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rainbowvamp · 3 years ago

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Alone Too Young

The first installment in my Princess Bride AU. Today we meet our first protagonists, Gwen and Elyan (playing the parts of Valerie and Inigo respectively). Wednesday, we get the rest of their origin story, and Friday we start with the Princess Bride Retelling Proper (Morgana/Lancelot for the main pairing).

Warnings for semi-graphic depictions of murder (Thomas's) and blood. Also semi graphic depiction of injury (Broken ankle), and mentions of death and burial rituals. Implied threat of sexual assault.

Teen and Up Audiences Advised.

Summary: It was supposed to be a day like any other day. Except the king came early for his commissioned sword, and slayed their father before left, leaving Gwen and Elyan orphans.

Word Count: 3,859

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32975395

For Protagonists: Albion Party 2021 (❤️Red Team Rulez💋)

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It’s just like any other day, really. Father is in his smithy, creating a sword. Elyan is there, helping him, and Gwen is in the kitchen, preserving the ripe spring fruit for winter and fall. Her mother had taught her to do this, when she was still very young, and when mother had died, the kind woman down the road had helped her perfect the craft. Most of the household chores had fallen to Gwen in her mother’s absence, while Elyan had tried to apprentice under his father and her father had to work even harder at the forge to buy pre-made clothes, since Gwen couldn’t sew nearly as fast as her mother and she and Elyan were both at the age where they outgrew clothes quickly

Gwen had heard father telling Elyan that this sword will be his master work. That it is the most beautiful thing he has ever created, and it will fetch a good price, keep them fed through the winter when firewood is harder to find, and buy them both nice warm clothes that they won’t have time to grow out of.

The King himself has commissioned the sword, he hears them whisper in the quietest tones late at night, while Gwen attends to her sewing, trying desperately to make enough clothes, and patch and resize what she can salvage. King Uther will be there at the end of the week to pick it up, coming himself to inspect the craftsmanship. It’s a high honor. Tomorrow Gwen is meant to begin preparing the house for royalty.

Only… a very fancy looking party is coming down the road, past her house, towards her father’s smithy. The clatter of chainmail and swords, the clop of hooves and the creak of carriage wheels passes her by, and she is worried, because there was no word that anyone noble would be passing through their little village. And the knights are all dressed in an unmistakable Pendragon Red.

Gwen leaves her jam, covers the fruit with a towel so the flies and bugs can’t get to it, and she dresses hurriedly, not even putting her hair in a nice braid before donning her cap and making for her father’s forge, taking the shortcut that she knows by heart after years of being sent to give her father, and now Elyan lunch, dinner, and water.

“It’s not ready.” She mutters to herself as she goes as quickly as she dares in her nicest dress. “It’s not ready. Father will be so embarrassed.”

She slips into the forge through the back door, and can already hear the King’s party coming.

“Gwen,” her father says, voice high and mouth smiling. “What a lovely surprise. Is the jam-making going well?”

“No.” She shakes her head and tries to pull herself together, heart racing and breath weak from having come as fast as she had to try and outrun their horses. “No, father. The King! I saw his party coming this way. He passed by the house not long ago. Where is his sword?” She is quick, frantic as she speaks. Her heart is racing, her head turning side to side, looking for any sign of the sword her father has spent weeks and weeks making.

“The King? He’s not due till next week.” Father’s voice mirrors her now, as he looks toward Elyan. “Give my that sword, son. It’s not ready, but I can polish it up before he gets here.”

“Hurry, please.” Gwen says, frantic, as Tom is looking for his polishing materials. Maybe it’s the clopping of hooves she hears, or maybe it’s the racing of her own heart, getting louder and louder. King Uther is not known to be patient or forgiving. She is terrified of what might happen if he is displeased in any way. Could he take the forge? Kill her father?

No. No, she couldn’t think like that. She just couldn’t. It would only make things worse, to think like that.

“Elyan, take your sister home. I don’t want either of you here for this.”

“Father, no!” Elyan begins to protest, and Gwen goes to do the same, but Tom’s gaze becomes hard, his mouth set in a firm line that quiets them both.

“I said, take your sister home. I’ll see you both for dinner.”

No you won’t. Gwen’s terrible thought replies, but she pushes it down, pushes it back. Because she won’t believe it. She won’t. Her father will be fine. He crafts the finest swords in all of Camelot, and even if the sword isn’t finished, it is still beautiful, and sharp, and the king will not be disappointed in it. Of course he won’t be.

So then why does the thought feel so much like a lie.

Her brother takes her arm and leads her out with much more authority than he had any right to. He is smaller than her by an inch, though he will catch up to her soon. Guinevere is only fourteen, he only fifteen, sixteen come winter, but mother had predicted that she would grow faster than he would, leaving Elyan to catch up when he was older. Soon he would, she is sure of it.

They dash through the trees, but Elyan stops when he catches a glimpse of the King’s riding party. Gwen stops too, forboding and dread weighing her down to the spot.

“You go ahead. I’m going back with father.” Elyan tells her, and she glares.

“No, we both go home or we both go to the forge.” Gwen hardens her features, standing her ground like Mother always taught her to, and Elyan glared back at her, a battle of wits ensuing.

Eventually, Elyan sighs, defeated. “We’re wasting time. Come on. But you’re to stay outside and out of sight, and if you think they might start looking around, you run back home, do you understand? Men like that, they aren’t kind to women below their station.”

She swallows hard. She knows what he means, and what she is risking, but she will not leave her father alone, and neither will Elyan.

They race back, just barely making it to the forge as the King himself bursts through the door, loud and rude. They watch through the window, obscured by bushes and the curtain father uses to keep bugs out.

“Tom, smith, it is good to see you! I hope I am not too early.”

“Of course he’s too early.” Elyan muttered from their perch at the window, glaring at the king in a way that would be treasonous if he saw. Gwen doesn’t blame him. She’s sure her own gaze is not particularly favorable to the king just now.

“Of course not, your Majesty. I’m just finishing polishing it up, if you don’t mind waiting a moment.” Gwen can hear the tenseness in her father’s usually easy-going voice. The fear in it that the King is probably used to, maybe even delights in by the way his eyes light up.

“Excellent. I’ve heard nothing but good things this about your work. I expect the result to be excellent.”

“I endeavor to please, Sire.” Tom continues polishing the sword as the king looks around the smithy, walks casually, hands behind his back, and examines the walls lined with tools and swords and horse shoes.

“This is beautiful.” King Uther said, picking something up off a table that Gwen can’t see. “I should like it as well.”

“Thank you sire. I was actually making it for my daughter. Her coming of age is soon, but I would be happy to make another just like it, better even.” Tom is smiling, but Gwen can see the insincerity in it, the sweat beads forming at his temple are not just from the heat of the forge.

“No, I won’t be back this way for some time. I’d like this one. Make your daughter another.”

Elyan starts to stand and Gwen grabs his arm, clawing her nails into it and leveling her hardest glare at him. Their father was a competent man, and they would leave him to do what needed doing.

“The metal is from my late wife’s wedding ring, Sire. I would prefer not to part with it, if I could.” His voice is soft, pleading, begging the King to understand, but King Uther is heartless and the whole kingdom knows it.

“Hmm.” Uther carelessly drops whatever it is he is holding onto the table, the clatter making Gwen flinch even as Elyan grips the window seal like he would like to jump through it and give the King a piece of his mind. “Enough of that then. The sword.”

“Here, Sire.” Tom’s voice is soft with relief that Gwen can feel in her chest, a knot unwinding ever so slightly, that will not be fully undone until the whole thing is over and the King is gone.

“Excellent.” The King takes the sword an examines it, head and hand turning this way and that to admire the work her father had done. “That’s 100, isn’t it?”

Tom is quiet for a moment, eyes widening. “Um, Sire, I believe we agreed to 1000.”

“He can’t be serious. Father worked for months on that sword.” Elyan seethes beside her and Gwen finds her own anger is rising, even above the anxiety. She can’t see this ending well.

“1000?” The King scoffs, “What does a peasant need 1000 for all at once? 100. Take the money or you shall get nothing at all.”

“Sire, with all due respect, I can’t take less than 1000. The materials alone are worth more than 100. That handle is inlaid with real gold, precious stones. I have a family to feed, Your Majesty.” Tom’s tone is raising, higher pitched, pleading, not yet angry like Elyan so obviously is beside her. She keeps hold of his arm, not to keep him in line, but to keep herself grounded. This cannot end well for them. It will not.

“I don’t believe I asked about your family, smith.” King Uther adjusts his grip on the sword and places the tip at their father’s breast both, just beside his heart. “Be lucky I offer you 100.”

“Sire, please.” Tom is looking around frantically for anything he can use to defend himself, and his eyes catch on something just beside Gwen. When Gwen follows their path she realizes that he is looking at Elyan. Whether he has always known they were there or just discovered them is unclear, but Gwen read the words on Tom’s lips clear as words straight from a book. “Don’t.” Her father tells Elyan, and Gwen grips her brother’s arm, but it is too late. He is racing around the building, toward the door, and Gwen can’t stop him. She’s wary for her own safety, and her father had begged him not to.

Elyan doesn’t see their father’s death, because he is running around to the door, but Gwen sees it. She has to hold her hands to her mouth to keep a scream from escaping. She has never seen a sword pierce a human before. She’s never seen anything killed before today, so to have the first death she witnesses be her father’s is more than she can bear. She collapses into the bush outside the smithy window, the gurgling sound of her father’s final breaths creeping out the window, but soon covered by Elyan’s roaring yells of “father!”

Their father won’t survive. Elyan won’t survive. What will they do? What will she do? Her limbs are stiff and her lungs are empty, refusing to fill themselves. She hears the clashing of sword, and her brother’s grunts of pain. She is still crying, sobbing, even, but she holds her hands so hard to her face that she thinks maybe she’ll have bruises across her lips afterward. It hurts. Everything hurts.

She hates King Uther. Hates him with a fiery passion, but that is nothing compared to the sorrow welling inside her. Her father is dead. Her brother is dead.

She hears hooves on hard dirty road, the king giving orders to leave, and only then can she gather enough sense to crawl out of the bushes and around the smith to see what damage has been done.

Her eyes are so wet with tears that she can’t see anything but red. Red that turns deep black where there is too much blood pooled of the smithy’s dirt floor. She can hear her father’s choking, gurgling breaths and she collapses again, sobbing. She doesn’t know how to save a stabbed man. The nearest doctor is two villages away. She can’t help him. She can’t save.

“Guinevere.” Elyan’s croaking voice calls to her and she sobs harder, curling in on herself and holding her knees.

“Elyan!” She wails, “Father!” She hates King Uther. She hates him. She hopes he gets caught in a hideous fire, burns alive and has hot metal searing his flesh in his final moments. She hopes he suffers. She hopes he dies.

“Guinevere!” Elyan yells louder, though nowhere near his full strength. “Help me.”

She forces her shoulders to still and her sobs to quiet, wipes at her eyes with her sleeves. Her hand is wet, wetter and stickier than tears would leave it, and when she has cleared the tears from her eyes she sees that she has put her hand in blood. Elyan’s blood most likely. She’s enthralled by it, can’t move anymore, knowing that the king has spilt both her father’s and brother’s blood. She’s only able to move again when Elyan calls her name.

She crawls to him, ignoring the blood staining the worn blue fabric of her mother’s handed down dress, still the finest dress she owned. It was too big for her, and the fabric would have dragged through the blood even if she’d bad the strength to stand, which she didn’t.

She dropped again beside her brother, who laid in the dirt, too weak even to move his head. His foot lays at an odd angle, and his face is bleeding. There is so much blood Gwen thinks he might die too.

“I will-“ Elyan starts to say, but he winces with the pain of his injuries, “I will avenge our father, Guinevere. I will keep you safe.” He reaches up and touches the blood streak on Gwen’s face, brushes it away with the sleeve of his own shirt. She brings her hand up to hold his, tears still tracking down her cheeks and making both their sleeves wet. There father is silent beside them.

“You have to live.” She pleads. Looking over at their father, whose eyes are glassy, wide open, chest unmoving.

“I will. He laid no killing blows. He thought me younger than I am.” Elyan swallowed hard and Gwen squeezes his hand, walking on her knees to take the pitcher of water from the counter and bring it down to the ground with them. She has to help him sit up, and move him to rest against father’s work table before he can drink. He tries not to show how much he’s hurt, but Gwen can see it in the way he tries so hard not to move his left leg, and grits his teeth harder with every motion.

“Elyan, what are we to do?” She whispered once he’d drunk what little water was in the pitcher.

He doesn’t speak for a long while, and Gwen starts to cry silently again, her eyes settling on the wall farthest from where her father lay dead, unwilling to look upon his body again.

“You have to go fetch the doctor, or my foot won’t heal right. I’ll be of no use to you if I can’t walk.” Elyan grit his teeth as he adjusted himself against the table, trying to get more comfortable. “Once he’s finished with me, I doubt we’ll have much money left. I’ll find some odd jobs in the villages, see if there’s a widow needs firewood or something of the like. I’ll keep the forge going at night, prove to people that I’m as competent as father.”

Gwen nods and swallows hard. “The fruit will be bad by the time I get back with the doctor.” It’s the only thing she can think.

“Damn the jam, Guinevere. We’ll make due without.” Elyan’s voice is dismissive, angry, but she knows it’s not aimed at her. Even so she feels herself shrink, frightened by him.

“I’m sorry.” Is all she can think to say. She is sorry that their father is dead. Sorry she can’t think of anything but the jam. Sorry that she didn’t… what, stab the King? If Elyan couldn’t lay a hand on him, what hope did she have? Guinevere was never trained with a sword. She would make Elyan train her now.

That thought centered her as she stumbled to her feet. “I’m going to get the Doctor. I’ll see if The Henricks will let me borrow their horse.”

“Don’t ask them. Their son has eyes for you. Ask the Tailors, down the way. The mother has a soft spot for you.”

Gwen nods, pulling her scarf closer around herself. “She’s always been good to us.” She had taught Gwen to make jam. And to sew, and all the best household remedies and cleaning tricks. Surely they’d spare her a horse.

“She has.” Elyan nods and his eyes focus once again on their father’s dead body. She knows that’s where he is looking, but she doesn’t dare look herself. She’s only just stopped crying and she can’t afford to lose it again. She has to bring a physician back, for Elyan.

“Hurry back,” Elyan says to her on her way out the door and she nods at him, eyes steely and determined. When she passes people and they see the blood on her knees and the tears still glistening her eyes, they put two and two together. None of them stop her or ask her questions, but they leave a trail of gossip in her wake.

She ignores them.

—

The physician sees to Elyan quickly, who’s been moved to their house by a neighbor with a cart and kindness in their heart. Elyan is laid up on their father’s bed, rather than the cot they usually shared, to try and keep some of the pressure off his ankle.

The physician had given her something to help his pain, and showed her how to change the dressings on his wounds. She had taken all the instructions in stride, committing them to memory and never once glancing towards the fruit still sitting on the kitchen table, waiting to be cooked and jellied.

“You’re a very lucky young man.” The physician says as he’s packing up his things. Gwen can’t fathom how anyone could apply the word “lucky” to their situation. “The King has killed boys younger than you for smaller slights. If he had, your sister might be left all alone, and where would she be then?”

Elyan bites his tongue, and Gwen does too. They both know how lucky they are Elyan isn’t dead, but their father is, and they are still too young to be alone like this. It’s cruel of him to torment Elyan so.

Gwen sees the physician out the door, and gives him most of their money as he goes. She doesn’t know what they’ll do when the few coins they have run out, but she will just have to think of something until Elyan is on his feet again.

“Father still needs to be buried.” Elyan said as the sun begins to set. Today had seemed so ordinary only hours ago, but now it feels upside down and there’s nothing she can do about it.

Gwen nods as she tries her best to save the fruit that was left. It would cost too much to waste it now. “The Tailor’s son has offered to come first thing in the morning and help me dig.”

Elyan nods as well, but doesn’t look at her. It must be weighing on him that he can’t dig the grave himself. Guinevere remembers how at just ten years old, Elyan had insisted on helping father dig mother’s grave. Guinevere had braided flowers into a crown for her. Father had told her not to touch mother, but Gwen had always been a stubborn child, and she had snuck over to her mother’s shrouded body, moved the shroud from her face, and placed the crown on her head.

Her mother was cold, stiff, like a doll made of corn husks, but more solid. It felt strange to touch the body and find it completely stiff. The neck wouldn’t give even an inch so she could put the crown all the way around her head, so Gwen had just rested the crown askew, and replaced the shroud. Her father had caught her, yelled at her to step back. Mother had been very sick for a long time. It wouldn’t do for Gwen die as well, now that all of Mother’s duties were hers.

Mother had told her once, that she’d run a home one day. This was probably not how she meant it.

After placing the crown, Gwen had gone inside to finish the day’s chores. It was all she could do. Playing didn’t feel right, and people kept coming to the door, saying how sorry they were and asking when they would bury mother. Gwen fielded these questions as best she could, and finds herself fielding the same ones late into the evening as word of Tom’s slaughter at the hands of the king, and Elyan’s injury, spread through the village. A few of the village men bring Tom’s body to the main house, to keep it safe for the night. Gwen tells them thank you, and when they offer to help during the burial tomorrow, Gwen gladly accepts it.

“You’re too young for this.” Elyan said, with a single candle burning down on the kitchen table and Gwen laid out on the cot by her brother’s side, unwilling to go more than a few feet from him.

In the dark of the night, Gwen feels another set of tears start, and she leaves them, lets them soak the hard pillow beneath her head. “We’re both too young for this. But we’ll make it.”

“Yes, we will.”

When Gwen looks up at Elyan, his eyes are focused over her, probably on the shrouded body of their father. There will be a stink in the house by morning. There was with mother. They will have to take they father outside as soon as someone comes by in the morning, and someone will have to guard his body from wild animals while they dig. Gwen thinks Elyan should do this. It would make him feel useful. Even when mother died, Elyan had tried to be jovial, but he is nothing by sad and serious now. She can’t say she expects him to smile, but they’ve barely spoken all day except to make plans. Gwen lets the tears keep flowing late into the night, and she barely sleeps for the grief.

#albionparty21 #redteamrulez #Elyan #sir elyan #gwen #gwen pendragon #lysa's pbau #pbau #pbau proper #<<<the tag I'll use for just the story #Tell me what you think I'm so excited to finally get to post this #pbau au proper

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neqeyam · 4 years ago

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Kaeya Head Canons!

hey besties, me again! Kaeya brainrot hit hard today LOL, anyways some of these may be ooc bc I don’t main Kaeya anymore so i’ve forgotten a lot about his character plus I don’t read the lore (where tf do yall find it even).

Also if some of my head canons for any charcter seem personal or have nothing to do with their character it’s me projecting LOL!

anyways, onto the hcs!

(ps, thank you so much for the love on my last hc post! i really didn’t expect anyone to see it LOL)

He’s a menace. but everyone loves him

Kaeya skips, when he isn’t in a professional setting my guy is skipping. It’s so much faster than walking and more fun than walking.

This^ is especially true when he’s out with his s/o. holding your hand, he’ll skip and force you to either jog or skip along with him to keep up.

Again I say; he’s dating Albedo. Kaeya saw Albedo from across the bar and without missing a beat he got up, waltzed over and started flirting with him. Albedo had no idea what was happening, he then asked sucrose to accompany him the next time he went and it was sucrose who broke the news to Albedo that he was being flirted with. Kaeya laughed for 5 minutes and refuses to let Albedo forget it.

(oh my god tell me why as soon as I go to write these they all leave my mf brain im sorry if these are terrible)

Kaeya taught bennett how to sword fight, and still does on the rare occasion he has a free hour.

^most people of Mondstadt think bennett went to Kaeya for help but that’s not true. Someone sent in a letter to AGM Jean (the hand writing looked suspiciously like Diluc’s but he refuses to admit it was him) saying that bennett was looking into learning the art of the sword. The next day Kaeya dispatched himself to look for bennett and for the next two months (technically it’s been like two years but bennett is a fast learner) Kaeya was a dad.

Kaeya absolutely despises working out but he does it anyways because he wants to be able to pick up kids.

Kaeya is AMAZING with kids, he makes jokes about hating them but when he sees one he melts. He has to work with them a lot because he is often dispatched for travel mishaps (hilichurls attacking carriages, that sort of thing) and often times the parents are injured so he has to comfort any kids that may be on scene.

Kaeya is buff, absolutely jacked. you can’t see it because he dresses modestly (sorta) to down play his physical strength but my guy can deadlift like 350 LBS (idk if that’s a lot tbh I don’t workout anymore LMAO)

Kaeya is as smart as he is muscular. He’s among the smartest knights, probably top three (it goes kaeya, jean, lisa). HOWEVER, he ranks first in battle intelligence. my guy can analyse four opponents at the same time, find all their weak spots and exploit them in matter of seconds.

Kaeya is also a master of manipulation. i can see it in his eyes, this man knows the mind of all his enemies, old and new.

(wait now i’m imagining Kaeya riding a horse that’s full sprint HELP. I’m turning myself into a Kaeya simp....)

Kaeya’s horse is all black except for a white patch that looks suspiciously like the star from Khaenri’ah (it’s on its lower neck). his horse is also by far the fastest in the entire company and was once part of a herd of horses that roamed Mondstadt’s country side. (Diluc helped him tame it but shhh nobody is supposed to know)

^Kaeya was extremely pissed of when Varka took his cavalry, still is in fact. I mean, he’s the cavalry captain damn it, find your own horses. Especially because there were enough horses so Kaeya’s could stay behind in case he needed it for something, but NOOOO Varka refused anything but teh best- which happened to be Kaeya’s horse.

Kayea’s named his horse Außenseiter, and that is absolutely a reflection of his feelings.

Kaeya is fucking fantastic at masking what he’s feeling, you’ll never know what he’s actually feeling. If a situation starts to go downhill, you won’t know it until it’s practically too late because Kaeya is just. that. good.

he’s also fucking fantastic at playing the long game. nobody knows but he’s the knights of favoniouses official interrogator and he is a menace. he always gets what he wants out of people, whether it takes two hours and two months, he gets it, and reports directly to AGM Jean his findings.

Kaeya and Eula share ‘war stories’ (how they go their visions mostly, but other things like the way people treat Eula, and how they chalk Kaeya up to being ‘just a flirt’)

he has a fan club. they aren’t as loud as the Diluc fan club but he knows they’re there. sometimes he’ll pop in on meetings and everyone just. fucking freezes bc their lord and savior- THE Kaeya is standing in their presence. he loves them.

He openly talks about liking anyone he wants to so that the youth of mondstadt can talk about as well. and the LGBTQ+ of mondstadt know that if they’re having a problem with someone they have his permission of threaten said person with his name.

^and archons hope he isn’t in the vicinity when it reaches that point. all rational goes out the window and then he’s all threats and no jokes. with a threatening smile that screams “test me, see what happens”

^then he treats whoever was being disrespected to a meal, on him.

and that’s all for now! thanks again for the love on my first head canon post! i really need to learn how to use tumblr so i can make a masterlist of these LOL. there will definitely be more coming soon!

#kaeya alberich #kaeya headcanons #kaeya x reader #kaeya #albedo is in here too #kaeya is pan #there i said it #genshin impact #knight of favonius #KOF #video game characters #video game

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plaidbooks · 3 years ago

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For my bingo — can I have the royal square with Knight!Mike x Knight!reader x Prince!Sonny

Please and thank you 🥰🥰

Once Upon A Time

A/N: You would request this! For those out of the loop, Karen and I talked about this a months or so ago via discord, and then she requested it so I'd write it. And I actually really liked it! I hope you do, too ❤

This covers the Royal square in @adarafaelbarba moodboard bingo!

Tags: talks of abduction, blood, broken bones, black eyes and bruises

Words: 2450

Taglist: @witches-unruly-heart @beccabarba @thatesqcrush @itsjustmyfantasyroom @permanentlydizzy @ben-c-group-therapy @infiniteoddball @glowingmess @whimsicallymad @lv7867 @storiesofsvu @cycat4077 @alwaysachorusgirl @glimmerglittergirl @joanofarkansass @caracalwithchips @berniesilvas @reading--mermaid @qvid-pro-qvo @averyhotchner @imalostredheadinablondeworld @averyhotchner @mrsrafaelbarba @detective-giggles @crowleysqueenofhell @dreamlover31

Once upon a time, there was a young prince. From when he was a child, he was taught to treat everyone fairly, to have love and compassion for all. Because of this, the kingdom loved the prince, and he loved them all, too. But other kingdoms were not as loving.

When the prince turned fifteen, a group of mercenaries from the kingdom in the West attempted to assassinate the prince. A knight in training, no older than the prince was, saved his royal life. Ever since then, the two had been inseparable, and once old enough, the prince asked the knight to marry him.

Though the king was happy that his son was happily in love, he was not thrilled that his only son would not be able to give him heirs to take on the crown. For you see, the knight was a man, and neither could bear a child.

One day, the knight was called upon to escort the king to a neutral palace, to negotiate peace with the kingdom to the West. Worried for his princely husband, the knight went to an old friend and fellow knight. They had grown up together and had been close. He asked the other knight to please watch over his husband, to make sure he was safe. The knight accepted; being a knight of the kingdom meant protecting the crown with your life, regardless of it being a favor to an old friend.

The new knight spent many days and nights with the prince, protecting him from any that might do him harm. No such attacks occurred, but another problem arose; the prince and the knight fell in love. The prince still loved his husband, though, and he wasn’t sure what to do, while the knight was at a loss; she had only ever been in love once before, with the knight who she had trained with all her childhood…the same knight who was married to the prince.

The husband knight returned a few days later, and he could sense the tension between the two. They all agreed to sit and talk, and this is when they decided to follow their hearts. All three loved each other very much, and soon enough, the husbands married the knight, too. This had never been done in the kingdom before, but the king was all too happy to acquiesce; mostly because his son was happy, but also, he could now have heirs.

********************

You were out, patrolling the grounds in the early morning fog. A part of you wished to still be in bed, cuddling your husbands, but the call to arms was more important than your relaxation. Plus, you had a bad feeling about today.

Mike was called to duty the same time you were, leaving the prince to lay in bed alone. Your heart hurt, knowing how much Sonny loved to wrap around someone in bed, rather than sleep by himself. But all of this was to protect the crown, protect him. So, he would have to endure it.

Emissaries from the West were to arrive today, with further negotiations of peace, and tensions were high. Which was why the guard had every knight armed and ready, just in case.

Thankfully, the representatives only numbered six; two negotiators and four guards. You were able to relax your guard slightly, unworried. An attack now would mean an act of war, something you didn’t expect the West to commit to; your kingdom’s army far outnumbered the West’s. To start a war would be suicide. Though, you knew Prince Sonny worried about both you and Mike every day, afraid you’d die in battle.

You were just rounding the corner of the royal garden when the alarm was raised. Fear shot through you, and you ran as fast as you could in your armor, heading for the prince’s chambers. You, Mike, and twenty others were assigned to the prince, while the rest of the guard would head for the king and queen.

You flew up the staircase, then rushed to the hallway that led to Sonny’s room. But the sight in front of you made you pause. The two knights posted outside his chambers were slumped on the ground, blood pooling around them. Mike showed up behind you then, his face full of concern. With him by your side, you both headed for the slightly ajar door, heart in your throat.

Mike pushed into the room while you stooped to check the guards. Both were dead. Steeling yourself for the worst, you followed Mike inside. He was standing by the bed, his back to you, head down.

The room seemed untouched, except for the bed. Feathers from pillows and the covers were scattered, and the bedding was tossed to the floor. Holding your breath, you joined Mike, looking to the bed. A piece of parchment was left on the mattress, and there was a splash of blood on a pillow, but otherwise, there was no sign of the prince.

With shaking hands, you took the parchment, then read it aloud. “The only peace that can exist between us is for King Carisi to kneel to the West. If he does not kneel within a fortnight, then the prince will be slain.”

“They took him,” Mike muttered, voice a deadly quiet.

You blinked away your tears, laying a hand on his shoulder. “We must inform the king.”

He took one last, longing look at the bed, the blood staining the pillow, before he nodded and turned to leave the room.

*****************

You and Mike were both stunned when the king decided to send only the two of you to retrieve the prince. If you were caught, then the West may kill Sonny as revenge. But what was certain was that you and Mike would be killed on sight.

There wasn’t much time to think about the king’s decision, though, and neither of you would decline a chance to save your husband, anyways. Soon enough, you and Mike made your way to the Western kingdom, dressed in their clothes to better blend in. It was a long, two-day ride on your horses, stopping only in the dead of night to toss and turn on your bedrolls before continuing. You had left your armor at home; it was a dead giveaway for who you were. The only things you carried on your person in terms of weapons was daggers, hidden up sleeves. It left a bad taste in your mouth.

Knights were honorable; war was ugly, and the knights were the ones on the front lines, fighting for their kingdom. They were not the ones sneaking into places with blades hidden. But the West had played a dirty hand by distracting the king with such a small group of emissaries claiming peace, only to kidnap the prince. It was time to play dirty back.

****************

You and Mike took turns scouting out the royal prison. The rumors were that a prince from the East was imprisoned there. But rumors also claimed everything from “the prince came of his own accord” to “the prince was killed the day he arrived”. Afraid for your husband’s fate, you and Mike didn’t take long to come up with a plan.

Dressed as guards—complete with a sword on your hips—Mike led you into the belly of the prison. Judging by the state of the other inmates, all of which were beaten, starving, and shivering, you were afraid of what they had done to Sonny. But he had only been captured for three days—he couldn’t be that bad, could he?

There were guards posted in front of his cell when you found him. You and Mike quickly killed them; with the element of surprise, it was easy to take them out almost silently. Hoping that you had some time before more guards appeared, you unlocked the cell.

The commotion had caught Sonny’s attention, and he rolled over to see what was happening. When he recognized his spouses fighting for him, he propped himself up on an elbow. And once you had opened the door, a smile pulled across his face, albeit painfully.

“My knights,” he mumbled, trying to push himself to sitting.

You were there first, and you stooped to help him. “Sonny, my love, you need medical attention—”

“What happened to you?” Mike asked, that deathly quiet back in his voice. He squatted next to you, reaching out to cup Sonny’s face, turning him towards the light from the lantern behind you.

One of Sonny’s eyes was swollen shut, and bruises covered his face. Dried blood was under his nose, and his lip was split. It appeared as if his arm was broken, and he kept it tucked awkwardly to his side. There were slashes through the cloth that dared call itself a tunic, blood from cuts visible through it, some still actively bleeding. The most worrying thing, however, was how thin the prince had become in a few short days, dark circles under his eyes that could be bruises or lack of sleep.

“I’m fine,” he murmured, trying to give Mike a reassuring smile. Sonny hated violence, and he knew that Mike had a temper about him when it came to protecting Sonny.

But Mike’s face didn’t soften. “Who did this to you?” he asked, voice a whisper.

Sonny answered just as quietly, reaching up with his good hand to cover Mike’s. “Don’t. We must not tarry.”

“He’s right, Mike. We need to go, before we’re found out and executed,” you said, standing.

Mike clenched his jaw before straightening. He scooped Sonny’s frail body into his arms, and Sonny tried—and failed—to not grimace in pain. “When was the last time you’ve eaten?”

“Later; we must go now,” Sonny replied. You agreed, and you went first out of the cell, leading the men up and out of the prison.

*****************

The rescue of the prince was noticed just before you made it to the kingdom walls atop your horses. You told Mike to take Sonny and run while you drew your sword. There was still time before the guards at the exits tripled, and you knew you could take them…and if not, at least your husbands would be safe.

Both men were unhappy with your decision, but Mike was more interested in saving Sonny, so he followed your orders, the prince commanding he not leave you behind, his cries ignored. There were only three guards at the exit, and you went first, clashing with them all and giving Mike time to ride by. You vaguely heard Sonny’s screams as they went, calling Mike a coward for not helping you. But all that faded from your mind as you sparred with the guards.

You heard when the alarm went off, and you knew it was time to go. You cut one man down, injuring another, before you pulled yourself back onto your horse to gallop away. While mounting your horse, however, the lone guard still standing slashed out, cutting your back from shoulder to hip. You cried out, slumping onto your horse as it galloped, barely clinging to the reigns. The cut at the shoulder was deeper than the rest, since he hit you as you had moved forward, but you were still worried about what this meant for your life. You couldn’t move your left arm—the shoulder that was struck deep—but you hung on to your horse with your right.

Your horse didn’t slow until you were at a small overpass; the place you and Mike planned to meet and assess the rest of the trip home; your kingdom was a two-day trip away. Mike came out from under the overpass when you rode up, and his face filled with concern. He helped you off your horse, asking what had happened. You fell to your knees once you were on the ground, pain rocketing through your body.

“Shit, this is bad. Come on; get inside so I can bandage you up,” Mike said, helping you to stand. You shuffled on weak legs underneath the overpass.

Sonny sat up as he saw the state you were in. He was shirtless, most of his wounds either bandaged or cleaned, a half-eaten roll in his hand, his other arm still tucked to his side. “Are you okay, doll?” he asked as Mike laid you face down on his bedroll. They both eyed your back wearily.

“F—fine. A good night’s rest will heal me right up—”

“It’s bad, love,” Mike muttered. He quickly pulled out the meager amount of bandages he had left before he started to clean the wound.

Sonny’s face filled with worry. “Can you use bandages from me?” he asked, already knowing the answer. But still, he had to try.

“No, that would only lead to infection. We just have to hurry home,” Mike replied.

You winced as he washed you, even with his gentle touch. “We should leave tonight, then.”

“No; both you and Sonny need rest—”

“If we rest here, we may not get up again. Mike, sweetheart, we must get the prince home, before a war starts. And if my injury is as bad as you say it is, then all the more reason to head out now,” you reasoned.

Mike looked ready to argue, but Sonny said, “she’s right, Mike. I’m okay to ride. Why, after eating, I feel as strong as you.” He smiled softly, but Mike didn’t return it.

“Can you ride?” he asked you.

You nodded. “Of course.” You knew why he asked; Sonny, who had only ridden mild-mannered horses through the city during parades, could not ride alone. Mike would have to make sure he didn’t fall.

He gave you a skeptical look, and you tried to convey your conviction through your eyes. You still couldn’t move your left hand or arm, but you could ride one-handed. Finally, he sighed, “fine. Let me finish bandaging what I can, and then we move.”

After packing and forcing another roll of bread onto Sonny, Mike helped you mount your horse. Then, he lifted Sonny up onto his own horse, before settling in behind him.

“It’s a two-day ride back to the kingdom, but if we hurry and only stop to let the horses feed and drink, then we can make it in just over a day. But if either of you need to rest, you better speak up, understand? I will not let either of you die on this flight,” Mike warned.

Both you and Sonny agreed, and then you were off, heading for home with nothing but the moon to guide your way, hoping beyond hope that you weren’t being followed.

#sonny carisi x reader x mike dodds #law and order svu #law and order svu fanfics #fanfic #my writing #adarafaelbarbaseptmeberbingo

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Top 12 Three Caballeros Moments: Ride of the Three Caballeros Epilogue!

Salduos Amigos...and Adios, as this is the FINAL part of my 20 part look at those happy amigos, those snappy chappies in matching serapes, those birds of the feather, THE THREE CABALLEROS, THE RIDE OF THE THREE CABALLEROS! Yes after 19 other articles, all paid for by megafan and patron of the blog @weirdkev27, it’s time to bid our boys a fond farewell. And what a ride i’ts been... we’ve had trips to Bahia, animaton sequences requiring a LOT of 1940′s cocaine ,Jose reinacting the plot of “Come a LIttle Bit Closer” by jay and the americans but ironcially not in the Badman Jose roll,, a less happy reunion where Donald went full vanilla ice for a few moments, Panchito giving us his long and storied family history in song form, Donald needing a vacation after his girlfriend punched him in the face and instead getting eaten by a giant snake, FLAMENCO MASTER HORACE HORSECOLLAR, Soccer with super cars, and our heroes having a warm and fun reunion and having to admit their lives didn’t turn out so good while Dewey jacaksses around in the subplot.

And all of this lead into their very own series where our heroes met a goddess and wayne knight all in the same day, defeated THE MIGHTY MINOTAUR, got into a giant robot fight on the fucking moon, meeting the roman gods who live on and tend to the norse world tree for some reason, preventing a stupidly started lava apocalypse, going to goblin jail via song, meeting some literal dead presidents, chasing a bear around a fancy rich people town, getting into the ch-ch-chalk zone, fighting a wrestling match against the respresntive of the god of death, dying and coming back to life as a result of said wrestling match, going to camelot to train with king arthrus’ self helf book, going to a yeti spa and finally returning for one last battle with an evil wizard, his pet monkeybatdonkeyrat, and wayne knight, and have to put up with Donald’s shrill abusive ex girlfriend through about half of it. All in all good stuff and i’ll always be greatful for kevn funding this and giving me the chance to both finally watch legend and in general cover these wonderful characters. While i’m sure Panchito and Jose wil lbe back for the big finale of Ducktales, I’m gonna miss these guys and hope they get another shot at the big time one day.

But Kevin had a great idea, one I decided to do for free since this thing cost 100 dollars together as it was a movie, and 20 episodes of television, so it was a LOT to do. Fun but a lot of work. A top 12 list of the best moments from across the works covered for this retrospective. From the movie to the series, these are the best of the best moments of the best boys around. So without further adeu join me under the cut as I throw one hell of an after party for one hell of a ride.

12. The Cold Blooded Penguin (The Three Caballeros (Movie) )

This one is low because it doesn’t exactly involve the boys at all as this was a short in their movie. But what can I say, I love penguins, especially Opus.

And the charming tale of a pengy named Pablo who has trouble with the cold and wants to head off for warmer climates just never ceases to entertain me. It’s adorable, pretty funny and just a nice little start to the film every time I watch it. Especially his friends with the sleepy, depressed eyebrows. Really relate to them, especially the tall one with a ponch, aka me as a penguin. Not much else to say hence why it’s so low, but I really enjoyed this short and can’t help but put Pablo on the list.. and wish he’d gotten a nod in Legend, but then again given we weren’t given a second season they were probably just saving him.

11. Charon’s Fabulous Cruise (Legend of the Three Caballeros) Another Cabs free entry but I Just love this concept: Charon, ferryman of the river sticks.. deciding since he’s not getting as many customers to turn it into a cruise ship complete with add. IT’s low both because it dosen’t involve the boys and it dosen’t take up much of it’s episode.. but damn if it ain’t funny. And Jim Cummings just brings his all to it.. granted HE always does, the man’s a legend for a reason, but dosne’t make his performance any less lovely. WIsh we got a second season just so we could see this guy again among other reasons.

10. You Don’t Get a Vacation You Take it (Legend of the Three Caballeros) Wayne Knight as Sheldgoose.. was easily one of the best parts of Legend of the Three Caballeros. While the show itself was fairly high quality it’s other main villain Feldrake eventually fell into just calling Sheldgoose a moron and hitting him as his only character. IN contrast while at first apperance Sheldgoose was just a rich asshole with hair that looks like a bad toupe but apparently is his actual hair and what he choose to go with and a hell of a moustache.. and while that’s all true, he’s also cunning and manipultive, often making Feldrake’s plans work simply by using clever manipulations. He’s funny, enaging and the sadest part of no second season is not getting more of this guy. Hopefully he’ll show up in another.. even the comics using him without Wayne Knight’s Dulect Tones would be nice. He’s a good villian and would fit just as well in the classic comics being either a snooty nuisance to donald in some way, or being a rival fro scrooge, also being rich but his family having earned it by stealing from others. But for now what we got ain’t bad and hte best example of just what sheldgoose is capable of is also his first bit of contirbuting more than as a set of hands for feldrake, phrasing. His vilian song. Yes Wayne Knight FINALLY gets a villian song. Your very welcome.

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The song is just fun, a Luau type song with a sinster undercurrent and wayne knight just having a hell of a time, alternating between speaking and singing> It’s low on this list because i’ts an OKAY song, i’ve seen better villian songs, I just really liked this one, and because it dosen’t exactly involved the boys, but I still hold to my convictions in putting this one on here.

9. Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González (House of Mouse) Only House of Mouse entry, and suprisingly it’s not Donald squeaking “And i’m donald duck!” , which has been burned into my brain for a few decades. No it’s the groups OTHER song in there second apperance on the show Not So Goofy, sung by the incomprable Rob Pauslen. While I sitll think he was easily the worst Jose of the bunch, and that the roll never should’ve been given to a white man to begin with, credit where it’s do: he wasn’t a have bad panchito. He only voiced everyone’s faviorite rooster, suck it Foghorn Leghorn, once, for a song, likely to capatalize on the fact Paulsen was famed for Yakko’s World and other songs where he sang a lot at once, but boy did he make a meal of it. Observe.

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The song is lightly hampered by the fact it also uses his version of Jose which is probably the worst work i’ve heard from Rob. And given it’s the only roll i’ve heard of his that wasn’t very good and he’s still VERY CLEARLY trying his best, that says a lot to the guy’s quality. And im not saying all this to avoid backlash, I stand by what I say and how I say it.. i’m saying it because I truly love and respect the guy this just was not his best work. This song however is Rob on full blast, using his ablitlity to talk fast no matter the voice to give us one heck of a lively performance and name for Panchito, one that was reused for Ride of the Three Cabs though sadly minus the song, as I would’ve LOVED to hear Jamie Camill belt this one out. But the lively animation and liveleir performance earn this one a spot.

8. Baia, Donald (The Three Caballeros) For this one i’m squishing three different but related parts of the movie together: The “Have you been to Baia, Donald” song, the train trip there and the awesome musical number at the end. But all three flow together as one great sequence with the frist two serviing as a fun prelude for a fun sequence as Donald and Jose try to woo a lady named Yaya, played by Aurora Miranda, and get into a big and fun dance number that for the time is AMAZINGLY blended with the live action work. The song is an utter ear worm, the seqeunce is fun and it lacks some of the creepiness Donald’s later session of flirting had and the colors are vibrant as hell. Wonderful, beautiful stuff. It’s really hard to talk about as not a lot happens in it other than a fun bit of song and dance.. but sometimes tha’ts just waht you need: a bunch of actors, two of which were animated, moving and groving to a heckuva beat.

7. I Love You Guys (Legend of the Three Caballeros) This was just a very sweet moment but one I treasure. The Cabs beat a giant horrifying rage beast.. by genuinely apoologizing to donald, telling him they love him then having a group hug. After a full episode before this of them just kinda ignoring what he cared about, Xandra and the boys genuine apologies and Donald genuinely telling them “I love you guys” and realizing for the first time in his life he’s genuinely loved and appricated. It just feels so fucking nice. Shame they didn’t you know.. end the Daisy plot with him realizing he dind’t need or or that he wasn’t angsiting over a selfish goldigger in the first place but hey, you take what you can get sometimes and the getting is good here.

6. The Cabs Song .. in Comic Form! (The Three Caballeros Ride Again!)

Another fairly quick one to talk about but one’s that damn impressive. The Three Cabs ride again is a wonderful story that reunites our birds of a feather for an adventure in mexico.. and one of it’s two best moments, the other one way further up from Don Rosa’s classic, seriously check it out it’s good, is when the boys, to distract their enemy for the story, play their classic song. Musical numbers.. are hard to pull off in comics. As Linkara, comic critic and one of my inspirations check him out on youtube he’s really fantastic, has mentioned quite a bit not having the sound to go with it is an uphill battle. But i’m not as against this as he is.. as long as you can convey the ENERGY of said song and perofrmance in the page. As long as you got that, you can pull it off and boy oh boy oh boy did Rosa ever. While it’s only about a page and a half long it’s just a fun, wonderful litlte sequence, from the crowd that has no reaction til lthe end when our big bad clubs them with the guitar, to our heroes swipining tablecoths to seve as serape to Donald falling outside, it’s one of the highlights of an alreayd impressive story.

5. Jam Session (Ducktales, The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!)

Only one Ducktales moment but it’s a keeper to be sure and now I HAVE seen Legend... I can say as I did there Jamie Camil REALLY shoudlv’e been kept as Panchito but “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice”.. really was still ag reat version of the characters and still kept them true. It wasn’t AS good as the Legend versions.. but honestly that’s fine. Not every version HAS to be good as the others and they were still wella cted, wonderfully animated and the story was great. And the moment that shows it off best is the boys quite moment after lunch, where they remincse, have fun, think about old times.. then hear a radio and slowly but surely have a fun dance number together, playing like old times. It’s this moment that makes me REALLY question why people hated this so much, as this one tiny moment captures the cabs chemistry and comrander in just two short minutes, Donald getting angry, Jose defusing int with a dance then him joining in, the three just jamming iwth whatever’s on hand and jose magically playing the fluit with his umbrella. I’ts all just so charming I love it. The end version of the three cabs IS really awesome, it just didn’t make the cut. Still liked it though.. but this.. this is better. Sometimes less is more you know?

4. The Three Cablleros Song (The Three Caballeros (Movie) ) Look you knew this was coming, I knew this was coming, we all knew this was coming. But the song is no less awesome, with fluid animation, wonderful vocals and lyrics, and an unberably catchy tune. It’s iconic to the characters, having popped up in four different renditions during this retrsopective, all of them pretty damn good, but no one tops the original. Even the two more dated bits, some latin baby and Panchito having a gun solo, somehow don’t hamper what’s otherwise an iconic moment. It’s fun, it’s fancy free, and it establishes the boys dynamic perfectly, one that as we’ve seen would last a few lifetimes and probably will last forever.

3. We Say So! (The Three Caballeros Ride Again) While Ride again is a VERY good story, it’s best moment is ironiclaly it’s end despite leaving you wanting more and more. After a fun adventure and a laugh over it being for nothing really, our friends return to Jose’s job at a night club, which his manager, who understandably has issues with Jose choosing wooing ladies over actually doing his job sometimes, only gives him back because it’s a big night but needs a big act. The first touching moment here is the fact the boys pitch in without being asked because hteir friend needs them. But the real moment is what happens after: The Triplets return from the hotel, still bemoaning as they did ealrier in the story that Donald has no friends and assume when they see him on stage and see him crash off it that he incited a riot.. only for his friends to assure him he’s a very fine fellow and they say so.. and in an instnat the boys realize donald DOES have friends.. and the best friends a duck can ask for. And after a lifetime of being spat on and barely winning.. Donald gets an unquestioned victory, stnading proudly with his friends for a packed house who still want more while his nephews look on proudly. I say so.. and what I say is that this moment is one of Rosa’s finest and one of the most touching thigns the man’s ever written.

2. This is Just Where I Came In (The Legend of the Three Caballeros) The Legend of the Three Cabs was excellent and it ended on one hell of a high. After a heck of a fight via callbacks that barely didnt’ make the list, our heroes rush in to stop Feldrake. their sorcerer nemisis, from reviving.. only for it to be too late. He’s back in full and soon warps reality around him leaving the boys hometown of the New Quackmore insitute as a series of rubble, buildings and people clinging desperatly to both floating in a hell of a starry backdrop, the only chance to stop this from happenign to the world resting in our heroes. And it’s so we catch up with where the seires began: our three heros decked out in truly awesome armor, though why Panchtio’s is roman I have no idea, fighting a giant and mosnterious felldrake and while his deisgn in that form is eh, his threat is palpable and the fight is goregous and pitch perfect.. and only gets better when we catch up, as Xandra swoops in to save htem from the cliffhanger the series started with. It only isn’t up top because of tow reasons; I like the first moment better.. and the boys do fall in a magic pool of amulet juice and emerge with powers due to a character we just meet when they do so. It’s a bit of a cop out.. but even with it being a cop out and a dues ex machina of the HIGHEST order.. it dosen’t stop it form being awesome when our heroes emerge merged with thier amulets energies, in their signutre colors and whoop felldrakes ass with a revivied Xandra’s help and then nearly reseal feldrake before his being resealed, but in Sheldgoose, resotres everything and our heroes get a WELL earned bout of praise from the town and a fancy mansion and in donald’s case a new job. A specatuclar, tense and gorgeous finale to a wonderful series.

1. Ride Em, Vaquero! (The Magificent 7 (Minus 4) Caballeros) Look I know it sounds like a bit of a downgrade to go from a battle for the fate of the world to our heroes fighting a spoiled prince and a giant anaconda just to make it out alive.. but frankly this battle is more tense, has all boys showing off even better, and has a climax so awesome even saving the unvierse with suddenly gained magic powers can’t top it. For the setting our heroes end up trapped in a lost city with the bad guy of the comic, Don Rosa’s second to last and his second of only two cabs stories, prepared to get away. But then Donald snaps, spurred on bya ll the shit he had to put up with back home,and TACKLES the fucking guy in his boat getting into one hell of a scrap. And if that wasn’t enough, what brings this to true glory is a giant Anaconda who shoed up earlier, popping up.. leading to Donald fighting our big bad.. WHILE BEING TANGLED UP IN A FUCKING PYTHON.

What truly clinches this as the best of the best for me though is Jose and Panchito’s actions, with Jose fighting the guy off off donlad, and actually having his umbrella WORK this time, and while the bad guy gets the raft from our heroes.. he falls off a cliff. So how do our heroes escape.. simple .. PANCHITO LASSOS THE FLEEING SNAKE AND THEY RIDE IT OUT AS SEEN ABOVE THROUGH A POND FULL OF DANGEROUS CREATURES WHO ALL STARE IN AWE AT THE SIGHT OR FLEE. You.. you just can’t top that. The awesomness, the teamwork, the sheer balls on panchito..i t’s all just so beauitful and sums up what the boys are about: Deft teamwork, camradire.. and doing utterly insane shit as only best friends can.

So with that.. this ride has come to an end. As I said before and will say again, it’s been fun, easily the biggest project i’ve done so far, and easily one of my faviorites. I love these guys and geninely hope we see them again real soon. So before I go, i’d like to say some thank yous. I”d like to thank ALL of the talented people involved in the making of the original film, as there are way too many to mention as it was a package movie but without you lovely and mostly deceased people we’d never have these wonderful guys. I’d like to thank Don Rosa for bringing the boys back and better than ever and beautifully so AND returning to them again. I’d like to thank Henry Gilroy and Phil Walsh, who wrote the first and second house of mouse cabs episodes for bringing the boys back to the screen, as well as series creators Robert Gainway and Tony Craig and the MASSIVE pile of storyboarders for both episode. I’d like to thank the people behind mickey and the roadster racers, while your episodes were not very good I am glad the boys got more screentime, i’d like thank Frank Angrones and Matt Youngberg for their wonderful versions of the boys and total respect to their legacy, and i’d REALLY like to thank Matt Danner for giving us a wonderful series and finally giving the boys a starring roll again.

I’d also like to thank the MANY voice actors who voiced these wonderful characters, your beautiful all of you. To Donald’s voice actors for this retrospective i’d like to thank Clarence Nash, you absolute legend may you rest in peace, Tony Anselmo, may you keep on living please god we’ve lost a lot of good people lately don’t be one of them, and even Daniel Ross, who might not be the best Donald but he’s one of only five and you can’t take that way from him.

For Jose i’d like to thank Jose Olivara, without you I don’t think we would’ve even gotten to the Cablleros as a group, Rob Paulsen, you tried your best and your still a winner in my heart, Eric Bauza, you genuinely were the best, and Bernardo Del Paula, who gave Bauza a run for his money and I hope returns in the role in the future.

And finally for Panchito we have Joaquin Grey, again wouldn’t of had the rest without you man nice job, Carlos Alarzqaui, did the job and did it well, Rob Paulsen, gave us one hell of a song, Jamie Camill, the best around no one’s ever going to keep him down, Arturo Del Purto who while I prefer jamie.. still was excellent and I wouldn’t be mad if he returned again.

And last but not least I’d like to sincerly thank @weirdkev27. These reviews have GENUINELY helped me finacially since i’ts hard for me to find a job since I cannot drive and have a disablity, and thanks to htem i’ve been able to live comfortably and thanks to you in general i’ve been able to do what I love and get paid for it. You got me to do this wonderful restrospective, have been a genine support to the blog and a treasure to work with. Thanks man, your the best. So with that, it’s time to ride off into the sunset. If the cabs get another apperance outside of ducktales, I will pick this up again... and wether it’s in a year or ten you bet your bottom peso they’ll be back. Who says so? I says so.

#the three caballeros #the three cablleros ride again #don rosa #jose carioca #donald duck #panchito romero miguel junipero francisco quintero gonzalez #panchito pistoles #ducktales #the legend of the three caballeros #house of mouse #xandra goddess of adventure #charon #wayne knight #baron von sheldgoose #lord feldrake #duck comics #disney ducks #disney #disney plus

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bloodyblade · 4 years ago

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Tremble For My Beloved [1]

Pairing: Thorin x Fem!Reader Summary: AU in which the daughter of a nobleman was running for her life after an orc attack, and after being welcomed under Gandalf's wings, joins the quest to reconquer Erebor. Sort of. Warnings: Mentions of violence and gore, a tiny bit sad. Word Count: 2.353 words.

[Ao3]

Chapter One.

The earth beneath your feet was shaking and trembling, or perhaps it was your legs that were too spent from running in a desperate and unprepared sprint. Entering a crumbling house, you hide behind a wall, standing on a crouch to be able to take a peek on the outside from the window. Holding the machete tightly to your chest, your eyes sweeped the hiding place you chose looking for possible exits.

Sweat was running down your face, lingering at the eyebrows and making their way down. Your heart was beating as strong and fast as a drum, you could feel it in your chest, throat and the sound in your ears. Harsh breaths were coming out silently as you could manage. You were trembling. Exhausted, scared and hurt. Dirt was accumulating under your fingernails along with specs of blood that also tainted the green dress you wore, shoes and thighs, finer than many could ever wish for, had its beauty and delicacy ruined. You looked ruined.

Your hair, that before was put in an intricate updo, was now almost completely loose and caked with sweat and blood that wasn’t yours. Askell, who you grew up having him as your shadow, died for you. He was your protector, always have been. A knight dedicated to you, before you could even walk and always accompanied you through your most important feats -learning how to walk, riding a horse for the first time and then falling epically on your ass, watching you from afar on your every name day. God, it was his blood on your hair, face, chest, dress. The blow was so hard on his head that he fell over you, who were behind him just like he demanded you should be. You scrambled back but part of his body landed on you, knocking you to the ground with him before you could push his body off, Askell’s heavy armour making everything even more difficult. Just as the enemy turned around, you finally managed to get free and balance your protector’s weapon by your side. It was pointy and shone under the candle lights, as if it had never been used before. Because it hasn’t, Askell never needed to. No one in your father’s state ever needed too.

But looking up and coming face to face to this… creature’s face, your blood ran cold. It was pale and ugly, uglier than any story could ever make up. So you got up at your fastest pace and with as much strength you could gather, took the knight’s weapon and ran. Ran until your lungs were on fire and felt like your deep, uneven breaths weren’t enough to keep your body going. Everything passed in a blur, as if your body alone knew what it was doing and so you dodge the fights and screaming and crying people, successfully making your way out of your forever home and the whole manor and what else it consisted of. As you slowed down, you ventured into a small city, knowing you must have ran a lot, for the city your caregivers always spoke of was certainly a few miles away.

And that’s how you found yourself where you are now. You didn’t look back in fear of what you could see and in fear of your enemies, which was most definitely a stupid decision but you couldn’t go back now. You knew your father had enemies, but never thought anyone would be so cruel to try and murder not just your family line but other nobles that were present at the feast your father was giving. Did someone hire them? Did your father somehow get on these creature’s bad side and leave them seeking revenge? How would dad even get in their way?

Don’t think about it. Those things didn’t matter, not anymore at least. Askell was dead, your father was most certainly dead right now and your mother died the moment you took your first breath. You heard how people would whisper that when you came out of your mother’s womb, you stole her breath and ultimately caused her death, and that it was a sign of a curse they were certain you carried: anyone to ever love you would most likely face an awful and painful death. So far, they weren’t wrong. Perhaps you were cursed.

You stayed alert for a while, besides the sounds of your now normalizing breaths, all you could hear were the sounds of nature that surrounded the place. Overgrown grass surrounded the house, allowing for all kinds of bugs to make home there. She could see the flickering soft light of the fireflies, hear the cicadas and buzz of wings that flew past your face, way too close for your liking. And you started to lose track of time, your legs growing tired from carrying your weight in the same position for too long. Slipping slowly towards the ground, you let yourself rest for a moment, closing your eyes and puffing a shaky breath past your lips. You were so tired. It felt like a fever dream, the people chatting and laughing and eating and mingling around. The sound of your father’s boisterous laughter ringing loud and accompanied by many others. A song played on the background softly, a few people fluttering on the ground with grace and kids running around, being chased and chatiest by their caretakers. Braids more intricate than others, some showing off and proudly stating their status, either as rich as piss or happily married, courting. Beads as beautiful and delicate than many could ever wish for. Gosh, you did wish to have one on her hair at some point in life. But now all that seemed so… shallow and unimportant.

How could such futile happiness become a bloodbath so quickly? Thankfully you didn’t see any children hurt and held ignorant hope that they managed to flee to somewhere safe. Gosh, you could hardly believe that, on her way there, she slashed one of the monsters, the hard blade buried itself on his shoulder as he screamed in rage and pain, blood trickling down it’s bare chest and after tugging once, twice to get it out of him, it’s blood rushed out like a horror story would detail, making him stumble and set its eyes on you form, but before he could do anything, you hit it with the machete hard on the knee, making him fall on his face. Although the goal was to kill it with a hard strike to his chest, the weight of the weapon didn’t allow you to do so. But this creature was the same that killed Askell, so you felt a hint of satisfaction to cause it enough damage to somehow avenge him.

But it’s not like you didn’t get hurt at all, you were no fighter, even if Askell did try to give you self defense classes with a smaller sword. Main word being try. You could manage, but doubted you could handle yourself in battle, but he assured you that you would never need to go into battle as long as you had him. Your hairline was definitely sore and the skin open, allowing a little blood to pool around and dirty your face worse than it already was. On your run, you tripped and fell on your hands and knees, getting your palms scrapped and pulsing with pain from the fall and having to carry a heavy weapon your unprepared hands were unused to.

And you waited for something, anything. But nothing came. Were they waiting for you to leave the place or go back to the manor? It was better to stay here until morning, wasn’t it? Probably, yes. So, with your knees to your chest, you put your head between them, allowing your body to relax a little and feeling yourself going a tiny bit slack, your machete close by your side.

If it weren’t from the footsteps on the house terrain, you would’ve fallen asleep for your eyes were heavy and mind fatigued. Standing up slowly and carefully, trying to step as lightly as elves would, you picked up your weapon and walked towards the front door. Whoever was outside, their steps were light, but not light enough that you couldn’t hear them. You could also notice how confidently they were walking, so it couldn’t be children either, and by the sounds of it, they were alone.

Your head was pounding and your hands were shaking again, you were reaching the peak of exhaustion. You held your breath as three knocks sounded one after the other on the door. After not giving any kind of response, the door opened slowly and creaked loudly and a tall, slim robbed figure stood at the door, against the moonlight only their silhouette can be seen.Holding the weapon in front of you with both hands, you took a fighting instance, or what you thought could be described as it.

“Reveal yourself.” You demanded with a slight tremble and agitation to your voice, only to have the figure step forward with a chuckle. It was a man, with a long staff and grey robes that reached the ground and covered the length of his body. And he was old, a long beard adorning his face. A pointed blue hat complemented his appearance, making him look like… like he wanted to seem like a wizard.

“Ah, I figured you would be here, Y/N daughter of Sindel, son of Serill.” The senile man began, walking closer so you make out his features. His beard was as long as she initially made out, and as white as his long hair, just like the scarf he wore. His bushy eyebrows framed his eyes, wrinkled due to the warm smile he was trying to convey.

“Who are you and how do you know my name? How do you know my father?” You asked, keeping yourself unmoving where you stood. He sighed deeply but didn’t let his lips turn any other way.

“I’m Gandalf, the grey.” He brought his unoccupied hand to his chest, introducing himself kindly, before letting it fall along with a sorrowful expression on his face. “I’m deeply sorry for your loss, but I vowed your father to take care of you should… the unexpected turn of events happened before time was right.” He motioned for you to lower your hands, and you did it hesitantly. If he wanted, he could’ve hit you that staff he was holding, but he probably needed aid to keep standing. He looked very old. “In fact, you’re not safe at all while you’re here, come.” He motioned for you to follow him as he turned around but you didn’t move an inch. How did he know your father and did this man owe him anything? Did you even know your father at all? He looked back at you, taking carefully your fear struck features and ratted clothes and understood. Of course he knew there was a slight possibility you didn’t know anything at all about who your father truly was but more importantly, who you truly were and just how important you are.

“How do you know you’re not one of them?” You finally voiced your main concern at the moment, Gandalf cocked his head to the side. “My… My family was murdered. How do I know you’re just trying to lure me out here so they can finish what they began?” You took another step back, waiting for an answer. He didn’t look exactly threatening but you couldn’t afford to trust anyone, not right now.

“Would that answer your question?” He asked as he handed you the object that was in his possession. Where did he get this? It was a dagger. Your mother’s dagger. One of the belongings she left for you, passed from mother to daughter in your family’s lineage. The design on the hilt was intricate and beautiful. It was rather dusty and had a few marks of use, but you were sure it would’ve been from her. Your father often told you how skilled she was, but never allowed you to use it. It was merely something decorative laying proudly on your nightstand. Until you lost it. You cried for days and dared not to tell your father, he would most likely be furious. Askell told you once how your parents knew your mother could possibly not survive after birth and how she separated and dedicated something for you, her first and only child. Your dad did ask you once about it, he probably already knew by them, but you decided to pretend everything was where it was supposed to be. Which was wherever you wanted it. That earned you a pointed and warning glare for him but you only smiled sweetly back then. Now you had a slight idea where it went.

And it could be a copy, a very good one, for there were several skilled blacksmiths your father knew about. If it weren’t for one detail, you would not have believed him: two designs on the blade. The vessels of the sun and moon. Your mother has always been so devoted to Mahal. Your eyes glazed over, but you didn’t allow yourself to cry. Straightening yourself, you looked at the man that was waiting patiently for you to analyze what was yours by right. You looked at him with determination and a chuckle left his lips as he smiled again.

“Come, let’s get you somewhere safe for the time being.” He beckoned you closer again and this time you obeyed.

“Where are you taking me?” You questioned as you looked around warily, searching silently with a calculated gaze for any threats. Night time was never kind for those endangered and that’s exactly what you were. You could trust him, maybe. But you didn’t know if you could protect yourself and the old man as well. What’s with the pointy hat anyway?

“Well, my dear,” he began, waiting for you to fall into step besides him “You most definitely are in desperate need of a shower.”

#bb writes #thorin x reader #thorin x you #the hobbit imagine #thorin oakenshield x reader

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trashcankitty12 · 4 years ago

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Bloom Headcanons:

Everyone, meet Bloom Peters (or, if you prefer, Princess Bloom Hannes of Domino).

She gets a bad rap(or is it rep?) for being the center of attention so often and for having her character written poorly. It happens.

So please, take this time to re-learn Bloom and who she really is.

(As stated before these headcanons may work for other verses and stuff, but they’re mostly for my main verse “Balance/New Company of Light” and “Left”.)

-Bloom sort of has two birthdays… When she was found by Vanessa and Mike, the doctor they took her to gave his best estimate of December 10th. However when she revived Domino and Marion and Oritel told her about her birthday, it turned out that her birthday is actually a few days later. (Give or take with the Magical Dimension calendars… Their months and days are just a tad different than ours.)

-Vanessa and Mike sort of knew that Bloom was special. Not just because of how she was found, but because of her actions as a child. (Like she was never sick. Not really. And she always seemed to be hotter than her classmates were temperature wise. And if she was hurt, she always healed really quickly.)

-Bloom had never really thought much of her birth parents until she discovered her magic (and Stella) and the rest of the Magical Dimension. Granted, she had her thoughts about them and had questions she wanted to know the answers too, but she had never planned on hunting them. (At least, not until she was over 18… She didn’t want to hurt Mike and Vanessa’s feelings or make them feel that they weren’t enough for her.)

-Bloom is the third best driver out of the Winx group. Tecna and Layla being the most careful/best. (Though Layla could be considered more of a stunt driver…)

-She had never really ridden horses much before meeting Stella. In fact, she can recall maybe one time riding a pony at a birthday party for one of her classmates. Stella, being the horse girl that she is, found that unacceptable and had arrangements made so that for a week during their summer vacation, all of the Winx girls could come to Solaria and hang out at her uncle’s ranch. (Bloom ended up being surprisingly decent at riding… But Flora and Layla were much better.)

-Bloom’s not that short, in fact she always thought she was average height when she was on Earth. (5’4”) However, upon meeting other Dominians, it became clear to her that she was a little on the small side. (Oritel says she takes after his own mother, Rest Her Soul.)

-The summer after reviving Domino, Bloom stayed and basically got a crash course on her planet’s history and on princess etiquette. (Yes the maids annoyed the fuck out of her, and learning how to walk in royal gowns and robes was difficult, and WHY ARE THE MAIN COLORS OF DOMINO SUCH A GOLD COLOR?!)

-Daphne helped make the transition easier, considering she had been able to watch Bloom’s growth on Earth and at Alfea and knew how to make it make sense for her sweet niece. (When she’s not busy being the Nymph…)

-Bloom was just grateful that Stella and Layla had been given her courses on princess stuff ever since she and Sky got their shit together. It made everything so much smoother.

-On the flipside, Bloom helped her parents and the Councils of Domino integrate into modern society and learn more about the changes in the world. (And what she didn’t know, she knew who to point them to… Which was mostly Stella’s parents and the Parliament of Zenith.)

-Bloom and Mitzi used to be friends. It was way back in elementary school and they were close. Things changed when Mitzi started spending more time with her stepmother and developed her ‘I’m better than you because I’m rich’ attitude. (It was why Mitzi could hurt her so bad, she was one of the few who knew enough about Bloom to hurt her. Especially when it came to her being adopted.)

-Vanessa and Mike told Bloom about her adoption early on, making sure she knew how much they loved her. (Even if they didn’t tell the whole story…) Bloom always felt loved and was thrilled to be their child, but there was always that part of her that wondered why her birth parents didn’t keep her. (And if there was something wrong with her…)

-After Domino’s revival, Bloom made sure that Mike and Vanessa and Oritel and Marion got to know one another. It was important to her that both sets of parents got along. (And they do, quite well… Most of the time… Oritel and Mike may have differing parental views.)

-Bloom’s earth family isn’t that large. Just a few aunts and uncles and cousins. Mostly from her mother’s side. (Mike was an only child.) And because they were all pretty spread out, they only really got together during the holidays.

-During the winter break of her freshman year, Bloom decided to immediately come out as a fairy to the rest of her earth family. She didn’t want secrets and she had Mike and Vanessa help her break it to them. They were all surprised, and kind of worried when she first showed them her wings… But they were all proud that she was finding out who she was, even if they didn’t understand how magic could be a real thing.

-As for her biological family… It’s really just Marion, Oritel, and Daphne. Oritel and Daphne’s father had been a knight for the Dominian Royal Family, their mother having died giving birth to Daphne. Their father ended up passing away after a fight with a banshee took his life force. And Marion’s parents… They were some of the first casualties of the Great War. (Which brings on mixed feelings in Marion… She loved her parents and hated for them to meet such an end, but at the same time… They weren’t exactly ‘parents’ to her, so much as they were simply her predecessors.)

-Growing up, Bloom was obsessed with fantasy lands and fairy tales. Fairies were amazing to her and the concept of magic just made her feel something so joyful. She read every fairy tale book she could get her hands on, read every graphic novel, watched all the movies and tv shows. (And may have gotten a little into Harry Potter and those Disney Fairy things before the Tinkerbell movies came out.)

-She even has an appreciation for Vampire Diaries. (Yes, she knows the tv show is bad, but it’s her guilty pleasure dammit. And it’s also one of Stella’s and Musa’s now.)

-Bloom also has a guilty pleasure in watching reality shows… Specifically the Bachelorette/Bachelor series. She knows they’re trainwrecks of shows, but she just can’t turn away. (And yes, Stella has gotten into the shows too. And surprisingly, so has Tecna.)

-Bloom’s main hobby growing up was drawing. She loved doodling and trying to create her own fairytale characters and their flowing dresses and elaborate wings. But after meeting Helia and seeing his drawings, she admittedly felt insecure in her own works… (But that quickly changed after getting to know Helia and becoming friends. They tend to go to the local art classes at the Magix Library now.)

-She also enjoys biking, which translated well into levibiking. (Especially after Sky taught her how to drive it. She absolutely loves how fast it can go.)

-And like a true Cali-girl, Bloom loves the beach and enjoys going surfing from time to time. (She’s not that good at it, but she finds it life-affirming.)

-On the flipside, Bloom is good at gardening and tending to flowers, but its not something she enjoys doing. Yes, she enjoys spending time with her mom and everything, but the flowers just don’t… Speak to her.

-She’s never been one for fashion and tended to dress more for comfort… But upon meeting Stella… That changed pretty quickly. (Now she dresses for both comfort and style. The best of both worlds.)

-Bloom was a decent student at Alfea, mostly a B’s students with a few A’s. (Her favorite class was learning defensive spells actually… And her least favorites had to do with the Magical Reality Chamber. Mostly after things had happened with the Trix.)

-Speaking of the Trix, Bloom will admit… She had had hope for them to turn their lives around after freshmen year. She’d sincerely hoped that they’d become better people at Light Rock, that maybe they’d see the error of their ways.

-She didn’t lose hope for them either, until they’d nearly killed her and her friends to get Cloud Tower’s piece of the Codex. (And even then, a small part of her hopes on.)

-Bloom’s connection to her Dragon side has gotten stronger and stronger each day since her magic “woke up”. At first the Dragon could only speak to her in her dreams, but now she can hear its thoughts and even catch glimpses of its memories from its past hosts. (Or should Bloom consider it a ‘she’ even though it’s a spirit? The Dragon’s voice is feminine…)

-Bloom’s still hoping to gain Erendor and Samara’s respect/acceptance. She knows they’re not perfect people, but they’re Sky’s parents and she wants to get along with them. Which is one reason it’s so good she got Domino back in action, having her father talk to his might smooth over any remaining hostilities. (Especially from where Diaspro was concerned.)

-Speaking of Diaspro, she was willing to try and make amends with the other fairy after the events of freshmen year. Being in that grueling battle against the Army of Darkness had her realizing that life’s too short to hate people, especially people who had been put in just as bad a place as she was. But that was short-lived after seeing the paparazzi pics from Stella of Sky and Diaspro hanging out.

-(Yes, Bloom and Sky had a shit-ton of issues to work out. The two had a very long and awkward and emotional talk after Valtor’s defeat, wanting to finally clear things up between them once and for all. Now they’re stronger than ever.)

-Bloom was relieved to head back to earth for a mission after finding out about a fairy and a witch having their powers wake up. It gave her an excuse to put a pause on her princess training. (She knows it’s important, but it’s so much information to take in at once…)

-She’s not sure if it’s just her or not, but Bloom loves the feeling of transforming into her fairy forms. She can literally feel her magic come to the surface of her skin and create these clothes and unfurl her wings and just… She feels so alive.

-Out of all the realms she’s visited, Bloom thinks Linphea and Melody are the prettiest. They’re so picturesque and everything about them is just alive and light and she feels so amazing being there. (She’s still not sure how she feels about realms like the Ice Kingdom… There’s so much underneath their surfaces that she just… Can’t place.)

-There have been times when Bloom has actually wanted to hurt people. To obliterate them. (When the Trix nearly killed Kiko, when she was sure they stole the Dragon Fire, when she thought they got Tecna killed because of the Omega Portal, and when Ogron came after Roxy.)

-In the future, Bloom hopes she’ll become a great and worthy queen. That everything she and her friends went through, that everything her family did, wouldn’t be in vain. And she sincerely hopes that Sky will be there at her side. (Though she’s not sure how attempting to combine Eraklyon and Domino would go over, or if it could be done.)

-Seriously though, she hopes to be a great Dominian Queen one day. And that she’ll be able to trust her Dragon’s guidance to do what’s necessary.

#winx club #winx club au #winx club headcanons #bloom #winx club bloom #winx club bloom headcanons #princess bloom of domino #dragon of light

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thestarsociety · 4 years ago

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hey there, hero

Rating: T

Word count: 4.5k

Content warnings: mild blood/injury, likely inaccurate medical procedures

Summary: five times kira greeted bella, and one time bella greeted her back.

: : : : : : : : 1 : : : : : : : :

Bella pulled at the edge of her gloves, adjusting her stance on the roof as she observed the Citadel Solutions complex down below. It was walled (which, really, was no surprise, considering the name), but she had found a spot on a building high enough up that she could watch.

Something was happening in there. She knew it.

She had forgone her usual bright blue and yellow attire for a mostly black outfit. After all, Blink, local hero and above-the-board actor, couldn't be caught here. But, Bella was fairly certain she could get in easily with some well-timed teleports. She had a labcoat stashed in her bag that was at least somewhat similar to the garb of the engineers inside. Similar enough, she hoped, that they would let her pass by, once she was in.

She'd spent this stakeout watching the movements in and out, trying to time her entrance so she could get in with the least fuss. She was almost sure she had it. She took a deep breath, and repeated the plan like a mantra. Get in, find what they're up to, disappear. You can do this. You can do this. You can do th—

Boots touched down onto the roof behind her.

"Hey there, hero. What brings you to this fine rooftop?"

Bella startled, instinctively teleporting behind the newcomer. "Wh– who– how did you know I was here?"

The newcomer spun around to face her, tilting her head slightly and crossing her arms. She was slightly taller than Blink, and wearing a sort of armored suit. A hard shell mask covered the bottom half of her face, but her dark eyes were amused. She had warm brown skin, and thick wavy hair that fell past her shoulders, just above the backpack she seemed to be wearing.

Most eye-catching, however, were her gauntlets. They were bulky, covering her entire forearm, and when she moved her hand, Bella could hear the whine of motors.

In short: definitely dangerous.

"Hey, whoah, no need to break out the powers," she said, wiggling her fingers slightly. The motors whined. Bella swallowed. "Anyway, I asked first. So." She stepped towards Bella. "Why are you here?" The mirth drained out of her voice, replaced by a steely seriousness.

"Ah..." Blink floundered for a second. "Just... came up to enjoy the view," she said. It was... a plausible excuse. It wasn't like nobody had ever spent time on top of a building for a view before.

The stranger just looked even more amused. "You sure? 'Cause the locked door would say otherwise," she said, cocking her head towards the door which did, in fact, read "NO EXIT/ENTRY" in large red letters.

"Euhh..." Bella clenched and unclenched her fingers. Purple sparks began to accumulate, swirling around her feet. "I..."

There was a snap, and Bella fell onto her bed.

Quinn spun around from where he was sitting in her chair, a red lollipop in his mouth. "Oh, you're back early. How'd it go?"

Bella covered her face with her hands and groaned.

: : : : : : : : 2 : : : : : : : :

Fighting has never been Bella's strong suit.

She'd gotten better at it, sure, thanks to experience and sparring with Quinn. Her battle strategy didn’t consist of "teleport away from punches and hope for the best” anymore. But she still didn’t like it.

Case in point, feeling like she's totally floundering as she tried to fight a dozen robot drones. She elbowed one that approached behind her, then teleported three feet above one in front of her, letting gravity (and her steel-toed boots) do the work for her. She got into the rhythm of it, kicks and punches and smartly-timed teleports becoming a dance that she weaves and bobs to.

However, she's not a fighter, and when fighting on a rooftop, it turns out that drones sometimes do have a strategy.

Corner her towards the edge of the building.

Every time she tried to fight her way away from the edge, the bots herded her towards it. What they lacked in individual power they made up for in combined might.

Then, the worst happened.

She tripped.

Her scream lodged in her throat as she fell though the air towards the hard ground below. Wind whipped around her, hair flipping into her eyes as she frantically tried to gather her powers, visualizing somewhere safe and grounded and––

The momentum around her stopped as Bella was slammed into by someone flying through the air. Arms circled her knees and back and Bella opened her eyes to see––

Her.

The girl bridal-carrying her grinned, the edges of her dark eyes crinkling. "Well hey there, hero," she said. "Hold onto me. Don't want to drop you." Bella looped her arms around her neck and dared a look down at the ground below. They were. High up. So she kept her gaze on her unlikely savior.

"Why did you—"

"I'm a hero," she said easily. "Heroes don't let pretty girls fall off rooftops." She glanced down at Blink. "Uh, and if they did, they would catch them out of the air."

Bella's breath hitched. Her face flushed, and she was silently happy that her mask covered her cheeks. "Thanks," she mumbled, averting her eyes from her savior's face.

"Your ears are red." Bella could hear the stupid smirk on her face. "Let's get you on solid ground, shall we?"

Before Bella could say anything in reply, the stranger boosted whatever mechanism made her fly, and the wind whipped even faster. Bella buried her head in her shoulder.

When they landed and brushed themselves off, the armored girl turned to Blink. "I feel like we got off on the wrong foot." She extended a hand. "I'm Cavalier."

Blink didn't move. "...As in, arrogant?"

"As in, horse-riding knights." She tapped the Citadel Solutions logo, a horse, on her chest. Blink frowned. Of course she was with Citadel.

"Shouldn't that be Cavalry?"

"The force as a whole is Cavalry. Just one is a Cavalier. Also, c'mon, can you just shake my hand?"

Bella took her gauntleted hand reluctantly. "Blink." she offered.

"Charmed, I'm sure. Can I ask what you were doing? Those bots aren't meant to attack people.” Blink opened her mouth. “Also, would be nice if you didn't disappear on me again. I did just save you."

"I can handle myself," Bella bit back. "I have powers."

Cavalier shrugged. "You were falling pretty fast." She cocked her head. "It wouldn't have anything to do with the Citadel cell tower on that rooftop, hm?"

Bella's breath hitched. It did. Citadel Solutions had recently developed and installed cell tower devices that would monitor and report "suspicious metahuman frequencies". Essentially, anti-meta spyware. Bella and Quinn were intent on destroying them. Her stomach tightened. "I... can't tell you that."

Cavalier started at her flatly. "So, that's a yes."

"Listen, they're horrifyingly unethical!" Blink burst out. "Spying on metahumans? For no reason? It's ridiculous! We aren't inherently dangerous!"

Cavalier cocked her head. "Blink, just last week, a pyrokinetic couldn't control their powers and created thousands of dollars in property damage."

Bella threw her arms up. "I know! I was there! I am extremely familiar with what happened. So familiar, in fact, that I was the one who diffused the situation!"

Cavalier's eyes widened.

Bella continued on her tirade. "So I know that the solution isn't surveillance. Jamie just needed someone to talk to. Someone who knows what it's like. He needed help, not to be stopped by some kind of armed force," she spat.

"Okay, but one situation doesn't cover all of it. Citadel is trying to help people, to make the city better, just like you are."

"The intent behind it doesn't matter. This is going to impact metahumans everywhere. It's not okay."

Cavalier stood for a moment, her jaw opening and closing a couple times. Her eyebrows were furrowed. Finally, she hummed. "Okay. Thanks for not disappearing on me." She turned her back to Blink, getting ready to take off.

Before she left, she looked over her shoulder back at Blink. "I'm... not gonna report this. Just so you know. Thanks for your thoughts."

Her repulsors built to a high whine, and she lifted into the sky.

: : : : : : : : 3 : : : : : : : :

Blink hadn't seen Cavalier all night. They had gotten into a rhythm of patrolling together over the past few months: they worked better as a team than on their own, and games of rooftop tag always made it more fun.

Their first patrol had been awkward, for sure. Blink has never approved of what Citadel does, but when they're not pushing morally dubious tech, Cavalier was helping people. So when Cavalier approached her on one of her regular patrol routes to ask about "pooling their resources" since "I save people, you save people, really, we're on the same side, here," Blink and Signal accepted.

Through these shared patrols, they'd grown much closer. There was something about the late nights spent together that allowed their conversations to flow, to share their thoughts easier. Blink had grown to appreciate Cavalier's humor and wit, and cared about her quite a bit. Through conversations about possible team names (Cavalier was set on 'Starlets', but Bella was partial to 'Moonlighters' and Quinn to 'The Star Society'), things that happened at school (though they were both careful to never mention names), or even Citadel projects, Bella saw Kira as a total person and not just an extension of Citadel. She agreed with a lot of Bella's criticisms of Citadel, and Bella admitted where they did legitimate good.

She knew Kira now. Knew that she was laughed loud and cared louder, that she would quote random lines from things Bella had never heard of, that when she smiled, the edges of her eyes would crinkle.

Nowadays, they would patrol together nearly every night. Quinn would sometimes rib her about "not giving away team secrets," but Bella trusted Kira. Which was strange.

Blink was worried. Cavalier had a tendency to flake off, sometimes, but she would always at least shoot her a message. Today had been radio silence.

She completed her route alone, as the sun set low below the sky and the few stars that weren't obscured by light pollution made their appearance. Once she was done, she went to one of their favorite spots: the top of a building that was taller than all the rest in the area, so they could see everything, but couldn't be seen.

Sure enough, Blink found Cavalier sitting on the edge of the building, her head resting on her knee and her mask set on the ground as she looked over the blinking city lights below. This didn't seem to be her usual vigilant watch. She looked... tired. Contemplative.

"Hey."

Kira looked up at her, her head not moving from its rest on her knee. "Oh. Hey, Blink." She sounded exhausted. Her shoulders were slumped.

"What, no 'hero'?" Blink said, trying to lighten the mood.

Cavalier huffed a little laugh. "You know you're my hero." There was a smile in Kira's voice now, at least.

Bella sat next to her, letting her legs dangle and peeling off her mask. She looked at Kira from the side. She still hadn't moved. Her eyes seemed fixed a million miles away, as the lights of the city reflected in them. Thousands of pinpoints of light: windows, passing cars, neon signs, like stars in a dark sky. The glow brushed the planes of her face, accentuating the shadows beneath her eyes.

"Hey," Bella murmured. "What's up?"

Kira smiled a little. "Us?" Her voice cracked as she spoke.

"I am completely sure you've said that joke before," Bella said softly.

Kira's smile softened. "I think you're right. ...You usually are."

They sat for a while, watching the city. (Really, Kira watched the city while Bella watched Kira, and occasionally the blinking red cell tower.)

"I don't think I can do this. I don't know if I'm made for it." Kira confessed quietly. Her eyes were still fixed on the city.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," her voice wavered. "I mean, I don't know if I'm a good hero. If I can be a good hero. I know the kind of person my parents want me to be, what Citadel wants me to be, even what you want me to be. But I don't know what I want to be or–– or if I even have the ability become any of those people."

She sniffled.

Bella took a deep breath. "Kira," she said gently. "I've thought a lot of different things about you in the past. You know that. I've made sure that you know that. But something that has always stayed the same is this:" Bella turned so she was facing her. "Kira, you have proven to me a million times over that you are a hero. You're a good hero. No matter how much I've argued and fought with you about Citadel, about the Cavalry, whatever. I know Kira. And Kira is a hero."

Kira tilted her head towards her, and Bella could see stars reflected in the tears pooled in her eyes.

"Listen to me. The only person I want you to be is you. I like you. Whatever kind of hero you end up becoming–– and you are a hero, trust me ––I will want you to be that person. No matter what."

Kira sniffled, her lip quivering. She surged forwards, wrapping her arms around Bella's torso. "Thank you," she said, muffled into her shoulder. Bella held her until her breathing became more even, until her breath stopped shuddering in her ribcage, tracing circles on her back.

When Kira pulled back, their legs still intertwined, she looked up at her, eyes huge. "Thank you. Again. I needed to hear that."

Bella smiled at her. "It's just the truth."

"I– god. You're so good. I think I like you way too much." Kira sniffled. "Also, uh, all that stuff you said, about 'I like you no matter what?' Um. Ditto. Me too. I care about you. You're good people."

"You're good people, too," Bella said. She was sure she was red all over.

"Your ears are red," Kira murmured. "Hey, you ever think we're moving too fast? Like, I'm here spilling my guts about everything and how much I like you, and we've bandaged each other up more times than I can count, but I don't even know your favorite movie or your last name––"

Bella cut off her increasingly panicked ramble, stilling one of her shaking hands at the wrist. "My Neighbor Totoro. Jennifer's Body is a close second. And Vogel."

Kira blinked. "Iron Giant. And Singer-Veturi."

"Listen. We have plenty of time to move slow. Let's get dinner and see a movie. This Friday."

"Is that a date, Vogel?" she said coyly, testing the name out. She blinked up at her through her eyelashes.

Bella smiled, angling her head just as coyly. "If you want it to be."

Kira snorted, and they both broke out into laughter.

"I do," Kira said, without a hint of sarcasm. "I really, really do."

They stared at each other for a moment, grinning, before Kira took the hand that Bella was holding and cupped Bella's cheek. "Hey, can I––"

Bella nodded vigorously. "Please."

Kira leaned forward, and their lips connected.

: : : : : : : : 4 : : : : : : : :

Bella was inches away from slamming her head into her calculus notes when her phone pinged.

"Oh thank god," she mumbled.

Kira Cavalier: hekp'

Kira Cavalier shared a location with you.

Kira Cavalier: please it's serious thifs timr

Bella's heart caught in her throat. She tapped the location into her maps app threw her phone onto her bed, yanked her costume on in record time, and checked for landmarks around Kira's location. Locating a bakery on the street she was familiar with, she grabbed the first-aid kit just in case and teleported onto the roof.

She landed in a three-point-stance, immediately jumping up and looking for any sign of Kira. She grimaced at the familiar sight of a Citadel device on a nearby roof, but no sign of Kira.

"K—" what would she say? Kira? Cavalier? Either could be compromising to her identity. Eventually, she settled on yelling "K?! Are you here?"

Her phone pinged in her pocket.

Kira Cavalier: alleywy

Bella bounded towards an alleyway, leaping across it when she saw no one there. She silently thanked Kira for goading her into playing rooftop tag all those times. She was an expert at traversing rooftops now.

She saw a flash of purple in one of the narrower alleyways. She immediately blinked down. Purple sparks rained around her as she landed. She gasped.

There was a distinct coppery smell in the air. Kira was slumped against the wall, one gauntlet pressed against her side, where red was leaking through, staining her suit and her gauntlet. When she touched down, Kira smiled up at her weakly. "Hey there, hero." She tried to raise a hand to wave, the motors whirring, but she winced and lowered it gingerly.

"Oh my god." Bella dropped to her knees, kneepads slamming onto the concrete. "Why are you covered in blood? What happened? Can you move?"

"Uh, in order:" her voice was strained. "Sexy reasons, I fought some drones, and, uh, no. That's why I called you."

Bella began opening the first-aid kit. "Couldn't you call someone from Citadel? The Cavalry?"

Kira looked her in the eyes. "I was fighting drones, birdie. I was dismantling Citadel property." Before Bella could say something in reply, she continued. "I wiped 'em, don't worry. They won't be too retributive. Citadel won't know."

"That's not..." Bella said softly. "Why?"

Kira closed her eyes. "Milagro. That kid we saved last week. She's a metahuman and she lives here. She would qualify for surveillance. I couldn't..."

Something curled in Bella's chest. "Hey, listen. We're gonna make things right, okay?"

Kira looked at her and smiled. "Okay."

"Let's do this not in an alleyway, okay? I'm gonna teleport you to my room."

Kira sniffed. "Okay."

Bella wrapped her arms around Kira as best as she could, gathered her powers, and they popped in a shower of sparks.

Back in her bedroom, Bella gently placed Kira in her spinny chair. Kira protested weakly. "'M gonna get blood all over your nice chair."

Rooting through the closet, Bella glanced back. "It's fine. Honestly, Quinn will probably be more upset than me."

"Man likes his chairs." Kira said absently, head lolled against the headrest.

Bella peeled her mask off and dragged the larger first-aid bag out from her closet, unzipping it and pulling out the relevant materials. "I think you're gonna need to take off the armor," she said. "Is that possible."

"Mmhmm," she said. "But I think you'll have to help."

She guided her to the release on her mask and pulled it off. Bella set it aside as Kira licked her chapped lips. Bella frowned. "You should drink more water. I'll get you some after, uh." She gestured vaguely.

Kira sniffed. "Thanks."

They went through the process of gingerly removing her armor, Kira typing in the command to release the pressure and Bella peeling it off. Once the armor around her torso was removed, Bella lifted up the tank top above the wound on her side and cleaned it gently with alcohol and cotton. Luckily, it wasn't bad enough that she would need to go to a hospital, but she began securing it closed with butterfly stitches.

"So, how'd this happen? Usually you're a much more capable fighter."

Kira sighed and leaned her head back. "Both me and the drones are Citadel-made," she said bitterly. "My blasters didn't damage them as much as I expected. So they overwhelmed me."

Bella hummed. "We'll have to mod your blasters so they will, hm?"

Kira smiled. "Yeah."

Once the biggest wound was cleaned up, Kira removed the rest of her armor, including her gauntlets, and accepted a change of Bella's clothes. She was bruised elsewhere, but nothing that had to be attended to immediately.

"You should stay here," Bella said. It was selfish. She wanted Kira near her. But she was worried about what would happen if her parents saw her like this. "Tell your parents we're having a sleepover."

Kira shrugged. "They're too busy to notice," she said easily. Bella frowned. Kira just yawned, turning away. "I'm beat. Getting stabbed takes a lot out of you. You coming?" She asked. "Bed's big enough for two."

Bella smiled, filing that away under 'talk about later'. "Yeah. Let me clean up first, and I'll get you some water."

She gathered the bloody cotton and the gross tank top and shoved them into the trash can in the alley. She put the first-aid bag away, and stacked both of their costumes in the closet so prying eyes wouldn't see them.

She blinked downstairs to find her dad. "Hey, Dad, Kira's parents are out of town, so she's sleeping over here."

Her dad looked up from his book. "Oh, has she eaten yet? We have some leftovers we can heat up for her."

Bella nodded. "Yeah, she's asleep upstairs already. She went to bed late last night."

Her dad smiled. "I am never gonna get used to you just teleporting people in and out of here"

Bella rolled her eyes and grinned. "Dad, it has been like eight years since I got these."

"I'm your father! I worry about you! What if you get splinched?"

"Splinching isn't real. Don't worry so much, Dad. I am very responsible." She filled up a glass with water. "Alright, just wanted to let you know that she was over."

"Thanks. You know we like Kira," he said significantly.

Bella coughed. "Thanks, Dad! Goodnight!"

"Night, rabbit!"

Bella returned to her room with the glass. "Your water, my liege."

"Thank you, Sir Vogel." She took the glass and gulped it down, placing it on the nightstand. "Now come to beeeeedd," she said, reaching out her arms.

"Okay, okay!"

: : : : : : : : 5 : : : : : : : :

Bella woke up bleary. So, so, bleary.

She rubbed at one eye, shading a bit of the sun coming through the window. She buried back into the comforter, and rolled over to see Kira on the other side of the bed.

Oh. So last night wasn’t a dream. The injury, patching her up, asking her to stay for the night. Sharing the bed.

Bella sank into the bed and observed Kira as she slept, her chest rising and falling evenly, her lips slightly parted. She looked so different to the girl she'd spoke to on the rooftop months ago. Peaceful. She hoped she'd had even a small part in that.

She still found her just as pretty as she had on that night, though.

Kira began to stir, her eyes screwing shut before blinking open.

"Morning," Bella greeted.

Kira stretched, groaning a little bit. "G'morning." Done with her stretch, she settled on her side, facing Bella and looking into her eyes. She smiled, the edges of her eyes crinkling. "Hey there, hero," she said.

Bella couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey," Kira started.

"Hey," Bella echoed.

"You remember that time we were playing rooftop tag—"

"Oh my god." Bella covered her face with her hands.

"Wait, no, c'mon, you don't get to hide from this," she retorted, laughing. "You were it, and you tried to tag me, and you decided the optimal way to do that was by straddling me."

"Listen, it seemed like a good idea at the time!" she groaned. "And I did get you."

"I wanted to kiss you right then and there," she said, her eyes tracing the lines of Bella's face.

Bella started. "Oh. Yeah. Me too, actually," she said, bringing her hands down from her face.

Kira's eyes widened a little, but the expression was soon replaced with a grin. "Well, it's a good thing we have plenty of time to make up for it."

"Mmhmm. Wait, what are you— be careful––"

Kira hooked a leg over Bella's hip, flipping them so she was straddling Bella's hips and her arms were on either side of her head.

"Oh, you asshole," Bella giggled.

"Hey there, hero," Kira said, grinning down at her.

Bella pulled her down for a kiss.

: : : : : : : : +1 : : : : : : : :

They took Bella. They took Bella.

Tensions between the Moonlighters and Citadel had risen, and an ultimatum was presented: metahumans had to be controlled or neutralized. And Blink was the first meta to go.

Kira was so stupid. She should have seen the signs. The blueprints floating around for metahuman containment, the power-nullifying field generators she thought were purely theoretical. She was too busy living her stupid fantasy life of being a Real Hero, of running around the city with her friends.

She fired indiscriminately, warning everyone to get the hell out of her way. She'd spent hours and hours modding her gauntlet blasters, and now not even the Citadel Blast-Resistant Substance™ could withstand it. She descended into the complex, searching for the containment tubes.

And she found it.

Bella, held in a transparent tube, straps around her torso. Her head was lolled forward. The hum of electronics and the beep of a heart monitor filled the room.

Kira slammed the control panel, keying in the combo to release her.

Bella slumped out of the cell, and Kira caught her in her arms. "Birdie," she said, heart racing. "Hey, it's me, talk to me."

Bella sniffled. "Kira?" She looked up at her. She had a bloody nose that had since dried, the blood showing on her teeth as she grinned at her. Kira took a shallow breath in.

"Well hey there, hero," Bella said, eyes sparkling despite her injuries.

Kira's eyes welled up. "Shut the hell up, you're not funny," she said. "We gotta get out of here. Can you do that?"

"Mmphf. Gimme a second." Her head lolled forward again, and she gripped onto Kira's biceps. Purple sparks began swirling around them, and Kira felt the familiar sensation of teleporting, the mild nausea and rubberband snap.

But they were only about a yard away from the tube. Bella sniffled again. "'M sorry," she said.

"Hey, it's okay, that's fine," Kira said, adjusting Bella so she had one arm around her waist, letting her lean her weight on her.

"We'll fight our way out," she said, her arm blaster whining as it charged up and flashed.

#this is the longest single thing i've written. wtf #it's not. super great? but idk i had a lot of feelings about these two and needed to put them somewhere so. *hands you this*#also artfight friends if you drew literally any scene from this i will owe you my firstborn #my FIRSTBORN OK i am so serious #also im not usually a writer so if there's anything glaringly obvious that could be better lmk #writing #birdsong #kira #bella

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gofancyninjaworld · 4 years ago

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2020 in One-Punch Man. Part 1: Manga

How shall I describe this succinctly?

It's like ONE and Murata looked around them, saw a raging pandemic, massive disruption to all walks of life, uncertainty of when, if, or how it might affect them, took a massive drag of their cigarettes and said: “Fuck being conservative. Let's go wild. Fuck making our current arc a webcomic retread with fancier fights. Let's introduce more lore, let's have more characters interact in ways one would never have imagined, let's have characters do things that hadn't previously been thought of and make this really exciting.“

If you were holding onto the webcomic as your guide to what next, 2020 was not a good year for you.

723 pages in 24 updates (including revisions) changed the status quo ante in deliciously unanticipated ways!

Where we left off in 2019, we were following the webcomic pretty faithfully, with most manga-original elements being removed at a fast clip. Phoenixman was dead, the mercenaries had died a brutal death, the ninjas had been resurrected but had run off buck naked, Orochi was dead, G5 was very much destroyed, Drive Knight had appeared but had obligingly limped off, taking Nyan with him. The S-Class heroes were in trouble with the cadre exactly as expected and Saitama had met up with Flashy Flash. Tatsumaki had finally found Psykos. Yup, no real changes here.

2020, HAHA!

Awaken!

Throwing manga-specific elements away? As if! They took the great opportunity that preparing chapters for publication to critically review and revise the story so as to first, make it move at a faster pace and second, to be enriched. It’s meant that chapters for volume 22, 23, and 24 (to come) have been redrawn to accommodate the changes and we got the benefit of many of them between April and August of this year.

We started with Phoenixman’s fight with Child Emperor. It started innocuously enough with Phoenixman resurrecting, but then we got a much more interesting chunk of knowledge -- the existence of a metaphysical world modelled on one’s on psyche where the assault on Child Emperor’s sense of self took a much more existential nature.

From a purely physical battle (and some nifty cool info about the Subterraneans) to an otherworldy battle happening in parallel with the physical battle:

It ended up a very interesting examination of Child Emperor’s character and his relationships with other heroes, as well as telling us something else freaky about Saitama’s ability to be anywhere he damn well wants to be.

Ah, and Phoenixman lives. Albeit as a little chick (for now). He’ll probably be back, but not just yet.

The mercenaries were next. They didn’t die. Not because Amai Mask had a change of heart, but because Iaian listened to the niggling feeling in the pit of his stomach and turned his team mates around to intervene just in time.

As you’d expect, trying to guide the mercenaries back to the safety of the surface has been an incredibly challenging ordeal for the disciples. It’s revealed much more about the way the disciples trust each other and lean on one another, and yet, when there was no option to do so, Iaian stepped up wonderfully to fight to save the mercenaries.

We’ve also learned something interesting about why mercenaries exist at all in a world supposedly at peace. I look forward to seeing where this plot might go next.

Elsewhere, we got to learn a little less about Puri Puri’s dancing and swimming lessons, but we got some really awesome nods to the mythical in Bakuma (the baku is a long-nosed creature formed out of all the bits left over after creation that eats dreams) and Electric Catfish Man’s sudden sense of doom is both reference to the way catfish are supposed to detect earthquakes and just damn cool.

A monsterised exploitative business man taking the form of a demonic dream-eating monster that consumes weaker monsters so as to exploit their abilities is so appropriate on many levels (and unreasonably hot!).

Yes, Waganma does make it to the surface, along with Saitama and Child Emperor. Saitama gets chased away by a Sekingar outraged that there’s a clueless hero just wandering aimlessly around. Child Emperor goes back underground and I loved to death Waganma being pierced with remorse as he realises that the hero is going to go risk his life anyway. He’s spoiled, but his keeping quiet came from a place of being a scared human being desperate to be saved (a surprising number of fans did not like that -- they preferred to think of him as a psychopathic monster incapable of remorse).

Orochi still has a date with a gloved fist, but he’s getting to live a little longer than he did before.

Overall the story is tighter and there’s a lot more interest as well as future plot hooks than there were. I’m interested in seeing how it gets tied up in the next volume sometime in 2021.

Reddit did not take it well. Summary of discourse:

sorry not sorry, I lost patience around the 500th whiny post

Advance!

What about the new chapters we got? Also here, ho ho ho, that status quo has gotten a good kicking!

Orochi came back. Not the most surprising surprise in the world, given how carelessly Saitama punched him. Also not surprising that he came back stronger; Phoenixman had wonderfully demonstrated that monsters can bounce back from near-death situations much stronger. But his form... such a disgusting, slimy, ever-shifting mass of tentacles and dragons, consuming all in its way led to the third craziest development: his fusion with Psykos to launch a new monster.

I’ll spare you the disgusting intermediate stages but the end result has been the birth of Psykos-Orochi and with that, what had been a total sweep for Tatsumaki turned into a much more dangerous enterprise where every mistake of hers got punished brutally.

Why is that only number three? Because Tatsumaki raised up the entire base to try to encompass the whole monster (and it turns out that she was thinking far too small -- the monster had actually eaten large sections of City Z) and Psykos-Orochi uses the space to launch a beam so powerful that it literally cuts off part of the Earth itself. It was a real I see it, but I don’t believe it moment.

if you didn’t spend a few seconds just staring in disbelief, you’re not paying attention. OMG. Boy is the Earth in trouble.

Why is that only the second craziest thing? Because of why this fusion monster was able to do as it did. ‘God’ doesn’t just go round looking like a semi-tangible being giving random homeless men magic powers. Yup, the Earth really in in trouble if some supernatural being is smushing monsters together to make a stronger one and then granting it extra powers. Just like that, the struggle has turned cosmic.

Tatsumaki trying to figure out how to fight back and save City Z from being swept away by a tsunami, save the heroes, and save the planet from further damage by the beams all at the same time was one of the most spectacular fights to date.

As I said earlier, this monster has presented Tatsumaki with a real fight where the slightest mistake on her part leads to severe punishment. She wound up in trouble when she underestimated how extensive the monster actually was and let up on twisting it too early, only to have it come right back and skewer her hands.

Thankfully, Genos came in and saved her from that pinch, then held the monster at bay long enough for Tatsumaki to finish saving the strike team so she could give the monster her undivided attention.

Which is a very tame way of saying that that was an incredible development in capability. That some of the fandom had trouble accepting (they suck). Watching their protests has been an exercise in special pleading. They have no trouble understanding how Murata uses scale...until it came to accepting the size of the explosion resulting from Genos smacking away Psyko-Orochi’s execution beam then it had to be a fisheye lens (visibly incorrect, but who’s talking facts here?). Have had no trouble understanding how Murata portrays escalation... until it came to accepting that Genos is strong then no, somehow the monster had to be weaker. Have had no trouble with the freeze frame language that Murata uses to portray things happening at great speed... until it came to accepting that Genos could move really, really fast. For some people, the new is only welcome when it confirms and validates preconceptions. Anyway, that’s my rant done!

the most unlikely of partnerships and they’re still going despite having taken a hell of a battering since this scene

Guess who’s back?

We’ve also been seeing more heroes come back to the fray. The emergence of the Tower of Doom acted as a clarion call to every hero around and able to move. Metal Bat sneaked out of hospital to come running back. Tank Top Master hitched a ride with Mumen Rider to go to City Z. He intended to stick around and save people, but seeing how much wider scale the fight was, he literally threw himself into battle.

Drive Knight decided he literally had to have a piece of the action, took up a ton of power from the nearest substation and came flying in to intercept a desperately escaping Psyko-Jet... ah, I didn’t say? Yes, the monster turned into a machine to run away once hard-pressed.

And we finally got to see what Blast actually looks like, courtesy of a flashback of Amai Mask’s. He definitely looks the part of a caped superhero and it’s little wonder he’s stuck in the imaginations of so many. But now I’m even more interested in seeing what his deal is and what is he’s like now

The one thing we know for sure will be happening is that Garou will not be denied his destiny. He’s coming. But what else is happening? Ah, that’s all in the air.

Bring on 2021!

#OPM #review #long #2020 #so much has happened #so much still to come #manga #Garou is coming BACK #13th #December #December 13th 2020 #so many incredible developments #Genos coming back far stronger than he's ever been and then hanging tough despite overdoing it #the unquestionable appearance of a meddling godlike entity #the Psykos-Orochi fusion and all its crazy permutations #the massive loss of life in Z-City: such an irony between heroes killing themselves to save a few individuals when mass death is all around #Not mentioned; Saitama Flash and their misadventures with Manako

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seiin-translations · 4 years ago

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2.43 S1 Chapter 2.4 - Dracula and Princess Briar Rose

4. BEAUTIFUL WORLD

Previous || Index || Next

“Suemori-san.”

I was startled when my name was called. It was a calm voice that was humble but not excessively servile.

Kanno stood at a distance of about three meters from me. I was holding the net at the center line, and Kanno’s feet were above the attack line, so he was actually three-meters away. There was a clear difference in height now without even having to stand side by side to compare. I think it was a difference of six or seven centimeters. I didn’t think…it was past ten centimeters, but… When I was picturing myself next to Kanno in my head, even though he squirmed a bit uncomfortably, he didn’t apologize fearfully and meaninglessly like in our first year.

Suemori-san. I pondered the voice that called me. The last time he called me “Ibara-chan” was last September. And I feel like this was the first time he called me “Suemori-san”—we hadn’t called each other’s names once during these nine months. I wondered at what point during those blank nine months did I change from “Ibara-chan” to “Suemori-san” within Kanno.

“About the ballgame tournament, I received the list of who’s in each event for our club, so I have been told by my senpais to consult with Suemori-san and decide the allocation of duties, but…”

He’s still speaking with formal language mixed in, even to someone in his own grade, I thought, and while feeling something that was like nostalgia and sadness, I said, “It’s fine. If that’s the case, let’s do it on our way home today.”

I tried my best to respond in a natural manner, trying to be somewhat distant for the three meters of space Kanno had opened between us, but also not too blunt. I’ll be in your care, Kanno said, bending his long back and quickly bowing his head.

I watched his back as he left, him who was dressed unseasonably as ever with his long T-shirt and long pants, even though it was June. Kanno still participated in the girls’ team practice for half of the week, but ever since they witnessed his seizure on the outside court, no members made fun of him anymore. On the contrary, there was a mood of “Kanno-kun is working so hard even though it’s hard on his body,” and everyone became weirdly nice to him. Even now, when he ran over to the girl who was drawing the net strings to the side of the pole and said “I will do it” as he reached out his hand, he was politely refused with “It’s fine. Akiton should sit down” and ended up having nothing to do. Akiton was Kanno’s new nickname. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard Dracky at all lately.

From where I was looking, I thought that seemed pretty awkward, but anyways, my role as Kanno’s (unwilling) knight was no longer necessary.

I noticed that there was a girl looking at us from the entrance of the gym. It was Ayano, holding a basket lined with drink bottles.

“…I feel like I haven’t seen Ibara-chan and Akiton talking in a long time.”

“Oh, we’re just getting in touch about clerical work, for the ballgame tournament. I’m helping the boys this year.”

I felt like I was being glared at, so I unintentionally made an excuse. It wasn’t even an excuse, it really was nothing more than talk about work. “You don’t have to worry about that,” Ayano said, her lips tapering into a pout and she turned away.

“No, no, I’m not worrying about it at all…”

Nonetheless, my behavior towards Ayano was still mostly filled with a sense of guilt. Ayano might like Kanno…looking at her actions during that incident last year, even I, who was completely unfamiliar with matters of love, could tell that. I wondered if she confessed to him…I didn’t know what happened after that incident, since my conversations with Ayano had decreased considerably since then. I did the worst possible thing—disparaging a girl’s body in front of the boy she liked.

“It’s thanks to Ibara-chan that I lost weight, so I’m really not thinking anything right now…”

Ayano muttered in a slightly soft voice while still turning away.

That’s right. Ayano, who had been chubby, had slimmed down quite a lot since then and, taking advantage of her bust and hips which had been ample by nature, now attained well-balanced proportions. It seemed that my words triggered her to go on a diet. I was surprised at the unexpected willpower that lay sleeping within Ayano. That wasn’t at all. Maybe because her body was lighter, her play became agile and nimble, and she became a bench member in her second year. Since she didn’t have the stature, her spike power was inferior, but she was praised for her thorough and careful defense. What I hated so much and concluded that a strong player didn’t need, Ayano became stronger without throwing it away.

On the other hand, as for me—as evidenced by the fact that I was dispatched as a coordinator with the boys’ team for the ballgame tournament, I had been languishing without being selected for the bench. In middle school, if I worked hard, the results of my hard work came naturally to me, but since I became a high schooler, I kept getting betrayed by myself.

I loved volleyball. I wanted to be better than everyone else. I was willing to cut away anything that would hinder me from that. As a result, I ended up losing my friendship with Ayano, the reverence from Kanno, and my pride as a volleyball ace that should have been everything to me.

“Yeah…now I’ve become the most shameful and useless thing.”

I let out a weak self-deprecatory remark. “Ibara-chan…” Ayano turned her face towards me. The top of her nose was wrinkled, and she looked she was about to cry.

“Ibara-chan, you’re not going to quit the team, are you…?”

I didn’t answer her, only giving a forced smile.

I had actually received a club withdrawal form. The coordinator thing this time made it doubly sure for me, and I had made up my mind. I intended to write my name on it and hand it in after the ballgame tournament work was done, and leave volleyball. I intended to seriously quit it.

——Until the day before yesterday.

The day before yesterday, when I saw the boys’ practice on the outside court——.

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

The ball that rose high up into the blue sky shone in the afternoon sunlight, burning my eyes. The one who took off from behind the attack line and rushed in like a bullet was that first-year, Kuroba Yuni.

That was a back-row attack? That jump distance was unbelievable. He jumped in with his whole body all the way to the net, as though he was attacking from the front row. His figure, arched in midair, seemed stationary, as though it was a photo. Such a long flight duration. His arm flexed like a spring that had stored up energy and returned it all at once, and he punched in the ball.

However, in the next moment there was a cloud of dust rising on Kuroba’s side of the court. “Daaah—” Kuroba groaned in frustration as he sank down and landed. Even I, who should have been calmly watching on the courtside, lost sight of the ball’s trajectory for an instant, but Aoki-senpai, who had jumped for a commit block, covered it with his long arms and shot down the bullet spike.

Amazing…just amazing. That was so cool. I couldn’t suppress the long-forgotten thumping of my heart. Each moment of that play was bold and so fast that I almost couldn’t follow it with my eyes. Just when I thought the ball had disappeared from my view, a dust cloud leapt up from the ground with a dynamic sound, like something exploding. I squinted many times at the dazzling aerial battle that unfolded while causing grains of light to burst into the air.

For me, the most beautiful sport on Earth was there.

There was a world that I couldn’t stop longing for, so much that it was painful.

For the first time since I reaped what I sow and lost many things, I thought that I did love volleyball after all, and I didn’t want to quit. Perhaps now, I could say this with the purest feelings I had since I met this sport.

I loved volleyball.

***

It took twenty-five minutes riding on a local line that was only composed of two cars to go from Nanafu to Monshiro. Bench seats against the windows were only placed on both sides of each door, and the rest were box seats with seats for two facing each other. Kanno and I occupied one of those seats, and we sat shallowly on them with our knees facing each other.

“…Even assuming we can manage with the staff for the first and second games, the problem starts from the third game and after. When Team C’s match starts, the team members will pack the court, and we’ll have to get the members who went out to basketball and futsal back immediately…”

“I think we’ll definitely not have enough staff at some point.”

“We’ll have to adjust the games so we’ll have enough. We’ll move the fourth game of Team E versus Team F over here, and the sixth game with Team D versus Team F…”

“Oda-senpai is in Team F, so I think it’ll work out well.”

“Oh, I see.”

While we were humming and hawing, at a loss, the two of us wrote on both sides of the notebook that was spread out on our laps. The notes were becoming unreadable due to the flood of arrows, boxes, strikethroughs, and desperate-looking messy lines.

The boys’ volleyball team had just eight members. From that, we would send out four people as staff members for each game, and there were those who took part in each event as competitors apart from that, so it would be impossible to run the boys’ volleyball division without the full rotation of eight people on a meticulously calculated time schedule. A lunch break was out of the question, and we might not even be able to give them a bathroom break. I mean, even if you rotate them at full speed, it was bound to break down somewhere, right?

Looking down at the messy notebook, I got a headache. Ah, I wanted to open the window and just throw it outside.

Around seven p.m., there was still a thin light outside the window. Come to think of it, summer solstice was approaching, so this was the time of the year with the longest daylight. After passing through the cities of Nanafu and Suzumu, the two-carriage train was moving a slow pace through the countryside wrapped in a warm, dim light. Since the rice planting was just finished in May, there were still only green seedlings planted in the fields. The water surface limitlessly reflected the distant mountains.

Every time the car swayed a little too much, I felt ticklish from the rubbing of my kneecap against Kanno’s kneecap beneath his spread-out notebook. I was tempted to retract my leg, but it felt somewhat like a waste of time to do so.

“We both got some irritating work forced on us, huh.”

Though I was grumbling, that was why we didn’t have to finish talking about work for the time being. However, Monshiro Station was already coming up soon. Usually, I slept for the twenty-five-minute ride when I could sit down, but each minute and second felt strangely precious today.

I curled my back and dropped my gaze to the notebook. Kanno also looked down at the same notebook from above my head. I had my toes standing up, and Kanno’s heels were on the floor. The fact that the notebook was kept level meant that the length below our knees was that much different. He just kept shooting up.

He’s got an awfully big lead on me, I thought once again, but strangely, the jealousy and hatred and uneasiness and chaotic feelings I had in my first year that made my heart hopelessly ugly, did not appear anymore. I wonder if I matured a step…that also felt wrong, and I was quite confused about myself.

“I don’t really think it’s irritating. I’m having fun right now.”

I heard a whisper above my head. My heart leapt at the word “fun,” but,

“I only play with the guys half of the time, and I can’t help much with setting up or cleanup, so…I’m glad I’m able to help out with this kind of work, because it makes me feel like I’m doing club activities with everyone else. The senpais didn’t say anything about that, but I think they knew that and gave me this job.”

“I guess you’re more comfortable in the boys’ team, huh?”

I didn’t mean that sarcastically, but it must have sounded like I was, because Kanno flinched and his face tightened. It seemed that he still hadn’t fixed his habit of peeking at my expression.

“The senpais on the boys’ team seem like good people. The girls’ team has a strange atmosphere, and you can’t always go all out, can you? I know you’re holding back in the intra-team games.”

“Well…if I go all out, I’ll blow the girls away.”

In the past, he might have put himself down and immediately apologized with a “I’m sorry,” but he pouted slightly as he plainly affirmed that. It was as if something like the core of self-confidence had taken root within Kanno, and I felt relieved, but at the same time, I felt somewhat sad for some reason.

Even before I realized it, Kanno himself must have been aware that he was starting to outstrip the girls in terms of strength and was out of place among them. And that wasn’t something that could be obtained “without much effort, just by the good luck of being born a boy,” like I had accused him of before.

I happened to see Kanno in his training wear in my neighborhood last year on an early autumn night. He was jogging and entered the park near the middle school, and unconsciously concealing my presence, I watched him do strength training on the bars and seesaw until the end.

Kanno somewhat looked like a normal athletic boy during the night, not wearing his hood completely over his head and frightened by the threat of the sun like he was during the day. It was then that I learned about the side of Kanno who worked harder than others because of his physical disability. No, I was supposed to know that a long time ago. He was the target of unreasonable teasing, and there was no reason for him to go out of his way to stay in the girls’ team to the point of feeling uncomfortable, but he worked harder than anyone even in basic training that was nothing but painful, and never missed a day of practice.

Because, like me, he loved volleyball—he told me that I was the one who taught him the fun of volleyball. Maybe that was the only thing I could be proud of.

He was probably still training at night on his own. He looked stronger, with another faint layer of muscle on his neck and arms. The nails on his fingers gripping his mechanical pencil were deeply trimmed. His fingertips were a bit chapped, but it was an indoor sport, so the underside of his nails wouldn’t be darkened with dirt. His protruding joints was due to the repeated spraining of his fingers. His long fingers were for catching the ball and accurately handling it, and his large palms were for powerfully driving in spikes. The hands that I thought were beautiful were characteristic of male volleyball players.

Kanno had become independent of the “shadows” that had been clinging to my back and only stirred up my frustration and impatience, and after taking some distance and time where I was able to calm down, I was feeling a bit nervous right now, coming in contact with him like this again.

I knew what I was saying was too convenient at this point. There was no way the selfishness of trying to get back something you pushed away but wanted later could be allowed unchallenged. You had to take responsibility for what you have done.

We were approaching Monshiro Station. I closed the notebook and put it in my bag.

“Aaah, we didn’t finish it. Let’s do it tomorrow.”

I secretly cherished the feeling of our kneecaps brushing up against each other, but I quickly stood up and carried my schoolbag and enamel bag with me. It was a one-man operation train, so if you were too slow, it was easy to miss your stop.

“…Kanno?”

Right when I stepped into the aisle, I looked back suspiciously. Kanno hadn’t even attempted to stand up, his behind still stuck to his seat.

“I’m riding to the next station, don’t worry. I can’t walk you home, but be careful.”

“Hah? Why?”

“Um…well…I can’t get up. My knees have no strength…”

“Huh…what’s that about, did you get hurt? You want me to escort you home?”

Worried, I brought my face closer. “N-no, you’re mistaken,” Kanno pulled down the hood of his hoodie and turned his face to the window.

“When I was talking to Iba-Suemori-san today, I was actually really nervous… I summoned up all of my strength to call out to you, and once I did, I surprisingly felt like I could talk to you normally as a friend, so I was so relieved that my muscles went limp…Oh, I know that I already got rejected, so I’m really not thinking about anything more than that now, but it’s hard not being able to talk to each other at all during practice…”

Kanno’s pale face, hidden by the hood, turned red like the old days, and he talked quickly like he was feeling restless. While I was standing stock-still in the middle of the aisle, Monshiro Station’s platform slowly slid into the train window. The scenery stopped along with the vibration of being pulled sideways, and there was the sound of the doors whooshing open. There weren’t a lot of passengers, but some still passed by here and there. No new passengers got on from the platform. The departure bell immediately started ringing. “You have to get off,” Kanno urged, his face still hidden.

My toes hesitated for an instant over whether to go or not, but ultimately I placed my bags on the seats again and sat back down in front of Kanno.

“Wait, Iba…Suemori-san?”

Kanno raised his panicked face.

“It’s perfect. We still haven’t finished the arrangements, so let’s just do it now.”

“Yes, but…”

“And it’s a bit fun to go all the way to the final stop and loop back, so how about it?”

I spread the notebook on top of our laps without giving Kanno a chance to object. Looking like he found it hard to accept, Kanno chewed on the tip of his lip, but…

“Thank you…”

In the end, he gave in and said in a limp voice.

I was slightly discouraged to find out that Kanno had already finished drawing a line between us within him, but I was glad he said it clearly. I shouldn’t be forgiven by Kanno, and I didn’t want to be forgiven by him. I was sure that I would live with this regret for the rest of my life.

The bell stopped ringing, and the train started to move. The view of the platform fell out of sight.

I wasn’t saying to whom, but…if I had to say it, I made a promise with myself. When we got off this train and went our own ways home, I would put a lid on these feelings once and for all. So, just a little bit more. I was ready to carry a lifetime’s worth of regret, so wasn’t it okay for me to draw this out…for just a few more minutes?

***

“Um, it’s hard to say this, but…if we take this train to the end of the line, there are no more trains available to take us back…to Monshiro.”

Kanno brought that up when the curtain of night had completely fallen outside the window.

“What, why didn’t you say that earlier!? What’re we gonna do!”

“We can walk home or something. But it’ll be the middle of the night by the time we get there. I’m fine with nights so I don’t mind it at all. Suemori-san, I’ll carry you on my back if you’re tired.”

Considering that he said it was hard to say it, Kanno had a slightly happy expression on his face as he said that, and my resolve immediately wavered.

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#2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu #2.43: seiin high school boys volleyball club #2.43 book 1 #2.43 translation

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thespiralgrimoire · 4 years ago

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I. NEED. TO. LEARN. MORE. ABOUT. FERRO's. UNIVERSE. Like are you kidding me? Fuego and Leo pulled a coup and killed every non-vermillion??! that's, wow, that's rich!! What's the heck is wrong with /THAT/ timeline? What about Asta's story there? the elves? the devils? Fuego really killed everyone? including NOZEL? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!

OH MY GOD ANON YOU’VE MADE MY ENTIRE DAY

HONESTLY this AU is underdeveloped because of the way it came to fruition in the first place, so nothing would make me happier but to make it a collaborative fandom project but here’s everything I’ve got on it

Under a Read More because it might get lengthy

First, a disclaimer: This AU was born out of a dream. I had a dream about a plucky teenager participating in a Magic Knight’s exam that was designed more like The Hunger Games, and when I woke up, I said to myself, I gotta get in on that. So that’s why some of the details of this AU are a little fucky. Dream logic.

Now, the inciting event for this AU is twofold: First, Acier lives. SECOND, her sister, Kirsch and Mimosa’s mother, dies giving birth to Mimosa.

Sister’s death completely breaks down any bond between the Vermillions and the Silvas. It’s just. Messy. A lot of finger pointing, a lot of people not handling things well. Because while the Silvas were taught from a young age to bottle up their feelings, Vermillions tend to use their feelings as a weapon. And relations go south fast.

Acier has still been training Meoroleona. Nozel and Fuegoleon have still been rivals. But when this happens, everyone is forced to pick a side. Acier and Meoroleona don’t end their relationship on bad terms, but they do end it. Nozel and Fuegoleon’s relationship swiftly turns hostile. In hindsight, nobody is happy about the way things went down, but at this point there’s a No Man’s Land to civility that nobody is willing to cross, and nobody will cross it.

The Vermillions have the roughest time with this, but unlike the way the Silvas handled Noelle, nobody actually blames Mimosa for her mother’s death. They turn their grief into what they see as righteous fury and determine to turn this into a “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” situation. This takes different forms over the years, but what basically happens is that everyone internalizes these feelings so deeply that while they all grow stronger, they also sort of grow apart.

Fuegoleon and Meoroleona have a blowout that completely shakes House Vermillion, and when Meoroleona leaves, she vows to never come back. No one believes that she would actually stay away, what with how close Fuego and Meoro were as kids, but when she leaves, she leaves. They see her once a year TOPS, and it’s never for a happy reason.

Fuegoleon, who has let his anger completely isolate him from the rest of his family, throws himself into being the Crimson Lion King, and while he’s incredibly successful, he loses parts of himself along the way. His ambitions override his caring nature and his inclination to share his strengths with others, and he becomes cold and determined, with a methodical outlook on relationships.

Leopold doesn’t become so callous-- he wasn’t old enough to remember his aunt’s death, he just had to grow up in the aftermath of it --but he follows in his brother’s footsteps, and while he’s not as mean about the way he does it, he’s not afraid to make some harsh decisions if it means being the best.

Kirsch and Mimosa decide that the best way to deal with this is to keep their heads down. Kirsch is fiercely protective of his little sister, because even though nobody is blaming Mimosa, he can’t shake the feeling that she may still have a target on her back. This makes Mimosa jumpy and clingy, never really developing the confidence to be her own person. While she can’t really nail down a particular reason for it, she’s scared of Fuegoleon and doesn’t trust Leopold. She can’t help but wonder how her cousins in House Silva are doing, but knows that all hell would break loose if she actually sought them out, so she feels constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place; the living embodiment of a schism between the royal houses.

The Silvas, on the other hand, go the other direction. Acier is still here, and she’s not letting her family rip itself apart like it did in canon. She remains the captain of the Silver Eagles and well-respected. Her kids have an even easier ride to the top with her still there to pave the way. She misses Meoroleona terribly. She knows that none of this was fair to any of them, and losing her sister AND her star pupil is a lot to work through. She keeps thinking that eventually she’ll get a letter or a surprise visit from the Undefeated Lioness, but she never does.

Nozel is genuinely heartbroken to have lost his rival and best friend, and, consequently, be left in the dust when he can’t keep up with Fuegoleon’s ambition, but he’s still got his mother and three little siblings, so they become his whole life. Without Fuegoleon’s rivalry to spur him on, he becomes good but not great, and is content to coast. He’s a mama’s boy, and as long as his mother is satisfied, he’d rather read and organize missions than go on them. On the bright side, he doesn’t deal with 90% of the stress he deals with in the canon universe. He’s actually pretty happy most of the time.

Nebra ends up being the classic middle sibling. Her magic is nothing special, but she’s a Silva, so she can go with the flow and still come out looking a little better than everyone else. While Nozel would rather spend time with books and Solid and Noelle would rather spend time with each other, she’s a drifter; she can hang with any of her siblings, or her mother, but she’s no one’s first pick. It doesn’t really bother her all that much unless she feels genuinely left out, and Mom never forgets about her, so it’s all good.

Solid and Noelle are thick as thieves, and the Silver Eagles’ superstars. They bring out the worst of each other and have a great time doing it. They’re a dynamic duo on the battle field and harbor unfathomable chaotic energy off of it. Getting sucked into their gravitational pull is dangerous, so Nebra, Nozel, and Acier tread lightly, lest they get dragged into, or end up the victim of their shenanigans. Of all combinations of Silva duos, they are by far the closest. Totally ride or die. That doesn’t mean that they don’t drive each other absolutely batshit crazy, and have some HUGE blowouts that waterlog half the castle, but that’s what siblings do. The nice thing about having each other is that neither of them end up in their siblings’ or mother’s shadows. The not nice thing about that is that they’re just. Little shits. Imagine Noelle acting the way she does in the beginning of the series, but being sincere about it. Imagine Solid acting the way he does, except he’s never checking to see if he’s got his siblings’ approval. Now imagine them patting each other on the back for acting like that. Yikes.

Then Ferro comes along. He’s the result of Solid knocking up his unnamed noble girlfriend when he’s 16-17. Acier is PISSED. All the other Silvas are scandalized. Solid is in big trouble. Acier suspends him from the Silver Eagles while she does damage control. What she eventually ends up doing is paying the girl off, and when the baby is born, she takes him into House Silva to raise him in secret. Nobody outside House Silva ever knows about him. He is House Silva’s best kept secret. This is an important detail.

The coup comes together. Fuegoleon has been working on this plan for a long time. Years. Leopold is on board, because Leopold would follow him off a cliff. But he’s also scared shitless. This is a much bigger deal than stepping on a few comrades to rise through the ranks. He slips a little. Kirsch catches wind of the plan. He gets in Leo’s and Fuego’s ear to remind them, hey, we’re Vermillions, too. So we’re cool, right?

Yeah, they’re cool. All they have to do is help their cousins kill everyone whose last name isn’t Vermillion. Kirsch thinks this is a pretty good deal to save him and his sister. Mimosa will later have her doubts, but we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.

Meoroleona was invited, but never shows up.

We’re about at the beginning of the show when the coup begins. I don’t have a good reason that it goes off as smoothly as it does. But everyone in Houses Kira and Silva dies, except Acier and Ferro. Ferro, now two, manages to watch his entire family get bodied without getting a scratch on him, because no one anticipated him being there. Acier is only able to defend herself and him before sneaking away.

Acier and Ferro flee to the Forbidden Realm, to a little town in bumfuck nowhere, to hide. They are never discovered by the Vermillions.

Fuegoleon becomes the Clover King. As far as they can tell, the coup is 100% successful. But the thing about fire is that it’s super useful for making people really dead, but when people are dying in heaps and being burned to ash it’s kind of hard to count how many bodies you’ve got. They don’t realize that they’re one short. With no one to stand in their way, Fuegoleon crowns himself Clover King. He disbands the Silver Eagles, and within the next few years, will crown himself Wizard King. It actually becomes pretty easy after Julius nerfs himself, whoops.

Unfortunately, Fuegoleon is starting to unravel. He gained a LOT of enemies doing all this heinous shit, and he is not a beloved king. Leopold is now the head of the Crimson Lion Kings, and he’s reporting back a lot of hostility among the captains. Not that they didn’t expect that, but there’s no way to practice sleeping with one eye open. That’s not to mention that the people are scared and confused, and that doesn’t make for a peaceful kingdom.

Over the course of years, he puts greater and greater restrictions on magic. It starts as permits to use spells in public places and soon grows into a near-total ban on grimoires for anyone outside the magic knights. With absolute power, he can kick people out of the magic knights AND take their grimoires. These rules both ease and exacerbate his growing paranoia. Everyone is pissed, but effectively stripped of their power, there isn’t much they can do about it.

Meanwhile, Acier is raising her grandson as a peasant, but never forgets that they’re royals. She teaches Ferro all of their family history, even though they have to keep it a secret. That gets kind of tricky since Ferro has royal-level magic in the middle of a town of peasants, but, you know, who’s gonna call him on it?

When Ferro is ten, he get recruited by a mysterious hooded figure to train his magic in secret. 90% of his magic training happens in a location he is taken to by a spatial mage. He, along with about a dozen other kids, are trained by a small band of mages who claim to be the resistance. Their goal is simple: Train the next generation of mages to take out the king and restore order to the kingdom. Ferro thinks this is pretty cool, and the honor isn’t lost on him, but he’s mostly glad that he can learn to control his magic in a way that makes his grandmother proud.

By the time Ferro is 15, grimoire ceremonies have been almost completely outlawed, so it’s a big deal when the resistance throws their trainees a grimoire ceremony. Once they’ve received their grimoires, they begin the next leg of their journey: become magic knights.

The Magic Knights Entrance Exam has changed a LOT in the last 15 years. This exam is deadly. In many instances, the point is to kill or be killed. Magic knights are being trained as a military force first and foremost, and their most important feature must be that they take orders unblinkingly. This does not fly with Ferro. While he’s extremely qualified for the position in every other way, he’s too nice to let people die, let alone kill them. He fails the exam. However, some of the other kids he’s trained with make it in.

So he needs a new plan. Spurned on by his grandmother and his teachers through the resistance, he decides to travel the Clover Kingdom. In the midst of his travels, Acier dies. At 20 years old, he is now the last Silva.

This fact makes Ferro pretty fatalistic, and at this point he decides the only rational thing to do is to force an audience with King Fuegoleon. Surely this won’t end in disaster. Definitely won’t be his untimely end by flames.

So there are a lot of holes in this AU, because it sprang up around this one character I had a wild dream about. A few mores notes:

Noelle joined the Silver Eagles, if that wasn’t obvious

The Vermillion coup takes place 1-2 years after the start of the show, and I have no explanation for how those events could fit into this timeline. They would definitely look a LOT different, that’s for sure

My notes on this end where they do because at the point where Ferro breaks into the royal castle to force this audience with the king, he actually gets thrown out of this universe and into another. So I guess for all intents and purposes, the Silva line ends for good in this universe

I know exactly where Meoroleona is and what she’s doing

I don’t know where exactly Kirsch and Mimosa are and what they’re doing when they disappear

So that’s all I’ve got! This isn’t a super duper happy AU, and definitely not flattering for everyone, but I was forced to flesh it out because I was told, very emphatically, “Evil Vermillions sexy.” I don’t disagree.

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damn-stark · 5 years ago

Text

Child of Ren Ch.10

A/N- Plotwist y/n ends up with Finn instead lmao...I’m kidding! Anyhow I loved writing this chapter ;) hope you guys liked it too, leave your thoughts. Take care and I love all you guys.

Warning- Long chapter, fluff, things get very steamy but nothing beyond that (I’m incapable of writing that sadly) slow-burn.

Pairing- Poe Dameron x Reader x Rey, Kylo Ren x reader (platonic)

Takes place- after TLJ & before TROS

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

———

“What the hell?”

Instantly Rey and you pull away from the kiss, looking back to see nothing. You share the same questioning look before hopping down to the ground to observe the surrounding area. You hear or see nothing, but you aren’t scared of what or who it could be, not here. You look over your shoulder and put a finger to your lips to motion Rey to be quiet; whoever was here would come out.

She does as you say and you wait in silence, only moving your head when you hear distant footsteps sneaking not far from you. You smirk and tread lightly towards the noise, holding on to Rey’s hand to make her follow you. The footsteps stop but you don’t need them to locate where the person is anymore, you knew. Again you look over your shoulder to Rey, smiling as you let go of her hand to sneak up on the spy. You carefully move forward and reach the tree the person was hiding behind, you take one step forward and come face to face with the terrible spy.

When you recognize who it was your eyes widen and you freeze where you stand, you part your lips in both confusion and surprise. You expected someone else, Finn maybe, or some other resistance fighter who accidentally ran into Rey and you. But you didn’t expect “Poe?” Your eyebrows knot and you try to read his reaction, but their was too much going on that you couldn’t make out one single emotion on his face. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

Rey joins your side and is equally as confused. Poe doesn’t say anything for a long minute, looking between Rey and you before solely focusing on you with confliction overriding every emotion, but that’s when your mind caught on, figured it out, that’s when your heart sank a little.

Poe had seen Rey and you kiss.

It had been a couple weeks since Poe and you had talked, but that didn’t mean you didn’t stop feeling the way you did for him, but he didn’t know that, in fact he didn’t know what you felt at all. All he knew was that you wanted to kiss him before everything went to shit, but of course seeing what he saw now could mean anything, or nothing to him, but he thought it was something more than you yourself were still very unsure of.

“I was looking for you so we could talk.” He stammered, trying to sound as confident as possible, but you could see straight through him and well you could also feel his every emotion. One thing you liked and disliked of being able to use the force. “But you’re busy we can talk later.” He said almost bitterly, quickly turning on his heel to walk away. You took a step forward to follow after him, but quickly stopped as you remembered Rey was still with you. You parted your lips to try and explain to her, but she knew what you intended to do and only pointed her head to the direction Poe had left in.

“Go, I was going to run coarse anyway. Talk later?”

You offer her a light nod with a small smile before turning and following after Poe. At first you couldn’t see him, even if he had walked off seconds before, but then you spotted his familiar black curly hair in the distance, storming away incredibly fast. “Poe!” He didn’t stop or even look back to the sound of his name, he just continued walking away. “Poe!” Nothing. You picked up your pace until you were hot on his heels, “Poe, please stop.” He let out huff as he halted in his steps, placing his hands on his hips and making you walk to stand in front of him.

“We can talk later, you’re busy, I didn’t want to interrupt. You can go back.”

You let out an annoyed sigh, “really? This is how we’re going to start talking? I haven’t talked to you in weeks and this how we’re going to talk?”

He held onto your gaze for a moment before shifting his eyes away. He stayed silent for a another moment to give himself time to think clearly before blinking down to you and starting the conversation. “Are Rey and—”

“We are not talking about that right now.” You quickly interrupted, pushing that topic aside even though you knew it was going to be inevitable, “you wanted to talk, are you finally ready to talk?” You asked softly.

He parted his lips and you knew he wanted to continue pressing on the previous subject, but he didn’t, “yeah. I just wanted to say that I understand why you hid who you were. It wasn’t easy, I just want to know why? Really why? Why didn’t you tell me? You can trust me.”

You lower your head and don’t say anything, gnawing on your bottom lip for moment before quietly speaking up, “because I was scared of what you were going to think of me, I didn’t want you to see me as a....monster. You were the first person I talked to that didn’t see me as the Child of Ren and I liked that, I didn’t want to be known like it, I wanted to be the person I was supposed to be and being here I got it. I didn’t choose who I was turned into, I was forced to become that person. I’m sorry, I really am.”

He sighed at your words, the anger he felt for the previous situation finally fading away...for now. He let his hands drop to his sides and took a step closer to you, as he attempted to get your gaze back on him, “hey, look at me,”

You hesitated but ultimately did as he told you, noticing his face had softened and their was a gentle look in his eyes. When he was sure you were listening he continued with what he was saying, “you’re not a monster. I was mad because of who you were, yes, I can’t deny that, but you’re not a monster.” He paused for a moment and hesitated to ask his question, but he had to know for sure, “was it true? What the Knights of Ren said? Did Kylo Ren really brainwash you?”

“It wasn’t Kylo. He would never do that to me.” You answered quickly in an unintended defensive tone. “It was Snoke. Snoke took everything from me, who I was, my life, memories, my family. I’m just left with flashes of past memories and a made up life. Now I’m just struggling with both.” Poe was the first person who’ve you really talked to about your past in the first order, you’re now just realizing that. The one person who could make you forget you’re past was the first person you confessed you’re tragedy too. Rey only knew a small portion. “So if I’m a little rude, dark or cold it’s because of that, because of who I was raised to be. I’m sorry.” He didn’t hesitate to wrap you in a tight embrace, making you feel secure in every way possible.

You let out a shaky exhale before hugging him back and resting your head on his shoulder, as he softly spoke again, sounding sincere with every word, “It’s okay Hon, I understand.” You both stay silent, just enjoying in each other’s presence until he pulls away, moving one hand to cup your cheek and showing off a charming smile, “how about we finally go on that fly you’ve been itching to go on, huh?”

A bright smile grows on your lips, “really?”

“We’ve been practicing for a while, I think you’re ready.”

—

“It’s just going to be a quick fly, okay? We’re not in battle, so you won’t actually shoot anything, but you can test those maneuvers.” Poe explains as he leans on the side of the hull, watching as you happily put on his helmet to prepare for just a fun practice fly.

“You sure you won’t join?” You question as you turn to meet his look, making him grin at the sight of you. It took everything within him not to pull you in for a kiss, he really wanted too before and now seeing you with his helmet on he desired it even more, but he didn’t, he couldn’t, not after what he had seen Rey and you do. He was to some extent sure that you had some feelings for him, but after he had seen you kiss Rey, his suspicions were sadly debunked.

“No,” he nods, “I would love too, but their isn’t any other extra ships and well you’re using mine so, another time.”

“We can fit if I scoot in, like when you’re teaching me,” You suggest with a smirk, “it just won’t be the same if you’re not with me.”

He swallows thickly, “t-that’s the whole point. In battle I won’t be riding behind you, but don’t worry I’ve got you from down here.”

“Hmm, damn shame then.” You pause and turn more sincere, “we’ll get more ships, I promise. We’ll do that mission, so then we can actually race.” You wink and grip onto the stirring wheel. “Now move Starboy, I’ve got places to be, stars to visit and well—”

“You’re not leaving this planet.” He interrupts in a serious tone, “it’s just a quick fly.”

“We’ll see.” You joke. He stays for a minute, eyeing you suspiciously before closing the canopy and climbing down the ladders. Once you make sure he moves the ladder and gets to the holo-computers to monitor you from there, you start the simple procedures, like starting the fighter and lifting off. That part was easy, you knew how to do that, it was just the rest of it that you weren’t so sure of before and perhaps even now, Poe had been teaching you, but you still felt uncertain.

That feeling of uncertainty didn’t last long as you flew up in the sky, of course at first you were nervous but knowing Poe was guiding, and looking out for you helped and well his voice was soothing over the coms. The flight however was everything you had hoped for and more—even if you weren’t shooting down any TIE-fighters. However the feeling of the rush made your adrenaline pump. And for that short amount of time you were doing barrels in the sky it made you forget everything bad in your life, no Kylo, First order, Knights of Ren or forgotten memories, it was all simply forgotten, it was therapeutic to be flying so fast and so high in the sky. For that time you were truly happy.

Once you finished flying and successfully landed back on the ground, you still had a wide happy grin, you still felt the adrenaline pump in your blood, it felt like you could do anything in that moment.

“How was that?!” Poe asked almost or even more excited than you were.

You didn’t even know how to respond, all you did was let out a small giggle as you rushed to capture him in a tight hug. He was caught off guard by your actions, letting out a small ‘oof’ at the impact, but quickly recovering to return the hug and pulling you closer to him. In that moment for him, he forgot what he had seen and let the feelings he felt for you seep through with the embrace, he let the wanting he felt slip, and the urge to kiss you increase like never before.

“It felt. I-I don’t even know.” You stammered, only pulling away far enough to cup his cheeks, “it felt..”

“Freeing.”

You grinned wider and quickly interjected “Exactly! That and much more. I can still feel the adrenaline in my body. I feel like I can do anything.”. Poe moved one of his hands to wrap around your wrist, while he moved the other one to cup your cheek. The smile he carried never left his lips as he saw how excited and happy you were, the happiest he’s ever seen you. “Thank you for that moment, Poe.” You let out softly.

His smile widened and in that moment just like you he felt like he could do anything, and he did. His eyes flickered down to your lips before he leaned in to finally kiss you. The kiss was sweet, gentle and too quick as he pulled away. You stared up at him surprised and speechless, much like he felt. Quickly he parted his lips to let out an apology, but before he could you pulled him in for another kiss. He seemed to be surprised by your actions at first, but he quickly got over it and deepened the kiss, adding more passion, and desire into it while still remaining sweet in every way.

You felt him smile into the kiss, and you felt bad for comparing the kiss between Rey and him, but his was more dominating, he knew what he was doing and he showed it. The kiss with Poe was sweet and gentle but felt rough and passionate all in the same while. You only parted away to catch your breath, resting your forehead on his. He smiled and began to stroke your cheek with his thumb, as you were going to lean in again, he quickly pulled away and his smile dropped as he carefully took a couple steps back.

You stared at him concerned and confused, “Wh-what’s wrong?”

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, licking his lips as he pulled his eyes to you, “this shouldn’t have happened, I’m sorry.”

You parted your lips in disbelief, furrowing your eyebrows as you tried to figure out why he fel—oh, Rey, right.

“Uhm, I’m just going to leave.” He quickly turned around to storm away, leaving no room for you to talk back. So, quickly you rushed to go after him, grabbing him by his arm to turn him around; “I told you y/n, it was a mistake, just a heat of the moment thing, okay?”

You pull your head back, “heat of the moment?”

He pulled his arm away and placed his hands on his hips, “What do you want me to say? I saw Rey and you kissing, it’s obvious you like her and you two have something going on and I don’t want to get in the way.” He tried to storm away again, but you caught him in time.

“Poe I like you too.” It was sudden and not like how you wanted to let it out, but you did and now it was too late to take it back. By the look on his face he didn’t expect it either, he didn’t know how to process it, all he did was part his lips and keep his eyes on you, searching for any sign of a joke, but it wasn’t and you let him know that, “I wouldn’t have kissed you back if I didn’t. And I know it’s confusing and difficult for you to process that, but it’s the same thing for me, you know. I barely understand what I feel for one person and two? I-I just don’t know, this is all so new to me, I’ve liked people before, but never really done anything about it, not with Kylo scaring them away, but now that I can truly be with someone, I happen to like two—”

Poe interrupted your rambling, “Shh.”

“Excuse me?” Before you could express anything else, again he pulled you in for a kiss, this one more rougher than the other one. Instead of pulling away you gave into the kiss, and wrapped your arms around his neck, while he wrapped his around your waist to pull you in closer. The kiss felt amazing, you two moved in sync and when he moved you back so your back could hit a tree the kiss felt even more passionate, it felt euphoric. With one hand he gripped onto your waist, while the other one slowly traveled further down your leg.

The feeling of his body so closely pressed to yours, his earthy smell, the feeling of his lips never parting from yours and his hand just traveling down your thigh made a warm feeling began to build in between your legs. You couldn’t deny and say you didn’t feel that way for him, because you did in multiple occasions. And what you didn’t know was that he felt the same feeling of lust since you met. And yes it’s bad admitting such a sinful thought but he couldn’t deny it.

Finally his hand stops on the back of your knee, pulling it up so you could wrap it around his waist. He then pulled away from the kiss, only for his kisses to travel down to your neck. You gripped onto the curls on the back of his head and said his name to stop him, but it came out more of a soft moan, “Poe—Poe, stop. I-I’ve never done this b-before.”

Poe broke away, letting you see the small beads of sweat on his forehead, his mouth was slightly open and he was trying to find the right words to say while he also caught his breath.

“Not here.” You spoke softly, flustered by what you had admitted, you thought he was going to laugh or walk away, but he didn’t, he showed a assuring smile and caressed your cheek.

“You don’t have to, we can stop.”

You thought for a moment, it was something you wanted to do, especially with him...so you did. “No-no I want to, just not here. Not in the middle of the jungle...at least not right now.”

He showed a cheeky smile and moved his hand to grab yours, “okay, I know somewhere where it will be just you and me, come on.”

—

“Where was I when you destroyed Star Killer base?” You gnawed on your bottom lip and thought until finally coming up with the upsetting answer, “I was on a mission with the Knights. Missed all the fun didn’t I?” You smile sadly at a thought, “you would have seen me if I was there, I was still blindly loyal to Kylo, and I’m afraid you wouldn’t have liked me then.”

Even if you couldn’t see Poe, you knew he was smirking. “Are you sure about that? One look at you and I would be a rambling mess. You are incredibly beautiful Hon. I wouldn’t be able to resist you.” He said with the usual amount of cockiness, as he continued to trace small circles on your exposed back, his legs entwined with yours.

“Shut up.” You smiled brightly. “You know I would have loved to meet you before, I heard you were imprisoned by the First Order.”

“Would you have interrogated me?”

“Uhmm, most likely. Now that’s something I would have loved to do. You’re a very talkative person when you know the right ways to make you talk.”

Poe let out a small chuckle, before he relaxed again, your head rising up slowly and coming down on his chest at the movement of his slow and calm breathing. Neither of you talked for a moment, but you were left in a comfortable silence, just listening and feeling the way his heart gently thumped under your cheek, simply just enjoying each other’s presence “You’re not going back...to the first order, are you?” He asked breaking the silence.

You lift your head to meet his eyes, a small frown replacing your smile, “no. I don’t want to go back there, I wouldn’t.”

He began to stroke your cheek, before placing a soft kiss on your lips, “good, I like you here.” On his bed and with him, that’s what he wanted to add, but he didn’t.

You were happy here, with Poe and with...Rey. You wouldn’t go back, even if the thought had crossed your mind, you wouldn’t. You could never go back to Kylo, not with what he did, as much as at times you felt like he was the only one you had and that could help. It would prove a point to him, one you didn’t wish to prove right, one you needed to solve on your own. That’s why you could never go back. As much as he pleaded. You wouldn’t. Never.

—

You had deliberately been avoiding Rey and planned to do it for the rest of the day. It’s not that you didn’t want to see her, because you did, it was just after the night Poe and you shared, you didn’t know if Rey knew and you didn’t want her to know, you just didn’t want to deal with having to explain what you felt for both her and Poe. You had already somewhat explained it to Poe and it was difficult as it was, you didn’t wish to explain something you couldn’t even understand yourself.

The only thing you knew was the repeating question, why? Why like two people at the same time? Perhaps it was true that your feelings for Poe were evolving into something more. Not just after the intimate moment you both shared, or the fact that he was incredibly attractive, but the fact that he could make you forget about your broken past, the first order and the family name you still had no memory of. Poe made you forget and it felt great, with him you weren’t looking for someone you couldn’t remember, and well he also shared the same liking for danger and adrenaline.

And Rey. Well Rey, she understood you in ways Poe couldn’t, Rey and you shared a similar past, shared the same connection with the force. She wasn’t afraid of who you were when you first met, she wasn’t afraid of the person you were with the mask. Rey knew your lack to retain control and emotions and she knew how to help like Kylo could. Rey and you shared a bond, a bond you liked. That’s where it was hard, the fact that at one point you needed to tell either of them the answer they were going to seek. You didn’t want to play with either of them, you were going to have to choose. It’s not that you could be with both at the same time...could you?

Whatever you were going to decide, whatever you were going to come up with to say to both of them in the meantime, you couldn’t avoid Rey forever...just for today though—The sudden tap on your shoulder, made your shoulders jump and for you to grab onto your chest as you swore your heart was going jump out at the sudden interruption; “Who are we hiding from?” You turn back to meet the voice of General Organa, a sweet smile on her face as she followed your line of sight to see Rey; “she’s been asking for you all morning, you know.”

You huff and turn your back to Rey’s retreating figure. “Yeah well she’s the person I’m hiding from, so,”. General Organa lets out a light chuckle, taking a seat on a crate across from you. You shoot her a pointed look, finding this situation anything but amusing, “If you shared feelings for two people what would have you done?” You eventually ask.

She rests both hands on her cane before answering your question, “when I was your age I didn’t have the luck of liking two people at the same time. In fact it was later on that I gave into my own feelings for Han, I was too stubborn to admit them before. But it was the best choice I did, admit them to him.” She pauses and a sad frown replaces the gentle smile she had before; “you’re going to have to talk to them both, tell them how you feel. They’ll both understand. Poe might be more difficult to talk too, but Rey is kind she’ll understand more than you know.”

You nod silently, humming lightly as a response, your mind focusing on another subject now rather than your own. You had known of General Organa’s partner, Han Solo, father of Ben Solo and man that Kylo killed. Kylo had killed his own father; you remembered the day you had seen Kylo, days after the destruction of Star killer base and the battle at Crait. Even if Kylo was the new Supreme Leader he was not present amongst the ship and his people, he was in his private quarters, isolated in the dark, new scars and bruises sporting on his face that weren’t there before, a sad and guilty look in his eyes that he couldn’t hide, at least not from you, and well the emotions he projected he had a difficult time hiding.

Of course you had known what had happened before you even arrived back to the First Order, you had heard beforehand what Kylo had done to his own father—or Ben Solo’s father. That’s what got you prepared on how to approach him, you didn’t ask questions, just provided a distant comfort, avoiding the situation to avoid the worst. But now that you thought of it, now that you saw the perspective from General Organa, you weren’t sure why she chose to forgive Kylo/Ben for what he did. He killed the man she loved and she forgave Kylo for that, she still holds hope for her son to return. You weren’t sure how she forgave him, but she did. She did. Could you?

The change of subject was evident to General Organa, without you having to say anything, she had seen it on your face and the energy, emotions you failed at hiding. She knew the question you were going to ask before you could, which is why she knew who you were referring too when you did ask, “how..how could you forgive him? After what he did, how could you forgive him?”

She sat in silence for a moment, before she offered a warm assuring look, “because I know my son is still there. Because I love him. He didn’t fall to the dark side on purpose, he was lied too, tricked by the same person that tricked you into it. I still hold hope for Ben, and I always will,” she paused and took in a shaky breath, “you can’t hate someone you loved for so long. You might try, you might want to find any excuse, try to remind yourself that what he did was wrong to get you to hate him, but you know in your heart what your decision is. The choice you already know even if you don’t want to admit it to yourself. I might not know a lot about the relationship you have with my son, but I know it’s a special one. He might have done horrible things but forgivness is better than a grudge. Because what you do on behalf of revenge is something you will later and always regret.”

You’re left speechless and with millions of thoughts running wildly in your mind, but also with no motivation to continue with said subject, not if you wish to end up in tears and your emotions out of control. She knew that and didn’t press on, General Organa was great that way, she knew what to ask and what not to ask. Even in your short time since you’ve been at base, she didn’t push questions you knew she wanted to ask about her son. You only gave her a small taste of what he was like, at times when she would find you alone and conflicted, it would ease you and her talking about the good memories you had of her son.

“Just know this, y/n,” her tone in voice had changed, and she no longer carried her frown, instead she carried a knowing smile, “never love anybody who treats you like you’re ordinary.”

You smile warmly and nod, “I will keep that in mind.” General Organa struggles as she stands on her feet once again, but once she does she extends her arm so you could walk with her, you accept her offer, entwining your arm around her elbow.

“You do have to talk to Rey eventually you know.”

“Oh, trust me I know, we have that mission to get the fighter ships from the First Order soon, I have to talk to her sooner or later. For now though it’s later.” You explain still with a sort of uncertainty.

“Just thought I’d remind you.”

—

“We have the chip to get in, the only problem is us, they’ll recognize us, they’ll recognize you.” Finn points to you as he, Poe, Rey, and you go over the plan to steal, or more precisely take back old rebel fighter ships the first order had stored away in a planet infested by them. It was going to be a very high risked mission, but one you needed to do, one you promised to do.

You sit up straighter in your chair still old habits sticking through as you took a minute to think of an idea. This setting of sitting around a briefing table was one you were used too, waiting and going over plans for missions, except here you weren’t surrounded by boring old people that were afraid of every movement Kylo or you would do. Here they respected and listened to your ideas, surprisingly much like over there except at the first order it was most likely because of that same fear, they respected you because you were their superior and at points they seemed to respect you more than they did Kylo.

As an idea finally pops in your head you lean in closer to the briefing table and share what you had thought of, “they won’t recognize us if we blend in. Dress up like stormtroopers.”

Finn nods with a smile on his face, “that could work, maybe you could even go as you. Uhm you know The Child of Ren? Their youngest and most feared commander.” Finn suggests making you frown.

“What about Kylo? They see her there and they will let him know. Especially if he has put her on high alert.” Rey says.

“No, he hasn’t,” You breath, “the most likely thing he has told them is that I’m on some mission.” And that was because he wanted you back, he expected your return, which is why he hadn’t told them that you left with no promise of a return.

“If you’re not comfortable doing that, you don’t have to do it.” Poe directs to you.

You sigh deeply, “it would be easier. They won’t say anything with the right excuse. He won’t know until we’re out, not if everything goes right, that means no distractions. We do what we go there to do and leave.”

“The only thing now is how do we get the uniforms? How many?” Finn questions.

“Do we all have to wear those? I mean can we wear something else?” Poe asks with an uncertainness that you found amusing.

“Yes Poe we all have to wear them. We have to blend in.” Finn retorted before turning his eyes back to you, “do you have any hidden in your ship y/n?”

You tilt your head to the side and press your lips together, “yes Finn, I happened to snatch trooper uniforms before I ran away from home,” You answered sarcastically making Rey giggle, “no. No you see I was busy stealing crates of weapons instead.”

“I was just asking, a simple no could’ve been fine.” He quipped.

A smile makes it past your lips before you focus on the matter on hand again, “those are easy to get, just find some on our way there.” You turn to Poe with a more mischievous smile, “you know Poe, you don’t have to wear a trooper uniform.” He quirks his eyebrow unsure of what you’re trying to get at, “you can wear an officer uniform, those all black ones, you’ll blend in that way too. I think it’ll suit you more.” You bite your bottom lip as you keep your eyes on Poe, missing the way Rey looked at Poe and you, missing the way she had caught on to what was going between him and you, something more than platonic and she couldn’t help but feel jealous.

Poe smirks as he finally caught on to what you were suggesting, “You’re in charge hon, we’re all following you. Whatever you say goes.”

Finn wanted to argue against your suggestion regarding Poe, but once he noticed the hidden flirtatious context behind it, he instead remained quiet.

“I won’t be joining.” Rey interjected, getting your attention back to her.

“W-why?”

“I’m not ready to go out just yet.”

“But I mean, we’re all going to be there, I am. If anything happens I’ll be there.” You try and explain.

Rey nods, “I’m not ready, but I’ll be here when you come back.”

You hum as a response, even if you’re unconvinced you don’t fight her on it.

“Okay then it looks like we have everything figured out, right? All we need is to actually do the mission.” Poe quickly said, standing up from his seat and purposely standing in between Rey and you to block your line of sight and snap your eyes back to him.

Finn agreed with Poe’s comment, “Yeah, exactly.”

They all disperse from the briefing table, while you stay to collect your thoughts on the whole high risk mission. There could be hundreds of things that could go wrong but you couldn’t risk nothing going wrong, not one single thing. The ships were too important, the people you were going to go with were too important. Perhaps you did problems here at base, involving two specific people you liked, but those were problems you could somewhat deal with and were definitely going to deal with once you got back from the mission.

Right now you could possibly just ease the situation better with Rey, talk to her like you said the day before, hope that she wouldn’t know of Poe and you. Not yet anyway. With that in mind, you go in search for her to only find her and Poe, arguing? You stand by Finn as he watches them with a disapproving look.

“What’s going on? What are they arguing about?” You ask curiously.

“You.” He jokes, only you didn’t think it was at all funny, he clears his throat, “no-no, uhm I don’t know, but you know how they are.”

“Hmm.” You take a step forward to stop them, but instead you stay put and shrug, not wanting to deal with them arguing or having it turn into something bigger. Instead you turn to face Finn, “want to grab some lunch?”

Finn looks back at his friends and decides the same thing as you, “yeah, sure.”

“This mission is going to work, right? We need it to work.”

He shifts his eyes to you, not expecting you to ask such a question to him, not when you had Poe or Rey. Either way he tries to reassure you in the best way he could, in the way his friend Poe would. “It’s going to work, we’re going to get those fighter ships.”

“So optimistic.”

“Learned from the best.” Finn laughs.

You chuckle lightly and nod, “you’re right though. This is going to work. It’s all going to go fine.”

A/N- Are we going to get a taste of first order Poe in the next chapter?! Yes, yes we are! Anyway you know our mans Poe had to step it up, he sees reader and Rey kissing, well he can do better, lmao. Anyway you know what would be funny...if reader got pregnant haha...jk it can’t happen...unless, let me know your thoughts on that. Ahah. I mean yeah reader hasn’t chosen who she wants to be with, or you know if she wants to be with both, but It can still happen...Idk, idk.

Tagged- @jennibradley , @xxrouge-lexxx , @daniellajocelyn , @tweedlydumbtweedlydoo , @star-marvel-fangirl , @leilei-draws , @briesangel @lanatheawesome , @madamepsicose, @constantdisgrace , @1-800-depressedlesbian, @commondazy , @logiclies , @robindoesntloveme , @we-all-are-strange , @fandom-addict-aesthetics , @seninjakitey , @sarablog10 , @natalia-helena-alianova-romanov

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enithinggoes · 3 years ago

Text

The witch’s teachings, lesson 7.1- Leave something behind

I followed the witch’s plan, driving the cart we’d commandeered to a small nearby village and going with my companions to buy the required supplies, including wooden stakes, torches and lamp oil. But something in the back of my mind, call it an intuition, made me ask the witch for some time to visit the local church, to wich she raised an eyebrow and commented “huh… didn’t think you were the religious type, still, if you need to make peace with god, be my guest, just don’t take too long.”

When I got to the church, it was dark and there was a lone priest attending to it, almost bald but for a few grayed hairs forming a circle around the sides of his head, when our eyes met, his kind gaze turned to one of shock that, to his credit, he did his best to hide when he asked “what brings you here?”. Still, I was unconfortable with the way he looked at me and now something about the crosses and symbols bearing down on me seemed threatening so I merely said “5 coins for a bottle of holy water, please, and 3 more to not ask more questions” as I handed him the money.

Seems that was enough, as the priest quickly grabbed a bottle with a cross drawn on it and handed it to me without a word, maybe he wanted me to leave as much as I did. As I got out, I really felt that now, for better and for worse, I’d permanently moved from one side of the veil to another, and I wouldn’t be welcome back.

Next we took off towards the capital, now more aware of the dangers of being seen closely I brought down the brim of my hat, thankfully the cover of night would protect me until we got close to the center. With my crossbow at my side and the clarity of the watcher, I honestly felt more confortable her on the road, with the company of the night and the forests and the creatures they would hide than I would with the stone and people of the towns, especially our current destination.

Nevertheless, duty called, and by 3 in the morning, we were at the entrance to the castle, it was decorated with drapes of red and purple and large, bright torches, like the eyes of a terrible monster with the large gate as its maw, I untied the horses, at the end of the day, they had nothing to do with this, so they were free to run if the bloodshed started sooner rather than later.

I rapped at the wooden gate, yelling “delivery from the inquisition!”, in just a few seconds two heavilly built and armored men opened the door, coming out and inspecting the wagon, their faces were covered by large helmets, clearly made to be imposing, painted red and purple much like the castle itself, there were only two thin slits for the eyes and I could not see anything inside. Nevertheless I could sense their intent, they saw through me easily, these wagons are never to be driven without security accompanying them, and all individual drivers are registered and known.

That was fine and expected, the plan was never for the ruse to go very far, I hit the wood of the wagon as hard as I could and yelled “Go! Now!” as I dove behind it for cover, Morgana and Lyssa busted out, ready for battle, they fought the guards, though maybe outmatched in raw physical strenght and weight behind their attacks, they could beat them in agility and swordplay, Morgana gripped the middle of her blade tight with her off hand to move it with precision into the slit from which he saw and Lyssa used a distraction I created with a crossbow bolt to strike where the main part of her opponent’s armor connected with the helmet, taking advantage of the need for a joint for flexibility, master likely advised her on fighting oponents in plate armor during the ride.

The three of us headed deep into the castle, it was dark and surprisingly empty of any guards or servants, must have been because of “feeding time” as Morgana said, she asked me to try and “sense” the vampire through the many walls and rooms, and I could definetly feel something at the center of the building. “figures,” she snarked, “I could have guessed he’d want everything built around him,” we moved as efficiently as possible through the catacombs and soon came to a tall metal door with a heavy black padlock on it, with two men, also in heavy armor, holding halberds straight up, still as stone.

We engaged them in combat, though Lyssa and Morgana did most of the heavy lifting, these seemed even stronger than the last guards, when she saw an opening, the witch dove between them and gripped the part of the padlock that connected it to the latch, I saw the inside of her hand glow red-hot, in less than a second the metal had dissapeared and she turned to us, ordering ��stay here and fight them until I come back!” and moving into the darkness.

Lyssa and I were capable of holding our own against the knights, but scoring a killing blow seemed almost impossible with them covering each other’s openings, she turned to me and said “you’ve gotta go ahead or she’s going to die. I’ve got it here.”

“Wait what? What do you mean?” I asked, too focused on dodging a halberd strike to look at her.

“Are you kidding me? Telling us to stay behind, purposefully not telling us how she’s going to fight him, trying to tell you you didn’t need her anymore before we came here? Come on Cato, I don’t need weird eye powers to figure out her intentions here, she wants to die killing that vampire.” She half-scolded.

“Will you be alright?” I asked, preparing to find a way to get past the guards.

“Just. Trust me with this, ok?” She turned to me and gently smiled before charging forward with a battlecry.

In that moment, while she attacked one of the guards, I focused my mind on the other and managed to stun him with a psychic attack before dashing between them, yelling back “Stay safe and don’t die!”, to which Lyssa answered “You too!”

As I ran in search of my master, I could sense where she was before being even close and watch the battle through her eyes until I got there, in front of her there was a man, he wore a powdered wig and had arresting red eyes and a devilish smile, as he looked at Morgana, his eyes didn’t meet hers, but were fixed above her, like he couldn’t be bothered to confront her directly, he was lazily holding a golden scepter with a purple sphere on the top, “isn’t it nice when your inconveniences come straight to your door asking to be dealt with? Now, before we begin, do you have anything you wish to say to me?”.

Morgana didn’t answer, she just stared at him with killing intent, untill she extended her hands towards him, spouting flames in his direction, he lept upwards into the shadows of the high ceiling, laughing as he taunted “very well then.”

He moved unbelievably fast, attacking the witch from all directions, she was able to keep him at a distance by firing short bursts of flame whenever he swooped close, but I knew it hurt her to use those powers for long.

Eventually she switched to using her shortsword, barely able to block his strikes with the scepter, after a few skirmishes she quickly stepped back, dodging an attack before slicing the vampire’s hand off, unfortunately he didn’t even flinch, just clenching his other fist and punching inhumanly hard straight at Morgana, she had just enough time to try to defend herself with her off hand, knocking her into the wall at the back of the room.

She did her best to get up as Lucius nonchalantly walked towards her, clapping with a hand that was already growing back as he moved, “Most people would have been splattered on that stone right now, you’re strong, too strong.” He grabbed her by the neck, pushing her agains the wall, “I don’t like it.”

"Still, is that all? You came into my home, with the intention of killing me, with this?” his laugh reeked of venom as he tried to quickly choke the life out of her.

I could hear a powerful thought in Morgana’s mind, “Oh I’ve got a lot more to show, I just needed to get us close to the far wall before I did this, I’m only getting one shot, sorry Cato.” And her arms started glowing again, white and bright like a star as she held onto the vampire’s arm tighter, tighter, she’d make sure he wouldn’t survive this by releasing all the power she held at once, blowing both her and the tyrant to smithereens.

#the witch's teachings #Magic #Original Work #original writing #original story #fantasy #chapter #enni

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yue-muffin · 4 years ago

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I finished Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the first time and wow, am I impressed. Having only played the 3DS era games and started Sacred Stones recently, I came to expect a certain range of quality and reach in terms of story. There are games that I found not overly complex but executed well (Echoes) and ones with a good premise and sloppy execution (Fates). Sacred Stones, so far, is one I find with a simple story done well. I’m not terribly enthralled with it, but there’s nothing there to annoy me either.

Path of Radiance is one of those games that takes the ‘simple/standard FE plot’ path, but the execution is brilliant, filled with both depth and heart despite the story having the same basic beats as many other FEs. I was really impressed with the worldbuilding, the character writing, the gameplay/story integration...

My biggest gripe with Awakening and Fates was that the characters were colorful, but few of them were compelling and many lacked the depth to take them beyond their archetypes. Path of Radiance did a good job making me feel that its characters all had a stake in the outcome of the battles, that they had an actual cause to fight for and didn’t just join the army just because. There is always a bit of contrivance in an FE game, but the quality of the writing can lessen or emphasize that feeling.

The gameplay mechanics change from game to game, and I find it really fun to test out the unique features of each installment and see how they influenced each other. the shoving animations are amazing

People also say this is one of the easiest FE games and I have to say, the bonus exp mechanic is probably why. I love this mechanic because of the way it allows the game to reward the player for taking certain actions encouraged by the story (like wanting to spare as many of the enemy as possible = we’ll give you bonus exp if you do). I, uh, am never doing a stealth run of the prison break chapter again though.

I went ultra vanilla and restricted myself to using only the Greil Mercenaries for this run, and I’ll leave my impressions on this post because half the fun of a FE game is building up your team.

I went with the Greil Mercenaries (+ Mia, because she joins them for the second game) for my first playthrough because otherwise I would have no reason to use both Rolf AND Shinon at the same time and Rhys would just warm the bench the whole game lol. And I was really curious to see Rolf and Shinon’s support line and actually have a use for all of those light magic tomes.

Ike: My Ike didn’t get screwed over in any stat, so absolutely no complaints other than the fact that he refused to proc Aether more than once in the Black Knight fight, making Nasir bail him out at the end of the allotted turns. I supported him with Soren because I wanted to see their support line, and have to say that it worked out really well. I was between Soren and Oscar, but it worked better this way because Oscar was always riding off with Titania at the front and Ike just lags behind unless you dedicate several units + Reyson to shoving him to the frontline. And when you’re using Mist, Rolf, and Soren, that really cuts into the units available for shoving.

Oscar: He, uh, ended up the MVP and netted the most kills in the run. Oscar can become an amazing paladin, but mine was so screwed in the strength stat for much of the early game that I had to abuse the bexp mechanic at the base to ensure he didn’t keep lagging behind. His defenses were super good by the end, and the little damage he did take was mitigated by activating Sol every other hit. Also, I have a bias for calvary units, so. Oscar. Loved him.

Titania: I...I love Titania. I love her character. She plays her role perfectly as the super strong unit who is there to support you in the beginning and falls off a little towards the end. She can still hold her own in the endgame, however, and I have no regrets for relying on her early on. There is so much experience to be had in normal mode that she doesn’t really rob anyone else of it unless you go ham and let her destroy everything. In the end, I gave her Savior so she can help deliver chip damage and save Shinon’s ass, I mean, rescue drop people.

Boyd: Super frustrating and nerve wracking to train, super hard hitter who still keeps you on your toes by the end. He is the most lopsided unit I have ever used (comparatively low defenses, speed, and skill compared to his attack and HP) but he was definitely fun and made sure I didn’t get too complacent. I don’t normally use fighters/axe units in the modern games because their accuracy is shit, their defenses are even more shit, and why bother with the headache. Once you can forge Boyd a good iron axe, though, his performance becomes more consistent. I did keep Tempest on him for a while, because I find it fun to use the skills a unit comes with, but I took it off eventually. It does help in certain situations when his hit rate isn’t so good (having the biorhythm doubled then is helpful).

Soren: I have a bias for this little asshole, lol. He’s a standard mage, basically. Kind of annoying to train in the beginning because he can barely take a hit, his movement is low, and MAGIC MAKES THE EMULATOR CRASH SOMETIMES, but if you can stick it out, you’ll be rewarded in the end with a unit that doesn’t care about how physically bulky any enemy is and can take down dragons with ease (plus, he heals A LOT because of his high magic stat even with a basic heal staff). I will admit, he’s a walking liability if Ike isn’t his support partner and magic in this game is slightly annoying because each element has its own weapon rank. He basically ate all of my Arms Scrolls because he has FOUR ranks to build (including the staff rank) and all of them have their uses, so I didn’t have him concentrate in one or the other. Although he gets weighed down by a lot of tomes because he is a twig, mine capped speed and didn’t have a problem doubling the dragons in the endgame with Thoron.

Rhys: One of the reasons I did a Greil Mercenaries run haha. He’s not a bad healer. It’s just that there’s benefit to training Mist as your main healer for that one fight later on, and having a team with THREE HEALERS is overkill (unless for whatever reason you made one of your mages use knives...). The problem is that while Soren can take a hit and Mist can run away, Rhys can do neither. His magic stat is very good though, and he was objectively better than my Mist by the end except that he wasn’t on a horse. He was really useful for the endgame since I gave him the Purge tome. Finally, he didn’t have to risk his neck to actually fight. I lowkey love his character though.

Mist: She is so cute, but mine was so screwed in the stats department. If not for bexp, it would have been a nightmare to train her and Rhys at the same time. I early promoted both of them, but getting her to level 10 was hard. Mine ended up getting magic on so few level ups, that I gave her two spirit dusts by the endgame and it was still amazingly low. Her strength stat was 13. 13!! I love the horse, though. Makes her a lot easier to use once promoted. She has no shoving capabilities, though, whereas Rhys (frail, sickly man he is) can shove like half the army. Go figure.

Mia: I love Mia. She can have my heart and run with it. In newer games I tend not to use mercenaries/swordmasters because their movement is kind of eh, their dodge-tank capabilities are not that impressive, and I don’t like relying on crits too much, but Mia was such an awesome addition to the team. It can be a bit difficult to train her in the beginning given her low defense, HP, and strength, but once she gets going, she wrecks things like nobody’s business. Would have liked to do some Wrath combos with her, but mine had Vantage and Adept and that worked just fine with a Killing Edge or a forged sword of some sort. The only issue is her super low strength cap (22?? really??) but the reliability of her crits and/or skill procs make up for that if you can get her past the early game.

Rolf: ROLF. Literally only viable because of bexp. I actually really love how they wrote his character, but what were they thinking by making him join so late, with such low bases AND his strength growth isn’t even that good (40%, less than Oscar’s). All else could be forgiven if his strength growth was at least 50% like his speed. If you can’t actually do damage, there’s no point. Once you pour exp into him like nobody’s business, he can actually be a good unit. I do really like using him, and mine got enough defense and resistance that he wasn’t a liability, but he definitely needs investment. On the other hand, his hit rates were so good that Gamble actually worked well on him.

Shinon: The racist asshole whose only redeeming quality is his relationship with Rolf. I loved their support chain, and actually I do like how the game put him on our team (after giving you a hard time recruiting him) because of how it brings an element of realism makes these characters more human, but yikes he’s potentially worse than Rolf to train because of how long he’s gone for. If you put aside the need for even more bexp to use him, he’s a pretty good crit unit. And he can surprisingly take a hit once trained. I left Provoke on him and BOY he nearly got himself killed in the endgame, but it is pretty nice to draw aggro in order to get some enemies closer for the foot-locked units to kill.

Gatrie: I miss tanks. Newer games make them so much less fun to use because they don’t tank very well (I’m looking at you, Fates...). Gatrie can’t get places fast and only laguz can shove him, but it was fun having someone who can take a million hits and soften enemies up for the others to take care of. He can’t really one round anything because he can’t double and leaves them with a few hit points left (except if he procs Luna) but he’s a worth while addition to the team. Takes a bit of bexp though, since he often doesn’t get as many kills as the rest.

Reyson: Not a Greil Mercenary, but like I was going to pass up a dancer singer who can refresh FOUR units. It was a pain in the behind to get the Knight Ring, but he does make really good use of it. He can also use the Full Guard ring so he can enter certain areas without being murdered by ballistas. I love his bird form, and the fact that frail heron man can SHOVE people who the tiny people in my army can’t (Mist, Rolf, Soren, I’m looking at you). no but really, Reyson’s character is actually really good too, I like him.

It was, uh, interesting getting through some of these chapters without a flier. Absolutely not necessary to have one, and if it was a chapter where I kind of needed someone, I just used Tanith or Janaff (the Naesala chapter was the only one that was annoying without a trained flier).

I genuinely had no idea who to stick skills on, haha. This was an interesting system where you really had to think about who to give a skill since they’re like old TMs in Pokemon...one use only. I like to have some limitations in the skill system though, unlike Awakening and Fates where it’s a free for all. I just like the more limited set of options.

#the muffin's video gaming adventures

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adventuresoftheordinarysort · 4 years ago

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A List of My Fics (By Fandom and Ship)

Hi all! Thought I’d make a list of the fics I’ve written over the years. I’ve done Kingsman, Witcher, and Merlin.

Merlin

Merlin/Arthur

Protect You Anyway

Merlin accidentally reveals his magic to Arthur. It goes about as well as he can expect. Only Arthur is still furious about the lies between them, and refuses to let Merlin back into his role as manservant. So Merlin requests to be made a knight. If Arthur can't trust him to be a friend, at least Merlin can continue to save his life. Their friendship hangs in the balance, and it is unclear whether they are going to come through on the other side stronger than ever, or broken beyond repair.

Across a Dream

Arthur repeals the ban on magic almost as soon as he becomes king, but things don't really change for Merlin. He knows that if Arthur ever found out about the lies, he'd never be forgiven. So he keeps his magic hidden just like he did before. Then to mark the one year anniversary of the repeal, Arthur hosts a ball. Merlin decides to disguise himself, and go to the ball as Emrys to keep an eye out for his friend. The idea is only partly motivated by jealousy.

Merlin/Morgana

Look Out for Her

Merlin makes a different choice. He teaches Morgana himself. It takes them to a little cottage, and for nearly two years the two of them keep Arthur safe. Together.

Witcher

Geralt/Jaskier

All Unwoven

Jaskier cares for Geralt after they are attacked by bandits. Geralt knows he isn't getting the full story of how exactly they escaped, but Jaskier isn't ready to talk about it yet. But when a bard at a tavern sings a song recounting the events, Geralt gets the full story.

Curse is as Good as A Kiss

Jaskier insults a creature he really shouldn't, but thankfully she is amused by it. In return she grants him a rather interesting gift.

What Happens at the Coast

Before the final trial to become Witchers, the entire class of Witchers is allowed to spend two moths away from Kaer Morhen. It gives them a chance to explore the world around them, and gives them one last chance to back out of training. It is Geralt's turn to explore, and he rides to the coast, and he meets someone.

It’s Been Thirty Years

Geralt and Jaskier have been traveling together for almost thirty years. Jaskier has been flirting with him since day one. Geralt is oblivious to it all. It's really rather annoying.

Navy Blue Isn’t a Color

Yennefer and Jaskier get invitations to attend the masquerade wedding of a royal. Unfortunately, Jaskier slept with the bride several years before, and he is worried about her intentions for hiring him as an entertainer. He brings Geralt for protection, but Geralt doesn't quite grasp the concept on anonymity. A joke goes too far, and Geralt's feelings are hurt. Thankfully Jaskier knows how to make it up to him.

Black Sun Princess

Geralt tells the tale of Renfri to Jaskier, and Jaskier does what he does best. He writes a bop.

That’s Not How Kissing It Better Works

A faerie queen has sex with a human. Almost fifty years later Geralt, and Jaskier have sex. This leads to Jaskier learning something rather interesting about his heritage.

Gen

Friends... Sort Of

Geralt leaves Yennefer and Jaskier alone while he goes on a hunt. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, and chances are they'll kill each other. In the end, it is much worse. They become drinking buddies.

Kingsman

Merlin/Eggsy

Unexpected Inheritance

Merlin inherits a large estate in the Scottish Highlands, completely out of the blue. In order to renovate the property he must leave behind London. Doing so, also means he has to leave behind his daughter Abby's nanny. Eggsy gets kicked out when Dean blames him for a deal gone south, and now he needs a new job so he doesn't spend the rest of his life on Jamal's couch.

Harry/Eggsy

By the Sword and Ring

The last thing Eggsy expects upon being chased out of his village, is to wake up in a nomadic village. Soon he finds himself in a world of magic as he trains to be Lord Hart's battle mage. With war brewing on the border, he is drawn inexorably closer to evil itself.

Eggsy/Jamal

We’re Getting Married

Eggsy gets it into his head to make a quick buck by sending out wedding invitations to local millionaires, and billionaires, and selling off the expensive wedding gifts he's given. Jamal agrees to be listed as the husband-to-be on the invitation. All is going according to plan until Harry Hart RSVPs yes. Then Eggsy, and Jamal are left scrambling to pull a wedding out of their asses.

Might Need Glasses

Eggsy gets a job at Kingsman tailors, but can't get passed the point in his training where he needs to thread a needle. Harry suggests he might need glasses. Jamal has a particularly strong reaction.

One Day

Growing up Jamal and Eggsy always said they would move out of the estate and live together. Maybe in a house made of cheese. Eggsy intends to make it happen.

Harry/Merlin

Why a Toad?

Harry and Merlin’s twenty-seventh anniversary is fast approaching. Merlin knows exactly what to get his husband as a gift this year. It just takes a little adventuring to find it.

A Thief at Hand

The enterprising Dean Baker has started butting into Kingsman territory. While it would be fairly easy for the Kingsman to wipe out his network it would be messy and expensive. So they host a peace summit in the hopes of distributing territory enough to keep Baker out of their hair. In the process, a young thief is traded over to Kingsman.

Harry/Merlin/Eggsy

There Go the Lights

Eggsy is home late because of a rain storm sweeping through London. When he gets home, the power goes out. Thankfully he has Harry, and Merlin to keep him warm.

Devil Makes Three (High Seas Pt. 1)

Merlin was betrayed thirty years ago. Now he has finally caught up with the man who betrayed him, and the crew they worked with. When he gets taken prisoner, his world view is challenged by a young man he meets, and things get complicated.

Getting Back what was Lost (High Seas pt.2)

Merlin has been with the Kingsman Pirates for some time now. His relationship with Harry, and Eggsy is strong. Eggsy wants to give Merlin back a piece of what he lost during his time in the Navy. (You do not need to read part one to understand this part.)

Days of Future Flowers (co-author @anarchycox)

Set sometime in the future, Eggsy's implants and mechanical body parts need upgrades and care that he just can't afford. He does a few shady things and catches the eye of the cops. He runs and eventually hides in a flower shop of all places.

It will be the best mistake of his life.

Roxy/Gazelle

Climbing the Social Ladder (Social Season Pt.1)

Lady Roxy is destined to marry Princess Gazelle’s cousin, a dreadfully boring man. Despite this her visit to the kingdom has been quite pleasant. Except for that dreaded heat.

For the Love of a Country

Roxy is ready to take her rightful place on the throne, now that her grandmother is stepping down. The catch? She must marry first, and there's another woman coming for the throne. Can she navigate the political coup, and emerge with her heart intact? (A Princess Diaries 2 AU).

Roxy/Gazelle/Tilde

A Celebration of Marriage (Social Season Pt. 2)

Princess Tilde was once dear friends with Princess Gazelle when they were children. Although they eventually drifted apart, Tilde can't turn down an invitation to the upcoming wedding of her dear friend Lady Roxy and her old friend Princess Gazelle. However, Gazelle's 'traditional celebration' the night before the wedding is more than Tilde bargained for.

Tequila/Eggsy

A Time-Like Curve

When Eggsy is little he sees a painting in a gallery that looks oddly like someone he knows. When he grows up he learns about Kingsman. An agency of time travelers intent on keeping history from being destroyed.

Eggsy’s First Rodeo

Roxy drunkenly participates in the office's holiday party raffle. Her prize? An all expenses paid trip to a Kentucky Rodeo. She drags Eggsy with her, and as he finds out; Tequila does more than get you drunk.

Merlin/Roxy

The Fire of Winter Nights (ao-author @anarchycox)

English lady Roxy finds herself kidnapped and sold but the people who buy her are very different than the ones who took her. With the new people she finds friendship, hope, and maybe romance with the Chieftain Merlin.

Merlin is very enamoured of Roxy, but he has promised to return her to England come the spring. But each day he knows that it will be harder to let go.

Harry and Eggsy are so desperately in love with each other, and neither says anything sure the feelings aren't mutual.

It is going to be a long winter.

Roxy/Tilde/Eggsy

Tiny Dancer

Eggsy has been out of the whole dancing scene for a while and has very little intention of ever getting back out there. No matter how his friends and mother push him. When Roxy needs a partner for a performance at a charity event, Eggsy finds his good nature leading him back to the stage.

Gen

Bound by Your Word

Roxy runs afoul of a demon-worshipping cult. When she’s caught trying to dismantle the organization, they attempt a summoning ritual. Nothing goes as planned.

#bbc merlin #the witcher #kingsman

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