small airstrip and then, in front of an door that I supposed to be her quarters. "Welcome home, Yiri." She whispered, opening the door, to make me discover where she was living in this base : it was modest but looking like an officer quarters.

"Is this where you live ?" I asked her and she nodded as I enter the room first thanks to her.

"Exactly, we've been established here for an month now." She replied, closing the door behind me as she passed near by, removing her military vest off her, going to the king-sized bed....maybe better than the bed in that cell. "We're making some operations against our enemies."

"Okay." I muttered, watching her undressing her on that bed without moving at all from my position.

"You're not coming ?" She stopped herself, watching me like a site block.

"I don't know...should I ?" I demanded, pointing at her.

"Of course and you're looking tired." She responded, removing her pants before she tapped next to her, the position she wanted to give me on that bed. "Come on, don't be shy." She told me, looking at me, unsure until I resigned myself to do so and join her in the bed but not even removing my clothes. "Take them off, Yiri, it's fine."

"No, I'm better with them." I expressed, installing myself in the bed, looking at the other direction while my head was hold by my right hand. I couldn't really remove my clothes here, uncomfortable to do so.

"If you want..." She chuckled before she put her arm around my chest, wanting to keep me with her. "I told you that I will bring you home." She affirmed in an clear voice, holding me firmly as I was blank stare, looking at the wall away....I need an plan....

I know that I needed to talk to someone and that particular person was none other than Bell....me...myself. She's the one who told me that I was going to hold on & fight, that I will maybe won that fight and that my help was going to be in the inside and all of this was true, she saw what happened but I needed to know more. As I thought to find myself on that airstrip in Turkey or that cliff in Solovetsky, it was another place I found myself in : the old CIA safehouse in West-Berlin...E9...

This place was looking empty of people but it was looking used with an lot of paperworks on the desks all around and that dashboard.....that dashboard full of intels we got over the days in 1981. It was weird to go back here even if it was only an dream and I was just alone until I saw an figure of myself, working at Park's old desk...the place I was also used to work on...Bell was still wearing the same outfit from Solovetsky.

"I know you will do it." She started, going up from the seat she was sitting on as I was leaned against Adler's desk. "I told you that you will won that fight." She added with an smile on her face.

"You did, thanks." I thanked her with my gratitude, an grin on my face.

"No, no need to thanks me, I'm just yourself." She scoffed, raising her shoulders before she arrived near me.

"You told me that my help was going to be in the inside, you were right." I admitted, crossing my arms to remember about what happened. "These americans soldiers, they....they were like now aware of my state and they tried to help me."

"And they did help you." She affirmed, making an tap on my shoulder. "You broke the control that Stitch had on you, allowing you to make your own choices in that memory." She added, giving me an explanation of my moves.

"I didn't know how it happened but disobeying these orders...." I stopped myself, thinking about how I could disobey the orders without consequences. "Was it something that could have been done ?"

"Yes, we just done it." She smiled, not realizing my seriousness of my question but I decided to not say anything else, looking at Perseus picture on the dashboard. "But I'm afraid that this victory is short-living." She muttered, looking down.

"What do you mean ?" I demanded, worried.

"They're thinking that they won you back but if more tests are happening, they will really win you !" She revealed, realizing the danger of the situation. "You have only an short time to think of something." She ordered, clearly.

"I'll try but if they're limiting my movements, it isn't going to be easy." I said, getting up from the desk to get next to the dashboard. "And I'm not going away without Park." I told Bell, already knowing that perfectly.

"I know...I know." She exclaimed, walking next to me. "You have only one day to make it count but I know you will do this." She added, both now looking at Perseus picture.

"I'll try." I repeated in an low voice as my eyes were getting narrowed by themselves, slowly meaning that it was the end of that memory....

"I'll try to find an plan, we will soon leave this place !"

I needed an plan....that all I needed to do for the upcoming day where I couldn't know what I was going to do while been under the look of Freya herself. That thought was the first thing I had when I woke up the morning of that day to the sounds from the outside and since days, I could directly see the light of the sun coming through the window, reassuring me and bringing an smile on my face despite having an bit of pain at my chest, signifying that Freya's hold on me was an bit too firm.

When I got sit on the side of the bed, I could discover that Freya wasn't with me on the bed, her former clothes all over the floor and I could hear her inside an room...probably her own bathroom, taking an shower. I preferred to wait for her actually on the bed to come back but it seems that she was taking her time in it, causing me without actually wanting to do it, to got up from the bed and to go to the door.

"Freya ?" I knocked two times against the door, not so noisy knocks and in an low voice, looking down.

"Yirina, it's you ?" She asked me as the sound of water going out from an shower was not audible anymore.

"Yes, it's me." I responded, wondering if it was too late to go back to my tracks and on that bed.

"Good, you can come in." She suggested and without hesitation that I should have in me, I opened the door to enter the bathroom....guess it was too late to step back now. As I thought...she was partially naked, only starting to cover herself with an towel when I enter.

"You could have told me about that." I expressed, an bit blushing on my face by seeing her like that.

"Why should I ?" She raised an eyebrow with an smile. "We're engaged, remember ?" She make me remember of that from the memory I told her....feeling so bad for Sonya at this moment....They're loving her but it seems that it isn't reciprocal....I'm not loving her....but I had to act....

"I know, it's just...." I stopped myself to get sit on the side of the bath just next to me. "I'm troubled by an lot of things, Freya." I told her, joining my hands together once sit.

"It's okay." She whispered, sitting next to me, putting her left hand over mine. "Listen, you know that I'm here to help you." She affirmed again her lies as I kept an straight face to her.

"What's going to happen today ?" I demanded, wanting to know deeply.

"I'm going to make you walk around freely in the base, hoping to make you remember of things." She replied, not even flinching her eyes away from me. "It's going to be an lot of days before you could remember of everything right & good for me." She added, knowing that it was for 'her & them' in terms of good & right.

"And those tests ?" I questioned her, curious about it.

"You know what ? We should stop talking about this." She proclaimed as she start to make me look in her eyes and my hands to go around her waist....I know what she wanted but....shit, I have to act despite been weakened by that in the inside.

"What are you doing ?" I asked in an normal lowed voice, almost breathless.

"Helping you remember." She breathed she pulled me in for an kiss on my lips.

She was going to do it anyways and I had no choices but to get along with it, feeling ashamed of what I was doing but she was starting to go further by going up and making me move, holding my hands, inside the shower before continuing to kiss me...removing her own towel off her, back to be naked before she decided to action the shower wanting to tense the kiss by making me & her wet.

I was starting to struggle inside of me to stop that kiss but more she was doing it, more I was going to fall deeply and in fact, that kiss was only broking me because of many things....Sonya's love with Freya and Freya who seems to not give an fuck about it. It was only after an few moments after she actioned the shower that I finally found the courage to actually act freely, breaking her control over me.

"Wait, stop !" I said in an clear voice, stopping the shower with my right hand before leaving the shower, all wet because of her.

"Yirina, come back." She pleaded, staying inside the shower. "What's wrong, Yiri." She demanded from me as I moved to clean up the wet redhead hair of me.

"I need time !" I replied in an harsh tone to her, feeling ashamed of that kiss I did, looking myself through the mirror. "I know that you & me are an thing but what happened to me, that sudden loss of memories." I added, passing my hand with the towel through my hair.

"Yes but I'm helping you, remember ?" She told me in an low voice, taking back her own towel on the ground as I was finished to clean up.

"Maybe but...I need time." I repeated again, turning around to not look at her at all. "I love you but I need to stay strong and for the moment, I need to stay focused and strong." I continued, giving my thoughts on the situation, between good & wrong. "I know that you're at my side but that...I don't think it's really helping me." I claimed.

"Yirina..." She whispered before stopping herself.

"I know, you're trying to help me but not like that." I admitted as I moved near the opened door to lean myself against the door frame, turned to the bedroom direction, not able to look at her in the eyes with that attire....

"I just want some time to think freely...and an plan to stay strong."

#cod bocw #cod cold war #cod black ops cold war #cod cw #call of duty cold war #cod #call of duty #cod bell #black ops cold war #yirina grigoriev #helen park #fem!bell

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blastron01 · 7 years ago

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Ascendance of a Bookworm – 076

Interlude: Master Benno and I

My name is Mark. I am the assistant to Master Benno, the manager of the Gilberta Company. I believe I'm just about thirty-seven years of age, if I recall correctly. When one is as old as I am, one's age isn't something that is clearly remembered.

I have served the Gilberta Company since its previous manager was in charge. If you include my time as an apprentice, they have employed me for thirty years of my life. The year I started apprenticing at this shop as a dalua was the year that Master Benno was born, so the years have passed amazingly quickly.

There are two types of apprenticeships amongst merchants and tradesmen: dalua and dapla. To explain it succinctly, a dalua makes a contract with the shop's manager to simply work at the shop for a fixed term, while a dapla studies towards being able to assist in the management and affairs of the shop itself. There are substantial differences in the contract fees and the contents of the contract themselves, but at this moment there is no need for a thorough explanation.

The Gilberta Company, essentially, employs the children of other shops as dalua. The sons and daughters of merchants spend a certain amount of their lives studying at other shops. The particular duration of this stay is a matter of negotiation between the shop's management and the child's parents. I believe the most common arrangements are between three and four years, perhaps.

The reasons for doing this are manifold. By working at another shop, the child's field of view is widened, they're placed in a position where they are put to work, they're removed from a place where they may be coddled, they make friends with other children who will eventually become the next generation of shopkeepers, and so on, but most importantly they serve as metaphorical bridges built between shops.

My original employment at the Gilberta Company was as a dalua, with the intent that when my contract expired I would return to my family's shop. However, during my employment, my father passed away, and my eldest brother took his place as the shop's manager. His attitudes towards commerce, however, were too different from my own, so rather than returning to my family's shop, I chose to renew my contract as a dalua several times. Eventually, when I came of age at fifteen years old I signed a contract to become a dapla instead.

The term of apprenticeship for a dapla is eight years. In essence, when a child finishes their apprenticeship as a dalua at another shop, sometime between the ages of ten and twelve, they transition towards becoming a dapla instead. By the time they are twenty years of age, they have become capable of being entrusted with the affairs of the shop in place of the manager.

Since I had begun my apprenticeship as a dapla so late, I spent the first eight years of my adult life in renewed study. Of course, although I may say that it was eight years of study, in truth, I had already worked as a dalua at the shop for eight years, so I was already very much familiar with the operations of the Gilberta Company. Thanks to the good graces of the previous manager, I was not paid an apprentice's wage as would be typical of a dapla, but was instead paid as much as any other adult employee of the shop. Thus, the prospect of eight additional years of study was not at all particularly painful. I was thrilled at how much better my treatment was compared to when I had been a dalua, and I threw myself into my work with zeal.

However, not all remained well. When my period of apprenticeship as a dapla was on the verge of completion, the shop's manager unfortunately passed away. Master Benno, at the time, had only just reached adulthood himself, and there was much concern that he was not yet ready to manage the shop on his own. Of the dalua who had formed a contract with the previous manager, there was no small number who declined to reestablish their contracts under Master Benno.

As my own term of employment had not yet finished, in order to ensure that I could continue to work at the Gilberta Company, I proposed to my family that our own shop could lend their assistance to Master Benno. However, my eldest brother, who was still in charge of the shop, not only refused to offer any support, but went so far as to sneer at the death of the previous manager and sever all ties between my family's shop and the Gilberta Corporation.

I wonder, how I might best describe the anger I felt at that moment? The instant that I swore an oath to myself to say my farewells to my family and remain at the Gilberta Company to support it and its new manager to the bitter end remains exceptionally vivid in my memory, even to this day.

When my term of apprenticeship as dapla to Master Benno ended, he asked me if I would be returning to my family's shop. I, however, had already severed ties with my family and thus had nowhere I could go. Moreover, the shop that needed my efforts the most was still the Gilberta Company. After I expressed this to him, the two of us threw ourselves headlong into the hard work of reviving the company. We quickly returned it to its original state, and shortly thereafter were able to grow it yet larger. The work I did in the shadows to use my own family's shop as a mere stepping stone along the path to the Gilberta Company's resurgence is a story best left untold.

The eldest daughter of the previous manager, Miss Corinna, became married. Master Benno, however, lost all interest in marriage after his lover, Liese, passed away. I as well never married; while I was so absorbed in my work, my marriageable years passed me by without my noticing. Life, it seems, never goes as one might think it would.

Because our work is going so well, and because Master Benno has decided that Miss Corinna's children will inherit the shop, I can now say that our days are free of any problems that might imperil the future of the shop.

Now then; as there is a meeting today which must be attended by the owners of all large shops, Master Benno is currently absent. As such, each of the important matters that need immediate decisions made have been brought to me.

"Mister Mark, the rinsham workshop has contacted us to let us know that their shipment will be delayed," says one employee. "I see. The shipment of leve they were expecting was delayed as well, so it's only to be expected. Please contact the foreman and ask him to have whatever they have already completed delivered immediately, and to finish the rest of it as soon as they can." "Um, Mister Mark," says another employee. "We've received a commission request for Miss Corinna from Baron Bron's daughter." "It's rare for her to commission a garment in the summer. We should hurry, I think. Please deliver that to Miss Corinna immediately."

Some time passes, slightly more busily than usual, after which Master Benno returns to the shop, carrying Maïne in his arms.

"Mark, let's talk. Come!"

He walks quickly towards his office in the back, eyes blazing with determination. Maïne looks perplexed. Lutz hurries along behind them, out of breath. I suddenly have a bad feeling that I'm about to be handed another unreasonable request.

So far, I've had to procure the materials and ingredients for the rinsham workshop, run around like mad to ensure a market for the rinsham would exist so that I could provide guarantees to the craftsmen, scour the entire town to find the tools and materials that Maïne and Lutz requested as part of their paper-making experiments, aid in the efforts to reduce tension with the parchment makers' association, and effectively do absolutely everything to establish the full-scale workshop for paper production... Now that I think about it, it seems that this last year has seen quite a few unreasonable tasks forced onto me. What might this next thing be now?

"Mark, we're going to train cooks to make desserts! Get ready!"

Train cooks to make desserts? The suggestion that has just flown from his mouth has absolutely nothing to do with any of our business thus far. I have an astoundingly bad feeling about this. There is no doubt: the abruptness of this must have come as the result of something Maïne has done. As for Master Benno, his eyes are glimmering with determination as he digs through stacks of wooden boards, verifying something or other. I am pleased to see him so energetic, but at the same time I feel like this may have terrible impact on those around him.

"When you speak of dessert cooks, what in the world do you plan to have them make?" "Ask Maïne."

Ah, so this truly is Maïne's doing? It seems that, somehow, another difficult problem has reared its head.

Originally, the Gilberta Company was founded so that Master Benno's great-grandmother, Gilberta, could sell her wares. Essentially, the wife would make her wares at the company workshop, while the husband handled the sales. The husband's name has always been the one registered as the owner of the company, but the true line of ownership has ultimately been matrilineal.

The Gilberta Company's core clientele is the rich people of the city, but the designs that Master Benno's mother came up with attracted the attention of some of the lower-ranked nobility. As such, the company has been able to gain a small amount of influence in noble society. Its ability to do business with the nobility has only come about within the past decade. It is a very recent thing. As Miss Corinna's fashion sense continues to hold some interest in noble society, the Gilberta Company's position could be said to be very stable.

In other words, the Gilberta Company trades in clothing, accessories, and other such beauty products.

The rinsham that Maïne brought to us is an excellent beauty product that has become very highly valued among our clients, and the hairpins that Miss Corinna's workshop will soon be making have already gathered quite some interest amongst the people of the city. Miss Corinna herself has expressed profound joy over being granted the rights to produce the hairpins, saying that if one were to adjust the quality of the thread and the designs, it is likely that they would be well-received amongst the wives and daughters of the nobility.

However, on the other hand, the plant-based paper that Maïne brought to us caused the Gilberta Company to stray somewhat from its path, and the training of dessert cooks is something entirely different than any of the business that we've been a part of to date. Just what in the world could Master Benno be thinking, I wonder?

"What I'm trying to tell you," says Maïne, "is that if you don't have any sugar, then this entire thing is pointless!" "Even if they don't have any sugar they can still bake bread. That's good practice for using an oven, isn't it?" "But bread workshops already exist, which means that a bread-maker's association already exists, which means that we're going to have another battle over people's vested interests! Even if it's just practice! And on top of that, weren't you planning on hiring away people who already work at bread workshops, too?!" "If you're always so concerned about vested interests, then how can you ever get anything new off the ground?!"

Master Benno sits in his chair. Across from him, Maïne is on a chair of her own, standing on her knees so that her eye level is the same as his. Watching the two of them go back and forth like this reminds me strongly of how he used to argue with Miss Liese. I wonder if it would be better to describe them as being on too good terms for a quarrel to shake, or as them having such trust in each other to the point where they can have fights like this without caring too much?

It has seemed that, as of late, Master Benno has never been quite so lively as he is when he is fighting with Maïne over matters of business. Perhaps it's because cornering a skillful speaker like Maïne in an argument gives him the same joy as when he was able to best Miss Liese in one of there quarrels. This, incidentally, did not happen very often.

"Lutz," I say, "perhaps we should leave those two to their own devices. Could you please describe to me what happened to bring this about? Why did Master Benno suddenly decide that he needed to train cooks to make desserts?" "Ah, yes," he replies.

Lutz, who had been staring at the the two of them as they fought, startles, straightens up, and begins to explain to me what had happened. Since he is so used to being thrown around at Maïne's whims, his mind is remarkably agile at switching to a new focus. He is capable of quietly absorbing any information thrown at him and has a very patient personality. He could be described as someone with talents that are hard to come by. He smoothly recounts the events of the day in an easy-to-understand order, as if he had done this all his life.

According to his explanation, after the meeting at the merchants' guild, a tasting party was held for pound cake, during which it seems that Master Benno got into a fight with the guild master's cook. He declared, says Lutz, that if he does not have a cook capable of making sweets, then there's nothing stopping him from training one himself.

Master Benno does not like to lose, and it seems that in this case he was simply unable to bear it.

"What Maïne was saying," says Lutz, "is that in order to make desserts, one needs a cook capable of skillfully using an oven. They must also have an enquiring mind and not be afraid to spend a lot of time experimenting with the recipe to make it more delicious. Master Benno was originally thinking that he would be able to find someone who had already mastered the use of ovens at a bread workshop, but Maïne said that since they would wind up making things other than bread, it seems that unless they're enthusiastic something new, it wouldn't go particularly well..."

After Lutz finishes explaining the circumstances, I finally start to see the points of compromise that could be reached in the argument between Master Benno and Maïne.

"It seems that Master Benno has determined that these desserts would be suitable for selling to the nobility, then?" "Yes, but―" "Lutz, you cannot say 'but'. When Master Benno is determined to do something, we have no choice but to follow along."

This may reflect my own particular partiality towards Master Benno, but I believe that he has an excellent sense for matters of business. I cannot recall any instances where he has decided something will sell and, after pursuing that goal with all of his power, failed to make a profit.

I clap my hands together twice, drawing both Master Benno and Maïne's attention to me.

"Master Benno, when you say that you are going to be training dessert cooks, might I ask how long you believe that would take? Would such an action be profitable?" He quietly nods. "...Yeah, it'd be profitable. I'm planning on hiring someone who's already able to use an oven from a bread workshop and using them to teach other people, so that shouldn't take that much time."

His eyes are full of self confidence, and his face shows that he's not seeing even the tiniest sliver of a chance for failure.

"As Maïne has just said that one cannot make her desserts without sugar, you must believe it is possible for you to acquire some, then?" "It's been a while since I talked to my relatives, but if I reach out to them, I think I'll be able to manage something, even if it'll be a little bit tough. I think Uncle Emil might have a bit of influence in Central? I could also have Otto get in touch with his friends from his trading days. In the meantime, I can have the workers make bread in order to get them used to working with ovens." "Hm," I reply. "it certainly does not seem entirely impossible."

It seems that because it is impossible to secure victory when there are fundamentally zero chances for success, Master Benno has been considering how he might acquire sugar from the moment Maïne had started talking about desserts.

Arranging for a workshop and purchasing ovens is a tedious and complicated process, but is not exceptionally difficult. It does seem that, after all, the most significant problem that must be dealt with will be negotiating with those businesses that already have vested interest in this field. I dare say that the guild master will likely have objections of his own, as well. Thinking back on all of the strife that had happened with the parchment makers' association when we wished to start selling plant-based paper makes my eyes narrow. These disputes that have happened over these things outside of our core business, like making paper or training cooks, are exceedingly difficult compared to the rest of my work.

"Maïne," I say, "might you have some idea as to how we might avoid strife with the bread makers' association, similar to the solution you came up with to ensure we did not encroach on the profits of the parchment makers' association?" "Huh?! You want me to think that up?!"

Master Benno is a man who prefers to solve his problems by breaking through them with sheer force and fundamentally dislikes compromise. Maïne, who is unskilled at direct conflict and thus avoids them as much as possible, is much more suited to finding a good compromise. Not to mention, the training of dessert cooks is so far out of my area of expertise that I don't have the background information required to find any points of common ground.

"Of the four of us here, I believe you must be the one most familiar with the topic of dessert cooks, are you not? Because you are thus much more suited than Master Benno to find points of common ground, please, help us determine if there is any view that would allow both parties to still profit."

I am fully aware that this is an unreasonable demand to be making of a young girl who has only barely just been baptized, but I, along with Master Benno, do not think of Maïne as an ordinary little girl.

"Eh?! Umm... common ground? I mean, you're, kinda putting me on the spot, but, uh... if you want both sides to profit, umm..." "Let me see... perhaps there might be some other kind of bread besides the bread being produced now, or something one might use an oven for besides making bread..."

As she broods, I offer her a couple of suggestions, reframing the ideas from her paper compromise so that they might apply to bread. Nothing at all comes to my mind, of course, but since Maïne is a constant font of strange ideas, I believe that there must be something that she will be able to think of.

Confirming my hypothesis, Maïne quickly turns her head to face me, her dark blue hair swinging behind her. Her golden eyes glimmer as she shoots her left hand straight up into the air.

"There is something! I've really been craving 'Italian' food!" "...'Italian'?"

She's brought out a word I've never heard before. Both Master Benno and Lutz tilt their heads, looking at her funnily, but Maïne seems to not care in the slightest as she launches into the topic.

"Even if we don't have any sugar, then if there's a style of cooking that uses an oven, then that's still good practice, right? So if we can make things like 'pizza', 'gratin' dishes, or 'lasagna', then that'll definitely work. ...Ah! Also, also, you can cook meat in an oven, and also make things like 'quiches' and 'pies', too. Aaah, I can't wait!"

Maïne cheerfully lists off name after name of possible dishes, but based on the fact that she mentioned cooking meat in the oven, I can't imagine that the rest of them are any sort of dessert. She looks off into the distance, eyes sparkling, looking so entranced by the idea of food that she might start drooling at any moment. Lutz, standing next to me, lets out a small groan.

"Uh oh. She's going wild again." "Oh?" I reply. "She's imagining something that she really wants. Once she sets her mind on something, she blazes forward at full speed... I don't know if Master Benno's going to be able to win, huh?"

The way he's groaning makes it easy to understand that Maïne's rampages often involve forcefully dragging him around to do things. She and Master Benno are very much alike, it seems. Once they have an objective in mind, they blaze directly towards it, perhaps not even realizing the hardships they may cause others around them in the process.

"Mister Benno," she says, "let's just give up on desserts. We should make a 'restaurant'... ah, um, a kind of high-class place where you can eat food." "Hey, wait! You can't just declare that we're giving up like that!" "Oh, once we get sugar, we can also make 'Italian' desserts there too. It's fine! Let's make 'Italian'." "What about that is fine?!"

As Lutz feared, Master Benno appears to be losing. I realize just how similar Lutz and my situations are, with how he is dragged around by Maïne and how I am dragged around by Master Benno. I shed a tear for him, in my mind.

"Lutz, you must strengthen your heart. Do not let yourself simply be dragged around. You need to learn to predict when she might start to run wild. If you can turn things around before you get dragged into them, your life will be much easier." "Mister Mark...?" "There's a knack for everything, even getting dragged into things."

Lutz looks up at me, his green eyes shining with pure admiration. Looking down at him, I silently swear to myself that I will train him to the best of my capabilities so that no matter what unreasonable things he and Maïne find themselves doing, he will be able to bear it fully.

The entire time that the two of us were sharing our moment of appreciation for each others' hardships, Maïne has not stopped talking. She is currently describing reason after reason as to why establishing an eatery is superior to simply starting a workshop.

"What I'm saying is that if you can cook anything, not just sweets, then that's way more marketable, you know? And if you're offering the food that the workers make for practice to real customers, then not only is the food not going to waste, but the workers themselves will be way more motivated, right? And then if you get to a point where they can start making sweets, then before you start selling them to the nobility, then you can have your customers sample them first, and use their feedback to make it even better!"

As Maïne lists her arguments, with levels of both persuasiveness and expression that one wouldn't think would come out of the mouth of a child, Lutz looks up at me, eyebrows lowered, looking concerned.

"I... when I hear how passionate she is, I can't help but start thinking that she might actually be right," he says. I hum thoughtfully, nodding. "The ability to make someone want to buy what you're selling is a much sought-after talent amongst merchants." Lutz shrugs, giving me a small smile. "In Maïne's case though, it's a talent she doesn't actually use at all unless it's for something she wants." "Take care to watch how she says things to convince others of what she's saying. Remember, everything around you can be an example to learn from."

The persuasive power to make your opponent believe what you do is a very attractive ability, but ultimately, if Lutz is to manage a shop in the future, he cannot live a life of merely being dragged along by Maïne's zeal.

"All that aside, Lutz. Is Maïne all right? I can't help but wonder if she might be a little too zealous..." "Aah! Maïne! Calm down a little!"

As soon as he says that, Maïne stops talking, and flops over onto the table, resting her head on its surface. It seems that she really has overdone it. Even still, it seems that she has yet more to say. While laying on the top, she starts mumbling, continuing her previous thought.

"There's a huge difference between what rich people eat and what the nobility eat, you know. If you can provide tasty food, I think that people will absolutely come to eat it, even if it's a little pricey. Definitely." "A huge difference? Where in the world would you have learned about what nobles eat... the guild master, huh?" "See? You're interested too, aren't you?" She chuckles gleefully. "They're really different. But, you still have a chance. I've still got plenty of information that I haven't given over to Miss Ilse yet, after all."

I can tell that her words have swayed Master Benno significantly, but at this point, he should not be making any firm decisions. He needs to step back, calm down, and go over Maïne's proposal with careful, deliberate thought. If there are so many points in this plan's favor, then there must be points against it as well.

"As you say," I interject, "we must carefully consider whether or not we truly need to train workers to be able to make desserts. Maïne, thank you very much for this wonderful suggestion. It is an enormous help. Won't you return home and take care of your own needs, though? You must be quite tired after pushing Master Benno around like that." "Oooh, Mister Mark," she says, still slumped over the table, "your kindness always goes straight to my heart."

I instruct Lutz to ensure that Maïne makes it home safely, then see the two of them out of the shop. After I see them off, I return to the back office, to find Master Benno slumped over like Maïne was just a moment ago, his face buried in a pile of documents.

"Master Benno?" "Seriously. That girl's just full of surprises, isn't she." "You are very right. I did not expect in the slightest that her plan to avoid friction with the bread makers' association would have turned into that."

Master Benno scratches his head, rustling his hair, as he slowly sits upright. He looks at me, a sharp glint in his reddish-brown eyes.

"...What do you think, Mark?" "I do believe that it would be easier to establish an eatery than it would be to train workers to make desserts. With an eatery, we don't risk starting any conflicts with the bread makers' association. Instead, we would have to consider how we would deal with the food vendors' association, but if we properly follow the processes in place, I do not think that the act of establishing the shop itself would be particularly difficult." "Agreed."

Maïne's proposal is for a high-class place to eat. A shop such as that should not disturb the much cheaper vendors that operate in the town marketplace, so I am comfortable considering that the food vendors' association will not put forth any significant opposition.

"An eatery isn't a bad idea. A lot of rich people already employ cooking girls, but those girls are, fundamentally, commoners. So, even if you throw a lot of money at them, all that'll happen is that you'll be able to eat a lot of food. The actual food itself isn't going to change all that much. The food the nobility eat uses recipes that can't be made unless you have a very good cook working in a noble house, so everything of course tastes different, and there's a difference in variety. Even if it's somewhat expensive, considering the subject matter and the flavors involved, I believe a such a shop might be successful."

I have never myself had the opportunity to eat the food of noblemen, so I do not have a clear understanding of what's at play here. Master Benno, however, has eaten it a number of times that could be counted on one hand, as a result of being invited to a meal by a nobleman on several occasions. If Master Benno says so, then I have no doubt that there are significant differences between the food that the nobility eat and the food that merely very wealthy people eat.

"However, how does Maïne know recipes for noble food? That girl's only been at the guild master's house for a few days total. Why does she know so many different varieties of recipes? How can she just produce recipes that require an oven off the top of her head?" "Because she is Maïne, sir."

I sigh as I answer his question. He seems dissatisfied by my answer, but I have no better explanation to give.

"Mark, you just—" "It's pointless to waste time thinking on questions we cannot answer. Weren't you the one who said that it doesn't matter who she was as long as she was useful to us merchants, back when she sold us the rinsham? Even after all this time, we've learned nothing new. It's a far better use of our time to instead think of ways to ensure that we do not let her precious information leak out to anyone else."

I shrug my shoulders and shake my head. Benno glances away, as if he felt bad about something, then claps his hands, awkwardly and abruptly changing the topic of conversation.

"Ah, well, sure, but... I've been thinking of adopting Lutz. What do you think, Mark?" "It would seem that Maïne is having quite the influence on you, sir, if you are blurting out ideas that you haven't actually thought through." "Huuhhh? Well that's rude! Don't lump me in with that thoughtless little kid!"

No matter how threateningly he shouts at me, I can't imagine this idea of adopting Lutz to be anything but thoughtless. If it isn't, what in the world could he possibly be thinking? If Master Benno, the manager of a shop, is seeking an adoptive son, perhaps he is looking to find an heir amongst the people around him. This would be troublesome for him to do so, however, as it would sow the seeds of strife with Miss Corinna, who has yet to bear a child.

"Well then, if you truly have a reason as to why you would propose something that would cause such great discord between you and Miss Corinna, would you perhaps explain your careful thinking?"

He sighs. "You're just going to pick this apart, aren't you," he grumbles, before explaining why he wants to adopt Lutz.

"First, if we want to keep our connections with Maïne, we absolutely need to secure Lutz. You're with me so far, right?" "You're quite right."

I already am aware that, because of the magical contract that stipulates that the things Maine's Workshop produces will be sold through Lutz, keeping hold of him is very much necessary. Additionally, as Lutz is currently employed as a dalua, when his period of employment is over, if he were to have the inclination to go to somebody else's shop, he would be entirely capable of doing so. It would seem that preventing this from happening is Master Benno's objective.

"I was thinking I could hire him on as a dapla, but I've been thinking that if I want someone that I can definitely trust with the shop, then maybe adopting him to carve out a more solid position would be a better idea." "Wouldn't hiring him as a dapla be enough, in that case? If you truly need someone you can definitely trust, then when Miss Corinna gives birth to a daughter, would you not be able to have them marry?"

Rather than raising him as an adopted son, giving him a thorough education as a dapla, then having him marry into the family would cause far less strife, I believe. Master Benno, however, merely shrugs, waving his hand dismissively.

"That's not going to work with Lutz. He's only got eyes for Maïne. Either way, Lutz's original dream was to become a trader. He's been looking for a chance to leave the city. And that's even more reason why I think that tying him down to this shop is going to be really difficult." "...A trader, you say? That's..."

This is quite surprising. It's very rare for someone born and raised in a city to dream of becoming a trader.

Benno shrugs his shoulders, quirking up the corners of his mouth. "I've been thinking that the main reason for that was because his life at home was so constrained, but honestly, if he didn't have Maïne tying him down, there'd be nothing keeping him here. There's no doubt about how Maïne's going to be swallowed up by the nobility in the near future. I don't know if it's going to be the nobility in this city, or if she's going to get tangled up with some other city's nobility, or even get called all the way out to Central, but... I don't know just what the odds are, but there's a good chance that she's going to leave this city at some point or another."

Lutz is currently an apprentice under Master Benno's patronage, and he has neither knowledge nor anything else that he can use. However, by the time he comes of age, he will have learned quite a lot, and most likely come to realize his own worth. If by this point Maïne has been removed from the city and their magical contract rendered meaningless, it's entirely possible that he might leave for a shop in another city.

"When Maïne leaves this city, I want to be in a position to follow her with Lutz in tow." My eyes narrow slightly. "Why would you go that far, sir?" He gives me a slightly troubled smile. "The actual successor to the Gilberta Company is Corinna. I'm just a middleman. Maïne says she wants to make books, but that's not what this shop does. This isn't going to be anytime soon, but I'm thinking that maybe I what I really want is to leave the shop to Corinna and Otto and build my own, separate shop."

Ownership of the Gilberta Company is in fact matrilineal, so he is correct: the ones to which the shop should be entrusted are Corinna and Otto. However, I can't quite make the connection between his desire for independence and his intentions for Lutz. As I look at him curiously, he sighs. "Mark can keep a secret," he mutters to himself, and a nostalgic smile floats across his face.

"Lately, when I've been watching Maïne and Lutz, I've been remembering how I used to be. When my dad was still alive, when I didn't have anything to worry about in my life... like how I used to be when I was together with Liese."

The way Lutz and Maïne interact with each other is very reminiscent of the way Miss Liese and Master Benno used to laugh together. I can understand, somewhat, what he is feeling. I can almost see, in the corner of my eye, images of the two of them playing grown-up in the back of the shop or sneakily planning some sort of mischief.

"Looking at those two made me remember. I had a dream, once, before my dad died and I put all of my efforts to keeping this shop and my family safe..." "Ah yes, your dream of becoming a merchant respected around the whole world."

As soon as I say that, Master Benno's eyes go wide, falling into such a state of disarray that he appears, quite frankly, amusing.

He points accusingly at me. "Wh... why do you remember that?!" "Because it was your dream, sir."

I do not want this to be taken lightly. I have known Master Benno ever since he was born. As I puff my chest out with pride, he clutches his head, moaning. He is quite terrible at dealing with people who know all of the little details about his childish past. I'm very aware of this. After a moment of continuing to hold his head and grumble, he clears his throat, as to free himself from his momentary embarrassment.

"If I can keep implementing every one of the things that Maïne's got in her head, I can actually achieve that dream, can't I?" "...This may sound pretentious, but if you indeed can realize everything that Maïne describes, then you truly will gain the respect of the world." "So, to start, I'm going to go to the cities my brothers and sisters are in, get paper-making workshops set up there, and start trying to distribute this vegetable-based paper. ...Mark, what will you do?"

He looks up at me, head tilted slightly to the side, leaning back in his chair with his fingers laced together in front of him. Seeing him stare at me, waiting for an answer, almost makes me laugh out loud. After all, when the shop's previous manager had died, my educational period had ended, and he'd asked me whether or not I would be leaving the shop, he'd worn exactly the same expression on his face.

"I think that Theo might be much better at dealing with Mister Otto than I would be. I'll come with you. After all, Lutz will need training, won't he?" "...Alright then."

Seeing him sigh in relief brings a nostalgic smile to my face.

Master Benno had forgotten his dream, replacing it with a stubborn desire to protect his family and his shop. Maïne is pushing him into motion, making him form a paper makers' association, making him get ready to start even more new ventures. Just like Otto had said before, Maïne, to Master Benno, is the goddess of water, bringing about the end of a long, long winter.

And thanks to her, I have remembered my own dreams as well.

If Maïne is his goddess of water, than I want to be, now more than ever, his god of fire, helping him grow and flourish.

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#honzuki #honzuki no gekokujou

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commandertheory · 7 years ago

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Unstable Commander Set Review

Overall Thoughts

If your playgroup allows silver-bordered cards, then you’ll find that this is a great set for Commander. Unstable has a ton of high-powered cards, thanks in large part to the fact that it didn’t have to be balanced for Standard. Unstable also benefits from its ability to explore themes that the Comprehensive Rules normally prevent R&D from touching, resulting in many unique effects that can potentially inspire new archetypes.

My main complaint about the set is that not all of its themes were given a legendary creature to incentivize building around them. For example, “watermarks matter” was a small theme that only got one powerful card (Watermarket). One strong maindeck card can’t support 98 others, so unfortunately, the theme is unlikely to have a presence in Commander. If, however, Wizards had designed a legendary creature that supported watermarked cards, they could have created an entirely new archetype out of the 1700 or so cards that have been printed with watermarks.

Likewise, Contraptions are a huge part of the set, taking up 45 of Unstable’s card slots, and yet there is no legendary creature that assembles Contraptions. If you want to have a chance at assembling a Contraption in Commander, you have to play a five-color deck that runs all 18 cards that assemble them, regardless of their quality. Why not open this class of cards up to the largest casual format in the game by spending a single card slot on a Legendary creature that supports their use?

Card Ratings

In this set review, I’ll be using two five-point rating scales to evaluate the nonlegendary cards, one that measures how many decks a card is playable in (we’ll call that “spread”), and one that measures how powerful it is in those decks (”power”). Here’s a brief rundown of what each rank on the two scales means:

Spread

1: This card is effective in one or two decks, but no more (ex: The Gitrog Monster). 2: This card is effective in one deck archetype (ex: self-mill decks). 3: A lot of decks will be able to use this card effectively (ex: decks with graveyard interactions). 4: This card is effective in most decks in this color. 5: Every deck in this color is able to use this card effectively.

Power

1: This card is always going to be on the chopping block. 2: This card is unlikely to consistently perform well. 3: This card provides good utility but is not a powerhouse. 4: This card is good enough to push you ahead of your opponents. 5: This card has a huge impact on the game.

The Commanders of Unstable

In this section, I’ll be analyzing the new legendary creatures, offering some ideas for decks build around them, and discussing their potential for inclusion in the 99 of other decks.

Unsurprisingly, getting a fast win with Spike is trivially easy. There are probably more efficient ways to do it, but the first that comes to mind is to build a manabase with a ton of lands that can produce mana of any color (this list should have most of them). Cast Spike on turn two (or earlier, with acceleration), then search out Channel and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (both banned in Commander, natch). Use your colorful manabase to produce double green and then chain Channel into Emrakul to start annihilating your opponents’ permanents. Anyone know of more efficient ways to kill with Spike?

In the maindeck:

Spread: 5 Power: 5

Cheap one-card combos are exactly what the 5/5 rating is for.

(Legal as a commander per Blogatog errata).

The Grand Calcutron seems like a strong commander, although building the deck and playing with it is a little difficult to wrap one’s head around. Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I’m sure this card requires a lot of playtesting in order to use correctly. I think that reactive effects like counterspells are pretty bad in this deck, as you’re going to want to clear out your program every turn in order to get the maximum value off of his end step trigger. As a result, I think that you want to spend as many deck slots as possible on acceleration (so you can clear your program more easily) or combo pieces (Paradox Engine is a good option, since you’re running lots of mana rocks anyway).

If you’re not interested in comboing out with artifacts, there’s an argument to be made for an aggro Calcutron build that happily vomits threats onto the board, safe in the knowledge that they’ll be replaced at the end step.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 1 Power: 4

The Grand Calcutron is not at its best in most UW builds, since he encourages a completely different strategy than the slow, controlling ones that UW excels at. If there’s a UW build that seeks to dump its hand quickly, he should be one of the best cards in it.

Phoebe is great at hosing opposing creatures, and there are a couple neat ways you can build around her, as well. Phage the Untouchable, Ashling 2.0, and Throat Slitter all have powerful saboteur effects that complement Phoebe’s evasion nicely, and there are a few creatures with abilities that can win the game when they’re combined on a single creature, such as Fallowsage/Wakethrasher/Siren of the Silent Song/etc. and Aphetto Alchemist/Norritt/Tidewater Minion.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 3 Power: 2

Blanking your opponents’ commanders is quite nice, but I suspect that Phoebe is a bit too inefficient to make the cut in most decks.

The mechanics are interesting but I don’t think the deck he suggests is too far from stock UB control lists.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 3 Power: 3

Aside from Survival/Fauna Shaman, discard outlets aren’t too common in Commander. X seems like a great way to generate value over the long game while screwing someone over.

Keeping the Baron alive long enough for the countdown to complete seems pretty difficult, and aside from an unusual focus on numbers, the deck is basically just BR Goodstuff. That being said, I think the way he encourages you to play gives a deck full of staples a whole new flavor.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 1 Power: 1

I can’t imagine this accomplishing anything in most decks.

Aside from the sweet value of double reanimation, there are also some great combos that you can put together in these colors with the aid of Buried Alive and self-mill effects (Infinity Elemental and Flayer of the Hatebound is the first that comes to mind, but I’m sure there are better ones).

In the maindeck:

Spread: 3 Power: 2

Unlike many of the other repeatable reanimation critters in her colors, Grusilda has to wait a turn to get going. As a result, I think she’s less effective overall than most of the alternatives, despite being more powerful once she gets going.

Even after including Changelings, there are less than 10 Killbots in Magic, which means that (barring tutors) there will be games in which you never see a creature that will work with her ability. There are also limited ways to benefit from repeatedly switching her between your hand and the battlefield, since the ability doesn’t appear to trigger ETB effects.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 1 Power: 1

I can’t imagine there’s a deck out there that’s running all the cards that Mary needs in order to be effective, and if there was, I still don’t think you’d be able to assemble all the pieces with enough consistency to make her inclusion worthwhile.

Rakdos does not currently have a token commander (Boris Devilboon is way too weak to qualify, IMO), so The Big Idea essentially creates a new archetype for that color identity. Sac outlets like Attrition and Skullclamp allow you to convert his Brainiac minions into cards, while mana-generating sac outlets like Phyrexian Altar and Thermopod have the potential to go infinite with a Thornbite Staff.

Alternatively, you can eschew the token sac strategy for an aggro plan that uses Coat of Arms, Shared Animosity, and other tribal pump to boost the size of your Brainiacs.

I don’t think the dice-doubling ability has a lot of utility outside of improving your token production, as most of the die-rolling cards from Unhinged and Unstable aren’t Commander-playable anyway.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 2 Power: 2

I think the investment of mana and time is a little too high for him to make the cut in most token decks in his colors.

Given the multiple levels of randomness involved, it’s difficult to evaluate what kind of impact Ol’ Buzzbark will have on the game. However, I’m skeptical that he’ll be very useful unless you’re spending absurd amounts of mana on him and flooding the board with dice. To that end, it makes sense to use him as a way for big mana decks to control the board and/or pump the team large enough for an alpha strike.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 2 Power: 3

Ramp is a relatively common theme in GRx decks, so there are places that Ol’ Buzzbark could theoretically fit. I’m being a little generous in my assumptions about how the manual dexerity and luck shake out; please take this rating with a grain of salt.

There are only 10 host creatures in the Doctor’s color identity, and only one of them has an especially powerful effect. Tutoring out Angelic Rocket and making it squirrelly or serpentine will put you in a good position for a while, but if the most powerful thing your commander can do is get one half of a glass cannon combo that dies to Doom Blade, then he’s probably not very strong.

A more interesting way to build around Jumblemorph might be to focus on his Changeling ability, getting value off of Descendants’ Path or pumping Julius up with Alpha Status, Stoneforge Masterwork, and Coat of Arms.

In the maindeck:

Spread: 1 Power: 1

Unless you’ve got a tribal deck that’s in desperate need of new members that pass the vanilla test, you should probably skip him.

The Maindeck Cards

Spread: 1 Power: 3

There are sooooo many things you can do with this card. Remove counters from Undying and Persist creatures, convert artifacts into extra turns, manage soot counters (while simultaneously generating sac fodder), keep Glacial Chasm around longer, convert artifacts into Divinity counters, etc etc. The only problem with the card is that the cards it combos with it are very eclectic and there’s not currently a White commander that uses a critical mass of them.

Spread: 2 Power: 4

Seems pretty comparable to Kuldotha Forgemaster, in that it’ll probably win you the game if it survives long enough to activate twice. Basalt + Rings or Disk + Forge are the classic combos, but there may be additional options opened up by the fact that the Seraph combines text boxes into one card (Voltaic Construct and any rock that taps for 3 mana jump to mind, but I’m sure there are even better combos to be found).

Spread: 1 Power: 3

It’s probably worth including in superfriends, since whatever creatures you’re running become awesome blockers and your planeswalkers can continue to use their plus abilities after they’ve been attacked down to zero.

Spread: 4 Power: 3

As far as win conditions go, it requires very little of you. If you can protect it and give it evasion, it’ll kill people.

Spread: 1 Power: 3

Looks to be very good for Edric in metagames where contacts, Lasik, and 20/20 vision predominate.

Spread: 5 Power: 3

This is as close to an ETB Time Warp as we’re ever going to get. Decent by itself, insane if you ever start blinking or reanimating it.

Spread: 5 Power: 5

Storm’s irrelevant here; a savvy opponent will scoop when they see the first Storm Crow.

Spread: 5 Power: 2

If you consider that Blatant Thievery steals three times as many cards for less mana (when you factor in the cost to recast your discount item), you’ll see why I’m not very excited about this effect.

Spread: 3 Power: 4

Great with graveyard-oriented Blue commanders such as Dralnu, Hanna, Sedris, and Silas Renn, as well as any Blue decks running mass reanimation spells (Sidisi, Brood Tyrant comes to mind).

Spread: 2 Power: 2

I believe that changing “one” to “zero” on Sidisi, Brood Tyrant will get you infinite Zombies, although you’ll need a way to kill Sidisi and keep the interaction from tying the game. You can also make Nekusar deal double damage right before you Wheel, double Sliver Legion’s power boost for a turn, etc. Any other ideas for potential uses in Commander?

Spread: 2 Power: 3

Could be strong in heavy-Blue spell combo decks that rely on High Tide, as it can pay for itself, recur your High Tide, or get you a new hand of cards if you’re low on gas.

Spread: 2 Power: 4

Awesome in creature-heavy graveyard decks like Sidisi 1.0 or Jarad. If your deck is capable of breaking symmetry on cards like Tombstone Stairwell or Twilight’s Call, you can probably break the symmetry on this.

The Scarab God’s upkeep trigger also gets much stronger when you get to count all the creatures in your graveyard.

Spread: 1 Power: 3

Increases the number of Brainiacs generated by The Big Idea by 2-4 per activation.

Spread: 5 Power: 2

I think the decks that can make the best use of this are aggressive decks that want a lot of dudes on the board (e.g., Dragonlord Kolaghan or Drana, Liberator of Malakir). The Zombie trinket text could potentially give it extra utility in The Scarab God, as well.

Also, you’re gonna want to use Legions packs.

Spread: 2 Power: 2

It’s gonna be best in Brion Stoutarm, but it’s probably a decent sucker punch in any Red deck whose commander can grant haste.

Spread: 2 Power: 4

The low-curve aggressive decks (think Goblins) that are most likely to be able to win a game of sudden death are also going to be able to make the best use of the damage-doubling pseudo-emblem. I imagine that Heartless Hidesugu is also pretty interested in this effect.

Spread: 1 Power: 3

Vanilla creatures with absurd power-to-cost ratios are exactly what Xenagos is looking for.

Spread: 2 Power: 3

It’s a little slow relative to cards like Avenger of Zendikar or Rampaging Baloths, but there are some token builds that wouldn’t mind running a Phantom General that makes its own army.

Spread: 3 Power: 4

With a few rare exceptions, tokens don’t have flavor text. As a result, a Bland Blessing means that every canned army you cast comes with a full hand of cards attached, and once you’re ahead on board and ahead on cards, you’re probably on the path to victory.

Spread: 5 Power: 1

Terrible in 100-card singleton.

Spread: 5 Power: 2

The obvious way to place cards on the bunker (flat on the table around the edges of the card) maxes out at 6, although if your friends are clever they can find ways to stand cards up vertically to fit way more. If they don’t think to use three dimensions, then (assuming it’s a 4-player game) the bunker will probably pop on the third round of turns after you cast it, meaning that one of your opponents will lose all but two permanents.

While that sounds like a sweet outcome, your opponents get way too much time to find an answer, it’s uncertain enough that it may not hit the most threatening player, and this card might never have an effect if your opponents think more laterally about how they place their cards.

Spread: 5 Power: 3

It essentially lets you draw an extra card each turn and makes you more vulnerable to Exsanguinate and Earthquake effects, but there are probably some intangible benefits to the arrangement, as well. Maybe the person you invite to join your team is a better player than you, or maybe two players can work together to track a complex board state more effectively than either would have been able to do on their own.

Spread: ??? Power: ???

Remind me to update this review on December 8th.

Spread: 5 Power: 2

Angel of Despair ain’t what it used to be. Being both an artifact and a creature allows the Angel to slot into multiple types of recursion engines, but it’s probably still too inefficient for most decks.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

Double up on Giant Fan’s effect, if you’re into that sort of thing(amajig). I wouldn’t try to use this as a proliferate engine; it’s too inefficient.

Spread: 2 Power: 4

Strictly better than Mindslaver as long as your target has a lot of enemies in the Magic community.

Spread: 1 Power: 3

Great in Ol’ Buzzbark (use two different colors of dice), The Big Idea, and your Krark theme deck.

Spread: 2 Power: 3

As far as Dragon token generation goes, this is one of the better options. Definitely worth a shot in The Ur-Dragon and Dragon tribal decks based around the five FRF Dragon commanders.

Spread: 1 Power: 2

It could be a useful addition to theme decks and decks focused around themes that are limited to a single block (e.g. infect decks).

Wrapping Up

Please let me know if there are any cards I missed that you think are Commander-playable or if you’ve got other ideas for how to use the above cards. Thanks for reading!

#set review #unstable #commander

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evenstevensranked · 7 years ago

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#17: Season 3, Episode 18 - “Stevens’ Manor”

With the house to himself for the weekend, Louis decides to open up a bed and breakfast to afford a snowboarding trip for the gang! What could possibly go wrong?!

I’ve been meaning to tell you guys to ignore any typos in my reviews within the first day or so of them being posted. It takes a few read-throughs for me to catch any/all errors.

That being said...

This episode opens with the subplot. Although, this is yet another one where the subplot and main plot work together super well. I’ve noticed that this is becoming a theme with these higher-ranked episodes. Huummm.

It starts off with Ren spying on Ruby breaking up with some random guy Dexter. Her oh so serious, love of her life boyfriend of 4 days. Sounds about right. This show seriously nails how ridiculous middle school ~relationships~ truly are. Ruby is devastated, so Ren presents the idea of turning their upcoming weekend sleepover into girls night complete with nail polish, magazines and ice cream! Yeeee!

Ruby clearly shocked and offended by Dexter’s decision to end it. We don’t actually hear the conversation, so this exaggerated expression really gets the point across.

It cuts to Louis, Twitty, Tawny, and Tom (who I will refer to as “the gang” from this moment forward) discussing how badly they want to go snowboarding at some lodge. Tawny estimates that it’d cost around $200 per-person, and I mean, what 13-year-olds have that sort of money laying around? I’m a grown adult and I can’t even afford Starbucks on some days. So, yeah. To any sane person, the idea would be totally off the table and seem completely farfetched... But not to Louis Stevens!! He’s all “Oh, it’s no problem” as he runs to answer a call on the school’s payphone, which is the millionth thing that closet space next to the stairs has been used for. The call is from someone looking to book a reservation at Stevens’ Manor. I really hope that payphone has a different number than the school and that Louis didn’t give out Lawrence Jr. High’s number as the contact info for “Stevens’ Manor.” I can’t.

He explains to the gang that Steve and Eileen are going away for their anniversary, Donnie has an away game, and Ren is sleeping at Ruby’s... which means he’s got la casa all to himself. Twitty asks how he’s gonna get his parents to actually let him stay home alone though... and like??? I know that Louis can get a little crazy, but does he really need a freaking babysitter or something? Actually, wait. What am I talking about?! He immediately seized the “home alone” opportunity to turn the house into a bed and breakfast. Here we go again with the give Louis Stevens an inch and he will take 100,000 miles trope, lol. His plan is to fake cry to Eileen about wanting to come with her and Steve and not wanting to stay alone, before deciding to be ~strong~ and stick it out. Steve even calls Louis a “soldier” for it, haha. Okay. Whatever works I guess! I’d like to point out this kinda ugly transition they do of Louis smirking about his plan, to the moment where he’s actually executing it. It’s so weird looking omg.

That morph tho. I guess the editing job isn’t too bad for 2002... but dang, it’s just slightly unsettling to me lol.

I like how this episode basically jumps right into the plot asap! We’re only two minutes in at this point and the BnB transformation is already underway! Eileen and Steve ultimately leave and trust Louis to man the fort of course, and the birth of Stevens’ Manor happens the second they’re out the door -- courtesy of a short montage. Louis must’ve been preparing for this bed and breakfast idea for a long while, just waiting around for the opportunity -- because he has shirts embroidered with a fancy “SM” ready to go for him and his friends to wear! He’s even set up the technology to accept credit cards. Louis Stevens does not play!

The first guests arrive and I’m assuming it’s supposed to be a joke when Louis greets them “Welcome to Stevens’ Manor! You must be the Mannings!” lol. The Mannings are an older couple made up of a “fellow Lou” Louis and his wife Edna. This information is vital for later on. When they’re shown to their room, (which is Louis’ bedroom transformed into the “Lincoln Bedroom” lol) Edna says “This is even cozier than the pictures we saw on the internet!” WOW!!! Louis really did have this planned! He probably whipped out a www.stevensmanor.com domain for this. How did he rearrange and clean his room with enough time to take the photos, post them, and get hits on the website (in 2002, mind you) without his parents noticing though? That stuff took tiiiime back then. Not to mention cleaning that filthy room of his would require the help of a garbage company! Oh, well. That’s an irrelevant detail. I told you he’d been preparing for this moment!

Where did he get that bust of Lincoln (see 2 photos up) and that painting too? I searched out of curiosity and found this near-exact bust which costs $850!!!!! That thing better be some cheap plastic knock off because something tells me Louis somehow spent more money on making the place look legit than he’ll ever make back from it lol.

The next guest is a woman named Mrs. Colepepper. What is up with these writers and throwing the word “pepper” into last names? We already have Ryan Zellpepper and now we’ve got this lady lol. I also just realized that both of these characters are black... not that that means anything at all. It’s just randomly sort of interesting imo.

The last main guests are a pair of twin teenage boys and their parents. Now, Even Stevens is good at not double casting people (a.k.a being weird and having the same actors play two or more different characters throughout the series and hope the audience doesn’t notice) -- But they messed up here and I gotta call it out!! They’re acting like this is the first time we’ve seen these twins, but they actually already made an appearance as LJH students back in Season 2! Their first appearance is literally sooo brief that only a weird superfan like me would notice, but yeah.

The twins in this episode.

The twins in Season 2! We haven’t covered this episode yet so I feel really weird including a screenshot but.. lol.

There’s this short scene where Louis introduces Tawny as the Manor’s “human jukebox” because apparently she’s a piano wiz and knows “all kinds of songs” (Also, where’d Louis get the grand piano?! haha) One of the twins sarcastically asks “Does she know ‘I hate it here, we should’ve gone to Hawaii’?” And Tawny adlibs a song “I hate it here, we should’ve gone to Hawaii, where they say Aloha and roast little piggies!” This one line always gets stuck in my head. Always. I’m tempted to continue writing additional lyrics just to give myself more to sing.

There’s also a fantastic bit here of Tom arguing with Mrs. Colepepper about the pulp in her orange juice. I can’t even explain it, all you have to know is that it’s amazing. Also, Louis tells the twins to check out the “Rec Room” and hands them two ping-pong paddles. They’re like “All you have is a ping-pong table?” and Louis says “Yeah... Well... I never said anything about a table. So.” IT ALWAYS GETS ME! It’s such a small line, but I love it. ALSO Beans is the BnB’s “licensed masseuse.” Right.

At Ren and Ruby’s sleepover, Ruby gets a make up call from Dex and they talk on the phone all giggly for an hour and a half. Ren is fed up and decides to head home. Safe to say Ren was in for a surprise when Mrs. Colepepper was asleep in her bed...

Louis tries to explain the situation to her and of course, Ren is vehemently against it until she sets her eyes on the ~gorgeous~ twins. As they’ve already stated -- The twins hate it there, so she catches them juuust as they’re about to check out. Ren literally referred to these guys by name in S2. They were some weird names like “Mosh and Stosh”?! lol, Smosh. But now she’s acting like it’s the first time she’s ever seen them in her life and it always bothered meeeeee.

Something that kills me about this bit is when their father says “The boys just aren’t happy here. I kinda have to agree with them. Your kiddie pool hardly qualifies as an ‘aquatic center’ so...” -- LOUIS REALLY PUT “AQUATIC CENTER” as a selling point knowing that all he had was a kiddie pool.

Imagine showing up to a BnB where this is the advertised “aquatic center.” I am dying of laughter. First the nonexistent Rec Room, now this. I can just hear Gordon Ramsay ripping this place apart on an episode of Hotel Hell.

Ren immediately tries to persuade the twins to stay for obvious reasons by bribing them with lame board games, but they apparently reciprocate her attraction and decide to stay. The fictional board game they pick to play is The Organ Donor Game (sounds like a fun time???) and it’s so suggestive. Ren says “Ooo! You landed on my kidney. That’s gonna cost ya! No cheating and... Hands off my pancreas” in the most sultry voice ever. Like... WHAT?! The doorbell rings while they’re playing and it’s Ruby coming over to apologize, but she too decides to stay at the Stevens’ once she sees the twins. Wow. I love how a fan is always conveniently there to blow Ruby’s hair dramatically whenever she sees a guy she likes.

It happened the moment she developed a crush on Louis, too. And, uh... Didn’t Ruby JUST GET BACK TOGETHER with Dexter like, an hour ago?

Meanwhile, Beans is giving Louis Manning a massage by walking on his back in hiking boots??? Beans just further solidifying his place as “The Worst” in my heart. Old Louis (which is what I’ll call him now I guess) gets his back thrown out thanks to their wonderful, 8-year-old, obviously not licensed masseuse. This place is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Eileen decides to call home and check in with Louis, which creates one of my favorite situations everrrrrrr in the series. Y’all know I love when shows highlight the comedic side of miscommunication, and this is probably Even Stevens’ best stab at it. Edna is the one who answers Eileen’s call and all hell breaks loose when Eileen asks for Louis. “Louis hurt his back, he’s in a great deal of pain right now.” Edna explains. And Eileen says “You tell him I’ll be there in two hours and that I love him very much!!” Of course, Edna thinks Old Louis is cheating on her with some woman named Eileen and it’s great.

Louis (Stevens lol) overhears the conversation and starts freaking out because how the hell are they gonna get all of the guests out of the house and revert it back to the way it was when it’s only midnight? That’s when Ren gets the brilliant idea (no seriously, it’s brilliant) to set all of the clocks forward to 7am checkout time! Oh my freaking god. Most of the guests have only been asleep for an hour or so, and suddenly they’re being told breakfast is ready. It’s absolutely hilarious! “Skies will be mostly... dark” Ren informs them of the days’ weather, omg.

There’s no way they have enough time to serve everyone a full breakfast, so they shove all the food into a blender and give it to the guests as the “Deluxe Breakfast Combo To-Go!” Seriously, Gordon Ramsay would have a field day with this.

They pretty much scream at the guests to “move it!” and get outta the house at midnight while they’re all still in their pajama’s and disoriented. Even if it was 7am, this is some terrible service. At this point, I’d give Stevens’ Manor a generous zero stars on Yelp.

Amazingly, they get everyone out with enough time to hustle and clean up the house before Steve and Eileen get back! *Whew!* Louis and Ren scramble to explain the whole Enda lady who answered the phone situation and claim that she’s the school nurse. Steve is so confused, “The school nurse made a house call in the middle of the night?!” Honestly, though. Suddenly Edna walks back in the front door “Excuse me, I forgot my umbrella.” Haha. That’s when she and Eileen have their final brush with miscommunication. Eileen is all “Thank you for taking care of Louis!” and Edna says “Well, let me tell you something, Eileen. I have dedicated my entire life to taking care of Louis, so let me give you a little warning... STAY AWAY FROM HIM!”

Steve: “These school nurses are so protective...”

Steve and Eileen decide to head upstairs and go to bed immediately, to Louis and Ren’s relief -- which actually made me realize something... Where do Steve and Eileen sleep?! From what we’ve seen of the upstairs it seems to only have a bathroom and Louis, Ren, and Donnie’s rooms! I’ve never seen space or a door for a third bedroom up there! Omg. Maybe they have a secret bedroom in a hidden attic or something? Hey! They had a giant secret cave underneath their house. It’s possible.

The final minute bit of this episode is great. Steve and Eileen are watching some local news program and Mrs. Colepepper happens to be the host. She shares her experience at Stevens’ Manor and how she’ll never forget it in a strangely positive review segment. The best line is when she says “I don’t normally sleep through the night, but when my head hit the pillow -- the next thing I knew, it was morning!” HAHAHAHA. She makes a point to mention the “hip, young staff” and shows a picture of the gang (see cover photo.) And yeah. Steve blows a gasket.

THE END!

This is a great episode. I mean, really. It’s super memorable, funny, and it’s an awesome episode for the cast as an ensemble. I cracked up countless times writing this review! It definitely gets a lot of “iconic” points for sure. I just personally prefer episodes that have more of a story to them and focus on the characters. As great as this episode is, it’s definitely one of those wacky plots that could only make sense in crazy Season 3. But I gotta give it to them... This is such a wild and elaborate plot, but they somehow make you believe that Louis could’ve actually pulled this off irl. I’m sure there were some impressionable kids out there who entertained the idea of doing something similar themselves, lol. I want y’all to know that #17 isn’t a “bad” spot by any means. I feel like I say this a lot, but at this point in the countdown, everything seriously is pretty much top notch. I’m simply arranging the best of the best in an order I hope is both personal and objective. It’s a difficult line to straddle, believe me.

To top off the review, I’ve added not one -- but two Stevens’ Manor designs to the Redbubble shop!! AYYYYYYYYY! I got carried away. I’m actually really excited about these, haha! Ya can now get the main “Stevens’ Manor” design and the employee logo design printed on whatevaaa you want. Doing these reproductions of things that exist within the shows’ universe is so fun. I’m really trying my best to get as close to the way they appear on screen as I possibly can (with my limited photoshop skillz)

They’re available in the shop now! Yay!

Thanks for reading!!

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Redbubble

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got7-texts · 7 years ago

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Boss - BamBam (Day 83/100)

You can find my post explaining the 100 Day Drabble Challenge here

To view the masterlist of drabbles for the challenge, click here

Prompt: Boss Member: BamBam x Reader AU: Mafia!AU

Word Count: 1,349

You walked around the docks that were currently being occupied by the mafia and you tapped your finger against your leg in an irritated manner. Yugyeom, who was sitting on a nearby box, chuckled and shook his head.

“You seem anxious,” he said, snickering. You glared at him with sharp eyes and then glanced up at the second floor where you knew the two mafia leaders were currently meeting.

“Of course I’m anxious, this is a huge deal,” you said, keeping your eyes on the door and the two guards stationed next to it. “What if something happens?” you added, glancing at the members of the other mafia that the opposing leader had brought with him. They were all holding their guns and you tightened your grip on yours, taking a deep breath.

“Relax, newbies, everything’s gonna be fine. Don’t worry so much,” Yugyeom said, stretching as he stood up and pat you on the shoulder, shooting you a smile before heading to his post.

You let out a sigh and took up his seat on the box. You hadn’t lied to him – you were feeling extremely anxious. But it wasn’t necessarily the presence of the opposing mafia members that was making you feel this way.

It was because you had told your officer at the bureau that you only needed one more month to catch the notorious mafia boss, BamBam.

It hadn’t been easy to convince the mafia that you could work for them. You had been forced to do many things that you had considered, and still perhaps did consider, unethical. But this branch of the mafia had been overstepping too much for too long for the police to look away. When they decided that they couldn’t let the mafia continue to expand and poison the city, they had the genius idea of placing an undercover agent in the field. You had thought it a good idea at the time as well – until they informed you that it was you who would be taking the job.

Now, four months later, you were far too deep in the mafia job to even think about quitting. Every day posed a new challenge and required you to get your hands dirty, but if you could secure the ultimate prize for the police, then it would all be worth it.

You had to get them the leader.

BamBam was known for being mysterious. Nobody knew much about him except for the few that managed to stay in the mafia long enough to remain alive. You had only seen him a few times, and on each occasion, it had only been for mere seconds. You were surprised because it always seemed like mafia leaders were at the face of the mafia’s cause, but this branch seemed to be different.

Perhaps that was why they succeeded so often.

You had made a few close ‘friends’ in the mafia, most notable Yugyeom who was, in fact, quite close to the leader – a fact that had definitely shocked you when you first heard it. He had told you that if you lasted even a couple of months in the rankings of the mafia, it would be impressive. Foot soldiers lasted years, but it was uncommon for ranking mafia members to stay alive for over six months.

Yugyeom had also enticed you by saying that if you lasted six months, you could potentially get a promotion by BamBam himself. This did entice you, because you had been waiting for a chance to get closer to the leader and now it was becoming a possibility. Instead of merely tipping off the police about where the mafia would strike next, you would have the chance to ‘cut the head off the snake’ as it were.

You were pulled away from your thoughts as you heard a gunshot coming from the room upstairs. You immediately pulled out your gun and pointed it at the rival gang members, praying that it was just a warning shot. There was a moment of scuffling before silence ensued and then the door opened and both mafia leaders walked out.

As you looked up at BamBam, you felt a chill run through you. His black hair was slicked back and his face looked icy cold. His lips were slightly pursed, but his posture remained calm and relaxed. His eyes, over, were narrowed and seemed to be staring straight into the soul of the man before him. You felt chills run down your spine and you wondered whether you had enough authority to be standing where you were.

“Hey,” Yugyeom said, popping up next to you, seemingly out of nowhere.

“What was the shot?” you asked, not tearing your eyes away from the mafia leader. You watched both of the leaders shake hands and then, to your surprise, they both began desending down the stairs together.

“I don’t know but I think it might have been one of ours,” Yugyeom said, his dark hair falling into his darkened, narrowed eyes. His statement made you frown.

“Their leader killed one of our guys? And the boss didn’t do anything about it?” you asked in disbelief. Yugyeom shook his head and let out a sarcastic laugh.

“No, our leader shot one of our guys for being an asshole,” he mumbled, and you wondered how Yugyeom was able to get information so fast. The mafia really did intrigue you.

You watched as BamBam walked down the hall towards you, and as he passed you, his gaze shifted first to Yugyeom and then to you. Your first instinct was to look away, but as soon as his eyes met yours it was impossible. Just as you had seen him do earlier, it felt as though his eyes were burning into your soul and you immediately began to feel nervous.

Did he know you were undercover? Did he know you were thinking of all of the ways to get to him? Was he aware of all of the information you had slipped the police? Did he –

And just like that, BamBam turned away and continued walking down the hall to the entrance of the docks. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and slowly walked behind Yugyeom as you headed for the entrance as well.

“Thank you, BamBam. I’m glad we could come to an…agreement,” the rival boss said, smiling to show yellow teeth. You resisted the urge to wince as you watched BamBam nod slowly.

“Yes. I look forward to what the future holds,” he agreed, motioning for one of the guards to escort the rest of the other mafia back to their cars. He then turned around and began walking back to the second floor. This time, when he passed you, you were prepared and you stood up straight as he stopped in front of you and Yugyeom.

“Yugyeom, come with me. I need you to help plan for tomorrow,” he said, bluntly. You were staring straight ahead and didn’t have the nerve to look him in the eyes again, but you could feel his gaze boring into you. “Bring a replacement for Han. He was useless anyways,” he added before walking back up the stairs.

Once again, as soon as he left you let out a breath you didn’t know you had been holding.

“Hey,” Yugyeom said, elbowing your shoulder. “You better not be so nervous whenever he comes around like that cause you’re gonna be replacing Han,” he added. Your eyes grew wide and you felt your heartbeat stop almost completely as you watched Yugyeom walk off behind BamBam.

“Wait...I…wait, what?” you squeaked, trying to balance your emotions of fear and success.

“You heard me newbie. The cops have been cracking down and we need good, strong members so let’s go. The boss needs us,” Yugyeom said, nodding for you to hurry up and follow him. You gulped as you slowly walked behind him and tried to consider your next moves.

You had to convince the boss of the mafia to fall in love with you…

So that you could kill him.

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rem-is-best-almond · 7 years ago

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[Review] Dance with Devils : Mage Nanashiro/ Gangartua’s route

Mage is your run off the mill Tsundere oresama in this game but fear not cause he goes from Ore to Dere real fast 😂😂 He serves as the unlikely secretary of the Student Council and has zero sense of personal space which is why Ritsuka constantly has to use her protective pendant against him :3 He also has a bunch of followers who he constantly hangs out and goes Karaoke with and they all call him Aniki. Also, this route has a lot of ear biting for those of you who have such a kink ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

[Spoilers under the cut , this is a summary of his whole route, including some CGs]

Left Door routes: Rem Lindo Roen

Right Door Routes: Urie Shiki

Next (Urie)>> Final thoughts >I

After learning that the grimoire resides in her, Mage is determined to find a way to take it out of her before anyone does despite Rem's orders. He gets pranked by Urie and Shiki and thinks that kissing Ritsuka is the way to get the Grimoire out of her. Because of this, he stalks her everyday to kiss her but always ends up getting kicked in the ass by her pendant or tricked by Ritsuka 😂 . He eventually gets tired of this and kidnaps her out of school. He finally manages to kiss her when she lets her guard down after he saved her from a bunch of gangsters but this doesn’t give him the grimoire and instead,Ritsuka calls him a jerk and leaves angrily.

To make things worse, he accidentally does a public announcement to the whole school that they kissed and Ritsuka ends up running back home flustered lololol. She eventually finds out about the prank from Rem and the other two but is still disappointed that her first kiss wasn’t something genuine. Rem figures that he should keep an eye on her instead now that he knows Mage wants the grimoire too so she runs away from him and bumps into Mage. They both hide from Rem in some bushes and Mage apologises for being insensitive about the kiss.

Azuna suddenly goes missing for a few days and Ritsuka finds out that she was last seen at a Karaoke bar at Shinjuku and later, was told that that’s where the vampires’ hideout is by Mage. She asks for Mage’s help and when they arrived there, they found a badly injured Azuna and an unconscious Maria. After defeating Jek , the both of them brought Maria and Azuna back to Ritsuka’s home. While the other two rested, Ritsuka cleans Mage’s injuries as he whines like a big baby😂😂😂😂 He stays at her house for a night and starts questioning his determination to get the grimoire.

Because of his new found feelings for her, Mage decides to take Ritsuka on a date the next day. He takes her to see the sunset at the beach and ends up telling her about his past : Mage’s family, the Gangartua clan was once one of the 6 Nobles that ruled the demon realm. Despite that, they were ranked as the lowest noble family. Because of this, Mage’s father and his 2 older brothers were very ambitious individuals and plotted against the reigning king Maksis. This ends up getting them killed and their status as nobles were robbed from them. Mage being the sole survivor, finds out about the Grimoire’s existence and wants to obtain it so that he could restore his family’s status and create a new world with him as king.

After hearing this, Ritsuka tells Mage that he could rely on her if he wanted to. This somehow lights a fire under their asses and they end up kissing on the beach. Ritsuka finally realises that the reason her pendant won’t work on Mage is because she had fallen in love with him. Their date ends with a flustered Mage asking to be her dance partner for the upcoming school festival and she accepts his invitation. On the day of the dance, Ritsuka’s all alone since Azuna and Lindo both had to attend a mission given by the exorcist society. She ends up getting kidnapped by exorcists who reveal that Lindo and Azuna being sent on a mission was part of a set up to kidnap her back to the exorcist Society. There, they reveal to her that the only way to obtain the grimoire is to extract every single drop of blood from her body. Mage goes on a search for her because she was running late for the dance and finds her broken pendant.

He angrily confronts Rem , thinking that it was his doing which Rem of course denies it and deduces that this was probably the work of exorcists. They invade the Exorcist society just as the head priest was about to exterminate Ritsuka. After dealing with the exorcists, Mage and Ritsuka head back to school and they danced together in the empty ballroom. Ritsuka reveals to Mage the truth about the Grimoire and Mage’s like: Fuck that, I choose you! And he confesses his love to her right then and there. After their confession, Maria decides to have a talk with Ritsuka and reveals to her that her father was actually the devil King, Maksis. She also tells her that Lindo is actually her cousin. Ritsuka is shook cause Mage has a grudge against Maksis so she starts avoiding Mage out of fear that he would kill her if he ever learned about the truth.

Devil Route:

The Head of the Arlond family, Rem’s dad orders him to bring Ritsuka to him for safe keeping as the grimoire’s powers inside of her was to be shared amongst the six nobles. Rem locks Mage up in the third library with Shiki keeping watch on him and puts Ritsuka into a trance as he and Urie brought her back to the Arlond Mansion. In her state,Ritsuka ends up having a nightmare where Mage kills all of her family because of his hatred towards Maksis. While Shiki was gone, Mage manages to escape and immediately runs to the demon realm to save Ritsuka. He calls for her name and ends up getting caught by Urie and Shiki.

Hearing Mage’s voice, Ritsuka wakes up from her trance and follows Urie to where he had taken Mage to. Urie reveals to Mage that Ritsuka was the daughter of Maksis and leaves. Ritsuka tries to free Mage but Mage confronts her by biting on her ear as to why she didn't told him about the truth sooner (｡･ω･｡) Ritsuka confesses that she was scared he’d kill her and he tells her that whatever Maksis did to his family had nothing to do with her. Just then, someone (Shiki) casually throws a key into the dungeon and Ritsuka uses it to free Mage off his restraints. They run into Rem who offers to restore Mage’s noble status in exchange for Ritsuka but Mage refuses so they fight.

Devil end 2 (Bad end):

Just as Rem was about to land the final blow on Mage, Ritsuka's grimoire powers go out of control and repels Rem. Things go south and the Grimoire’s scent affects Rem, Urie and Shiki as the latter two charge at Ritsuka. Rem manages to regain control by stabbing himself in the arm and creates an escape route for both Mage and Ritsuka. They manage to escape the mansion but due to excessive loss of blood, Mage dies and Ritsuka weeps beside him. In the epilogue, Roen appears and offers to send her back to the human world now that the grimoire's gone. Ritsuka tells him that she doesn't want to go back and wants to go to where Mage is so in the end, Roen mercy kills her 😟

Devil end 1 (Good end) :

Rem lands a ‘final blow' on Mage and he seemingly dies. He orders Urie to take Mage away and brings Ritsuka to the throne room where his father was waiting. Mage suddenly bursts into the throne room and Rem immediately cuts Ritsuka off her restraints. Mage and Ritsuka both escape but the Arlond head was able to catch up with them as Rem was no match for him. They both engage in battle and Mage was on the losing side. Ritsuka unleashes her powers and this gives Mage a power boost and he defeats the Arlond head. Rem, Urie and Shiki caught up with them and were glad that nothing happened to the both of them. As a reward, Ritsuka kisses Mage on the cheek and this turns him into a blushing, mumbling mess ヾ(¯∇￣๑)

In the epilogue, Mage is now the new King of the demon realm and is working with the other three towards settling down the ongoing chaos due to the disappearance of the Grimoire and the defeat of the Arlond head. Ritsuka comes to the demon realm every so often to help keep Mage in line with his king duties and has plans to continue her studies in the demon realm. Mage laments about the work he has to do as king and offers Rem the position but Rem doesn’t want it lol ( • ̀ω•́ ) Mage ends up proposing to Ritsuka while stuttering and she accepts it. Rem’s not pleased that they’re flirting on the job but leaves with the other two so that Mage and Ritsuka can icha icha however they want.

Human route:

Mage notices how Ritsuka is avoiding him and is heartbroken, thinking that she’s afraid to be in a relationship with him. With Maria’s encouragement, Ritsuka musters up the courage to confront him so she follows him into a warehouse and Mage ends up sneaking up behind her as to prevent her from escaping. He tells her that if she was so afraid to be with him then it’s best if they just broke up. Ritsuka stops him from leaving and tells him the truth about herself. Mage tells her that he loves her for who she is and couldn't give a rat's ass if she was his enemy's daughter and they make up.

They plan on celebrating Ritsuka’s birthday but Rem eventually finds out how to get the Grimoire so he and Mage end up arguing about it and Mage’s betrayal . Lindo is tricked by the exorcist society into believing that Ritsuka has been brainwashed by the devils so he stomps in to kill them all. Ritsuka tries to stop him but he’s like “You’ve been brainwashed by them, you don’t know what you’re saying!”. In the midst of their fight, Mage shoots some common sense into Lindo’s brain that if he can’t trust his own sister how was he going to protect her and this makes him stop. The head exorcist then appears and reprimands Lindo for trusting the devils. He also brought along his exorcist buddies and they almost blow up the whole place with their exorcism powers.

Human end 1 (Good End):

Mage shields Ritsuka from their attack and the other devil guys are paralyzed, leaving Lindo and him the only ones standing .The exorcists bring in an injured Azuna and threaten to kill her if they don’t hand over Ritsuka. The ring on Lindo’s finger starts to drain him out of his life because he refused to obey the exorcists but Lindo somehow manages to get the ring off his finger and him and Mage proceed to defeat the wacko exorcists once and for all. When all is over, Ritsuka reunites with Azuna and all is well again. The grimoire hasn’t vanished yet but Rem decides to bail on this mission cause apparently, clearing up the chaos in the school was more important to him =w= In the epilogue, Mage casually teleports in and out of Ritsuka’s home and Lindo is not pleased. He kisses her in front of Lindo and Maria and this almost starts a fight between the boys. Mage proposes to Ritsuka when they’re alone in the living room and she accepts it . めでたしめでたし

Human end 2 (Bad end):

The exorcists’ attack ended up killing everyone in the room except Mage. As he cries over a dying Ritsuka, she takes the opportunity before her last breath to feed Mage some of her blood through a kiss, effectively giving him the grimoire’s powers. After Ritsuka’s death, Mage destroys the remaining exorcists. He then continues killing people as he laments about how he misses Ritsuka.

Concluding thoughts:

Honestly, this route overall felt wholesome to me and I liked how the devil route included some demon politics which I felt was a little lacking when it came to the overall plot of the game. I might seem like I don’t have much of an opinion on Mage’s route but that’s actually a good sign lol as I mostly write long walls of text if it’s a rant. For the plot, I have to go with the devil route cause I felt the one with the exorcists was very abrupt but overall, both routes were great. Not to mention that it was refreshing to see Maria be saved early on in the route unlike most of the routes where she only gets rescued at the climax part of it. Mage’s another lucky bastard to get the blessing of Maria to marry Ritsuka and his proposal to Ritsuka gave me diabetes cause it was so sweet. I think the only thing I’m rather confused is how Roen’s intentions are different in this route? Also Rem apparently doesn’t know he exists? Like??? Anyways, aside from that this route was a fun experience and probably the route I found the easiest to play through.

Left Door routes: Rem Lindo Roen

Right Door Routes: Urie Shiki

Next (Urie)>> Final thoughts >I

#Dance with Devils #Dance with devils PS Vita #Spoilers #Mage's route summary and Review #Mage's route #Mage Nanashiro #Mage Gangartua #Rejet #Otome #Otome Game Review #Mage CGS

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genovera942vbucks-blog · 6 years ago

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10 Undeniable Statement About VBUCKS

Epic Is When Again Warning Fortnite Players About Free V

Battle Circumstances in Fortnite BR. Epic has served the full weight Fortnite: Battle Royale experience on the ‘homeheld'. The omission of But the earth is disappointing, and you're sure to notice the framerate change if you're coming from other systems, but performance-wise, it's continuous and rightly playable. There's place for advancement - motion-assisted aiming really should remain chief of the patch list - but ultimately, that just-one-more feeling goes on the move intact. Before you learn that, you'll be eyeing the watch at 3:56 am thinking ‘hmm, that's not a round number'. The heart-pounding suspense of making this to the final two may not be healthy, but it really is addictive.

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Past this month, a Fortnite weapon by the brand of "explosive bow" leaked. Fast-forward a little while, and now said weapon has added to the game this week with its next update (v8.21). The news comes way of Fortnite's official in-game Idea in the Generation, that also has the tagline "Archery can be a blast!" And this is true, it could be. But the final count Fortnite experienced a bow in the entertainment - the cross-bow - no one used that and it was vaulted. No one has predicted it because.

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osunews · 8 years ago

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osu!weekly #95

2017 is starting to really show what it can offer us this year. We got a new featured artist, a new mapping contest and a brand new live drawing client for the World Cups. I wonder what else 2017 has to offer?

Table of Contents

Weekly News Score Watch Taiko World Cup

Weekly news

2017 has already seen its fair share of tournaments, contests and other miscellaneous events and now we’ve announced our newest featured artist, Lukhash. With his arrival comes over 60 tracks all timed and ready to go. With such a huge range of songs now freely available, you’re sure to find something in here to suit your tastes.

The Monthly Beatmapping Contests are back in full swing with a new contest up and running. Our first MBC for 2017 will be for osu!catch featuring the sweet tunes of nanobii. It has been a while since we’ve held a MBC, so if you are interested in taking part, make sure to brush up on all the rules. Submissions will be open until the 26th of March, and if you’re unsure how long you have left, you can always check the contest listing for a countdown.

Year in and year out, we see a lot of tournaments hosted, but not much love is given for the smaller guys. So if you are one of the smaller guys who wants to join in the tournament fun, Xeious has you covered. He recently opened up his first tournament which will be single elementation, 1v1 matches for players ranked 30k-60k. Registrations will be open until the end of March, or until all 32 slots are filled. So if you’re planning to enter, best decide soon as spots are limited.

Scorewatch: March week 2 (With Scorewatch Patrol)

Before we get into this week's impressive plays, our fellow friends from the Scorewatch Patrol created a discord server, where you can give your suggestions about scores that are noteworthy. Feel free to drop by and help their team out or just have a casual osu!-oriented talk. With that said,

DanyL has pretty much established himself as one of the fastest growing DT players He set a crazy HDDT 93.06% FC on TrySail - High Free Spirits -TV.Ver- on Skystar’s Extra, gaining 645pp and surprisingly sniping Cookiezi off this difficulty. This is also his first ever 600pp play, and it helped him climb to 13th in the world. Watch out for him.

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Step aside Ayachi Nene, yellowy246 has done the incredible stuff this week as well He pulled off an incredible 98.86% FC on Imperial Circus Dead Decadence - Uta, gaining 592pp, his first ever 500pp score (nearly hitting 600 even), and setting the (currently on the leaderboards) 10th FC. What can we say? Here’s the play!

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Japan have sent their Top 6 to the World Cup this year (funnily enough, the Top 6 in the world as well), and it seems like they are preparing well. Maybe too well? _yu68 establishes Ramen Land’s dominance with a solid 99.39% 3 miss DT score on Sampling Masters MEGA & Tatsh - Weave Detonator, just 3 days after being ranked, churning out 704pp. 270BPM of drumming action is waiting to be watched!

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Have you heard of Sousaki? Maybe? Maybe not? Well, he did make a surprising play on Dancing Dolls - monochrome(Asterisk Makina Remix), setting a monstrous HR 99.83% FC and getting 785pp. HR plays were also set on this play by Dusk and [224]Hyperw7, making this play seem out of the blue.

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Seems like ExGon popped by osu!catch for a bit and pulled off a casual HDDT 99.91% FC on 8284 vs wa. - Adularescence, scoring 904pp. He then proceeded to HDDT 99.46% FC Hitsuji to Ojisan - XENO, scoring 1070pp. Is ExGon going to claim his crown back? We’ll have to watch and see!

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NOTABLE MENTIONS:

XVoIR pulled off the next 4 mod FC on Mike Greene - Bill Nye the Science Guy Theme Song (Chinese Intro) with an insane HDHRNCFL 99.29% FC, gaining 582pp. It is also the highest recorded pp play with 4 mods enabled.

Totori went for the big money and big prizes by setting the No.1 score on The Quick Brown Fox - Big Money with a 97.46% 3 miss run.

applerss tried to outshine _yu68 on Camellia - Exit This Earth's Atomosphere with an impressive 95.34% HDDT FC, unfortunately getting 2nd on the map but earning 643pp.

TWC 2017 Week 0 Summary: Live Drawing Renewal - with magnomizer

As the spring season begins to roll in, we are greeted with the familiar sound of drums. It’s that time of year again – TWC has returned for its 7th installment!

This past Sunday saw the live drawings coupled with the much anticipated mappool showcase. Don’t worry if you’ve missed out, as you can still check out the VOD here, or settle for a brief summary below:

Like last year, we have 24 teams representing their respective countries and regions from all around the world. We re-welcome Finland, Norway and Ukraine with open arms, all of whom having last participated in TWC 2015. Inevitably, this also leads to the departure of three other countries, namely Italy, Singapore and the Philippines. We wish them all the best, and we hope to see them again next year.

With regards to the drawings, teams were initially sorted by rank into 3 tiers, then randomly split among 8 groups, found here. The whole drawing process was made more intense as Japan (the top seeded team) was last to be sorted – all other teams watched in trepidation as a result of this. Groups E, G and H are ones to watch out for, as I believe that the competition for 2nd place will be particularly fierce. For avid watchers who tuned in last year, Group A will see a rematch between Taiwan and the UK – definitely one to look out for as well.

As for the mappool showcase, there were moments of shock and disbelief throughout, as no one was remotely prepared for the surprise that Sayaka- and OnosakiHito had in store. Coming in with an average SR of 6.07* (a jump of 1.54* from the previous year), it is by far the highest star rated Group Stage pool across ALL world cups to date. The bar has been set extremely high, and for once we may even see some top seeded teams waver at this early stage.

The first match is scheduled to take place on Saturday 11 March, 12:00 UTC. Be sure to drop by the osu!live twitch channel this weekend. The atmosphere is literally buzzing with excitement, so make sure you are present to witness the start of the most hyped up TWC yet!

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Also you may of noticed the lovely new index at the top of the weekly courtesy of Nyquill. If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see in the weekly (and have some spare time), feel free to drop by the osu!dev discord and directly highlight Nyquill or myself (deadbeat) in the #osu-weekly channel. Alternatively, you can also e-mail as usual at [email protected].

See you next week!

—deadbeat

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simplemlmsponsoring · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on http://simplemlmsponsoring.com/attraction-marketing-formula/blogging/blogger-outreach-simple-technique-to-insanely-grow-your-blog-traffic/

Blogger Outreach: Simple Technique To Insanely Grow Your Blog Traffic

In my years of running my own blog, I’ve come across bloggers I never heard of who became instantly popular.

These people garnered massive a lot of audiences yet they didn’t seem to be spending thousands on marketing campaigns.

Like me, they blogged regularly and shared their best pieces of content.

But I realized that what they had in common was something that the typical hardworking marketer never tried or attempted…

Blogger outreach.

It’s one strategy you must have in your marketing arsenal if you want to gain quick traction.

You see, toiling two to three years doesn’t always guarantee that you meet your online business goals as a blogger.

Yes, it is possible that you can achieve now what others achieved after years of working so hard.

In this article, I will teach you what blogger outreach is, how it will benefit you, and a step-by-step guide to use it.

Quick Navigation

What is Blogger Outreach? Why Should You Care About Blogger Outreach? Building Solid Relationships Is the Real Essence of Blogger Outreach Strategies to Create a Successful Blogger Outreach Campaign Top 3 Blogger Outreach Tools to Save Time

What is Blogger Outreach?

Blogger outreach is a technique in which you reach out to bloggers, also called influencers, who have a substantial amount of audiences.

The idea is that you leverage the influence that these well-known individuals have on their followers and existing customers.

As someone who owns an online business that needs traction and only a few people probably know about, having someone to promote your brand whose opinions your prospects already value, gives you a distinct advantage.

Let’s admit it. It’ll take a while for you to make your prospects notice you, let alone that many other competitors are vying for their attention.

Imagine for a moment that you are totally new in your niche. If you can connect with a blogger with a wide audience, you’ll be able to position your content in front of that crowd as well.

Why Should You Care About Blogger Outreach?

Here are reasons a blogger outreach campaign should be part of your overall marketing plan.

1. Get more eyeballs on your brand.

As a blogger, you know that one of your greatest challenges is getting people to notice you. When a popular blogger promotes you, their audiences are given reasons to follow you. This leads to an instant growth in your audience base.

2. Build inbound links from authoritative blogs in your niche.

If you’re all for boosting your SEO to rank higher on Google, you can generate more backlinks by reaching out to relevant influencers. It’s important that you filter through your list of prospects. Note that not all blogs are worth obtaining a link from.

3. Earn social shares to amplify your content.

Some influencers are “just killing it” on social media. And it’s no secret that most customers are present on every platform we know of – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. Leverage the social networks of these bloggers and you increase traffic and natural backlinks.

Please include attribution to MasterBlogging.com with this graphic. <a href=’https://masterblogging.com/blogger-outreach/’><img src=’https://masterblogging.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Blogger-Outreach-Infographic.png’ alt=’Blogger Outreach’ width=’800px’ height=’1357px’ border=’0′ /></a> Building Solid Relationships Is the Real Essence of Blogger Outreach

At the heart of every successful outreach strategy is a strong relationship that’s formed.

This is a sustainable way to grow your brand rather than approaching your prospective blogger right off the bat.

Perhaps the fear of rejection is also the very reason why many hesitate to put themselves in front of influential bloggers and lose opportunities to reach their goals.

You see, blogger outreach doesn’t have to send you running for the hills. Progressively and steadily get yourself noticed.

Before you know it, you establish a bond that lasts for many years to come.

Strategies to Create a Successful Blogger Outreach Campaign

Follow these crucial steps to develop a blogger outreach strategy that works wonders for you.

1. Find Prospective Influential Bloggers in your Niche

Ready to start?

Here’s the first thing you need to do – look for the “perfect” influencer to become your brand advocate.

There’s no point in targeting hundreds of bloggers whose audiences do not match yours. Compatibility is a major criterion.

Now, prepare an Excel spreadsheet or any file using Google Docs where you make a list of prospects. A list such as this is enough to put you off to a good start:

You should be able to easily complete the fields above. Note that some bloggers do not give out their email address and use a contact form instead.

The simplest and most practical way for you to find influential bloggers is to do a Google search. Google shows the most relevant blogs based on your search query. Type into Google the term “top blogs” combined with your niche or topic.

For example, if you’re in the fitness niche, use the query top blogs fitness or top fitness blogs. To refine your search, you’ll want to do away with broad keywords and use long-tail search terms instead.

On social media, head over to the search bar and use relevant hashtags to help you find the ones that can promote your blog. Among all social platforms, many site owners consider Twitter to be the most convenient for discovering influential bloggers.

Use the same process to find bloggers on other Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Later, in this article, I’ll be sharing with you tools that will help you find more qualified prospects in an easier and faster way.

Word of Advice: Don’t qualify your bloggers based solely on their number of followers.

While a lot of influential bloggers have a huge following, a high follower count doesn’t always guarantee influence.

Sort your list using these possible qualifiers:

1.1. Domain Authority

Blogs with a higher domain authority score are more likely to rank in search results. Therefore, you can expect these blogs to have more traffic.

Whether you have found a blog through social media (bio section of the blogger’s page) or organically (via Google search), check the blog’s DA score using MozBar.

MozBar also tells you whether a blog allows dofollow links so that you benefit from the blog’s authority as well.

1.2. Content Quality and Relevance

Another important factor you should consider is the blogger’s content.

Make sure to check the posts in terms of the kind of topics discussed, writing style, length, readability, and storytelling hook.

Do the blogger’s pieces of content align with yours? Is it supported by visual elements such as videos, images, or infographics?

1.3. Engagement

The third plus factor that determines whether a blogger is a good fit is the engagement he or she is getting.

Look not only for blog and social media likes and shares but also comments.

Are they coming from real people? Did your influencer’s content win over their trust?

No matter what an influencer is sharing, he or she will always be able to persuade those around him.

2. Warm Up and Email Your Prospects

So you’ve set your blogger outreach goals and created a list of prospects.

Finally, it’s time to put yourself in front of them so they start noticing you.

Now, don’t jump in and make that ultimate request just yet. Start with a subtle approach until you’re ready to make that big move – send an outreach email.

Remember that you have to provide value first. You cannot take without giving and helping.

What are ways to show value to your target influencers?

1. Comment on Their Blogs

Blog commenting is a winner.

By commenting on active blogs, you spark interesting conversations that bloggers cannot help but notice.

Avoid leaving generic comments such as “Great post, thanks for sharing” or comments that only repeat what has already been said in the content.

The screenshot above shows a great comment that my blog post entitled, “6 Easy Ways To Build Backlinks For A New Blog” received.

What clearly made this comment stand out was the commenter’s effort to provide something of unique value.

Insightful comments stand out because they’re original and helpful.

2. Feature Them in your Blog Post

Do you know what delights bloggers?

It’s seeing posts that highlight them.

They cannot resist noticing your post especially if it’s remarkable.

One of the types of blog posts you should write to get yourself noticed by influencers is “interviews and stories.”

Better yet, bring together all the bloggers on your list in one post and highlight their contributions to the industry.

Choose a topic to focus on that your prospect bloggers have something to do with.

The example above shows a popular post from Clambr.com I came across that features a list of link building tools prolific bloggers recommend.

You too can write a similar one depending on your niche.

3. Share Their Content

Consistently sharing blog posts that have just been published by influencers is a very easy way to make them notice.

A better way to do it would be to state exactly how this post helps readers and yourself. Include “@” so that the blogger gets notified of your tweet.

4. Finally, Send an Outreach Email

Most people fail in this crucial step because their email pitches don’t address the “what’s in it for me” question that an influencer may ask.

Before you compose your email, think about how the blogger can benefit from your outreach. This means that your email outreach has to be about them, not you.

Influencers nowadays can easily detect that your email was automated or that you used template for all your recipients.

Here’s an example of a template that’s overly used and no longer works. Avoid this bad outreach email:

Bad outreach email:

Hey [BLOGGER/INFLUENCER],

I came across your blog post [URL] and found it extremely useful.

You linked to a nice resource from your post [URL].

However, I’ve also written a similar topic and thought that you might want to link to it or share.

Check out my article: [URL]

Thanks and looking forward!

All the best,

[YOUR NAME]

Craft your email in a way that’s specific to your goal.

If your goal is to be able to guest post on an influencer’s blog and contribute content, make your email about it.

Want to earn shares or a backlink to your recent post? Create a script for each.

Again, think what’s in it for them.

Check out the sample emails below for different goals and why they work.

Land a guest post placement outreach email: Subject: Contributing a blog post to [BLOG]

Hey [BLOGGER/INFLUENCER],

I wanted to tell you that I’m an avid reader of your blog. Earlier today, I checked out your latest content [URL] and I totally agree with what you said about [AN IDEA WITHIN THE POST].

In fact, I shared your article with my readers.

Anyway, I thought about a few relevant topics that would make a great follow-up to your post. Maybe you’d allow me to write a valuable content for you?

Here are my topics which I think your blog audience will love:

TOPIC 1

TOPIC 2

TOPIC 3

Below are samples of my recently published posts to give you an idea of my work quality:

URL 1

URL 2

URL 3

Let me know if you’re interested.

All the best,

[YOUR NAME]

Do you know why this email works?

Because it shows that you’re genuinely interested in the influencer’s blog and care enough to contribute content that adds value to a previously published article.

Moreover, you’re able to demonstrate your credibility through your samples.

Get more shares for your content: Subject: I love your article about [ARTICLE TOPIC]

Hey [BLOGGER/INFLUENCER],

I wanted to drop by and thank you today for sharing your expertise on [ARTICLE TITLE]. That was a very practical resource. I didn’t imagine that [A STRATEGY IN THE ARTICLE] was ever possible especially now that [A CHALLENGE IN YOUR INDUSTRY].

I was inspired by you ideas and actually wrote an article that tackles a different angle to your post. I thought it might add more value. Here’s the article: [URL]

If you happen to read it, you can tell me your thoughts and suggestions. I’ll also be glad if you could share it with your audiences.

Thank you in advance.

All the best,

[YOUR NAME]

Notice that this blogger outreach email doesn’t follow an obvious, all too common pattern but is rather personalized.

This message doesn’t only mention the article that made you reach out but also pinpoints something interesting within the article. It shows appreciation and again, seeks to help, before asking a favor.

Request for a backlink: Subject: Your awesome resource page about [TOPIC]

Hey [BLOGGER/INFLUENCER],

I just wanted to drop by for a quick hello and say that I’m a regular reader of your blog. While I was looking through your blog posts today, I came across your resource page on [TOPIC]. Your advice definitely helps me deal with my difficulty on [A CHALLENGE RELATED TO THE TOPIC].

There was a part where you talked about [AN INTERESTING IDEA]. As a way of showing appreciation for your compelling post, I created something related to it: [URL OF YOUR CONTENT].

I would love to get your feedback. Also it might make a great addition to your resource page.

You might consider linking to my resource. I’m confident your readers will love it because [REASON]. If not, then I appreciate you taking the time to read this.

Thanks again for your practical ideas. Keep up the great work!

All the best,

[YOUR NAME]

Obviously, you don’t need to copy these templates when reaching out to bloggers. This is why it’s more than important to learn what you can about your prospect influencers before you pitch your personalized request.

Show genuine interest in their blog. Identify a post that made the most impact on you. Be as helpful as possible.

Again, the trick is to make it all about your influencer.

3. Develop A Lasting Relationship

Not all bloggers will respond to your outreach email efforts which is why you should follow up on your pitch.

There’s no reason to shiver at the idea if you provided value.

Following up after 72 hours increases your response rates. Continue your efforts to share and comment on an influential blogger’s posts.

Work hard for their attention. Who knows, one day they’ll show an interest to work with you.

Top 3 Blogger Outreach Tools to Save Time

In this section, I’ve outlined my highly recommended tools to fuel your outreach. These will save you time and effort and most of all get you better results.

1. Ninja Outreach

Finding thousands of bloggers to work with and sending out effective outreach emails have never been more easy with Ninja Outreach.

All it takes is a simple keyword research.

Type into the tool’s search bar your niche or topic. You will get a long list of prospects along with their descriptions, contact information, website metrics, and social shares for every social network.

Choose from this list and send them outreach emails that you can track to monitor results.

2. Tomoson

Instead of manually finding influencers, Tomoson is another outreach tool that automates the process for you.

Specifically, Tomoson’s Content Crawler discovers blogs, influencers, and micro-influencers.

What makes Tomoson different is that it already has a built-in community of influencers you can easily tap into.

Also, these influencers have price ranges so you can immediately decide which one fits your budget.

3. BuzzStream

I like BuzzStream since it focuses on helping you build relationships with influencers because of its email functionalities.

You can monitor all the conversations you have with bloggers and even track your clicks and responses.

But before that, use BuzzStream’s prospecting feature to automatically get a list of prospects based on your queries.

You can even choose individual websites yourself and BuzzStream looks for their contact details and bylines for an easier outreach. Blacklist sites you want to exclude.

Send out emails in bulk or individually for a personalized approach.

Over to You

Now that you learned all about blogger outreach, it’s high time you start finding the right bloggers and establishing a rapport with them.

Regardless of your outreach goals, never forget that you’re dealing with a human, so you must treat a prospective influencer as such.

You see, blogger outreach holds a lot of potential for you.

By leveraging the influence bloggers have on their audience, you raise awareness for your content, build links, and even land a guest post placement.

I know that most business owners hesitate when it comes to sending outreach emails.

Take the risk and just keep in mind to offer something of value. Soon enough, you’ll be that popular blogger that everyone loves.

The post Blogger Outreach: Simple Technique To Insanely Grow Your Blog Traffic appeared first on Master Blogging.