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[cloudluvrrr]

Past.

a/n: YALL WANTED THIS BAD OMG so pt 2 to my before fic, basically it goes a little further back and a lot more in detail after his planet blew up :3. This one’s long! But Tysm :)

Past boothill x reader ft some headcannons. (Gender neutral w some fem indication later on)

forwards reckon rebound

--

-Boothill was a sweet kid, a little dumb at times but he always gave his effort. Always curious and helping out on his families farm, helping his dads with his siblings as hes the 3rd oldest .

-He never gave much trouble as a kid, always listening other than sleeping in more or sleeping on hay sometimes.

-his family wasn't made of money, but he always had everything he needed or want.

-Growing up with the idea girls had cooties...as he eats crayons.

-he learns guitar as he got one for christmas, he goes to the local church to learn how to play it. He'd bring his scuffed up cd player to show the teacher the songs he wanted to learn.

-His parents take him out every weekend, teaching him how to hunt, ride a horse or how to shoot a gun.

-he has a habit of looking off into the distance. Wide eyes as he looked off into the sunset wondering what was beyond his small family and tribe.

-He loves stories, often reading picture books at the library or getting one of his parents too read it to him before bed. As well as sneaking into his dads room to watch his shows, his favorite being of an outlaw.

-His family went to church once in awhile, but always went during christmas. Boothill hated dressing up, but he loved the songs. When he learned guitar would join as well, playing christmas songs.

-Everyone in town knew him, he was always making a name for himself.

--

-You'd show up in his life while he was in school, messily drawing on his math paper (instead of doing it) with his tongue out as the teacher announced a new student. As you were a new student in 3th grade, boothill being boothill would introduce himself as the class sheriff to impress you.

"I'm Boothill, the class sheriff! I keep everyone in line, and make sure they all do what they're supposed too!" he said in a confident tone puffing out his chest.

-Thats where it all began.

--

-the teacher put you beside him which made him often pout and utter that you had cooties, while he didn’t do his work.

-he often ‘patrolled’ during recess but in reality no one wanted to play with him. (Since he had two dads and he looked nothing like them) they didn’t like how different he was from them. So he decided to give you a shot, since you also only sat on the swing set.

‘Hey..’ he said with a slight frown ‘..I’m not busy today patrollin’ wanna play’ he asked looking away with a small dust of pink on his cheeks

‘..sure, you can push me’ you said perking up

—

-after that you’d always sit on the swing set together, as he’s talk about anything and everything. How he didn’t like waking up early, how his youngest sibling kicked him in the shin, his horse, how Nick complimented his shooting. He loved talking about his family

‘..maybe you should come over.. you’d like the meatloaf my daddy makes’ he said kicking his feet against the dirt ‘if you want too.. it’s a big White House with a barn ‘bout 10 minutes from town’

‘I’ll ask about it, I’d like to see your animals. All we have right now is chickens, and they get annoying’

You went to his farm, his family was happy he'd made a friend. That was the first of many visits!

--

-You two soon became inseparable as you grew older and closer, everyone in town knew when one was around the other probably was too.

-Always going to school festivals together, shopping, staying out at night, laying in fields at night looking at the constellations, coming home wet from splashing each other with water.

-It was a romance from the novels you read, the only part left was the confession. You often thought about it, 'maybe this week..' you'd think as another day went by and he hadn't confessed.

-Until that faithful day

-The sun was setting, it was a day like any other. He seemed a bit on edge but it was normal.

-

He was sitting up, his chin resting on his shoulder as he stared out at the cornfield near his house mindlessly. The sky a peachy tint as you laid on his sheets, looking up at him admiring his long hair and jawline. '...I like you" he said softly his gaze never leaving the window.

'really?' you couldn't believe it, finally it happened. 'I like you too, ya know' you replied still admiring his figure. His gaze meets yours and eventually his lips. The same lips that introduced himself in the past, chapped yet soft.

You'd never felt more in love.

-

-the next few weeks didn't change much, kisses here and there and he'd get more touchy. But he also spoke more about the future, how he wanted to either build or fix a older house. He wanted a small family, a farm and barn animals.

'I'd like to fix up that house at the end of town" he said leaning against the barn door looking off into the distance once more, as you looked over his barn cats kittens. 'You think you could?' you add standing up and leaning in front of him

'Yeah, make it all nice and pretty for you' and smile wrapping a hand around your waist. 'A pretty kitchen, cozy livin' room, big room..' he said with a small giggle kissing your nose.

'it'd be a dream baby'

-Soon after he told you he was dropping out of school, he was 17 and decided he didn’t need to further his education. And just help out his dads on the farm, while he scrapped together some money. You were mad, but understood he had a different path and mind than yours. Even if you tried arguing with him that he only needed 2 more years to graduate, he’d blow it off and just go fix his truck.

-but while you were at school getting educated (weirdo) he eventually fixed up the old house at the end of town he always spoke about. He’d also made a small ring, with a single stone on it. He could afford a real promise ring, but he thought this one was more special. Even carving their initials on it.

-one day when you both were old enough, and you were out of school be finally brought you to the home. And promising to stay by your side.

‘Your lyin’ you said looking at the delicate ring

‘..no? I want you to be by my side, while I save up for your weddin’ ring’ he said softly slipping it onto your finger.

‘Cause your my past present and future’ he said pressing pecks all over your face.

-soon you both lived together, slowly building your life on the farm, getting chickens, moving his horse from his family’s farm to your forever home. It was a dream all over again

-it was mundane, you would tend or the animals and boothill would fix things and do the heavy work or sometimes you’d do the heavy lifting and when he’d leave for a few days. At the end of the night you’d lay in bed together. You wouldn’t have it another way.

-when there wasn’t work done he’d sit out under a tree playing his guitar, watching you put his shirts on the clothes line. As he hummed and played love songs.

He’d sneak up on you snatching you into his arms and tackling you into the grass. As he admired your laughing face.

-19 was when he found the baby girl in the cold, lost in thought. When he heard the cry, and your lives changed once more. Now a family of 3.

-it was hard, you didn’t make much money. But his family had hand me downs, boothills old crib and toys. You’d sew her dresses, boothill would attempt at making hats and mittens for her as well.

They were always too big, and he’d say she’d grow into them while the girl sucked on the fluffy oversized mitten in his arms. Looking up at him with wide eyes, he wasn’t even 20 and he felt fulfilled.

-when she was a little older and starting to crawl around and walk a little, he carved her a small cherry wood guitar.

She couldn’t play it, but when he had his out he gave her the small guitar so she could ‘play’ along side him.

-he loved the days where he’d sit outside and the little one was waddling around picking up dandelions and handing them to him

‘Oh for me? Their so pretty darlin’’ he smiled softly ruffling the girls hair and letting her waddle around more as she babbled to herself.

-sometimes he’d think of leaving but

-it was all perfect, a house he’d fixed, a barn with animals, his perfect lover, a daughter, all he needed was to make it official. An engagement ring.

-he was saving for months, finally he had the money to buy the one you were eyeing at the store.

‘I’m going to the market’ he announced putting the bills in his wallet.

‘Can’t I join? I got a bad feelin’ Boothill, them ipc people don’t like the town’ you said.

He hesitated ‘it’s just my usual errand nothing special’ he replied kissing you. ‘I’ll be back take care of her for me’ he smiled kissing the girls cheek.

—

Only to return to ashes, he’d heard two workers joke about this very tragedy. He thought nothing of it. Not till he heard the explosions, and saw the flames. He couldn’t bring himself to go inside, he can’t imagine what it was like.

He couldn’t bring himself to tears, those twenty years he’d spend building his life with you gone.

The ashes of your once blue home, the farm on fire. He couldn’t bring himself to search for your bodies, he barely made it to find your family pictures.

He didn’t sleep, for 3 days and then he slept for 3 days straight. Before leaving behind two crosses over the sight.

And he finally left the planet, he spent a few months searching before he found a doctor that could help him.

He decided he needed to end his life, to kill his current self. Leave his past, and that’s exactly what he did. His mechanic fixed him.

All he remembers is the taste of metallic in his mouth and seeing his heart removed, as he died.

His rebirth into Boothill

—

Basically a yap session and excuse to talk ab him again after the 2.6 story line :P might add or not

Hope you enjoyed 😣

tags :3

@jassy-ine @shuzoku @sneakylilbartender @kita-01 @edxo @blueangelstone

[povlnfour]

ੈ✩‧₊˚ PADDOCK TO PADDOCK (LN) PART 8

series masterlist | previous part

lando norris x fem!horse rider!reader

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landonorris 100th race, p2, and a nice little call with my girl to show off her flexibility. thank you austin

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user3 ‘MY GIRL’🥹🥹🥹

user7 I KNEWWW EVERYTHING WOULD BE OKAY

user9 lando have you seen what she’s done?

landonorris have friends? yeah pretty happy for her tbh

charles_leclerc p2 because the fia hates lewis and me*

user2 see everyone the boys are fine

landonorris keep crying mate

yourusername i actually hate you so bad rn

yourusername @/charles_leclerc SURE you don’t wanna date me instead?

user1 HELP Y/N AJDJDJSJ

user6 she said i’ve had ENOUGH

charles_leclerc make me that rice dish again and i’ll consider it

landonorris @/charles_leclerc you don’t even know what tteokbokki is called you don’t deserve her😤

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yourusername from monaco with love

👤 tagged alex_albon, lilymhe, charles_leclerc

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alex_albon we need to have a serious conversation about how cute lily always looks in the photos you take and yet…. me…

lilymhe that’s just your face baby

charles_leclerc he’s not gonna know what hit him🤫

yourusername you could not have made this sound worse

charles_leclerc i’m quite enjoying being an accessory to internet drama

lilymhe do you know what’s rude? you spend one (1) second with a man and get a dating rumour… yet NOTHING when you hang w me!

yourusername FR we’ve been married for two years atp🙄

landonorris i know a Better place in monaco you can visit🧡

yourusername get your cute butt home and show me then

texts with charles ੈ✩‧₊˚

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y/nupdates y/n at the airport today!! it seems she’s flying out to mexico for the upcoming grand prix 🩷

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user9 seriously? has everyone just forgotten she’s a cheater?

user3 and yet you follow fan accounts of her??? get a life

user7 ur actually miserable. lando hates u.

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y/nupdates any unnecessary hate comments will be deleted and you will be blocked🩷

user8 she’s so pretty even in the rain :( and she stopped to take photos with fans

user1 apparently someone gave her a necklace with an L on it and she put it straight on🥹

user8 @/user1 YOURE KIDDING THATS SO CUTE IM GONNA CRY

user1 THEY GAVE HER A MATCHING BRACELET FOR LANDO WITH HER INITIALS ON AS WELL!!!!

landonorris thank you admin for giving me a new lockscreen

user2 OH MY GOD ADMIN

y/nupdates 🫣🫣🫣🫣🫣 YOU ARE SO WELCOME

landonorris just tweeted ੈ✩‧₊˚

tweet 4 should finish: hate towards those close to me*

tweet 6 should finish: blocked by my team**

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mclaren from p17-p5. not the start to the weekend he wanted but he only went and turned it around🙌🏻

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user2 SO PROUDDDS

user9 all because of her….

user3 HAVE FUN GETTING BLOCKED LMAO

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user6 GUYS I THINK MCLAREN ACTUALLY BLOCKED THEM THE COMMENT ISNT SHOWING UP FOR ME LMAOOO

yourusername that’s my boy

mclaren we heard it had something to do with his lucky charm😉

user3 this isn’t taking a week off ma’am

yourusername had to support the boy. it starts now <3

y/nupdates just tweeted ੈ✩‧₊˚

a/n:

OKAY this part was boring i am very sorry BUT there is onE OFFICIAL PART LEFT. it’ll be a long one i warn now but then there may be a mini epilogue of stuff i fully made up for next summer xxxx

thank you all for coming on this crazy ride with me — sorry it’s aLL OVER THE PLACE atm but it makes sense in my head ok

charles au is also otw next week and a one shot lando smau

taglist (found in pinned post): @idkiwantchocolatee @vellicoranorca @alessioayla @bborra @crimeshowjunkie @minkyungseokie @paolexsstuff @celestialpato @champagnelovers101 @loxbbg @hobiismyhopeu @tsukishitm-a @moonypixel @champagneproblems17 @ironmaiden1313 @lqvesoph @sunflower-golden-vol6 @six-call

[tobitofunction]

The Pact of Fire and Ice part 7

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part5 part 6

Spoilers for the future of house of the dragon, not a 100% accurate to the book

after a thousand years it updated again

You tighten your flight jacket around your body, "It's still not too late to stay here" Cregan said, "It's a fight of dragons, as a dragon I need to fight" you said turning towards him, he was in his armour his fur coat currently missing, he hummed and cupped your cheek,"I love your flight gear so much" he said placing his other hand around your waist, "You should walk around like this more often" he added kissing you gently, "I could say the same thing for you, the fur cloak his hiding to much of your armour" you said against his lips, kissing him again gently pulling at his locks "Don't tempt me now wife, we won't leave the bed for another week if you continue like this" he said as his lips ghost against yours,"My Lord?" a servant said gently," What is it" he said closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against yours," Aemond Targaryen took over Harrenhall and killed everyone within the walls" he said straightening his posture”Any word from Dragonstone?”,” They are preparing to use Aemond absent as advantage to take over Kingslanding and they want you to march as soon as possible” Cregan hummed,” Are the troop’s ready”,” Yes Lord, the Greyjoy and Manderly ships are also deployed to strengthen the sea snakes and help out to invade Kingslanding and destroy the Lannister fleet ” you turned to Cregan and patted his chest,"Well my Lord husband it's time, send worth to my mother that her army is coming" you said making the servant nod and bow before leaving. Cregan sighed and wrapped his hand around yours,"Off to war then".

You ended up deciding to ride your horse alongside Cregan. Tyraxes was flying alongside the winter wolves, high in the sky, she was just a blop in the bright white sky. “The roads are treacherous,” you said,” The north doesn’t have the privilege of the west wife, our harsh winters just keep destroying the roads so we don’t fix them, as it a waste of resources we rather put them elsewhere to good use” Cregan explained riding closer to you,” My men don’t find it a good idea to bring you along,” he said after a while,” Why not?” you questioned,” They believe you should stay in winter fell, swollen with a child,” he said softly, you sighed,” I suppose that was the deal of our marriage. I provided you with heirs in return for your help to get my mother’s crown back,” you said,” It’s different now however, our first born won’t be the Lord of Winterfell but heir to the Iron Throne,” he said,” Or daughter” you added making Cregan nod after a while,” Or daughter,” he said with a smile which you returned," I'm not bringing a child into this world until the war is over, I don't want to be pregnant while the danger of being assassinated by the greens is an option" you said which Cregan nodded at,"I agree with you on that one, also I'm scared of you carrying my heir" he said," My first wife died on the birthing bed with my son following in the days after",he said softly remembering the pain of losing his childhood love and first born child, he felt like dying in months after,"I'm scared too, losing children during pregnancy is common within my family, maester stated that each one of them had dragon like deformities, my sister had scales and a tale when she was born, I guess our blood is cursed" you said,"The Stark blood line isn't any different, I guess we can be cursed together" your cheeks heated up at that comment,"I guess we could". "My Lord it's getting dark and the men are tired" Greyjoy said,"Than we set up camp for the night".

You sat in front of the fire with Cregan sitting next to you, he was drinking some ale and talking to his men while we waited for the food to cook. You looked over your shoulder and saw Tyraxes, you excused yourself from Cregan and walked over to the large beast," Ao merbugon hāedar? (you hungry girl?)" Tyraxes lifted her head and pressed it against your body gently,"Nyke find nykeā tīkor hen ōtor syt ao hemtubis nyke kivio (

You sat in front of the fire with Cregan sitting next to you, he was drinking some ale and talking to his men while we waited for the food to cook. You looked over your shoulder and saw Tyraxes, you excused yourself from Cregan and walked over to the large beast," Ao merbugon hāedar? (you hungry girl?)" Tyraxes lifted her head and pressed it against your body gently,"Nyke find nykeā tīkor hen ōtor syt ao hemtubis nyke kivio (I find a flock of sheep for you tomorrow I promise)" you said rubbing her scaly head,"You need to teach me Valyrian" Cregan's said from behind you, one hand found it's way around your waist.While the other rubbed Tyraxes forehead," She still seems to like me which is good" he smiled,"Or tent is ready if you want to sleep" he added after a second, "I will, I just wanted to check on her, we need to find her food tomorrow, she will need all the energy when we fight the greens" you said, Cregan hummed.

You shed your riding gear and got into something more comfortable,"If you are looking to take a bath there is creek close by" Cregan said sitting down on a chair,"A creek?" you lifted a brow,"Yes, my dear wife we are off to war so we won't have our usual luxuries but you are always welcome to fly home" Cregan said,"I know what you are trying to do and it won't work, I'm coming with you. I will be in the creek....fish don't live there?" Cregan chuckled and stood up,"I protect you from the fish, I will go with you" Cregan said,"It also will stop my men from spying on you","Spying? Aren't most of them married?","Even a married man will stop to take in the natural beauty surrounding them" you licked your lips.

The water was freezing against your skin, you wrapped your arms around your bare body, you turned to Cregan and saw that he was unfazed,"Aren't you freezing?" he chuckled,"I'm a northerner darling, and you are a dragon" he said wrapping his arms around your body and pulling you closer,"Can i be honest with you?" Cregan's brow furrowed but he nodded,"I feel useless in this war so far, so many people have given their lives and I just hid in a castle for the majority, I didn't know my brother died, I didn't even know he went to battle, the same with my grandmother Rhaeny's. My mind is filled they could have been alive if I assisted them. Cregan listened carefully, his hand cupping your cheek,"You might not have fought with sword in hand but you forged alliances, you proved to the other Northern houses that your mother's side deserves their alliance when you faced your Uncle when he took our men hostage. Don't disregard yourself my dear wife" you sighed,"But they still rather have me back in Winterfell than fight alongside them" Cregan sighed as well,"That's different, men usually range wars while the women stay at home. Times have changed something I needed to realise too" he said before kissing your forehead,"You and your dragon will bring an advantage to us," he said pressing you closer to his body,”You look so beautiful, standing bare in nature” he said softly kissing your neck,”Cregan” you whispered softly,”Ever dreamed of making love in the wild” he said his fingers tracing your skin,”The men could see or hear us” Cregan hummed against your skin,”They won’t come near the river bank, I told them to stay away and for the hearing part that didn’t seem a problem back in Winterfell Princess” he said making your cheeks darken,” Than my Lord Husband, ravish me like a wolf does”

You spend days riding your horse, Tyraxes becoming more restless with each day, she was feeding of your energy , you nearly reached Harrenhall, even though Kingslanding is your goal a jab of taking it back is planned. “We will reach Harrenhall in two days time we set up camp here” Cregan explained as he stopped alongside his men, he helped you off your horse Tyraxes landed in the open space which made the ground shake a bit,” From now own I want you to ride your dragon, if Aemond is at Harrenhall by chance we need air support but if it gets to dangerous I want you to promise to fly away, back to Winterfell” he said grabbing your shoulder,” Cregan I can -“,” Promise me” he cut you off,” I promise” he nodded, caressing your cheek with his thumb gently and kissed your forehead,”My Lord your camp is set up”,”Let’s rest wife, we have long days ahead of us” Cregan said holding his hand to you.

“Aemond one eye is still at Harrenhall, we should avoid it and go around it to get to Kingslanding” Cerwyn said,” We need all the men we have to keep the city under our control”,” We are here so we should take over Harrenhall while we have the chance” Lord Bolton said leaning forward in his seat,” How would you suggest doing so? Aemond has Vaghar” Cerwyn says,” Even though, I didn’t agree with her presence first, it be to our benefit having the Princess here, she is the heir and a girl, they would assume she be hiding in the north-“,” her dragon is not even half the size of Vaghar” Lord Frey son interjected,” Tyraxes might be smaller but she is quicker and Aemond had the chance to kill me but didn’t, if we draw Aemond out on dragon back, we can surprise attack him with Tyraxes and me” I defend,” My brother promised you Harrenhall didn’t he? I thought you be eager to take it back from Greens my Lord” I said,” Than we have a plan, we take over Harrenhall beforehand we continue to Kingslanding” Cregan said and his tone didn’t leave room discussion.

I changed into my nightgown while Cregan read the letters of the Greyjoys and the Manderly’s,” Any news?” you asked walking towards Cregan,” They haven’t reached the Lannister fleet yet but they are ready and that’s all what we need to hear” Cregan said pulling you on his lap,” I need you to promise me something” you hummed and moved a piece of stray hair from Cregan face,” If Aemond tries to kill you, fly to Winterfell, Tyraxes is faster as you mentioned use it to escape if needs be” he said his hands on your belly,” Cregan-“,”Promise me” you sighed,” I promise….if I have to flee I want to make love to you, I don’t think be able to live long without your touch” you smiled

The next day you saddled Tyraxes, she gently nudged you with her snout making you smile,” Ready my girl?” you asked patting her neck,”Try to keep up with us, I know it be tempting to fly head first to confront your Uncle” Cregan said placing his hand on your waist,” I can’t believe everyone who called Harrenhall their home is dead now”,” Aemond will repent for his sins, he won’t survive to see the end of the war. He will die, but the hand he will die on is still in the stars” Cregan said cupping your cheek, you looked up at Cregan, you pecked his lips gently,” Let me help you” Cregan said helping you on Tyraxes,” Be careful and remain what you promised

[utilitycaster]

in looking for posts about the end of C2 I found a self-inflicted ask meme (called that) in which I asked people to send wish items for C3 and first off, once we do have a hard episode count for C3 I might run something similar because it was fun, but also, looking through, some notes:

Laura playing a sorcerer was rather popular, as was Marisha as a high-Charisma character

Issylra setting REALLY popular...we got a smidge I suppose but this was not really a Continent In Depth campaign

people did want to see Travis as a lycan blood hunter, AND in some cases older characters

Lots of interest in an aeormaton too!

I really wanted to see Sam as a cleric, which is funny because I spent the first 30 episodes pissed off at FCG's execution but I DID come around, so. hat consumed.

why do people care so much about the seating arrangement. bestie i could not give a shit.

I think this campaign also made me go from "previously knowing each other can be good but I'm not interested in more twins, we've moved past that" to "let's keep the prior relationships either brief or like. require you submit a 10 page essay of backstory so we don't get some empty bullshit"

people REALLY liked wild magic barbarian so the fact that Taliesin and Matt were explicitly like "it sucks ass" is funny to me, a person who's neutral on it.

a lot of people wanted Travis as Tabaxi and I hate this and they got mad but I'm right and sexy and ready to have a long mean conversation with you about the anti-ableism leaving people's bodies when it comes to severe allergies.

3+ years and I still hate changelings and kalashtar I'm sexy and right on this one too

someone wanted a horse girl but a cavalier fighter; Imogen's horse girliness sort of didn't really have much time to be a thing (this is not a judgement, this is just, they weren't riding horses much bc of the nature of the campaign) and I would like a cavalier

*ironic laugh* multiple people wanting Laura specifically to play evil aligned.

people really wanted circle of spores for liam. there were a lot of repeats frankly that made no sense to me and i never got the answer. was there a server or something.

Travis INT or WIS caster when

Bard Ashley when

Sam's character should be taller than Travis's ACHIEVED FOR ALL BUT FCG & BERTRAND. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

everyone was like WELL OBVIOUSLY the cast will play elves for the sleep reasons and then no one did.

the specter of a Shadowgast child had already risen unfortunately. before the relationship was fully confirmed no less.

spelljammer fans are not intellectual to put it mildly

please GOD not everything has to be self-referential in-jokes. use your mind.

[i-rate-horse-games]

rating Bella Sara 2!

they let sara almost T-pose on the box art !! look at that!!

bella sara 2 is much better than the first game! you're back in the same magical world of bella sara, but this time as a humanoid! the first thing you do in this wondrous world is learn how to walk from sara, a goddess, maybe the goddess. the Drasilmare, a giant magical tree, is sick and dying, and without it, people and horses won't be able to talk to each other anymore! your mission is to collect magical lights from all around the world in order to heal the tree.

bella grants you a horse to help you get around faster, and the horse creator already has all the coat color options unlocked, so you can immediately recreate your horse from the last game if you'd like! however several people that you talk to while on horseback will only address you and not your loyal steed, and with the addition of so many People there's a lot fewer horses in this game than the last.

instead of getting a random handful of cosmetics when completing quests like in the last game, you now get to collect magic crystals everywhere you go, which you can exchange for the cosmetics of your choice! these crystals are Bountiful and there is no shortage of them by far.

the biggest difference in this game is that there's now platforming! while in human form, you can use your magic Drasilmare wand to rebuild piles of rubble, activate levers, reveal hidden objects, and unveil secret extending bridges. sara eventually gives you the ability to double jump, which is very fun. it also makes it easier to accidentally sequence break because the devs forgot they let you change directions mid jump!

the player character is so silly! her joyous whimsy has captivated me. with the way everyone gently helps her get to the right places and solve the puzzles, it really feels like she's a newborn goddess and the only one unable to teleport, and sara and the others have orchestrated this entire quest to be easily solvable for her to build her confidence & let her explore her sense of self at the same time. instead of running, she frolics! She Should Be In The Field!

speaking of all the people characters, this game has penny!!

i don't know who she is but look at that outfit!! rainbow skirt and little rainbows on the sleeves and Blue Striped Socks!? i love her

she's never been in the secret room?? Ever??? is this not her castle??? come with me!!! see the room!!!!

good for her!! she got to see it!!! good for her!

when you restore the last light and the tree is fully healed, this is all that happens.

there's not even a fancy cutscene or special music or anything at all, deru just says you get to wander in search of fashion forever and ever and then it's just you on your horse standing by the tree and the sounds of nature. feels a little hollow, all that work and you don't even get a congratulations from bella or anything. oh well! there's still lots of gems to find hidden all around the world! it shows you what percentage of completion you're at in the main menu, and after completing the game i still have 27% left to find.

check that out! if you wear a dress you ride sidesaddle! except there is no saddle and it looks very precarious!

this godly child started to strongly remind me of Nona the Ninth so i made fanart c: don't look at the horse anatomy too long i didn't use any references

there's a lot more Game here than compared to the last one! it took me 3 different sittings to complete it, and that's without any laid-back exploring that its intended audience often enjoys, so i do think there's enough gameplay in this game! however, there are not very many horses. i like the platforming but it seems like they decided you can only platform if you're a human, and i would have loved doing some platforming as a horse. also in the character creator the model for the human is exactly the same for every skin color except the darkest one where they changed the lips & out of 42 votes, as of writing this only 5 people answered "is this racist" with "no". "i'm not sure" is winning at 50% and "yes" is at 38.1%, so that might be Something.

i'm rating this game 3.5 out of 5 stars!

★★★✬☆

you know i had a great time when i made multiple gifs C:

here's some bonus mid-game commentary to enjoy!

you still cant be a boy but you can jump your full height without a running start. while grunting! you can only walk in a frolicing sort of way it lets you take your shoes off!!!! the giant tree is sick but Deru is still putting its magic in my new wand?? won't that make the tree sicker??? this tree is what lets humans and horses talk to each other!?!?!?? bella said Race to the tree!!!!! and we got there with 2 whole minutes to spare. this game feels like the player character is the goddesses' newborn child (born straight to teenager form like in pixie hollow) and they set up a fun little quest for them to solve all on their own!! wow!!<3 but it's just running around to different adults who are all doing things like "i need the Sponge to clean the table before dinner, but i can't find it! help me find the sponge to save dinner!!" and the sponge is precisely placed at the kid's level of eyesight you now need currency to unlock things most of the horses are ignoring my loyal steed as if they are only an extension of myself another 3 minutes to take a short path that takes less than 30 seconds to walk a horse took a piece of this star? gasp! oh it was just honora also trying to find all the pieces. the one horse who didn't get the memo that this is My Big Quest it just introduced a fair bit of platforming! cool wow ive been playing for hours and it says I'm only halfway through! there's a mode where your person walks the runway oops I got through somewhere i wasn't supposed to be able to get through yet by using my ability to change directions mid jump where are people learning the bella sara lore??? are they hidden in rare cards? are there books??? was it all in the website game that i got stuck in? ah I've beat the game but there's still 27% of gems out there to find

[oddeyecir-cle]

 ✶ ˖  ࣪  📹 .  ぅ

lee donghyuck enemies to lovers fic ideas (all fics are haechan × reader)

haechan who is your rival coworker + secretly deadpool

for the sake of this story, lets assume deadpool does hide his identity. he works at a tech company and is constantly beefing with his coworker that he's lowkey attracted to. and the plot could maybe be something like you accidentally finding out his identity and then using that information to slightly/ kind of/ in a non-toxic way blackmail him. eg: making him run errands for you, asking to tag along on his quests as deadpool. then the pair gets closer through all the time they spend together etc etc.

✶ note : hyuck HAS to be the sassiest, funniest, most sarcastic, cocky human being ever. also include some spidermark maybe

haechan as the prince of the neighbouring kingdom

historical au. very basic ik but hear me out. your kingdom's glory and power is gradually draining and it's threatened by multiple rivaling kingdoms. that is when your mother, the queen, tells you there is no choice but to turn to hyuck's kingdom for help. you hate the idea but you know everyone's counting on you so you go through with it anyways. (this is historical so there could be a very cool scene of the reader riding on a horse in battle armour to neighbouring kingdom's palace themself but whatever). they're good, kind people so they agree to help you. they send over a part of their military along with some weapons and of course haechan himself, their most prized possession who, like you, is skilled with a sword and is a wise leader. there's lots of quarrels between the both of you when it comes to the topic of which one has more power over the other and about who should be leading the troops. but you soon put your animosity aside when you realize that you have to work as a team to win. (insert dramatic battle sequence with swords and arrows flying around. at one point, you and haechan lock eyes and suddenly he drops to the ground. the world starts to blur around you when you realize he's been stabbed in his back. you frantically rush to his aid but he falls limp in your arms. its now upto the writer to kill him there itself and end the story. very angsty, i love. or they could also save him somehow and give main characters the happy ending they deserve).

 ✶ note : sloooooowwwww buuuurn. i mean this should be a long ass series with 7k+ words per chapter. should be so heavy on the angst and the hate that it makes you wonder if they do actually end up loving each other in the end. please include sword fighting scenes with sexual tension i beg you. (im big on bollywood, can u tell).

haechan as a stranger/ tour guide you meet on a family trip

you've just gotten out of a 3 year long relationship after your boyfriend cheated on you with your best friend. things get worse when your family, unaware of your breakup, forces you on a 2 week trip to *insert destination of choice" . here you meet the annoying, sarcastic, a-little-too-happy-for-his-own-good donghyuck. he is with the group your family is touring with (him being the tour guide is a pretty cute plot too but it could kind of complicate things later) and instantly wins everyone over with his charm, except you of course. in classic hyuck fashion, he tries to keep getting your attention and eventually succeeds. his company helps ease the pain of the heartbreak he didn't even know about. its bittersweet when it's time to part ways. you realise after you come back to your college dorm that you never exchanged phone numbers and you fail to find him on social media as well. but fate has strange ways of bringing people together. which is why you cant stop smiling when crash into a certain someone during a regular grocery run.

✶ note : more on the fluff and less on the angst for this one. and maybe a dash of slice of life as well.

haechan as captain of the football team.

there is no actual plot for this other than the fact that you're a cheerleader and also his academic rival (there is no trope i love more than this). my vision for this is very 2000s romcom. ik this isn't a lot to work with but there could be some sub trope like fake dating mostly.

✶ note: nothing much just make it cute

+i have a few more ideas, will probably make a part 2

++if in the future, by some miracle, people do find these interesting enough to use, please dont forget to credit me!!

[maboroshi-no]

Hamefura LN14 Chapter 3 Part 1 Summary

I am currently reading Hamefura LN14 and will post summaries as I read.

Previous Chapters: Chapter 1: The Encounter at the Party: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Chapter 2: What Dark Magic Is: Part 1 Part2

Chapter 3: The Domain Where Cyrus Was Born and Raised (Part1)

The Special Horses and Carriage

It is the day they will depart for Cyrus's domain. The weather is great, it is the perfect weather for traveling.

It would normally take 4 days to go there by carriage, but since they are in a hurry, the Ministry will lend them special horses this time.

Katarina arrives at the meeting place and sees the horses. They are more muscular than normal horses.

Raphael explains this horse species only lives in a certain part of the continent. It is 3 times stronger than a normal horse, faster, and has more stamina. In Sorcier, only the royals and the Ministry possess these horses and they use them for emergencies. Raphael adds that if the enemy attacks, they can quickly run away thanks to them. Katarina is impressed by the higher-ups' thoughtfulness.

Katarina notes that they will use 2 carriages despite the strength of the horses.

Raphael explains that it would still be a lot for the horses to pull 6 adult people, and that's why they will use 2 carriages even if it requires twice the number of horses. It would be counterproductive to use a big carriage and lose speed in the process.

Katarina is, again, impressed by the higher-ups's thoughtfulness. 

Raphael explains the higher-ups received many complaints because this trip happens right after Maria's incident. As a result, they have put a lot of thought into it. 

Raphael points to the carriages and tells Katarina they are also special. They are custom-made carriages made by the Magic Tool department. They have a device infused with wind magic attached to the bottom part. Thanks to this device, the carriages will be lighter than normal.

Thanks to these special horses and carriages, they should be able to reach their destination in one day and a half.

The Carriage Assignment

The 6 people will ride in groups of three. Katarina enters her assigned carriage… with Cyrus and Sora. Katarina gets mad at Cyrus: why won't he ride with Maria?!  He even told Maria right before that he would protect her! Cyrus makes a sad face and Sora bursts out laughing. Katarina just can't believe Cyrus…

*Flashback*

Cyrus: I will protect you no matter what.

Cyrus had said a cool line like a capture target. While it would have affected Katarina, the extremely dense Maria didn't seem affected in the slightest.

Maria: Thank you very much.

Following this, Katarina expected Cyrus to ride in the same carriage as Maria, sit next to her, and protect her from various dangers.

But when it was time to decide who would ride in Katarina's carriage and Maria's carriage, Cyrus promptly said…

Cyrus: Then I will ride in the same carriage as Lady Katarina.

Everyone was blank. They probably retorted in their hearts: "After that declaration, you won't ride with her?!". But they probably understood his circumstances.

Laura said she would ride with Maria. While she did, she gave Cyrus a very indescribable look. Cyrus averted his eyes.

Raphael thought he should rather guard Maria since she was less capable of protecting herself than Katarina. Katarina could indeed protect herself with Pochi.

And the remaining Sora got assigned to Katarina's carriage. For some reason, Katarina ended with both capture targets in her carriage.

** End of flashback **

That's why Katarina gave Cyrus a piece of her mind when she got into the carriage.

Cyrus (sad face, low voice): …I still can't ride in the same carriage as her.

Katarina despairs that Cyrus still can't do it after 6 months with Maria. She would like to yell at him more but she holds back since Cyrus looks so sad. As for Sora, he is trying to hold back his laughter.

Discussion Inside the Carriage

The carriage starts moving. Katarina feels excited by the speed of the carriage. The ride also feels nice since it sways less than usual, probably because of wind magic.

Katarina looks out the window and is amazed by the scenery passing so fast. She never knew there were horses so fast in this world. She realizes again that there are still a lot of things she ignores in this world.

Sora agrees: it appears the world is vaster than he thought. Sora has said this with his polite speech since Cyrus is here but Katarina can tell his enthusiasm from his sparkling eyes.

Cyrus agrees. He remembers that he kept thinking that right after moving to the royal capital.

Katarina remembers that Cyrus's family domain is at the edge of Sorcier and they are ruling the domain with the title of border count. But according to Cyrus, despite their splendid title, his domain is just a rural area with more livestock than people. There are mostly old people because the young people move to the city. And since there are hardly any young women, Cyrus has become uncomfortable with them. 

Katarina has been secretly looking forward to going to Cyrus's family domain. If Cyrus knew what she was thinking, he would probably tell her it was not the time to feel excited and she should brace herself for the dangerous mission. Even so, Katarina can't help looking forward to the food there.

Cyrus's family domain is near Sharma so they eat Japanese food there. Ever since Cyrus told her about it, Katarina has been wanting to go there and enjoy the food. And yesterday, she finally tasted some Japanese dishes from her past life thanks to Haru. She felt deeply moved but it has made her crave more. So after hearing they would go to Cyrus's family domain, she has been looking forward to eating more Japanese food, though discreetly so people won't notice it.

Katarina asks Cyrus in which areas they eat rice.

Cyrus replies that he understands that Katarina is excited about Sharma food, but she must brace herself since they're going on a dangerous mission. He promises he will let her eat Japanese food once they reach a suitable place.

Katarina is shocked. She asks Cyrus how he could tell she was feeling excited about Sharma food.

After all, Katarina was careful so he wouldn't find out. Just now, she disguised it by asking in which areas they eat rice.

Sora replies Katarina has been muttering Sharma food's names since earlier. Could it be she wasn't aware of it?

Katarina indeed wasn't aware of it... She seemed to have muttered food names while thinking about them and then asked a question pretending not to be interested. 

Katarina blushes out of embarrassment. Sora laughs and Cyrus chuckles.

They continue the trip in a light atmosphere.

The Group Finds Haru

The group reaches their first stop. The carriage stops at the outskirts of a small town.

Cyrus suddenly sees Haru and shockingly asks her what she is doing here. Haru is startled and takes a sad expression.

Everyone stares at Cyrus and Haru from a little distance.

A short while ago, when they got off the carriage, the coachman reported to Cyrus that someone was riding on the rear of their carriage. When Cyrus went to see who it was, it appeared to be Haru.

Back to the present, Haru remains silent despite Cyrus's question.

Maria asks Haru if she possibly has some serious circumstances.

Haru apologizes and replies she doesn't. She just wanted to take a look at Cyrus again. When she secretly went to the Ministry, she saw him getting into the carriage. She just wanted to take a look at him, so she jumped onto the carriage. But then, she couldn't get off because the carriage was going too fast. Since the weather was warm and the swaying of the carriage was pleasant, she ended up dozing off. And then, here they are.

Everyone is wide-eyed at Haru's boldness. She jumped onto a moving carriage just because she wanted to take a look at Cyrus! And because she couldn't get off, she just slept there! Haru looks so delicate but she is extremely daring!

Maria is glad that Haru doesn't have any serious issues. Haru looks downward apologetically.

Katarina imagines the delicate-looking Haru jumping on the moving carriage and sleeping on it. She can't help but find it funny, so she bursts out laughing.

Given the situation, Cyrus decides Haru will accompany them to his family domain and then he will have her return to her family domain. He will also send a letter to her brother.

Haru has joined them for the trip. She is sociable and friendly so she immediately fits in with everyone. Katarina is also surprised that Haru has adapted to Laura's appearance right away.

The group has lunch. Haru formally introduces herself to everyone as "Haru Kaburagi, Cyrus's childhood friend and daughter of a border count of Sharma". Given what she did, even the people who didn't witness her confession are aware that she loves Cyrus.

Afternoon and Evening

After lunch (still Sorcier's western food), the group resumes the trip. It has been decided that Haru will ride in Katarina's carriage since she is Cyrus's childhood friend. Besides, it was the carriage she rode in the first place. Katarina and Sora have no problem with it but Cyrus is tense. After all, Cyrus has recently discovered that she is a girl, she has become beautiful and he will need to be in the same small closed space as her. However, he is still less tense than with Maria.

To ease Cyrus's tension, Katarina decides to throw off light discussion topics. 

Katarina asks Haru if she can ask her about Sharma food. Haru gladly says yes and asks her if she can ask her in turn about Sorcier food. Katarina replies she will tell her anything, including her recommended food and shops. Both girls excitedly talk about their recommended food and shops. Sora has participated at times but Cyrus has remained silent the whole time.

The sun comes down and they arrive in a small town. The group stops there for the night. 

They choose the most expensive-looking inn in town and take a 3-person room for the girls, a 3-person room for the guys, and a private room for Laura. 

Katarina is curious about why Laura takes a private room. Laura explains it is because people might see her face without makeup if she stays in a shared room. Katarina recalls she stayed in a shared room when they traveled for the examination. Laura explains it was because she couldn't do otherwise. It was troublesome at that time: she had to use a partition screen and blindfold the others. Katarina thinks Laura is so girly for not wanting to be seen without makeup.

Everyone has a light (Sorcier) dinner and returns to their room.

Katarina and Maria Ask About Haru's Family

Once in the room, Maria offers Haru to lend her her things since she has no luggage.

Katarina is amazed by Maria's thoughtfulness. She also offers to lend her things to Haru. Anne has packed lots of clothes for her in case she makes them dirty with sweets or dirt.

Haru thanks them for their offer but she will be fine. When she was little, she often ran around with her older brothers and slept on top of straw in a shed, so this much won't bother her. 

Katarina is amazed and feels like it might be fun to sleep in a shed like that.

Maria asks Haru how many older brothers she has. Haru replies she has 3.

Katarina recalls she had 2 older brothers in her past life. Both her brothers were rough and noisy and it was hard for her at times.

Haru tells them with an awkward smile that since she has 3 brothers, they are always being noisy and fighting. Katarina feels like it was the same with her brothers. She feels nostalgic.

Katarina asks Haru which brother was the one who accompanied her to the party. Haru replies it was the third one. He is the one closest in age to her so they have always been together since they were little. Even now, he is the one she gets along with the most.

Katarina strongly feels that Haru's relationship with her brothers is just like hers in her past life. She recalls her older brothers. If she hadn't died in that accident, she would be getting along with them even as adults, just like Haru and her brothers. Katarina feels a little sad while thinking about it. Ever since Katarina regained her past life memories, her sadness and pain faded as time passed by and to this day, she mostly didn't feel anything, but sometimes, she would feel pain in her chest. Will this pain disappear someday?

Maria worriedly asks Katarina if she is alright. Katarina shakes her head with a smile. She tells Maria she was just lost in thoughts.

Katarina Asks Haru About Her Crush on Cyrus

Katarina asks Haru when she fell in love with Cyrus. Katarina has shifted the topic to shake off her gloomy thoughts, and also because she is curious about it.

Haru is startled. Katarina thought Haru would be fine talking about it since she confessed in front of everyone but it appears she isn't comfortable with it.

Katarina flusteredly tells Haru it is fine if she doesn't want to talk about it. 

Also flustered, Haru tells Katarina it is fine. She was just surprised because she only talked about this kind of thing with her family.

Katarina is surprised since she would find it more difficult to talk about it with family than friends.

Haru awkwardly explains there are no young people in her domain since it is in the countryside.

Katarina recalls Cyrus saying there were no young people in his domain. It also seems to be the case in Haru's domain, next to his. Since they were the rare children in the area, it must be why they interacted with each other.

Katarina tells Haru she would be happy to hear about her love story.

While she has friends, Katarina has never experienced love gossip with them. Her friends don't have a crush on anyone nor seem interested in love, and in her past life, she and Acchan only pursued 2D characters, so they never talked about anything beyond that. That's why Katarina is excited about her first love gossip in (both of) her life(s).

Haru fidgetly starts talking. She met Cyrus when she visited Sorcier with her brother Ryou when they were little. At that time, she and her brother were both crazy about swordsmanship and martial arts, so they became friends with Cyrus through this. 

It feels shonen-like to Katarina. She didn't expect this.

…The three of them all polished their techniques together. Cyrus was stronger each time they met and one time he defeated a big adult. He was so cool.

Katarina feels excited since Haru's story starts sounding like a love gossip.

…Haru wanted to become strong like Cyrus.

Katarina is surprised the story has become shonen-like again. She wonders when they will reach the love gossip part.

…Before she knew it, Haru's heart would beat loudly when she looked at Cyrus.

Katarina is glad they finally reached the love gossip part. So Haru's heart raced when she looked at Cyrus!

…And then Haru thought she had some kind of illness.

Katarina is shocked. Wasn't that heart flutters?

Haru awkwardly explains that, at that time, she didn't know it was heart flutters. She thought it was a heart disease.

Katarina feels sorry for Haru: she seems to have the extreme denseness of a shojo manga's heroine. And since Maria is the same as Haru, Katarina seems to be the only person in this room who is not a heroine equipped with extreme denseness. If she doesn't take things into her own hands, their love stories won't progress.

Katarina asks Haru when she realized her feelings.

Haru replies it was after Cyrus left for the royal capital to enroll in the Academy of Magic. She realized them when she attended a tea party among ladies. Haru blushes.

Katarina is surprised it took Haru such a long time. What's more, Cyrus wasn't there during that time.

Haru explains that Cyrus wasn't there but she heard he would only attend the Academy of Magic for 2 years and come back. So, she waited for him. But then he started working at the Ministry of Magic and wouldn't come back, so she couldn't see him at all.

Katarina remembers that Cyrus told her he didn't return to his family domain because it was too far. Since it takes 4 days to go there, it would take 8 days for a round trip. Cyrus probably didn't want to take such an extended vacation.

Haru continues. After being unable to see him for several years, she decided to take action and attend big Sorcier parties.

Katarina is surprised. She asks Haru why she didn't go see him directly as his childhood friend.

Haru replies that it would have been weird for a childhood friend he hasn't seen in years to come see him directly.

Katarina thinks a maiden heart is complicated.

Haru continues. She was dreaming of encountering him at a party and she had attended these parties for several years but she couldn't meet him at all.

Katarina remembers that Cyrus told her he had been avoiding parties because he didn't want to be approached by young women.

…She was starting to give up, and then she met Cyrus at the party the other day. Her feelings went out of control and she ended up confessing on the spot.

Haru hides her red face. She seems aware that she went out of control. Katarina is not surprised since Haru's confession was quite a sight. 

Katarina finds this love gossip a bit lacking in terms of excitement. She wonders if they are all like that. But there is one thing she can tell about it.

Katarina tells Haru she finds her passionate spirit amazing and her proactiveness wonderful.

Haru scratches her head in bashfulness.

Haru had been attending parties for several years so she could meet Cyrus again, when she finally met him she immediately confessed, the next day she brought a boxed lunch to his workplace, and the next day she jumped onto the carriage he was in. There are probably no other women who will go that far. Katarina was told before, "Once you make up your mind, you take action too quickly", but she isn't sure she would be able to do that.

Haru Wants to Know Cyrus's Type

Haru asks Katarina and Maria if they know Cyrus's type. Cyrus told her at the party that he had no fiancée nor a person he loved, but she learned in tea parties that every man has a type. She would like to identify his.

Katarina is stumped for an answer since she can obviously not tell Haru that Cyrus's type is Maria. She wishes Cyrus had at least said he loved someone without saying the person's name. Katarina wishes the experienced and girly Laura was here. If she were, she wouldn't be desperately trying to come up with something to say.

Maria tells Haru she doesn't know Cyrus's type and hasn't heard anything about it either. Her senpais keep talking about everyone's types, and there doesn't seem to be any rumor going around about Cyrus's type.

From what Maria said, Katarina guesses Cyrus is careful at work so people won't notice he loves Maria. It becomes obvious outside of work but it seems Maria's senpais haven't noticed it yet.

Haru is a bit disappointed. Ryou told her the same thing a long time ago, it seems this hasn't changed.

Haru ponders what to do with a troubled face.

Katarina remembers that Ryou knows Cyrus's issue with women. He probably thought he shouldn't tell his friend's weakness to anyone, even his little sister.

Haru decides she will directly ask Cyrus his type. 

Haru looks dead serious. She will probably enter Cyrus's room tomorrow and directly ask him. If things go badly, Cyrus may end up telling his type to both the one he loves and the one who confessed to him. Katarina would feel sorry for Cyrus.

Katarina tells Haru that Cyrus might lie about his type to be considerate of her. It may be hard for him to tell her that his type is completely different from her.

Haru agrees. It seems like she was about to act thoughtlessly again.

Haru looks very dejected. Katarina feels sorry for her but she can't fully support her love since she knows Cyrus's circumstances.

Maria offers Haru to get this information out of Cyrus for her. She wants to help with her love since Haru is a lovely girl and Cyrus is a good person.

Katarina is shocked by Maria's offer. Maria probably said this because she also felt sorry for Haru. Katarina feels sorry for Cyrus if Maria helps Haru get together with him after all the efforts he has put in to approach her.

Haru gladly accepts Maria's offer. Maria assures her she will do all she can.

It appears Maria will help Haru with her love. Katarina deeply apologizes to Cyrus in her heart: she didn't mean for this to happen, all she wanted was to experience love gossip.

Maria asks how she should extract the information from Cyrus.

Katarina flusteredly tells Maria and Haru they should all get to sleep since they will have an early morning tomorrow. Katarina thought it might sound unnatural since she was the one who brought up love gossip in the first place, but the two girls agreed and went to bed.

The two girls are love rivals… or rather part of a love triangle. Even so, Katarina wishes for both of them to be happy.

Katarina falls asleep with mixed feelings.

Sarah's POV

The grey-eyed man calls out to Sarah.

Sarah doesn't reply to him and keeps making her preparations without looking at him.

The man tells Sarah she is so cold even though he saved her the other day.

Sarah still ignores him.

Sarah doesn't like that frivolous man. The first time she met him, his appearance somehow felt nostalgic to her, but after interacting with him for a while, he was frivolous and flippant and she hated the dimness in his eyes. Just like the one who looked at her like a lab rat, she didn't want to get involved with him.

The man can see Sarah is making preparations to go out. He moves close to her and looks at her hands. He asks her if she has received another request.

Sarah shakes a little because of the reduced distance but pretends she isn't affected and continues her preparations.

The man notes that Sarah still gets requests despite all her failures.

Sarah inadvertently raises her face and glares at the man.

The man is amused by Sarah's reaction and laughs.

Sarah is frustrated to have reacted like the man expected. She can't deny that she hasn't been able to work well lately and has accumulated failures. She feels like it has happened ever since Katarina Claes disturbed her feelings. At this rate, she won't get any requests anymore and get chased out of this place. She shudders just thinking about it. That's why she must absolutely not fail this time.

Sarah shakes off her feelings and resumes her preparations.

Her next destination is the forest. She will need various things.

Katarina stole the first familiar she tried to create and destroyed the one after. If she creates one familiar, Katarina might steal it or destroy it. That's why she will create many of them this time. She will gather many ingredients and create many powerful familiars.

Sarah raises her face. The man seems to have gotten tired of her and is looking far away with cold eyes.

[emmylous-world]

TF141 and their wedding

AN: I was bored and don’t have a laptop so I’ll feed you guys this, what I think their weddings would be like, lemme know if I should do something else, like engagement rings and wedding bands, types of houses etc. enjoy heheh

TF141 x f!reader

TW: mentions of sex,

Ghost💀

He’s gonna be very generic, basic and plain. It would be in the fall, beginning of October. He’s not much of the designer so he’ll definitely let you do the picking and choosing, happy with whatever. But it’s gonna be on the ghost theme, everything black and red with roses and skull’s. it’s not gothic or grungey, just black, red and a little white in there. His suit is black with a red tie. It’s probably held on a field in the country in England, idk won’t go into detail. Would only focus on you the whole night, he touches you more and gives you more kisses then normal. Will not stop touching, always has a hand on you, I mean it’s his wedding day. But doesn’t talk much, just watches you. Got teary eyes at Prices speech. When his tired of everyone, he picks you up bridal style and carries you to the cabin and consummate the wedding💀😏

Soap 🧼

Somewhat of Scottish wedding, definitely wears a kilt and the Mactavish brooch, thistle everywhere, the bouquet, cake, table decorations. It also be in august. Also I’m not sure if he would do a handfast first, but the wedding would definitely held in a castle in the highlands, and is sworn under God to be with you till the end of time. He cries when you walk down the aisle, can’t take his eyes off you, But after the wedding, the reception part, expect him to get pissed drunk. Plays some wedding games definitely, looses every time, cry’s at the speeches, every single one, he’s drunk so it’s a given. Eventually gets horny, takes you away to show you how much he really loves you😌

Gaz ☕️

Gaz would be basic like Ghost, it’s gonna be in the summer, in a tent. Pastel colours, and lots of eucalyptus. His suit would either be black or blue, I don’t know much about Gaz sorry, so I don’t know exactly what he would be like but would get drunk with soap and you, definitely would smoke a blunt later, get high and have the bestest sex ever. 😩🥵

Price🥃

This is literally based off of what I want for my wedding, bc I wanna marry this man’s and Ik it’s very much him, ferns and outdoorsy vibes, it’s when the daisy are in bloom (June, I think) or spring I can’t decide. It’s on he’s dad’s property, surrounded by forest. He’s an old man, so he’ll keep it traditional, your wedding band was his mother’s. his suit is a 3 piece navy blue tweed. Hands never leave you, and always looking at you with pure adoration also can’t stop kissing you. When the sunsets, he takes you to the horses on the property and y’all ride over to the hunting cabin in the woods, and he worships you all night. 🤭😏

[sophierequests]

Could I please request a Toyla x reader..? (Bless you for writing for everyone I can’t find any for him 😭) they’re crushing on each other and them having to share a bed 🥺

you are foolish to want

Navigation┃Main Masterlist┃Request

Pairing: Tolya Yul-Bataar x gn!Reader

A/N: After reading this you might ask me: Sophie, will you ever write anything else than Hurt/Comfort when you get requests that aren't in any explicit genre? The answer to that question is: no <3 Also, the second time of using horses in a Tolya fanfic?? What has overcome me?? Thank you for the request! I hope you'll like this, even though the one bed trope isn't the main focus of this story </3

Summary: Tolya and the reader are on their way to the Lazlayon until unforeseen circumstances put a slight dent in their plans.

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Fluff (if you squint)

Word Count: 5.8K (oh god)

Warnings: Mention of almost dying, broken ribs and hurt feelings

The silence between you became louder the longer you indulged in it. It wasn’t really silence, so to say. It was more the state of not speaking. The forest surrounding you was anything but silent. Between the creaking of old rotting larch trees swaying in the wind and the padding of hooves against the more or less solid ground, nothing ever really felt quiet. 

He couldn’t be sure how much longer the path ahead of you could possibly still drag on; all he knew was that he likely wouldn’t be able to stay awake for the entirety of it. The tension of riding next to you alone would have usually been enough to keep him from falling asleep. Hell, the thought of you alone did the job well enough already. Yet something about this time felt different. 

It was just the two of you. No Tamar. No Nikolai. No Zoya. No one else to worry or think about. Just the two of you, wordlessly riding next to each other. 

And while his brain screamed at him to use that factor in his favour, to finally make some sort of move, his body recoiled at the impulse of opening his mouth and articulating his feelings. Whenever he even attempted to do so, an obstruction seemed to form inside his larynx, blocking the feeble sounds that might’ve crossed the breach of his vocal folds. Maybe it was his heart leaping out of his chest and ending up in the enclosure of his throat, desperate to be spat out and stowed away inside a neat little box that he could disregard as long as he pleased. Maybe it was bile at the thought of having to come clean about the months and months of yearning he had been subjected to since meeting you. Maybe both of these options rang true; he couldn’t be sure. The sole thing he was painfully sure of was that it had to be closely related to you. 

Everything was somehow related to you. You had always been everywhere and nowhere; everything and nothing at the same time. At least to him, he hoped. You occupied his mind, his space, and his time whenever he should be focused on anything else. When he wanted, no, needed to focus on anything else. You were everywhere just as much as you were nowhere. Nowhere he could reach. Touch. Hold. You had always been more of an idealistic daydream, rather than something concrete. And just like most dreams, you would be foolish to pursue.

“Do you think we’ll reach the Lazlayon before the night sets in?” Your voice broke through the air like a gunshot, forcing his gaze away from the impenetrable barrier of trees next to him. You stared at him expectantly, waiting until he could will himself to produce a coherent sentence.

He let out a huffed breath, absent-mindedly fiddling with the reins in his hands as if they were a set of tarot cards that would permit him to look into the future. “If we keep up this pace, we’ll likely get there right before sundown.”

“Oh, lovely. Just in time for Count Kirigin to welcome us. I’m sure he’s already buzzing with excitement,” you chuckled dryly, giving your companion a distinctive eye roll to accentuate your annoyance. 

Tolya rolled his shoulders, the mention of the count’s name sending a wave of unease through him. He didn’t necessarily hold any tangible grudges against him, he didn’t know him well enough to form any sort of well-shaped opinion of him to begin with, but what he knew was that the man was an absolute rake. If the countless times of resolute flirting with anyone that didn’t leave his presence on the count of three wasn’t enough to support this hypothesis, Nikolai’s long-winded tales of his drinking and lavished parties sure filled the gaps. Count Kirigin as a whole simply wasn’t a coeval he wanted to be around. Not when he was busy enough with keeping his emotions in check while you were close to him. 

“There’s still hope that he chose to go to bed instead of waiting by the door for us to arrive. I doubt that he’s all too invested in our presence. After all, Zoya isn’t accompanying us, so he won’t have much to ogle at,” the Heartrender objected slyly, using the scarce situation of being alone with you to voice his obvious disdain for the man in question.

“We can only hope.” You clasped your hands together, holding them in front of your chest as if you were in prayer. “At least we’ll share the same fate if it comes down to him having genuinely waited on us.” 

He nodded in agreement. It was a comforting thought to know that he was there with you. The fact that you were meant to take on the journey to the Lazlayon on your own at first disconcerted him greatly. Not that he wouldn’t have trusted you to come back in one piece, however, having you be out of his sight for so long without a possibility of contacting you made him uncomfortably aware of the actual extent of his feelings.

Another wave of silence settled around you. It was more comfortable this time. Especially since it didn’t take too long for you to speak up again. “I’m glad Nikolai decided to have you come along.”

His smile falters for just a split second, the wave of emotion your simple statement had created stripping him of the last bit of feigned confidence he had. Perhaps his years of studying and breaking down ancient poetry had gotten the best of him. Convinced him that there was more to the comment than merely you being glad that someone else had to suffer through the hours on hours of travel. But that’s what you would have said, right? You would have said ‘someone’ instead of explicitly mentioning him. During times like these, he genuinely missed Zoya’s bluntness to bring him back down to earth.

“Oh, uhm, it’s good to know that you don’t see my presence as patronising,” he stammers, his voice hitching and cracking as if he was a puberty-stricken young boy again.

You tilted your head and looked at him with narrowed but gentle eyes. The same eyes that always seemed to magically find his own whenever he had stared at you for a bit too long. “Your presence could never be patronising to me. I like being around you.”

In an ideal world, he would have told you that the feeling was mutual. The sentence would have rolled off his tongue equally as casually as it had off yours, and you both could have continued your travels with the knowledge that you appreciated each other’s company. This was not an ideal world though. In fact, he didn’t even give you a verbal response. Instead, he hastily turned his head away from you, futilely trying to cover the gleaming blush that had spread across his cheeks in a matter of seconds.

Once again, the steady whirring and rustling replaced your short-lived stab at a conversation. It took another hour for the unkempt thicket to gradually turn into a widespread field, stretching out in front of you until it was obscured by the dense artificial fog that hid the watercraft testing grounds of the Gilded Bog. It would have been a stunning view if you hadn’t been aware of the massive amount of work that lay behind it.

A sigh of relief escaped your lips when Count Kirigin’s estate came into view. Your whole body ached after riding for hours on end without a break, making you long for a warm bed and a good night’s sleep. It didn’t take long for Mother Fortuna to knock that idea out of your head though.

Just as you had intended to throw some sort of sarcastic comment in your friend’s direction, a sudden sound of a rifle being fired cut through the forest behind you. After that, everything continued to go downhill horribly fast. 

You barely managed to calm down your horse, yanking the reins to the side to let it spur out its fright by trotting in a circle. Tolya, on the other hand, was less lucky. He hadn’t been able to react quick enough, his horse rearing on its hind legs before he was in the right mindset to properly hold onto the straps of his saddle. He was thrown off its back quite roughly, his back hitting the hard ground with a bone-chilling thud.

“Tolya!” you called, dismounting your horse without thinking about the looming threat of someone directing their gunshots at you. It was as if you were passing through a tunnel, eyes only focused on what was in front of you.

A litany of his name spilt out of your mouth as you knelt down next to him; you repeated it so many times that it didn’t even feel like a real word anymore. But no amount of repetition could bring him to regain consciousness. He remained laying on the ground, perfectly still and with no reaction to anything you did. Years and years of basic medical training flickered through your mind, hopelessly trying to give you an impulse that might be able to save his life. Your hands promptly moved to the pronounced column of his throat, a motion that would have been intimate if you weren’t filled with panic. The skin underneath your fingers was warm - and unexpectedly soft - as you dug for any form of heartbeat. When you finally localised a faint but rhythmic thudding, you sucked in a deep breath, momentarily considering changing your stance on the Saints if they had been the ones to grant you this minuscule act of reassurance.

“Tolya,” you tried again, hands cradling the sides of his face as you shifted him onto your lap. His eyelids fluttered open briefly, immediately seeking out contact with yours. It took another moment for him to recognise what position he was currently in. Your hands on his face and his head on your lap felt almost too good of a situation to be anything but a dream. 

He wanted to say something, anything for that matter, but a piercing pain in his chest caused him to let out a stifled groan. It hurt to move. It hurt to speak. It hurt to breathe. His whole body felt like it had been pulled apart and reassembled without a manual, and you couldn’t do anything to ease his discomfort.

“Hey.” You let your thumbs smooth over the ridges of his cheekbones, your feather-light touch creating an embarrassingly visible trail of goosebumps all over his arms. Everything you did was too soft. Too delicate. Too wholly overwhelming. “I know it hurts. Just stay here for a while and-”

“Saints!” A shrill voice made your head shoot up, the memory of the gunshot striking you like a brick. When a familiar figure scrambled out of the woods, an extravagant hunting rifle strung over his back and a mortified look on his face, you began to piece together what was going on. “I’m terribly sorry! I- We were just coming back from our hunting trip and we didn’t- Oh, no.” The count ran a shaky hand through his neatly slicked-back hair, causing a few stiff strands to fall onto his forehead.

Something inside you wanted to be mad at him. It was his fault after all. If he had been more careful and a little less trigger-happy none of this would have happened. However, Tolya’s weight still very much present on your legs substituted your anger with worry. “Kirigin, I’ll need some help getting him to the Lazlayon. He needs to be looked at by someone more…medically-inclined than me.”

Emil nodded his head reverently, calling over a few of the other men that had joined him in his hunting party. With their help, you heaved him back to his feet. His nails dug into your shoulder as you helped him walk to your horse; neither of you trusted his horse enough to not throw him off again. It was quite the struggle, but after a lot of cursing and griping coming from the normally very composed Heartrender, you reached the opulent mansion just before the sun had vanished behind the mountain range completely.

Upon entering, the count immediately called for a medik, showing the two of you to his drawing room while he flittered through the foyer in a frenzy. Tolya let himself fall onto one of the plush divans with a groan. His hand flew to his side as soon as his back met the fabric underneath him, flinching as he seemed to have pressed down too hard. It was a strange picture to see him look this helpless. He appeared small and vulnerable, almost as if a bare touch could cause him to break and crumble.

“Don’t move,” you requested gently, one of your hands reaching out to take hold of his. He was aware that this gesture was merely meant to give him a piece of reassurance; you wanted to give him something to hold on to, something to get his mind off of the erupting pain in his chest. Still, a nimble twinge of hope sent a burning wave of longing through his body. “I think you may have broken a rib. After your fall earlier that would be one of the lesser evils,” you assessed, letting the fingers of your free hand brush over the clothed expanse of his chest. “We should probably pass a message to Nikolai. You can’t be expected to take on the ride back anytime soon. But all of that can wait until tomorrow.”

The medik arrived just as you closed your mouth, forbidding Tolya from saying anything in response to your short-lived ramblings. He was a bit miffed by the fact that the person treating him was a simple medik instead of an actual Healer that could have fixed him up in the blink of an eye. However, a faint memory of Kuwei accidentally setting a whole section of the laboratory on fire told him that their presence was a bit more required downstairs. 

He was ripped from his thoughts when the medik pushed down on his ribcage with unexpected force. A jolt of pain flashed through him again, and embarrassingly enough, that only caused his grip on your hand to tighten. You didn’t show any sign of discomfort as he did so, entirely concentrated on providing the tiniest bit of comfort you could offer him.

“Fractured rib,” the woman beside you muttered, her brows furrowed as she looked at his exposed chest stomach. “This will take a few weeks to heal on its own. We can send for a Healer as soon as one’s available, but that will probably take just as long. The new project is keeping everyone busy, I’m afraid.”

“I will send a letter to the King,” the Count interjected, rubbing his palms together in an attempt to cope with his nervousness. “The Healers at the Grand Palace are often more willing to make the trip than the ones we have on our hands here. I’m certain he would do everything in his power to ensure that one of his most trusted…guards is back in his service as soon as possible.”

“I suppose that would be for the better.” The medik took out a few differently coloured vials from the pouch on her hip, handing them to you as if the person needing them wasn’t also in the room with you. “These are painkillers. Make sure he takes one of these twice a day.” You nodded along slowly, letting go of Tolya’s hand to not drop any of the flimsy flasks. “It would be best if someone keeps an eye on him for now. Especially after taking the medicine. In case the pain gets worse, you know where to find me.” She directed her gaze at Emil who merely dismissed her with a grateful wave of his hand.

“Thank you for…taking the initiative.” You gave him a brief smile, sitting on the armrest of the sofa where Tolya was still laying. Slowly but surely, the heaviness of the day began seeping through your bones.

“But of course! That’s the least I could do after causing such a mishap.” He pursed his lips but opted to force them into a straight line while he pondered his next words. “I shall send for a servant to mind you during the night if that’s alright with you. Someone should probably be there to attend to you, just in case something happens.” 

Tolya looked up at him, evidently not too fond of his suggestion. The idea of having some stranger even do as much as stay in the same room as he slept didn’t sit right with him at all. “I…appreciate your kindness, Count Kirigin. However, I would prefer it if you refrained from doing anything like that. I’m certain it will be fine if I’m left unsupervised for the night.”

“The count has a point,” you reasoned, a distinct expression of worry present on your face. “You’re hurt; don’t be so blasé about it. It would genuinely be better if someone is there for you. At least for tonight.”

“Maybe you could stay with him for the night if it’s the aspect of familiarity he’s concerned with?” Emil offered, his eyes darting between the two of you nervously. If his upper body had allowed it, Tolya would have shot upright in his seat after hearing that. As much as he hated the notion of having someone else practically babysit him while he was asleep, anyone else would be a better option than you. He wouldn’t survive spending a night under these circumstances.

His suggestion caught you off guard with what felt like brute force. He was a good friend; one of your closest actually. Yet you had never even seen the inside of his bedroom. Spending the night in the same room, no matter under what circumstances, seemed like a terrible way to improve that friendship.

“I… Tolya? Your call.” You shifted all the responsibility of decision-making onto the Heartrender, giving him an apologetic look while he struggled to find the right words.

He mentally considered all the implications this action might entail. What if he snored? What if he talked in his sleep? What if the medicine made him do or say things he might regret? What if nothing out of the ordinary happens and he was just diving into the worst-case scenarios? “If I have to choose, I’d prefer your presence,” he mumbled, instantly clamping his eyes shut in order to avoid looking at your face while you let his words sink in. 

“It’s decided then,” you chirped, slumping off your seat to carefully place the ampoules in your bag. You sounded pretty much unbothered by the prospect of sharing a room for the night. Weren’t you even a little bit uncomfortable with that?  He should be glad that you were taking this situation so well, however, your unexpected nonchalance concerning the topic made every last speck of hope that you could possibly like him back dwindle down to nothing.

“Very well!” Kirigin clasped his hands together with a resounding clap, the jovial nature returning to his face in an instant. “Now, if you’d be so inclined - and able -, please follow me upstairs to the guest bedrooms.”

The guest bedrooms of the count’s estate reminded you of the countless ornate rooms you had seen at the Grand Palace; broad wide rooms with high ceilings and long windows that made them appear more like a makeshift dining hall than an actual bedchamber. Needless to say, the Lazlayon was a bit more bucolic than what you were used to seeing in the capital, but the white walls and the rococo king-size bed definitely opposed every notion of humility one might expect if there was no prior knowledge of Kirigin’s spendthrift way of living.

Neither of you really had enough willpower to change into your nightclothes, so you merely rid yourself of the thick jackets and clunky boots, which you mindlessly tossed on top of your bags. The bedding would be changed in the morning anyway.

It was a terribly awkward scene, the tension practically electrifying the air around you. Tolya sat on the bed, his back perched on the carved headboard while he watched you scurry around the room like a rabbit in front of a rifle. You also seemed to have realised what the offer of staying in the same room for the night might imply; your previous casualness being gone completely.

“Here,” you said, handing him one of the vials the medik had given you earlier. He took the medicine from your hands, eying it with a suspicious expression. In comparison to his hand, the tiny bottle looked like a prop right out of a doll house. The image of comparing your hand to his popped into your mind, but you hastily shooed it away, thinking about how inappropriate that thought was. “Drink. I’ll get you some water to help with the taste in case you need it.” 

Quickly, he downed the viscous medicine, cringing at the sickly-sweet flavour that spread inside his mouth as he swallowed. As soon as the liquid went down his throat, he had to stifle a cough, the taste only getting worse the longer he occupied his mind with it.

You plopped down on the empty spot next to him, cautious to not spill any of the water that you held out for him. When he reached out to take the glass, your hands touched his for a split second, your fingertips barely brushing over his. Still, that simple gesture was enough to make his head spin. Saints, he hated that you had that effect on him.

“Thank you,” he breathed out, not quite knowing what exactly he thanked you for. Thank you for being there for me when I fell off that damned horse? Thank you for holding my hand earlier? Thank you for staying with me tonight? Thank you for getting me that glass of water? He could probably think about at least a hundred things to thank you for off the top of his head.

“How are you feeling?” Your voice sounded just as sweet as the medicine tasted, he thought. He just liked listening to your voice a whole lot better. Were the painkillers already kicking in?

“Better. Sore, but better. I’m dreading thinking about what Nikolai will say once he gets wind of this.” He let his head slump against the wall behind him, his eyes glancing at you furtively as you scanned his body for any sort of unease or pain he might still feel.

“Forget Nikolai. He can survive without you for a bit longer. And Tamar is still there to save his ass when it comes down to it.” You gave him a quick smile, taking his hand to give it a reassuring squeeze before leaving his side again. “The only thing that matters now is that you’re getting better. No matter whether that happens naturally or with the help of a Healer."

“I’d prefer it happening through the help of a Healer,” he muttered under his breath, scowling at the idea of having to spend another six weeks alone in the confines of a bed without being able to follow his usual duties.

“Well, an actual break would do you some good every once in a while. After everything that Nikolai put you through during the last few years, you should be eligible to take off at least a few months without him being allowed to say anything against it.”

“So eager to get rid of me now?”

A sharp snort escaped your mouth as you looked at him, the feigned pout on his lips making him look like a kicked puppy. Sometimes you had the suspicion that Nikolai’s inherent obnoxiousness was rubbing off on him.

“Believe it or not, I still like being around you. Even though you now gave me the added stress factor of having to keep a close eye on you when we’re around horses.” You walked over to one of the cushioned armchairs that decorated the corner of the room, leaning against it without actually sitting in it. “And If I really would be so eager to get rid of you I wouldn’t have agreed to play your nursemaid for the night. Especially not if I had known that I’d have to sleep in one of these forsaken chairs. Kirigin could have at least given us a double room.”

Tolya’s previously playful expression dropped. He had been so hung up on the fact that you’d be with him for the entire night that he had completely neglected to think about the logistics of his request. Had he known that you’d end up sleeping in a chair rather than a bed, he would have answered differently. 

An unwelcome thought clawed its way into his mind; he wanted to strangle it before it could properly manifest. Had he been Nikolai or Tamar he would have immediately sprung into action, offering you his bed, and probably also his heart while he was at it. But he wasn’t like either of them. He wasn’t brash, or romantic, or even socially intelligent. These attributes would be foreign on him, like a coat that was just a bit too big to fit correctly - contorting his actual silhouette to make him look like something he wasn’t.

“Are you okay?” you asked, a worried undertone present as you spoke. He quickly closed his mouth, straightening out his features to appear more collected than he felt before fixing his gaze on you again. You didn’t only sound worried, you also looked the part; eyebrows tightly knitted together while a distinct flash of concern gloomed in your eyes. “Are you still in pain? Should I get-”

“No, it’s- I’m fine, Y/N. I was just thinking…” 

“Care to share with the class?”

Even though everything inside him rebelled against opening his mouth and speaking his mind, his heart moved quicker than his mind could process. “Sleeping in an armchair can’t be comfortable. We could share the bed,” he trailed off, watching as you gawked at him like a fish on land. “If you want to, that is.” He felt the need to add that, even if it was only enough to calm his raging nerves.

“Tolya, you’re hurt. You need the rest more than I do. I can’t possibly do that in good conscience.” The room was filled to the brim with the nervousness exuding off of the two of you. It was almost sad to watch you two stumble over your own words, acting as if you were two little schoolchildren that both had a crush on the other.

Seemingly taking your refusal as a challenge, he awkwardly shuffled towards the edge of the bed, leaving the other side very clearly unoccupied. “Would that be enough space for you?” Your eyes darted from the comfortable-looking bed to the stiff armchair you had originally intended to sleep in. Much to your dismay, the bed did look more inviting than the chair could ever be.

“I really don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” was everything you could muster up to talk yourself out of it. A futile attempt at not giving in to the want clouding your coherent thoughts ever since being in the same room as Tolya.

“You wouldn’t.” You couldn’t. “Trust me, I don’t mind. I couldn’t let you sleep in a bloody chair with a good conscience either.” As if to underline his statement, he patted the empty space next to him.

With an exasperated sigh, you shook off the roots that had metaphorically formed around your ankles and moved to the offered side of the bed. You felt terribly awkward as you slid into bed right next to him. You two had never been this close. Not in this context.

“Thank you,” you whispered, laying flat on your back with your hands folded over your stomach. He mirrored your movement soon after, albeit a bit slower.

He wanted to say something - anything - to relieve some of the tension buzzing between you. But everything he could have said wouldn’t have improved the situation in the slightest. Just like a few hours ago in the woods, the silence was anything but silent.

“You really scared me earlier, do you know that?” you mumbled, breaking through the uncomfortable silence. Again, he thought. “This could have ended with way worse consequences than a fractured rib.”

“I know.” The words were heavy on his tongue, suffocating him. Up until the possibility that worse things could have happened had sounded like an impossible what-if situation to him. But judging by the honest fear in your voice, he really could have suffered a fate way worse than being forced to rest for an uncertain amount of time. The only feeling he could recall after his fall was the dizziness of laying on top of your lap and the intoxicating touch of your hands on his cheeks. He didn’t even think that he genuinely registered the pain in his chest until he felt the impulse to move. “Thankfully, we didn’t have to find out exactly how badly this could have ended.”

“Good. I honestly wouldn’t have known what to do if you hadn’t woken up. What I would do without you.” The last sentence was so unexpected that it almost knocked the air out of his lungs. You had your way of catching him off-guard with your words that was so brutal, but equally as stunning.

“You won’t have to that out either. Not if I can help it.” He wanted to tell you. He wanted to tell you so badly that breathing normally became more and more difficult. But he couldn’t. Not right now. And maybe not ever.

Silence fell over you again. It was such a stark contrast to the chaos raging inside his head that he barely noticed when you turned to lay on your side, facing him. He forced his eyes to close in hopes of at least getting a few full hours of sleep before he was pushed back into a world where it wasn’t normal for you to sleep next to him.

“Tolya?” you whispered, resisting the urge to nudge him. 

“Mhm?” he murmured, eyes still clamped shut.

He heard you shuffling next to him, probably to put a bit of distance between you and him. “I have to tell you something.” You shuffled again, the mattress giving in ever so slightly when you did. You were sitting up now. “This might be a terrible time to do so, but I have to get it off my chest.” That caught his attention enough to look at you again. You sounded so serious.

“Uhm, sure, go for it.” To say that he was concerned would have been an understatement. His whole body tensed, much to the dismay of his fractured ribcage.

“I don’t recall the last time when I was genuinely so afraid of someone I care about not being alright, but what I felt when you didn’t wake up at first was way worse than just being scared. I'm not sure how to tell you this, and I’ve been putting this off for quite some time now. But I don’t just care about you like how I care about the others. I think I'm in love with you." The last words tumbled from your lips in a hurry, so quickly that he almost didn’t comprehend what you were saying. He could have sworn that this was a fever dream. Maybe the medicine had kicked in way stronger than he expected it to. Maybe he was genuinely going mad. Whatever it was, it didn’t feel real.

You realised how badly timed this confession was as soon as you saw the completely befuddled expression that was plastered all over his face. Suddenly, sleeping on the armchair looked way more appealing than the shared bed. You felt like you were trapped in a mass of writhing quicksand, slowly but surely devouring you until there was nothing left to take. This was way more embarrassing than you had imagined.

“I, uhm, this was a mistake.” You felt your cheeks heat up, burning you until you couldn’t take it anymore. You needed to get out of this bed. Preferably also this room. “It would be best if I leave, I’m so sorry. I’ll go downstairs to call fo-” 

Tolya seized your wrist just as you wanted to throw the covers off of you. The rash movement caused him to wince slightly, but he didn’t let go of you. A thousand questions forced their way into his mind, and he could answer none of them. 

“Wait.” He didn’t know what else to say. But he knew that you needed to stay. “Are…are you being sincere?”

“What? Of course? Do you genuinely think I would make a joke out of something like that? Especially in our…current situation?” you questioned, absolutely bewildered that he thought you were joking around.

At this point, his face was beet red. He couldn’t tell where his embarrassment came from. Whether it was the fact that he had been tiptoeing around his feelings for months by now while you felt the same or the fact that he had the genuine audacity to ask you if you were kidding.

“Tolya, I can understand that this makes you uncom-”

“No, no, don’t!” His grip on your wrist tightened as you tried to wriggle yourself out of his grasp. That was his cue to say something. Anything if it made you stay.

“What do you mean?”

“I love you too,” he blurted, maybe a bit too quickly. But the fear of having to watch you leave made his heart act before his brain could.

“You do?”

“Do you genuinely think I would make a joke out of something like that?” He gave you a sheepish smile, his eyes gleaming with adoration. Saints, he really was in love. “I never said anything because I didn’t think you’d feel the same.”

He had intended to let go of your hand, giving you a moment to process what he had just said. You didn’t let him pull away though. Instead, you took his hand in your own, tightly squeezing it before allowing your lips to curl up into a wide smile.

“Sounds like we’re both idiots then.”

“At least we’re idiots in love.”

“But idiots nonetheless," you laughed, your heart thudding even louder when you heard Tolya join you.

Taglist:

Grishaverse fics in general: @yesshewrites1 @dal-light @treasureofmy-heart

Tolya Yul-Bataar: @juneberrie @horny4knives

[karma-creations]

My favorite bits/lines from every Secret Life session after watching all POVs

Session 1

tango trying to ask multiple questions at a time to get scar talking for a little while and scar outright telling him to shut up so he can infodump

joel’s response to lizzie, his ACTUAL WIFE, saying "I love you": "oh thank you"

joel: "hey bdubs your house is upside down" bdubs: "YES I KNOW IT'S UPSIDE DOWN- i'm sorry. i'm sorry"

bdubs not-so-subtly begging mumbo not to build a house inspired by his and mumbo straight up going going "uh huh" before suggesting a house inspired by bdubs's

cleo catching etho with the bed shrine

mumbo: "it could be like the alps, but bad. like, much worse."

martyn: "we can do a bit of, uh, tankin' and spankin'" gem: "……bit of what?"

skizz: "all of us are pretty old, maybe our island's called heart problems"

tango: "well, i'll be honest, skizz… everybody's teamed up, so… you're all that's left, we're gonna have to shack up" skizz: "well! it’s like a giant hug!"

Session 2

everyone going "OOOOHHhhhhhhhhhh…….." after skizz's creeper got put in a boat

mumbo: "I'm happy to be in whatever group you guys- oh hey bdubs"

bdubs: "I DON'T NEED NO MOM, I'M A GROWN MAN!" cleo: "really? how do you explain the everything?"

cleo (to bdubs): "you're just a horse girl at heart, aren’t you?"

skizz going "BREAK IT UP BREAK IT UP" at the same time as tango chanting "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT"

scar: "was this your idea, pearl?" pearl: "no" scar: "this is amazing, only you would have come up with something like this"

martyn: "that's right, I'm a yellow life, and I've come to KILL you" bigb: "….wow, dude"

grian: "I've had the weirdest interactions whenever I see you" bigb: "y'know, I hope they get weirder"

everyone singing happy birthday off-key and out of sync

mumbo: "is there anything that I can help with? I come with no resources and very little talent"

bdubs: "I know how to crit punch, so it's gonna hurt you more than it hurts me!" gem: "..I also know how to crit punch" bdubs: "oh"

scar: "can I give you a ride, bdubs, wherever you're going?" bdubs: "freaking no, not on that thing! you kidding me?" scar: "aw. well I was just offering!" bdubs: "…all right, fine."

Session 3

*joel and lizzie arguing* grian: "aren't you guys married"

grian saying "I don't like what this has become" then immediately joining in the chanting when it’s joel's turn to fail

grian: "I love you, etho" etho: "……thank you?"

mumbo: "right, show me the gear knob on that camel" grian: "I’d rather not"

cleo: "yes, tango, the thing that I know about you is you don't know how minecraft works"

cleo's constant ethubs jokes

etho waterboarding everyone

scar: "losers will be beaten with my beatin' stick"

joel: "you are a FAILURE!!" martyn: "wow that was whole chest" joel: "sorry I’ve had a really rough episode"

bigb accidentally picking up torchy and tango being DEVASTATED

cleo: "why are we coming out this way?" bigb: "so no one can hear!" cleo: "well impulse is right there" impulse: "who?"

torchy out for blood the entire time

Session 4

cleo accidentally hitting etho with her sword and etho's immediate response: "I'LL DO THE DISHES I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT"

cleo: "hey grian" grian: "🎶hellooo theeeere🎶" cleo: "hello, are you singing?" grian: "🎶absolutely not, I would never sing🎶"

mumbo: "what's your favorite welsh town" grian: "……….🎶let me googleee🎶"

grian: "I don't know what to do with myself now, cleo, what do we do?" cleo: "I don't know, I think we should burn things down"

grian: "ignore the stairs, they wouldn’t burn"

scar: "you guys are still here? I went and stole a bunch of stuff and you guys are still yapping over here"

jimmy: "I'll go in BigB's hole" scott: "you're gonna do WHAT????" cleo: "I always knew there was something about you two"

scar singing back at grian with no hesitation

grian and scar spotting martyn hiding behind the tree

jimmy: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING" scott: "hi, I’m just making the path connect-" jimmy: "STOP CRYIN' AND TELL US WHAT YOU'RE DOIN'" scott: "I'm making the path connect like lizzie did"

joel: "anyway, just came over here to ruin your day"

bdubs: "okay, you count us in" bigb: "okay. seven"

mumbo: "what do I win?" bdubs: "uhh- you win.. eight baked potatoes!" mumbo: "YEEEEESSS!!!!!"

bdubs: "you can't hit me! I can say and do whatever I want! okay, going to the house real quick though, to lock myself in"

people gaslighting jimmy and martyn (mostly jimmy) into thinking there’s a zombie/skeleton horse spawner somewhere

bdubs: "hey, hey! I consider you a friend! apparently it’s not reciprocated." gem: "it’s not. what do you want?"

jimmy: "martyn I think he can see you-" *beat* martyn: "WELL HE DIDN’T UNTIL YOU SAID THAT YOU IDIOT"

martyn: "oh yeah, wait! why are you wearin’ that?" scar: *incoherent cop sounds* (/ref)

jimmy: "he'll come back like nothing's happened now" mumbo: "hey guys 😀"

skizz: "here's the thing, I'm not too bossy, I- Boppers, go home for a second, I gotta talk to these guys"

[yippeeometer]

Idk if these are considered rare pairs, but here are some of my fav rare pair ships :D

FlouiSconsin (FL/LA/WI)

FloYork

TexYork

Texas/Wyoming/Montana

*you don't have to answer any of these, please do not feel forced to :D*

gonna answer all of them try that on for size

FLOUISCONSIN:

u just know theyre the ones throwing the new years party and its literally insane. typa guys to craft a massive stone boulder so they can actually say the ball dropped on the new year. typa guys to be researching haunted things on ebay to make halloween parties realistic.

their nights out should be classed as an olympic sport. Yeah you may have won a gold medal for sprinting but 1000% 3 drunk guys being chased by a zoo animal they accidentally let escape are faster than you.

something tells me they'd be the scariest people to sit near. theyre always giggling. always watching. what can they possibly be talking about.

they own like 2 pairs of real shoes between all of them and then just various non matching crocs

since sconsin has to be soooo far from the other two they just constantly have him on facetime. all day. theyre joining in on midwest arguments they know nothing about. theyre tattling to the south as soon as any drama goes down.

FLOYORK:

they serve couple-that-isnt-divorced-but-should-be vibes. theyre SICKENING omg two of the most insane people youve ever met.

we dont play around enough w the true extent of flo's madness he'd probably fill york's room w rats bc he heard that he likes them and york, matching his freak perfectly, would find it romantic. everyone else looks on in horror.

flo turns up at northeast meetings like an in-law at family gatherings to watch the drama. he definitely has a twitter account called 'weird shit my husband's family has fought over'

two strange guys with strange passions for animals. theres a collection of gator-sized sweaters in their closet that york gives flo whenever they argue (frequently)

'youre a snowbird' 'youre a leaf peeper' have you considered youre insufferable.

TEXYORK:

i acc love this ship youre never alone when yippeeometer is at the shipyard

theyre gonna be a slow-burn but in the sense that york's natural way of speaking is in one-word sentences and texas (daddy issues galore) would instantly be freaked out. local northeast man now befuddled how his flirting is not being picked up on.

oh god theyre sooooo awkward around each other. southern hospitality vs 'i can f*cking do it myself' northeast. match made in hell. hate them. no one knows how to communicate but also its sooo not casual when he begged u to come down to his ranch so he could teach u horseback riding. was it casual when he stopped the whole 'more than a city' shtick bc he wanted to show ONLY u around.

abnormal behaviour galore.... daddy issues galore..... typa guys where theres two wolves inside them (must protect him) (ab to get soooo vulnerable around him)

TX/WY/MT

cowboys!

typa guys where their only way of flirting is through the medium of horses. this is my horse shes called angel. yeah she fast. want to ride my horse? no seriously you have to ride my horse. u can even wear my hat when u do it but its totally chill or whatever....

its actually not chill they all compete at rodeos against each other and they WILL make it ur problem when it ruins the relationship.

farmer men..... farmer men..... grrrrrr what a yeild of crops..... just got some cows...... u can see them if u want...... u can stay in my bed.....

montana would have such fun with mr. 'pay attention to me or i die' texas and mr. 'no one look at me or ill kill myself' wy. sat at the table trying to maintain eye contact constantly with one whilst completely ignoring the other to not make the whole relationship obvious (its the most obvious thing in the world.)

[papakhan]

Episode 1

Fuck it, I'm gonna do it anyway. Here's all the notes I took when watching episode 1 of the godawful fallout tv show. enjoy. I'm gonna run through this with notes I made while I watched the show so formatting might be kinda weird, I haven't done anything like this before so bare with me. I will try to explain things as if you the reader have not seen the show. This is gonna be very long and heavy on the hate and the spoilers.

Content warnings:

rape

incest

gif of the fight scene violence

self harming

Things I liked:

Vault Dwellers reusing the same wedding dress and everyone who'd worn it writing their names on the inside. that's sweet

"don't lose your head" vault poster during a firefight

Johnny Cash

I like Brotherhood Clerics but they totally fucked up the ranking system

The vault dwellers just painting over the blood on the walls

Horses are canon now

Goofy wasteland urban legends like "a feral ghoul does not abide a chicken"

That's literally it. Now it's time for everything else. I'll break it down into character bits since that's what the show does

Cooper

So Cooper Cowboy ghoul man is divorced and he's at this birthday party in I'm guessing Hollywood overlooking LA. It's a beautiful sunny day :) Bare in mind that in this scene the nukes drop so Bethesda has already fucked their own lore of the nukes dropping at 9:40am in Boston would mean that it should be 6:40am in California. Sunrise in California in October is 7am, btw. So already we're fucked. Real "design documents are a waste of time" behaviour on display here.

Anyway, nuke goes off. Now let me ask you something. What's one of the most infamous things about nuclear bombs? The flash, right? A nuclear explosion is bright enough to blind a person. Fallout 4 understood this, at least a little, where the flash of light from the bomb would fill your screen even if you weren't facing it, which is how nukes work. Closing your eyes in the face of a nuke would be pointless because the light would pass through your eyelids. There's even reports of people who held up their hands to shield the light and could see THEIR BONES THROUGH THEIR HANDS. That's how bright they are. They are horrifying weapons of mass destruction.

The nuke that hits LA is not a nuke, the flash of light on Janey's face (cooper's kid and the ONE SINGLE PERSON who notices a NUCLEAR FUCKING BOMB) is more akin to a camera flash. again. she is the only fucking person who notices a nuclear bomb go off, everyone else at the party is distracted by a TV of all things.

In the time between the ""flash"" of the bomb here's everything that happens before Cooper and co feel the shockwave

Janey notices the pathetic flash and looks up.

She holds up her thumb in the "vault boy" way

Cooper comes out of the house and walks over to Janey

He crouches down beside her and says some bullshit along the lines of "i got some cake for my favourite cowgirl"

Janey says "was it your thumb or my thumb?"

Cooper looks towards the source of the nuke and slowly stands up, watching it for a moment

He says "that's just a fire janey" as the smoke unfurls into a very obvious mushroom cloud

He realises that it was not. just a fire

then they get hit by a shockwave

This takes almost a full minute and none of the segments is supposed to be slow motion. Listen I know that light moves faster than sound and heat but come on. It's way too slow and also. dead fucking silent. also the shockwave comes before the mushroom cloud but who cares.

Anyway cooper gets on a horse with the girl and rides off down the road in the direction of LA. good job dude.

I've already read up about yknow who it was who wanted the nukes fired and I know that it was Barb who wanted the nukes dropped on America for?? vault tec profit??? so uh. why did she let Janey go to a birthday party with Cooper?

Lucy

x3 Incest jokes may not seem like a lot but it was 3 too many for me. I hate the "good karma" noise that played when Lucy got arranged married. I said I liked the vault poster of "don't lose your head" but I hate the way Lucy keeps getting her inspiration from Vault Boy I'm sorry but its annoying and dumb to me. Interconnected vaults in LA is also. dumb. you're telling me The Master didn't notice these fucking things? you're kidding. Look at it, it's not even hidden in a cave or anything its just out in the open.

Way to retroactively make the Master look like a moron, though I know they do this to Mr House later on. ugh.

Her intro makes it sound like she's supposed to have Tagged Skills in repair, speech and science but she displays none of this in the later episodes I have seen, in fact her speech seems like utter dogshit so what was the point in introducing her in a "game protag" way if none of that was gonna get used later?

Anyway, lets get onto the raiders. If you know me, you know I love raiders. They're a cool and interesting critique of individualism and "might makes right" and also aesthetically just kind of fuck.

Now, knowing what I know about Moldaver and her being the current ?leader of the NCR remnants, that implies that the people she has led into Vault 33 are former NCR citizens or soldiers, right? right?

So the ""fall of shady sands"" according to the show is 2277 and yeah sure okay that's during new vegas' time and sure okay right todd howard promised that this didn't de-canonise fallout new vegas. however. it's 2296 meaning it's been 19 years since Shady Sand's.......decline. and 15 years since New Vegas where we last saw the NCR. And i know that the NCR aren't exactly the good guys To suggest that in less than 20 years the citizens of shady sands have been reduced to Bethesda-style raiders who:

Are unable to use utensils such as knives and forks

Can't grow crops

Don't know how to use cups

Will rape a woman, wipe his dick on a curtain, and then try to murder said woman

Shoveling fistfuls of cake into their mouth during a firefight

Threatening a pregnant woman

In another episode one of these guys is interrogated/interviews and shows their asshole to the guy talking to him.

is fucking ludicrous

Anyway Monty looks like Jerma

RIP

Anywayyyy how come only Lucy's pipboy picked up on the radiation from these outsiders huh? everyone else was wearing a pipboy during the wedding, they sat next to each other, those geigar counters would have been going off. what? they had them on silent out of respect of a good Christian wedding? if you try to convince me that's the explanation I will eat your liver. Bethesda raider style

anyway no.2 girlypop (lucy) straight up pulls a knife out of her wound which is medical petpeeve no.9394328 for me but then its immediately resolved by a stimpak. I hate how stimpaks in the show are used exactly how they are in the game. I was under the impression that it was a video game mechanic and not how it actually worked in the narrative. What's next? Jet gives me extra action points or some shit? I'm so tired

the fight scene sucked. the choreography of the raider guy shooting a vault dweller through the head of another vault dweller just kind of looked like shit and seemed impractical, clearly just there to be like WOAH THATS COOL it wasn't cool it looked clunky and weird. do not fucking tell me that fallout is supposed to be clunky and weird I will kill you.

the doors cutting the raider in half was also dumb since its been routinely established that the dull and ominous "thunk. thunk. thunk" heard deep in the bowels of a vault is a door that's trying to close but there's something stuck under it, if they could just slice a whole man in half then they could cut through a table or skeleton in game. Also irl I'm a health and safety officer and that moment made my toes curl. lol

It jumps from Lucy to Max and then back to lucy but I'm just gonna continue talking about her shit here. quick fire round because I've been yapping too long already

Her little brother looks way too old to be acting like a teenager this much.

Chet (Lucy's cousin and ex boyfriend. gross) wants to come with her thank god he doesn't

why doesn't she give a shit about the sky

Why doesn't she give a shit about the ocean

Maximus

"stupid blimp is back" is at the very top of my notes, lol. anyway I still don't understand where they got this thing from

Latrines made out of stacks of tires is so dumb. like I cant even explain how dumb that is. surely rubber has better use for that. surely. just shit in a hole in the ground like everyone else please for the love of god

I know the twist with Daine and let it be said, having your first on screen transgender character cut themselves with razors to get out of the military is not, in fact, Bethesda trying to be on the side of transgender people, it is in fact them making fun of us, okay? do we understand?

hiding baby max is a fridge made me so angry I blacked out. do not remind me of "kid in a fridge" ever again.

Anyway Bethesda finds it so difficult to keep the BOS consistent to the point that they are all so different from each other with little to no explanation as to why they've changed so much. In fact it feels like to me that at some point between fallout 3 and fallout 4 Bethesda has totally mixed up the BOS and the Enclave, since now the BOS hate ghouls for no reason and want to colonise the wasteland. This is just that again. Once more, no design doc behaviour.

Quotes from the BOS i think suck ass

"Duty of the Brotherhood of Steel is to secure the wasteland"

"Flesh is weak by steel endures"

"Violence is a tool we use it to bring order to the wasteland"

When Max is getting interrogated for being a suspect for cutting Daine with razors, mentions "send me to Eden or wherever" and it confused me so much. The only Eden I knew about was John Henry Eden from Fallout 3. Turns out I think what they're trying to reference is New Eden a BOS base from. Fallout Brotherhood of Steel 2?? of all fucking things?? really strange I can't imagine what else he could possibly be referencing though. This is literally just thrown in for the loreheads and I hate it.

Anyway after being a suspect for cutting Daine with razors and also failing his classes Max gets a promotion! this is not explained. They also brand him which people a lot smarter than me have discussed at length about why branding a black guy on screen in your fallout show is a bad idea. Read it here.

I don't really understand why the BOS all do shit in latin now, I know some of them had latin names in fo1 but IIRC Frank Horrigan of the Enclave was the only person in the og games who spoke latin. it feels like Bethesda wanting to capture the interest of people who liked the Legion. maybe that's a reach but given how much right wing propaganda is in the coming episodes I wouldn't put it past them.

Cooper again

I am not calling this idiot The Ghoul that's fucking dumb. what like he's the only one? ever? dumb. whats up with him being buried huh? did Todd not want to tell Nolan that ghouls arent actually zombies and arent actually undead? that just wanted him to jump out a coffin because oooh spooky zombie. honestly just kill me.

My notes: "Don't tell me the ghoul is in that grave I can't take it"

this guy gets dug up once a year and gets pieces of him cut off and put back?? why? for what purpose? how is he down there without eating or drinking? is it a kid in a fridge moment where ghouls don't need to eat or drink, well he drinks a whole lot of water in episode 3 so that's afucking lie. get real. the glowing IV? what is that??

the yodelling is really gonna piss me off, isn't it.

Not him ending the episode on the same quote he said to his daughter. whatever.

Rating: 3/10

[radioactivepeasant]

Haven't done a snippet prompt poll in a hot minute

And since I can only do one poll per post, the second poll is an "answer in the comments" type lol.

The Dramatic, Eerie, or Silly snippet should be in what setting?

Altering 1 (one) epic poem because they're public domain anyway. Either Beowulf or The Odyssey

Jak and Daxter Trespasser au (Jak and Daxter found Spargus by accident, got promptly plopped in a youth hostel, and proceeded to give Everyone But Especially Damas gray hairs by deciding to adopt Damas as resident parental figure)

It would require some context, but it's this weird au that started as a very unhinged dream I had last year. There are cowboys involved, but also Jak and Daxter characters so they ride dinosaur-like critters instead of horses. It also incorporates stuff from @sparguscityangel 's universes, and Boylei Hobbytime's "Wild Imaginary West" diorama universe (now an official tabletop rpg in production, congrats to him).

I promise the last one actually makes more sense than it did in the dream it's based on.

The dream was what happens when your sleeping brain tries to tell you that Red Dead Redemption, Jak 3, and Dragon Age: Inquisition are all the same video game.

[3liza]

What is the difficulty curve like for american schooling? What is the usual pass/fail threshold? Here it is 50% with the peak of the bell curve (intentionally set and recalibrated every year) at 70%, so you get at least ±2 STDs of student marks captured between 50% and 90%. Which makes me think the exams/assignments themselves must be more difficult than their american versions. Ive heard that in some schools anything below 70% is an F, can that be true? The exam itself has to be easier in that case, surely

i might be the wrong person to ask, and not only because im not an expert or informed about the details of the current American school system, and im approaching middle age so my experience is now out of date, so maybe an actual teacher can correct me, but my experience in american K-12 education was that everything is made up and the points dont matter. i dont think it's standardized here at all. each teacher had their own grading opinions and some classes i went to were on a curve, some weren't, some were pass-fail, "cool' teachers would often say stuff like "everyone in here has an A right now. the only way you will lose that grade is by not showing up and not doing you work" and then would ding you points every time you fucked up, etc.

i have absolutely no idea what my HS GPA was, never cared about participating in graduation so i didn't go, and I think iirc I graduated late anyway (or they were threatening to withhold my diploma or something?) because of fucking gym credits (i have a connective tissue disorder, exercise-triggered asthma, crippled knees, and POTS, and kept telling adults that the stuff we were doing in PE class was hurting and injuring me, to which they would respond that i was "out of shape"), which my lawyer mother managed to get dropped from my graduation requirements by successfully proposing that my after school activities like dance and semi-pro theater and bartering stable work for horse riding time were sufficiently athletic to quality as PE. she was right btw i was working my ass off. anyway thanks mom. but again this is equivalent to Ryan Stiles successfully arguing that Drew Carey should give him ten points for the improvised limericks about the battle of Thermopylae instead of 3, and then Carey doing so.

TEST SCORES are standardized, and the Bush-era No Child Left Behind reforms turned my HS from a school where you go to class and do schoolwork into a test prep and test taking warehouse over one summer. it was an actual nightmare. i also dont know what my test scores were. probably bad

so basically my experience was that i never knew what my GPA was anyway because i both didnt care, and also whatever counted as a "credit" wasnt standardized either so it was impossible to keep track of. the causative order of these two things could go either way, idk if i didnt care because grades were too confusing, or if grades were confusing just to me because i didn't care.

edit: i also didn't have any friends who knew/were keeping track of what their GPA was during school. people either graduated or dropped out nd some of them got sent to summer school ("bad kids") and we would see the scores marked on assignments when the assignments were handed back, but cumulative, ongoing awareness of "how well are you doing in school officially"? maybe there were really on-the-ball kids who knew this information but if there were i never heard anyone talk about it and had no awareness whatsoever where any of my peers stood in school credit rankings.

[queenmarytudor]

Mary I's Fight For The Throne

20th July - Mary is victorious

Having heard of Robert Dudley proclaiming Jane queen in Kings Lynn, Mary sends "requiring them to apprehend the Lord Robert and also to lie in wait for the like apprehension of the Duke, if it shall happen him flee, as it is suspected he will do" following Mary's proclamation for his arrest on the 18th. 1

The Earl of Oxford finally arrives at Framlingham "with a large force of men whom he had quickly been able to gather at the moment of his desertion of the duke." 2

Still wanting more men, Mary and her Council decide to "discharge all manner of gaols [...] within the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk" 3, while 500 are appointed to attend upon Mary at all times to guard her from harm. 4

In the afternoon her troops are mustered in two separate companies led by the Earl of Sussex and Lord Thomas Wentworth, where "the standards were unfurled and the military colours set up; everyone armed themselves fully as if about to meet the enemy. The infantry made ready their pikes, the cavalry brandished lances, the archer bent his bow, and girded on his quiver; the harquebusier filled his weapon with powder, inserted its leaden ball and set his match burning." 5

At 4pm, Mary rides out from Framlingham castle on a white horse, and "gave warning in an order that no harquebusier should fire his gun, nor any archer release his arrow until her majesty had inspected the army. When this order was given, such was the respect that everyone felt for their sovereign that no harquebusier nor archer fired after the command; but the soldiers bowed low to the ground and awaited their beloved mistress's arrival." 6

On foot, Mary walks around the two divisions of her army for 3 hours, "speaking to them with exceptional kindness and with an approach so wonderfully relaxed as can scarcely be described, in consideration of their esteem for their sovereign, that she completely won everyone's affections." 7

After she finishes inspecting her troops, the cavalry put on a rousing display as they "streamed forth and beat and trod the ground with such a thunderous noise and spread so widely through the field that it seemed like one enemy in pursuit of another." 8

Returning to the castle, a delighted Mary discovers the "most welcome news, scarcely to be hoped for, that Northumberland had abandoned hope of success because of the continual desertions of his supporters, and on 19th July had likewise taken flight from Bury in the middle of the night." 9

The Earl of Arundel and Marquis of Winchester arrive to confirm the news, and reveal that the Privy Council have proclaimed her Queen in London. They go to their knees with a "dagger turned towards [their] stomachs in recognition of [their] offence and submission to the penalty deserved." 10

They also bring a letter wrote by the Privy Council following their proclamation a day prior:

Our bounden duties most humbly remembered to your excellent Majesty, it may like the same to understand that we your most humble faithful and obedient subjects, having always (God we take to witness) remained your Highness’ true and humble subjects in our hearts ever since the death of our late sovereign lord and master your Highness’ brother, whom God pardon; and seeing hitherto no possibility to utter our determination herein, without great destruction and bloodshed both of our selves and others till this time, have this day proclaimed in your City of London, your Majesty to be our true natural Sovereign liege lady and Queen, most humbly beseeching your Majesty to pardon and remit our former infirmities, and most graciously to accept our meanings, which have been ever to serve your Highness truly, and so shall remain with all our powers and forces to the effusion of our blood, as these bearers our very good lords the earl of Arundel and Lord Paget can, and be ready more particularly to declare; to whom it pay please your excellent Majesty to give firm credence; and thus we do and shall daily pray to Almighty God for the preservation of your most royal person long to reign over us, from your Majesties City of London, this day of XIX July, the first year of your most prosperous reign. 11

Mary gladly accepts their submission.

While Mary was inspecting her army, Northumberland had proclaimed her queen in Cambridge and retreated to the house of Sir John Cheke. The Mayor, discovering this, "attended by a large force drawn from both town and gown, had the duke's lodging surrounded and watched on all sides to stop him leaving or escaping." 12

Now, Mary sends Henry Jerningham and Northumberland's former ally the Earl of Arundel to arrest him. 13

Meanwhile...

Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley and the Duchess of Northumberland are detained in the Tower as prisoners. 14

The Bishop of London flees the city after his sermons. 15

Sources:

1.Acts of the Privy Council, Vol 4

2. Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield

3. Acts of the Privy Council, Vol 4

4. Acts of the Privy Council, Vol 4

5. Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield

6. Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield

7. Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield

8. Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield

9. Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield

10. Spanish State Papers, 22nd July 1553

11. Memorials of the Most Reverend Father in God, Thomas Cranmer, sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury

12. Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield

13. Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield

14. Spanish State Papers, 22nd July 1553

15. Spanish State Papers, 22nd July 1553

[jadevine]

Horse knowledge, Tom Burke, and Game of Thrones when it was MOSTLY good.

Like many people, I've been devouring gif-sets from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga with Tom Burke in them.

I am also constantly seeing "Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack" next to "Tom Burke as Athos" from The Three Musketeers, because Tom is also in that series. Such a hilarious contrast, lmao.

I'm betting his cast-mates just had a blast seeing him covered in dirt and gunning a War Rig through the Wasteland.

Apparently in The Three Musketeers, Tom could barely get off his horse, so the cameras had to keep cutting from "Tom is riding a horse" to "Tom is back on the ground! You saw how the other guys got off their horses, right??? That's... that's also how HE did it, yep!" and I have so many questions, lmao.

The Three Musketeers, and Tom Burke's adaptation of the novel called "The Musketeers," is a story set in the 1600s!

A lot of actors take a few weeks of riding lessons so they don't die when they get on a horse, because it's a great skill if you need to audition for a fantasy/period piece. If you end up in a LOT of fantasy/period pieces, you have a high likelihood of being an ACTUAL rider, like Viggo Mortensen.

In The Musketeers, Tom Burke is playing one of the titular musketeers, whose JOB is to ride horses and fight, so I'm guessing he got a BIT more instruction than "how to not die."

Dismounting a horse should NOT be hard, coming from a novice and very short horse rider! Right after your first hour of How To Not Die On A Horse, you switch one leg to the other side and jump off. And... yeah, that's it. That's all I can instruct people about "dismounting a horse" without having an actual horse to demonstrate. Details vary, but the basics are the same!

Normally if someone "can't get off the horse," it's because they're sick/injured or disabled, or because they're a young child who is really tiny and really fragile, so it's safer to get someone else to lift them off.

I hate using this particular scene for "how would people get helped on or off of a horse?" but in Game of Thrones, the short teenage girl is Daenerys (played by Emilia Clarke) and she's just married a huge and muscular warlord named Drogo (played by Jason Momoa).

Context: Daenerys probably knows HOW to ride, but she's currently scared out of her mind. She's having an arranged marriage--she knows nothing about Drogo besides "he's a foreign warlord, and my brother needs his army," she can't even tell her new husband "thank you for this beautiful horse" in his language, and her dress is gauzy and see-through silk that's wayyyyyy too expensive for riding.

At 3:50 minutes, Drogo just picks her up and sticks her on the horse, and that's pretty much how you'd lift someone off a horse if they can't dismount normally.

I'm Filipino and trying to less-fetishize Khal Drogo in this Medieval European Analog story, so going on how Drogo's later shown to be VERY well-spoken in his native language Dothraki, I guess he's thinking "Goddamn, my new wife is tiny. But I already gave her this horse in public--even if she's okay switching it out, everyone ELSE will ask questions if her 'wedding horse' is a foot shorter than it used to be. Is she gonna grow more? Can she mount up without stairs? FUCK THAT, STAIRS ARE FOR PUSSIES. I'M THE STAIRS. YOINK!"

But see, Tom Burke is an adult, there are no extenuating circumstances like "being married to a MASSIVE foreigner that you've met exactly once," and he's SIX FEET TALL! Tom should NOT need Jason Momoa to lift him on or off a horse!

An average horse who's big enough to carry most adults is about 15 hands high, or MY height (5 feet tall). "The Musketeers" show does have the pitfall of having FRENCHMEN in the 1600s riding practically-modern FRIESIAN horses from the Netherlands, probably because Friesians have nice hair, but height-wise, they're not known to be VERY tall.

Here's a shot of Athos/Tom leading his good Dutch boy, Roger!

Tom/Athos is at least a head above Roger! Friesians are thick-boned and often burly for their height, so Tom/Athos still looks just fine in the shots I've seen of him riding in "The Musketeers." And like... he literally looks okay while riding in the screenshots, since he's never clinging on for dear life or looking like he's about to fall off.

If he was just terrible at riding in general, they probably wouldn't have picked him for the show, or if they really liked his chemistry and acting but knew he would die on a horse, they'd get a riding double for him specifically.

How did Tom fuck up "getting off a horse" so badly that everyone went "nope, we're not filming that"??? And did he just never get better at it for TWO WHOLE YEARS, or was he a mysteriously slow learner when it came to exactly one aspect of horse riding???