#Well it's like half as bad as mc story mode

[shoechoe]

I think overall tadc is a pretty good show so not to be too harsh but I think its worst quality is its dialogue. It kind of reminds me of the dialogue in minecraft story mode

[mister-tom-a-dildo-lover]

What are your thoughts on the Harrymort/Tomarry fics where either Voldemort raises Harry or Harry goes back in time and raises Tom?

I like them because the intent is never what we all know is gonna happen, but it's interesting to watch happen anyway. And the flavor Tomarry/Harrymort give it is nice. Like, I got into Scum Villain Self-Saving System last year, and have contemplated doing a Tomarry AU of it btw, and the whole idea makes me cackle.

Millennial transmigrates into this crappy novel he loves to hate(yet paid to read every single chapter upon release) where he awakens to find himself as the villain who tortured the protagonist(his student of several years) out of jealousy due to his natural aptitude in Cultivation, and was horribly racist to him later on when it's revealed he's a demon, and was potentially a pedophile to his students(could be a mistranslation, who knows?). And our guy hates this dude and loves the MC(gay crush he refuses to acknowledge btw) and dreads having to be the villain. He plans to be nice to the MC, but there is a game system in his head forcing him to follow the plot of the original story, which will end in his graphic murder if he does as he's told and treats the MC badly.

So he's fighting to remain In-Character until he gets enough points to unlock OOC Mode, but he still doesn't want to be the villain, so when he gets to that point, he starts being a lot nicer to the MC. And the MC... then 14, becomes obsessed.

Dude is able to skirt around the actions of the real villain by making people think it was just training and lessons he was attempting to teach them. And things improve. His reputation improves. The MC's life gradually improves until the guy who used to insult him takes what could have been a fatal blow for him, and now he's practically in love.

The readers can tell the MC has a big crush on his teacher and does everything he can to be with him at all times. But our Millennial who knows the original story, just thinks the MC is being his usual protag self and everything is as it should be. He'll get his hundreds of wives and concubines some day and be the emperor of the three realms and life will be as it should. And if his plans go well, he'll actually be alive at the end and off minding his own business.

Meanwhile, having no clue his student is planning their marriage in secret. And you can't help but support this poor kid's bad attempts as wooing.

The story gets really fucked up from there and there are many, many lows compared to the highs. But it's all resolved in the end, with our dude being shooketh to find out his student doesn't want to kill him. Actually loves him. Wants to do very naughty things to his body. Potentially already did some when his original borrowed body was dead for a time(might be a mistranslation, who knows?).

And I realized that I like the story despite the very obvious power imbalance for each half of it. Once the MC comes into his own, the power drastically shifts the other way as he is, by canon terms, the most powerful being in the story-universe and the biggest threat around. So yeah, Reluctant-Villain having the power as the teacher is a bit off-putting, but he's so dense to his own feelings about the MC that it's just funny and you end up rooting for the MC to woo his teacher and make him stop unconsciously playing gay chicken.

Personally, I prefer the fics where the relationship happens unintentionally on behalf of the adult character cuz it feels less predatory that way. But I also just really don't care about people's preferred kinks in general. So any iteration of this type of story is just fine cuz it's fiction and isn't real and I got better things to spend my time on.

The idea is always interesting tho, cuz I want to know how they get to that point in the first place.

[arcadejohn127-9]

Okay so I have a personal head cannon that demon hunters are a thing in the Obey Me World. So I wondering if you could do the brother and undatables finding out that a bunch on demon hunters kidnapped MC while they were in human world because they found out of MCs packs. Your writing is so good, honestly this is one of my favorite Obry Me accounts.

Thank you! It gives me pride for being one your favourites!

I love expanding the world of obey me and idea of hunters is one that seems realistic in a world of demons and angels and just in general, really interesting. Before I joined writing on Tumblr I was actually a Wattpad author and one my books was about a monster hunter who got in a love square with Frankenstein's monster, Dr Jekyll and Mr hyde

Never finished it but it was fun concept so any type of supernatural hunter already just wins in my department

Do I have a thing for making the demons violent and showing off a more aggressive and bloody side to them? Yes, I really do

Warning: kidnapping, gore-ish, violence, religious themes, angst, guns, mentions of torture, long

Your breathing grew heavier as the crushing feeling on your chest continued to grow, your heart slamming against your ribcage. Begging to be released from its suffocating prison. If it weren't for the lump in your throat you were sure your heart would of leapt out of it. 

your feet pounded against the street beneath you; you were running faster than you’ve ever ran before. How did it get to this situation? well, you didn't have time to reminisce but to make a long story short - a group of demon hunters revealed themselves to you and are now chasing you down as you refused to cooperate. they wanted to use you for your pact and you didn’t want to be involved, especially seeing as they were literal demon hunters! they were going to kill your friends! 

but sadly, fate was not on your side. your ankle twisted to the side, pain shooting up from your ankle all the way to your knee. rope surrounded you, you thrashed against the net as your body slammed to the floor. The last thing you saw was the hunter tower above you, the butt of their gun coming down on your head. 

when you finally woke up you already had a gun back in your face, you tried to escape but you were forced backwards. chains rattling behind you. you looked behind you to see you were chained to a cross, both your wrists and ankles were bound.

Your situation only grew worse when the hunter Infront of you snarled down at you. Demanding you used your pacts, spitting on your face. You thrusted forward, matching their snarl as you bared your teeth at them. Demon mannerisms have rubbed off on you but it wasn't doing you any good. The gun clicked, unlocking off safety mode.

Your heart sunk immediately.

"Use your pact or else."

You could only hear the blood rushing through your ears. Trembling as their finger slowly pressed on the trigger. You knew they were going to kill the brother's if you did but you were terrified that were going kill you. You shook your head, letting it hang low as fat tears rolled down your cheeks.

You kept refusing to use your pact and summon the seven demons. Every time you refused they'd hurt you; kicking you, slamming the guns butt down on your head, throwing your head back on the cross. You could barely hear what they said, they just kept screaming at you. Calling you filth and a traitor to mankind.

Despite all the pain you were grateful they weren't killing you. You just had to keep pushing your luck. You couldn't summon them no matter how scared you were. You refused. You couldn't do it.

But fortunately, Magic doesn't always act the way you want it to. Your soul - your entire being BEGGED to be saved. You wanted to save yourself, you desperately tried to spark at the chains and remember any spells but your mind was at a blur. nothing was processing.

You cried out when you saw the large magic circle appear on the floor. You tried desperately to close the summoning circle, cursing to yourself. You demanded your magic to listen to you but it wouldn't work. The brothers symbols appearing in each part and soon enough, they appeared in full demon form.

"FIRE-!"

Lucifer:

his wings blocked at the rapid bullets going their way

His whip quick to come out and wrap around a hunters wrists, he twisted his hand around it and pulled the poor hunter towards him

"This isn't very welcoming, now is it? How bold."

the hunter went flying, the brothers dodging in time

Mammon:

He smirked, a bullet between his teeth and more between his fingers

Steam was drifting off them but he just crushed the metal bullets with no other thought

"How nice of ya to give me a gift~! You really know how to make a demon happy."

He spat out the last bullet and it went flying, hitting a hunters eye

Levithan:

The ground shook beneath you, many hunters missing their shot at his brothers

A crab like beast bursted out of the ground, sewer sludge splattering on the floor

It swiped and grabbed at the hunters, screams filling the space, bodies snipped in half in seconds

"You're all worse than Normies! You took the wrong human from the wrong demons!"

he back hand slapped a hunter that approached him, growling

Satan:

He leapt off the crab, grabbing the nearest hunter to him by the head

Their neck snapped to an odd angle and they immediately dropped

"This isn't how I expected to spend my evening but you took my reading partner....you won't receive my mercy."

He shoved his clawed hands through their chests and spines, ripping out the first organ or bone he could grab

He didn't lie, he didn't show an ounce of mercy

Asmodeus:

His wings flapped behind him, he dragged his claws along the backs of the hunters he flew past

Giggling as they screamed in pain

"Aww I'm just flirting, was it really that bad?"

He pouted before swiping at their faces

Shoving another hunter towards his more violent brother

Whilst he had no issue letting himself get wild, he saw how scared you looked

He didn't want to get too dirty or else how could he comfort you?

Beezlebub:

Beel could be ruthless if TRUELY provoked

And hearing your whimpers when he arrived stirred furious anger within him

When he finally saw your beaten state it made him snap

Hungry for blood

Hunters head being crushing with ikr hand

"You don't even look appealing to eat, you're worst than Solomon's cooking."

He took a chunk out of one hunter when they aimed at one of his brother's

Refusing to let his family get hurt

Belphegor:

We all know he's cold blooded

So it was no surprise blood was gushing everywhere

His dream dust filling his area and nightmares surrounded the hunters

"They're mine....and yet you stole them and hurt them, you're disgusting."

hunters would disappear into the mist and not come back out alive

Bodies littering the floor as he swooped through

As soon as things got gory your eyes were sealed shut, trying to shut out the sound of flesh tearing and screams of agony. Whimpering as you thought about the brothers smiling faces, how gentle and soft they usually were. Chanting in your head that they were here to save you, you were safe, they're still them.

You screamed as your body was lifted off the platform you were on, the cross rising. You were now fully crucified; feet slipping as you struggled against the cross. The chains were barely supporting your weight so you just dangled, fear rising in you.

Mammon charged towards you, his brothers continuing to fight against the hunters. He ripped the chains out of the cross, you fell right into his arms, your heart thumping against your chest.

"look at what they did to you....I shouldn't of protected ya, I hope you'll learn to forgive me - they busted you up real bad."

He caressed your cheek; eyes glaring at your busted lip and the many bruises forming on your face. You winced when his hand touched the side of your head, he recoiled feeling something warm on his palm. It was blood. YOUR blood.

He almost broke down right there and then, looking at how hurt you were - he couldn't handle it.

"thanks...that makes me feel so much better." You let out a pained laugh, hoping to make him feel better.

He only frowned more, softly rubbing his thumb on your cheek. It was obvious he was struggling to keep himself calm. You held his hand, showing off your best smile.

"i don't blame any of you, the hunters did this, okay? You didn't do anything wrong."

Your sweet moment was ruined when the 6 brothers backed all bumped into the two of you. Forming a protective ring as the hunters surrounded them; it seemed like there was no end.

You raised your shaky hands, magic swirling around your wrists and to your fingertips. You barely had enough strength to put on a little light show but you weren't going to just let the demons defend you without even trying to help.

It your lucky day as suddenly, the hunters hideout doors bursted open. You could barely make out the outside but there was blood coating every wall, steam coming off dead bodies. Soon enough four figures emerged and your heart almost leapt out of your throat.

Lucifer growled as he strangled a hunter, turning his attention to the new comers.

"I'm surprised you came so late, espically with the company with you, my lord."

Diavolo laughed, his hands coming together as his magic flared brightly. Barbatos had his arms behind his back, smiling to all of you.

"Forgive our tardy timing, these hunters are determined."

"don't forget us, though I may of caused us to take our time, it's been so long since I've fought this many people."

Solomon adjusted his sleeves, his many pacts glowing against his skin. Simeon, unlike the others, looked completely untouched by the chaos. Smiling as he kept his hands together.

"I beg for your forgiveness (Y/N), It appears we've angered Lucifer more than the hunters have."

UNDATEABLES↓

Diavolo:

Time slowed down within the room, only the hunters going still

Their movements frustratingly slow

"I think it's best to clean up this situation whilst you take (Y/N) back, they've seen enough."

He looked at Lucifer, both men nodding

The prince moved freely through the frozen room, eyeing the amount of hunters

Barbatos:

He bowed to the brothers, offering you a comforting smile

"I must agree with my lord, things will get rather unpleasant."

He slowly slipped off his gloves

He approached you, gently handing you his gloves and patted your shaky hands

A silent request to keep them safe for him

Solomon:

The wizard blew the steam off his wand

Smirking as he pointed it towards the magic still present around your wrists

"Isn't it good I came along? You're going to fall sleep if you keep using your powers, little apprentice, let me open a portal for you."

Just as he finished talking he summoned a portal to the devildom

He gave you a small salute

Simeon:

He hastily rushed towards you all

Checking on each brother for any serious harm, thankful they were okay

He turned his attention to you, doing the same

"all is going to be okay, I promise, I'll bring over some desserts when we get back - tell Luke I won't be long, I know he's anxious about your safety."

He walked you to the portal, caressing your hands

You got a gentle push towards the portal

Once you were all through the portal, you completely shattered. Crumbling to the floor as you broke down sobbing. The brothers tried to approach you again but your nostrils flared, face scrunching up in disgust. They reeked of blood and guts.

Beels mouth was covered in blood, flesh between his fangs. Levithans hands trembling from adrenaline red and stained with blood. Belphegor was showered in the red liquid, a feral look still in his eye. Mammon was the most clean out of all of them but he had blood dripping down him. Asmodeus had flesh on his nails and blood on his cheek. Satan looked just as drenched as belphegor, his shoulders shaking with anger. And finally, Lucifer was the second cleanist but he still was no better than the others.

"i need time to- time to calm down....just.... please just wash."

They all accepted your wishes, hesitant but they understood your predicament.

You laid on the floor, chains still on your wrists and ankles. They felt so tight on your limbs, you whimpered as they scratched at your skin. It took one small burst of magic to make them drop; you were finally free.

You continued to just lay on the floor, shakily grabbing a nearby pillow. Inhaling the sweet comforting scent, letting it fill your scenes. Everytime you even smelled a faint swift of the gore-ish scene from before you just took in another deep inhale.

You laid there for what felt like hours. Silently crying as you hugged the pillow.

You grounding yourself. Reminding yourself you were safe and back in your room. The brothers were safe and they weren't mindless beasts.

You rolled on your side, something poking your hip. It was your phone. You pulled it out from your pocket and began to type, messaging Luke that Simeon was okay aswell as you, apologizing for not seeing him in person. You sent him a quick selfie of you smuggled into your pillow and tried to look somewhat happy. Hoping it'll comfort him.

It wasn't a moment later until you heard a knock at your door. You questioned who it was.

"we're all clean now, meet us in the living room if you want....I made your favourite drink~" Asmo's voice was soft, gentle on your ringing ears.

A small smile appeared on your face. Shuffling out of your room still hugging your pillow, trailing after the lustful demon. Soon enough, you were both entering the living room.

The room was dim, the fireplace being it's only lighting and warming the room up nicely. There must of been something with the wood as it smelled so comforting. The brothers all sat along the sofa, Some on the floor. Everyone had their own drink, blankets and pillows surrounding them.

You curled up in the middle of the sofa, letting yourself be engulfed in multiple hugs. Everyone touching you in some way and you all just sat there. In peaceful silence as you just hugged.

You really needed this....

"thank you for saving me."

"We'll always save you"

"you can always count on us-!"

"I won't let this happen to you again, I promise to protect you better."

"no one is allowed to touch you like that, I won't let them."

"You don't need to thank us, darling."

"I will always make sure you're safe, no Matter what."

"I won't fail you again."

you all hugged each other even tighter, embracing each others comfort and warmth. Tears falling and soothing words shared, each brother did their best to be strong. But even they couldn't stop themselves from shedding tears when the adrenaline died.

They almost lost you. You were kidnapped and hurt because of your connection to them. They were never going to let you get harmed again, no matter the cost.

[daaziscoolbesties]

minecraft endermen are really weird. theyre unnatural and make me feel off.

when i was a small child like seven years ago i would always play minecraft on creative mode and i made an ugly ass enderman "farm" made out of bricks. i had an enderman spawn egg and id just spam it and the enderman couldnt get out (so i thought). anyways having them in this enclosure was probably so i could feel "powerful" over them because to date theyre still the only mob in minecraft that makes me anxious. even above skeletons(which i used to have a horrible fear of (the real life ones not mc ones)) and spiders (which i still have a horrible fear of (again the real life ones not mc)). anyways the endermen just ended up completely teleporting out of the farm and i checked on my world the next day and they were all gone and i didnt appreciate it (this was the same world where my brother blew up my pets but thats a different story).

anyways back to endermen. besides the fact that i just didnt like dying and i did like building ugly structures, one of the main reasons i didnt play survival much for a while, or if i did id put it on peaceful, was because of the enderman. every time i passed one my heart would drop and if i happened to look it in the eye on accident my throat would feel like its closing up and idk why. if it sounds like im bullshitting you or not remembering correctly i swear im not because it still happens actually.

i play survival a ton more now simply because i enjoy it more, it feels like theres actually a goal to achieve, but i never really make efforts toward said goal(ya know, beating the dragon). none of my worlds are really created with the intention of beating the dragon, and therefore i dont have to worry about endermen. if i happen to be outside my house and theres one there, no worries i just wait for it to go away. it may spook me for a sec but im fine.

but recently me and my sister started a world with the sole purpose of beating the dragon. we may have cheated a little (like putting on keep inventory cause honestly we both suck at pvp and have died so many times) but its okay cause thats it. we still have to fight endermen to get pearls for the end portal. and so we were hanging out in the nether and made a little two block tall hidey hole and id stand by the front and taunt endermen to get them to come close so i could kill them without them being able to get to me and it worked really well actually. except for the fact that to get them to come near i had to get them to aggro onto me and to do that i have to look them in the eye and you know where this is going. and so i was like "it has been so long since i looked an enderman in the eye surely i cant still be scared of them" and i turn to my sister like "<sister> you stay in the hole ill get us some pearls"

so i go out and taunt the dudes and guess what bitch got the pit in their stomach from these fuckers!! thats right bestie and my throat started to close up and i started talking to my sister again but i could tell me voice was off from it and i dont know why it happens but it pisses me off. like theyre not even scary looking theyre just a bit odd. and i continue to do this and kill the endermen and it just. doesnt. stop. my throat keeps closing up and im not "in pain" or anything just inconvenienced like what the fuck dude its a bunch of fucking pixels. i dont know its weird.

and now this part is gonna sound super fuckin stupid but ever since i started watching dsmp i immediately got attached to ranboo (cc! and c!) and knowing that c!ranboo was half enderman made me really think "hm endermen arent that bad. granted i havent interacted with one in a while but still not that bad. perhaps my favorite hostile mob" because you know people get attached to characters and think dumb things. and then again ranboo's character straight up existing and also this one specific headcanon i saw that was like "endermen use telepathy to talk so when a player looks at them all their thoughts get projected into them and it hurts their brain :((" makes me feel kinda bad for aggro-ing them and killing them again even though its literally just some pixels dude. my brain is not kind to me about this stuff and its really dumb.

i dont know what about the endermen staring back at me sets off the sort of fight-or-flight that makes me unable to breathe for a second but its something. its not the fact that their jaws basically unhinge when theyre mad because the throat closing up sensation happens before that. it happens when i look at an enderman and it looks back up at me and holds my gaze. i dont know. i dont know why im worked up(even slightly) over a video game. theyre still my favorite hostile mob i think (not just because of ranboo honestly the other hostile mobs just kinda suck).

and also i like the idea of how humanoid they are. not human. humanoid. they have the basic aspects of a minecraft human- square, head, torso, legs, arms, eyes. most mc skins dont even have mouths anyways just eyes. but the endermen have these features differently than us. their eyes are unnatural, legs and arms too long, body all one color, one that can blend in, and you can only see its purple eyes staring you down from a distance. theyre basically just cryptids.

despite skeletons and even zombies looking closer to the player than the endermen, they still seem the most human-like of all of the mobs. they arent aggressive unless provoked. they dont like eye contact(socially awkward). they like picking up stuff and moving it around. theyre curious (i cant explain this one they just are, okay?). even the sounds they make are just phrases like "hey" "hello" "whats up" distorted and in reverse.

i want to know more about them.

i want to know where they came from.

why theyre found in every dimension.

why they sound like us.

i want explanations, i want to know why they scare us.

i want to know if they know.

if they know that we're like them in some way.

that some of us dont mean harm, but for others thats all they want to do to the endermen.

i saw a post once that said "what taught humans to be wary of things that look human, but arent?" i believe the phenomenon is called uncanny valley. what if in the minecraft universe, the thing that taught us that was endermen. or rather, the thing that taught the endermen that was us? because again, the endermen pose no threat to us unless theyre provoked. by one of us. the endermen try to communicate with us- "⊑⟒⊬" "⍙⊑⏃⏁⌇ ⎍⌿?"- but we kill them without reason. thats why they dont like eye contact, its been ingrained in them through evolution that eye contact with a human/player will end in death, and they dont want it to be theirs, so they attack first.

we- or rather, the first minecrafters, maybe (in the lore(?)) people before the game, taught the endermen to fear us. i mean we literally kill them, use their remains to enter their home dimension, and then kill their leader/mother. they do their best to stop us, but we can respawn and they cant. and then, some people even go as far as to make farms, having them all spawn in one place, crowded, cant teleport out- their only defense mechanism gone- and then are slaughtered for their pearls. and due to the mass of these farms there will be chests upon chests full of pearls that no one's using, i saw someone the other day ask what people do with them and someone straight up said they just burn them like god what a waste.

"but izzy, players make mob farms all the time and not just for endermen!!!1!!11! why are the endermen ones so bad why are you only talking about those1!1!1!!!1" 1) because i can, 2) this is an endermen-themed post, and 3) i dont like the other mobs. and of course im not actually mad at the players who like beating the game and making endermen farms and such, i mean thats what it is its all just a game just a bunch of code, 0's and 1's, so why does it matter why bother writing a whole post on it?

because when you look paste the game, when you read in between those ones and zeroes and discover this non-intentional lore, it can make things so much more,, interesting. this is fanfic material. hell, its probably fanart material too. its all for the content to see what the community can create i guess. or maybe i just really like talking about endermen and this has been on my mind for two days now and once i started typing i couldnt stop.

but yeah, thats my final thoughts.

we, humans, experience uncanny valley about the endermen.

but the endermen experience uncanny valley about the players.

[lucifers-favorite-pen]

How The Obey Me Brothers Would Do in a “The Forest” AU

Fandom: Obey me

Pairings: None

Warnings: Swearing, idiocy, mild gore

The Forest was just released for the new Oculus headset, and Levi could NOT pass up this opportunity. However, it’s just his luck he got his hands on a cursed copy of the game, and ended up sucking the House of Lamentation into the game! Here’s how our favorite boys faired in the universe of “The Forest”

Lucifer:

Is pissed.

Bitches about it heavily

Is irritated that he has to find and wrangle a digital son now as well as his siblings. 

Would definitely help everyone else build a little shelter before nightfall, but would be grumbling about how much work he has to do at home and how far behind this would put him. 

Doesn’t let MC lift a finger and is 100% a mother hen the whole time. 

Seems inconvenienced by the whole cannibal thing, until he realizes magic doesn’t exist here and he has to use his melee fighting skills to kill them. Skills that are a little rusty...

Teams up with Beel to be the camp dads and take care of everyone

Super paranoid about the stability of the walls and the house at the beginning

Dies from eating a poisonous berry. He didn’t know he could be affected by poison in this game.

Over all, does his best to keep everyone alive, and feels really bad when someone dies. 

No longer feels bad when he learns that the worst thing that happens is you lose all your stuff and you respawn. 

A solid 7/10 job. Probably dies a few times due to someone else being an idiot, but is a pretty good survivalist when push comes to shove. 

Mammon:

Is also pissed

He was in the middle of counting the grimm from his latest modeling gig when he was sucked into the game.

Bitches and moans with/at Lucifer, but tries to build and maintain a shelter.

Who’s Timmy?

I don’t think crows exist in the game, but seagulls do and they all land on his fingers and he makes friends with them.

Is very upset when one of his brothers kills a bird for food or to simply carry around its head as a trophy. 

Sees cannibals and tries to trade with them with the grimm he has in his pockets.

Dies on sight.

Now when he sees or hears cannibals he screams and cowers behind MC 

When they go away or the screaming stops, he stands up straight and dusts off his jacket “Psh, I wasn’t afraid! I was trying to comfort you from behind! YOU were the one afraid”

After a while in the game, he gets his shit together and honestly kinda kills it. 

This is the avatar of greed, you know he is going to gather and horde so many valuable resources and then guard them with his life. 

“Mammon I’m hurt please stop hissing at me and let me have the medicine bottle”

*hiss* “You can have ONE pill and ONE pill only”

Over all, the definition of “They had us in the first half ngl”

8/10 for managing the group’s food and resource stores so well and only dying a fuck ton of times. 

Levi

...oops?

Feels quite guilty, but is also secretly pumped to immerse himself in the game.

Was extremely skilled at this game IRL and tries to explain how it works to everyone else, but they’re all so pissed and no one’s listening.

“That’s fine, who would want to listen to a yucky otaku like me anyway!” 

Magic doesn’t exist here, but that doesn’t stop Levi from yeeting himself into the ocean and turning into a giant sea monster while his brothers complete the game. 

They don’t want his help? They don’t want to know that the cannibals can’t swim and that they’ll be safer if they build a boat and live in a boathouse on the water? Fine. Then Perish <3

That goes for Timmy too, fuck that kid. 

Doesn’t want MC to suffer tho, so he’ll kill a few sharks and throw them up over the wall with his tail. (I’m assuming that if the game is released for Oculus Rift that they will get their shit together and also make sharks edible)

Is having a grand time taking over the ocean. 

Will sometimes go to shore to visit MC. Everyone is confused as to where he has been and how he is thriving. He just smiles and jumps back in the water.

10/10 strats. Never once dies. Tells everyone what they were doing wrong and how they could have had it easier when they beat the game and are back IRL out of spite.

Satan

Angy

Is throwing things in their spots while building the shelter, but is still helping

Spawns in with the book he was reading in his hand.

That book is eventually stolen from his grasp in the night and used as kindling for the fire.

Lucifer explains that if he didn’t steal his book they all would have died. 

Satan does not give a fuck

“Use the kid’s stupid fucking drawings you dipshit!”

“I can’t they’re story items!”

Goes on a rampage and kills so many deer, effectively feeding the group for a week.  

Sees the cannibals for the first time and thinks “same” 

Pretty good fighter and pretty resourceful when it comes to making armor and weapons. 

Outfits MC with the all of his prototypes and tells them to go run at a tree

“How do you feel, MC?”

“Like I ran at a tree with a deer skin on my chest”

“Interesting”

Very upset at the whole no magic thing, but will work with it.

Over all, 7/10 job. Dies a couple times from cannibals and the other monsters, but makes it to the end.

Asmo

Oh dear. 

Oh dear this sweet summer child. 

“Why are we looking for this child when he’s so ugly?”

Is distraught and so very upset this is happening to him. Cries variations of “woe is me” for the first five hours of game play

Does not help build a shelter

Does not help gather food and resources

Does not help period. Only whines. 

Sees cannibals sprinting and jumping towards the shelter and pushes Lucifer in front of him

“Take him! I’m too pretty to die!”

“HEY!”

What follows after the first three days is a slow decent into madness. 

Ends up butt ass naked for the majority of the game because the clothes he spawned in with were ripped to shreds and “No animal skin clothing in this world is good enough to adorn my perfect body”

Starts speaking to the animals and becomes friends with all of them like a Disney Princess. 

The animals come to his aid when he lets out a specific shriek that calls them to his side.

Spends his time weaving flower crowns for MC, his brothers, and his animal friends. 

Everyone knows he’s snapped when Beel brings back the dead body of a cannibal and Asmo dips his dirty little finger into an open wound and wipes the blood on his lips. 

“I just love this shade! Don’t you?” 

5/10 job. Dies multiple times from trying to befriend hostile animals, but also has an army of woodland creatures at his disposal by the end of the game.

Beel

Bro you know this mans is about to make this game his bitch

Spawns in with a cheeseburger.

Eats the cheeseburger.

“I have a son?”

“I HAVE A SON :D”

“Where is my son?”

Honestly the thought of Beel in this game is so sexy like I’m simping so hard rn 

Grab your water skins and buckle up bc it’s about to get thirsty up in here y’all

A shirt? Beel doesn’t know what those are anymore

He crafts one of those shoulder harnesses out of hide and bone and sticks a bone shiv thing on the forearm 

Don’t mess with this demon when his dinner and his family is on the line.

Is not afraid of anything except the death of his loved ones.

Cannibals? Nah, dinner.

Other monsters? Nah, dinner. 

Full shirtless lumberjack mode with Lucifer, and later Mammon, when cutting down trees in the forest. MC is drooling. 

Definitely makes a game out of how many trees they can all chop down before giving up.

Plays knuckle bones with Belphie and MC using real knuckle bones. 

Doesn’t want to share his food with the others but will if they didn’t get anything to eat that day. 

Chef Beel. That’s it that’s the post. 

10/10 job. Only dies once throwing his body over Belphie’s sleeping one to save him. 

Get’s annoyed when he finds out Belphie was fake sleeping

Very sexy. Would watch. 

Belphie

Nah dude no thanks 

Alexa play “Wake Me Up When September Ends”

Alexa play “Billie Jean”

“And the kid is not my son”

Get’s so fucking pissed when he finds out he can’t sleep without everyone else deciding to sleep too so he just lays down with his eyes closed and hopes for the best.

Doesn’t help with anything unless someone asks him to

Even then he’ll roll his eyes like brat and slowly do it

An actual sloth

No like he clings to MC and Beel like a sleepy sloth 100% of the time

He can’t find any cows and is sad so he settles for the local deer instead. 

Fake sleeps through most of the whole thing, paying monster and cannibals alike absolutely no mind. Beel will take care of it.

Freaks the fuck out when Beel dies on top of him and goes into a rage and kills everything in sight. 

Very sweet reunion when he realizes that they just respawn.

No longer pays death any mind and continues fake sleeping. 

0/10. Virtually useless. 

Masterpost

[rads-gossip]

Could you write about how the brothers would react to MC being turned into a little kid, maybe by a Solomon potion? But the MC was abused by their parents at that time, you don’t have to do that if that’s uncomfy for you though!

Btw I love your stories! They really brighten my day and make me super happy! Thank you for being so awesome!

A/n: Thank you so much for requesting this, you really made my day! And thanks a lot for the feedback it means so much to me, honestly.

Anyway, I hope you like what I came up with! :)

Imagine: MC being turned into a child

Asmo

He couldn't have known it. He couldn't have known how similar the bottle of his newest beauty product and one of Solomon's potions looked.

It was spa day for you and Asmo and he applied the liquid onto your face, at least he thought was the liquid he meant to use.

Asmo told you to wait for a bit and leave it on until he returned, and so you did.

Though when he returned, a very strange sieht greeted him. A small human sat on his bed with way too big clothes on. Needless to say Asmo already swooned as soon as he saw you and instantly went in to hug you real close and tight.

However, you flinched away from him as soon as he came close. Asmo felt a sting deep down, how could you be afraid of him, of his beauty?  He felt that something was wrong and crouched down with his arms laid on the edge of the bed.

Slowly you leaned back into his direction once you felt it was safe. Asmo reached a hand to your arm and began stroking it soothingly. He plucked one of the many flowers and held it infront of your face, his smile widening as you gave a shy smile. He kept talking to you about each and everything that came to mind while he brushed your hair until you fell asleep.

Beel

The potion Solomon had concocted smelled amazing, even though he didn't knew what it was. He had left it on the kitchen counter after Lucifer called him into his office. Just a few minutes later you came into the kitchen, being on cooking duty and thirsty, you grabbed the bottle and took a good sip.

When Beel returned, he was left puzzled. Infront of him stood a human child with MC's clothing pooling around them on the floor. You simply looked up at him with big, round eyes. He instantly went into big bro mode and made to ruffle your hair until you winced heartwrenchingly, ducked and flinched away from his touch. Beel stopped his movements completely and stood perfectly still while you still had their eyes closed.

He had to kneel onto the floor to be even remotely close to being eye-level with you. "Hey there, little one. I am not going to hurt you, you are safe here."

Upon hearing him speak, you opened your eyes and looked at him. Beel put on his best puppy face which didn't falter one bit when he looked into your teary eyes and opened his arms to you.

You were convinced he meant no harm and almost threw yourself into the hug. Beel was careful while embracing you and felt tears drenching his shirt. His heart almost broke then and there and he rubbed your back to calm you down.

Later, he took you into his room and shared some sweets with you.

Belphie

You two were in bed cuddling and having a movie night when you felt thirsty and felt around to grab your drink. However, unbeknownst to you, the bottle you grabbed wasn't the one you aimed for.

Belphie woke up from the place he had fallen asleep when, previously leaning on you, he suddenly hit the mattress after losing you as his pillow. It was enough to startle him and actually get up to see what was going on.

That was when he found you cowered in a corner of the bed, pillows protecting you from each side.

You were much smaller than he remembered, and then it hit him, sleep almost completely gone.

He rushed to your side and found the bottle, now emptying it's contents onto his beloved  pillows and mattress. An involutary growl followed by a hiss left him as he looked at you, a tad bit overwhelmed at the situation.

Wanting to check on you, Belphegor walked to you but after hearing the sounds that had come from him you were terrified and as he came closer, you draped everything around and above you in fear.

He went and grabbed each layer to toss it to the side, until he was able to get a good look at you. That was until a scream of fear left you, fearing for the worst, tears began to stream down your face.

Belphegor stooped in his tracks and raised his hands in a motion to show he meant no harm. Slowly he reached down and grabbed a blanket from the ground, crawled onto the bed inching closer to you while holding the blanket out. You looked at him for a while until you finally got closer to him and he wrapped the both of you in his blanket, rocking back and forth slightly. Whoever made you this afraid of being harmed, they would pay.

Levi

You two have been gaming all day, and it was your turn to go to the kitchen and get food and drinks.

As you went back to his room, you took a sip of a bottle. Then Levi heard bottles crash and a bowl hit the ground. He went up to his door and opened it, schicken at what he saw there.

You stood there, half the size you were before you left, food and your drink sticking to your now too big clothing.

Levi gasped and rushed over to you, way too fast for your liking. You covered your face with your hands and whimpered in fear. He was left dumbfounded, someone being afraid of him?

He was incredibly nervous and didn't know what to do, it might be best to call Lucifer. But first he had to get you to calm down and maybe give you something clean to wear. He crouched down while holding his hands up and talked to you, ranting about anything that came to mind. You felt he meant no harm and took his hand to let him lead you back to his room. There you played some games and watched TV while he secretly told Lucifer all about what happened.

Lucifer

He left you in his office for a second to get the wine bottle he forgot in the kitchen. You saw a bottle in his shelf and went ahead and poured yourself a glass, thinking it to be wine.

When he returned, a child sat on his desk with a glass in hand. It took him only a second to realise what was going on and that you had taken Solomon's potion he had kept out of his brothers reach.

He rushed over to you and ripped the glass out of your hand and put the bottle away from you. Then he turned around and his anger was blown away as he saw tears streaming down your face, a heartwrenching sight really.

Slowly he went over to you and you instantly put an arm infront of your face to shield yourself from a possible hit, but there came none.

Lucifer wondered what you had been through to elicit this reaction, it hurt him to say the least. He knelt down so as to not tower above you and slowly put a hand on your arm, giving you a genuine smile and apologizing for being too harsh but explaining why he did it and that he was worried about your well- being. Then he called Solomon to order him to his office for a lecture and the antidote.

Mammon

The both of you were in his room, Mammon so desperately wanted a partner to practice his pokerface with. You two jumped slightly upon hearing Lucifer calling Mammon to his office because of a new stack of bills that arrived.

As you were left alone in his room,you opened one of the bottles he had standing on his shelf and poured yourself a glass.

After an hour Mammon returned and almost screamed when he saw a small you sitting  on his couch. The cards were a mess as you had played with them to your hearts content, the chips laid everywhere on the floor.

Mammon hurried to you and made a fuss about how he was screamed at by Lucifer and now had to clean up the mess you made and also has to get you back to normal somehow.

He rants about that for a long while until he hears you sniffle and sees you crying. Immediately he feels bad and wants to comfort you but as he leaned closer to you, you flinched away.

He was a bit hurt but assured you he meant no harm in any way. To show you that, he made some grimaces and laughed back at you when they made you smile at long last. He tried to forget that he surely is in for another lecture as soon as Lucifer knows what happened.

Satan

You were sitting in the library with Satan sipping wine and reading together. At some point Satan got up to get a new book because he had finished the one he was reading.

You took another bottle and poured yourself a glass and took a sip, that is when Satan returned and called out to you to not drink that, but it was too late. Infront of his eyes you turned into your child self.

Satan was furious with himself that he wasn't there to prevent you from drinking it and taht he'd so recklessly left it laying around. He rushed to you and went to take the glass from you but you flinched away, shutting your eyes tightly.

In that moment all his anger vanished and he was full of concern and regret. Had he scared you with his wrath that you expected him to hurt you?

He reassured you in hushed whispers that he meant no harm and apologized for being so harsh. He asked if it was okay to touch you and then slowly pulled you into his lap, then he grabbed a book that was easy enough to understand and read out to you until the potion finally wore off.

[myuntoldstory]

saeran after end after thought

it took me a ducking month and some change because i had to farm hourglasses. when i started playing i kept getting the bad ends and i got so frustrated i didn’t touch the app for two weeks. i had to consult a guide to finally reach the end.

i wanted to play this because i needed to see where jihyun ended up and... well... we all know what happened there. anyway...

i have many thoughts and feelings about this ae. i don’t know if i can ever properly organise them, but i’ll put it in bullet points for now. this is my personal feelings, not any kind of fact. i have nothing against nearly anything and anyone (character or real) involved in this game. i’ll always love and appreciate them for being in this game, for creating this game, for giving us something to love for the past four or five years.

these thoughts are rather unfiltered. this is me coming out hours after finishing the ae. i might change my mind after letting it marinate for a while and after reading up some more about it.

it’s all under the cut. it’s long and rambling. there’s no need to read this, really; the ae is a month old after all, but i just needed to get this out. also, it’s salty as hell. literally saltier than the dead sea. it will dehydrate you... best to not bother with this.

also spoilers.

1. during the first playthrough the game mechanics were wonderful, novel, and immersive. but years later and for the sake of an ae? unnecessary. it’s too long. it’s too much work. i did my due when i played the game during ray’s route. why do i also have to work for something that should have been my reward? why do i still have to worry about hearts, choices, and game branches? why do i have to go through multiple endings? it’s an after end. it’s after the ending.

of course i love new content, i love more content, but not like this. and i know i sound super entitled. if i was impatient i should have justt read the wiki, but i wanted the experience, but not this specific experience. lucky it’s the pandemic and i have more time on my hands, but in normal circumstances my life is very different from what it was in 2016. i can’t be waiting for chats and making plans around it to get to the after ending. honestly i expected something like the secret ends or even similar to the style of jihyun’s ae... but no. apparently, chertiz thinks it’s fun to make us spend three and a half days to reach an AFTER END.

2. saeran choi needs love... but, in my opinion, not ours. not mc’s. the love he needs is his brother’s. the person he needs most is saeyoung choi. he’s suffered so much, endured many things no person should ever endure. of course he deserves romantic love, but i feel like he needed to recover first. that’s why after all this im firmly in the very bare, maybe even empty camp of preferring secret end saeran choi over ray route saeran choi.

3. never in my life has a game made me exhausted about the act of forgiveness. i feel a little sick. it’s terrible to say that, i know, but i am just so emotionally exhausted. there is this heavy feeling in my chest that makes me want to cry because i feel like i somehow destroyed a part of myself?

first it’s the saviour in jihyun’s ae. it’s still her in this ae. but in addition to that there’s also the prime minister? when does it stop? at this point we might as well forgive the twins’ mother too. she imprisoned her own sons to benefit from their father; beat the shit out of and starved saeran to the point that he wanted to die, but there must be a reason behind it, right? like all the villains in this game her choices are not her own; they are the product of their circumstances and we have to understand that.

i just... i understand what cheritz is trying to convey here. and granted saeyoung is not as forgiving, but this isn’t his story. it felt like the forgiveness was nearing some extreme by the end of it. i don’t think there’s anything wrong if you’e unable to forgive. if the only way for you to move forward is to not do so i feel that’s valid. as long as you’re not hurting anyone and that you’re not hurting yourself, you do whatever you need to recover. forgiving is not the only way, the noble way. not everyone’s backstory you have to understand and take into consideration in order to move on. even if they realise what they did was wrong, it’s okay not to forgive. sometimes that’s what we need to take care of ourselves.

im rambling on this point, but im going through this currently. it’s not as extreme as the choi twins or the rfa, but all my life i’ve been forgiving and understanding and it chipped away at me. even at my expense i forgave everything and it landed me in a place im struggling to get out of. i needed justice and this ae didn’t give me a bit of that... at least not in the way i needed.

4. cheritz said this is the grand finale, but... it didn’t feel like it? again this is me being entitled, but i expected something more. something bigger. something poignant because after this mystic messenger is over. i expected some kind of epilogues in the form of story modes. of course i appreciate everything the company has done, especially the efforts of the writers, artists, voice actors, and everyone, but... it’s so rushed? it such a short farewell that instead of getting catharsis and satisfaction i felt... drained. and i feel sad that it’s all over because im not ready to say goodbye and that goodbye is far too short for me.

i don’t know im just sad it’s all over.

also, the conclusion they come to is the dissolution of the rfa once everyone found their happy ending. i... this is a group that has been through some shit and that doesn’t make them closer somehow? the rfa app lies neglected and abandoned as everyone moves on with their lives? that is so... lonely? at least for me.

i mean, of course, not all endings have to be necessarily happy in the “everyone gets together once a week for dinners” kind, but i just... i dont know i expected them to be closer somehow. maybe they are. maybe outside the app they’re all closer, but... i don’t know. i feel sad they’re abandoning the app.

5. and then there’s kim jihyun.

and im... i dont know anymore. if you know me, follow me, or have read any of my fics you know im a jihyun fan. i love that man and YES i know his sins. we all do.

as i played the ae i started to hope that he’d die in the end instead of suffering through this egregious character assassination. yes, i literally preferred that he died and that i go through that pain instead of suffering whatever this is. obviously i dont want him to die, but this is like killing him anyway. they killed the essence of him, who he is as a person. hell, they probably killed him already and just installed a stranger in the ae because that v is not our v. all throughout the game he’s been kind and compassionate and selfless. his whole thing is about protecting the rfa, the mc, saving the saviour, and sacrificing himself for them. this is the idiot who gives you his hearts when you’re being actively nice to his abuser and saeran in his route. his ultimate happy ending involves everyone being happy, reunited, and given the proper mental care. he went away for two years, putting a much needed pause in your budding relationship, not only to recover from his trauma, but also to rescue saeran and help him recover too.

yes, v enabled the saviour even before another story. he lied. he put everyone in danger. he’s reckless and he keeps secrets way more than what’s natural. but he will never let any of them come to harm. my memory is fuzzy but im sure he never lets the rfa get in danger. he was devastated when yoosung got injured. he also tried to rescue seven and mc in the secret ends thats why he got shot. this guy always looks out for everyone. 

in what world is he okay with drugging the twins? making deals with the villains? the idea of trapping the twins in the saviour’s delusional, twisted family life? he’s not the type to be okay just standing there when his best friend’s life is falling apart or for even causing it. when zen, jaehee, and yoosung get backed into the corner he wouldn’t have been just idle. but in this ae all he does is play stacking chairs, buy strawberry yoghurt, and echo the saviour’s words like a puppet. he asks only mc to save herself and like... jesus christ he never gets a break. he doesn’t even get the same gesture of forgiveness everyone and their father gets. he goes through a trial and jail, which is fair enough, but he’s also a victim of abuse and suffering and despair and mental illness. but somehow because it’s v it’s okay that this is all he gets. somehow he doesn’t deserve any compassionate resolution.

literally the only time he’s happy is his route and after end and even then that happiness is not his own. even then there were concessions to be made before he could get it.

seriously. it seems like cheritz hates him. they think little to nothing of him. if that’s the case why even make content for him? he’s not even meant to be romanceable in the original stories. they could’ve just ignored the petitions and left him as a side character. i mean, i dont know if i prefer that honestly, i do appreciate the content we got, but as his fan it hurts to see all this half-hearted decisions. and to see all this hate still pouring out for him, now magnified because of this ae.

this is like a tiring odyssey, starting way back when he got shot and killed all because he loved someone. he loved the wrong person and it’s the wrong kind of love and he committed his crimes because of it. he had a hand in making the rfa and mc suffer, but still all he did was love. and i know that sounds blind and naive and ignorant and im sorry for not picking up the nuances of his relationship with the saviour, but that’s all i saw. i saw a guy loving the wrong person and it made him make all the wrong choices leading to a bad life.

gah. i am drained people. i am drained, and frustrated, and tired.

[that-scouse-wizard]

Sightseeing Part One

A/N: Hello everyone, welcome to this little one-shot of mine. I love the friendship between David Willows and Judith Harris that I and @judediangelo75 have developed. So, here’s a tale of David showing Judith around Liverpool, his home city.  Originally, I’d intended to show both the muggle and wizarding side of the city but then it got longer than I thought it would and didn’t want it to be a slog. So here’s part one to briefly show the muggle side, part two should be coming soon to show off the wizarding side.

Context: This takes place in the summer between second and third year so David and Judith are about thirteen here. Also my first time writing David’s mum, Rue (should be mentioned, her face claim is Fiona O’Carroll). Some mild spoilers for my ideas but I hope you all enjoy especially you @judediangelo75!

Word count: 2867

MC friends: Judith Harris ( @judediangelo75 )

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

5th of July, 1986

Judith Harris hated the summer holidays, some people would be able to enjoy it, likely going to somewhere abroad with their family but that simply wasn’t an option for her. For Judith, leaving Hogwarts for several weeks meant being stuck with her mother. 

She tried keeping her head down but living under the same roof meant little chance of escape from being constantly subject to her mother’s judgements and cruelty. The tension at home was always so suffocating.

Recently though, she had received a letter from someone she knew, David Willows. The younger brother to Jacob Hall, a friend of her own brother, Jamal. Both of them had gone missing in their search for the Cursed Vaults, she supposed it was fitting for their younger siblings to get acquainted. 

First impressions when they had arrived at Hogwarts, David was stand-offish, sharp-tongued and short-tempered. He wasn’t afraid to go for low blows in a verbal spar or physically fight people much bigger than him. Oftentimes, they had stayed out of each other’s way. She never tried to pick a fight with him. Although, unlike most of their peers, he had never been unkind to her. 

Their friendship was a fairly recent development, only beginning at the start of their second year when they tried out for the recently vacant positions as Beaters on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Practice together meant more interaction especially as they both came under the mentorship of Erika Rath, Slytherin’s top Beater. It was during these practices that she had seen a different side to David.

Though he was aloof, they shared a remarkably high number of mutual friends, the most prominent of which were Penny Haywood and Rowan Khanna. When Judith had asked the two about their fellow Hufflepuff, both had spoken fondly of him. If they vouched for him, he surely couldn’t be that bad? 

Though he was snarky, that tended to be when he was aggravated by someone he didn’t like, he had a tendency to give his friends good-natured ribbings. Judith had happily returned the teasing, especially when it had come to her own and David’s respective crushes on Orion and Erika.

Though he could come across as aggressive with a foul temper, it took specific things to put him in such a mood. Namely... rumours about Jacob, especially so if someone dared to openly compare the two brothers. His ferocity wasn’t just to defend himself either, he had very nearly started a fight with an older Hufflepuff when they had made a derogatory comment towards Judith. A fight would have started if professor Sprout hadn’t intervened. They had barely known each other for a month at that point yet he’d still stuck up for her. Of course, she could handle herself but the sentiment was appreciated.

Other than that, Judith and David shared a love of art. Drawing together in silence, maybe occasionally asking how the other’s sketch looked, a peaceful respite from the stress they were under. They quickly gained a reputation on the Quidditch pitch as Hufflepuff’s star Beaters after their team handily defeated both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor 

Their titles as the ‘Heroes of Hogwarts’ had only served to connect the two further after conquering the Ice Vault. 

All in all, the two of them had formed a decent relationship.

Still, it was a surprise when Goliath, David’s eagle owl had arrived with a letter inviting her to come visit Liverpool for a week. An opportunity she had practically leapt at. Thankfully, the owl had found her bedroom window first. Judith shuddered to think how her mother would have reacted if she found out she was receiving letters from a boy, no matter how platonic the nature of it was.

Keeping that fact about her friend a secret from her mother was definitely the only reason she was currently making the journey. She was sure David would agree to making plans in advance if they wished to do something like this again, lest she risk her mother’s ire.

She had purchased muggle train tickets as soon as she could, sending Goliath back to his owner with the day and time she was expected to arrive. Though expensive, it was the swiftest, and most direct mode of transport between London and Liverpool.  

At least the weather had been nice with hardly a cloud in the sky. It had been relaxing, watching the landscape go by slumped back in her seat as the train had weaved its way through both city and countryside. Though it wasn’t nearly as hot as it could get in Barbados, it was still warm enough to justify her current attire, a yellow sundress with matching sandals. 

“Now approaching, Liverpool Lime Street.” The automated voice of the train echoed. Judith stood up smiling at the announcement as she retrieved her suitcase from the overhead luggage area. That was her stop, the end of the line, it would be nice seeing David again.

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

Liverpool Lime Street was a large station, two cylindrical dome roofs made up of mostly clear glass and metal provided cover for all train platforms, giving it a tunnel-like appearance. Archways made of stone and mostly filled by windows supported the upper half of the building from the front. Great, red pillars held up the right side, creating a pavement for both foot traffic and a road for vehicles into the station’s car park. 

David paced about, unable to keep himself from showing excitement. Wearing a plain grey tee shirt, denim jean shorts and black sandals for the hot weather. Occasionally looking around watchfully through the throngs of people going about their business. 

His letter to Judith had asked for her to find the car park at the station and she would be sure to run into him. From where he was, simply turning left after arriving at one of the train platforms, then continuing straight would assure it. 

It was about quarter past eleven, the time Judith said she was likely to arrive in her letter back. This would be the first time he had invited a friend around in a long while. 

Frankly, although he was excited, he couldn’t help but feel nervous about the whole thing. Though he and his mother Rue had reconciled somewhat, she had tried to persuade him into inviting someone other than Jamal Harris’s little sister. She assumed they were just Quidditch teammates who happened to share a history with the Cursed Vaults and that was it. 

It was only when David had told his mother the full story of their delve into the Ice Vault that she had relented. The curse had begun its most dramatic transformation midway through their match against Slytherin for the Quidditch Cup. Ice conjured by the vault had begun encompassing the school, threatening to overcome it entirely. 

Together, they, alongside Bill Weasley and Penny Haywood had made their way to the vault. Breaking the seal on the door had caused Penny and Bill to become trapped by the cursed ice; as well as unleash its guardian, an animated suit of armour held together by ice and frost.

In the midst of the Ice Knight trying to carve them up, Judith had used an Incendio that had briefly drawn its attention from David after he was cornered. Whether his mother liked it or not, Judith had saved his life. An invitation to his hometown was the least he could do for her.

He had initially wanted to face the vaults on his own. Though, that plan seemed doomed to fail before he had even set foot on the castle grounds after he had bumped into Rowan. Now, Judith was a part of an ever-growing circle of friends that David was slowly building up, an addition that he was glad for. 

He hadn’t thought much of her when he first arrived at Hogwarts. She had made no effort to seek him out, which was just fine for David at the time. Playing Quidditch with her though had shown him there was more to Judith Harris than first met the eye. 

Underneath her quiet exterior, she was fierce, witty and a hell of a lot stronger than she looked. The first time they sparred together, David hadn’t been expecting her to use a back kick on him. While she had at first been worried she overdid it, David had shrugged it off despite the sizeable bruise it had left on his stomach. If anything, it had just convinced him it was a good idea to spar with her further. Nothing would keep his own hand-to-hand combat skills sharp like fighting an experienced opponent.

A splash of bright yellow caught his eye, quite distinct amongst a sea of other colours. A dark-skinned girl about his age with long, brown-black locs tied back. Her gold eyes looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings before finally landing on David, getting a beaming smile from her. There was no mistaking who it was.

“Judith!” He called out enthusiastically, grinning back. 

“It’s good to see you David.” His friend answered, walking up to him and giving him a brief hug. One that he returned.

“Same here, welcome to Liverpool.” He replied, grandly gesturing to the outside of the station.

Judith rolled her eyes playfully, giving a brief scan of the view. There was a busy junction that ran alongside the station, vehicles coming from at least three different directions. A Neo-Grecian-style stone building and a white tower tipped with a room with blue windows dominated the view. Impressive in its own right but it would definitely be better to explore the city with David to really see what it had to offer.

“Thank you for the invitation, shall we?” Judith’s implication was clear to David, time to head off.

“Of course, mum is waitin’ for us in the car park. Just a heads up, she can be a bit... intense.” David warned.

‘Oh joy.’ Judith thought sarcastically, hoping David’s mum wouldn’t be an exact copy of her own...

She wouldn’t have long to wonder, moving along a pavement that ran parallel to the train platforms, towards the car park, separated from the rest of the station by a wrought-iron fence. A few cars were in it, without their owners of course. All except one.

In front of a silver Ford Escort stood a woman. Pale-skinned with shoulder length dark brown hair. She was dressed in a grey pinstripe suit, a pale pink shirt under it being the only other colour. Curiously, a small, sharp and serrated tooth was hung around her neck by a black thread. She held what appeared to be a red snakeskin handbag.

Brown eyes were fixed on the pair as they approached her, though especially on Judith. Clearly David had his mother’s eyes, ones that were intent on analysing Judith for their first meeting. Watching her warily in silent judgement, a stoic expression not giving anything away.

Judith could see what David meant. She didn’t like being watched ordinarily, it made her feel like she was being judged. Under Rue Willows’ gaze though, she couldn’t help but feel a nagging sensation at the back of her head, one that commanded attention. Not cruel exactly but not friendly either, it made Judith squirm. 

“I-it’s nice to meet you, Ms Willows.” Judith greeted quietly, anxious to see if there was any change in the woman. Receiving nothing but another glance over.

“Ahem.” David coughed, trying to defuse the tension. 

It worked, Rue finally spoke up after that prompt, “A pleasure to meet you too Judith.” She replied curtly, her accent making it clear she was from Ireland. She turned her attention to her son, taking a large pouch out of her handbag that clinked as she moved it before tossing it to David. “I was thinking, David. Maybe you could show Judith around the city centre? Even show her Under Mersey. Just be back by five, if you can.”

David’s eyes widened both at the statement and the amount of bronze, silver and gold staring back at him as he looked inside the pouch. Sure, they had talked about loosening the tight restrictions that had troubled their relationship since Jacob’s disappearance but something like this so soon was unexpected.

“Thanks mum.” David answered, sounding grateful for it.

Rue’s features softened slightly as a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, “You don’t want be carrying your case everywhere you go, do you Judith? Let me take it while you and David are out.” She asked, holding out her hand, sounding just a bit friendlier with her offer. Though despite it being phrased as a question, there was clearly no room for argument.

Judith handed her case over, “Thank you, Ms Willows.”

Rue only gave a nod of acknowledgement and a quick “Have fun.” as she put Judith’s case into the boot of the car before driving off.

“I see what you mean, intense is certainly a word for it.” Judith stated, “Question though, what’s an ‘Under Mersey’?

“Well, y’know how Diagon Alley is in London?” David asked as he started walking, getting a nod from his friend, “In every major city across England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, there’s a place for wizards to go to, Under Mersey is Liverpool’s.” Judith hummed in understanding at that, she had never been to a wizarding community outside of London.

“But, how about a brief tour of the muggle side first? There’s a couple of iconic places in walking distance from here. Any other bits of history, I can just tell you about.” David suggested.

“Whatever you want David,” Judith shrugged, “This is your city, let’s see what it’s got.” The two friends stepped out onto the streets of Liverpool catching the scent of the sea on the wind. The general style reminding Judith of the inner city of London. Buildings being tightly packed together, only allowing roads through. Little to no space for alleyways turning the city centre into a maze of roads.

David grinned at her statement, “Well then Miss Harris, on your right you will see St George’s Hall. A big concert venue, mostly for dead posh events.” He said, making a show of it as he pointed out the stone building Judith had seen previously, “However, if you fancy more modern tastes, to your left you’ll see Radio City, Liverpool’s local radio.”

Judith chuckled at her friend’s showmanship, “Are there any music venues we could go to?” She asked as the two of them crossed the junction, content to follow David’s lead.

“Closest one to us is the Cavern Club. Mostly does local bands, Jazz, Rock and Roll, R&B, that sort of music.” Judith grinned, that was the sort of music she could get into, David wasn’t done with his little tour as they began walked through the streets, “Though it’s only open on a Thursday nowadays. It’s not the original, that was the cellar of a warehouse on Matthew street that got filled with cement when they were goin’ to construct part of an underground railway but it didn’t happen in that part of the city. They tried excavating the place to reopen it but there was too much damage to the structure. So they just built a new one on the same street.”

Judith’s brow furrowed at that, it was definitely an interesting piece of the city’s history but in retrospect it seemed to have been a waste of time.

“But Liverpool itself has been around since 1207, though it didn’t gain much prominence as a port until the 17th century.” David explained before pointing off further in the distance. “Up that way is the Pier Head, used to be where a lot of the goings on at the docks were handled earlier this century. More recently though, Liverpool produced one of the most famous bands in the Muggle world just over twenty years ago. They performed in the original Cavern Club, speaking off, we’re coming up to Matthew Street, right now.”

David suddenly turned onto Matthew Street, Judith following close behind him. It was clear to see where he was heading with the street being devoid of any foot traffic.

The Cavern Club.

Judith cocked an eyebrow at this, “I thought you said this was only open on Thursdays?” She asked as they now stood in front of the black archway, the doors of the club very clearly closed and likely locked tight.

“Oh it is,” David confirmed, “But this also the only way I know of to get into Under Mersey.” He continued, stepping beneath the neon sign of the club into the archway. 

“How do you do it?” Judith asked, giving him a slightly sceptical look.

“Take my hand, brace yourself, and you’ll see.” David said, offering his hand to her. Judith took it tentatively, joining him at his side. David tapped his foot six times, the first two beats were slower than the next quick four before he then said, “Hey Jude.”

At first, Judith thought he was addressing her, though she only managed to get out a “Wh-” before she felt her stomach lurch as she and David fell through the pavement beneath them.

[old-hyper-super-clover]

Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare

Feelings, become One

Part 1 of 2

Writer's block is being rough on me, so the only thing I was able to create lately was a short story of my MC Clover and Leviathan. It shows their adorable friendship as they experience an idol live show together.

Enjoy 🧡

One evening, the demon of Envy, Leviathan, made his way to the human exchange students' room. The human girl Clover had borrowed a manga from him, but it happened that Levi needed that exact book right now.

As he was strolling through the hallways, finally he reached the door, so he knocked like a polite creature before coming in.

"Hey" Levi called out into the room. "I need that Ruri-chan manga back for a sec. Some idiot Normie posted stupid fake information on the fanclub's Devcord server and is not believing me when I tell him he's wrong, so I need screenshots to prove what a fake fan he is lolol."

As he had been more eyeing his D.D.D. than paying attention to his surroundings, he only noticed at the end of his comment that a pair of unpleasantly surprised eyes were staring back at him. Levi raised his eyebrows, puzzled, looking back at Clover sitting on her bed, only being illuminated by the small lamp on her bedside table.

Just so making out her reddened eyes, paired with how she was hugging her legs, the demon immediately understood that she was crying.

"C... Clover?"

"A-ah, Levia-tan..." she mumbled, quick to put away the used tissue in her hand. Sniffling shortly, she sprung up in the next moment, walking over to her desk. "I didn't get to read this chapter yet, so I'd like to have it back after you've shown that peasant what a real Ruri stan looks like..."

Handing him the manga, Clover put on a very unconvincing smile.

Unsure how to react, Levi took the book but kept giving her a worried look. "Are you... okay?"

The girl only gave a nod.

"B-because you look, uhm..." Levi could have punched himself for being so bad at social interactions. "Were you crying just now?"

A flash of panic crossed Clover's face, but in the end, she assured him she was fine.

"It's embarrassing but I was, uh, crying over a stupid video. So nothin' to worry about, really!"

Holding the door open, she kind of gestured for him to make his leave, so Levi stepped out into the corridor again.

"Now go get that loser's ass", she cheered, but as she closed the door, Levi caught a tiny glimpse of the frown that was forming on her face.

The demon had planned to go back into his room, yet somehow he found himself in the kitchen instead. Turning his head to the fridge, he spotted Beelzebub head-deep in the ingredients for tomorrow's lunch.

Levi's younger brother noticed his presence when Levi let out a troubled sigh.

"Huh? Levi?" Beel shot him a glance. "Are you hungry, too?"

"Like there would even be anything left for me to eat!" Levi hissed, mustering how Beel's cheek were filled to the brim like those of a hamster. "No, I..." He let out another sigh. "Did something happen to Clover? She seemed really down just now and behaved all weird."

In an instant, Beel stopped his scavenging and closed the fridge to turn towards his brother.

"So you think so, too..." Beel said. "I noticed it when we returned home from RAD today, so I wanted to cook something to cheer her up."

Levi let out a huff. "Doesn't look like you had success in doing that..."

However putting his sarcasm aside, he asked whether Beel knew any reason for Clover's sadness.

"I think she had some stressful days" Beel explained, scratching his head as he actually began to prepare said food. "She had a lot of projects to hand in for her additional courses lately. And it seems the grades she got weren't quite what she expected. Or what she deserved for the amount of work she put in, honestly."

Nodding to himself, Levi indeed remembered that the human girl had been working until late recently. He crossed his arms. "But their grades aren't really that important to the exchange students, right? There's no need to cry over that."

For a while, they remained silent, listening to the veggies sizzling in the frying pan.

Then, Beel spoke up again.

"You know how she is" he said. "She was very passionate about it, and now beats herself up for not doing well enough."

Frowning, Levi narrowed his gaze. "But then why didn't she tell me about it? I thought we were friends..."

Beel had returned to the fridge, originally to grab the next ingredients, but ended up stuffing half of that into his own mouth.

"I thought you of all would understand her reasoning the best" he grumbled into the fridge.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

So Beelzebub shot him another look.

"Aren't you afraid of people thinking low of you, too?"

That evening, Beelzebub continued to take care of the human girl. He had managed to cook her a delicious meal and stayed with her to watch some movies.

Levi was amazed to see how easily his brother had managed to lift her spirits. Overall, it had surprised him to hear how well Beel knew about her feelings in the first place.

But what troubled Levi the most were Beel's last words before he had knocked on Clover's door:

"She'll probably stay this sad for longer. It would be great if you could help, too."

The next day, the avatar of Envy didn't feel like gaming at all. He forced himself to do his daily log-ins to his thirty-ish online games, but his mind kept wandering off to the happenings of the last evening.

Why would anyone think low of Clover because of school grades? Why would she be that sad, even if she put a lot of work into it?

She was his confidant. His friend. That alone meant she had to be a person worthy of one's time.

So... Why would someone like her ever worry about not being good enough?

Lying in his bed/bathtub/really-unsuited-sleeping-spot, Levi bit his lip.

He understood what Beel had meant now. The more he tried to understand Clover, the more he spiralled into self-loathing, toxic thoughts that he knew all too well himself.

And just the thought that Clover might be pained by this nonsense made him so angry that he couldn't focus on anything else than searching for a way to cheer her up.

Grumbling and brainstorming, his messy thoughts suddenly saw a spark of hope when he read a notification on his D.D.D.:

'Aqours 4th LoveLive! ~ Sailing to the Sunshine ~ -- Tickets for sale NOW!!'

Eyes wide, he had this hesitation of "that's too good to be true" when his thumb lowered to press the "see more" button.

But the second after, his otaku mode activated. Baving opened his five favourite websites for booking concert tickets in an instant, Levi was determined to get two tickets for this live show...

Naturally, the period of buying tickets and the actual concert were painfully far apart.

At first, Leviathan wanted to keep it a secret that he had obtained two premium seats for the Aqours concert.

However, Clover's state seemed to worsen as time went by. New things kept piling on her head, and one disappointment set the requirements for her to fail whatever she aimed to do next. It might not seem that bad to others, but as someone who is struggling with his self-worth himself, Levi could guess that Clover's mindset had to be suffering more and more.

So one day, he decided to tell her about the tickets.

Spam-calling her until she would angrily stomp into his room, Levi was waiting for her, the tickets ready in his hands.

"Levia-tan, I'm BEGGING you, if I tell you 'I'll be there in a minute', please don't call me another fifteen times to make sure I wasn't ly-"

She went silent the second her eyes landed on the tickets.

The demon couldn't hide a cheeky grin.

"You were supposed to hurry, Normie" he mocked. "Feeling your concert tickets the second they're out of the printer is a NECESSITY!"

Clover wouldn't respond.

In all honesty, she COULDN'T respond.

Every time she opened her mouth, she was too baffled to press out a single tone.

"Here, this is yours" Levi said as he handed her one ticket. "It's still long until the day of the live show, so make sure to keep this somewhere safe! Ah, you know, actually... If you store the ticket in your room, Mammon might find it and sell it, so it might be for the best if I keep your ticket here with mine... C-Clover?!"

The girl had taken hold of the ticket, staring at it while Levi was rambling. But she had puzzled him when suddenly, tears were dropping on the piece of paper.

"I-is... Is this for real...?" Clover asked with an incredibly thin voice.

"W-wah..." Levi panicked, softly tugging the ticket out of her shaking hands. "It's all wet now... But I guess I can just print it out a second time..."

"Am I... really... going to... Japan...? To... a live show of... of A-aqours...?" Clover asked with a trembling lip.

"You bet!" Levi cheered. "I've been trying to get these tickets for HOURS! It was really tough, but you should never underestimate my Otaku skills!"

"I've... I've always dreamed of... experiencing a live show in person..." Clover continued to mumble. "And now you're being... So kind... What did I do to deserve this..."

Grabbing his phone, Levi tapped on his messenger app to show her something else.

Confused, Clover was looking at Levi's chatroom with Solomon. In his own excitement, Levi had to tell it before Clover could finish reading.

"And don't worry about the language issues. You'll be able to understand it all!" He babbled. "Solomon will do his best to mix you a potion to help with that! See it as subtitles, but send directly into your brain lolol."

The demon grinned from ear to ear,

and, well, expected that the human would do the same...

Or at least, he really didn't expect for her to suddenly burst into loud sobbing, pressing her hands against her face as she couldn't stop crying.

"O-oh..." All colour left Levi's face at once. "Are... Uhm... Are you not happy?"

Looking back and forth between her, the tickets and his phone, he was frantically trying to figure out the reason for her outburst.

His heart broke into pieces as his own toxic mind gave him an answer.

"Oh..." Levi pressed out. "I didn't ask you if you even want to go there if it's with me..." Now he felt really stupid. In all his preparation and anticipation, he forgot what a yucky creature he was. "Uh... I guess... I mean I can understand if you don't want to, it must be really embarrassing to go outside with someone like me, so, y-you can... take someone else along i-if that will make you stop crying... I was looking forward to it, but making you smile again was my utmost priority, so I would... You can... go with, like, Beel or som-"

"L-levia-tan?" Clover suddenly pressed out, not looking up though.

"Y-yes? Are you mad at m-"

"Can I hug you?"

"... Eh?"

"P-please...!" Clover's head shot upwards as she met him with a pleading, crying face. "I d-don't know how to respond to this... this wonderful gesture... I'm..." Not able to hold herself, she engulfed Levi in an embrace.

"I'm so happy..." Clover sobbed into his shoulder. "Thank you so much... Levi..."

Now Levi was the one at loss for words. With cheeks painted a bright pink, he awkwardly wrapped his arms around her body.

"S-so... You're okay with going with... with me?"

"Of course! I'm flattered that you'd even thought of inviting me..." The girl pressed out, slowly letting go of him.

And finally, a grin was spreading on her face again."Please teach me everything I need to know about lives, Levia-sensei!"

The sight was so contagious that Levi was smiling himself.

"Yes! Leave it to me!!"

For the following weeks, the two of them spent huge parts of their free time preparing for the live show.

Leviathan taught Clover all there is to know about using glowsticks: from the shaking technique that destroys your arms and wrists the least, to ultra orange glowstick usage and cycloning. They listened to Aqours' songs so much that at some point Clover remembered all their lyrics perfectly despite not even speaking the language. Additionally, they looked into older live shows to learn where the crowd would engage in which kind of chanting.

"Waah, no, I can't that part of the first live show... I'll cry, Levia-tan...!" Clover had whined.

"Ah, do you mean the performance of 'Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare'? Where Rikyako messed up her piano play?"

"Yes... It was so brave that she learned playing piano from scratch just for that song... But then the poor girl was so stressed, messed up and started sobbing... That part just kills me, especially when the rest who were performing the dance came to comfort her... Ugh I love them all so muuuuch..."

The house of Lamentation was glad to see the human girl had regained her joyful energy. Even if, after a few weeks, their patience was being put under the test...

To give a short input:

When greeting the audience at the beginning of the live show, each idol introduces themselves and engages in a unique call and response with the crowd to get everyone pumped.

And so one day, Levi went to Clover saying this:

"We also need to practice our responses to their character introductions! From this day onwards, I will randomly initiate one of the girls' calls, and you have to respond correctly!"

So... Yeah. The other inhabitants of the house didn't quite understand what any of those "Ganbarubyyyy"s or sudden "BUU BUU DESU-WA"s meant, but eventually, even they remembered some of the call & responses.

... Just that not everyone was so amused by the whole ordeal as Leviathan seemed to be.

Not when Clover was preparing breakfast with Satan in a great hurry (because SOMEONE ate what they had prepared earlier...).

You can imagine that, when already stressed out, Satan wasn't really happy over his older brother dashing into the room, shouting a random "KAN KAN" from the top of his lungs.

"Mikan!" Clover had correctly responded, however quiet as she was fully aware of Satan's anger level.

However, as this particular call & response repeated three times, Levi continued to animate the human girl, going once again even louder: "KAN KAN!"

"M-mikan..."

"Come on, I can't hear you... KAAAAN, KAAA-"

He couldn't finish his chanting as Satan had thrown a devil-blood orange right into his face with such force that it pulled Levi off his feet.

"HERE, HAVE YOUR FUCKING MIKAN AND LEAVE!!"

[Mikans are small, japanese oranges (´ ∀ ` *)]

Finally, the day of the concert had come.

Asmodeus had made it his mission to plan Clover's outfit so she'd be as "dazzling as the girls on stage". Levi had been prompting her to go with comfortable, practical clothes instead, so they had to find a middle where neither of them would complain.

Once all done, some of the brothers came to muster the soon leaving duo.

"Hm... Are you sure you don't want to put on any make up, darling?" Asmo asked Clover after doing his final check.

"Absolutely. I will be in tears the second Aqours' enters the stage, so there's no point in that."

Standing in the doorframe, the avatar of Greed gave a huff.

"Isn't that skirt a bit too short? And that whole outfit... No, you can't go out like this."

"Huh?" Clover turned to him in confusion. "Why not?"

"It's way too eye-catching!" He grumbled. "What if some filthy human makes a move on you?"

The girl gave a slight chuckle. "I go to school with incubi and succubi, Mammon. I think compared to that the human world should be pretty safe."

"B-but...!" Mammon wanted to protest, but Beelzebub covered his brother's mouth to silence him.

"I think you look cute" He beamed Clover an encouraging smile. "But be careful nonetheless. Levi, take care of her."

"Y-yes! I will!"

-- to be continued in part two --

[jokertrap-ran]

(未定事件簿) 夏彦 SR [忆中人] [Tears of Themis] Xia Yan SR [Reminiscent Person] Card Story Translations (Part 2)

*Tears of Themis Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Xia Yan’s personal tag will be #Tears of a PI. Personal master-list under construction! *Suddenly I’m sad—

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / SMS

Location: Within the Maze

After splitting up with Xia Yan, I entered the "Memory Maze" through the other door.

The interior of the room was dimly lit. Following the narrow path that had been set out, I eventually stopped in front of a wall.

MC: Touch the Magic Wall and accept the test of Memories...

Following the instructions on the wall, I slowly reached my hand out to touch the wall before me.

A holographic screen appeared on the wall upon my touch. It wrote:

"Which day and month does his birthday fall on?"

MC: Now this question is just too easy.

Ever since he came to my house, we'd always celebrate all our birthdays together.

A cake accompanied by a table full of hearty dishes, the only difference being the increasing amount of candles as the years went by; the same homely warmth never changing.

MC: The 5th… of December.

Entering the date that I'd long since committed to heart, the "wall" in front of me opened, revealing the path hidden behind.

MC: I see, so it was a hidden door…

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Location: Within the Maze

On the other end of the maze, stood Xia Yan as he stared at the question displayed before him.

Xia Yan: Which one of the following has she never done before?

Xia Yan: Watching a movie alone, eating hotpot alone… going to the Amusement Park alone…

He looked at the multiple choices in front of him, lapsing into a long silence.

Xia Yan: I can only choose one out of the lot?

Xia Yan: In my opinion, you shouldn't have to experience any of this.

He looked at the fourth option of "All of the above" hesitantly, unable to make up his mind.

After hesitating for another 3 seconds, he tapped his finger on the third option of "Amusement Park".

The screen flashed red and a "boop" sounded; his answer was incorrect.

Xia Yan: That was actually wrong?

Xia Yan: Under what circumstances would you end up going to the Amusement Park alone…?

The door before him didn't open. Instead, the screen dimmed, entering a one-minute lock-down period.

He lowered his eyes.

His usual cheery smile disappearing for the first time since he stepped foot into the challenge establishment.

Finally, the screen lit up again; this time, a different question coming into view: “How did she spend her previous birthday?”

Xia Yan: ……

Xia Yan: We used to celebrate our birthdays together last time.

A wry smile formed on his face; his eyes obscured in gloom.

His finger trembled ever so slightly as he pressed the option of "Celebrated alone" with a long sigh.

The door before him opened, but his steps were no longer as brisk as before when he stepped through the secret door.

Xia Yan: Was our parting… Was 8 years too long of a time…?

Xia Yan: Actually, wasn't one of my intentions in coming here to understand you a little more?

Xia Yan: You'd always cover it up with a smile every time we'd talk about the ups and downs of these 8 years… I know absolutely nothing about how you've spent those years.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

MC: Huh. Does he sleep in…?

MC: (He has gone through a multitude of military training, so I don't think he'd have a chance to sleep in, right?)

Even though that was the correct answer, I still couldn’t help but to recall how he loved sleeping in way more than I did, back when we were still little.

It’d take repeated bombings by both our parents to wake any of us up every weekend.

MC: I think… he can't even sleep in even if he wanted to now...

I got a good many questions wrong this round, mostly relating to Xia Yan’s experience for those 8 years that he had been gone.

I didn’t know anything about what he had experienced for those 8 years of his life that I wasn’t a part of.

MC: 8 years can really change a person's habits, huh.

???: You have 10 minutes remaining for this segment.

The reminder was like a bucket of ice water, jolting me out of my reverie.

Re-composing myself, I hurriedly proceeded on, exploring the maze in hope of finding a way out.

It was dark and suffocating within the maze and the path led to dead ends more than half the time. Those who had a fear of the dark would probably be panicking a lot more.

MC: No wonder the Staff Member earlier said that this was the stage where most people got stuck and failed…

After going back and forth, retracing my steps for a couple of times, I finally found another door that I could enter.

A seemingly simple question appeared before my eyes:

“Does he sleep-talk when he sleeps at night?”

MC: I know this one. He sleep-talks once in a while and I’ve even teased him a couple of times about it.

MC: Huh…?

The screen flashed red and entered lock-mode.

MC: … Why would that be wrong…?

There wasn’t much time left and this one minute seemed to stretch on for a very long time.

Suddenly, I faintly heard the sound of a secret door opening nearby. Looks like Xia Yan was already close by.

MC: (Finally! A new question!)

What’s the best present he has ever received?

MC: If he’s not going to be springing any more surprises onto me, then...

As expected, the treasure chest with a Sherlock Holmes-themed periphery was one of the answers. That was something that my parents had bought for him back when we were little, and he had used it to store various prized treasures of his.

It was unfortunately, currently in the possession of Sphinx.

MC: I’ll definitely find that chest back for you, Xia Yan.

The answer was correct. The screen lit up in green and the “wall” before me slowly opened.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Xia Yan appeared before me, but he didn’t look quite as carefree and easy-going as he had been earlier.

He was silently standing in place; who knew what he was thinking about? A familiar smile took its place back up on his face upon seeing me appear from behind the door.

Xia Yan: Oh, you’re out. Pretty quick, aren’t ya!

MC: Sad that I’m still slower than you though...

???: You have 5 minutes left for this challenge.

The faint sound of the Staff Member’s voice calling out from a distance away within the maze made me and Xia Yan rush to find the maze’s exit.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Fortunately, there weren’t any more puzzles, riddles or questions for us to run into the rest of the way, so we managed to make our way out of the maze in no time at all.

However, there were no Staff Members coming for us this time to lead us back at the maze’s exit, and the timed reminders never sounded ever again.

Xia Yan: The maze’s exit has been deadlocked.

There was a long corridor stretching out before our eyes, but it was dimly lit at the curve, making it hard to see the path that laid beyond.

Both sides of the wall had old oil paintings hanging from it and some even had spider webs hanging from them.

Xia Yan: All these paintings… Why are they all identical?

Even the picture frames were identical. Xia Yan took one of the paintings down but wasn’t able to find any hidden clues upon closer inspection.

Returning the painting back to its original position, he frowned.

Xia Yan: Looks like we can only proceed onwards.

MC: Does this mean that we have to find the last checkpoint on our own?

Xia Yan: Not necessarily, they might pull some random quick-time events to test out reaction time.

MC: They wouldn’t… make a member of the staff dressed as a ghost jump-scare us out of nowhere, right?

I glanced at the dim and dark corridor of doom and gloom, a bad feeling settling within my heart.

Xia Yan: Weren't you not afraid of ghosts?

MC: But you’ll still get a fright if they suddenly jump out at you when you’re least suspecting it, right…?

Xia Yan: How about I scout the way ahead for you? That way, there won’t be anything out there to scare you.

MC: You’d always walk in front of me like that whenever we used to go to Haunted Houses back when we were young.

Xia Yan’s footsteps paused as he turned his head to face me.

Xia Yan: How have you been for those 8 years that I wasn't here…?

MC: Pretty well!

Xia Yan: You… When did you go to the Amusement Park alone?

MC: Are you trying to ask me “how lonely” I must have been to do that? It’s really not like that, I swear.

MC: That was actually the time when I had agreed to go to the Amusement Park with a friend of mine, but she cancelled at the last minute when I was already there, saying how she had something urgent crop up last minute and she wasn’t able to get away.

MC: Since I was already there and all, I simply decided to go in and have fun for the entire day by myself.

Xia Yan: So that’s how it is. And here I thought...

MC: You thought what?

MC: That I didn’t have a single friend to go to the Amusement Park with?

Xia Yan: No, no! That’s not what I meant!

MC: Actually, there was a period of time where I felt really lonely all by myself. You were gone, and my parents weren't around either.

MC: And during holidays, I'd eat hotpot alone, but I'd also set out four sets of bowls and chopsticks, as if all of you were there...

Xia Yan: ……

Looking at the slightly pained look on his face, I hurriedly changed the topic.

MC: But it's all already in the past; plus, I think that this was also a really good chance for me to learn how to live alone by myself.

MC: Enough about me. Are you still so busy that you don't even have the time to sleep in, even though you're now back in Stellis City?

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Location: Challenge House Corridor

MC: Enough about me. Are you still so busy that you don't even have the time to sleep in, even though you're now back in Stellis City?

Recalling all the questions that I had answered incorrectly to, I couldn't help but to start doubting myself. Was I usually somewhat ignorant when it came to him?

Xia Yan: I'm not as busy now. If I was, then I wouldn't have accepted a job like this.

Xia Yan: The reason why I don't sleep in is mostly because I'm already used to it.

MC: You're used to it?

Xia Yan: Yeah. Sleeping wasn't allowed during training.

Xia Yan: And I've been trained for so long that it looks like I don't need that much sleep anymore.

He spoke very casually about it, but I couldn't help but to feel that those three words that he had just uttered, "used to it" , wasn't as simple as he made it out to be.

MC: You don't sleep-talk anymore; was that also something that changed over time?

Xia Yan: I didn't always talk in my sleep now, did I?

MC: ……

Xia Yan: Okay… This sort of thing definitely had to be fixed through special training. Plus, it wasn't severe in my case, else they wouldn't have chosen me in the first place.

Even though there was no one in our vicinity, Xia Yan still lowered his voice as he spoke 

Xia Yan: Getting rid of a bad habit definitely comes with a bit of difficulty and no short amount of effort.

Xia Yan: But these little problems aren't enough to take me down!

MC: Haa… You always make it sound so easy.

He beamed confidently, one filled with as much warmth as it did back when he was still a boy.

Just remembering those years that we were separated for, the strict training he had gone through and the dangerous nature of his job made my heart ache like no tomorrow.

Xia Yan: (Y/n), don't you think we've been walking for too long now…?

Xia Yan suddenly came to a halt.

MC: Too long?

Xia Yan: Yeah. There's obviously no way an Experience Hall like this would have such a long corridor.

MC: How strange. We've been walking for this long, but we've still yet to reach the end.

Xia Yan: We might be going round in circles… I purposely hung the painting I took down earlier a little more crookedly.

He pointed at one of the decorative paintings hanging on the wall.

MC: So, you're saying that that's the painting you took down at the start, and that we're just walking around this place in circles?

Xia Yan: Probably…

MC: Then it looks like we'll have to search around and see if there are any hidden clues lying about this corridor.

Xia Yan and I started searching for anything that might be hiding some clues in this endless corridor.

Thankfully, there wasn't anything too complicated in the area, so we were soon able to find a slip of paper hidden at the back of a mirror.

Xia Yan: Find me, take me, and the curse shall be broken.

MC: So they want us to find a certain something in particular…

MC: And as to the things here that could even be remotely referred to as "me"...

We both looked into the distance, setting our eyes onto the "bone" that was seating above the piano…

MC: No way… Is the answer really that simple?

Xia Yan: That doesn't seem quite right. I'll go take a look first, so you wait here for me.

He patted my shoulder before proceeding onwards.

Right when he reached the piano and picked the "bone" up, all the lights in the corridor suddenly went out.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

MC: AHH——!

Xia Yan: You good, (Y/n)?

I was just about to reply to Xia Yan when a hand suddenly grabbed me from behind, pulling me in the opposite direction.

MC: !!!

???: Shh—— Quiet, don't make a sound. Come with me; this is all part of the game.

The hushed whispering of a Staff Member sounded beside my ear. I hurriedly shut my mouth, letting the Staff Member pull me forward.

It was pitch-black in front of him, but it seems like this person was already used to traversing this path, for the utter darkness didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.

───⋅𝕿𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖓𝖊𝖝𝖙 𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊…⋆⋅☆

[marshmallowprotection]

WARNING FOR MAJOR SPOILERS TO ONE OF CMC’S STORY AND TRUE BIO BECAUSE MY BLOG WILL PROBABLY HAVE SOME SORT OF STORY THAT WILL INVOLVE IT EVENTUALLY SO YEAH

So it’s been a little and because I got Day 4 BE on Saeran’s AE I have to do it all over again (because I doubt that on Day 3 there is enough heart opportunities to get the GE) so I decided to sketch and finish drawings I had left unfinished in order to devote my time to the AE. I literally am on the “Secure Chat Just For Us” chat on Day 1 whilst I type this, so uh yeah.

These drawings are of my CMCs Yeona (red haired girl) and Emmeryn (brown haired girl). I really like how Yeona looks, Emma (I’m calling her that for the rest of this post)…tbh for some reason her legs bother me a little, but I think thats the point considering she’s 5'9 and is mostly legs XD 

And also I don’t know why I went with yellow for Emma, since it’s kind of completely opposite to her story, like I only went with it due to her eyes. For Yeona I went with blue/purple for no real reason tbh. Both colors look good on both of the characters so it’s not that big of a deal but meh. 

Also I probably need to stop using blue now because now Marina, Sayaka, and Yeona all have blue in their design (though Marina’s color scheme is black & blue, and Yeona has a bit of royal purple) which is half of the current MCs if you include Valkeria (even though Valkeria is not really a MC, she’s the face of my blog and is meant to be extremely annoying, though, she has some depth to her I’ve yet to reveal uwu but still she is meant to be someone who probably couldn’t fit with any of the Mysme boys, even tho she probably is one of the most tragic characters I have created. I’ll share her true info at the end of this submission because reason. Not a match up, just want to show it.)

Yeona

Emmeryn

Valkeria’s TRUE Info: 

Full Name: Valkeria Ambervale

 International Age: 27 (AS) 28 (OS)

 Korean Age: 28 (AS) 29 (OS)

 Nicknames: The Valk, Valkyrie, Ria, Dirty Anomaly, Dirty Half-Breed, Monster

 Species: Half-Elf, Half-Human

 Blood Type: AB-

 Sexual Orientation: Pansexual

 Marital Status: Single [Shipped With No One]

 Ethnicity: Lefititian

 Nationality: World of Mystic Messenger’s South Korea (because there are other worlds with South Korea as a country)

 Religion: None (Theist, But Belongs To No Religion)

 Birthdate: April 1st, 2009 (in Lefititia, Just Says April 1st Is Her Birthday In Other Worlds And Doesn’t Give A Year)

 Zodiac: Aries

 Height: 5′7 (170 Centimeters)

 Weight: 140 lbs (63 kgs)

 Status: Alive (All Routes)

 Occupation: Interdimensional Traveler

 Hobbies: Annoying Marina, Teasing Yoosung, Communicating With The Admin, Stargazing, Being Aloof, Fawning Over Zen’s Handsomeness with Jaehee

 Likes: The Stars, Light Coldness, Astronomy, Running 

 Dislikes: Being Overly Hot, Freezing Cold, People Trying To Pry, Being Asked Too Many Questions

 Affiliations: RFA

 Relatives: ???

 Background: Valkeria is an interdimensional traveler who came from the world of Lefititia, a world which suffice to say is a fantasy world. But it’s far from a paradise nor a happy world. Half-breeds, as people like her are called, are heavily discriminated against and her life has been one of evading assassination attempts and studying interdimensional travel in order to escape the world. Her parents were killed when she 4 and she was sent to an orphanage where most of the children there thought of her as disgusting and she barely got enough food and water to survive. When she was adopted when she was 12 she only continued to be abused, and she doesn’t even know why she was adopted by the people she was meant to call her “new parents”. Despite the trials and tribulations which came due to her half-breed status, she managed to learn how to travel dimensions, and when she was 15 she escaped her abusive adoptive parents by traveling to another world. She never returned to her homeworld and instead lived a life of wandering dimensions and timelines, never feeling like she belonged in any of the worlds to which she traveled to. In fact, she never felt like she belonged anywhere due to her half-breed status. As she grew up, she developed a defense mechanism to hide her internal constant sadness: Extreme fake energetic-ness, eccentricity, and a habit of riling people up, as well as a habit of annoying and teasing others. Even without that front of energetic-ness, she has extreme difficulty with getting close to others because inside she fears being hurt like she always has been due to most if not all of society in her homeworld forsaking and abusing her because of her being a half-breed. 

Valkeria is not actually truly so annoying as she pretends to be, actually quite the opposite. The “real her” is a person who is extremely calm and quiet and prefers to be alone, and she has never known love and has never been complimented genuinely and rejects most compliments even whilst her front is up. Though she isn’t as harsh in rejecting compliments with her front, as with her front she dodges responding to the compliment (not like she gets any with how annoying she pretends to be), whilst without her front, she full-on accuses the person of lying to her because of how many times people have used pretty words and pretended to be nice to her to try and earn her trust to use her for something or to try and humiliate her or even kill her when she was younger. She has extreme PTSD toward weapons due to over 30+ attempted assassinations/kidnaps over the years and goes full-on panic mode whenever she sees a gun or a knife or something of that nature, and due to that she probably will never be able to cook because of many recipes calling for use of a knife to cut something even though she actually would like to cook and bake. Valkeria, if she is in a worst possible situation, has resorted to hurting before she is hurt, for instance, during her last year at the orphanage she started to hurt the other kids and even the adults there who were hurting her before they could hurt her, and gradually the abuse stopped due to everyone fearing her. She knows it’s bad but she has deemed it a viable strategy to avoid pain, and because she feels she has no friends and is all alone, she feels that it doesn’t matter who she hurts. Overall Valkeria’s main motto is to “Hurt and kill if necessary for survival, everyone could take a full 180 and decide to betray you at any time, so always be wary and never trust anyone.”

 Trivia:

1. Yes, Valkeria is self aware, kind of. She knows there’s people “outside” in a sense (like Admin Rose; me) and that I’m writing about the timelines and stories of the timelines of my version of the Mystic Messenger universe, but she isn’t aware of anything besides that.

 2. Valkeria has light pink eyes and desaturated dark purple hair with a pink streak.

3. Valkeria’s favorite food is anything with sugar, quite literally. 

4. Valkeria has regressed into a child-like mind state before, mostly when she is tired. But she hates people seeing her like that and tries to stay aware of how she’s acting. 

5. If you couldn’t tell from the last trivia, Valkeria is very self conscious. — submission 

This is really growing into something very interesting. You’ve got a whole story line going and everything. I like that. It shows that you’ve put a lot into what you are doing. The designs are really cute and I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do with all of them on your blog! I just. The outfits are really cute! It’s just so freaking cute!!

[twinkle-320]

You’re Gonna Be

Pairing: Drake x MC (Riley Nevin Walker) (TRR)

Word Count: 2500 +

Written for @choicesmonthlychallenge​ day 17 prompt - Surprise/plot twist

Warning: Language

Song Inspiration: You’re Gonna Be by Reba McEntire

Author’s Note:  This can be read as a stand alone or together with my story “Mommy-to-be”.  This is set in TRH but doesn’t follow canon.

6 pounds and 9 ounces, looking up at me Like I have all the answers, I hope I have the ones you need I’ve never really done this, now I know what scared is

“DRAKE!”

Drake shot up in bed, a cold sweat forming on his brow at the sound of Riley screaming his name.  Reaching over, he found her spot empty.  It had become common for her to wake up first the closer she got to the end of her pregnancy, but the sun wasn’t even up and the scream was not common. “Nevin, where are you?”

“Bathroom…” he heard her reply in a softer, shaky voice.

When he opened the door to their en suite, he saw her standing over the sinks, bracing her body with one hand on the vanity, the other clutched her stomach.  Drake rushed to her side.  “Nevin, what’s going on?”

“It’s time, Drake.”

“No…no…it, it can’t be time.  It’s early.”

“Tell that to Bean, Drake, cause this baby is coming.”

“You’re sure?”

Riley gestured down to the puddle under her feet.  “Well, unless I peed myself and these cramps are from the midnight nachos…I’m pretty sure.”

“Okay…okay…I’ll get you to the bed and get you clothes and grab the go bag.”

Drake wrapped his arm around Riley’s waist and guided her to the bed.  The contraction that had wracked her body when she screamed out for Drake finally eased and other than feeling uncomfortably wet, she felt fine as Drake moved about the room.  Within minutes he had gathered a change of clothes including her maternity leggings and a long sweater for her to put on.  She couldn’t help but laugh quietly to herself as she watched her normally calm, stoic husband fly around in panic mode.

“Do we need to time the contractions?” he asked.

“I mean, technically yes, but Dr. Ramirez said to come straight to the hospital if my water broke so…I don’t know if it matters.”

“Okay…okay,” he chanted as he threw some of his own things in a bag.  “We’ll do it anyway.  And, you’re sure it’s not too early?”

“It’s only a few days early, Drake and it’s not like we can stop it.”

Drake grabbed his phone.  “A few days, right…it’s five days.  Five days early isn’t bad,” he muttered.

Riley’s stopped midway through pulling on her leggings, staring at Drake.  Drake silently returned her awed gaze.  She was quite a sight standing in nothing but her bra, hunched over with her belly in the way and her pants half way up her legs.

“Five days?  You said ‘five days’?”

“Yeah…why?  You said that wasn’t bad.”

“Drake, what’s today’s date?”

“October 25th,” Drake replied.  “Oh…” he said as realization hit him, “it’s…”

“My mom’s birthday.”

Riley dropped back to the bed as tears sprung to her eyes.  Drake was at her side a second later, pulling her into a hug.  “Isn’t this a good thing?”

“It is,” she said, nodding and wiping her eyes.  “I have actually prayed for it but I didn’t think it would happen.  Bean is going to share a birthday with my mom.”

“Then Bean is in very good company.”  Drake stood and kissed the top of her head gently.  “Now…let’s finish getting dressed so we can get to the hospital?  It’s time we meet this baby and give it a proper name.”

A short time later, they were in the car and on their way.  Riley clutched Drake’s hand and timed her contractions while he drove.  Each one felt a little stronger but not completely intolerable.  Dr. Ramirez was waiting at the check-in desk of the private unit when they arrived and took them straight to their room.  It was a large suite where she would give birth and stay after with the baby.  Once she was in a gown and prepped, Drake helped her into bed so Dr. Ramirez could perform her first progress check.

“You’re five centimeters and one-hundred percent effaced.  I’m going to send in the anesthesiologist to administer your epidural.”

“Won’t that slow things down?  Can’t we wait a little bit?” Riley asked.

“It is possible that it could slow things down slightly, but you’ve only been in labor a little over an hour, Your Grace, and already made this much progress.  Any slow-down would be minimal with the pace at which you’re progressing.”

Riley nodded in understanding and Drake helped her sit up on the side of the bed for the next doctor who came in a few minutes later to administer the pain medication.

Dr. Ramirez had been correct; labor still progressed smoothly and Riley was a lot more comfortable.  At 8 AM, when they finally felt like it was an appropriate time to make calls, Drake left the room briefly to notify their friends.  Thirty minutes later he was back at Riley’s side when Dr. Ramirez announced it was time to push.  From there, everything was a blur.  Pushing was exhausting and it felt like it was never going to end.  When they had walked into the hospital, Riley knew their lives were going to be changing and she thought she was prepared but the whole experience was so much more than she ever expected, in so many ways.

————————————-

After recovery, bonding time, first feeding, and napping, Riley woke up alone in her room.  Drake had left a note that he ran to the cafeteria for some coffee.  Thankfully he had left her bag within arms reach and she grabbed it, pulling her 20 week ultrasound photo from the front pocket.

Lost in thought, she was staring at the picture when her door burst open and an enormous bunch of balloons bopped and squeezed their way in, followed by an overly elated Maxwell.  “Blossom, Grumpy Blossom and Baby Blossom…Uncle Max has arrived.”

Riley laughed.  “You’re lucky Drake isn’t here.  He hates when you call him that.”

Maxwell let the balloons float to the ceiling and rushed to Riley’s bed, pulling her into a hug.  “Even Drake can’t be grumpy today.”  When he pulled back, he noticed the ultrasound photo laying in her lap.  “What’s going on, Ri?  Why are you looking at that picture instead of holding a real live baby?  Where’s my baby blossom?”

“Blossoms,” Riley replied.

Maxwell looked at her confused.  “Blossoms? Blossoms…” he repeated.  “Blossoms…you mean?”

Riley nodded and smiled through happy tears.  “Blossoms, beans…however you want to say it.  Twins, Maxwell.  I came in thinking I was taking one baby home and I’m leaving with two.”

“What?  How?”

“I guess I’m just a fucking medical marvel.  That’s why I was looking at the picture, trying to figure out how we missed it.”

“You had no idea?”

“At my early dating scan they saw two sacs, but only one had a baby in it and they told me that happens sometimes.  By 20 weeks, there was only one…or so they thought.”

“This is the best news EVER!”

“Tone it down, Beaumont.”

Maxwell and Riley turned to the door to see Drake entering with a cup of coffee and two teddy bears tucked under his arms.

“For once I’m not gonna tone it down, Drake.  This is amazing!”  Maxwell pulled Drake into an embrace, patting him on the back while the coffee shook precariously in his hand, but Drake couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re right, Maxwell…it is amazing.”

Maxwell bopped on the balls of his feet.  “So…where are they?”

“Routine checks with the pediatrician,” Drake replied.  “I passed the nurse on my way in and she said they are bringing them back now.”

On cue, two nurses appeared pushing two bassinets, the babies inside sleeping peacefully.  After the requisite bracelet checks to confirm the babies were with the right mom, the nurses left the room.  Maxwell stood over the bassinets, beaming.  “So what are they?”

“Babies, Maxwell…they’re babies,” Drake huffed.

Riley playful smacked Drake, who had taken a seat next to her on the edge of the bed.  “One boy, one girl.”

“Oh.My.God.  A bean and a blossom,” Maxwell cooed.  “Can I hold one, can I hold one?”

Drake just shook his head and chuckled at Maxwell’s exuberance.  “I guess if you didn’t break Bartie, we don’t have to worry about you holding our babies.”

“I’m great with babies, Drake.  Babies love me.”

Maxwell leaned into the bassinet and gently lifted the baby, cradling it to his chest while he whispered shooshing noises and hummed a little tune.  Drake rose from the bed to lift out the other baby for Riley to hold.  

“Which one do I have?” Maxwell asked.

“Look at the hat, Maxwell,” Riley laughed.

Maxwell peered down at the tiny blue hat on the baby in his arms.  “Ooh, ooh, I have the boy!  I’m gonna teach you so much stuff, little bean.  We’re gonna dance and run with peacocks and shoot arrows at apples...”

“Hmm…I’ve seen your work with a bow and arrow, Max.  Maybe we’ll leave that part off the list of things to teach him,” Riley said.  In her arms, her sweet baby girl began to coo and whimper, so Riley rocked gently back and forth, softly tapping her little bottom until she was quiet again.  “My mom said that always worked with me…she called it the butt pat.”

Riley’s eyes felt heavy so she handed the baby to Drake and leaned against her pillows but before she could even close her eyes, they were once again greeted by visitors arriving.

Liam and Hana walked through the door, their arms laden with stuffed animals and flowers.   “Congratulations!” they exclaimed in unison.  Liam walked over to Drake, gazing affectionately at the baby in his arms.  “So…do we have a Crown Prince or Princess.”

Riley raised herself back up to a seated position.  “Um…well…” she replied, looking over at Maxwell.  

Liam followed her gaze.  When he saw Maxwell with a baby, a look of utter confusion crossed his face as he looked back and forth between the two.

“Surprise!” Riley exclaimed.  “It’s one of each.”

“I…I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“They call it a hidden twin,” Drake explained.

“A hidden twin?”

“Yep,” Riley replied.  “Apparently it’s super rare, especially with fraternal twins but of course it would happen to me.  I mean, why not…meet a prince at a bar, join a social season, fall in love with the Prince’s best friend, become a Duchess, name your unborn baby the Royal Heir and then have a hidden twin.  Crazy, rare shit just seems to happen to me.”

“This…this is wonderful.  I am so happy for you.”  Liam moved and pulled Drake into a hug, careful not to squish the baby while Hana embraced Riley.

“How are you both handling this so well?” Hana asked.

Drake and Riley looked at each other and laughed.  “Umm…we’ve had a few hours to get used to the idea.  We didn’t exactly handle it well at first,” Drake admitted.

“What Drake means to say is that he decided it was an appropriate time to quote Friends and told the doctor that we only ordered one.”

Hana gasped.  “Drake?  You didn’t?”

“I was in shock!  And I don’t think it’s any worse than Riley asking Dr. Ramirez if she was seeing things or exclaiming ‘This is fucking crazy’!”

“Listen…in my defense it was either that or cry…I don’t think either was the best option.  I was in shock too, and scared.  So scared.  I’ve already been wondering how I will be a good mother to one baby.”

Drake leaned down and kissed Riley softly on the lips.  “I keep telling you you’ll be great, now just doubly great.”

“This is the best day ever!” Maxwell exclaimed as he carefully handed the sleeping little man to Hana.

Drake looked at Riley who had tears glistening in her eyes.  “It is,” Drake agreed, “it’s just a little bitter sweet for Nevin.”

They all turned their questioning eyes to their friend, who had tears falling down her cheeks where she sat in bed.  “Drake knows this but, today would have been my mom’s birthday,” she shared.  “When they told me my due date, I secretly hoped and prayed that it would happen a little early like this but…now that it has, it’s just hard to know they will never meet her or celebrate it with her.”

Hana sat down on the other side of Riley and held her friend’s hand.  “Some people believe that babies are sent from Heaven…it might sound silly but I believe it and I believe they met your mom before they came to be with you.”

Riley hugged Hana.  “Thank you,” she whispered as she composed herself before turning to Liam.  “So, how does this work now with the decree for the Royal Heir?”

“Well, it’s written to say your first born child, so I guess it would be whichever child was delivered first.”

Riley looked up at Drake, their eyes holding a conversation that only they understood until he nodded in agreement.  “I guess it’s time we make it official then,” Riley said.  “I’d like you all to formally meet Lord Jackson Nevin Walker and Crown Princess Aislynn Emily Walker.”

“Oh, Riley, I love their names,” Hana gushed.

“Thank you.  I think it’s fairly obvious we weren’t expecting to have to name two babies but, we kind of had an idea what we wanted.  It was important to us that my mom and Drake’s dad be included somehow.”

“It is a fitting honor for them both,” Liam declared.  “Jackson would be proud of the family you’ve built, Drake.  And Riley…I never had the pleasure of knowing your mother, but if you, as her daughter, are any indication of the woman she was, then I have no doubt she was remarkable.  These two precious miracles hit the jackpot when they got you as parents.”

Riley swore she saw tears coming to Drake’s eyes and squeezed his hand reassuringly.

“Thanks brother, that means a lot.”

After Drake and Liam embraced one more time, everyone got the last of their baby snuggles and headed out to let Riley rest.

When it was just their new little family of four, Drake laid down beside Riley, cradling Aislynn while Riley fussed over Jackson.

“Quite a day, huh, Nevin.”

“You can say that again.  Next time I’m getting like 10 ultrasounds.”

“Next time?  These guys aren’t even a day old and you’re already talking about next time?”

Riley shrugged.  “I’ve always wanted a big family.  Look at them…don’t tell me you don’t want more too.”

“I do…but’s let see how we do with these two first.  This is a whole new world for both of us.”

“Well…I may not know everything there is to know about being a mother and I am still so scared, but I will tell you this much; no one will love them more and if anyone ever tries to mess with them, I will fuck them up.”

Drake laughed.  “Okay mama bear, settle down.”  After placing Aislynn back in her bassinet, he took Jackson and laid him down too.  Leaning over to kiss Riley, he whispered, “You were amazing today.  I love you so damn much, Nevin.”

“I love you, too Drake.”

“Get some sleep, baby…I have a feeling there’s not much of it in our future.”

Riley nodded as her heavy eyelids finally gave way and she drifted off while her family, her world, slept all around her.

[carewyncromwell]

Hi, everybody! So the Adventures in Curse-breaking side quest was...absolutely wonderful. The prize is fantastic -- the animation of the dragons is awesome -- the new preserve location and the interior of the tent have the most wonderful ambient music -- and it features love for Charlie and Bill, who as most of you know are two of my favorites! I might’ve switched out Penny with Liz (given that, like Barnaby, she’s so into magical creatures and we could use more material for her in the game), but even with that nitpick, I think this quest may be one of my favorites so far, right up there with Chiara and Talbott’s friendship quests.

It is, however, a very dialogue-heavy quest with a good chunk of filler in between the awesome stuff, and writing full roleplaying posts for the entire thing would take up a LOT of time. So just like with my Meet the Malfoys quest post, I’ll be writing this in a more condensed, fic-like format. Because there’s so much more material to work with compared to the Malfoy quest, however, this post will be broken up into four parts all tagged “Adventures in Curse-Breaking”, complete with screenshots and gifs from the game, as we follow my MC Carewyn Cromwell, her honorary brothers Bill and Charlie, Barnaby, Merula, and Penny to the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary!

Hope you enjoy! xoxo

Bill’s second meet-up with the sixth years ended up being more of a question-and-answer session about Cursebreaking and Defense Against the Dark Arts in general rather than a set lesson. Charlie had half-jokingly whispered in Carewyn’s ear that it was likely Bill was still in the process of drawing up lesson plans, and although Carewyn thought there was a good chance of it, she didn’t think Bill opening the floor for questions was a bad idea. After all, Merula had expressed interest in being a Cursebreaker, and any anti-Dark Arts information would be helpful to a future Auror like Tonks. (Carewyn once again thought of trying to coax Talbott to join Bill’s sessions too. She knew he preferred to “fly solo,” but she wanted him to become an Auror just as much as he himself wanted it!)

It was only toward the end of their session that Bill -- mostly to poke at Charlie for getting distracted whispering to Carewyn -- brought up his next mission, which his boss Griphook had said would involve dragons.

Of course Charlie’s ears had perked up like a puppy’s at the mention of dragons, and he immediately was interested in accompanying Bill on his mission. The eldest Weasley son, however, turned Charlie down, clearly regretting that he’d brought it up at all. He quickly dismissed the sixth years and excused himself from the classroom, but Charlie wasn’t having it. Agreeing that Bill could use some help if he had to deal with a bunch of dragons, Carewyn quickly changed clothes and accompanied her unofficial twin to Diagon Alley.

Carewyn hadn’t ever been to Gringotts without her mother before. The wizarding bank had always felt so massive to her, not just for its mile-high, vaulted ceilings, but in how the voices of the goblin tellers and witches and wizards in front of the counters echoed seemingly endlessly up toward the ceiling. Despite the ethereal light emanating off the lanterns on every desk and the sparkling diamond chandeliers overheard, the chamber still never felt completely lit. Shadows clung to every pillar and window frame, and the light of the lanterns pooled off the dark, patterned marble pillars, making them resemble rippling, murky green water as you walked past them.

Bill was very surprised to see the two gingers there. He’d tried to reproach them for ambushing him at work, which made Carewyn feel a bit guilty -- Charlie, however, felt no shame at all.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have run off in the middle of a conversation like that,” he’d said dryly. “Then we wouldn’t have had to chase after you.”

Carewyn offered Bill a kinder look. “I know you’re working, Bill -- but if your next assignment involves dragons, you know we can help.”

Bill’s boss, Griphook, took in the exchange with dry interest. Keeping a beady eye on both Carewyn and Charlie, he explained the mission more clearly to Bill. The goal was to recover a golden egg created by the goblin Urguff the Unwary and stolen by a dragon that mistook it for one of her own and was now suspected to have settled in the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary. The goblin then encouraged Bill that if “these two humans” could assist him in researching dragons, then it might be wise to accept their offer of help. Bill agreed, and the three gingers met at the Hog’s Head to research the various breeds of dragons one might encounter at the Romanian Sanctuary. Bill was stubborn, however, in keeping their meeting focused solely on research.

“I appreciate you helping me study up on dragons,” he’d said firmly, “but I’m sorry, I’m not taking you on my mission.”

Carewyn would’ve respected Bill’s feelings on the matter, given that this was his job and he deserved to do it his own way...but she knew how much Charlie wanted to go with him, and admittedly she was worried for Bill’s safety, going to a preserve full of dragons all by himself. Charlie himself was just as bullheaded as Bill was, but in the opposite direction.

“If you’re going to that sanctuary, then I’m going with you -- no arguments,” he’d shot back.

Seeing the impasse the two brothers were at, Carewyn immediately moved into “compromise” mode. Bill had already said that he’d have to cancel one of his sessions at Hogwarts in order to complete this mission, and facing so many dragons alone would be way too dangerous, even for a full-grown wizard...so why not kill two birds with one stone by having Charlie, her, and a few other sixth-year students come with Bill to help him find the egg? That way, if Bill needed to stun a dragon at any point, there would be at least two other people shooting Stunning Spells with him.

“Dragons can only be taken down with multiple Stunning spells,” Carewyn reminded him. “You wouldn’t be able to take one down on your own, if you got cornered. I only got lucky with the one in the Vault -- that one was already in bad shape before I faced it. These dragons...they’re in a preserve. They’ll have been treated well. And because they’re protected by Wizarding Law, you probably wouldn’t be allowed to use any spells that could really hurt them, like the Conjunctivitis Curse. Half the reason the dragon in the Vault didn’t kill me was because it couldn’t see me.”

Bill clearly hated how much sense Carewyn was making. His protective big brother instincts fought with his interest in completing his mission, but at long last, he relented.

Carewyn and Charlie got Barnaby, Penny, and Merula on board, and the group visited Hagrid to borrow his camping tent and get some general camping advice and Kettleburn to get some instruction on dragon safety. That Friday, the five sixth-years gathered at the Training Grounds to meet Bill.

It had been so eerie to meet Bill, Charlie, and Merula at the Training Grounds so they could leave Hogwarts via Portkey. For a second, Carewyn felt her shoulders tensing up and her blood freezing as if she was going back into the Portrait Vault. It was only seeing Barnaby and Penny’s faces instead of Rakepick and Ben’s that made her feel the least bit grounded again, even as she took hold of the Portkey and the six of them were flung off their feet and spun around faster and faster and faster --

When they arrived at their destination, Carewyn felt her breath still in her throat.

There were massive trees as far as the eye could see -- dramatic cliffs and mountains dotted the horizon -- the air was so fresh and light, dusted with the scent of pine and burnt oak -- and then overhead, soaring with their wings wide right over them, were dozens of massive, majestic dragons.

It was beautiful.

Carewyn grinned from ear to ear seeing how happy Charlie was. She’d always thought dragons were cool, but her admiration of the creatures had nothing on what her fellow Fireball thought of them. Carewyn had always loved listening to her friends talk about their greatest passions, and Charlie was no exception.

It was quickly decided that it would be best to set up camp and start searching for the golden egg the next morning. As safe as Carewyn thought they’d be with the defensive magical wards she’d put up, she and Bill both thought that searching a dragon preserve at night was still riskier than it was probably worth. Soon the group had set up camp and -- on Barnaby’s suggestion -- started roasting marshmallows over a roaring campfire.

Barnaby immediately proposed sharing scary stories. Penny was reluctant; Carewyn herself didn’t love being scared herself and she didn’t want to upset Penny, but she reassured the blond Hufflepuff all the same.

“Sometimes it’s fun to be a little scared -- especially when you know those things aren’t real and can’t hurt you,” Carewyn had told her. “I mean, you’re with your friends. You know we wouldn’t let anything hurt you.”

Merula gave a sharp bark of a laugh.

Her voice was noticeably softer than normal, which startled Carewyn. The Slytherin Prefect hadn’t really included Merula in her mind when she’d said that, but...the look on Merula’s face made Carewyn feel almost guilty that she hadn’t. She was very glad that Barnaby started right into his scary story about the Bloody Broom.

Carewyn was actually getting really into Barnaby’s story before the roar of a dragon flying a mere four feet over their heads made the entire group duck, even as the defensive wards around the camp effectively kept the dragon’s tail or claws from touching them.

“Let’s go inside,” Carewyn said quickly, trying to will down her own heart rate as she looked over her companions’ identical white faces.

To Be Continued...

[traviscanuckny-follows]

Main 6 Reacting to a Deaf MC

@spicysarahcha gave me this prompt over Discord so here we go. Please note that some of these are going off of my own experiences with deaf/hard-of-hearing individuals and don’t reflect everyone’s.

Asra:

✨ Probably the most capable of handling it, knowing you for as long as he has, and having memories of those times. There was a bit of a learning curve when you first came back, but he rallies quickly and is consistent in making sure you’re comfortable. Most experienced/well versed in signing.

✨ Faust can be something of a shock at times, because you can ‘hear’ her so to speak. If there’s ever communication issues, she tries to help by getting messages across when Asra can’t. Similarly, with the Arcana, you can understand them and the messages they want to get across.

✨ Many attempts at using magic to help you hear, but eventually gives up beyond the occasional telepathy spell. Has absolutely used one of said spells to convey how much he loves you more than a gesture or sign can express.

✨ Bonus angst: If you weren’t deaf before you came back, but were upon him giving you half his heart, he’s distraught. He did everything he could to bring you back and he must have messed up somehow to have you comeback with a disability, and one that will affect so much of your life. Tries to find out what’s wrong, but eventually you convince him that its all you know now, and that it wasn’t his fault. His heart breaks a little bit every time you have to watch from the sidelines when it comes to things like music.

Julian:

♠️ Has more experience with deaf people than you might expect. As a doctor he dealt with a lot of disabilities, especially as a result of plague complications. When he’s in ‘doctor mode’ he’s pretty well versed in signing and making sure you can understand the points he’s getting across. Non-doctor mode Julian is a whole other story. He knows medical related signs well enough, but for real life? Help this poor man he just wants you to understand what he’s saying. 

♠️ His flair for the dramatics is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, his facial expressions help get his moods across, and what would be his tone of voice. This is especially true if you can read lips. On the other hand, he has a tendency to gesture wildly which can throw off how things can be read.

♠️ It takes a little while, but he does eventually manage to combine his doctor-signing skills with his everyday signing skills, and things go smoothly from there. There are definitely bumps in the road, and there are many times when he wishes you can hear the music in the Rowdy Raven, or notice how off beat his dancing is, but you’re perfectly content with how expressive he is, and how happy he makes you, even if you can’t hear him say it.

Nadia:

👑 Probably the best at understanding how things need to be done, and how to best communicate with you, after Asra. I’d imagine her having at least some experience with sign language, but there being a difference between Vesuvian and Prakran dialect that can complicate things. She studies incessantly to bridge this gap so she can communicate as well as possible.

👑 Has called in a translator from time to time, especially in cases when you’re helping her with diplomatic stuff, and affairs of the court. As often as she accepts your advice and trusts your judgement, she’d rather not risk a gap in communications causing trouble on a more ‘official’ level if it can be avoided.

👑 When it comes to court members/servants/other residential people in the palace, she has them take something of a crash course in sign language so there’s free communication. However, if she hears someone talking bad about you, knowing you can’t hear it, its an almost guaranteed banishment, at minimum.

Muriel:

🌳 He doesn’t talk that much anyway, so this isn’t as huge of a problem as it would be for say, Lucio or Julian. Though he may deny it, he gives a surprising amount of his thoughts away through body language and facial expressions, and this is a huge help in your relationship. There are a few signs that you’ve taught him for necessity/ease, but compared to the others its not needed as often.

🌳 His real concern is how much danger you could be in if you can’t hear trouble coming. The forest isn’t exactly safe at night, especially if Lucio is still wandering around. He fears for you when you go out, and often refuses to let you go alone, often either going with you himself, or sending Inanna if you’re going to a place he’s uncomfortable going to (the arena, red market, etc.)

🌳 Makes you a bunch of protection charms that he has you carry, along with the pouch to remember him with. Probably had Asra charm them so if you’re in real danger, he’ll be alerted and can go to you. Speaking of Asra, has probably also secretly asked him for tips on how to best communicate with you.

Portia:

🐈 Expresses herself through actions more than speech a lot of the time. Rather than trying to figure out how to properly sign for the the hi-jinks she wants to get into (ghost hunting and climbing down ivy are probably a very niche part of signing) she’s been known to do charades or draw them out.

🐈 However, I think she, along with Julian and Lucio, struggled the most with learning to sign. She’s either unable to read and write, or learned late in life (as shown in her short), so she probably has trouble learning what is essentially a new language on top of that. Nadia probably gets her a tutor when she brings it up at some point, which helps.

🐈 The two of you have your own secret signs that you use for certain things, think when kids have their own secret language/codes. Inside jokes, secrets, or just gestures that you find funny enough to immortalize. There have absolutely been times where you sign one of these and confuse anyone who can actually sign in the room because “Why did the court magician just wave their arm like that and why is the head servant about to fall over laughing?”

Lucio:

👹 Probably struggles the most out of the Main 6, not only because he’s so dramatic and hard to handle, but also because there’s likely some limitations in signing functionality with a metal arm and hand. Most likely to hire a full time translator for the palace, and rely on them, though he does truly try to learn for your sake.

👹 He’s probably the most prone to getting frustrated when the two of you struggle to communicate. He knows its not your fault, but its extremely frustrating for him to not be able to communicate what he wants to say to you, especially because he’s so used to people listening to him. Has gotten frustrated and left the room, only to come back later and apologize, that it wasn’t your fault, that he’s still getting used to it and trying his best.

👹 Like Muriel, he doesn’t care for the idea of you going out alone, especially because he knows he has enemies. Usually sends the pups with you for intimidation. Also, like Nadia, he takes no shit when people try to look down at you or make fun of you for being deaf. Has threatened hanging on multiple occasions, only for you to talk him down. “Educate, don’t execute.”

[splazbee]

A guide to Reverse Asra (and how to avoid it)

I’ve seen some people already covering the reversed routes for the characters, but I found the need to try and understand first hand.

So, after a lot of pain, I found my way to the Reversed Asra route. There are several keys to getting it, which is the same for all the characters: feed into their bad habits and negative traits. Don’t push them to change. For Asra, those negative traits are as such: his tendency to run away, to push away the problems, isolating himself and an obsessive need to keep MC safe.

The first three are all aspects of one problem. When talking with Asra about our past, he told MC about the argument they had. Asra wanted to escape the town, leave the people to fend for themselves and him to find a safe place. He wanted to go with MC, but MC wanted to help the city. 

Here are some roots of the problem, and Asra can react in different ways. In the Upright route, Asra learns how to stand his ground in face of adversity, how to let people in and let them help. He can make MC grow. The other, Reverse reaction, is to regret even more not keeping MC safe and going to extreme heights to do so. He already gave up a part of his heart for MC to return to life, what more wouldn’t he do?

Encouraging his desire to run away, making MC look and act helpless, therefore making Asra believe MC would never survive without him, is the recipe for the disaster that is the Reverse route.

And here is why.

I went aaaall the way back to when MC and Asra went to his Sanctuary out of Vesuvia. MC is asked by Asra if they would prefer a big, bustling city, or a remote place. Answering remote appeals to his want to run away, especially with the apprentice.  Clap and a half for escapism everyone. 

The next choice is possibly not the most important in this whole scheme, but even choosing how to ride Beast can have its weight. Sitting in front is more adventurous, while sitting behind Asra? It already shows MC relies on him, in a way literally hiding behind his back.

I forgot to take my note in this choice, so i forgot where it was exactly in the midst of important choices, but it’s about MC’s dream. Telling Asra the dream about MC and him going off in a separate dimension or universe all of their own was a good one, welp, (a little maybe spoiler) lets not plant ideas in either Asra’s or MC’s head, m’kay?

Helping the villagers. While you do help them anyway, the way you go about it matters. Picking “We’re busy”, even though that is not exactly true, makes MC seem very callous, and selfish. Asra is shocked for a moment before he laughs. While picking this choice made me feel guilty, it does its job of isolating MC, and therefore Asra, from the outside world.

Next, relying on Asra to deal with the well. Again, enforcing the notion that MC needs to rely on Asra to do all the heavy lifting, and Asra, being the precious bean he is, shows once again that he would do anything for MC. This is not shaping up to be a healthy relationship people, especially for Asra.

Not taking the initiative and asking Asra to dance, and instead sitting in a faraway corner with him - isolation again.

Next the choice of going back directly to the palace, or first visiting the shop - this is avoiding the problems, leaving them for later. Running away from them. Not literally, not yet, but going there.

Meeting Muriel is the next on the chopping block. The most important bit is MC’s reaction to meeting him - whether MC is happy to meet him, or feeling nervous. Choosing nervous shows an unwillingness to meet new people, slight suspicion of them, and most importantly - a dependency on Asra.

Following this is MC’s opinion on Asra and Muriel. The choices being “Good thing you got away” and “Good thing you had each other”, based on previous statements, it’s written right there on the box which answer makes it more likely to get the Reverse route.

When Asra is confronted about his vanishing habit by Julian, MC saying “You’re always there for me” sounds suspiciously supportive, but it isn’t really, not in the long run. Telling Asra he has a vanishing-into-lands-unknown problem right in his face provokes change. In a positive direction, god forbid. I’m saying this sarcastically, but while he cares about Muriel, Nadia and Julian, if MC tells him to do something, he will follow it to the dot. Telling him he is always there for us just keeps him blind to his faults.

And so, we reach THE TRIAL. Picking the choice of Asra telling the people he’s innocent? Nicely packaged, but ultimately a bad decision. Asra keeps his secrets close to his chest, and while we all love this floofy boy, it is a fact he has quite the dark side. So he also lies. Condoning that is not okay. Him telling the truth challenges him. It’s against him. But he trusts MC, so when MC wants him to tell the truth, he changes. He grows.

Next up, MC asking Nadia to stop the fight is a bad choice, though I don’t believe it to be such a major one. But it shows one thing: no matter how much MC relies on Asra, they don’t truly believe in him or his abilities. This exact thing will play its role again in a later choice.

The next few choices are a bit foggy for me. I’m pretty sure in the next choice, picking “Let me help” is an Upright choice. Because wow, MC doesn’t want to rely on Asra and actually tries to be equal with him, like a healthy relationship should be? Whaaat?

When asked by Asra what MC would do in his place, I am confused as to which one is the Reverse choice. To me personally, “I’d do anything” seems to validate everything Asra has done for us, making it a situation of ends-justify-the-means. While I’m very happy that he did resurrect MC, because we wouldn’t have a story without that, it may push him into thinking that its always all in when it comes to MC. Pushing his protectiveness into an obsession.

“Why am I here?” and the “...” option seem to be the next Reverse choices. The first one shows that MC is still relying on heir teacher to explain things to them, a bit of naivete that kindles at Asra’s protectiveness. It’s a similar situation with “...” MC has no idea how to react, and need Asra to support them.

I’ll be shorter for the next choices, as this is getting quite long. “Did it change you?” seems to be the next Reverse choice, because “I’d do the same for you” is supportive, but i could be wrong here, as I was very conflicted. Trying to cancel the Masquerade is again avoidance of problems and running away. When it’s about Faust the “You’d do the same for me” seems to be the reverse choice. To me it feels like MC implies they don’t really care about Faust, and who would be so mad as to not like her, amirite?

Next up, dealing with the Devil. I picked No for his first offer, and then yes after he made Faust vanish. He confusion and fear broke me. Next I chose to tell the Devil that indeed, the Masquerade was enjoyable, but now we are so far into this Reverse hell, I don’t even know if it matters anymore. The next choice is very transparent - MC telling Asra they can’t do this alone after MC is left stranding in the Half world (what was the term for it again?)

Trusting Scout and telling the Magician MC doesn’t feel safe with him also aren’t very obvious to me.

Next up - Asra’s confession!!!  I trembled as, when in the face of his declaration, I made MC stutter out an “I... um...” Get yourself together MC, this boy needs love.

Magic realm time! Choosing the “I just want this to be over” shows the now infamous in this essay need to escape and get away, preferably to some isolated place. When confronted with the magic chains, “Find a safer path” shows MC unwillingness to stand up to adversity, and, well, a lack of courage. How will MC deal with the Devil is now beyond me (pun not intended, but the foreshadowing is too good for me to redact this).

Interactions with Asra’s parents. As with Muriel, an unwillingness to meet and trust new people, no matter how close they may be to Asra, must be shown. To me shaking hands seems more impersonal, and later not commending the spell Asra’s dad crafted. When in a timed choice attacking the tree is too straightforward, so the Reverse answer should be when MC goes into ‘helpless’ mode and just going “what do we do?!” Then right after, unwillingness to trust Asra’s dad to heal us, making Asra do it, and the poor boy is so jittery and nervous and afraid and stressed he can’t cast the magic fully and/or correctly.

Here comes LUCI! Asra presents MC with the idea of trapping Lucio. And here comes that point from waaaaaay back up at the gladiator battle, where MC doubted his abilities and his decisions. Picking “I’m not so sure...” and then completely disregarding Asra’s advice about approaching the water, shows a complete lack of faith in Asra, unwillingness to listen to him and sealing the deal of his protectiveness of MC turning into an obsession.

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 20

Finally, we have come to the Reversed route. Asra goes completely into a tunnel vision mode. Where in the Upright path, he suggests we use MCs blood to give the immunity of our magic to all the guests of the arcane feast, in the Reversed path he completely focuses on running away. Asking where we should run, the oasis or the shop, trying to find the right way in the maze. 

At a moment he says “... we can escape. Make sure the ritual fails. That’s... that’s all we can do now.” and when Muriel’s charm starts to completely give out Asra says “You can escape. Run far away, live your life...” In answer to MC choosing to say “I don’t think I can”, he apologizes. 

“I... I’m so sorry, MC. I wanted to protect you, but...”

Everything we started with. His desire to escape, run to a faraway place, protecting MC. All traits present thorough the story, fed by choices of at least 11 books. This is what causes the Reversed end.

He turned into a scared, helpless wreck of a man, desperate and trapped in his needs. And even if at the table, MC finally tries to take a stand and use Magic, its finally revealed why we can do what we can do, but seriously, we all knew we were the Fool already. Even then, MC has go make a deal with the Devil.

This is the end of this long, long essay. I’ll probably make a summarized version of this. More people will be inclined to reach the end at least :D

[veroticker]

Diesel - Crimson Syn

You can buy the book on Amazon.

Summary (from Crimson Syn’s Goodreads page)

Jack Diesel is hiding something.

All rugged goodness, with a dark edge,

He’s the type of man who will get me into trouble.

The type of man I should stay away from.

There’s no avoiding someone like Diesel.

He’s a powerful magnet that lights my whole body on fire.

But he has secrets.

Secrets I can’t help but look into.

Secrets that are hindering me from being with him.

Secrets I intend to uncover.

Gabriela Cristiano is a delicious little spitfire.

She’s tough, cynical, and sexy as fuck.

She knows the power she wields on men and I’m no different because I crave her.

From the moment she fell on my lap, I can’t keep myself away.

One moment we’re arguing the next she’s on her knees before me.

She’s a rollercoaster ride I don’t want to get off of.

If only I could tell her about my past.

If only I could learn to love again.

Diesel has a dark past, but that won't stop him from making you squirm in your seats. Hold on to your panties ladies, Diesel's going to take you for a wild ride.

Blurb

“Three Weeks Ago…

I pulled up to Ravenous and wondered how the hell Chastity had found the guts to get involved with the Hellbound Lovers. They were a hefty bunch of men, all brawn and muscle. Having had to do extensive research on them, I actually found them to be a group of really fascinating, and powerful men. Men I definitely wouldn’t mind having at my back.

I sat there for a moment and assessed the infamous club Ravenous. The prestige club only let members in, and hosted hundreds of MCs that were in trouble or just needed neutral ground to relax in. It was notorious in the biker community for its sexual allure, and if you wanted in you’d need to agree to be put through a vigorous background check. Any sins you’ve committed, the Hellbound Lovers knew about them and they’d use them against you if need be. Helluva way to have leverage if you ask me.

The club always lured me, but I never had the guts to take a ride up to visit it. Tonight, was definitely going to be an experience. Loud music poured out from inside what looked to outsiders as an abandoned warehouse. Drunk bikers came out of a small door on the side, you could barely make it out along the dark brick wall. They swayed and laughed as they stepped out into the cool night air. I gingerly got off my bike and removed my helmet. As my brunette locks fell across my back I got the perpetual cat calls from a group of men across the street. I shook my head and made my way into Ravenous.

The man at the door was huge, at least six two or taller, and he had these powerful arms that would intimidate any man. And here I was, all five-foot-four curves of me, meeting his glare head on and eyeing him up and down.

“Name?”

“Gabriela Cristiano. Wolf Stone is expecting me.”

He curved up an eyebrow and let his eyes slowly roam down my body. I placed my hand on my hip and let the LAPD badge shine as his gaze dropped from my breasts to the shiny gold shield.

“Right this way.” Immediately he led me through the door and into the raunchiest scenario I’d ever experienced. The nude girls up on the stage were nothing new, it was the scenes below the stage, hidden in so many dark corners, where men were openly being satisfied orally and physically in every aspect you could think of, that’s what had my jaw dropping.

“This way,” the large man smirked at me as he signaled for me to follow him. Being a private establishment, I couldn’t do anything to stop them and they damn well knew it.

I was so busy ogling the scenes before me that I wasn’t watching where I was going. I gaped, my mouth opened in shock, as I spotted two women near the corner of the bar, on their knees, satisfying one helluva green eyed god. I stumbled over my feet, and suddenly I was flying over a chair. A set of powerful hands wrapped themselves around my waist and held me tightly in a strong embrace. I went to get up off the man’s lap, but he just shifted me around. I was about to tell him to keep his hands to myself when I met his dark gaze.

“Careful sweetheart,” he smiled up at me and the sound of his deep rumble nearly had me cumming for him right on the spot. Unexpectedly, my pussy throbbed wondering what it would be like to be taken back to one of those shadowed corners by this specific man, the music pounding around us, hiding my screams of ecstasy and grunts of dirty words being uttered out of his plush lips.”

(review under the cut)

Review

(audiobook) It was only my second MC romance. That should tell you the interest I have in the genre. Yet I went in with an open mind. I couldn’t be disappointed, and I wasn’t. It was neither good nor bad, just not my thing.

The story quickly became very heated, so I thought it would be erotica. But then it teased me with an interesting plot--of revenge against the man who killed Diesel’s wife. I was excited! But it let me down when the plot was resolved too quickly and I was left with half hearted emotions.

I never believed in Diesel and Gabriela’s feelings for each other. Lust at first sight, yeah, sure. But I didnt see the love.

I wasn’t too fond of the narrator either. I felt he tried to hard to sound sexy. But I’m not familiar with his work, I may try another book to see if it’s just his style.

At least it was a short read/listen, so I didn’t have time to get bored. And that explains how fast the story is resolved too.

Quickie

Series: Hellbound lovers MC #7 (can be read as a standalone, but there are backstories in previous books)

Hashtags: #MC romance #romantic suspense

Triggers: not too graphic depiction of a manslaughter

Main couple: Gabriela Cristiano & Jack Diesel

Hotness: 4/5

Romance: 3/5

+ an alpha male who shows vulnerability, oh yes

- the suspense part could have been more developped

  Stalker mode

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