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weirdmarioenemies · 1 year ago

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No one stopped me but myself, but I'm back to ranking all the Super Mario Galaxies

Sorry this took so long! Mix of some busy weeks and some low energy. These are long posts! Takes a lot of time to write them.

Hello, everyone! Today we're approaching the top of the mountain. The very best galaxies these games have to offer... at least to me. I know I've stated this a lot but like, opinions are totally subjective, and what appeals to me may not appeal to you and vice versa! But these ones appeal to me and quite a lot.

By the next entry, we will have covered all of the galaxies there are, which is pretty exciting. You can expect it on some Sunday, but given how the last few weeks have gone, I won't make any promises about the specifics of when. And if this is the first time you're seeing one of these posts and want to catch up, I've got you covered. Here's part one, part two, part three, and part four.

With that out of the way, I think we're about good to go! Let's start covering some of the best these games have to offer!

20. Grandmaster Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Grandmaster Galaxy should be grateful we're not ranking the galaxies in the order you play them, or else it'd be dead last.

If I'm not mistaken, Super Mario Galaxy 2 was the first game to feature a very long, very difficult gauntlet as a "final test" of sorts, and here it is! This is another of those things that has basically become a series staple of Mario games at this point, with similar levels existing in 3D Land, 3D World, and Odyssey, and given they've latched onto this concept so much, it's probably not controversial to say that the first instance of this probably did something right.

And it did! The Grandmaster Galaxy throws a number of different obstacles at you, from a segment where all you have to get around is those Yoshi Tongue Flower Things, to a segment with electrical mazes, to a segment where you have to dodge Ring Beamers around flip-swap panels and disappearing platforms, to a segment with some tricky pull star timing. I would go ahead and say the segment with the flipswitches and Sentry Beams is on the easy side, but that's towards the start, so it's probably fine.

The first run of the galaxy is challenging, but also feels a bit like a "practice run," giving you room to acquaint yourself with each step of the galaxy before the Perfect Run, where you have to do the whole thing in one go with only one health. This is the time where I admit: I've only ever beaten the Perfect Run with help from a Co-Star Luma. Is that cheating? I dunno. I never promised I was great at video games! Only good enough to 100% most of the game and beat the Grandmaster Galaxy non-perfect run, and still do the Perfect Run with a little help. ...That counts for something, right?

Either way, I think Grandmaster provides more than an adequate challenge, making it succeed as both a test of skill, and as a finale for the rest of the game to build up to.

19. Matter Splatter Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

If you exclude boss missions, I'd say Matter Splatter Galaxy is probably the best one-off galaxy in the first game. Actually, the Garden in general is a really good dome. This is the first of its galaxies I'm covering on this list! (As long as you don't look at the Hungry Luma standing outside. I question how much Snow Cap Galaxy single-handedly weighs down this dome if you're willing to include it.)

I've kinda ragged on a lot of the smaller-scale galaxies in the first game, and while the small scale is maybe part of the reason I've been more dismissive of them, as a whole, I think what hurts them more for me is that I rarely find their gimmicks all that unique or interesting. If a gimmicky one-off galaxy has a good enough gimmick? Then yeah, I'll love it to bits! And Matter Splatter Galaxy has that "good enough gimmick".

I touched on this one a bit when talking about Sweet Mystery Galaxy, what with how both make use of the "what you can see is all that's there" concept, but as a whole, I think Matter Splatter does it a bit better, due to the lack of player control. It adds an element where you have to consider when you want to approach, and makes for some fun improvisation when your timing is off. You lose out on some of that improvisation when the location of the ground is something you have more control over, you know?

But what truly escalates Matter Splatter to me is how much variety they get out of its gimmick. For the first half of the galaxy, droplets of matter will "light up" the ground you can walk on, with the ground gradually fading until another drop hits the same spot. It's a fun test of pattern recognition and timing, and it comes with both 2D and 3D segments for a bit of added variety! As a whole, I'd say I generally prefer this half of the galaxy since it feels a bit more distinctive, but it's not like this galaxy suddenly becomes weak in the back half.

The back half switches things up, focusing on large, moving "spotlights" you have to keep yourself in, changing to a bit of an autoscroller, where you have to swiftly adjust to whatever obstacles are coming up ahead, now testing your reflexes and improvisational skills a bit more. Once again, we get both 2D and 3D segments for added variety, and the mix of the galaxy's unique gimmick and autoscrolling format allows for some really fun misdirection in this part. It's a fun switch-up that doesn't depart dramatically from what makes this galaxy so great. All of this comes together to make a one-off gimmick galaxy that feels like it truly gets the most out of a unique concept.

Before I move on, though, I want to talk about the Spring Mushroom. The Spring Mushroom is a weird power-up. It's pretty infamous, and like, for good reason. It's difficult to control, it feels kinda jank to use at times, and most people find it more frustrating than fun and like. I'm not even gonna say I disagree with that sentiment! And yet somehow, against all odds, every galaxy that prominently features the Spring Mushroom has ended up scoring really highly for me. Are these galaxies just great in spite of featuring the Spring Mushroom? Is the Spring Mushroom's jank secretly a good thing? Or is there just something wrong with me? The answer is probably a mix of all three.

18. Bowser's Galaxy Generator

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Oh hey, it's the finale of the main Super Mario Galaxy 2 campaign! These big finale boss missions are always great, and while I think Galaxy 2's doesn't quite stack up to the first game's, I'd still say that I'd consider it a worthy successor. It still absolutely succeeds as one last grand mission to close out the main game.

Like any good boss galaxy, I love Bowser's Galaxy Generator for its length and sense of variety. Possibly even more so than the Galaxy Reactor from the first game, the Galaxy Generator seems to try testing your knowledge on everything you know, featuring most of the game's brand-new power-ups, save for the Rock Mushroom and Bulb Berry. I think this idea of focusing on the game's new content was the right call, since it helps it feel a bit more like a finale to Super Mario Galaxy 2, specifically.

The level is also adequately challenging! I find the Yoshi segments towards the end to be the toughest, with the Dash Pepper segment being tight enough that even the smallest mistakes can be punishing, while the Snake Block section afterwards requiring some pretty tight reflexes to dodge the Magmarrghs.

With that out of the way, while the level is solidly challenging, I do think the final boss fight is a bit on the easy side. Both the asteroids and Bowser are big enough that landing the hits isn't too much of a challenge, even in the second phase. Heck, arguably less so in the second phase, when replaying this level, I always think of that phase of the fight as being sort of a freebie.

But I also wouldn't say it's a bad fight -- it does a good job escalating the game's previous Bowser encounters, and ground pounding asteroids into a massive Bowser while hurtling through space definitely has a sense of grandeur that I really appreciate. Maybe it could've been a little more difficult or a little longer, but it's certainly memorable, and still very fun, so the fact it's not as difficult as it arguably should be doesn't bother me that much, and doesn't hamper the Galaxy Generator from its S-tier position.

17. Flip-Out Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

I find it a little weird that this is the penultimate galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2, you know? Between the boss rush and ultimate challenge levels, you have this weird one-off gimmick level that introduces a variant of a gimmick seen back in World 1, just with an added twist. I guess they wanted the final Hungry Luma galaxy to be a parallel to the first one? I'm not really sure. None of this matters of course, because Flip-Out Galaxy is fan-flipping-tastic!

Yeah, I know that doesn't hit as hard as a real F-bomb, but we try to keep the blog at least somewhat family-friendly, you know? And also the pun!

Anyway, as you may remember, I love Flip-Swap Galaxy quite a bit. Top-notch weird gimmick galaxy, always a joy to play. So I think it goes to say that I love this more difficult spin on its gimmick just as much, if not even more, if the rating hasn't spoken for itself already. Flip-Out Galaxy shifts the focus from the red and blue Flip-Swap panels to red and blue walls that pop in and out when you spin. And of course, that means it's time to perform some Wicked Wall Jumps! This is what that weird short mission in Honeybloom Galaxy has been training you for!

Since this is the penultimate galaxy in the game, it's a pretty tricky one, since a poorly-timed spin can take out not just the walls you're jumping on, but the floor underneath as well, and you'll have to spin a lot when alternating between red and blue walls! Timing will also prove important, not just for exiting a wall jump and spinning to give yourself solid ground to stand on, but also for a segment where you have to keep wall jumping until the spikes underneath you recede, which becomes especially difficult when you throw in the Cosmic Clones...

On that note, I love the decision to use specifically the Cosmic Clone mission for the second Green Star here, and putting it towards the end, too. Makes grabbing it a bit trickier, which is nice for a galaxy this late in the game! Flip-Out does pretty much everything I'd want it to -- it brings back a great old gimmick, changes it up in a way that feels unique, and uses it to craft a fun, albeit challenging late-game mission. My only knock against it? It being so late in the game means you have to play a lot to get there, and they crowd so many of the game's worst galaxies before it, just to rub salt in the wound. But hey, if it's for a galaxy this good, it may as well be worth it.

16. Cosmic Cove Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

I know a handful of people have been disappointed by the low rankings I gave to a lot of these games' water galaxies, so consider this an apology. Well, an apology of some sort, it's not like I decided to move up Cosmic Cove a bunch because people were upset that I didn't like some of the water galaxies. It just happens that I felt a lot of them suffered from having weak missions, hampered a bit by somewhat janky underwater controls. Give me a water galaxy that mitigates both these problems, and I'm sure to fall in love with it. "Underwater" is like, a pretty notable part of My Brand! There's a reason I've put three water galaxies on today's list, everyone!

Case in point: Cosmic Cove Galaxy! Cosmic Cove Galaxy is just gorgeous. I'd say that it's aesthetically one of the strongest galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy 2, which definitely counts for something! I mean, have you heard its music? The harps and pianos create such a relaxing atmosphere, and it sort of reminds me of the music in the next entry on our list...

But let's not get ahead of ourselves! Cosmic Cove isn't surviving on looks alone, because it's a pretty fun galaxy to play as well! I think they hit a really nice balance here, where the underwater sections have a somewhat linear path to take, so it doesn't feel like you're wrestling with those Janky Water Controls, but if you decide to go off the beaten path, there's a good bit more to see than you'd expect, which is nice, given this is a very pretty galaxy and one I enjoy spending time to take in! Obviously there's less to do once you've frozen the water, but having a big open plain to skate around on is also pretty fun. And while we're talking about ice skating, the Hungry Luma star is probably the second best bunny chase in the Galaxy games.

And let's not forget the second main mission, either! The underwater sidescroller is really neat, especially when they start having blocks of water floating in space, and even moving on their own. I think this is another of those concepts they brought back in Super Mario 3D World, if I'm not mistaken! It's such a memorable part of the galaxy, that I sorta forget there's that planet with the Spin Drill and the Micro Mecha-Bowsers and the Fizzlits at the end, but that planet is fine too.

Cosmic Cove manages to do a seamless job blending aesthetics and gameplay to create one of the series' most memorable galaxies. And it introduces us to Snoodles and Fizzlits! Those are like, maybe two of my favorite enemies. Bonus points for that!

15. Space Junk Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

Can I be honest? Space Junk Galaxy is one of those galaxies that mostly made it this high for the vibes, above all else. Don't get me wrong, I like Space Junk Galaxy a lot. I think all the missions here are fun, if I was rating it on gameplay alone I'd probably still rank it highly. Space Junk on its own is a solid A-tier galaxy, but I think this is one of those galaxies where the atmosphere brings it up a tier higher for me.

While most of the galaxies in these games focus on the grandeur and excitement of exploring the cosmos, Space Junk Galaxy takes a more melancholic approach to the setting, the idea that outer space is mostly, well, space. Space Junk Galaxy isn't really focused on having big, exciting setpieces. Space Junk Galaxy is about everything inbetween, from lost spaceships, to small asteroids, to well... miscellaneous space junk. And I think it works in its favor!

I could make the same argument that I made against Gusty Garden Galaxy, that Space Junk Galaxy feels like it was cobbled together from miscellaneous bits and bobs of larger levels that were getting too big, but in this case, I think that's the point. To the extent that something trying to be a cohesive level design in a 3D platformer can at least, Space Junk does a really good job capturing that feeling of emptiness, in the best possible way. The first mission here, which largely consists of Mario floating through space via a trail of Pull Stars, may not be the most exciting mission, but it has such a specific atmosphere that I can't help but say it may very well be one of my favorites across both games.

Admittedly, this is the part of this review where I have to concede that Space Junk's biggest strength is probably also one of its biggest weaknesses, that a galaxy so focused on all the emptiness and in-betweens of space struggles to find enough content to fill out six missions. The second mission basically has none of the atmosphere, instead being a weird Airship mission with a boss fight at the end, and then the third mission has another boss fight, because what else are you gonna do here? Don't get me wrong, these are still fun missions, but I think they end up working against the general atmosphere and tone that this galaxy sets up in the first mission. I think this is one that would benefit from the sequel's smaller-scale galaxies, with two "main" missions, and a comet or secret star or something.

Still, this is a galaxy that is fun from start to finish, and when it goes for being atmospheric, it nails it. I mean, have you heard the music here? This has easily gotta be a top 5 song across both games for me, I love it so much. While I think having fewer, more focused missions could've benefited it a little, Space Junk Galaxy will always leave such an impression on me that I can't help but feel like it's one of the standouts from these games.

14. Cloudy Court Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

I've mentioned before how a few of the galaxies in Galaxy 2 feel like they're meant to be "sequels" to galaxies from the first game, and Cloudy Court is no exception, feeling like a bit of a follow-up to Gusty Garden Galaxy. I mean, you have the grand orchestral score, you have the "garden in the sky" theming, you have lots of segments where you're riding on wind currents, even the Japanese name, "Cloud Garden Galaxy" ends up harkening back to the first game's "Wind Garden Galaxy". I think there's a reason they showed this one off a lot in the game's earliest trailers.

That being said, while it does feel a bit like an attempt to capitalize on Gusty Garden's success, in many ways to me it also feels like a refinement of Gusty Garden, taking some of the concepts that worked there and expanding on them a bit to make something that, to me at least, feels more interesting and cohesive. In my review of Gusty Garden, I characterized it a bit as a galaxy largely carried by its music, that otherwise felt like it could've been thrown together from leftover assets from galaxies that had gotten too large. Cloudy Court manages to avoid that feeling pretty easily, it was pretty clearly built from the ground up, and given how much it changed from the initial trailer to the final release, it seems like one they spent a lot of time on trying to get just right.

And in that regard, I think they largely succeeded! Cloudy Court manages to hit on the familiar elements we love about Gusty Garden, but also manages to hold strong on its own, with a number of distinct and memorable segments. I don't know why the drum trampolines are here, but I'm not complaining, it's fun to have them! And the combination of the wind currents and the Cloud Flower makes for some very memorable platforming challenges. And some fun secrets, as well! Obviously as a Galaxy 2 entry it's gonna be a bit more linear by default, but even then they manage to hide a lot of 1-Ups here, adding a little extra reward for going off the course, which you know I always appreciate.

While a lot of "sequel" galaxies end up falling flat to me when they struggle to live up to what came before, Cloudy Court is one of the rare exceptions that not only lives up to its predecessor, but in my opinion, surpasses it. I feel like we think of Gusty Garden as a better galaxy than it truly is, but Cloudy Court simply is that good, which to me, makes it a contender for one of the series' very best.

13. Boo Moon Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Man, it's hard to go wrong with ghosts. Nice for an appropriately spooky galaxy to end up at #13, huh? Maybe that was a little deliberate on my part, but it's not like I don't think Boo Moon Galaxy deserves it.

Boo Moon Galaxy is so, so stylish I think. I feel like Super Mario Galaxy 2 goes for a bit of a "storybook" aesthetic, so why not have a galaxy that leans into that a bit? Stuff like the dark maze at the beginning, poison swamp folding up at a 90 degree angle to match the snake blocks, the crescent-moon see-saw planet, and the haunted house pop-up book at the end are all such distinctive visuals with a bit of that Storybook Feel to me, and end up making for a galaxy that manages to provide a very fun twist on an already fun theme.

Not to mention that this is also a decently tricky galaxy! I gotta be grateful for those musical notes that spawn the three 1-Ups during the Snake Block section, because I've fallen into that poison swamp more than a couple times, especially when going for the secret star, and even more so when going for that one Green Star. The second mission, which I believe is the sole appearance of the Boo Mushroom in Galaxy 2, also involves some precise timing as you weave your way through Octoboos, particularly towards the end.

I'm a sucker for a good ghost galaxy, so this one was probably gonna get high marks no matter what, but with a stylish and distinctive aesthetic, that's enough to bring it up to a top-tier with a fittingly spooky number. Happy Halloween, everyone!

I mean, it's September. That's basically Halloween.

12. Tall Trunk Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Really, shoutout to World 3 of Galaxy 2 just giving you a choice between two absolute bangers right off the bat. I think Tall Trunk ends up just barely winning out against Cloudy Court for me, but the two are really close in quality, and no matter which I'm in the mood for, I know I'm in for a great time.

Like Puzzle Plank, this is another galaxy that brings such a high level of unfiltered joy whenever I reach it in a playthrough. Maybe there's something about these big galaxies made of wood, I dunno. Probably also has something to do with the music. Yeah, I know this one just borrows the music from Yoshi Star Galaxy, but I always associate it with Tall Trunk first and foremost. Unlike Puzzle Plank however, I think Tall Trunk feels a bit more fully realized -- I never really feel underwhelmed playing through Tall Trunk, which let it climb a good bit higher on my tier list.

Tall Trunk is a galaxy not only with a great aesthetic, but two very fun and very distinct missions! The first mission is a showcase of the Blimp Fruit, and I love how it gets used in so many different ways, from climbing a tree, to searching for Star Chips around a cylindrical planet (Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a lot of those, huh?), to making your way through a long spiral to grab the Power Star. Then there's the slide, which weeeeeee wheeeeeeeeeee yippeeeeeeeeeee wahoooooo!

It's fun.

This galaxy also has to get bonus points for being the home of the Whittles, arguably the best Galaxy NPCs. Don't get me wrong, the Gearmos offer close competition, but the Whittles are just too adorable. Also, the Tall Trunk Galaxy is a sacred site to the Whittles, giving us one of few glimpses into Religion in the Mario Universe.

I think I have to agree with the Whittles when it comes to this galaxy: "Treetop. Good." Truer words have never been spoken.

11. Flipsville Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Oh hey, I've talked about this one before! I mean, clearly I have to enjoy this one a good bit to give it its own post with some in-depth analysis, though I hate to say, I still have yet to figure out who's selectively breeding Pupdozers, why they'd be doing it, or if that has even happened at all. Sorry. I know you're disappointed in me. Maybe I'll have the answer next time I talk about Flipsville.

I did sort of go over my opinions in that post, though more of it was dedicated to talking about the galaxy itself, so I probably don't have to fear repeating myself too too much. To reiterate: I think this one is great! The gimmick of the grates that reverse the gravity of the galaxy is really really neat, and this galaxy uses it in some interesting ways, particularly during the autoscroller where you have to flip at the right time to avoid running Mario into spikes. (That being said, my favorite usage still gotta be that one Green Star that you can only reach by taking a leap of faith from underneath.)

Also shoutout to the Pupdozers as an enemy design that takes advantage of this gimmick! I'm pretty sure they're only in this galaxy, so I may as well talk about them here. I also have to shoutout this galaxy's distinctive aesthetic, "weird 1950s suburban house" is not really a level theme you see in video games often, and it gives this galaxy more than just a unique gameplay gimmick. I really dig it.

Speaking of digging, I do remain a little iffy on how the second mission shifts focus to the Spin Drill, I feel parts of it end up feeling pretty similar to the Spin-Dig Galaxy, but the gimmick of flipping between the two sides of the planets remains in tact, and the final room with the gravity walls that switch in time with the music where you have to use the drill to grab Silver Stars or Purple Coins is really cool, so I can't complain about it too much. I mean, it's not like it makes this galaxy any less fun, y'know?

Flipsville Galaxy will always stand out to me as one of the most distinctive galaxies in the sequel, both in its theming and in its gameplay, and for that I will always consider it a personal favorite!

10. Slimy Spring Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Slimy Spring Galaxy is one of the most atmospheric galaxies... well, I was gonna say in Super Mario Galaxy 2, but it's really one of the most atmospheric galaxies in general. I'd say that as a whole, the first game typically wins out on atmosphere, but there's a few places where the sequel really shines, and more than any other, I think Slimy Spring showcases that.

Slimy Spring Galaxy is so, so very claustrophobic. You're given a green shell, and from there, it's a long, linear swim through a narrow underwater cave. Besides the very start, there's hardly any coins or air bubbles to refill your air meter, so you have to rely on what little air you do have to make your way to the end. And believe me when I say that these tunnels are designed to be just long enough to run you to the very end of your air meter. You only really get a brief breather in the middle, and with limited air, mistakes made in this galaxy can be especially punishing.

I love the way Slimy Spring Galaxy puts you in this distinct state of mind. Watching your air slowly run out while making your way through a dark, seemingly unending tunnel can be a bit nerve-wracking, but obviously the game's not gonna present you with a galaxy that's impossible to beat. You just have to trust that the game's gonna take you where you need to go, and try to avoid letting any obstacles this galaxy throws at you trip you up. Admittedly, I still see my fight-or-flight reflex kick in when I reach the Gringills.

Slimy Spring Galaxy is one I've really only grown to appreciate more and more with time. It's not really one of the game's most "fun" galaxies by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't really feel like it's trying to be -- the rest of the galaxies exist to be fun, so what does it matter if Slimy Spring Galaxy tries to do something else? Slimy Spring Galaxy is pretty much unrivaled in its atmosphere, and for that, it has easily become one of my favorites.

I really love the sunset at the end of Slimy Spring. It sort of feels like the game saying that even in the most uncertain of times, everything's gonna turn out alright at the end. I feel like I'm being a bit wax poetic here, but I dunno. I think Slimy Spring Galaxy just does that to a person.

9. Honeyhive Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

So remember how earlier I said this was a top 10 Galaxy? Well how many of you guessed it'd show up at #9? Congratulations if you did! I'm sorry I don't have anything to award you, besides I guess my review of Honeyhive Galaxy, but even people who didn't guess correctly are getting that... Sorry.

Whatever. Honeyhive is great! I mean, you've seen me talk about it when talking about every other bee galaxy. This is the honey-gold standard all other bee galaxies strive for, and few can achieve...

What makes Honeyhive so great to me is its sense of scale. It arguably has the largest starting planet across both games, with lots of little nooks and crannies that all get utilized throughout its many missions. I get the feeling you wouldn't even need to add more to this galaxy to give it a full set of missions, but Honeyhive Galaxy is here to spoil us anyway, because it's Honeyhive Galaxy, and it's great. It does a very nice job making each mission feel familiar, yet distinctive, which I really appreciate.

I also think it does a really good job showing off the Bee Mushroom, with lots of high ground that becomes much more accessible with it, plenty of water to show off its main weakness, lots of flower and cloud platforms you can only access with it, and honey walls to climb up. Not only do you get to spend time among the bees, but you get to join them. Become one with the hive.

Oh, and have I mentioned that the main missions here are all super great too? The first mission is the big showcase for the Bee Mushroom I mentioned above, but the second has some fun platforming through a wooden obstacle course, and the boss fight against Big Bad Bugaboom is always a blast that makes some great usage of the Bee Mushroom. The Purple Coin and Luigi missions are sorta whatever to me, though I appreciate the Cosmic Mario race and the weird shortcuts you can take in it, I think it's nifty.

Really, I think the thing holding back Honeyhive from an even higher spot for me, and this is pretty unfair, is the fact that it's so early in the game, that the novelty of it all has kinda worn off for me. It's hard to get excited about Honeyhive when it's a place you have to go to early in the game, you know? But again, that's a small gripe that ultimately changes nothing about just how good this galaxy is. It's sweet as honey!

8. Deep Dark Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

Deep Dark Galaxy is one of those galaxies that always kinda surprises me when I play through the first game. It's one of those galaxies I never really think about all that often, and I'm rarely that excited when I get there, but then I play through it and go "wait a second, this one rules!"

I'm wondering if it's because it's in the Garden, where it has to deal with some serious competition. Being "that water galaxy with the dreary atmosphere in the way of Dreadnought and Melty Molten" isn't exactly the most flattering look, but at the very least it makes for a galaxy that always manages to surpass my expectations. Hopefully, putting this one at #8 will make me stop forgetting how good it is once and for all.

Still, I don't think counting the dreary atmosphere of this galaxy against it is really fair, because that's kinda what it's going for -- it's literally called "Dungeon Cave Galaxy" in Japanese. And you know what? For a Dungeon Cave, I love how silly they still let this Galaxy be! Stuff like the weird inflatable duplicate of the Gateway Planet, the weird floating circus platform, and that planet where you have to ground pound tennis balls into a watermelon to make it grow are such odd things to put in a galaxy like this, but I think they all end up working in its favor. The added surrealism makes this place so much more memorable.

And man oh man, I know I've talked a few times about how I love galaxies that let you goof off and do whatever, and I think no galaxy does that better than Deep Dark. I swear, in my latest playthrough of Galaxy, I spent more time in the spawn beach area than I did playing the rest of the mission. For an area that looks to have so little going on, there's lots of hidden goodies to look for, and shooting yourself out of the cannon at the Gateway and Octoguy planets is so, so fun.

While I'm sort of lukewarm on the mission where you swim through Guppy's eight rings, everything else in this galaxy I think is super fun, from the Kamella rematch on the pirate ship, to the aforementioned weird watermelon planet, to even the untimed Purple Coin mission! Usually those untimed exploration-based Purple Coin missions are never my cup of tea, but in this case, I think the combination of a smaller area to explore, better utilization of the underwater areas, and no places to fall off makes it feel a lot less grueling to me.

Deep Dark Galaxy is a great galaxy that always surpasses my expectations, and for that I think it deserves a spot in my top 10.

7. Freezeflame Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy Tier: S

Freezeflame Galaxy is so cool. And also so hot. That's kind of its whole gimmick. I feel like I made the same joke with Shiverburn Galaxy. Whatever. Freezeflame Galaxy's missions consist of an excellent ice level, a pretty good fire level, and a combination of the two, to make a galaxy that is as varied as it is fun. I will come forwards and say I like the Freeze part of this galaxy a bit more than the Flame part, but again, both are good.

I love the feeling of verticality you get from the ice sections. I love that upwards climb with all the varied obstacles and Ice Flower platforming, followed by a pretty fun boss fight against Baron Brrr. And then you can climb the other side of the mountain too, with its own varied obstacles and platforming challenges! Let's just say this one's good for my inner West Virginian mountaineer, okay? And then you have a Purple Coin mission that makes you climb both sides, which might be a bit much, but I'm glad they were being thorough.

But while the peak of the mountain may be the peak of the mountain here, it's not like the fire mission isn't doing any heavy lifting here, either. It's no Melty Molten, sure, but the Fire Flower gets used for some pretty fun timing puzzles, and I appreciate the use of the Galaxy games' gravity shenanigans halfway through. Really, most of my gripes with this section come from how the Fire Flower is handled in these games. The fact you need to spin to activate it, combined with how it stops you in your tracks when you throw a fireball just doesn't feel very good at all, especially when you throw in the timer. But that's not really this specific galaxy's fault, is it?

Gripes about the Fire Flower aside, I'm happy to say this galaxy's two great tastes taste great together as well! I'm a little bummed it takes until this galaxy's third mission to put the fire and ice together, but when they do, they use it very well, making for fun segments where you switch between the two, followed by a memorable segment where you use the Ice Flower to skate across lava. And on that note, I really enjoy the Cosmic Mario race here. Lots of places where I decide to take a risky shortcut, and it doesn't pay off and I fall in a Black Hole. Classic.

The Freeze and the Flame aren't perfectly balanced, from the levels to the Flowers featured within (no seriously. where was the Ice Flower in Galaxy 2), but both are very enjoyable, and the combination of both in one galaxy makes for a very memorable location. Not surprised at all they decided to revisit this idea in Galaxy 2.

6. Chompworks Galaxy

Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Tier: S

Look, I can spend all day talking about the gorgeous atmosphere of Cosmic Cove or Slimy Spring, or the exciting challenges of Grandmaster or Flip-Out, but when you ask me what my favorite galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2 is, I'll probably say it's Chompworks, because I'm only human, and I love Funny Chain Chomp Factory Galaxy. This is literally a place where Mario enemies are made! How can I resist?! There's Star Bits arranged like Chomps in the sky and everything!

I just love everything about Chompworks, from the music, to the theming, to the gameplay itself. It's one of those very unique galaxies that always stands out in my head, and if you know me, that can only be a good thing! I really appreciate the light timing puzzles they incorporate into this galaxy, the balance of needing so set everything up just right so the Chomps can reach their goal, but also not get too close because as you may realize: getting hit by a huge ball of steel rolling at you, even at slow speeds, hurts a lot.

I really like the active role this galaxy gives you in Chomp Production, how even when the Chomps start rolling, you'll need to make some adjustments to its path if you don't want it to crash early. Like, this galaxy has one of the rare inclusions of Flip-Swap panels outside of Flip-Swap Galaxy, just for the purpose of crafting a puzzle that can use them, and I appreciate that! If anything, I feel like there's room to elaborate on this mechanic even further, but I'm not gonna pretend that this galaxy isn't doing more than enough already. I think the Cosmic Clone comet is a fun enough shake-up, since you're gonna need to stay in one place a lot for some of the challenges.

You know, this factory doesn't seem very efficient. All their assembly lines are weird obstacle courses that need manual intervention, and most of the Chomps get destroyed at the end anyway. The Gearmos always chastise you for your poor efficiency, but maybe they wouldn't need Mario if they just built a more efficient factory. You see Gearmos? This is why you're only the second best Mario Galaxy NPC species. If nothing else, feel grateful your horribly-designed factory is a really, really well-designed Video Game Level.

Circling back to what I said about the Spring Mushroom earlier, same sentiment applies here. Not a great power-up on its own, but when I reach the mission that uses it here, I never see myself going "Ugh, the Spring Mushroom?", probably because the level is designed with it in mind, and the trickier control scheme is kinda the point. That being said, if you really don't want to use the Spring Mushroom, know that there's a fun optional challenge in trying to beat the level without it! As far as I'm aware, it's possible, and I know I've had my share of fun backflipping over Chomps in the past.

Is Chompworks Galaxy the best galaxy in Super Mario Galaxy 2? Maybe not, but since when has this list been about objective quality? I don't want to pretend I'm presenting anything other than my personal opinion here. Chompworks Galaxy appeals to my autism brain in some incredibly specific ways, and with a mix of that and its unique theming and design sensibilities, managed to end up at the top of Galaxy 2 for me. Sorry you couldn't make the top 5!

Speaking of the top five, I think they're all worthy of their own post, as I've hinted to a couple times at this point. It probably shouldn't be too hard to figure out which ones they are via process of elimination, though I do find it fascinating that after Galaxy 2 generally performed better, all the top 5 are from the first game. Again, Galaxy 2 is a remarkably consistent game that clusters around A-tier, while Galaxy 1 has some higher highs and lower lows.

The finale for this series should be ready next week, or the week after, or the week after that, or the week after that. I'm not really sure anymore. There's a Splatfest again next week, so I'll probably want to tune into that (Go Team Frye!) but I also have fewer galaxies to cover in general, so it might not take along as this one. Then again, I probably have more to say about my favorites... Either way, thank you for reading the series up to this point! Nothing matters more to me than knowing that people will listen to my ramblings about 10-to-15 year old Videos Games.

#mod hooligon #super mario galaxy #super mario galaxy 2

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four-loose-screws · 6 months ago

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Full Henry (Fire Emblem Awakening) Personality & Support Conversation Analysis Post - English Localization vs. Original Japanese

So a while back I stated I wouldn't be doing full character support convo analyses any more because they are very time consuming, but... well, I can't help myself. They're just too much fun. And Henry himself is just too much fun, too.

The Olivia / Henry's support chain got several translations and conversations about it in the early years of Awakening's release, but I don't think I have ever heard much about any of Henry's other support convo chains. So how do their localized versions stack up to the original Japanese? Let's walk through his entire support convo list and find out!

This post will be a discussion of select snippets of Henry's support conversations - whatever I want to point out. For balance, sometimes, that will be sections changed from the Japanese, and other times, sections translated pretty closely.

Since I will only be covering bits and pieces here, if there's any support chains you would like to see translated in full, please send a request to my inbox! Support convo translations are usually pretty easy for me, and a great way to add more activity to my blog between novel translations uploads, so I love getting them.

Henry / Robin

Henry / Robin just has minor changes. "Minor localization changes," as I define them, are when the localization team adds or takes away small bits of dialogue, in a way that does not change the overall theme, tone, chain of events, etc. of the conversation.

Discussing minor changes doesn't make for much conversation, but it's fascinating to see how localization teams "spice up" video game dialogues to make them more fun to read in English, and analyze how well the succeeded in fulfilling that goal.

(Also, when talking about Robin as a general character and not the female / male incarnation specifically, I use "they/them" pronouns.)

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Robin: Ugh! D-don't wave that thing in my face! I don't want it anywhere near me.

Original Japanese:

[ルフレ]いいよ！(Robin: That's fine!) 僕は遠慮しておくよ！▼ (I'll pass!)

In this example, the localization added to what Robin says. There's no indication in the Japanese that Henry waves the Risen arm in their face. But the same basic flow of events is present in the conversation: Henry is experimenting with Risen -> propositions Robin to join in his experiments -> Robin flatly refuses. This is a great example of a minor change. It follows the events and tone of the Japanese support, while further showcasing the morbid humor Henry is displaying here.

B Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: If I get it to work, we can have them all fight on our behalf! Then we can sip tea for the rest of the war and collect the accolades once it's over. Robin: Well I understand the idea in theory. It could reduce casualties on our side... But there is one slight problem... Have you given any thought to how you'll control these soulless warriors?

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]これを使えば戦いを屍兵に任せて、(Henry: If we use this, then we'll leave the battle to the Risen,) 僕たちはお茶でも飲んでいられるよ～。▼(and we can even drink tea~.) そしたら戦死者も出なくなるし、(Then, we will have no casualties, and) いろいろと便利だよね～。▼ (they'll be convenient in many ways~.) [ルフレ]うーん…いくら戦死者が出ないといっても、(Robin: Umm... even if we won't have any casualties,) 屍兵の力を借りるのは…▼ (Borrowing the Risen's powers is...) それに、召喚した屍兵を (And the summoned Risen,) 操ることができるとは限らないよね？▼ (we won't necessarily be able to control them, right?)

Here's a change that's even smaller than the previous one, really. Robin doesn't say directly that the Risen are soulless in the Japanese, just summoned.

Henry / Lissa

S Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Hey-o! Need your human pillow again?

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]あ、リズ。こんにちは～。(Henry: Ah, Lissa! Hello~.) 今日も枕が必要？▼ (Do you need a pillow again today?)

As you will continue to see going forward, sometimes what surprises me about localization Henry is how little he was changed! What I mean is, I thought something as goofy as Henry calling himself a pillow would have been some silly fluff the localization added, but nope! He does indeed refer to himself as a pillow in the Japanese too.

Henry / Frederick

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Okay, fine! Geez, careful not to twist your smallclothes there...

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]は～い。ごめんなさ～い。▼(Henry: Understooood. I'm sorrrry.)

The English changed the Japanese line here, but I think it was necessary - without the nuance of the Japanese tilde (~), I think it's not as obvious that Henry is being sarcastic. So the localization added a sarcastic joke to bridge that gap. (Also, get ready to see the tilde A LOT going forward in Henry's Japanese text!!)

that Also, this is a bit off topic, but fun to point out anyway. If you ever hear anyone say Japanese has no sarcasm, you have some good proof of the contrary now. Japanese Henry can be quite sarcastic too! It's a common claim that Japanese has no sarcasm, because they don't use it anywhere near as much as English speakers use. But in actuality, Japanese speakers just don't utilize it in the exact same ways English speakers do!!

Now back on topic! :)

B Support

Snippet No. 1:

Eng. NA Localization:

Frederick: Because I know that anything can happen on the battlefield. I do not want my dying thought to be "if only I had trained a little harder." Henry: I want my dying thought to be about blood! ...Or maybe ichor.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]ふ～ん。▼ (Oh, really~?)

Snippet No. 2:

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Whoa, easy there, Frederick! You're bruising my arm! ...Oooo, look at the colors!

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]ちょ、ちょっと～…▼(H-Hey~...)

We see the tilde again! I'll explain it in proper detail this time.

In short, Japanese video game dialogue uses the tilde A LOT to convey the tone of a character's speech.

I find that it can be used very broadly, and in a number of situations. Humor is the number 1 situation though, I think. It is used when characters are joking or sarcastic; or when characters are speaking in a lighthearted, happy, or whimsical tone. You'll also see it when a character is speaking in a sing-song voice, or just actually singing (See: a character like Engage's Timerra!).

In the case of Henry, we can understand in the Japanese thanks to the tilde that he is always joking around, being sarcastic, having fun with everything, lighthearted and never serious, etc. etc..

However... there's no singular symbol that can cover all of that tone in English! I mean, I do think dialogue could use the ~ and some people would get it, but I certainly don't think it is standardized enough to rely on in a video game released to a mass audience.

So what was the English localization to do? Well, a lot of the time, word choice and laughter alone can get Henry's meaning across just as well on its own. ...But it can't always be that straightforward. This is where I think it was obsoletely necessary for the localization to add jokes to Henry's dialogue to maintain the same meaning and tone as the Japanese. The above two samples I pulled from the Henry / Frederick supports are great examples of that. They help get the point across about just how much Henry jokes around, and how sarcastic he is.

That's all I have to say about the tilde for now, as I'm sure it won't be the last time I point one out in Henry's conversations. :)

Henry / Sully

B Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: That's 'cause you WERE! ...You totally still had five or six solid minutes left, though.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]そうだね～。あと数刻もすれば (Henry: It was, wasn't it? After a bit longer,) 死んじゃってたと思うよ～。▼ (you would have died, I think~.)

Again, wow, it really surprises me what lines are very direct from the Japanese sometimes! Henry really just is that morbid, and candid about death!

A Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: I can't remember BEING upset. Folks here are so nice, and even bad guys are pretty great when they splatter. When life gives ya lemons, use 'em to ward off scurvy. That's what I say!

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]僕は怒らないよ～。▼ (I don't get mad~.) 怒るほど嫌なことを (And something so bad it makes me mad) 人にされることも滅多に無いし～。▼ (people hardly ever do to me~.) 大抵のことは笑って済ませられるよ～。▼ (I end most things with a laugh~.)

Even in a case like this, where the localization was a bit more liberal, Henry's tone still didn't change much. "When life gives you lemons" and "I end most things with a laugh~" can boil down to a same sort of connotation. Again, the localization is playing up Henry's humor and morbid optimism to fully get it across, in the absence of the Japanese tilde.

Henry / Miriel

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: You always have to know exactly how things work, huh? Want a demonstration? I could turn Robin into a toad or something. Miriel: No. The experiment is not of such import that our comrades need be imperiled. Henry: But it wouldn't be forever! Just a few days at the most. Miriel: If we were suddenly called to battle, a toad tactician would be most disadvantageous. Henry: Oh yeah. I hadn't thought about that. Well, maybe I could cast a different kind of hex. Miriel: So long as the risk is within acceptable parameters.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]仕組み？　あはは、(Henry: How they work? Ah ha ha, 勉強熱心だな～、ミリエルは。▼ (you're so passionate about your studies, Miriel~!) じゃあちょっと見本を見せるから (In that case, I'll show you a small example, so) そのへんの誰かを呪ってみるね～？▼ (I'll try cursing someone around here, alright~?) [ミリエル]その辺の誰か･･･？ (Miriel: Someone around here...?) 味方を呪い殺すおつもりですか？▼ (Do you intend to cast a deadly curse on an ally?) [ヘンリー]あ、ダメだった～？▼ (Henry: Oh, would you not like that~?) [ミリエル]えぇ･･･。戦力が減るのは (Miriel: Um... A decrease in our forces) 軍にとって良くないことですから･･･。▼ (would not be good for our army...) [ヘンリー]そっか～。じゃあ死なない呪いにするよ。(Henry: I see~. Then I'll pick a curse that won't kill them!) それならいいでしょ～？▼ (That will be okay, right~?) [ミリエル]はい、そういうことなら･･･ (Miriel: Yes. If that is the case,) じっくりと観察させていただきます。▼ (then allow me to observe carefully.)

Henry decides to target poor Robin specifically in the localization, but otherwise, the support chain has no significant changes.

Henry / Sumia

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Nya ha ha! Looked at all the smashed crockery! That's hilarious!

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]ほんとだ、すご～い。全部粉々だね～。▼ (Henry: You're right, woooow! They're all in pieces, aren't they?)

Another example of how the English made up for the lack of the tilde's Japanese connotation - Henry just outright says he finds the current situation hilarious.

Henry / Ricken

B Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Oh! And Campari used to make little birdhouses for homeless—

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]あと、ポモドーロ様はね…▼ (Henry: After them there was Campari...)

In another one of Henry's stand-out support conversations, in the Japanese, he stops before sharing what made Campari such a great guy, but otherwise the conversation is overwhelmingly the same as in JP.

A Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Judging by your expression, I'd say it's a serious one. Nya ha ha!

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]うん、いいよ～。(Henry: Yeah, that's fine~.) そんなに真剣な顔してどうしたの～？▼ (Why are you making such a serious face?)

Another great little example of how the localization made up for the lack of tilde - in place of the tilde, to convey that he is joking around, the localization has Henry laugh out loud.

Henry / Maribelle

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: I'm not feigning anything. I'm just really in touch with the natural world. I can talk to any living thing you want. Trees. Flowers. Maggots. Ooooooh... Maaaggots... Maribelle: That is a remarkable talent, if a shade disturbing.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]合わせてなんかないよ～。▼ (I'm not feigning, or anything of the sort~.) 僕は��ぇ、自然に満ちているあらゆるものと会話できるんだよ～。▼ (You see, I can talk to all things filled with nature~.) [マリアベル]そ、そうですの…。(Maribelle: C-Can you...) 本当なら、すごいことですわね…。▼ (If that's true, then it is remarkable, indeed...)

The localization added in Henry's little pause on the word "maggots," (and added in the word "maggot" to begin with) but otherwise, this is another rather directly translated support chain.

Henry / Panne

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Panne: THAT was your reason?!

Original Japanese:

[ベルベット]…呆れたわ。(Panne: ...I'm astounded.) そんな理由なの…？▼ (Your reason was one such as that...?) 人間は理解しがたいけど、(Humans are difficult to understand, but) あなたは中でも極めつけよ。▼ (you are especially so.)

This exchange from Panne at the end of the C Support was actually longer in the Japanese. I don't see any particular stand-out reason why this is. Perhaps it was even an error, and the localization accidentally left out some of the text.

S Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Panne: We're too alike, you and I. We both lost our families and lived alone too long. But no more. I accept your ring. From now on, we are each other's family.

Original Japanese:

[ベルベット]あなたは似てるの。(Panne: You are like him.) 人間に殺された、私の弟に…▼ (My younger brother, who was killed by humans.) いいわ、受け取らせてもらう。(I will accept your ring.) あなたのそばにいてあげる、ヘンリー。▼ (I will be by your side, Henry.) これからは、私たちは家族よ。▼ (From now on, we are family.)

In the Japanese, Panne does not compare Henry to herself, but to her brother. Her brother is removed entirely in the localization, which at first seems like a pretty big deal. Perhaps it is because he is never mentioned again? It is odd that her sibling (who would seem important to her) is such a throwaway character in this one line of her supports with Henry.

Henry / Cordelia

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh. Say, what if the wife was dead? Could you give it to him then?

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]ふーん…よくわかんないなあ。(Henry: Huh... I don't really get it.) 奥様がいると襟巻きが渡せないんだ。▼ (He has a wife, so you can't give him the scarf.) じゃあ、奥様が死んじゃったら (So, if his wife was dead,) 渡せるようになるの？▼ (would you be able to give it to him then?)

Here's another example I included not because it's changed from the Japanese - but because I was surprised to see this confirmation that Henry really is this morbid in the Japanese as well!

A Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: I asked Lissa for advice, and she told me to take you on a big shopping trip. She said a few hours trying on dresses and armor would fix that broken heart, pronto! (skip a few lines) Henry: Then how about some comfort food? Fruit pies and cream? Candy apples? Macaroni and cheese with fried boar crisps and crumbled horse—

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]リズから聞いた��だ～。(Henry: I asked Lissa~.) 女の子の胸が苦しい時は、▼ (When a girl's heart hurts,) 買い物したりやけ食いしたりすると (things like shopping, or eating a lot) 治るんだって～。▼ (will cure it!) (skip a few lines) [ヘンリー]そうなんだ～。(Henry: I understand~.) じゃあ、やけ食いの方が好き？▼ (So you like overeating more?)

In the Japanese, Lissa's advice to Henry includes not only retail therapy, but also... overeating / binge eating. That's an understandably sensitive topic for the localization team to dodge.

It's true the localization does have Henry propose some comfort food food at the end of the convo... but I think Henry asking if Cordelia wants to eat a treat or two is different than proposing she full-on binge eats.

Henry / Nowi

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Nowi: No! I'm an adult woman who's more than a thousand years older than you! Henry: Oh, right! Nya ha ha! Sorry, short stuff!

Original Japanese:

[ノノ]ノノは子どもじゃないもん。(Nowi: Nowi's not a child!) 千年以上生きてる大人の女なんだから！▼ (Because Nowi is an adult woman who's lived for over 1,000 years!) [ヘンリー]あ、そうだったね。(Henry: Oh, that's right!) あはは、ごめんなさい、お姉さん。▼ (Ah ha ha, sorry, big sister!)

Ah, the 1,000 year old child-looking adult dragon. An FE classic.

But actually, the Japanese line was the same in this case! A young-looking character reiterating that they are totally an adult, isn't always an addition of the localization. (I say this because it was so in the main Fates script with Elise).

B Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Yep! They're probably quivering in fear under their beds and crying like babies. But no worries! There'll be more victim—er, that is, village kids—at our next camp. (skip a few lines) Henry: If they exchanged fire breath with you, they'd end up as little clumps of charcoal.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]うん、たぶん無理だと思うよ～。▼(Henry: Yeah, I think it's probably no use~!) でも、いいじゃない。ほかの土地にも (But that's okay, isn't it? Because in other areas) 子どもはたくさんいるんだから。▼ (there's also lots of children.) (skip a few lines) [ヘンリー]うーん…僕には空を飛んだり (Henry: Hmm... I can't fly in the sky) ブレスを吹いたりできないしなぁ。▼ (or blow fire breath, or anything like that.)

Here, the localization added a bit to Henry's morbidity. In the Japanese, he didn't joke around and start to call the children he and Nowi played with victims, or go so far as to describe that her fire breath would turn them to charcoal.

While Henry is morbid and sarcastic in the Japanese, this is further proof that the localization did add in some extra. Which again, makes up for some of the gap left without the tilde ~ in English.

Henry / Tharja

C Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Sure! You want me to cast a death curse on someone? Tharja: Someone in camp? Mmm... No. That could be problematic. Henry: Hee hee! Yeah, I guess. Too bad, though. See, 'cause I've got one that makes blood come out your—

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]そうなんだ～。(Henry: Did you now~?) じゃ、ちょっと呪いあってみる～？▼ (Then shall I try casting a teensy-weensy curse on them?) [サーリャ]結構よ…。仲間同士で (Tharja: You don't have to...) 潰し合っても、不毛なだけだから…。▼ (For allies to kill each other, would be meaningless...) [ヘンリー]あはは、それは残念だな～。▼ (Henry: Ah ha ha, that's too bad~.)

The morbid joke about exactly what kind of curse Henry wants to try out - one that involves making blood come out from... somewhere - was a small add-on in the localization. This chunk of the exchange otherwise follows the Japanese.

Eng. NA Localization:

Tharja: Ugh... Hale? Hearty? Have you no respect for our ancient profession? We're supposed to be harbingers of pestilence and famine and doom! Henry: Mm... I love doom.

Original Japanese:

[サーリャ]健全で純真ですって…？(Tharja: Healthy...? Pure...?) …呪いを使う者が、よく言う…。▼(...Well said for a spellcaster of curses...) …まぁいいわ…くれぐれも (...Whatever... don't keep) おかしな真似はしないことね。▼ (acting weird, alright?) [ヘンリー]は～い。▼ (Henry: Okaaaaaay.)

The exact ending of the C Support is ever so slightly different. In both, Tharja basically says to Henry to act more like a dark mage, but the little joke about "doom" was added.

B Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Hello, Tharja! Tharja: *Mumble, mumble* *hiss* Henry: Heey! Did you just put a curse on me? Tharja: Yes, Now, if you do not speak the truth, you will DIE! Answer me clearly and without hesitation. Are you a foreign spy? Henry: Nope! Not me! Although I do own a cloak and a couple daggers. Tharja: Who do you serve? Ylisse or Plegia? Henry: Aw, I don't get into politics. I just want to toss fireballs at bad guys.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]…あれ？　これって…。▼ (Henry: ...Huh? This is...) [サーリャ]…思ったよりあっさりかかったわね。▼ (Tharja: ...That was much easier than I thought it would be.) [ヘンリー]あ、やっぱりサーリャだ。(Henry: Ah, I knew it, it's you Tharja!) 僕に呪いをかけたね～？▼ (You cast a curse on me, didn't you?) [サーリャ]えぇ…これで私の前では (Tharja: Yes... Now, before me) 嘘や隠しごとはできないわよ…。▼ (you cannot lie or hide anything...) 正直に答えなさい… (Answer me honestly...) 貴方、誰かのスパイじゃないでしょうね…？▼ (You aren't anyone's spy, are you?) [ヘンリー]うん、スパイじゃないよ～。▼ (Henry: Nope, I'm not a spy~!) [サーリャ]じゃあ、貴方は…ペレジアと (Tharja: So you... between Plegia) イーリスと、どっちの味方…？▼ (And Ylisse, which are you an ally of...) [ヘンリー]ん～…味方とか、よくわかんないな～。(Henry: Hm~... I don't really know who's ally I am~.) 悪いと思った奴と戦うだけじゃダメなの？▼ (Is it wrong to just fight whoever I think is bad?)

A few little tweaks here. Tharja is in the middle of casting her curse in her first line in the localization, whereas in the Japanese, it was already over, and she was making a comment as to how easy it was to do. And then, Henry's quips were added onto a bit in localization.

A Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Hecka-necka, jimma-jamma, woozle-wazzle! Aaand presto! Curse dispelled! Actually not dispelled. I tossed it back at the original sender. Hee hee!

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリ��]あ、それなら大丈夫だよ～。(Henry: Ah, if it's that, that's fine~.) 僕がもうはね返しておいたから～。▼ (Because I already bounced it back~.)

Henry's "chant" was added in localization. In the Japanese, by the time Henry says his line, he's already sent the curse back to its caster.

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Well, usually I disarm foes by removing their arms. But your way sounds impressive, too!

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]あはは、だから最初に言ったじゃない～。(Henry: Ah ha ha, that's what I said in the beginning, isn't it~?) 僕は健全で純真な心の持ち主だって。▼ (I have a healthy and pure heart.) でも、嬉しいなぁ～、(But I'm happy~.) サーリャに褒めてもらえて～。▼ (I was complemented by you~.)

And the localization was just taking advantage of an opportunity to make a disarming pun here, it was not already in the Japanese.

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Wizard fight! Wizard fight! Yaaaaaay!

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]わぁ～。サーリャ、こわ～い。▼(Henry: Eeeeek~! Tharja is scaaaary~!)

In the Japanese, Henry doesn't get excited to have a wizard fight with Tharja, but he still does act pretty goofy by pretending to be scared of her.

S Support

Somehow, I don't have anything to add to this one! Henry really does run off to have an engagement ring made after Tharja says she will accept his proposal if he agrees to protect Robin.

Henry / Cherche

C Support

The C Support adds a number of little bits to Henry's dialogue, again just to play up his goofiness more, because English lacks a symbol like the Japanese tilde ~.

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Sure have! She's as cute as a button, that one. ...Well, if buttons were cute. We had wyverns in Plegia, you know, and also the occasional fell beast. But we didn't have a single wyvern that was as pretty as Minerva.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]うん！(Henry: Yeah!) かわいいよね～、ミネルヴァ！▼ (Minerva sure is cute~!) ペレジアにも (In Plegia too,) ドラゴンナイトはいたけど、▼ (there were wyvern knights, but) この子くらいかわいい飛竜はいなかったよ～！！▼ (There weren't any as cute as this wyvern~!)

There was no mention of buttons in the Japanese version, Henry just says Minerva is cute.

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Yep! I make four-legged friends wherever I go! And even some two-legged ones. I'm also pals with a three-legged bear, but that's a story for another time.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]僕は自然と友達だから (Henry: I'm friends with nature, so) みんなと仲良しなんだよ～。▼ (I get along with all of them~.)

No mention of a three-legged bear friend in Japanese. Not that Japanese Henry wouldn't be excited to befriend a three-legged bear.

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Yowza! Sh-she tried to bite me! Look, I'm bleeding! Mmm, blood...

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]ひゃあっ！　噛まないで～！▼ (Henry: Hyaaah! Don't bite me~!)

And the localization added in the fact that Henry was bleeding, and excited to see it.

B Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Aw, it's fine. I bet I just give off some kind of animal aura. Or maybe she thought I was a big ham? I do smell kind of ham-like.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]あはは、僕って (Henry: Ah ha ha, I) 獣っぽい気配がするみたい～。▼ (it seems I have an animal-like aura~.) だから獲物だと勘違いしたのかもしれないね～。▼ (So maybe she mistook me for prey~.)

Henry doesn't propose that maybe he smells like ham, rather, in the Japanese, he thought that maybe Minerva mistook him for prey.

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: Well, when I was young, my best friend in the entire world was a giant wolf. My parents ignored me most of the time, so that wolf became my whole family. Then one day she came to visit me, and some hunters in the village... They shot her full of arrows. Killed her on the spot.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]うん！　実は、昔仲良しの狼がいたんだ。(Henry: Yeah! Actually, long ago, there was a wolf I was friends with.) 僕、親に放ったらかしにされてたから、▼ (I was neglected by my parents, so) 小さい頃の親友と言うか、(You could call them a friend I had when I was young,) ほとんど家族みたいなものだったんだけど～▼ (or something like family, but~) ある日その狼が僕に会いに来たとき、(One day, when they came to see me,) 周りにいた大人たちに殺されちゃって…。▼ (they were killed by the adults around us...)

In the Japanese, Henry doesn't refer to the wolf's killers as "hunters," but "adults."

Also, the Japanese doesn't hint at whether the wolf was male or female, so I went with neutral pronouns.

A Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Cherche: I'm very happy that you like Minerva and you two get along so well. But I think you need to spend more time with human friends—namely, me. So I'm going to carry out my patrol on foot, and you're coming with me.

Original Japanese:

[セルジュ]ミネルヴァちゃんと仲良くなってくれるのは (Cherche:) とっても嬉しいんだけど、▼ (I'm very happy that you've become friends with Minerva-chan, but) あなたは本当の意味で人と接することをもっと重ねるべきだと思う。▼ (I think you should have more experiences getting truly close to people.) 偵察は私たちふたりで行きましょう。(Let's go on patrol together.) 私、あなたともっと仲良くなりたいわ。▼ (I want to become better friends with you.)

The localization of the A support was a pretty straightforward translation of the Japanese for the most part, but this bit of Cherche's dialogue from near the end is subtly different.

I think the localization subtracts a little from the real meaning of what Cherche is trying to get across to Henry - it's not that he doesn't spend time with people, its that when he does, he doesn't form meaningful relationships with them. The exact nuance is different.

S Support

Eng. NA Localization:

Henry: I figured the old dogs would be barking, so I brought a homemade bunion salve. Cherche: Why, thank you, Henry! But how did you know? Henry: We've been on so many patrols together, I've memorized your whole routine. After this, you'll put a cold towel on your head and drink a cup of hot elderberry tea.

Original Japanese:

[ヘンリー]はい、これ。(Henry: This is for you.) 薬に漬けた湿布だよ～。▼ (A wet compress soaked in medicine~.) [セルジュ]あら、ありがとう。(Cherche: Oh my, thank you.) 脚が張っていたの、気づいてたの？▼ (You noticed that my legs are swollen?) [ヘンリー]うん。だって、あれから毎日 (Henry: Yup! After all, since then, every day) 二人で偵察に行ってたんだもん。▼ (we've gone on patrol together!) もうセルジュのことなら (If it's about you) なんでもわかるようになっちゃったよ～。▼ (then I already know everything there is to know~.)

Henry's treatments for Cherche after their patrol together were a bit different in Japanese.

The localization even added in elderberry tea when no mention of drinks was made before. Who on the team was such a fan of elderberry tea that it's the only tea anyone on the Awakening cast drinks? I'll always wonder.

Eng. NA Localization:

Cherche: Goodness, Henry, but this is sudden. However, I have found myself...thinking about you a lot lately. Ever since we met, I've wanted to know the real man behind that jolly facade. And this would be a chance to do just that. Very well, Henry, I accept your proposal!

Original Japanese:

[セルジュ]ふふ…やっとその笑顔を (Cherche: Tee hee...) 私にも向けてくれるようになったのね。▼ (You're finally in a place where you make that smile at me!) …私も、あなたが好きよ。(...I love you too.) 友達になりたいっていうのは嘘。▼ (It was a lie when I said that I wanted to be friends with you.) 本当はずっと、あなたの心が知りたい、(To be honest, I've always wanted to know your heart,) 誰よりも近くにいたいって思ってた。▼ (and to become closer to you than anyone else.) 毎日変わっていくあなたを… (You've been changing bit by bit every day...) これからも一番傍で見ていたいわ。▼ (I want to continue to see you at my side more than anyone else is.)

The localization left out the full extent of what Cherche was saying - that she's had romantic feelings for Henry for quite a long time before this conversation.

Henry / Olivia

So I saved Henry / Olivia for last and went a little out of recruitment order, because I remembered this conversation being pretty different in localization vs the Japanese. So I wanted to save "the big one" for last.

First, I want to point out that I did a full translation of this support chain several years ago now (*Checks post history* Wait... EIGHT years ago?! Dang!), so I don't really need to talk about specific lines. You can read and compare for yourself! I also posted the localized version below the Japanese in each post, so you you can save yourself an internet search.

C Support - B Support - A Support - S Support

Instead of discussing specifics, I'll just wrote some of my general thoughts in a few paragraphs.

In the C support, I think it's unfortunate that the localization downplayed Henry's original intentions for choosing to kill the dog. He does not try to fight the dog's death, if it is the only way to relieve its pain. If death is its fate, he accepts it. It's great nuance for his character, that I think was the highlight of the convo.

In the B support, I remembered thinking that the localization really changed this one, but that's not as true as I thought it was. In summary, Olivia thinks that Henry's sense of humor is a coping mechanism and his smiles aren't genuine. But Henry rejects that interpretation and says he just is who he is. That's same in both versions. The biggest change is to Henry's backstory at the "wizarding" school. Now that I look back on it, I actually see a good possibility as to why the localization chose to make this change. Saying that Henry experienced brutal pain and injuries because of "experiments gone wrong" still conveys that his teachers were terribly abusive - because healthy teachers would not be assigning magic training that could be so easily dangerous - but it isn't as graphic as "bad children were beaten senseless!" Child abuse is a pretty common trigger, so I get why the localization team would want to tweak this part of the convo a bit.

For the A and S supports, I don't have anything major to mention.

Also, throughout the entire support chain, Henry calls Olivia "crazy lady." I don't know exactly how I feel about this, because it feels a little out of place with the rest of his sense of morbid humor. But he does get a little sarcastic and sassy with people when they get on his nerves in any way - which Olivia very much is doing, by trying to say his outward personality is trauma coping and not genuine. So the more I think about it, the more I think it fits his personality fine.

So as my final conclusion, I can say that Henry / Olivia is the most changed of all Henry's supports in localization, but even then, that's only saying so much.

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

And so, that's that! Generally speaking, Henry's conversations were pretty faithfully translated; with minor changes here and there, mostly to convey his sense of humor due to English's lack of the ~ tilde symbol used in dialogue. I only found a couple of more major changes, none of them particularly conversation-altering.

Henry's such a fun character to begin with that the localization team only had to make some subtle changes here and there to get his exact sense of humor and personality across, wherever it might have otherwise been lost in translation. And they did a pretty good job with that! Only a small selection of changes made me scratch my head a bit. Overall, good work all around.

Thanks for reading! :)

#fire emblem #fire emblem 13 #fe13 #awakening #fire emblem awakening #fe awakening #japan #japanese #support conversation #henry #henry fire emblem #support conversation analysis #translation #localization

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esmiara · 1 year ago

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How do you come up with your poses? They all seem so cool and I struggle with coming up with anything/finding references.

Posing huh? This is quite an interesting topic so let's have a real talk about it. Though it won't obviously cover every single details there could be and explanations may be sloppy, I am no real art teacher after all. By the way I apologize in advance if there is any messy spelling or grammar mistake as english is not my first language.

To begin with, let's say the key words here are force lines, simplicity and body langage. Anatomy is a whole another topic so I won't talk too much about muscles and bones, as we are mainly here for posing.

Firstly, what are force lines? To put it simply, a force line is the core line guiding the figure's movement but also the whole composition, thus also guiding the eye itself toward (or away) the most important parts. With shipping, Soukoku in particular (since they have different temperaments), I like to have two lines that complement each other, via either inner or outer curves.

But those are whole compositions and we're not in a composition class either. However, when it comes to a single pose, the same principle can be applied. This force line can guide your whole body and even become your literal spine. As the spine is the most essential part of the human body (and non-human living body), it will act as the central part which the rest will follow naturally. Don't be shy and use a stickman for your overall structure! If you have a hard time simplifying the overall movement of your figure, try drawing it in a smaller size first. It doesn't matter if it looks ugly, you'll clean it up later.

If you're still struggling with your understanding of structures, try to decompose a reference picture (go check Pinterest, it's a true gold mine) with simple lines to determine where and how are positioned the spine, ribcages and main bones then transpose it to your own drawing as a guide.

"But how do I get those dynamic lines and cool curves??", you may ask. Well, have you tried figure drawing and more specifically gesture drawing? You can of course take a class with a nude model (they don't bite don't worry and you will focus more on the art part than the nude one), but you can also do so with tons of videos, pictures and even websites such as Line of Action, which allows you to have a custom built-in timer when drawing. To have only a mere 30 seconds to draw may sound terrifying but trust me, it's not that difficult. The point of drawing a whole figure in 30 seconds (or more) is to force yourself to simplify and avoid to focus on unimportant parts that aren't essential to the overall understanding of the pose. This will put you in a focused state of mind as well as training your hand muscles (this is a great warmup exercise). Feeling a bit uncomfortable on your wrist or feeling like you can only do tiny strokes one at a time instead of big elegant lines? Well firstly... stretch your wrist regularly, drink water and stop drawing every once in a while, this is very important, may you be a beginner or a professionnal artist. Secondly, try drawing on a bigger format! It will train you to use your elbow and shoulders to draw big lines more easily, like getting a bigger compass to draw a circle. I for example draw mostly with my elbow and shoulders, even unconsciously, as this is way more comfortable for me.

That's great we are talking about a lot of technical stuff. But what about the actual drawing you want to do? Well first, you need to decide which feeling you want to convey. Is it a scary scene? A gentle one? What do you want to depict? Is there something in particular you want to focus on? Something is needed to act as the solid base and this applies to everything, not only posing. Let's take a look at some examples with what we have seen with force lines and see more of the thought process behind my own poses.

And that's about it of what I'll tackle in this single ask ahah. This is basically a lot of brainstorming and thinking as well as taking inspiration from how real life people move, especially when it comes to body language. I took it a bit too seriously but I do hope it was of some help!

#ask #art tutorial #i guess #"In this essay I will-#tips and stuff

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restesdelune · 6 months ago

Text

*A Richonne Content Rant*

> Comin' Soon on Restes de Lune ?

Hi TWD fam, Richonners, gals, guys and theys

I've been editing like crazy but the youtube algorithm won't let me post my 20min edit of HRWB #3 - Next World Lovin' (A day in the life of Rick Grimes) without butchering my work. Looks like I won't be able to finish this series with a bang like I hoped.

So here's a load of stills to give you an idea since for now, all my hours on it just went down the drain. I still want to share something though, as I know others are just like me :) Maybe I'll share snippets, bits by bits... :(

Here's the first part

Idk, looks sexy and funny to me! ^^

I still don't understand why so many channels can host whole scenes of the show online, HD scene packs and longer edits and seem unbothered (good for them!) but I can't ?

Whyyy Ô Whyyy ?

My Richonne rabbit hole originally started with an Ultimate Edit From the prison to Alexandria. It was right after watching The Ones Who Live as it was released and I needed to go back and re-experience Richonne all over again. Unfortunately, it was too long of an edit and my hardware could not keep up...

That's when I took on smaller endeavours, exploring the origins of Richonne further from behind the scenes. I love listening to Danai talking about her work. So many actors tend to respond quite superficially to questions about their characters, Danai has such a profound understanding of Michonne, it shows both on and off screen and I'm here for all of it.

Then, I've explored more behind the scenes with Andrew and Danai's chemistry, and how it showed and still shows up on screen years later, and have many of us hooked, locked in a love chokehold everytime we see Rick and Michonne gazing into each others' eyes. That's how HRWB #2 came to become Dandy On Set and Off.

Yes, I'm fluffy like that and have no shame about it :)

Anyway...

I'll still try to edit further HRWB#3 and share it with you what I can, but I need to cut back my Richonne hours and find new ways to engage with the fandom if I can't find a better solution.

My series How Richonne Was Born was supposedly a lighter prelude to the deeper and more interesting work I want to share (see The Ones Who Love Live On teaser). Might take a while though, as I work too slow for the algo, so don't hesitate to sub to check me out here, on youtube and twitter to follow the work.

And yes, I'm gonna get even fluffier with these ones, and a lot more political too. Fingers crossed!

I still plan to share everything I wrote (essays and fanfic), it will only take yet a lot more time and creativity. Maybe I should just forget video and do a podcast? Just brainstorming in the tumblr open...

If you're into any of it let me know, feedbacks and advice are welcome! I may have started this on a whim but I found people along the way, and it's always easier when we're not alone and have support, right?

My posts about

"The Last Grimes"

The Michonne effect

Mother Michonne

**** See You around and Happy Shipping ****

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108garys · 6 months ago

Text

Manny Sherman dialogue transcribed

I really enjoyed transcribing the little hope puritan dialogue a bit ago despite it being one heck of an undertaking and I've always wanted to do a similar thing on a much smaller scale(this time) so as an afternoon task I pulled up a video of the four Sherman tapes and typed out his on screen dialogue, it'll be good for writing him and better understanding his vocabulary and maybe some time around I'll do something a little more substantial like Randolph Hodgson's journal but that aside I feel Sherman's dialogue flows really well and does a great job with characterisation, can you believe there's barely more than a thousand words from him all up? Regardless I've tried to follow the in game captions on the video which can be a little hard at times due to white text on a grey background with the occasional white detail obscuring stuff but I believe I got it at least 99% accurate and beyond that I added in places in brackets that he laughed but not the uncaptioned sounds of him getting his ass kicked because I thought one added something and the other wouldn't(and here's the video I used)

youtube

(interrogation - tape 1)

Manny Sherman. Born January one. Nineteen fifty-six.

Come on, you already know all this. What do you want?

What's this?… Huh… You've been doing your research, haven't you Special Agent Munday?

What are my favorite television programs?

Describe my first pet.

What were your friends like as a child?

What is this?!

You taking a survey or you trying to learn something?

Would it kill you to be direct?

You wanted to know what inspired me? As if I wasn't an original?

Well… maybe there was one man I found myself a little fascinated by.

Henry. Howard. Holmes.

Why? Because he was numero uno.

America's first. The guy invented the trade. He set the benchmark, you know?

Learn your history, Munday. Read a book.

You think because I stuck a blade in some people and get off on it I'm not smart?

I, heh… 'allegedly'… killed 13 people before you got smart enough to find me…

(interrogation - tape 2)

…had to build my own little castle, just like Holmes did.

Most people like me do their business where their target lives. That's just asking to get caught.

Holmes had the right idea. It was all about the honeytrap.

You bring me some smokes? Like I asked?

Lucky Reds? Yes! These are like gold in here. Damn that's good. So yeah, the honey pot.

Holmes built a hotel about a mile from the World's Fair and CALLED it the World's Fair Hotel and bought ad space in the papers alongside ads for the expo.

Rubes from far and wide assumed it was the official hotel!

Ma and Pa Kettle take a train in from Nebraska, takes three days, they roll up into that joint ready to rest, get to their room… and whoops- what do ya know… Holmes had a gas pipe hidden under the bed and poisons them.

Or maybe he pulls a trap door on them.

Maybe he separates them and makes one watch through a window while he slits the other's throat.

That's the advantage of a honey pot: no shortage of targets.

That's why I picked all those houses north of the airport.

That whole neighborhood was scheduled for demolition and yet…

All those lovely realtor ladies must not have gotten the memo.

Call up as a contractor, tell them I'm flipping, have them meet me out there… and look at that… we're the only two people for miles.

The first couple times I'd wait for a plane to fly over, just to hide their screams, but…

after a while I realized they could scream as loud as they wanted.

No one was gonna hear a thing.

That's what I remember most.

Those screams.

You can try to understand why I am the way I am. You can forensic science up all the data you want.

But you'll never know… You'll never know, Munday… You'll never really know how it feels when you watch the fire burn out of somebody.

(interrogation - tape 3)

(laughter)

A whole carton this time? You trying to get on my good side or something?

Think I'll save them.

What? No questions? What's going on with you, Munday?

You seem different.

(laughter) I see that that glimmer in your eye, you little devil.

I can keep secrets, man… we all have them.

That prosecutor is trying to get numbers out of me. Know that?

Of course you know that. Numbers. They got Holmes for 27… but we know he was closer to 200, right?

Can you imagine that? I wish I'd had the time to try and beat that.

Sure they know about those nice realtor ladies… they got families after all.

But the numbers the D.A. is asking me about… I think he knows there's some people out there- rejects… misfits… the kind of people that when you see them coming you look the other way.

Does anyone notice if they go missing?

My father always told me to leave my mark on the world.

I never knew what he meant by that- not until I watched that first girl bleed out.

I call it art. That's my signature on society.

It's not murder, it's an aesthetic response to what this has world made me.

Ask people to list killers, and they'll drop five, ten on you before they can't think of any more.

Ask them to name the detectives that caught those killers- no one is going to say a damn thing.

No one knows them. No one cares.

No one makes movies about them.

No one puts their faces on t-shirts.

No one gives a shit.

(quiet chuckle)

I've left my mark on the world…

…have you?

(interrogation - tape 4)

You want to know what it means to be a killer?

You ever been to the art museum downtown?

They got this painting by a guy… forgot his name. Famous painter.

He did portraits of slaughtered cows hanging on hooks.

You take a normal person to a slaughterhouse and they will puke their guts out.

You make it into a painting and suddenly it's art.

There's no difference between the two. Not really.

Don't look at me like that. You know I'm right.

You get it. I know you get it.

You got to do something that matters. Make people feel something they've never felt before.

Shatter the illusion that any of us are really in control.

Think of the most profound thing you've ever done… the most beautiful thing you've ever created… and I promise you… it's nothing compared to watching the life bleed out of someone.

To see the fear in their eyes, to feel them pawing at you for release, to hear them pleading- begging…

That moment when someone realizes they are at their end…

That's when you feel it. That's true art.

That's what you have to be- an artist… a sculptor… an architect.

I see the gleam in your eye, Agent Munday, You're not fooling me.

Oh, look at you now, huh?

Am I going to be your first?

Well come on then- I'm right here.

This room is soundproof- you don't even have to wait for a plane to fly overhead.

There… There you are… I see you now.

Not bad… not bad at all.

Bare hands can feel good, huh?

But the blade makes for such a prettier picture.

You've got potential. Agent Munday…

If you truly want to be an artist.

@kassiekole22 @delurkr @ctrvpani @aydeenchan

@tinynightmarewoman @kindheartedgummybears @mybrainrotforreal (Know idea as ever with this character on who'd be interested in this but it was a good exercise at any rate)

#the devil in me #the dark pictures anthology #the dark pictures the devil in me #Manny Sherman #The beast of Arkansas #ramblings #supermassive games #Supermassi transcribed

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mlmvoreconfessionals · 2 years ago

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One of my favorite things in vore is bondage.

Could you do some prompts of Pokemon men like Raihan, Leon and Lance having their prey tied up as they swallow them and belch up empty restraints?

I can definitely do something for that! Bondage isn't a strong preference for me, however, I adore it when predators hack up some kind of empty restraints because their prey melted right out of them.

"Wait, w-wait, wait, wait!" The Team R.ocket grunt squirms around and yells out, but nothing he's done it working. His feet were lowered into L.ance's jaws and the gulping has begun, starting to suck him down. He pulls on his arms but the handcuffs he was put in are keeping them behind his back. The cops had walked off to get the rest of the grunts who were deeper in the facility with L.ance left to watch him--the grunt had been pissed about that, but he didn't think it'd get this bad. He's already up to his knees and the champion is still swallowing. "You can't do this! Let me go! Dammit!" The grunt thrashes more, pulling on his arms with no luck. L.ance is getting up to his waist, swallowing steadily, barely paying any attention to the yelling and thrashing of his prey. He just starts working up the grunt's stomach, his hands going down as well and making it harder for him to resist. The grunt's screams are going unanswered and he's starting to realize it's really just him and L.ance. And he's already chest deep in L.ance. "They're going to be back soon!" the grunt yells as L.ance gulps again. "And they're going to m-make you spit me up! So...So you better just do it now before you regret it!" Another wet gulp and the grunt realizes his chin is resting on L.ance's tongue. He's looking out, vision framed by teeth. "W-Wait, don't--" A final swallow sends him down, muffled screaming sinking into L.ance's body as the grunt is forced down into his stomach. L.ance lets out a soft sigh, a very unimpressed look settled on his face. "The worst kind of prey...the kind that won't stop talking but can't fight back." He stares down at his stomach, still frowning. His usual abs are bloated around the distinct shape of a human being curled up inside. Anyone who saw him like that would absolutely know what he'd done. L.ance bears his teeth a bit, focusing all of his energy down on his stomach. It begins to boil loudly, and the grunt inside begins to squirm and let out muffled screams. And then L.ance's stomach begins to condense and reduced, the grunt effortlessly boiling away in the champion's stomach. A desperate wail of agony turns into thick bubbling and churning and L.ance's gut grows smaller and smaller. He soon lets out a deep, thick belch, his breath steaming a bit as the taste of the grunt comes back up. A pair of handcuffs fly out of his jaws and hit the ground with a clatter, dripping in more steaming drool. It was the only thing that had survived his stomach, the rest of the grunt melted down--bones and all. "Weakling..." L.ance picks up the cuffs just in time for the officer to return with several more, all similarly handcuffed. L.ance's stomach lets out a low growl when he sees them, that need to snuff out weaker, worthless beings overtaking him. "I'll take them from here," the champion assures, taking the grunts off of the hands of the officers. There are plenty of isolated places nearby he can go to eliminate them. "Oh. And these belong to you." He passes the still slimy handcuffs back to the cops, leaving them a little confused as L.ance walks off with the rest of the grunts. He'll make sure to deliver those handcuffs back to the authorities, too. Right after he melts these grunts out of them.

"And...done." With a final tug, R.aihan has the rope firmly tied around the wrists of his lucky guest star--a viewer selected at random for his next video. He loved that nervous look on their face. He looks to his R.otom phone, wearing a toothy grin and drooling just a little. "Now, you all remember the deal, right? If you want to see today's lucky guest survive the dragon's chamber, you need to hit the donation mark! And then I'll give this rope a good tug," R.aihan tugs on the rope for emphasis, "and pull him back out. Donations will start just as soon as he's put away. So..." With a greedy slurp of his lips, R.aihan's fanged maw opens wide and he shovels his meal's feet into his jaws. His phone floats around him, making sure to get all the best angels of the guest star sinking deeper and deeper into the g.ym leader's boiling stomach. It was rare anything every came back out of there alive--people didn't even get the honor to add to R.aihand's figure. His stomach was so intense, so powerful, that is left no trace of his meals behind. R.aihan always loved that, even if it didn't make his prey feel much better about their imminent demise. The phone gets a good look into R.aihan's jaws, his fangs framing the face of the man who's quickly beginning to regret his choices. His tongue slurps up over the man's face as tears prick his eyes and he pushes it down, careful not to gulp too hard so that the end of the rope can continue to hang from his jaws. "Alright, everyone! He's all put away in the dragon's chamber! Let's get those donations rolling in! Show me if you want to let this poor guy survive!" Just to keep the suspense up, R.aihan's phone makes sure not to get his gut in frame, focusing instead on his smug face and especially his drooling jaws. Donations are pouring in fast, but rarely are they from someone who cares about the safety of R.aihan's prey. They were timing him, wanting to see if his guts will mulch the innocent fan faster than they can hit the milestone. That's why it only takes ten minutes for R.aihan to hit the threshold and hs phone lets out a loud ping. R.aihan grins wide and grabs the end of the rope. "Alright, let's see if today's guest star survives or not..." He starts to pull the rope back up, going slowly and keeping his jaws open nice and wide for everyone to see. Before long, he pulls out the end of the rope...and there's nothing on it. R.aihan snaps his jaws shut and holds the dripping, slightly singed rope up for everyone to see. Then the phone pans down to his boiling pot belly which is losing inches by the second. "Too bad! What's-his-face died five minutes ago. Looks like he's just another soul for the dragon's hoard." R.aihan casually tosses the rope to the side, flashing another toothy grin to the camera. "Next week is going to be a big one, so keep an eye on your emails to see if you're going to be my next meal...I mean, guest. And remember...no one gets to survive the dragon's chamber." R.aihand gives the camera a roaring belch, his gut flattening out with a low grumble as it polishes off yet another adoring fan. And so long as stupid guys keep offering themselves put to him, R.aihan's never going to run out, either.

The big, warm smile on L.eon's face is betrayed by the cold, hungry glare in his eyes. He'd been beaten by a challenger--a very talented one, of course--and the champ had invited the victor into his private locker room to congratulate him. The poor thing hadn't sensed any malice at all in L.eon's behavior, so he'd been easily lured into the champion's trap. Now he was strung up in an empty room, just him and L.eon, and no one was coming. The wire hanging from the ceiling keeps his arms restrained, stuck above him while he sits on his knees. Just so L.eon can loom over him. "You did amazing out there," L.eon says, the friendliness in his voice still not reaching his eyes. "I bet you were excited to finally beat G.alar's unbeatable champion!" L.eon pauses, as if waiting for a response, but the gag in the other man's mouth ensures that the best he can do is make a muffled noise. "But I'm sure you've guessed by now...you're not the first trainer to beat me. But how can the unbeatable champion L.eon have been defeated before? Easy..." L.eon stoops down, getting on level with the man so he can lift up his legs. "...I just delete them from existence. No winner to take the mantle means that I stay unbeatable. There's no hard feelings, though. I love it when a trainer is able to take me on. But the region needs someone like me to keep them going...and you...aren't fit for that role. I'd say you can at least be there as a part of me from now on, but I can't have any evidence left behind, so there's not going to be any of you left. Gotta make sure nothing remains..." L.eon's jaws open wide, drooling in anticipation for another meal. When he engulfs the trainer's feet, he starts to let out muffled screams and thrashes around in his restraints. They always did, and not once has it saved them from a grueling demise in L.eon's stomach. he's lost track of how many times he's done this, how many victories trainers sank down into his gut to die. People would probably ask more questions if they didn't all love L.eon so much. Who would ever think he'd do something as horrible as kill off anyone who beats him? L.eon would never. The champion grins around his meal, gulping steadily, moving up his legs. He reaches the trainer's waist and starts to slide up his torso, taking in his stomach and then his chest. Once he's at the trainer's armpits, he stands up fully, slowly slurping in the man's head and then his arms. L.eon's gut stretches out before him, his skin-tight shirt forming around the human-shaped bulge settling in his middle. The champion grins when the last of his meal slides in, that wire still sticking out of his jaws. He never gets tired of that feeling when the full weight of a person settles in his stomach...or this next one, when his gut kicks into overdrive, eagerly ready to scrub an entire man's existence off the face of the earth. L.eon lets out a belch as his gut roars to life, muffled screaming and weak squirming making his gut slosh around. But it's already shrinking, growing smaller, getting softer, melting and mulching an entire human being down as if he were nothing more than a plate of curry. When he's got a nice, soft pot belly that's slowly sinking back into his flat abs, L.eon pulls the wire out of his mouth and lets it drop. There's nothing on it other than some slick slime that'll dry off in a few minutes. L.eon pats his stomach and lets out a deep belch, the last screams of his prey nothing more than a satisfying blast of gas for him. "And so the unbeatable champion remains unbeaten..."

#v.ore #male vore #mlm vore #m/m vore #gay vore #vore prompts #male vore prompts #oral vore #digestion #fatal vore #instant digestion #pokemonvore #lancevore #raihanvore #leonvore #ask

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theartsanityshoppe · 6 months ago

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I like your detective stuff! Does he have a nemesis like Sherlock has Moriarty? And was he born mute or did he lose his voice? The sign language is really nice to see in a character!

Why was this in the 'bashful' gif options

Thanks Anon!! I greatly appreciate the comment~ I myself, also really like my detective stuff and I mean reeeeeeeeeeeeally like it lmao

Otherwise, I'm going to write these answers out as the parts of the story these questions delve into is being currently reworked and some of the answers are kinda up in the air / half canon as of right now. This will probably be a longish answer so I'll put a quick answer up here, and a "read more" underneath that with my ramblings. Quick answers: Was he born mute or did he lose his voice? - He was born mute. Does he have a nemesis? - Yes and no... I've cycled through a few characters but the main one now, without spoiling much, is named F.E.L.I.X.. But I've been working on a couple others who could possibly take over as his main nemesis.

For longer, more rambly answers, keep reading!

So like I said the answer to at least his nemesis part is kind of up the in air atm. I also wanted to expand a little on the mute aspect~

Flint is primarily mute because I tend to view this world in the terms of a video game, in which of course the player would play as the Det. [and as Cy actually who hasn't appeared in the comics yet] and like a lot of video games I always imagined him as being a "silent protag" despite still communicating with the other characters. Like Link in the new BOTW/TOTK games.

The second reason behind it was I just couldn't imagine him with a voice?? No matter how hard I tried, it just felt. Wrong for his character if that makes sense? So I figured "hey why not just give him sign language! How often do you see a deaf or mute main character anyway?" I've started to see more ASL used in shows - most recently in Only Murders in the Building which I LOVE [both the shows and the inclusion/importance of the deaf character in the story] and I thought it would make him a more interesting main character tbh. I also really really REALLY want to learn ASL, as my first grade teacher taught us a bunch when I was a kid but I've sadly forgotten just about all of it as she was just teaching us for fun. It had nothing to do with the class lol.

As for Flint's nemesis[es]! He currently has at least two, one of which is still so under-construction they don't even have a name yet or a design hahahaha.

Originally his nemesis was supposed to be Prof. Specter, aka this guy, whose a literal shadow man. [Cuz. Yah know. Shadow vs Light/Flames?] He was supposed to be almost the Dr. Claw to Flint's Inspector Gadget, but I just never went anywhere with him?? I couldn't really think up anything good tbh, and I felt like Flint easily overpowered him. I also couldn't think up any good reasons for him to BE so evil/want to attack the town etc. So he just became a smaller villain, who currently works under the main big bad. I am a MASSIVE sucker for "opposite" characters - the "good" version vs the "evil" version basically, and I have been actively trying to utilize that in a story of mine FOR YEARS. Think like, Darkwing Duck vs Nega Duck. This shit is my JAM.

For the first nemesis, his name is F.E.L.I.X. [Force Entity Learning Integrating and eXterminating] Flint, and he's a sort of "evil" version of Flint. [These are all cheebs of the various forms Felix currently takes in story]

The littlest dude is ACTUALLY Felix, [he starts off by possessing a flash drive and transforming it] and the rest are just later forms he takes throughout the story. Originally he was just some weird little alien computer virus that landed on earth, a la Invader Zim style, here to prepare Earth for conquer by his Mother Program, which is still more or less the case? The reasoning behind him being in Neo Oldesville and him eventually taking on Flint's appearance have changed a lot though.

The main reason I hesitate to call him a nemesis atm is because he was originally just more of a comedic, but still kinda dangerous, character and Felix Flint was originally going to be a sort of split in Felix's personality/code that took life on it's own, separate from Felix, warped by the internet, others personalities, and probably some other villain's code. He was just gonna go kinda crazy as his coding was rewritten too many times and start attacking... but that idea has been scrapped due to the rewrites.

He was also smart, but not in the same ways the Detective is, so they weren't really butting heads like Sherlock/Moriarty do wherein Felix would be besting Flint at every turn or something like that. Instead Flint actually bested Felix pretty easily originally. Felix Flint was basically my solution to fix that major leveling scale issue lol.

The other character, the unnamed one, is a Mad Scientist/Cult leader, whose become basically the 'secret' big bad of what I would call the first season of the story. Idk maybe longer than that? I haven't decided on how long I want this story to be tbh. I'm still working on the character and their storyline and how it intersects with both Flint's and Cy's, (whose the deuteragonist to this story)... but the most I do know/will reveal here is that this Mad Scientist is the leader of a cult that worshiped two aliens that used to exist on planet who promised to help the humanoids [as people are generally referred to here] "ascend to a higher life form" but were later stopped and destroyed by a group of super-hero like super spy sisters who learned that the aliens were in fact extremely hostile and their idea of "ascending to a higher plan" was just assimilating all of this worlds knowledge/tech and then selling off its inhabitants as slaves. I haven't decided if the rest of the world knows this fact, or if the alien characters are considered martyrs or something yet... or even if the rest of the world knew they WERE aliens. Just that they're eventually defeated by these legendary super-spies, and that a small cult remained behind after everyone else moved on from their teachings.

The leader of this new cult basically wants to bring those aliens back - specifically by summoning one of their kin to the world to help fully restore one of the deceased aliens back to life, but what he summons is Felix instead, as the race of aliens the cult worshiped had all been destroyed and absorbed by Felix's Mother Program years ago. Irony at its finest lol.

This new mad scientist/cult leader character is supposed to have very deep ties with Cy, who in turn has pretty deep ties to Flint, and I've been planning on possibly making him a sort of Moriarty to Flint, but I'm still ironing out details.

One reason I haven't quite finished this all yet is because while I am planning on using some religious ideology [is that the right word here? or would mimicry be better] in the cult, I don't necessarily want to make it a "RAWR RAWR RELIGION IS EVIL RAAAWR" kind of situation, since it's specifically that CULTS are evil. I myself was born and raised without religion in my life outside of just being in America, so while I don't believe in any religion at all, I also don't want to be cruel to anyone who does. I do, however, know that a lot of cults use Christianity as a guise to trick their followers into controlling them though.

Mostly I just really want the two aliens from the original cult to look semi like a devil and an angel cuz I thought it'd be hilarious if they were basically the "angel and devil on your shoulders" lmao.

If anyone wants to know more I'm happy to explain even more in detail. I don't care about spoiling things haha I'm not planning on creating a huge comic or anything anytime soon - I mean I would love to turn this series into a game or something in the future but for now I'm just having fun I LOVE talking about my characters/stories.

#man this turned into a LOOOONG post!#ask #news today interview #thanks anon!#detective flint #felix flint #cy

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just-orbiting-you · 4 months ago

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The only other theory that has ever crossed my mind about Tae, is that he somehow wants to/has been asked to, deflect Jikook. It sounds wild but his behaviour (such as the post on Sunday) would lean into this.

anon you kinda read my mind. because i could kinda write a whole academic paper on the theory that bts spoke amongst themselves on how to cover any sort of jikook "slip" so to speak.

while im not quite sure if that's what tae is doing, it could be plausible. and regardless if it's tae's intention, t@ekook in fandom terms acts as a cover for jikook, since t@ekook has become more popular but is largely rooted in fiction.

if i may, i would like to discuss why i think there was a discussion about this behind closed doors. these clips were taken from this TheBestofJikook video. (literally the best channel ever, they literally have done all the hard work of finding these clips through all the content. sorry about the video quality in advance.)

i'll actually start with the second video. clearly jikook are having a moment that jimin initiated. it's clear they are kinda in their own world here, so namjoon points to the camera instead to redirect "together" from jikook to the presumed fans. the members get loud, start yelling, tae sort of pushes jungkook. and as a viewer you're kinda left with a feeling of like "what the hell just happened."

the third video is similar. where jungkook was asked about jikook's 2017 tokyo trip but couldn't come up with an answer quick enough to "what was the most memorable part of the trip?" With this clip and the next, the members often chose random distractions to take away from jikook. this happened more when they were younger. here, hobi picks up something to give to jungkook and jimin starts raising his voice again, all sort of adding to the chaos to take away the spotlight on jikook.

the fourth video is more goofy if anything. when jimin says he will give jungkook a kiss for his birthday, the members turn his words in to "50 smooth shirts," again resorting to absurdity and loud noises to detach from jikook.

the first video is the most interesting to me. working with the hypothetical that bts while in interviews will detract from jikook when possible to make them look less obvious, this clip follows suit. jungkook asks jimin from a cue card, "do you have something you enjoy these days?" to which jimin replies, "waking up and seeing jungkookie."

immediately the members launch into claims that he's being unrealistic and booing him. in my opinion, hobi is the member that is jikook's giveaway, as he often is amused by them or smiling fondly rather than getting the second hand embarrassment the others portray. hobi acts as he typically does here, while the rest go on the defensive. and what is jimin's response to them? "its okay!" with a kiss blown in their direction.

the way i read this final bit is jimin knows they have to cover up his interactions with jungkook that may reveal too much, but this is his way of telling them, "it's okay, no worries, i wanted to say that out loud. it wasn't a mistake." i really don't know why else he would say that in response to being booed. and i think jungkook is the biggest dead giveaway as he just stares at the cue card, no reactions beside a short "ah."

i think they still do this on smaller scales now. moments stick out of jimin asking jungkook in the ptd dvd behind the scenes what time he fell asleep since jk didn't go to jimin's room that night. yoongi is sitting near them and says "so you guys hang out without me?" or namjoon saying "so that's why you guys don't invite me?" to jimin saying jikook often drink and talk about music for 3-4 hours. albeit one off comments rather than full distractions, but it is along the same lines of trying to divert the attention away from the duo and into the group.

these are just the moments i often think of that are glaringly obvious to me that bts try to divert attention from jikook. there may be more out there. am i being delusional? maybe. but i think this factors into why we haven't had a jikook live in years or why they opted for a travel show. a live can't be edited and there's no backup to distract from them if they share too much of themselves.

just some food for thought. thanks for the ask anon!!

#jikook #anon #im so sorry i yap

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abysskeeper · 6 months ago

Text

Chapters: 1/2 ->

Series: Love a second glance... 1/5 ->

Summary: “If there’s nothing else, then…?”

“There’s nothing else,” Lux confirmed as her smile broke containment. “Go on, go be gross with your wizard,” she said with a shooing motion.

Nox rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to be gross with him,” she scowled. “And he’s definitely not ‘my wizard.'"

***

Gale hasn't been the same since Elminster delivered the charge from Mystra. Nox has finally figured out how to offer a distraction, at least for a few hours. It does not go quite according to plan.

(Couple word cleanup of this; I'm only doing this now because I've decided it's part of a series I'll write eventually)

“And…there,” Nox mumbled to herself as she plunged the bottom of her staff into the damp ground.

She took a step back from the last of her work and glanced around to appraise the scene she had spent crafting in the last fifteen or so minutes. Mourning Frost stood straight up like a beacon in the darkness of the lands, illuminated by the magic of her Light cantrip while cold mist bellowed off of it from its enchantments. Behind her, part of the river remained frozen from a well-placed Cone of Cold spell and glowed mystically with the floating orbs from the Dancing Lights she casted in the area. It was as good as she was going to get given her surroundings. All in all, she was satisfied, and now all she had to do was move the modified Sleet Storm over here and everything would be set to go.

Everything but her nerves, at least.

Nox sighed and dusted her hands on her robes, taking a quiet moment to gather herself before embarking back up from the riverbank and into the central courtyard of the Last Light Inn. The courtyard itself looked exactly like the winter wonderland she was attempting to create down by the river, which was no surprise. The first, magical storm she conjured was still going, thick snowflakes still gently falling from the clouds above. The light from Isobel’s shield around the inn glinted off the snow and ice on the ground, making the whole area glitter, and there was a stillness in the air that she had only ever felt in the throes of winter’s weather.

The scene was far more befitting the lands closer to the Dale than the wilting town struggling under Shar’s shadows, but then, that was the entire point. She had wanted to create one night to celebrate their small victories and set everything else aside for a few hours.

There were significantly more celebrants indulging in the magical snow when she slipped away, though. In the time it took for her to go down and back, it seemed like most everyone had dispersed to tend to the rest of their nightly duties before going to bed. Only a few remained meandering about in the courtyard, and it took her a moment before she zeroed in on her sister standing off to the side, leaning against one of the makeshift barricades as she surveyed the area.

“Hey,” Nox greeted as she beelined for the paladin. “Are we alright up here?”

Lux hummed in thought for a moment, blue eyes trailing over the courtyard before she finally nodded. “I think so. Alfira and Lakrissa shepherded the kids to bed with no complaints, so that alone is a win,” she reported.

Nox smiled, managing to tire the kids out enough that there was no backtalk was a win.

“Bex and Danis, as well as some of the Harpers, helped clean up some of the smaller things and have gone off to bed. And Rolan actually wanted to speak with you,” Lux added. She shrugged and glanced at her, answering before Nox could ask, “Don’t know about what, Cal and Lia managed to convince him to go to bed too before you got back.”

“Probably for the best,” Nox muttered. Rolan wasn’t the most contentious relationship she’d ever had with a fellow wizard; in comparison to some he was downright friendly, but after their last encounter with him drunk on both the ale and his sorrows, she wasn’t particularly looking to have another conversation with him quite so soon.

“Probably,” Lux agreed. “Otherwise, everything else is back to normal. Jaheira’s barking orders at the Harpers again to get them back to work. Those not on the nightshift are settling in for the night like everyone else.”

“Not surprising,” Nox chuckled. They hadn’t known the High Harper for long, but it didn’t take any time at all to realize the woman was a hardass. She cared, that much was obvious too, but it was hidden behind three layers of steel. “But…good.”

Content with what her sister told her, Nox nodded to herself and raised her hand. With a wave, she felt the threads of the Weave relax between her fingers. In turn, the snow stopped falling from the sky and, a moment later, what was left coating the ground started to melt away.

Her gaze slipped from the dissipating storm and her eyes fell shut. Her attention turned towards the magic resonating from Mourning Frost, still standing some hundred or so meters away where she left it stuck in the ground. Her hand flicked, the Weave answering her movement by coalescing into a misty-white orb of concentrated magic resting in her palm. “Impero tibi,” Nox whispered, and the orb flickered and burst as she casted another, gentle storm over her staff.

She inhaled through her nose and opened her eyes, turning her focus back to Lux. Her sister was staring back at her curiously and biting the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning. Nox resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “If there’s nothing else, then…?” she asked instead.

“There’s nothing else,” Lux confirmed as her smile broke containment. “Go on, go be gross with your wizard,” she said with a shooing motion.

Nox did roll her eyes at that. “I’m not going to be gross with him,” she scowled. That definitely wasn’t the point of what she was trying to do, but Lux had been misconstruing her intentions ever since she brought the idea up with her. “And he’s definitely not ‘my wizard,’” she huffed.

“Sure, sure,” Lux agreed, definitely more in an effort of appeasement than genuine agreement. “I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who believes that, though.” Without waiting for a reply, she pushed off the barricade and started back for the main building of the inn.

“I…”

Nox cut herself off and followed after her sister, uncertain of how to refute that. It was an argument she was growing tired of having, and she’d resigned to the fact she couldn’t sway what other people believed about her and Gale’s relationship. She also couldn’t deny the small tingle the thought sent through her chest, the kind that made her happier than she cared to admit to, and the kind she would never give Lux the satisfaction of knowing she had.

“That’s not the point,” she said finally.

“I know,” Lux shrugged, “But it’s fun to rile you up.”

Nox responded the only way she knew how and stuck her tongue out at her sister; Lux just grinned back at her and shoved her shoulder. “Besides,” Lux added after a moment, “I do hope you succeed. I’d really like for Gale to take a step back from his whole ‘blowing himself up’ plan too. We all would.”

Right.

That wasn’t quite the goal she was trying to achieve tonight either, but it was a step in the process. Ever since they had encountered Elminster and he charged Gale with Mystra’s orders to end the Absolute, Nox had been driving herself to near insanity while trying to dissuade him from that path. She outright refused to believe the only way they could succeed was by sacrificing one of their own; it was utterly cruel and such a waste of a brilliant mind and even more brilliant man and she…well, she wasn’t focusing on how upsetting it was to her. Her feelings on it didn’t matter, Gale’s did.

Unfortunately, Gale was more than willing to go along with his marching orders. Not without remorse, the way his voice wavered whenever he spoke about the possibility and the way he grew increasingly frustrated with her every time she broached the subject were more than enough proof to her that he didn’t want to die, but he was still moving forward as if it was the best plan they had. She was beginning to run out of time, and as they stepped closer and closer to the answers they sought, she was growing increasingly frantic with her measures. Regrettably, she was also running out of options, the only two left she could think of were either outright forbidding him from blowing himself up or begging him not to—both things she was fully willing to do, but she was doubtful of their efficacy.

After all, how could her words rival those of a Goddess?

But that wasn’t the point. Before she could let herself spiral any further, Nox cut that line of thought off. Tonight was not about another attempt to dissuade Gale from sacrificing himself, at least not directly. She didn’t want to even think about the Orb or Mystra or Ketheric Thorm or the worms in their brains. Tonight was a break they all desperately needed from the tragedies surrounding them, and she refused to let her mood sour. Just for tonight, she wanted to be content.

“Yeah, I hope so too,” Nox mumbled finally, following after Lux as they entered the inn proper.

She took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the change in lighting before looking around. Most of their companions had moved back into the first floor of the inn after the festivities outside had concluded. Lae’zel had her sword in her lap and looked prepared to go out to Dammon’s setup to resharpen her blade. Wyll and Astarion sat adjacent to the bar, sharing a bottle of wine and discussing something or other, while Karlach and Shadwoheart started up a passing conversation with two Harpers in between their shifts. Halsin and Jaheira were nowhere to be seen, but that was hardly a surprise—the former had barely left Thaniel’s side since they had rescued the fey child, and the latter was too busy managing her Harpers to make too many appearances.

Which just left the man she was actually looking for.

Her gaze settled on Gale sitting in a char in the back corner of the main room. Predictably, he had a book in hand and a full goblet of wine sitting on the small table next to him. Whatever he had found to read interested him greatly, and Nox stopped to simply admire the way he studied the book, his brows knit in concentration, dark brown eyes flitting across the pages as they ravenously consumed every word, and his free hand drumming an insouciant rhythm on the arm of the chair. The warm light of the candles hanging around the main room glinted off his soft brown hair—illuminating the lighter strands and a few streaks of gray—and cast shadows across his form near perfectly.

Not for the first time, she was forced to acknowledge he was a strikingly handsome man. However, for the first time, she couldn’t help but consider how gods damned unfair it was that Gale was, by all accounts, the picturesque vision almost every one of her female peers dreamed would be their future husband.

Honestly, she never really understood the appeal in her youth. Why dream of a husband when they all still had so much potential in their fingertips? It likely helped that she never had cause to fantasize either; she did not have any suitors when she was younger and never lamented over that fact, it gave her far more time to endeavor in her studies. Now though, having it all laid out in front of her, and after enduring everything she and Gale had already been through and everything they still could go through together…she found herself much more amicable to the prospect.

“Some-body’s smit-ten!”

Immediately pulled from her thoughts, Nox jumped when her sister leaned over and sang in her ear. “I am not,” she hissed as she stepped back from Lux’s smirking face. Nox hadn’t even realized she was smiling until she felt her lips pull into a frown. “I am just…considering,” she insisted and subconsciously smoothed down her robes. “He looks…content. I don’t want to bother him if he’s settled in for the evening.”

It wasn’t a complete lie, at least.

“You, of all people, are hardly a bother to him,” Lux rolled her eyes. “Besides, we all just came in from your little snow party anyways, I doubt he’s ‘settled in’. And it’s better to interrupt him now before he’s really into whatever it is he’s reading.”

There was truth to her words, though Nox knew her twin well enough to catch what she was really saying. Lux wasn’t going to let her back out of her plan, which she had no intention of doing, never mind the way she tugged at her sleeves or felt a sharp churning in her gut at the mere thought of walking over to him and asking him to accompany her. What she intended for the evening was hardly that big of a deal, she just desperately wanted it to go well.

“Yeah…yeah, I know. You’re right,” Nox said and heaved a breath. She looked over to Lux with a shaky smile. “Wish me luck?”

“You don’t need luck, Noxy. You got this,” Lux smiled and bumped her hip. “You’ll be fine, so go,” she stressed and nudged her towards the back of the room. “I won’t wait up!” she added over her shoulder before sauntering towards Astarion and Wyll.

“Ugh,” Nox muttered under her breath, fully aware Lux didn’t hear her. Granted, she also knew Lux didn’t need to hear her to know that was her exact response; in the same way she didn’t need to hear Lux chuckling all the way to the bar for her to know that’s exactly what her sister did.

Everything else she said was correct though, Nox didn’t need luck. She was an incredibly skilled wizard with an incredibly detailed plan she had been mapping out during her downtime for the past several days. That aside, even if it weren’t the case, she was still making this attempt with the utmost sincerity, and that was all anyone could really ask for. There was nothing else she could do to ensure it went properly, aside from actually starting it and asking him to join her, which was—naturally—the most difficult part.

Blowing out one more, long breath to still her rattling nerves, she resolved herself and turned to make her way over to Gale.

As she approached, his brown eyes flickered up at her from the book, as one does when they notice movement in their periphery, before returning back to the pages in front of him. She stopped before him and watched as the realization registered in his brain of who was standing in front of him. His eyes lit up and he snapped the book shut.

“Oh, Nox! Hello,” Gale greeted cheerily. He set the book in his lap and smiled up at her. “After your celebration outside, I figured you would retire for the evening.”

“It’s tempting, believe me,” Nox answered with a nervous chuckle.

She could feel the tendrils of exhaustion starting to creep into the edges of her mind—serving more as a reminder she was still not as powerful as she once was rather than as a sign she should stop—but she was choosing to ignore them. She knew she was overexerting herself slightly, but she had already decided it was worth it. The smiles from the refugees and the Harpers were enough alone, and hopefully this would be well worth it as well.

“But…the night isn’t over for me quite yet,” she continued. Realizing that sounded a little more ominous than she intended, she wrung her hands and hastily added, “Well…for us…I guess. I was hoping to talk with you, actually. Do…do you have a moment?”

“Of course. Anything for you,” Gale agreed, and she chose not to ruminate on how easily he said it—as if the thought was second nature. He quickly leafed through the book to mark the page he was on before closing it once more and setting it on the side table next to his wine. “What can I do for you?” he asked, warm brown eyes now solely focused on her.

Gods, how had she not noticed this before? Maybe Lux was right. The only things Nox had ever witnessed him focus on as intently as her right now were his spells on the battlefield, whatever book was lucky enough to capture his complete interest, and his own research and studies. Not that he wasn’t invested in whatever he was doing at any given time, but this was…different. It was more intense, more singularly driven than he usually was, as if the rest of the world simply melted away for him. The inn could spontaneously combust right now, and she wasn’t fully convinced Gale would notice.

You wouldn’t either. Focus, Nox.

“Indulge me?” she asked in return. She pointed behind her towards the inn’s front door and added with a sheepish smile, “I…would appreciate some privacy.”

Gale’s brow rose as his gaze shifted from her towards the door behind her, and then back again. The longer he stared, the hotter she could feel the flames of embarrassment licking at the tips of her ears as she was forced to consider what she just said. She couldn’t really blame him for his silent questioning, that wasn’t the best way to ask and she knew it, but he had been through this with her enough by now to know that any potential innuendo or suggestion she just made wasn’t her intent.

“Very well,” he agreed and rose to his feet before she could clarify. “I must admit, I am intrigued about what you have in mind.”

“Probably not what I just implied,” Nox grumbled. She turned and started for the entrance of the inn, in part to lead the way down to the riverbank, and in part so he couldn’t watch her attempt to contain her blush. She sighed, mumbling, “But by now I am used to making an arse of myself in front of you.”

Gale laughed behind her. “You’re hardly an arse, Nox. I know that is not what you meant,” he reassured. “And my curiosity is genuine. You always come to me with the most fascinating problems or topics of conversation, time spent with you is always quite stimulating, and thus is always time well-spent…in my opinion.”

Instead of containing her blush, she could feel her ears growing hotter with every word he spoke. “Well, if nothing else I can assure you I’m not coming to you with a problem,” Nox answered after a moment. She brushed some hair from her face towards her ears, hoping maybe it would conceal some of the evidence of her embarrassment. “I simply have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?” he echoed as he followed after her out the door. “Well, that is…” As he strode up beside her, he grimaced and sighed before inevitably accepting his words were failing him. “…Unexpected.”

Despite herself, Nox couldn’t help but to laugh, and the bundle of nerves sitting in her stomach started unraveling. He had that effect on her, even his blunders were unwittingly charming. “I should certainly hope so, given the nature of surprises,” she teased and threw a grin up at him.

“You know, I am regularly accused of grand verbosity, as most wizards are. I’ve probably had the complaint lobbed at me more than some of the greatest scholars of the realms, and I still somehow so often flounder it with you, Moon Mage,” Gale huffed lightly. “I swear I was cursed not long after making your acquaintance.”

“It’s oft said simplicity is the key to success,” she pointed out, unable to wipe the playful smile off her face. “It is hardly my fault that you do not heed such advice.”

“I suppose there is some merit to advice like that when it is so commonly proffered, and now offered again from someone as intelligent as you,” he sighed with an overexaggerated roll of his eyes. “Fine, then I’ll ask plainly: where are you taking me? What is this surprise?”

Nox tutted and shook her head. “That’s hardly the nature of surprises either,” she answered, but motioned for him to follow her through the courtyard. “You’ll find out soon enough. Come, we’re not going far.”

If Gale had any further, burning curiosities, he did not voice them. He followed after her through the courtyard of the inn and down the slope to the riverbank without another word. She only had to urge him on once, gently tugging on his forearm when he paused to assess the fact the temperature was noticeably dropping as they moved closer to the river. She finally allowed him to stop completely when the results of her magic came into view.

“Nox…?” he asked softly. His footsteps came to a halt with a crunch on the edges of the snow and ice on the ground.

She glanced towards the new, snowy winter wonderland she had created and took in the scene again. Perhaps it wasn’t as subtle as she would have liked, but it was far too late to change anything else now. It was obviously different to the snowy evening she gave the tieflings and Harpers, being a smaller area and more dimly lit. Looking at it again, it was clearly much more intimate, and with that realization she could feel panic seize her throat. It wasn’t that she minded if it was read like that—she should mind, but she didn’t—but if Gale considered it that way and it was not what he wanted, then she would suddenly have a lot of backtracking and explaining to do before she could even attempt to get him to enjoy it, which she certainly hadn’t planned for and had no idea where to even begin—

As quickly as it came, the panic subsided the moment she turned back to address him. Gale was staring up at the gentle snowfall with thinly veiled awe, the light of his smile reaching his eyes as he held out his hand to catch a few flakes on his palm. Nox felt every muscle ease at the sight, and her heart melted more as she watched him hold out his other hand to catch even more of the snow. He had a similar reaction in the courtyard earlier when he first saw the conjured snowfall with the others, but it was interrupted by everyone else also marveling and having fun. Now they were alone—uninterrupted—and the sight of his unabashed joy made all of this preparation worth it on its own.

When he turned his gaze back on her, he somehow only brightened more. “What is all this?”

“Oh, you know…” She shrugged one shoulder sheepishly and swept her eyes over the snow again. “I wanted a party for two is all, just for a little while,” she answered after a moment. “I know it’s nothing compared to Waterdhavian winters,” she added quietly, “But as I said earlier, I figured any small bit of wonder in this land of bleakness was a worthy endeavor.”

“This is no small bit of wonder, Nox,” Gale said with a small shake of his head. He brushed his hands together before resting one gently on her shoulder. “This is magnificent. Truly magical in every sense of the word.”

Something fluttered in her chest at the praise. “I’m glad you think so,” Nox said, relief and sincerity washing through her. She held his gaze with a smile, indulging the warmth blooming in her chest for a few moments, before the realization rang out in her mind that she could simply stay like this forever, but the moment was stretching for too long.

“However…” She cleared her throat and took a reluctant step away from him. “In addition to being pretty, it is also serving a purpose. Follow me.”

She walked over to the bag she left sitting by one of the rocks and knelt down to dust off the coating of snow resting on top. “You’re going to need these,” she declared, pulling a pair of boots out of the bag. She gave them a once over before holding them out for him to take.

Gale also gave them a look over, very obviously feeling the Weave emanating from them. “And these are…?” he asked, taking them from her and turning them over in his hands.

“I’m calling them the Ice Stompers.” That alone should tell him what they were, but she decided to add some context. “Do you remember how I was using the excuse of needing to train my transmuting skills in order to give you more items to consume for the Orb?” she asked and closed the bag.

“Oh, so you are admitting the Orb was the primary reason now?” he asked lightly.

Nox shrugged again and stood back up, brushing snow off of the lower parts of her robes. “I figured you were never fooled, and it is in the distant past…you can’t scold me or try to dissuade me from making the effort now,” she answered. “Also, beside the point. That endeavor did also better my transmutation skills. We…’lost’ the last pair of boots we had that worked well against difficult terrain—” ‘Lost’ was the kinder way of putting it to him, but his lips still pulled into a frown. “—So, I made a new pair. Specifically for ice, in this case.”

“Alright…” Gale said slowly, clearly trying to piece together why that was the case. Despite his confusion, he still did as she asked, dropping one of the boots to the ground and toeing out of his own before stepping into it.

“Do they fit?” Nox asked, head tilting as she examined the boot he now wore. She had gone through a lot of trouble to ensure the size of his boots without letting him onto anything, and she had a hunch the ‘unspecified favor’ she now owed Astarion was going to cost her. If the intel was correct though, then she would happily pay any price.

“They do,” he nodded before repeating the process with the other boot. “Though, I am still unclear as to why I need them.”

“Well…”

It was easier to show him. Without answering, she stepped around him and walked to the part of the river she froze. Tentatively, she placed a foot on the ice and tested its sturdiness before putting her full weight into the step. Certain it was frozen enough by now to not give away, she confidently strode fully onto the ice and slid a bit before turning around and grinning at him, hand outstretched.

Gale stared at her incredulously for several seconds, before eyeing the ice skeptically and then looking back up at her with the same, unconvinced gaze. “You are aware my knees are liable to give way at any moment, correct? Especially in a cold snap such as this?”

It was about the reaction she expected from him. “You do not get to play the old age card to an elf, Gale,” Nox teased.

“I rather think I do, given the biological differences in our aging processes.”

Despite his obvious reticence, Gale still walked over to her, though kept his feet firmly rooted to the snowy grass. “Nox, I know of your confidence on the ice, given your predilection towards the element, so surely by now you must know of my lack thereof? I am hardly as graceful as you,” he said and shot her a small, wry smile. “Might I inquire as to why you thought of this for your ‘party of two’?”

That was also about what she expected in terms of a reaction. She figured he would be reluctant—and she couldn’t entirely blame him—but she had hoped maybe he would humor her, just this once. Nox sighed, attempting not to let too much disappointment shine on her face, but before she could drop her hand, his palm slid against hers. She looked down at their hands and then up to his face, brow raised in question. Gale hadn’t moved from the grass, but one side of his mouth tipped upwards, and he shrugged.

Alright, if he wasn’t fully against the idea, then she could at least work with that. “Do you want the real answer?” she asked. “Or do you want the logical answer I knew I needed to come up with for when you looked at me like I had finally lost my mind at the mere suggestion?”

“Oh, I didn’t expect to have a choice,” Gale chuckled. After thinking it over for a second, he decided, “Let’s start with the logical answer.”

“That’s simple,” she said and held up her finger. “One, we are going to be squaring off against an allegedly immortal man who is more than likely the reason—or part of the reason—we have illithid tadpoles in our heads. Two—” She held up another finger. “—I am, among other things, a wizard predisposed towards ice magic. I am, however, not as well-trained of an evoker as you, and my spells are not always meticulously sculpted.”

She held up a third finger, and with her other hand, tugged on his to pull herself closer to him. “And three, as you’ve already implied, you, dear Wizard of Waterdeep,” she addressed him with a poke to his chest, “Are not the most graceful when it comes to keeping your balance…to put it delicately. You could use some practice before we face our foe, lest you instead wind up falling on your face from a spell I needed to cast.”

“Hm…”

He was mulling over her answer with serious consideration, but as his brown eyes narrowed in thought, she could see a familiar, playful spark igniting under the veneer of genuine deliberation. “I take some offense to that, but as they are my own words and your logic is sound, I suppose I cannot refute it,” he relented.

Given how their debates had gone in the past, that was almost too easy. Still, Nox smirked, rather pleased it hadn’t taken that much to convince him. Yet, her victory was cut short when she stepped back to pull him onto the ice, and instead he pulled her right back to stand in front of him.

“Except,” he countered, his own smile slipping through, “It does beg the question that if you are so concerned over this, why are you not training your spell sculpting in order to be more accommodating?”

Her smirk fell into a pout, and she huffed. “Of these two complications, one is much easier to remedy in the short term,” she pointed out. “I chose the quicker option for our current timeline. Unless you would rather explain to everyone else why we are stalling through the several nights it would take for me to be able to utilize spell sculpting as naturally as I do arcane warding?”

“I would gladly assist you with that, you know,” Gale offered. “You are a quick study on what few skills you do not already possess. It would hardly take any time at all.”

“And you are insufferable,” Nox muttered under her breath, though it carried no bite whatsoever. Something he acknowledged if the way his lips twitched upward was any indication. He enjoyed teasing her far too much. “Alright, how about this, then?” she asked and smiled sweetly up at him. “Step on the ice now, and I swear we will start tomorrow evening.”

Gale laughed, but finally conceded to her request. Hesitantly, he placed one foot on the ice, followed closely by the other. His grip tightened around her hand as she stepped back and he slid in front of her. Nox offered her other hand, which he took readily, before she took another step and pulled him along with her. His legs shook some with the effort to stay steady, but the magic she embedded in the boots held to its purpose of keeping him upright.

“See?” Nox giggled, delighted as they started moving—albeit slowly—around the frozen portion of the river. Her eyes trailed from watching his feet up to meet Gale’s gaze, which rested pleasantly on her. “It’s not so bad, right?”

“No, it isn’t,” he agreed quietly. “Few things are with you.”

He held her stare and she felt as though she were just caught under a Charm spell of his, incapable of glancing away from his purposeful gaze while the sweet words he offered repeated in her mind. Had her presence truly eased him that much? Before she could offer a response, or even process what to make of what he said, one of his legs wobbled again and he leaned forward, his hands pressing harder against hers to steady himself once more.

“Right…well…” Gale coughed to clear his throat. “Now that I have conceded to your wishes, may I ask what the real answer is?”

“Of course,” she agreed, though her voice was distant.

She said nothing for a few moments, instead letting them gain a bit more momentum as she took the steps to mentally shake herself from her temporary stupor. Once her shock from the moment had passed—and she quickly quelled her disappointment over the fact he was no longer gazing at her—she settled on taking her own advice regarding simplicity from earlier. She let go of one of his hands and swung around, gliding beside him.

“Gale…when was the last time you simply had fun with magic?”

“What?” Gale sputtered, nearly tripping over himself with how quickly he turned to look back at her. She put an arm around his waist to steady him, then met his gaze once he settled from his flailing. “I enjoy magic and indulging the Weave every day,” he said quickly. “I thought you would understand that better than anyone.”

“I do, obviously,” she reassured him. “I enjoy orchestrating the Weave as much as the next mage whenever it is necessary, but that isn’t what I meant.”

She let go of his waist after she was assured he was steady again, then took a few steps ahead to actually skate across the ice rather than simply sliding. When she turned around to face him, she pointed at his feet to encourage him to follow suit.

“What I meant is exactly what I asked: when was the last time you used magic for fun?” she clarified. “Not for battling purposes, not for healing or taking care of others, and not for maintaining or proving your place in society. When did you last use magic exclusively for entertainment?”

“Ah…well…”

In place of giving an answer, he mimicked her motions and took a step on the ice. When he didn’t immediately slip, he looked down at his own feet in amazement, and then took another step. He smiled up at her, pride written across his face from managing to skate without falling, only for it to slowly falter and sober as he reconsidered her question.

“I…should suppose it has been a while, under those conditions,” he admitted. “Not since I was with Mystra, I think…though I did not believe you wished to hear more about that, and honestly I would much prefer not speaking on it further now, all things considered.”

Nox sighed. He was correct in his assumptions that she did not want to hear more about his relationship with Mystra—just mention of the Goddess made her almost recoil—but he still wasn’t understanding what she was asking. “That is fair, and also not what I meant. I meant fun, Gale,” she stressed the word to impart its meaning. “Something just for you, something exclusively for your enjoyment, without trying to impress or entertain anyone else.”

Neither of them had explicitly said it, but it was obvious to her at least that during his entire relationship with the Goddess of Magic, Gale was not doing anything without the express intent of impressing her. It was understandable, with him being a mortal and her being a goddess, but the concept was…well it was why it enraged her so. It was upsetting, and the damage was clearly done. That was definitely not what she meant, that ultimately wasn’t fun.

He fell quiet again as he reconsidered her extra clarification, half-skating and half-sliding after her. She watched as his face continued to fall deeper into a frown, and she wondered if he could hear her heart cracking in response in the silence between them.

“It…has been quite a while, then.”

“As I suspected,” Nox muttered. She skated back to his side and reached out, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze before looking up at him with a small, weary smile. “If it is any consolation, it’s the same for me as well.”

“I wouldn’t call that consolatory,” he said after a moment. He grasped her hand and looked down at her with a similar, exhausted smile. “But I suppose I am glad—and relatively unsurprised—to hear I am not alone.”

They both fell silent for several minutes, skating side by side and letting the shared sentiment rest between them as they lapped the frozen part of the river a few times. Nox watched him carefully as they went, thoughts straying further from the somewhat depressing, shared reality between them. Instead, her mind turned towards the man beside her now. Gale still stumbled here and there but was beginning to get his legs under him even compared to when he first stepped onto the ice. She probably wouldn’t need to watch over him like this for much longer, and that was a shame.

Winter…suited him, she decided. Snowflakes dotted his hair and there was a light, white dusting covering his shoulders, contrasting beautifully against his lightly tanned skin and the dark violet fabric of his robes. The lights of her cantrips shone and reflected in his eyes and in the cold air around him, giving him an even greater mystical—ethereal, even—appearance. The concentration etched into his face as he focused on his balance was equal parts admirable and adorable, though it did nothing to hide the quiet joy radiating from the small, perhaps subconscious, upwards curve of his lips or the wonder as he glanced up at the gentle snowfall.

This was triumph. She was positively giddy this had worked out exactly as she wished, and it took much of her self-control to not spontaneously burst out into giggles from what felt like a thousand butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She kept it contained, mostly because she found her attention drawn in by having the chance to study him in a moment of solitude. For the second time in one night, Nox was struck yet again by the fact that he was, by all accounts, an incredibly handsome man. A fact that was accompanied by the words her sister had spoken to her earlier in the evening.

Smitten. Was that…was that truly what this was?

“Is something wrong?”

Gale’s voice pulled her from her ruminations, and she blinked up at him to find him looking back down at her, bemused.

Right, she was staring.

“No, no. No, nothing’s wrong,” she said quickly. “It’s just…uh…you’re—” Incredibly attractive and it is surprisingly distracting. “—You’re getting better,” she shrugged weakly.

“Oh! I am glad you believe so! I did not want to say anything and risk making a fool of myself if you disagreed, but I was thinking the same,” he chuckled. “The Ice Stompers are a significant help, naturally. If you told me to do this without them, I’m sure I’d still be as stumbling as a baby fawn learning to walk, but I believe I am starting to get a feel for the movements,” he smiled and squeezed her hand again. “And I will admit it is rather enjoyable to be able to accompany you.”

She grinned upon hearing that, beyond thrilled to hear him confirm her initial purpose was a success. “Excellent!” she beamed. Immediately, she registered her enthusiasm as being a little too much and she glanced away. “That’s…that is all I was looking for,” she added, schooling her voice into a calmer tone. “I am incredibly glad to hear it.”

Gale chuckled again and pulled her closer to his side, the action urging her to look back at him. He smiled down at her with warm, contemplative eyes languidly taking her in, and she was yet again mesmerized by how he appeared under the dim lights and gently falling snow. Now, she was also pulled in by how he looked at her: patient, understanding, and with a warmth she could never identify beyond how it made her stomach flip.

“It has been a while for you as well, hasn’t it?” Gale mused after a few moments of thoughtful silence.

“It…” She blinked. “…Pardon?” she fumbled, bewildered as her mind caught up with what he said.

“Apologies, I meant no insult,” he clarified quickly. “I just do not believe I have ever seen you look this…light before.” He immediately frowned and shook his head. “By which I mean, you are usually much more focused and intense with…well, just about everything you do. It is admirable and amazing to witness, mind you! But…”

His eyes softened when he dared to meet her befuddled gaze again. “I have never seen you truly smile like this before, and it is an honor to catch more than a mere glimpse of it. Your smile is a breathtaking sight—you are a breathtaking sight!—but it does put much into perspective.”

“…Oh,” Nox muttered, unable to piece together much else. Her head swam with his words, both the compliment—he liked her smile—and at the underlying implication of what he said. That he knew her enough by now to visibly see she was speaking the truth earlier.

His free hand swung out, motioning towards their surroundings and recentering her on the present moment instead of her runaway thoughts. “You said yourself that it has been a while since you have simply had fun with magic, as well,” Gale repeated softly.

“It is rather obvious when you know, isn’t it?” she asked with an awkward laugh. After a moment, a long sigh escaped her—as much of an acknowledgment of his question as it was to calm her own nerves—and she nodded. “It has been a while; I assure you I was not lying just to sympathize.”

“Then, may I pose your question back to you?” he asked tentatively.

“I…suppose that is only fair,” Nox agreed. It was probably in her best interest to have a change in subject and a topic to focus her thoughts on anyways. “Even though you technically have not yet answered. ‘A while’ is not a satisfactory answer,” she pointed out lightly.

Despite her momentary distraction throwing her completely off-kilter, she had prepared an answer for this question. She had expected he would inquire about her as well simply because, at worst, Gale was never afraid to pose her prying questions back to her, which she respected him all the more for. And at best…he cared for her the same way she cared for him. Either way, she had already figured she would need to answer this question for herself tonight as well.

“Honestly? The night we shared the Weave together was the most fun I have had with magic in a long, long while,” Nox said.

Gale snorted in response and quirked a brow. “I do not believe that night fits the criteria you placed on me. As I recall it, you were trying to upstage me for most of the evening,” he pointed out.

“Indeed I was! And that was the most fun I’ve had in ages!” When he frowned at her, she shook her head and nudged him lightly, enough to tease but not enough to send him sprawling on the ice. “I’m kidding…because you are correct,” she said, sobering. “I did spend most of that night trying to one up and impress you, mostly because I believed I still had something to prove to you. You were the first of our peers in over fifty years who, once you knew who I was, decided I didn’t have something to prove, after all.”

“And I still believe most of our peers are fools for that alone,” Gale interjected.

She flashed him an appreciative smile before continuing, “And yet…despite that, that night was also the first spark in reminding me how much I enjoyed magic on its own.” She glanced down at their still joined hands, her smile slipping with her thoughts. “It was a wake-up call for me to realize how long it had truly been since I last genuinely enjoyed magic for magic. It was also a blatant reminder for how much I used to enjoy sharing it with others, and a blatant contrast for how…”

Nox sighed, her eyes drifting towards the small expanse of snow and ice before them. “Well…for how isolating it has been since my mother passed, if I’m to be honest,” she admitted, her voice nearly cracking. It was a truth she had known for years, one she let lie dormant in the back of her mind, but not one she had ever voiced aloud before. It was high time to acknowledge it, she could acknowledge it now, because of him.

Gale’s hand squeezed around hers, but she didn’t dare look up. She had no desire to cry tonight, and she knew she could get through this small explanation without doing so, so long as she did not look up. If she saw the sympathy shining in his eyes—something she knew would be there no matter what—she wasn’t positive she would be able to hold back.

“I still have people, I know. Lux has quite literally been by my side since we were born, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for the Elturian refugees, I’ve made pleasant acquaintances all along the Sword Coast during my travels, and even now we have our little party of misfits whom I’ve grown to love. I’m not alone…but it’s not the same,” she sighed again. “Magic is the biggest part of my life, and it’s not the same when you can’t share something so instrumental to yourself with others. Or you can share it, but you know they can’t understand it in the way you need them to. I at least had Kalden for a time, but then I lost him in Avernus and…”

She gave one, sharp shake of her head and pulled back the tears pricking her eyes before they started flowing. In the back of her mind, she acknowledged this was probably the most she had spoken about herself since they had met, and the most she had spoken about all she had been through ever. It was not a topic she intended to discuss in full tonight, and not one she wanted to dwell on any longer than necessary, but one she knew she needed to explain—at least in part—in order to impart the sincerity of what she was about to admit. Vulnerability was, unfortunately, the only way she could think of to do as she needed.

Instead of continuing, she took a large breath and squared her shoulders before turning to look back up at Gale. He was watching her silently—a rarity for him—with the sympathy she knew would be there blazing in his eyes and a firm grip on her hand in reassurance.

“My point,” Nox said, forcing the shakiness from her voice. “My point is that you threw me a lifeline that night, Gale. One I didn’t even know I needed until I found myself clinging to it days later.”

“Nox.”

Gale’s hand tightened around hers as he slowed to a stop. He pulled her to stand in front of him once more and let go of her hand to gently reach out and grip both of her arms. “I had no idea that night meant that much to you,” he whispered. His eyes widened a bit with his words, and he was quick to add, “Make no mistake, I enjoyed it immensely and it has quickly become one of my fondest memories, but I never realized you regarded it as highly as you did.”

She gave him a small smile to assuage his concerns. She knew he was being genuine and not simply stating that to appease her, just as she knew that night likely did mean a great deal to him as well.

“No words could properly convey just how immeasurably flattered I am to hear that you do regard that night as you say,” he continued. His thumbs brushed over her shoulders, tracing circles into the bit of snow clinging to her robes. “And I am beyond grateful to know I was able to offer you such safety, however accidentally it was at the time.”

“How accidental it was is the beauty of it, I think,” Nox softly said. It was true they both had ulterior motives that night, but the connection they forged despite that was undeniably ironclad and had genuinely become that lifeline for her. There was something deeply poetic to it that she acknowledged but couldn’t articulate. “And it is also what ultimately led us here. It was what ultimately made me reflect, on myself of course, but also on you.”

“On me?”

She nodded and brought a hand up to lightly rest over one of his, delicately tracing down the backs of his fingers with her own. “The more you spoke of your own experiences—how few, if any, friends you had, how you were isolated away from the world you should have been a part of, the entirety of Mystra and the Orb—the more it felt…familiar. Not exactly the same, but enough. And the more it felt familiar, the more I wished to offer the same to you as you did for me.”

“Oh…” Gale breathed out. “I…” He stumbled over his words, a breathy laugh pushing past his lips instead. “I find myself rather lacking in the proper words at the moment. A year’s worth of isolation and no one, aside from Tara, ever so much as thought to do the same for me as you are now…”

“I know,” she whispered while gently threading her fingers through his. “You don’t have to say anything. Gods above, I rarely have the proper words for a moment and am often rendered silent, it is nice to have the tables turned for once,” she joked.

The corners of his eyes crinkled when he grinned at her, and she saw the twinkle of a few tears glimmering in the soft light of her magic. He said nothing further though, simply squeezed her fingers with his in silent appreciation.

“But truly, we all need a break,” Nox continued. She tilted her head to lay her cheek on their joined hands resting on her shoulder. “It has just been rather obvious that you had a higher need than the rest of us, all things considered. So, I wished to offer what I could, recognizing that I was uniquely capable amongst our friends in that regard. A wizard would know best what a wizard needs, after all.”

“It would certainly appear so,” he agreed quietly with a subtle nod.

His eyes trailed from hers down to where their hands rested under her cheek, and she moved her head back when she felt his hand shift against her shoulder. She watched, curious, as he clutched her hand and drew it towards his face. She only had a moment of recognition before his thumb traced down her palm and he leaned forward slightly, closing the distance between her hand and his lips.

“Oh.” The startled gasp escaped her without warning when he placed a gentle kiss on the back of her hand. Her wide eyes looked up from their hands to find a set of warm, brown eyes staring back at her, positively entranced. “Okay…”

“Your sentiment is well-received, Nox,” Gale mumbled, lips ghosting over her skin as his warm breath flitted down the back of her hand and wrist. “And I cherish it well beyond what I am able to properly voice.”

“I am more than satisfied with knowing you are enjoying yourself, though I assure you it’s—” Her lips parted with another sharp intake of breath when he moved up, pressing a kiss to the base of her middle finger. Nox bit down on her bottom lip, barely catching an overwhelmingly exuberant giggle before it bubbled out. A smile still tugged at the corners of her mouth. “—It was truly no trouble at all, hardly worthy of such gratitude.”

“That you genuinely believe it to be no trouble means it is only all the more worthy,” he refuted softly, before kissing her finger one more time and meeting her gaze again. She saw the hints of his smirk hiding behind their hands before he added, “Even if I cannot quite fathom why you believed it was a good idea to bring an old wizard with bad knees into such a cold snap.”

She was lightheaded, her heart ready to burst with the happiness from knowing she was successful and all the praises he was offering her. She couldn’t prevent herself from laughing this time at the absurdity of his teasing in comparison to everything else. “Oh, come off it! You’re hardly old, and you’ve been perfectly fine since we started,” Nox scoffed. With her hand still in his, she pulled him back into moving again as she resumed skating. “You’re truly not going to let this go, are you?”

“It is simply an interesting choice, is all I am implying,” Gale chuckled. He allowed her to guide him back on the ice, though. “And a far cry different than sharing the Weave.”

“Naturally. I had to figure out something different to sharing the Weave, you already laid claim to that,” she responded as if it were obvious. “So, I got to brainstorming and…admittedly, probably lost myself to the nostalgia of everything else.”

His fingers threaded through hers as they fell into a comfortable speed gliding around the ice once more. He appeared confident enough by now that he likely didn’t her as a safety net anymore, but she was in no spot to complain that he was still holding her hand.

“The truth is…I did this often as a child,” Nox admitted. She glanced up at him for a brief moment, and then turned her attention to the falling snow. “I was…not the most social of individuals in my youth—” That was the kinder way to put it. “—I was…different. There are not many elves in Elturel, and not many children were quite as taken with their studies as I was. So when Lux wasn’t around, I often found myself alone with nothing to do, and taken with my studies as I was, practicing what I could of my magic helped ease the boredom and loneliness.”

She smiled as her face turned upward, a few flakes landing on her nose and cheeks. After a moment, she tugged him forward, pulling him towards the center of her magical winter. “It also helped for me to create my isolation in the form of something beautiful. You have enjoyed many a Waterdhavian winters, have you not?” she asked, slowing to stand in the middle of the icy patch on the river.

“Several during my time, yes,” Gale answered.

“Then you understand what it is like to stand in a snowstorm in the middle of the night?” she asked softly, violet eyes searching his face in earnest. When he opened his mouth to answer, she held up a finger and lightly shook her head. “You know the stillness of it? To be surrounded by nothing but the darkness of the night and the white of the snow? To hear nothing but the quiet snowfall mixed with the sounds of your own breath?”

He didn’t try to speak again, and her hand slowly returned to her side. Instead, his gaze focused on hers as their breaths fell in sync. In place of their words, the slight patter of snowflakes against the ice could be heard interspersed between every quiet inhale and exhale they took. There was nothing else, no sound coming from the Last Light Inn or the ravaged, cursed lands around Moonrise Towers. No screams, no laughs, no fighting or struggling for survival.

For one, blissful moment, it was just her and Gale and the quiet snowfall.

It was the stillness she spoke of, the one she knew resided in her heart and the one she had conjured for herself a hundred times. The one she never realized until now—until her chest tightened the longer she gazed up at him in this moment—she had been aching to share with another who would understand.

And Gale did understand, given how his hand tightened around hers and given just how easily his face smoothed into a wonderful tenderness the longer he smiled down at her. Hesitantly, his other hand reached out and gently grabbed at her waist, drawing her just the slightest bit closer. When she didn’t resist—when she couldn’t resist with how erratically her heart beat at the gesture—he settled his hand on her hip and gave the slightest bit of a nod.

“Can you feel it now? How it is to be a single, solitary creature witnessing something marvelous?” she breathed out, her words catching a few times. “To witness something mystical and so tremendously beautiful you only have the opportunity to experience it in the utmost privacy away from the world around you?”

His eyes dipped, slowly trailing down her form and back up again in admiration and—if she dared believe it—longing. “I have always found winter beautiful, but never quite to this degree,” Gale said, barely above a whisper. “Though with you—” He looked over her again as he cleared his throat, presumably to remove the roughness from his voice. “—With how you speak of it, I certainly understand the appeal.”

She spared a sidelong glance towards the snow, her smile light as her face warmed. “It is likely the predisposition towards ice magic that makes me speak of winter as if I’m insane,” Nox joked, feeling an indescribable need to lessen her words for a reason she couldn’t quite place. Embarrassment hung off of her shoulders, but it was not the type she was used to feeling in the face of her own earnestness. It was softer now, and she didn’t quite mind its presence as much.

“I enjoyed it immensely when I was younger, if that isn’t obvious,” she chuckled. “I still immensely enjoy being able to conjure my own personal winter to dance and play in as I see fit. But it’s been well over fifty years since I have last indulged myself, and even then…the last time I did, it wasn’t for myself.”

The last time she had done this had been for Kalden, for his first date with his future wife. It was a fact she briefly acknowledged when the idea first struck her and then one she did not consider again. She was rather keen on avoiding it altogether, having no desire to unpack the implications of that fact, or even let on that any implications existed at all.

“So, with some reflection accidentally brought on by you, I decided it was time to try again,” Nox said instead. “And I thought that this time, perhaps I could share a little piece of my own, personal serenity. I figured, perhaps, you needed it more than I did.”

Gale didn’t respond immediately, choosing instead to study her silently with a warm, near-hypnotic gaze. She was enraptured again, unable to glance away from his penetrating, brown eyes as he stared into her own, and unable to speak on anything more. He searched her eyes as if he was looking for an answer to a question he hadn’t voiced, and she was uncertain as to what that could possibly be. When he evidently found whatever it was he sought from her gaze, he finally ducked his head and chuckled in embarrassment.

“I…suppose I should rescind my prior complaints,” he muttered. His head was still bowed, but he glanced over at her from his position and gave her an apologetic smile. “That is monumentally thoughtful, and as only you are wont to do, you have endeared me entirely to the concept.”

She blinked, caught off guard that he was even concerned about that. “You were only joking, I know,” she reassured and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I took no offense, I swear.”

His eyes slid to look at her hand, then back to her face. “Still, this is sincerely one of the most heartfelt things anyone has ever given me,” he said and straightened. “If I had understood how much it meant to you…”

“It’s fine, Gale,” Nox cut him off with a small laugh. “You didn’t have the context because I never gave it to you, and I understand how it could have been easily misconstrued.” She sighed quietly and squeezed his shoulder. “You know, I only ever intended this to be for you.”

It was Gale’s turn to be caught off guard, if how he stared down at her was any indicator. “How do you mean, exactly?”

“The stuff earlier with the refugees and the Harpers?” she asked rhetorically and then shook her head. “That wasn’t in my plan. This was only ever meant for you, but after rescuing the prisoners and reuniting everyone, the atmosphere still felt quite dour.” Understandably so, they had rescued everyone from Moonrise Towers, but that didn’t eliminate the ordeal and all the prisoners had already been through. “I felt obligated to do…well, something, and I already had most of the logistics of it worked out. It wasn’t…this…”

Nox sighed, motioning around them at the snow and lights. “It wasn’t the quiet and the solitude, it wasn’t me trying to impart the peace the snow grants me, but it was a few hours of playful mischief with some winter weather,” she shrugged, “I understand how you could have believed I was asking for the same with you.”

“You care for the refugees a great deal,” Gale said, something like realization lighting up behind his eyes.

“I…do,” she agreed with just a touch of hesitation. “I’ve never made that a secret.”

“Then…I would not be presumptuous to say you also care for me a great deal,” he added quietly. It wasn’t quite a question—if anything it was the second half to a logic puzzle—but his desire for an answer was evident.

“I…suppose,” she agreed tentatively.

She immediately regretted the words the moment they left her lips. That answer was far too hesitant, far too uncertain for a truth she had readily accepted for well over a month now. He deserved to know that truth if he was questioning it. She deserved to say it wholly.

“Yes, I do,” Nox corrected after a moment, sounding much more determined in her answer. “And if you have to question that, I suppose I’ve made that more of a secret than I’ve intended.”

“Or perhaps I was simply refusing to believe what was in front of me,” Gale mumbled, his mind obviously distantly in his thoughts. As if shaking himself, his eyes refocused on her with a sudden clarity, a renewed brightness, and a subtle hint of absolute terror. Her heart flopped over in her chest.

“I understand now, Nox,” he said softly.

After flopping over, her heart leapt into her throat as her wavering gaze snapped up to meet his, startled by his words. “Understand…what, exactly?” she forced out. What was there to understand?

“I understand…” His eyes searched hers again while he trailed off. She probably would have accosted anyone other than Gale, but with him, all she could do was stare back, mystified.

After a moment, he released a breath and shook his head. “I…understand why they call you Archmage,” he answered with a weak smile.

Disappointment dropped low in her gut, though she couldn’t quite place why. His admittance was not what she expected—she wasn’t sure what she expected—though it was enough to calm her racing heart. She swallowed back the lingering lump in her throat before daring to speak. “That’s a people’s title, Gale, nothing more,” she smiled wanly.

“It means the world to them. It matters to them,” he disagreed. His hand pressed into her hip a bit as his eager eyes sought out hers. “Just as it matters to me. It’s admirable, and worth much more than simply being gifted it.”

The sentiment was kind, but she still blew out a breath and shook her head. “Most mages would disagree with you.”

“And as we’ve already established, most of our peers are fools,” he said resolutely. “Most of our peers are quick to write off everyone they meet based on a first glance and snap judgment. The people who know you, who have spent time with you, those who have been under your protection and those who have fought by your side…they are the ones whose opinions matter, because they are the ones whose opinions are true. And the refugees?” he asked rhetorically. “They are the people who know you. They are the ones who like you, who trust you…you make them feel safe, Nox.”

“’Safe’?” she echoed, incredulous. He had a point, and though she was taken aback at how eager he was to get it across, she could admit it was there. She had not given much thought towards what most of their peers considered of her in a long while. But…safety was not where she expected him to end that proclamation.

“’Safe’ is not the word I would expect to be associated with,” Nox chuckled with no small amount of self-deprecation coloring her voice. “Irritating? Sure. Confusing? Certainly. But safe? The blunt, wandering hermit more interested in whatever book her nose found itself stuck in rather than those around her? I doubt most people come away from an interaction with me feeling safe.”

“I mean it,” he insisted. Her gaze started pulling away, uncertainty flooding her veins, but he hooked a finger under her chin and forced her attention back to him. She refused to dwell on the small, surprised breath she sucked in at his action.

“Verbosity aside, I am not one to speak words I do not believe in,” Gale said. “We are all rough around the edges. I have heard my ego likened to that of a strutting peacock, for instance. Perhaps you are brusque and blunt or uncertain and awkward, but you breed a sense of safety wherever you reside, and people can feel your sincerity. After all, who else would manage to free every individual trapped in a cult’s high security prison, and then throw them a small party in celebration to ease their nerves?”

It was hardly fair to expect her to be unaffected by his words or the closeness they now shared. The snow started falling harder above them, and her eyes turned upwards to watch the path of a few flakes as they descended from the sky and landed in the soft brown locks of his hair or the velvety purple fabric covering his shoulders and arms. When she returned her attention to him, he was still gazing down at her with a blazing sincerity that made her chest constrict and stole the breath from her lungs.

Gale’s visage staring down at her now, under the light and snow of the magic she orchestrated in the Weave for him, was an image she would carry with her for the rest of her long life.

“At the very least, I know that there is no one else in my life who would witness me struggling as I have been and decide—correctly, I might add—that I needed to have some fun with magic, and that means something. It has to mean something, it is worth so…so very much,” he whispered.

Her eyes fell shut and she bit the edge of her bottom lip. It did mean something.

“I have understood for a while now how you earned your title,” he continued, and she opened her eyes back up to watch him. “You are well-versed in the Art and undeniably talented, but over time I have realized it is so much more. Beyond power and intelligence—both you have in abundance, mind—being an Archmage is about capability and safety, strength and kindness…”

He sighed and shook his head, almost in disbelief at her. “You have earned the title twice over by those standards since I have met you alone, just as you have earned the admiration and love and camaraderie of the people around you. You…you are the promise of a better tomorrow, Nox’ani,” he said quietly, “You are the brightness of a better future, and I am a better man simply by knowing you.”

“Gale…”

She faltered in the face of such praise. What was there that she could possibly say to that? Under normal circumstances, she would mutter her gratitude, an apology, and then walk away, but this was not normal circumstance. This was Gale, and such an admittance coming from him required eloquence in response, something she lacked on a good day, let alone when he stunned her into silence.

“Gale, I…”

Nox struggled again, trailing off with a sigh. After taking a moment to regain some grip on her composure, she blew out a long breath and nodded. The only appropriate way to respond was as she had done before, with vulnerability. The best option was by speaking what she felt in her heart. “If that is all the requirements for the title, then perhaps that is why I am so willing to grant it to you, as well.”

Surprise sparked to life in his dark eyes, only to be snuffed out by a profound sadness. “I am afraid I lost all rights to that title over a year ago. Not…entirely unjustly, at that.”

“We all make mistakes—a part of a wizard’s charm, really,” she joked with a tight smile. “You are twice the man now you ever were then, I can tell. There is no reason you cannot work towards rectifying your mistake and reclaiming the title,” she said, her smile growing more sincere. “And if that is the case, then all I ask is that you allow me the honor to be the first to call you Archmage once more.”

With glassy eyes, Gale smiled down at her, and traced his thumb just under her bottom lip. “Coming from you, that carries a lot of weight,” he whispered. “It carries a grand amount of meaning, and a grand amount of hope. It…” He paused, grief briefly flickering across his eyes. “It would be nice to live up to your expectations, one day.”

“No more than it would be for me to live up to yours,” she breathed. “But you will, I believe,” Nox added, “And maybe through that, so will I.”

A small hum rumbled in his throat in agreement. He said nothing further though, his eyes instead flickering downwards, mapping a delicate path over her nose and cheeks before settling on her mouth. She waited for several seconds, not moving, not breathing as his hooded gaze rested on her lips, until his thumb moved up to trace over the curve of her bottom lip.

“Gale…?” she asked on a shuddering breath.

His eyes snapped back to hers, and she could’ve easily gotten lost in the dark, heated depths. “Nox…” he mumbled, leaning closer to her. He tilted her head up a little further and his eyes fell back down to her parted lips. “May I…”

Before either could move any further, a violet light flashed between them that had them both peeling back from one another. Nox watched, flabbergasted, as the Orb flared to life in his chest, seemingly in response to one of the globes from her Dancing Lights floating too closely to them. She looked up to Gale in question, but he appeared just as shocked and harried as she felt, his frantic hands smoothing over his chest as he stared down at the Orb.

“I guess it still likes my magic,” Nox remarked, the logical part of her brain apparently ahead of the rest of her.

It made sense, Dancing Lights was the spell she fed directly to the Orb when they were bereft of all other options. Despite being calmed, the Orb still responded to magic it recognized—that was the only explanation for what just happened, and she supposed it was lucky that it only responded to the one spell she gave it directly and not all of her magic in general.

But it just had to happen now. Though, perhaps that was for the best. As her eyes locked with his, she understood the Orb was serving as a grim reminder for the realization that just tore through her with its flash.

You are in love with a dead man, Nox.

In love. For the first time, she was in love. That was the only explanation for the rush of emotion that surged through her veins once she realized they weren’t in imminent danger. The disappointment at the moment lost, the fear—not for her life, but for losing the man in front of her, and all the grief that carried, the loss itself, and the desire to go back. The overwhelming urge to hold him in her arms again, to assure him this was alright, that everything would be alright and they could—they would get through it. Gods, if nothing else, there was nothing more she wanted than to feel the hand he was using to readjust his robes back under her chin again, guiding her back to him.

She was in love, for the first time. That should have been terrifying enough on its own—and it was—but of course there had to be more. Of course it had to be with Gale. Of course, it had to be with a man slipping through her fingers as easily as the Weave did when she cast a spell, as easily as the water of the Chionthar on a hot, sunny day. A man so brilliant and breathtakingly bright who was divinely charged to burst and fade away, to dim until there was nothing left of him at all.

She was in love with a dead man walking. A man she desperately, desperately wanted to save.

“Apologies,” Gale said, a panic-tinged, embarrassed chuckle escaping him and ripping her from her thoughts. His other hand rested over his chest, covering the offending light as it slowly dimmed back into dormancy. “Leave it to me to ruin the fun, eh?”

“No!” she was quick to dispute. “No, not at all, Gale, I…”

I love you. I love you. I love you.

Before she knew what she was doing, Nox glided forward and rested her hand over his. She almost regretted it when she looked up and could see a reflection of her fear in his gaze. Reticence and awkwardness thinly masked the terror sparking behind his eyes. Fear at the sudden realization they had gotten close, closer than perhaps either one of them intended. Fear at the realization of what exactly this was buzzing between them, fear that it was much more than either of them believed, and how all of it should have been wonderful. But when mixed with the sudden, blazing reminder of what they couldn’t…what they shouldn’t have, how wonderful a thing it was blossoming between them was cast into shadow.

It was…it was why she never considered it before now, not consciously anyways. Some, subconscious part of her had kept this fact hidden from her. Now though…well, there was no way of unknowing it now. She loved him. She still couldn’t speak the words, but she loved him. Yet, judging by the way he was staring down at her, wide-eyed and silent, he didn’t want to hear those words any more than she wanted to say them.

Fear choked them both. Fear left her love gasping before it could even breathe.

“I…had a lovely time,” Nox said softly. As quickly as she went to him, she reluctantly pulled away. “I only hope you can say the same.”

“I can…I did,” he nodded. “It was wonderful, Nox.”

“I’m pleased to hear it,” she smiled, hoping it appeared genuine. She meant her words, but the act of smiling now left her stomach feeling ill. “I suppose we should end it here, then, lest the Orb decide to go back to its old ways.”

He took the cue and followed after her as she turned around and led him back to the bank of the river. Once assured he was on solid ground again, she gave him another half-hearted smile before trudging over to her staff. She only dared to look back once she reached Mourning Frost; with one hand on her staff, only then did she finally feel steady enough to glance back.

Gale still stood on the edge of the riverbank, having not moved an inch. He was watching her closely, dark eyes unreadable despite the dim light illuminating him. Her cantrips still hung around the area, casting everything in a rather romantic light and making the snow sparkle. The scene she had so carefully crafted, so lovingly put every ounce of her heart into in order to offer a few hours of peace, now left a bitter taste in her mouth. And Gale…and Gale.

The snow still fell around him, blowing slightly on the breeze drifting between them. In the center of the snowstorm, he was the stillness she was looking for, she understood that now. He was the peace. It was a sight, an indescribably powerful feeling she desperately needed to imprint onto her deepest memories. If she could have nothing else, she never wanted to lose the image of the man that stood before her now.

She never wanted to lose the man either, but that…that was not for her to decide, no matter how much she raged against that fact. All she could do…all she could control was how she remembered this moment.

She wanted it to be good. She knew it would only ever be bittersweet.

Nox always knew a little moment of serenity was never going to last forever. It never did. It was just a shame it was ending like this. There was nothing more she wanted to do than run back to him, to wrap him in her arms and kiss him like they were about to, and then never let him go. But no matter how much she desired it, she couldn’t urge her legs forward. She wouldn’t…she couldn’t do that, for the exact same reason she knew he stood several paces behind her, watching her silently and nothing more.

She loved him. There was nothing either of them could do about that.

Her hand gripped tighter around her staff, knuckles white with the effort, until she plucked it from the ground and settled it on her back. The lights began fading, and the snow slowly stopped its descent. She waved a hand and the Weave relaxed between her fingers, while a part of her mind finally sighed in relief over the concentration no longer being necessary. The magic was gone, and the sorrow that always accompanied her at the end of a time like this clung extra tightly to her heart now.

“I suppose we should all take our rest, now,” Nox muttered and turned away, uncertain if he even heard her. “Good night, Gale.”

“Good night,” Gale responded just as quietly. “And thank you for tonight, Nox’ani.”

#don't mind me #bg3 #gale x tav #tav x gale #bg3 tav #bg3 gale #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #my writing #time gremlin #moon mage of elturel #feel free to ignore I just decided I *do* want a proper post for myself #oc: nox #series: heart matters #timeweave

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fallershipping · 1 year ago

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I'm thinking of Southern Kalos

Currently, we only explored Northern Kalos, but I kept thinking about where Looker and Anabel currently live and will eventually end up in when retired from Interpol.

For those who don't know, Interpol's HQ IRL is actually located in France. It's in a city called Lyon, which is kind of around the Kiloude area but Kiloude is far too small and undeveloped for me to use it.

So I'm thinking about making half of a new region with the rest of Kalos. Not like... Actually making it for others to enjoy like a video and dex, but I'll talk about it from time to time. Important locations are the Pokemon world versions of Lyon, Nice, the French Riviera in general, and the Pyrenees mountains that separate Kalos from Paldea.

Currently, Looker and Anabel have apartments in Poke-Lyon. It's the "Lumiose" of Southern Kalos and acts as a home base.

Eventually, they'll both move out of the bustle of Poke-Lyon, away from Interpol, to start a family in a smaller, quieter town. I was thinking Cerbère. Daphne and Rune are born here.

It's a small town that's between the borders of Spain and France. Beyond it is the Pyrenees mountains. It can act as a direct connection to Paldea. It was also chosen because it's got a bit of an ocean view. In my idea, it could be a bit bigger and be close to where Daphne and Rune will go to school at: An Academy that's similar to Paldea's school system known as Wildflower Academy. (or maybe Cosmos Academy, still named after a flower but pun on space because ultra space ahaha...)

Anabel probably visits Southern Kalos's Battle Tower-adjacent facility from time to time. She's not a facility head anymore, but she's like a secret boss and enjoying herself. On the flip side, Looker's taking up several hobbies. Maybe he's growing a garden, maybe he's a language tutor, maybe he's doing some personal reading. And maybe he's also at the Battle place for moral support OR dragged to be Anabel's double battle partner!

Their careers I'm leaving vague for now because I can't think of anything concrete that I'm vibing with. But yeah, Southern Kalos.

Here's a regional variant! (Am going to redesign the evolutions.)

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cottoncandy-cult · 1 year ago

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Sleepy Kitten

Hitoshi Shinsou x cat quirk! reader

"Come here kitten." The male had beckoned over the cat girl across from him, the two had been dating since he was a first year at UA. Now here he sat at a desk as an adult, the male having managed to create his own agency at this point. Something he felt wouldn't have happened without Aizawa or his sweet kitten. Tonight, he had been working late, finishing up a bit of paperwork left over from where his agency had recently merged with a smaller one and now, he had to sign off. Because of that (Y/n) had brought him dinner, the girl had attended UA alongside Hitoshi but after graduating decided that hero life wasn't for her. Instead, she had opened up a cat hotel and café of her own to help with the local stray population, it had been doing well and because of her husband's job she was able to spend a pretty penny on making sure the local groups of stray cats were fixed and given their shots. Those that were friendly would be taken in and they would "work" at the café and hotel keeping those who visited happy and entertained. Many were on adoption lists so visitors who got attached to a cat while there could fill out an application and possibly take in one of the furry friends, it was a wonderful thing she loved to do. But it could be a little stressful, as even with workers there was plenty of stuff only, she had the authority to deal with. Tonight, had been one of those nights, bringing her husband dinner after a long day was her only relief.

Of course, Shinsou could tell from the moment she entered the room that she was tired and a bit overworked, her (F/c) tail hung low, and her ears twitched lazily as they sat near lopsidedly on her head. The sight made a grin cross the male's face, she looked adorable, and he couldn't help the chuckle that left him as she set the plate on his desk and walked around to where he sat. Without missing a beat, he pulled her onto his lap, his pride swelling at how she instantly melted into his arms. "Shinsou?..." (E/c) orbs peered up at him curiously, his grin softened when he noticed the tiredness creeping into her eyes. So, he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, a hand rubbing her lower back gently. "Just relax, tomorrow I'll see if I can't call in a favor and get you some help so you can rest a bit." The girl in his arms near purred at the soothing touch, though she knew he'd probably find a way to get Aizawa involved. The older male "begrudgingly" assisted with certain things when it came to her business, though she knew despite his complaining he enjoyed having an excuse to interact with so many cats at once. Having heard many times about his "temper" checks, in which he just goes around petting the cats and playing with them. He claims this was to ensure they behaved well and socialized correctly, though she didn't believe a word of it and liked setting him up every now and then with a new kitten just so she can send the video to Shinsou or some of their friends.

Once satisfied with the choice, and comfortable on his lap, (Y/n) had snuggled close as her husband ate. Already being asleep by the time he finished the purple haired male finished eating he decided to simply let her rest on his chest while he finished his work, something that felt like it went by a lot quicker when he had her near. He was sure to work in near silence, wanting her to sleep easy. And when all was said and done, he was careful when lifting her into his arms and taking her back to their home. To his relief she hadn't stirred even once along the way, when he had set her on the bed, he had to resist the urge to chuckle at the sleepy whine that left the girl. So with another quick kiss to her forehead, he got them changed into their night clothes, he hadn't even completely laid down under the covers when seemed to sense that he was close and reached for him. A large grin crossing his face at the thought of how he'd tease her in the mornings, how could he not when she was being so cute and hugging onto him in her sleep. With a soft and breathy chuckle, he tucked the cover around them and held her close in return, sleep coming easy when he had her tucked away against his chest and hidden away from all but him.

#fluff #x reader #fem reader #my hero academia #hitoshi shinsou #boku no hero academia #bnha fluff #candy cult vault

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sjsmith56 · 8 months ago

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Plans, Chapter 12 - Eyes of the Father

Summary: Steve and Sam visit the farm. Bucky moves to a village in Wakanda.

Length: 3.9 K

Characters: Steve, Lacey, Sam, Clint, Bucky.

<<Chapter 11

🏃🏻‍♂️ 🛖

Iowa, the farm

The sound of a quinjet landing in the yard drew the attention of Lacey, Clint and Laura while they were having lunch. Clint led the way outside and he smiled as the aircraft came to a rest. The ramp came down and two men appeared.

"Well, I was wondering when you were going to show up," said Clint to Steve and Sam as they stepped off the ramp. "You're just in time for lunch."

Laura stepped back inside and made up some extra sandwiches for the men, setting a place for them at the table.

"Just a brief stop," said Steve. "Your FBI minder won't be around today will he?"

"He was here yesterday," replied Clint. "I don't think he would have said anything. He's surprisingly cool with a lot of things despite being FBI."

The two men stepped inside the house and took in the sight of all the kids, with Steve noticing Tommy.

"He's grown," he said to Lacey. "What have you been feeding him?"

"Lots of food," said Lacey. "Good thing my book is doing well and I can afford to feed him. Tommy, this is your Uncle Steve and his friend Sam. Uncle Steve is Daddy's best friend."

Steve kneeled beside Tommy. "How are you doing, buddy?" he asked. "I haven't seen you since you were really little."

"You're Daddy's friend?" asked the little boy.

"Uh huh, since we were kids, not much older than you," replied Steve, then he looked at Lacey. "He knows who Bucky is?"

"We've had several video calls with him," she said. "Sit down and I'll fill you in."

As they sat and ate Lacey filled him in on Bucky's treatment. Then she told him about her mother's death and the incidents at the funeral. He was concerned about that and promised to do his own detective work to find out who was looking for Lacey and Tommy. The biggest surprise to Steve was when Lacey asked Tommy to show him what he could do on the play set. Both Tommy and Nathaniel ran outside to the set where Tommy climbed to the top and jumped off, making Steve lunge to catch him.

"No, I can jump all the way!" protested Tommy, when Steve caught him.

"He's started eyeing the smaller barn," noted Lacey, "so you might as well let him jump off this."

They both watched the boys and Steve shook his head when Tommy did it again, landing easily on his feet. "He inherited Bucky's super soldier abilities," he stated. "Is he a fast runner as well?"

Lacey shrugged and Steve challenged the boy to a race. Although it wasn't as fast as Steve could go it was faster than a normal adult. When Steve scooped him up after a mile Tommy laughed in his arms.

"You're fast, too!" he shouted. "Is my Daddy fast?"

"Very fast, just like you," replied Steve as he ran back to the farm with the boy on his shoulders. He stopped before they got back to the adults and lifted the boy off then kneeled down in front of him. "Tommy, it's very important that you only do the fast running and high jumping on the farm. There are people who would take you away from your Mom if they knew you could do this. Can you promise me that you'll only do it here?"

The boy's face turned serious as he looked Steve in the eyes. "Mom already told me," he said. "Bad people who hurt Daddy would hurt me too if they find out. I liked running with you. Will you come again and teach me more super soldier stuff?"

"Yeah, buddy, I will," replied Steve. "You know if your Dad could be here he would show you everything?"

"I know," answered the boy. "He's getting better."

Suddenly Tommy hugged Steve and received a big hug in return. Steve felt somewhat guilty for not checking in on Lacey and the boy for so long but vowed to be more visible from now on. The boy knew his abilities were not normal and needed guidance on managing them. He stepped back and looked closely at the boy seeing more of Bucky in him since infancy.

"I'll come to visit you when I can," said Steve. "I'll tell you stories about your Dad and me when we were growing up." He stood up and Tommy took his hand as they walked back to where Clint and Lacey were waiting. "I'm going to try and visit more often. Tommy is interested in testing his limits and really, we need to know. He's the first super soldier born naturally."

"That was something seeing you two run off," said Clint. "You won't do that to your Uncle Clint, will you Tommy?"

The boy gave a sly smile and Clint rolled his eyes, realizing he had just given Tommy an idea.

"He won't," interjected Lacey. "Will you, Tommy?"

Her request was followed by a look that only a mother could give and Tommy promised not to run away from Clint. That being settled there wasn't much more to be said so Steve and Sam made preparations to leave. Steve gave both of them a cell phone number where he could be reached. Lacey walked Steve and Sam to the quinjet.

"Have you heard anything from Tony Stark?" she asked. "I know he feels guilty about the whole thing. That play set was part of him making amends to me and Tommy."

"No, nothing yet," said Steve. "It will probably take something really big for him to reach out. That's okay. I'm not going anywhere, other than hiding out."

Sam prepared to enter the quinjet without saying anything and Lacey called him back. "Thank you for helping Bucky. I know that it's cost you."

He sighed. "They would have summarily executed him when he wasn't responsible for his actions," he replied. "I think the decryption of the HYDRA files have proven he was a victim as well. Certainly they could have rescued him a lot sooner. You take care of yourself and that boy. Things will work out. They often do."

Lacey did hug him and he smiled kindly at her. Then she looked up at Steve. Her eyes watered up as she tried to formulate the words but he just hugged her.

"Sam's right," he whispered. "It will work out. I promise I'll come more often. It's been too long since my last visit and that's on me."

She smiled stoically at him and stepped away towards the house as Steve powered the aircraft up and lifted it up into the air. She could see Tommy watching then he started waving and she saw Steve waving back at him from the cockpit. Her son ran up to her and she lifted him into her arms. Together they waved and the aircraft pulled away into the sky.

"I like Uncle Steve," declared Tommy.

"Good," replied Lacey. "He's a good man."

Over the next month Lacey and Tommy continued living with Clint and Laura at the farm. Steve came back once. Bucky made weekly calls and documented his sparring sessions with the Dora Milaje warriors in preparation for the test on the effectiveness of his treatment. She could see he was nervous when the day arrived in which a warrior named Ayo would say the activation words.

"What if she activates me and I become him again?" he said anxiously. "All that work for nothing."

"They wouldn't do it unless they were sure," replied Lacey. "It's not like you'll go on a rampage if the words do work, right? She actually has to command you."

"True, but I couldn't live with myself if I hurt anyone while I was him," he admitted. He breathed heavily for a time then looked up at her. "Here I am worrying about myself and I haven't even asked how you are yet."

"We're good," she replied. "Steve came back again and ran with Tommy. He's so fast Bucky, and he feels so free when he can let go. Steve wants to teach Tommy to box."

Bucky chuckled. "That I would like to see," he smiled. "You know I won the YMCA welterweight championship three years in a row. God, I loved to box. I could have turned pro if it weren't for the war."

"Steve told us that," she replied. "He told Tommy a lot about you, about growing up together, and you looking out for him."

"When I'm done my rehab in the village I plan to come home and turn myself in," said Bucky seriously. "I've been away from you two for too long. It should be me telling him the stories, not Steve. I'm not complaining but he is my son and really, it's my responsibility."

"They'll still put you on trial if you do," said Lacey. "Even with all that the lawyer has uncovered there are still a lot of people who want to make an example of you. If they find you guilty ...."

"Then they find me guilty," repeated Bucky. "At some point I have to stand on my own two feet and face the music. As long as you're in my corner I have the strength to do that." He looked to the side. "They're ready for me. Time for the test. No matter what happens know I love you and Tommy. Someday, we'll be a family, I promise."

"I love you, too," she replied. "You call me as soon as you can. Goodbye, Bucky."

"Goodbye, Lacey," he answered and the connection was broken.

Shuri had already updated Lacey on what would happen to Bucky. He would be transported to a remote location where Ayo would repeat the activation words to him. If he was triggered they would begin again. If he stayed Bucky then he was deemed safe enough to complete his rehab in a small village. For several months at least he would be resident there and learn to live without his arm. Then it would be his choice to receive the artificial arm they designed and built for him.

"His choice?" asked Lacey when Shuri informed her. "Why wouldn't he choose to take it?"

"The arm that was built for Sergeant Barnes when he was HYDRA's captive was meant to be an instrument of death and destruction," replied Shuri. "Despite all the treatment we have given him we have found that he fears any prosthetic arm may be used for the same purpose. Ours will be more naturally shaped, weighted like a natural arm, and with enough sensors in it that he will be able to touch anything gently. It will always be distinctive looking as it is black with gold markings. We will not force him to accept it but it will always be here for him when he is ready to do so."

The day after the test Bucky called her with the news that the treatment had worked and the activation words influence on him was broken. His elation was tempered by the knowledge that he still had more rehabilitation to go but at least now he knew he could be safely around others and reintegrate into society.

Wakanda, the village

The flight to the village took a little longer than Bucky was expecting. Seated in the back of the Royal Talon fighter with Ayo piloting and Shuri in the copilot seat he watched the two women as they flew towards the small village where he would stay for up to six months. He was nervous, having been only in the company of Shuri, Ayo and several other Dora Milaje warriors for the past month. Shuri observed him from time to time as she looked behind her on occasion, as did Ayo.

"You have nothing to worry about, Sergeant Barnes," Shuri reassured him. "The chief knows what you have been through and it was his choice to invite you to live in peace in their community, learning to be whole again. Even though you will be short a limb."

He smiled grimly. "I'm sure I'll be a big help to them," he said, somewhat sarcastically. "I was born and raised in one of the biggest cities in the United States. What do I know about farming?"

"You will learn, White Wolf," stated Ayo. "Just as you learned our fighting style so quickly. You are a quick learner and I'm sure you will master being a farmer. It will be good for your soul."

Bucky thought back to the previous evening when he sat on the floor and tore out the sleeves of the work shirts they provided to him. All three of them were long sleeved with button cuffs and he realized very quickly that would be something he couldn't manage. So, using his feet and teeth to anchor the shirts he cut just below the shoulder seam with a knife and tore the sleeves off. He remembered seeing a patterned shawl left behind in the garden and took it to wrap around his new shoulder insert. Still sensitive about the artificial look of his shoulder he wanted it covered. Again, using his free hand, mouth and feet he was able to knot the ends so he could slip it over his shoulder and cover the unit. Queen Ramonda had seen him with the shawl covering his shoulder and raised her eyebrows at him but said nothing. It was only on the way to the village that he realized the shawl was probably hers. He also received three pairs of work pants and tried them on, managing the zipper and top button alright with one hand. Then he looked at himself in the mirror and shook his head.

"What is it with this generation and tight pants?" he said out loud. "It leaves nothing to the imagination."

Packing everything in a bag with a long strap he had lain awake for some time waiting for a sleep that took forever to come until his bracelet woke him for breakfast. Now, in the back of the Royal Talon fighter he found the motion of the aircraft was slowly lulling him to sleep and he fought to keep his eyes open. Fortunately it was only a few more minutes before they dropped into the village drawing a crowd of people around the aircraft when it finally hovered and landed. A man, who Bucky assumed was the chief, waded through the crowd of people and asked everyone to step back for the Princess. Smiling broadly she got out of the copilot seat, then down the ramp, and greeted the chief then turned to Bucky and introduced him in Wakandan.

"Do not worry, Sergeant Barnes, Chief Thembeka speaks English," she said. "The formal introduction was done in Wakandan as is our custom."

The chief crossed his closed fists in front of his chest so Bucky did the same with his one arm, garnering a nod of respect from those nearby.

"Sergeant Barnes, also called White Wolf," began Thembeka. "Welcome to our village. We hope that you find peace during your stay with us. For now we will host a small feast in your honour. After you may retire to your hut and make yourself comfortable. Your home is small but it is yours and yours alone. Wi-Fi is available in the huts for any internet searching or personal video calls you may wish to make. Tomorrow you will begin your work."

"May I ask what you have planned for me?" asked Bucky.

The chief smiled mysteriously. "You may ask but the answer will not be evident until tomorrow," he said with finality.

He attended the feast and when it was over bade goodbye to Shuri and Ayo. Picking his bag up he was shown to his hut and he pulled aside the curtain which covered the only entrance into it. It was small; a bed, desk, small kitchen, and a bathroom with a shower he could barely fit into. A small closet with a set of drawers beside it was soon filled by his clothes. He laid back on the bed and looked up into the thatched roof of the round structure. Gazing around the walls he saw various animal skins and assorted gourds mounted on the wall. The sound of giggling got his attention and he looked up to see three painted faces peering at him from just outside the doorway. Raising himself from the bed he walked towards the door but the three children ran away and he smiled gently at them. Picking up the tablet he sat outside on a bench just beside the door. Opening the video call app he touched the last call he made to Lacey and her face soon appeared.

"Hi!" she said, then she looked at the wall behind him. "You look like you're in front of a hut. Does that mean you're in your village?"

"Yes, just arrived today," he said. "Let me show you my hut."

He picked up the tablet and turned it around aiming it at the various parts of his home for the next while. Then he returned to the bench and sat looking at her. She called to Tommy who joined her.

"Hi Daddy," he said breezily. "Guess what? I jumped off the small barn today. How high was that Mom?"

"About 20 feet," said Lacey. "He landed on some hay bales that Clint was going to haul up to the loft. He helped Clint get them up there."

"How did it feel?" asked Bucky, trying not to be concerned. "Did it hurt at all when you landed?"

"No, it was fun," said Tommy. "How high can you jump?"

"Pretty far," admitted Bucky. "But I'm also a grown up and I have bigger legs and muscles than you. Promise you won't go higher than the barn for a while?"

"Okay," agreed Tommy then he looked directly at Bucky. "Daddy, when are you coming home?"

He took in a quick breath as the question had taken him by surprise. "I have to stay here for a few more months then I'll be free to leave here, I hope," he answered. "I want to come home and if the people in charge let me that's what I'll do."

"Can you come for my next birthday?" asked Tommy. "Please?"

"I'll try, I really will," said Bucky, trying to keep the emotion down in his throat. "But I probably won't make it until after. Can I talk to your Mom, now, please? I'm sure you want to play."

"Okay, I love you Daddy," said Tommy, unprompted.

"I love you, too, son," said Bucky, who waited for Tommy to leave before he put the tablet down and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

"You okay?" asked Lacey when he reappeared on the screen. "I didn't know he was going to ask that. He's been asking questions about how we met and how we made him. He sees how Clint is with Nate and that has him wondering why you're not here."

"You know I would be there if I could," stated Bucky. "There's nothing I want more. I'm serious about turning myself in as soon as I'm done here. I've been away too long. Can you let that lawyer know that's my plan?"

"I'll tell him," replied Lacey. "This might be the hardest months for both of us. When you do get here how do you want to handle ... us?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Should we take some time together and get to know each other first?" she queried. "Go on some dates or do we jump into a relationship right away? I do love you but I really don't know you, do I?"

"No, we don't," admitted Bucky. "These on screen conversations aren't really the same as being together are they? One night together really isn't enough to base a serious relationship on."

He looked down at the ground and took a deep breath, obviously disappointed. "Bucky, until we actually see each other we just don't know for sure," stated Lacey. "We can go away together, rent a cabin or something, separate bedrooms and see what happens. That's the grown up way of doing it."

"You're right," he replied. "Let's do that and see where it leads. I don't want to pressure you into something that may or may not exist. But you'll still wait for me until then, right? You're not seeing anyone?”

"No, I'm not seeing anyone," she told him then she smiled. "I'm still on the farm and I get into town about once a month to pick up my mail with Clint. The book is still selling, approaching the end of the second printing so I'm still getting fan mail."

He was relieved to hear it as for a brief moment he thought she was letting him down easy. "In a best case scenario I want a relationship with you," he declared. "I want it all – marriage, a house or a farm, kids. If that isn't meant to be then I want a friendship and to be part of Tommy's life."

"That's my best case scenario also," she agreed. "I have faith in both of us Bucky, even if I do have doubts once in a while. I just wanted it to be out there so that we're not blindsided if it doesn't work."

"Fair enough," he said, then looked at her and smiled. "So you won't mind if I tell you I still think you're beautiful and that I think of that night often."

"I don't mind at all," she answered. "I think of it as well. You're still the most handsome man I've ever met." She looked at him steadily before taking her own deep breath. "This seems like a good time to end our call. Call me as often as you can. I do love you."

"I will and I love you too," he said, then he ended the call.

He sat back against the outside wall of the hut and put the tablet on the bench. Closing his eyes he breathed deeply.

"Are you alright, White Wolf?" said a child's voice.

He opened his eyes to see the three boys with painted faces standing in front of him, all of them with a look of concern on their face. "Just feeling a little sad," he explained. "My son is in another country and I've only ever seen him on this." He lifted up the tablet. "I want to be with him but I have to stay here in your village for a while to prove I can live like a civilized man."

"Is his mother with him?" asked one of the boys. "Do you miss her too?"

"Yes, I miss her," replied Bucky. "I want to be with her as well. What are your names?"

They laughed and ran away, leaving him shaking his head. He would have to ask if it was taboo to know children's names. What was with calling him White Wolf? No one had explained what that was about. So many questions and he wasn't sure who he could ask for answers. This was going to be a long six months.

Chapter 13>>

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