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thedo0zyslider · 5 months ago

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I Love You (I'm Not Supposed Too) - Chapter Ten: Wither Rose - 10k Words

Fwhip sends Jimmy out to the fields like he said he would, and also gives the cod a deeper look at his home life then he ever would have hoped too.

A03 Link

Fwhip does as he says he would a few days later, and sends Jimmy out to the fields. As soon as breakfast ends he’s being led out of the dinning hall, and practically forced outside. The half dragon says he’ll show him where the fields are, introduce him to the farmers, and then he’ll be done with the cod until the evening. He’s very excited at the prospect of a fish free workshop, it seems. Jimmy lets himself be dragged along, probably responding to everything Fwhip says with something sarcastic. Though he is grateful to get out of the manor for once, instead of sitting inside all day bored out of his mind.

He does, in fact, end up spending most if not all of his day out in the farms, and nearly every day after that as well. The cod enjoys his time greatly, since farming was something he never really got to do before. Because the Ocean Empire was, well, in the ocean , there wasn’t a lot to plant. The Cod Empire had fields of wheat and the occasional patch of carrots that needed harvesting, Jimmy didn’t have much experience in the way of farming beforehand.

The farmers were generally quite nice to him, once they accepted he wasn’t a permanent stay, and learned he would be going home within the month. They paired him with one of the more experienced farmers, understandably wanting him to be supervised while he learned the ropes. Jimmy also didn’t want to destroy any crops, considering this was one of the village's main food sources. Plus it’d get him kicked out of the farms forever probably, which would be super lame .

He spends a good chuck on the first day there, from about mid-morning till dusk he is in the fields. And it’s rewarding work, he has to admit. Even if the cod doesn't really do much, it’s still nice. The Prince will have to start helping around the Codlands farms, even though they say such a job isn’t fit for a royal like him. Which they have, multiple times before, despite his insistence. He had a government to build instead, or whatever. Though next time he will just insist harder, and say that the Cod Council and his mother can wait.

Around mid-afternoon, while he is helping another farmer checkup on some of the newer potatoes, Jimmy catches sight of another fishfolk a few feet away; he stiffens almost on instinct. It seems, that before sending him out there, Fwhip had failed to mention one farmer being a salmonfolk. And now he was stuck in the same work environment as one for another few hours. And he probably would be coming down here again, unless the manor got less boring, lest he want to go in the village for entertainment and see even more of them…

Well, this was certainly gonna suck big time.

The older merfolk glares at him from across the field, tail flicking in displeasure. Jimmy looks back for a few seconds, before abruptly turning his back on them. He’s not going to be intimidated by a bloody salmon , not in a million years. Besides, the farmer next to him was saying something, and he had to pay attention to them and the potatoes now. The salmon says nothing behind him, doesn’t even let out a snarl. But the air in the field is tense regardless, in a way all the other farmers definitely know. But all Jimmy can do is act like the tension isn’t there, and keep tending to the growing potatoes.

The salmonfolk ignores him, and Jimmy ignore them right in return. It is a mutual ignorance, for they both know even throwing an insult will be a bad idea on the farm. That can be saved for outside of work, if they ever see each other outside of it. Which, based on Jimmy’s limited village access, means they most likely will not. They will most likely be moved to different tasks on the fields as well, at least until the cod leaves. Though he;s sure the salmon will complain to everyone they know about the Cod Prince that dared show up at their work. It’s what he would do if the roles were reserved, after all. No one would ever, ever hear the end of it from him, if he was stuck in such a horrible situation.

The salmon’s name is Sage, he learns from his potato farmer, and they’ve been on the farm for almost a decade. And they’re the only farmer to notably avoid him whenever he comes around, even though some do so in more discreet ways regardless. Which is fine by Jimmy, because he wants nothing to do with the other merfolk as well. Which is why they are ignoring each other. And he thinks everyone here is aware enough of the…. tensions between the cod and salmonfolk to not make any comment on it; leaving the issue to fade into the background over the coming weeks.

And just because one issue fades into the background, doesn't mean the universe has to throw another one at him! Unless the gods just like seeing him suffer, which would be a theory with a lot of evidence, unfortunately. (Why can’t he just have fun farming! Why does there have to be problems! Why does this trip suck so bad!)

On day three of farming work, Jimmy reasons he needs to take his binder off. Something that’s unusual for him, because he’d rather die than go without it most days. But it simply wasn’t possible to wear one when doing farm work, especially with his asthma. He’d done labor, granted not very intense labor, while binding at the Cod Empire, and had just been a little sore at worst. But this time was much different. Both days prior he’d felt chest tightness, and his ribs had ached something fierce after he took the binder off. The only problem is, he didn’t really bring a bra with him, because he hadn’t expected to be doing any physical labor.

Great, now he’s gotta ask Gem. or something. He doesn’t know. Asking Gem really the only option he has, even if asking to borrow a bra might be a little weird of a question. He thinks people do that. Bra sharing is like, one of those things you vaguely hear about happening, but never really see it in real life. And usually those things are real, but there’s an off chance this one isn’t and he’s about to look weird and ruin his friendship with Gem or something.

But he doesn’t have any other options right now, Jimmy reminds himself. And so, that night after he comes back from the fields (in that hour before Fwhip leaves his workshop and before dinner usually begins,) he makes himself go find Gem and ask. He knows she’s here today, thankfully, the wizard taking a day off from her magic studies. A rare occurrence, Fwhip noted, and she liked spending those days holed up in her room with a book. So that was where Jimmy went, his walk towards it uncertain the whole way.

“Hey Gem?” Jimmy asks, peeking through the bedroom’s slightly open doorway when he reaches it. He hopes entering like this is okay, and that he didn’t need to knock on the door first or something. Even if it was already ajar when he got here, meaning that, logically, she probably wouldn’t mind a visitor. Jimmy still worried over being a nuisance regardless.

“Oh, Jimmy!” Gem jumps a little, startled by his unexpected appearance. It seems she’d been buried in a book, one with a blue cover resting on her lap. The young wizard is in a more casual outfit today, wearing a shorter skirt than normal and a loose fitting green shirt to match, while her hat rests on a nearby chair. Jimmy wishes he could feel that comfortable in his own clothes. “What is it?”

“Okay so, kinda weird question here,” He starts, immediately getting the urge to fidget in a million different ways. But he doesn’t, not really, other than an anxious leg bounce. Gem’s expression changes to one of curiosity, and she sets her book down on the best next to her. Hopefully this goes better than the scenario in his mind is. “But I’ve been helping out on the farms, and wearing a binder kinda hurts and it’s messing with my asthma…”

“..I kindaaaa wasn’t expecting to not bind so I didn’t bring any bras with me, so, can I, um, borrow one of yours, if that’s okay?” He finishes, and can tell exactly what awkward smile is on his face right now. Jimmy feels that mortifying kind of embarrassment starting to creep up on him, and wants to sink into the floor for a thousand years and die . That would be so much better than standing here right now, anything would.

Gem’s face seems to soften, and she hops off her bed rather quickly. All to the cod’s great and long lasting surprise. “That’s more than okay!” She smoothes her skirt down as she stands, and marks the page in her book before placing it to the side. The young wizard is totally unaware to the cod’s utter astonishment behind her, at least for now,

“You mean that wasn’t a weird question? Like not at all?” Jimmy blinks, more than a little befuddled by her easy answer. He had expected her to have a worse reaction. He had expected her to call him a weirdo, tell him to get out of her room, something like that. Not in a million years did he think she’d actually lend him a hand here.

Gem shrugged, walking across the room and to where her dresser sat. “Unexpected, but not weird.” She began looking for something to give him, opening a drawer, and Jimmy figured now was as good a time as any to admire the decorations on her wall. If only to make himself feel less awkward, because frankly Gem didn’t seem to give a single fuck about any of this. A trait he admired greatly. (And also the hand painted constellations and symbols on the wall were cute, even if he knew what none of them meant.) “It’s really not the weirdest thing as long as they’re washed. I know girls at the Cliff’s private schools do it all the time.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.” The cod hums, startled by the new information. Wow, okay then. So this was actually a decently normal thing people did, good to know. He wishes he’d known that beforehand somehow, if only to save himself some of the awkwardness and nervousness he felt. But it was too late now, and at least he’d found out eventually.

“Yeah. My friends from there share strapless ones for more formal parties and stuff like that.” Gem says, closing the drawer she was looking through. At least that’s what Jimmy thinks she’s doing, since he’s still staring at the ceiling. He was surprised he actually recognized a few of the constellations she’d painted, and was pretty proud of himself for it.

“That makes sense.” Jimmy nods, remembering how certain dress times tend to show a lot of the shoulder area. It was one of the reasons he used to hate them so much, it made him feel way too exposed. And, ya know, never having a good bra for it. When he did wear bras, that was. But he hadn’t needed to deal with all that for a few years now, and never planned on dealing with it ever again. Not if the cod could help it….

While he’s not paying attention, far too lost in his own nervous thoughts, Gem hands him a white sports bra; and all Jimmy does is just stare at it for a good second. He doesn’t know what he was expecting, really, and why he stares like an idiot. It wasn’t like he could borrow a traditional one, with cup sizes being a problem and all that. Sports bras were a pretty good substitute for binders anyways, and he was sure Gem had either known that beforehand, or gone out of her way to research trans issues after he came out to her. The latter probably happened regardless of what she knew or not, actually.

“I picked a white one so it wouldn't attract any heat!” Gem says as he takes the bra from her hands. There’s a smile on her face, a wide one in fact. She seems so genuinely happy to help him out, it loops back around to making Jimmy feel extra bad for his anxiety. It’s not the wizard’s fault of course, but the cod can’t help feeling the way he does.

“Oh, good idea!” Jimmy says, doing his best to return her smile. He doesn’t want the young wizard thinking he’s ungrateful for this, because he’s certainly not! The cod feels like he’s indebted to her, really. She totally didn’t hae to help him with this, but she did anyway! Hell, Gem could’ve called him weird and shooed him away, and he would’ve been perfectly fine! A little panicked about what to do tomorrow, because he’d said he would show up the next morning, but overall he’d have been fine!

“What’re you doing in the farms anyways?” Gem asks, watching as Jimmy clutches the item in his hands; still looking at it like an idiot. Though she doesn’t watch him for long, seeming more eager to get back to her book. It must be a really good one, by the way she’ll distractedly glance towards where it’s laying. And it also gives Jimmy an easy excuse to leave this conversation, and go curl up in his own from embarrassment.

“Fwhip was being boring , and I wanted to do something with my hands.” He explains, feeling his tail flick behind him with lingering annoyance. Her brother was a real pain in the arse when he wanted to be, and he had been the day he had sent the cod out to the fields.

“Ah, that makes sense. He never leaves that dumb workshop.” Gem nods, already walking over to where her book is. Fwhip had said she liked to spend her days off by herself, and the wizard was making that pretty clear by her movements. Thankfully Jimmy hadn’t planned on staying for a chat, and wanted to do the opposite.

“Tell me about it.” The cod snorts, taking a few steps back towards the door. He isn’t as nervous as he was when he first walked in, but part of him was still begging to leave and go scream into a pillow. It was his brain's number one priority at the moment, really. “Thank you for letting me borrow this.”

“No problem!” Gem waves to him as he walks out the door, that smile on her face again. Again, Jimmy can’t help but return the beaming look he gets back in full. He’d still feel bad if he doesn’t, and worry about not doing so, even if they are just saying goodbye to each other. Curse him and his dumb anxiety or whatever. “Bye Jim!” “Heh, bye!” He calls, deciding to leave the door just ws he found it. Slightly ajar, so anyone could walk in if they needed anything; just like he had done. Then Jimmy basically books it down the fall and into his own room, shutting the door behind him so quickly it almost slams. He needs to like, lay down for a minute, because he’s still embarrassed over that for some reason. Even though Gem had been perfectly happy to help, he’s still embarrassed!

So Jimmy sets the sports bra down on his own dresser, and then flops face first onto his bed for a few hours. He needs to rest for all the day's work, and recover from what he just experienced. And also mentally prepare himself for the next day, because it’ll be his first time not binding in like….two years at least. And he’ll be doing it in public…

Yeah, he’s definitely gonna need some extra energy to deal with all of that tomorrow.

_____________________________

Jimmy gets to the farms the next day, and immediately feels himself being stared at. At first, he thinks nothing of it. The farmhands could’ve thought he was a cis guy, and then he just shows up with tits one day. He wouldn't blame them for doing a double take or two at first, honestly. But these stares are clearly not from that, they are clearly akin to the nasty ones he receives at home. He’s experienced enough transphobia to clock it by now, even when people think they’re being subtle. (They’re never actually being subtle, by the way.)

He ignores them the best he can, and keeps himself busy and entertained. The older farmers are still friendly with him, for the most part, probably having more things to worry about than a temporary worker's appearance. Winter was in a few months, and they needed a harvest before that. If any of them notice him spending far too long feeding the livestock, where no other farmhands are, then none of them say a thing.

The farmer giving him the nastiest looks is an elf boy, who doesn’t seem to be much older than Lizzie. He’d only recently learned of the Grimlands small population of elves, most likely due to the Crystal Cliffs’ influence. But he can’t really tell where this elf might be from, especially since Jimmy isn’t the most knowledgeable on the differences between types of elves. But this one wasn’t from Rivendell, his ears were noticeably less pointy, and the northern elves were simply not built for more humid environments. Which rolled out the Cliffs as well, even if that part of the mountain range was much warmer than Rivendell’s.

He was a bit younger when his kingdom's disagreement with elves had been occurring, but he can see why it happened now. The boy was already glaring at him before he stopped binding, and it seems being a codfolk and trans was somehow worse than just being a codfolk. And, when they ended up working close together that day, he seemed very eager to make his dislike known to the whole field. Unless someone somehow hadn’t caught on already.

“So, ocean boy.” The elf is standing next to him all of a sudden, looking the cod up and down. It’s not a nice look, not by a long shot. Jimmy does his best not to seem unsettled by this, and isn’t sure how well it works. His tail often does things without him telling it too, and he prays it hasn’t moved an inch. “What’s up with….all of that?”

“What do you…mean?” The cod asks, keeping everything about him as neutral as possible. He keeps his face still as he can get it, and stops any movements his fins might make. Jimmy also fights the urge to fidget. He knows the elf probably wants him to be nervous, to be scared. He will not let him see that, won’t let him have that victory.

“Ya know the….appearance change?” The other boy flicks his gaze over him again, and Jimmy feels himself stiffen even more. (It lingers on his chest for just a moment too long. Jimmy wants to snap at him for staring.) He didn’t think he could be intimidated by someone almost a foot shorter than him, but it's currently happening. (You also think a random, normal elf wouldn’t mess with literal ocean royalty who has the height advantage on him, but there’s a first time for everything.) “You one of… them people? ”

“Why’s it matter?” Jimmy mutters, narrowing his eyes. Yep, it’s going that way. It almost always goes that way when he meets new people, sadly, and Jimmy has come to accept it and expect it at this point. It’s why he knows to stay so calm. He’s done this song and dance a million times before, and will do it a million times after. They don’t get to win anymore, most of the time nowadays. He will not let them win.

“It doesn’t really, I was just asking!” The elf says, sounding strangely defensive all of a sudden. They always get defensive, like they would never think that way about people, even when it was so clear that they did. (Because they believe they are good people, and good people cannot hate others like the way they hate his people, unless his people are the bad ones. Unlike them, the good people.) Bigots were weird like that, Jimm finds, or at least this kind was. “So, why the appearance change?”

Jimmy decides to politely skirt around the “ one of them people ” comment from a moment ago, even though he really shouldn’t, and goes with the only answer that won’t out him immediately. (Which is hard to do when you were obviously wearing a chest binder the day before, but whatever.) And it’s the truth too, making this, like, the only time he hasn’t lied to avoid being ousted. “The other outfit was triggering my asthma.”

“Why was your chest so restricted then? Anyone who has breathing problems isn’t allowed to endanger themselves like that, the head farmers won’t have it.” The elf replies, his arms now crossed. Jimmy does not know what to say to that. The elf is gonna get his answer one way or another, because there is only one answer to that question. The blonde has a feeling any lie about self consciousness he can make up will be dismissed, because of how masculine the rest of him has started to look. There is no way out of this.

“I-” The cod starts to respond, not even sure what he’s going to say when he opens his mouth, before another one of the farmers cuts him off. Either his guardian angel has come to his rescue or another person has come to drag him down with the elf boy, and the cod is going to find out which one that is uncomfortably soon.

An older voice comes from their right, one belonging to one of the farm’s managers, if Jimmy remembers correctly. For a brief moment, the cod feels his stomach drop. He’s sure this is about to get worse, and now there will be two people targeting him. But thankfully, that turns out not to be the case this time. “Artemus, what’s going on here?”

“Mris, Tamara, hi-!�� As he greets the older woman, the elf, Artemus, becomes noticeably panicked. Like he knows he’s been caught red handed. It seems that the cod has gotten a guardian angel after all, in the form of a very cranky and upset looking old woman. “We were just, er, talking! Yeah, talking!”

“Right, fishboy?” He asks, turning to Jimmy. He glares at him, a look that tells him to go along with the plan, or else. The elf is glaring at him, sending an unspoken threat his way, and the cod can’t help the fear that surges through him. He knows he can’t go along with this, can’t lie and say they were “ just talking ” when they obviously were not “ just talking .” He can’t do that again, knows he can’t keep letting people get away with treating him like this.

So, fighting back to the fear in his bones and the lump forming in his throat, Jimmy does not play along with the elf’s game. Not anymore. The downright murderous glare he gets for it will haunt his dreams. “...No.”

The look in his eyes is what makes Mrs. Tamara snap, it seems, and she focuses all her anger on the troublesome elf in front of her. Jimmy is barely spared a second glance as she yells, thankfully. He's not the best with people yelling at him, thank you Ocean Queen. “Leave the Prince alone and get back to work! We have a fall harvest to prepare for!”

“Yes ma'am! Sorry!” Artemus says, and is shuffling away from them before Jimmy even knows it. He leaves like a naughty child that’s just been caught misbehaving, and slinks back into the fields without another word. Or without another nasty glance back, much to the cod’s surprise. Horrible people usually do that to him when they walk away, as if they’re trying to get the last lick in. Even if they’ve already won the fight.

“I’m terribly sorry about him.” Mrs. Tamara says, placing a comforting hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. He does his best not to go rigid again, still pretty on edge from Artemus, as he now knows that's what the elves name is. “He’s always been…..like that about other people, no matter how many times the Count and Countess reprimand him for it.”

‘It’s…fine.” The cod mumbles, hugging his arms to his chest again. He hadn't paid much attention to it before, how it felt like to not wear a binder. But since Artemus’ comments, he had become acutely aware of it; and would be for the rest of the day. Dumbass transphobes always having to ruin everything…“Why haven’t they fired him yet?”

“He’s too good of a farmhand to lose, sadly.” Mrs. Tamara sighs, shaking her head sadly. It seems she might want the elf fried as well, secretly at least. And Jimmy doesn’t blame her, if he’s gonna act like that during the workday. If you wanna keep your job, at least wait until you’re off the clock to harass your co-workers or something. “I do try to keep him in check though.”

“Well, thank you for checking on me.” Jimmy says, shifting away from her a bit. She takes her hand off the cod’s shoulder once she notices, probably sensing his uncomfortableness. Jimmy pointedly ignores the look of pure pity that follows it, and ignores the resentment he’s already feeling because of it. He hates when people pity him like that..

“No problem.” Mrs. Tamara starts to move away as well, somewhat in the direction she came from. She can’t just sit there and comfort the cod all day, after all, she has a farm to help run. Jimmy doesn’t want her to stand here and keep pitying him anyways, so the farm’s manager leaving is quite fine with him. “You can head over towards the livestock if you want, it’s almost time to feed them again.”

“Right. Thanks.” He mutters back, and is left alone with his farm work again. The cod doesn't get much done afterwards, not much at all. Instead, he heads out early, saying he feels sick. No one questions it, and he's sure a bunch of the farmhands are more than happy to have him gone for the rest of the day too. And for the next few days as well, because he doesn’t have the energy to come back for at least a week. (Artemus does end up getting yelled at for costing them a worker, so that’s something at least.)

(And when the cod does show up to work again, not just hangout with a certain half dragon, he’s back in his binder and has his inhaler in his pocket. He uses it a lot more than he should, but it’s fine, because at least that way he’s not getting stared at and asked uncomfortable questions. At least this way he feels safe.)

_____________________________

The next time he goes out to the farms, Jimmy manages to get Fwhip into the sun for once. It’s truly a groundbreaking achievement. Gem would be so proud and impressed if he was here, even if he did just nag and complain every second that he wasn’t inside. Really, you’d think he was a vampire, with how much he feared the sun hurting him or something.

He doesn’t actually do much work, with Fwhip there, because the farm managers will not let the future Count do work. Mrs. Tamara agrees it is good for the half dragon to finally see the sun, but sends the two boys off. She tells them to have a wonderful day on the outskirts of the area, not working. (Plus, Jimmy’s short absence will relieve some tension in the workers, he knows, even though that part goes unsaid. If it was even what Mrs. Tamara was implying at all.

At least he doesn’t have to see Artemus or Sage again.)

They end up a little ways away from the fields, far enough for no one to overhear anything they say. Far enough for them to just be themselves, no marriage attached. And they are themselves as they walk through an open area, the ground caked in podzol and dirt. The heads on spikes are back, decorating the pathway and its surrounding land; still giving Jimmy the creeps. But he ignores the lifeless eyes staring back at him the best he can, and focuses on whatever the half dragon is complaining about beside him.

Well, he halfway focuses, more interested in watching the nature around them as they walk. The plants get more strange to him the further inland the cod goes, and he is currently very inland right now. He’s sure he’ll get used to all the new flora eventually, in a few years at least, but for now most if not all of it still mesmerizes him so much.

Speaking of new flora, Jimmy has seen a few flowers dotted around as they walk. Not many, probably due to the amount of podzol and strange lack of grass in this part of the empire, but a few are still flourishing nearby. And one catches his eyes as they walk past, one that’s nothing like he’s ever heard of or read about in all his stolen nature books. So out of curiosity, the cod stops their walk to investigate it, and Fwhip only realizes a moment later. After he’s already walked a few feet away and no one's been absentmindedly humming at all his ramblings. The cod barely pays him any mind as he sheepishly trots back, far too transfixed by the unknown flower before him.

"What is that?" Jimmy asks, crouching down next to the flower. He’s never seen, or heard of, anything like it before. Sure, he’d known flowers could appear to be black in nature, actually being some dark hue or violet or red. But this one seemed to actually be black and gray, no tint of any other color being visible in the sunlight. It was beautiful and also the most unnatural part of nature the cod had ever seen before; if that made any sense.

"A wither rose." Fwhip says, crouching down next to him in the grass. Though Jimmy doesn’t notice this detail, he is actually not as close as the cod thinks he is. He keeps a firm distance away from the flower, and makes sure any of his limb

“Is it a native plant?” The cod asks, inspecting the flower closer. He’d managed to talk flowers and stuff with Katherine, once they’d added each other on their communicators, and she’d hadn’t mentioned this one. Meaning, unless she had forgotten, it was one of the rare flower breeds the Overgrown’s magic couldn’t grow. And Katherine knew a lot of flowers too, like, a lot a lot . Jimmy didn’t even know that many subspecies of plant could exist on land before that day. It was seriously up in the thousands and then some..

“Yep, it only grows here.” The half dragon says, his voice strangely cautious. The cod, in a moment of pure (and unknowing) stupidity on his part, ignores that caution and reaches a hand towards the flower. He’s curious to know what it feels like, if it feels different from other flowers (the rather unique name being what makes him think that,) and maybe take one back home to show Lizzie. Or Joel, he would like that; he loves plants and all that stuff. But thanks to the ginger beside him, the cod does not get that far in his silly little idea.

"Ah!" Fwhip exclaims, grabbing the cod’s arm and tugging it back in a panic. Jimmy almost lets out a yelp from how hard he’s grabbed, sharp claws starting to dig into his shirt and scales as they pull him back. "Don't touch it! You'll start withering away!"

"I'll what!? " Jimmy exclaims, quickly jerking the rest of his body away from the flower. He practically scrambles away from the thing, limbs flailing as he puts as much distance between him and the plant as possible. The half dragon moves back with him, though in a much less panicked and more elegant way than the cod does.

Fwhip gives him a weird look, like everyone in the world knows about this one thing but him. Which was also entirely possible, considering the cod had to steal books from his family’s own library for anything resembling an education. ( Did everyone else know this but him? Was he just being a stupid idiot again..?) "Have you ever heard of that before? Or seen it?"

"No! There's not many flowers in the ocean! Or things that wither you away, whatever that means!" Jimmy snaps, his gaze flicking between the half dragon and the apparently dangerous plant just mere inches away from him. And the thing was out in the open too! Where anyone could just walk by and touch it! That was bloody dangerous, apparently!

"Right, I forgot you lived in water." Fwhip sighed, momentarily pinching the bridge of his nose. As if he was dealing with someone incompetent. Jimmy tried his best not to make a face at that. "Well, withering is when someone starts to get hurt by an unknown force, and parts of them start to kinda decay while living. The effect is triggered by the flower and also some magic thingy. Usually they'll need instant medical attention. Eventually, if the effect is bad enough, you just turn into like, black dust and die. Or it will stop on it’s own, if you’re lucky"

Jimmy gaped at him, absolutely opened mouthed and bewildered for a few minutes, before his brain could even try and form a response. "And the flower does that!?" He exclaimed, his voice unknowingly getting higher. He knew some plants were carnivorous, but not to anything bigger than a mouse, if that! The cod was having a hard time believing that such a small, beautiful looking flower could kill a full grown person in just a matter of hours, like Fwhip had made it out to be. There was only one way to find out though, and he wasn’t going to try his luck. (Even if there was a chance he was being pranked right now, though Jimmy didn’t think that was the case for once. The half dragon’s genuine concern at the start said otherwise)

"Well touching one can't necessarily kill you , but it would leave you bedridden for a few days at best." Fwhip explains, sounding like that’s any better than the damned plant just one- shotting somebody right away. It isn’t, by the way, because what the fuck . Why can a flower just do that, what the hell . Why is that normal in this weird, fucked up little empire where they have mob heads on spikes. Why is the Grimlands just like this?

"And you keep such a dangerous thing in the open?" The cod exclaims, now almost yelling. Fwhip silences him with a pretty hard smack of the tail, getting an equally harsh glare back in response. If Jimmy was standing, he would’ve hit him back, right in the shins.

"The first thing Grimlands children are taught is to not touch the flower. Most people are smart enough to not get near one! It’s a cultural decoration!" The half dragon hisses, grabbing Jimmy and moving him to his feet. The blonde makes a sound at that, something like a swear or two in codlish, and stumbles to regain his balance once he’s upright again. He hadn’t wanted to be helped up just yet, and would’ve preferred to be asked instead of being manhandled , thank you very much.

"Well I'm not from here." The cod huffs, glaring at the other. He quickly dusts himself off, feeling like dirt and podzol are all over him from his time on the ground. The half dragon just watches him do so with a roll of his eyes, not even offering to help in any way. Not that the blonde would want him too, but it would be nice ! Especially after startling him so hard in the first place, with all that creepy flower knowledge!

Fwhip turns away without him, and starts to head in the direction of the manor. The half dragon has clearly had enough of the field and unexpected near death experiences for the day. And they didn’t even do any kinda labor like the cod had planned to do, just walked around a bit like losers did. "And I would like you a lot more if you were."

"And you would be a lot more pleasant if you had fins and a tail." Jimmy says, and wastes no time following behind the future Count, his original purpose for being out here now long forgotten, even if he will be a bit sour about it later. Arguing with Fwhip for the millionth time suddenly seems far more important than any farm work or stroll they’d be dissuaded from.

" Blegh . No thank you. I prefer not being all slimy and gross." Fwhip says, probably scrunching up his face as he speaks, for extra insult. Not probably, actually, the cod knows he;s doing that. Even if he can’t see the half dragons face right now. He just does that when he’s disgusted by anything, which happens a lot when he’s with the Ocean Prince.

"I am not slimy and gross! You know that! You've touched me before!" Jimmy protests, and quickens his pace, until the both of them are walking side by side again. They are heading back the way they came, past the farms and towards the manor. Which means they’re gonna have to pass all those creepy heads on spikes again, something the cod is not looking forward to. He really, really hates those things.

"Yeah, the human parts." Fwhip snorts back, and Jimmy gawks at that. He’s pretty sure the ginger has touched his fishy parts before, and that he’s lying. He’s lying straight to his face, that’s what he’s doin’! The bastard! The absolute sausage he is! He’s just making up things to complain about at this point, really.

"My fins aren't slimy!" He says, the noise almost coming out in a whine. Which he is fairly certain of, because he’s a codfolk and not some dumb dragon thing like Fwhip is. Merfolk in general aren’t even slimy, because they’re part fish. And for the most part, fish have scales and skin and fins, and are not covered in slime!

"Well you wouldn't know that, because you're used to having them." The half dragon reasons back, and Jimmy hates that he makes a good point there. But still, he’s not slimy! That’s not a thing his species is! Maybe like, the salmonfolk are slimy and that’s why Fwhip thinks that, because the codfolk and merfolk are definitely not! He would know!

"Well at least I don't breathe fire or whatever." Jimmy retorts, nudging the other with his shoulder. Before dignifying that with a response, the half dragon nudges him back even harder. It almost sends the cod stumbling to the ground, and he’s lucky it didn’t. Jimmy would’ve been livid if he had to clean even more dirt and grime off him.

"I don't breathe fire! I'm not a full dragon hybrid!" Fwhip exclaims, sounding offended by the comparison. Which is the worst comparison to sound offended by, in Jimmy opinion. He just made his species sound way less cooler than another one, and he’s getting all offended by it. The future Count was a strange guy indeed.

"That's like the one cool thing about dragons and you can't do it!?" The cod exclaims, giving Fwhip an unimpressed look. He also ignores the urge to shove the half dragon back, and do so with enough force to send him toppling over. Mainly because he knows the ginger would just take him down with the ship, and he kinda wants to avoid staining these clothes with even more dirt. He’s been doing way too much of that back in the Codlands.

"We can fly!" Is Fwhip’s lame response, and all he has to say for the impressiveness of half dragons. He’s getting proper embarrassed about it too, his whole face starting to turn red with the emotion. Finally, a win for the poor codboy in this conversation. It had taken long enough and way too many comments about slime for it to happen.

"Some fish can fly! Birds can fly!” Jimmy says, gesturing with his hands to emphasize the words. “ Insects can fly, dude!” A lot of things could fly, but those are the main ones, sans the fish part. Or, well, the only ones the cod can remember right now. He’s pretty sure there's a bunch of animals he’s forgetting. But, anyways, being able to fly is not as special as Fwhip thinks it is. Especially considering elytra exists, and those things allow even normal people to fly. When he points this out a second later, the half dragon just groans, and looks for something else about codfolk to make fun of. And Jimmy fires back the best he can, prolonging their dumb argument for the whole walk past the farms and all the way back into town.

They end up bickering the whole way back to the manor, the argument getting arguably more and more stupid as it goes. Anyone who overheard them would think the two Princes were crazy. And they would be right, they were both crazy. Just in different ways, and Fwhip was crazier than Jimmy! That was for certain! And the half dragon would tell him just the opposite, and they would bicker about that too, all the way until they reached the manor’s front door.

The cod barely noticed, but Fwhip got quieter and quieter the closer they got to the house. His responses became less witty, his volume lowered until Jimmy was the only one being loud anymore. And, yeah, Jimmy lowered his voice once he realized, but the blonde didn’t think anything of it. He figured Fwhip was probably just being weird or something, because the half dragon was always being weird in some way. In fact, he kept going along with the conversation as normal. Right until they went to enter the building now in front of them, that is.

As soon as the front door is pushed open, Fwhip’s whole demeanor drastically changes. And it’s not a very subtle change, either. His whole body goes rigid, and his movements get noticeably more coordinated. Like he’s trying to make less and less noise with every movement. Jimmy knows that look, and knows that feeling, way more than he is comfortable admitting too. Something has to be wrong in the manor.

He starts to speak, but is quickly cut off by a very aggressive half dragon, whose tail has now started to lash in what looks to be fear. (Which is totally not making an anxious knot form in Jimmy’s stomach, nooo , not at all. This isn’t a nerve wracking situation in the slightest! He thought not at all sarcastically.) “Fwhip, what’s-”

“Shut up!” Fwhip hisses, whipping his head around to face the cod. His eyes are blown out, wide like a cornered prey animal. Jimmy knows that look well, for it’s one he’s probably worn too many times to count. But his brain is still lagging a bit behind, caught off guard by the sudden shift in the ginger’s attitude, and does not shut up like he knows he desperately needs to do right now. Jimmy will only feel mildly guilty about it later.

“Why-”

“Shut up! Be quiet!” The half dragon throws a hand over Jimmy’s mouth, shutting the cod up pretty effectively. You can’t really protest when there’s a hand halfway shoved in your mouth, after all. Which is kinda gross, by the way. “Just….follow me and don’t say anything, okay?”

Jimmy nods after a moment, and Fwhip stops covering his mouth. Any disgust he might’ve normally shown over the action is eerily missing, and only makes the bad feeling in the blonde’s gut worse. The half dragon moves to hold his hand instead, to better drag the cod through the house, and he ignores how tight the hold is. Jimmy, stone silent and more than a little terrified, lets himself be dragged through the manor’s foyer, totally unprepared for what he catches a glimpse of next.

They have to walk by the kitchen to get to either of their rooms. And the dining hall, and basically every main area in the house. Fwhip just hopes when they do, Jimmy doesn't see whatever bottles might be lying out in the open. His hope doesn’t do much, in the grand scheme of things. Jimmy catches sight of a few, and has to rip his gaze away quickly. He’s being dragged away before he can even fully register what he just saw, and is left reeling in his mind as they move further down the hallway.

(He has never noticed the vases of wither roses decorating the kitchen and dining areas until today. Jimmy sees them clear as day now, and wonders what a plant of decay could possibly mean in a home like this. Because that has to mean something. )

They get to Fwhip’s bedroom before any of the other rooms, the half dragon seemingly beelining for it as if on instinct. Jimmy has no choice but to follow him as he’s dragged across the hallway, and finds himself being shoved into the room before he even knows whats happening. The half dragon stumbles in behind him, and gently shuts the door. The cod gets the feeling he normally would’ve slammed it, if now was not the worst possible time for that.

The two of them stand there in silence for a moment, before the blonde decides to bite the bullet and say what they’re both thinking. “Is your dad….?” Jimmy trails off, but the question lingers heavily in the air. They both know what he’s asking, for the answer is rather obvious. Finishing it would add nothing to the situation but put more tension and weight out into the air.

“Yep.” Fwhips responds, popping the p . He sounds despondent, like this is a normal occurrence. He looks despondent too, his blue eyes glazed over and unfocused. The cod can’t help the way worry twists at his heart like a knife, and doesn’t even feel anything complicated when he realizes that he’s worrying for Fwhip . This was much more important than their dumb rivalry or whatever they had going on right now.

“Does he hurt you?” The cod asks, glancing at the door only a few feet behind him. While Fwhip answers, and also musters the energy to do so, Jimmy goes and locks it. The door being simply shut doesn’t make him feel safe enough. This way, no one can barge in unexpectedly. At least for now. He makes a mental note to unlock it later before he inevitably sits down, considering they’ll probably be in here for a while.

“Emotionally.” Is all the half dragon responds with, moving even further into his bedroom while Jimmy’s back is turned. His wings are held close to his body, and his tail has started to curl in on itself. A sign of how upset he truly was, if the ginger’s tone of voice didn’t display that perfectly enough. The body language is just the cherry on top of this sad , sad sundae, really.

“Okay.” Jimmy frowns, watching the other. He seems a little lost in his own bedroom, like his mind is still trying to figure out what to do. The half dragon glances around for a moment, his gaze lingering unusually long on the cod, before his brain decides what to do. Which is to collapse, apparently. And honestly? Same.

Fwhip says nothing else, and just sinks to the floor. He doesn’t even try to go for a bed or chair or anything, just lets himself go slack and slide down the wall. He buries his head in his knees, and Jimmy genuinely thinks the half dragon is going to have a breakdown for a moment. But he doesn’t. Instead, he just makes a pained, muffled cry that honestly hurts the cod’s soul to listen too. It’s what makes him realize that he can’t just sit there and watch, he has to do something. He had to be comforting, just like Fwhip was to him all those weeks ago. And, thankfully, he knows a thing about dealing with a shitty home life.

But before he can do that, Jimmy remembers the other twin who might be in this house, and feels a sudden wave of concern hit him. “Where's Gem?” He asks, not bothering to hide any of the worry in his tone. She’s dealt with this whole… situation a lot more than the cod has, definitely; but that doesn't mean she’s completely safe right now. Things can still get bad for her despite any prior experiences….

“Her room or out on the town.” Fwhip says, and shrugs as if he doesn’t care where his sister is right now. Which isn’t true, he absolutely cares a lot more than he’s letting on. He wouldn’t have dragged Jimmy in here so fast if he really didn’t. “I haven't known her exact visiting times since the fight.”

“Okay..” The blonde says, and finds himself just standing there for a moment afterwards. He doesn’t want to upset Fwhip even more with whatever he does next, since he’s probably pretty upset right now. So he waits, until Fwhip lifts his head up again and begins to stare blankly at the wall. That is when Jimmy decides it’s a good time to start on the whole comfort thing he’d planned on, since the ginger is no longer making any upset noises.

Jimmy sits next to the half dragon, and quickly makes himself comfortable. Fwhip raises an eyebrow, cautious, and the cod rolls his eyes. He has to communicate all his intentions verbally, it seems. (Even though they never sat next to each other like this unless they were trauma-talking, but whatever.) “I trauma dumped on you, so now it's your turn. If you want to, of course” He says, giving the other a slight nudge with his arms. The half dragon blinked owlishly at him a few times, and took a minute to gather his thoughts and old memories together.

Fwhip starts by clearing his throat, his words coming out a little shaky. He isn’t really sure why he’s going along with this, but supposes it’s fair. He’d lent a shoulder for Jimmy to cry on, and the cod seemed determined to do the same in return. “My parents had a….very bad divorce a few years back. Before we met you.”

Jimmy nods, an invitation to keep speaking. A sign that he’s listening. Fwhip takes another breath, and continues on with the rather horrible story he’s laying out. “It was um, it was bad. Like, so bad I considered running away, but I didn’t.” He knows he sounds a little….stiff as he talks, but can’t really help it. The half dragon doesn’t like thinking about that time in his life much, and detaching himself for a few moments is a good way to get through it. His other option, and his least favorite one, is to have a bit of a breakdown.

“My parents weren’t the best before the divorce, and they got worse after it. Mom got more…distant and pushy, and Dad well….dad started drinking a lot more.” Fwhip keeps talking, and Jimmy just listens in a sort of horrified silence. This was all way, way worse than he had thought. Holy moly. He knew this family had some issues , but didn’t know how deep they ran. Until right now, that is. “They don’t really talk to me much….only sometimes. Mom talks to Gem though, but it’s mostly about her studies and how she needs to work harder or whatever.”

(Maybe if I wasn't such a failure, they’d still be married. Is the thought that runs through Fwhip’s head as he tells everything to Jimmy, just like it does whenever he thinks about all this. It makes his stomach turn in upset knots every time, but he just can’t help but wonder. )

(Logically, he knows the thought is really stupid. His parents had problems before him and Gem, all his extended family had told him as much when they’d last seen them years ago. But still, Fwhip’s traitorous mind couldn’t help but wonder what if… )

They fall into silence once the half dragon trails off. Fwhip has nothing more he wants to tell, and knows he wouldn’t be able to say most of it even if he wanted to. The cod, however, has things to say. He just needs to turn all the words and thoughts over in his head a bit more, so he doesn’t misspeak. That whole process takes a lot longer than expected, leaving the two in relative silence, with only the creaking of the house to accompany them. Until the blonde finally speaks his mind that is. It is the only thing he can think to say.

“I see her in Gem.” Jimmy admits quietly, fiddling with his father's pendant again. It brings him a lot more comfort that it probably should, considering he never met the man. He doesn’t fiddle with the rings from him as much, simply because their presence on his hand is enough to bring him comfort. Necklaces are also a good fidget toy in general, he’s found, especially when they mean something to you.

“Who?” Fwhip asks, lowering his tone to match the blonde’s. He looks suddenly concerned, worried even. And the cod can’t really blame him, that was a pretty ominous thing to say about his sister. But he fears the actual explanation will not give the half dragon any comfort, and will probably just upset him more. Like it upsets Jimmy.

“Lizzie. And I see bits of my mom in yours.” Jimmy holds the pendant in his hand, grip tightening around it tighter with every word he speaks. He feels that anger and frustration bubbling up again, but shoves it down for now. He can get it out of his system later, when he’s alone in his room and isn't having another weirdly heartfelt moment with Fwhip; of all people. “It’s been pissing me off so much.”

Fwhip says nothing for a long minute, and then moves his gaze towards the wall. He keeps it there for a good while. “You get why I was so grumpy at the castle?” He asks, his voice and overall posture now very tense. The cod feels kinda bad for upsetting the half dragon like this, but he felt like he couldn’t keep that to himself any longer. It felt like the information would’ve left him one way or another, and at least this way was better than it leaving him during a breakdown or something.

“Yeah.” Jimmy mumbles, and stops holding onto his father’s pendant for dear life. When he lets go, his palm has turned red, and an oval shape is pressed into the area. He stares at the mark for a moment, before hugging his arms closer to his chest. That one action that brings him comfort so often, just like the pendant normally does. It only helps a little today. They also don't say anything for a minute after that, both of them needing a moment after all of that .

Fwhip hums softly, leaving his head against the wall and staring up at his bedroom’s ceiling. (He seems to be over his funk from a few minutes ago, which is good. That’s good; Jimmy didn’t upset him too bad...He really hoped he hadn’t.) “What’s it like…without a dad?” He asks, tentative and his tone still quiet. There’s clearly some kind of curiosity hidden under there too, the innocent kind. The cod has gotten to the point where he can tell that sort of thing.

“I don’t know.” Jimmy mutters, half of it coming out as a laugh. It’s not a funny question, not really, but he laughs anyway. He thinks it because of how unanswerable and unexpected the question is. He’s laughing because Fwhip just asked him to describe something he’s never had, and has only been able to mourn the absence of. “What’s it like having one?”

“That was probably a bad question..” The half dragon sounds sheepish now, embarrassed by his little question. Jimmy just laughs again, and assures him that it's fine. Then, he goes silent, and the half dragon goes silent with him a few seconds later. Lateral, he does need some quiet to think about his answer. It’s a very hard answer to give, and requires the cod to rattle his brain around a bit. Fwhip seems willing to wait a while why Jimmy thinks, shifting until he’s in a more comfortable position. He will not have to wait long at all.

“It’s like….well, it’s like…” The cod turns the words over in his head for a few moments more, really looking for an explanation that makes sense to someone who isn’t him or Lizzie. It’s a lot harder than he thought, and he already knew it would be a little bit of a challenge in the first place. “Like I’m missing something. I don’t know what, but I know I’m probably missing something. Maybe like, fatherly love or something sappy like that.”

“And you only have one parent, you know? Other people have helped raise me n’ stuff, but I really only have one parent who really cared for me. At the end of the day, I just have mum.” He continues on, a small frown starting to stress across his face. Jimmy didn’t like that he just had his mother, he didn’t like it for a lot of reasons. But it’s something he has learned to live with. “It’s not like that for everyone without a dad I don’t think, just me…”

“Was your mom….better once?” Fwhip asks, sounding nervous to do so. He’s glancing over at Jimmy now, slightly curious. The cod notices, and tries not to feel self conscious (or blush red) under his gaze. Which is a little hard when he’s obviously being studied, but whatever. It’s fine, he has a pretty hard question to answer anyways….

“When me and Lizzie were younger, yeah.” It’s Jimmy’s turn to stare at the wall a bit, his voice starting to sound distant. But not too distant, he’s still close enough to reign back in if needed. “I kinda miss it.” His mother is always quite the hard subject, so it’s no surprise when he doesn’t add anything else afterwards. The half dragon decides to move the conversation away from all that, for both their sakes.

“...Having a dad is like….well, I don’t know what it’s like. I guess it’s like having both parents.” Fwhip starts answering Jimmy’s earlier question, of wondering what having a dad is like, without any prompting. It feels like the least he can do in return. “Dad’s kinda like me, when he’s around, so it's kinda like having a mentor and a dad wrapped all into one. And when he does something wrong it…it stings . Same with mom.”

“This question probably would’ve been better suited for, like, Joey or Scott or something.” Fwhip says, his explanation clearly failing him. Which makes sense. Jimmy doesn't think there’s really a good, universal way to explain what having a parent (or lack therefore) is like. And by the sounds of it, the half dragon has also kinda forgotten which of their peers also have fathers. If Jimmy’s memory serves him right, he forgot to add Joel and Kattherine to that list as well. And Pearl, he thinks Pearl has a dad also.

“Heh, yeah.” Jimmy says, finally looking over at the other. He gives the other boy a friendly nudge as he speaks, tail flicking happily across the floor next to them. The half dragon’s own tail even starts to mirror his, and starts moving as well. Not that either of them notice it, though. “We can be lacking in the dad department together, though.”

Fwhip smiles at him, a real one, and lets a giggle slip past his lips. “Yeah, we can be.” Jimmy returns the smile, and this feels like the first good moment they’ve had together during the whole week of the trip so far. For a moment, he wonders if there will be any more moments like this. A part of him, one normally shoved very deep down, kinda wants there to be. But Jimmy doesn’t want to think about that, so he shoves it down again, and resigns himself to lounging in comfortable silence with Fwhip. This is the only good moment they’ve had so far, it would be such a shame to waste it. Especially when you are praying and praying over and over again in your head that one never ever happens ever again.

Shyly, a wing is wrapped around Jimmy’s shoulder, drawing the cod closer to its owner. Fwhip didn’t say anything, and he didn’t need to. They both clearly needed something like this after today, one more than the other. And Jimmy didn’t say anything either, even when he leaned into the contact; only doing so after a moment’s hesitation. He liked being held, more than he would ever admit, even if the person currently holding him is Fwhip .

The two of them stay like that for a good while, until they are sure the coast is clear, and it is no longer dangerous to walk around the manor. He doesn’t even care when Gem is the one to open the door, walking on them partially cuddling. She’s there to tell them dinner is ready, and also that she needs help with something. Fwhip says they’ll be there in a minute, and ignores how she looks at them; her brother’s wing wrapped around the cod and Jimmy almost laying his head on Fwhip’s shoulder.

This isn’t going to help the crush allegations in the slightest. It’s only going to make them worse, probably. (And Jimmy can’t really blame her. If he saw Lizzie getting all comfortable with someone, his big sister would never hear the end of it. It was simply his duty as a sibling, to make fun of whatever crush his sister might have, just as it is Gem’s.) But Jimmy can’t be bothered to care anymore, everyone thinking they’re in love just makes this whole thing easier, and neither of them really needed anything else weighing down on their shoulders.

It would please their parents, at the very least, and that was more than enough. Pleasing them like that would have to do, even if it took pretending to do so. (It’s not like Jimmy didn’t pretend all the time already, and this was nothing different. So yeah, he’ll play along, just to make his life and Fwhip’s less of a living hell. It was the least that could be done, after all.)

Fwhip gets up from the floor a few minutes later, and reaches down to help the cod up. Jimmy takes his hand, and knows he’s ready to get the rest of this day over with, and spend the rest of his trip out in the fields; alone with no one but the crops. And the twins, if they want to drop by. That would be nice. That would be really, really nice.

When he goes into his room that night, after hauling himself in the library post-dinner for some much needed thinking time, there is a vase of wither rose sitting on the nightstand. They were never there before. They are clearly for him to keep, and maybe even take home when he leaves. They look beautifully deadly under the moonlight streaming in from the window.

Jimmy just stares at Fwhip’s gift for a second, before moving it to the slightly open window seal. He thinks the plant will like the moonlight and nighttime breeze, much like their gifter seems too. The cod will have to ask how to care for them in the morning, probably from one of the farmhands, but now it is time for bed. He’s ready to finally get this day over with, and start all over again in the morning. But with a few new flowers by his side instead...

#jimmy solidarity #ron.fic #fwhimmy #ily (im not supossed too)#empiresshipping #geminitay #fwhip #tw transphobia #AGAIN. IM SORRY #tw alchoholism #tw child abuse #(referenced)

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bryan360 · 7 months ago

Text

No “On This Day” posting I’ll be focusing today.

Also….

‼️(NO COPYING OR PLAGIARIZING FROM ME AND ONE OF MY CLOSEST FRIEND’S WORK! THAT INCLUDES OUR CHARACTERS, DESIGNS, STUFF, ETC. IMPOSTERS AND SEXBOTS ARE NOT WELCOME TO FOLLOW MY BLOG WHATSOEVER! 😡 That will be all….I mean it.)‼️

2024 Review - Seagate 2TB Portable Drive (Third/Final - Storing game(s))

It’s been a long time coming; not to mention through scheduling at the program all weekdays I’d been in. Nevertheless, I’m finally coming back to this topic for the final time. After that the second half of installing with my gaming console is done, I’m now be storing/moving one of my games from its internal storage; which I’d already got it at early January this year.

⬆️ (From January. 6th, 2024; 3:04 to 6:24 P.M)

The first one is I’d finally gotten to installed Forza Horizon 5; the same game from last year’s Christmas gift for my Xbox One system. You can thank our friend @carmenramcat of ever giving me for Christmas by surprise. Link Here

I haven’t boosted this racing game yet; not until after getting my own potable hard drive in early January 2024. There are plenty of games in it as well, but that’s gonna wait after the final part of this topic review.

So anyways, I’d managed to move this to my portable hard drive which had lot of storage needed. Just how long it will take after installing? Well from checking in actual time (via screenshots information) about 3:04 to 6:24 P.M., it’s 3 hours, 20 minutes, and 33 seconds when calculated by using calculator.net website. Wow. Sure it would make sense due to how big this racing game will be, but taking three hours or less was a bit long. Still, nothing bad happens once it’s done for my portable drive. At least I’m grateful that I’d finally got this game downloaded after months later. The transfer progress should’ve speed things up though. That being said, I can’t wait to dive in unless for further planning to share soon. Or if I haven’t gotten through FH3 progress as of yet. I’d appreciate for having my portable drive with me that I’m willing to transfer other games more. 👍

Update: So I haven’t downloaded just one FH5 updated patch just yet. Not until back in Sunday this week that I got it as well. Now it took me about from 1:52 to 2:23 P.M.; or 31 minutes and 5 seconds shorter. Not bad that didn’t take this long. I won’t be surprised that there will more updated patches for FH5 to check out, just in case.

(Back in March. 24th, 2024) (just after transferring other games that I’d save since February 3rd, 2024)

Now to get into with my other games I’ve previously transfer for my portable hard drive. During the same date of January 6th, I did the second time with 👊💥MultiVersus; a free to play fighting platform made by Player First Games. It took about few minutes than I did with my Forza Horizon 5 game within three hours or less. And then afterwards til February 3rd at 6:20 to 6:53 P.M., I got with two previous Forza Horizon titles, Rare Replay included two Banjo-Kazooie titles, Cuphead, Kingdom Hearts 3, and PAC-MAN Museum+. Talk about plenty of some along the way. Thought looks like it takes minutes for almost all games included this time. That’s good to see that it happened, right?

So anyways as I’d going back to its storage devices setting, my portable drive is about 16.1% within 1.5 TB free spaces. It’s not full enough as of yet. Though who knows if there’s plenty room to pick which I’m going for sooner or later. Other than that, I also pointed out for its internal storage had few games in it. It’ll be for another time to save, I promise.

My Experience/Overall Thoughts: ⬇️

Storing/transferring FH5 (Forza Horizon 5) (plus other games) with my external hard drive was an interesting progress to get through. It depends how many games to transferring within minutes/hours before completion. All in all, I couldn’t done it without my first portable drive that I’d wanted for my gaming console. It won’t be a matter of time before I can get a new one in the near future, but not right now. I’m happy of having a portable drive I’ll be taking care of. 🙂 If you’re curious or interested to get one of those, then it’s available on Amazon.com. It normally cost about $70, so hopefully that you still have your savings left. Link Here

See ya guys until my upcoming topics are coming soon. 👋

Tagged: @murumokirby360 @carmenramcat @alexander1301 @rafacaz4lisam2k4 @paektu

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i-willstealyourtoes · 2 years ago

Note

can i get some headcanons for jacket , hoxton , sokol , and bain with an s/o who is an over-achiever ? for example , s/o would secure as much loot as possible , regardless of how long it takes or the risk of injury being higher the longer they stay . i might just request some more later , but i'll do my best not to bombard you with a bunch . thank you !

Hi! Hopefully the wait was worth 😭

I LITERALLY KEPT FORGETTING TO SAVE THE DRAFT SO I KID YOU NOT I KEPT LEAVING WITH LIKE 70% FINISHED THEN COMING BACK TO HAVE ONLY 40% 😭😭😭😭😭

Jacket, Hoxton, Sokol + Bain with s/o who's an overachiever

Jacket

- I'm sure he definitely admires your determination fr

- I mean ambition is kind of required in a job like this so he gets it too ofc

- But even he knows you go a little too far

- 'Vamos!' is what he would spam as he saw you staying behind

- No but fr he is stern when you take it too far

- Like he gets ambitious too ofc

- He does kind of match you too

- I feel like you guys both match each other and also balance/keep each other in check

- Like when he pushes it too far you're there for him

- 'Okay, that's enough bags... about 8. Let's go Jacket!'

- '10.'

- 'No-'

- (As he's being shot) 'Diez.'

- '....JACKET....!!'

- You literally have to drag him by the ear

- Eventually you just hold his hand and move so he doesn't suddenly leave again

- (He may or may not stay behind on purpose so you'll hold his hand)

- Okay but anyway if YOU'RE the one who stays behind my guy will waste NO time getting you back fr

- 'Just let me get just one more-'

- 'NO.'

- Yes, he will hold your hand and drag you

- If you're not budging? HE WILL LITERALLY THROW YOU OVER HIS SHOULDER AND GO

- 'Just 5 more min-WOAH WAIT-'

- The last thing the cops see is Jacket just carrying you while you flail about 💀

- (Dw cops idk what's happening either)

- I'm ngl he kind of likes doing this anyway bc yay holding hands and holding each other

- The others do tease/make comments

- If you're already together he doesn't mind

- If you aren't they get death glares (don't out the man of his crush oml)

- OH also y'all be the kinda cuties to like... heal each others wounds after oml

Hoxton

- Like Jacket he also matches this energy

- But better bc you both get hyped at the same time

- If you're rlly ambitious, he's not far from it too

- 'We can get more guys, come on!'

- 'You heard them lads, move it!'

- Dallas/Bain likes to bring you two together especially on loud heist's bc uhm

- POWER DUO???

- But the only difference between you two is that he knows when it's time to go and you don't

- But this is sort of good bc at least he knows when it's too much

- 'Alright (Y/n), you'll be full of lead if you don't leave this time. Come on.'

- That's his calmer request if you usually follow him

- If you're stubborn tho?

- 'I SWEAR TO SHIT, IF YOU DON'T MOVE NOW, I WILL DRAG YOU TO THE VAN. MOVE.'

- He probably would grab your arm or drag you fr

- It's rare for him to actually pick you up bc idk I guess he isn't that kinda guy???

- Unless you're injured ofc

- 'What'd I tell you? I swear to god you're such a dumbass.'

- 'Yeah, but I'm your dumbass.'

- You're right

- Y'all are each others dumbies

- You always stick by each other tho so it's ok :)

- You guys are like the power couple that argues (in a lighthearted way usually)

- A couple that fights together stays together ig

- OH also if it ends up he's the one that gets hurt bc of his arrogance?

- TEASING TIME TEASING TIME

- 'What'd I tell you Hox? One day you're gonna have to listen to me!'

- You'd tell him while patching up

- 'Shut up.' (/lh)

- He'd let out a dry chuckle as you'd mock him more

- Y'all are so cute oml

Sokol

- OKAY YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE OVERAMBITIOUS???

- BRO HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?????

- Y'ALL..... HE'S LIKE THE DEFINITION OF AM OVER-ACHIEVER OH MY DAYS BRO

- Y'all are like the frickin chaotic combat gremlins

- Bc y'all actually both go too far oml

- See, you and Hox match each other in energy

- BUT YOU AND SOKOL?

- Y'ALL FUEL EACH OTHER

- 'Come on, Sokol! We can get one more!!'

- 'One more? I THINK WE COULD GET 5!'

- Y'all be running into straight death bc you missed a deposit box oml

- Calm down omd

- If Dallas or one of the older heisters are with you two I stg they just turn into tired parents LMAO

- I may have exaggerated a little

- Bc while Sokol is overambitious, he is also quite mature and aware so he does know when to stop (sometimes)

- Though sometimes it does become a little difficult in the heat of the moment

- Especially when you're there to encourage him

- But if one of you gets hurt bc of it? The fun stops

- 'Блять, (Y/n), you- Don't worry, I'm coming!'

- It's like a wake up call when one of you gets hurt or something else really bad happens

- He always feels a little guilty when you get hurt

- He feels like he's sort of the undeclared third in command (Bain at first and Dallas at second) so he feels like he caused this

- Even if you coerced him into doing it, he still feels a little bad

- 'Next time, stay closer to me..!'

Bain

- Ofc he likes your ambition, it's kind of what made him like you fr

- But he can tell when it's too much, since he has an overview of the mission overall

- 'Alright gang, let's get going. You too (Y/n), get to the van!'

- 'Hold on, just one more-'

- 'No! Get in the van now, (Y/n)!' (bro you got candy in there or something)

- He's definitely stern about you going too far, but it's bc he worries ok

- He literally does get grey hairs when you go out like that

- OH and if you do get hurt? AAAAAA-

- 'Shit, (Y/n), get out of there!!'

- Obviously he can't get you himself, but he can help you with directions, whether if it's to the escape, or just to somewhere to hide

- 'What'd I say, (Y/n)? You're being too reckless again. The loot isn't worth more than your life.'

- He's like a worried/stern parent fr

- (bro unrelated but I just got reminded of that voiceline where Bain calls himself 'daddy' and I'm going to cry)

- Anyways, he really does get worried for you, because he knows that if you get injured he can't even go get you himself :(

- 'Please, (Y/n), try to have sense of mind this time, or I'll pull you out of the fight.'

- He does make sure that if you are always gonna be stubborn about it, Dallas or someone from the og gang is working with you so they can keep an eye on you or pull you out

- He does love you he just acts a little strict sometimes <33

- He doesn't like to be too public though so that's why he sort of doesn't treat you as different???

- Though everyone can usually tell with the tone in his voice

- If you're on a solo mission (more specifically stealth) he's more affectionate though !!

- Calls you love and is more... tired sounding??

- NOT THAT HE'S TIRED OF YOU-

- It's just that when he's with you he feels more comfortable to let go a little and hide his emotions less

- He trusts the others ofc, but when it's a team he feels like he needs to pump them up

- (I headcanon he's like this with the ogs as well)

- He's more affectionate when you try be stubborn and stuff

- 'Love, you're going to get caught if you go back. Please get back in the van.'

- This is as affectionate as he rlly gets tbh

- OH also please thank him for his concerns, if you do it correctly he might be a little flustered >:D

- 'Thanks Bain. I know you're just worried. You know I love you.'

- He'll probably turn off his mic for a second to just process what you said (got the whole °/-/°)

- It only lasts for a second but its worth

- 'I.... love you too. Now come on, let's get back to the safehouse.'

- Y'all are cute oml I love y'all :)

#x reader #payday #payday 2 #pd2 #sokol payday 2 #bain payday 2 #hoxton #hoxton payday 2 #jacket payday 2 #jacket hotline miami

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pluppsauthor · 2 months ago

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OC Mega Questionnaire

Thanks to @illarian-rambling for the tag! It has been TOO LONG since I've done something like this. Anyway, as per the wheel, today we will question Akita from Frequency: Hellfire!

Five things that make you happy:

Food, water, money, a place to sleep... and being left alone.

If you could save just one other person who would it be?

I don't want to save anyone, I'd save myself if I could. Who do you expect me to say? David? F*ck that guy. I know my dad's dead. I could save him, but I don't know anything about him. I know less about my mother, I don't even know who she is.

Tell us one of your funniest jokes:

Myself. ...I don't have an actual joke.

Where would you like to visit?

I don't know a lot about the world. ...Anywhere with good weather I guess.

When do you usually go to sleep?

Whenever I'm tired, day or night. I don't like to keep patterns.

Are you a jealous person?

Yeah. I have nothing, everyone else has something. It's hard not to be jealous.

Have you committed a crime?

A lot. Pick-pocketing and stealing mostly. I've killed at least one person before, but they attacked me first. It wasn't even on purpose either, unlucky guy.

Do you have a chore you usually hate?

What?

Tell me an embarrassing childhood story

I didn't really have a "childhood". I had to either grow up or die. I could tell an embarrassing story I guess. One time, I tried to steal some food from a store. But, I tried to take it from the chefs and accidentally stabbed myself on a skewer or something. I was "arrested" after. But, I was young and hadn't been caught with any other crime, so they just let me go and told me not to do it again. The officers patched up my hand at least.

Are you a good person?

*sigh* What do you consider good? I'm a selfish person, I have to be. I steal and kill if I have to. From my understanding, those are not considered "good".

What’s the worst thing you have ever done? Do you regret it?

Agreeing to help the man who shot me in the shoulder. I regret it every single day. But... he gives me food, water, and a place to sleep. If I could kill him I would, but I don't think he'd let me.

What’s the quickest way to make you laugh?

Anything Kai does. That man is an idiot. I don't think he can do anything right.

What is your favourite song right now?

What? Do you mean the music I hear sometimes near the centre or in bars? I don't pay attention to that stuff.

Do you sometimes wish to be someone else?

Every day. Actually. No, I still want to be me. But, I'd do just about anything to not have to struggle every day.

Do you push forward or take time to rest?

Rest. I'd be dead otherwise. I'm not an idiot.

What is your favourite drink?

Literally anything. Water, I guess.

If you had to pick an item of clothing or accessory to wear for the rest of your life, what would it be?

A coat large enough to cover my whole body. I'd never have to worry about the cold again.

If you were forced to forget one memory, what would you choose?

Getting shot in the shoulder. That pain was... the worst thing I've ever felt. Hopefully it's the worst thing I will ever feel.

What is a positive thing your worst enemy would say about you?

I... don't think I have a "worst enemy". I've spent my entire life struggling to survive out of spite. I'm... resentful, I guess? Unless you kill me outright, I'll cling to life... if I'm mad enough at least.

- - - - -

Okay, I'm a bit sad I didn't do more of these. But I'm back now! Woo!

Tagging @tildeathiwillwrite, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @mk-writes-stuff, @thecomfywriter, @the-golden-comet, and anyone else who wants to!

#writeblr #writblr #tag games #original character #oc questionnaire #ocs #open tag #frequency: hellfire

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ratlesshonret · 1 year ago

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FAIR WARNING: THIS POST IS LONG! I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS ON THESE GAMES

You can find the positive version of this post Here

EDIT: AS OF 12/15/2023, A PATCH HAS RELEASED THAT HAS FIXED MANY OF MY ISSUES WITH THE GAME. I WILL KEEP THIS POST UP, BUT KNOW THAT MANY OF THESE ISSUES NO LONGER EXIST.

This post is some more random Little Goody Two Shoes thoughts because... to be frank, I have many thoughts about this game. Please do note, however, that I have still only finished two endings (for context, the two Rozenmarine endings.)

This post will probably trend more negative than the last few I've made about this game, where I was giving heavy benefit of the doubt to avoid sounding too negative. As much as I love LGTS, just like with my "Things I Didn't Like About GoldenerTraum" post, I think its important to criticize things you like.

And I mean, I'm also hoping maybe there's a 1% chance a developer at Astral Shift has seen the sentiments I'm about to echo and is maybe going to push a patch for the game to improve some stuff. Who knows.

This post will also cover GoldenerTraum again, as some things have changed since my last post about it.

I want to preface this with one last thing: Just to stress, I am a fan of Pocket Mirror. I love this series. I was there only months after the original Pocket Mirror came out all those years ago, and I've been in love with the game ever since. And that may potentially be part of the reason I'm so critical of both GoldenerTraum and LGTS. I'm not sharing this post out of a desire to bash these games, but out of a slim hope that my words may affect something.

Proper rant below the cut.

PART 1 - LITTLE GOODY TWO SHOES

(The following issues, regarding many scenes being unskippable, have been fixed in a patch)

To be very blunt, I really don't like how annoying it is to replay this game. Due to the way heart events work, unless I specifically set up a file where I date everyone at once (which is hard due to the whole "you will have no money" thing) I need to play the entire game three times, which is what I've chosen to do (due to the aforementioned "you will have no money" thing.)

Once you've seen every scene, the days are just "mash dialogue (a decent chunk of which you cant skip with the skip button,) do minigames, mash more dialogue, and do the Witching Hour that you've already solved all the puzzles for."

And like, the game is fun. I like the minigames. I can't say the same about the Witching Hours but honestly who cares, I don't necessarily have to enjoy them. That's not something I'm going to complain about (yet.)

it just gets repetitive doing it so many times.

For an example, I tried playing earlier to do Freya's route and couldn't even make it through one day. I just got so bored. I know this genre of game doesn't necessarily lend itself to replaying due to the whole appeal being the story/cutscenes and the puzzles, but I actually do have an actionable idea that, while it won't fix the issue, would make it a lot less annoying. Its also something that I've seen many people suggest before.

Add. A. Fucking. Skip. Button.

To. EVERY. Cutscene.

Not just some of them.

I had this complaint with Pocket Mirror as well, but its more lowkey there because as long as you either know the route or just separate your saves often, you only need to replay the entirety of the game twice. Which I feel like is actually good for a narrative game, because you get to pick up on things you missed the first time.

However, even in that game I disliked how slow mashing was in certain sections. My biggest and most commonly-cited example is Enjel's Theater, where my fastest time getting through the entire scene (not including the cutscene and with the fastest mashing technique I know, involving four buttons) was somewhere between 4-5 minutes.

It doesn't sound like much, but because every route needs you to go through it due to Enjel's area being after every ending choice is passed, you need to do it at least three times. Four if you're going for the secret ending in GoldenerTraum.

However, this is the LGTS section. And I have to say, this issue is worse in LGTS. Even just with the one playthrough I did to get the two endings I have, there were so many times where, either through loading saves or the ending divergences right at the end that happen after the last save point, I needed to rewatch very long scenes.

This wouldn't be very insulting if there wasn't a skip button already in the game, but there is, they just chose not to let you use it in many of the longest and most narratively-important scenes. Which I get why that was done, but I don't agree with it.

I feel like the most sensible course of action would be to do what many other games of this genre do, and simply have a persisting flag that permanently goes up for every save file once you've seen a cutscene. And once this flag is raised, let the player hold shift to skip the dialogue very quickly if they enter that scene again. This way, replaying the game or loading saves due to fails wouldn't be quite as annoying.

Also, I wish to whoever is listening that the first half of the credits was counted as an animated cutscene so it could be skipped with ESC. Again, they could even have a flag that raises as soon as you have one ending that only lets you skip the credits once you've raised it if its that important, that way the player still has to watch it once.

Overall, it makes the player (or at least me) feel like it isn't worth it to get every ending. In my eyes, I already got the canon ending. Everything else is just bonus. And while I normally love bonus (and will still hunt every ending) this is bonus that takes potential hours of mashing through scenes and repeating puzzles to see any reward from.

Oh yeah. Speaking of the puzzles...

PART 2 - LGTS: THE WITCHING HOUR

Now onto my more minor gripes. I really don't like most of the Witching Hour segments in the game. And honestly, feel free to skip this entire section (after the next paragraph) because this is less "here are some actionable ideas the developers could potentially roll out a patch to implement" and more "here's what frustrated me about the game."

(However, when possible, I will add a "solution" section to each individual Witching Hour breakdown to give a suggestion on how to mitigate the annoyance)

Because I've already invited you to skip this section, I'll just sum it up here with a nice TL;DR that explains my thesis: While you do know most of the puzzle solutions, a combination of game jank and general weirdness in the way certain things are implemented means you still aren't guaranteed to get by without damage or annoyance, which exacerbates the whole "lack of replay value" issue that is already very massive in a game with ten endings and a lot of dialogue that isn't easily skippable. A game's biggest killer of replay value is "that section" that makes the player decide they don't wanna replay after all, and I think most Witching Hours are "that section."

With this in mind, as if this post wasn't convoluted enough, let's break this down by section.

WITCHING HOUR 1

"Wouldn't it be funny if we made the puzzle answer "examine some random bookshelf" for no reason?"

This Witching Hour took me thirty real life minutes to get past. The candles are annoying to dodge unless you play really slow, and the "hint" is so laughably vague that it took the combined brain powers of three people (I was screensharing to others at the time) to figure out what it might mean.

Solution: Make the bookshelf more obvious. Or alternatively, add another hint, so that you have two things subtly nudging the player towards "a bookshelf is the answer" and not one.

WITCHING HOUR 2

(This Witching Hour has been fixed in a patch, and these complaints may no longer apply)

I hate the moths.

Honestly, while "moths are attracted to light" is obvious, it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that I had to turn my lantern off for them to be attracted to the light/corpse I was leading them to instead of my own body.

Solution: Honestly, I don't have any real answer. I think this was just my own human error. My best idea is just to make the moth hitboxes more lenient and increase the I-frames so you don't have to face-tank as much damage, because I had to tank a lot even after knowing how the puzzle worked.

WITCHING HOUR 3

(This Witching Hour has been fixed in a patch, and these complaints may no longer apply)

I hate birds.

Let me get this out of the way: I would've struggled a lot less had I talked to Rozenmarine and gotten the hint that I've since learned she gives you about how the big bird works. However, as many others have pointed out, the "puzzle" is still janky as hell even when you know the answer.

I did eventually figure out the whole "the bird is less likely to attack when you're near unshaking trees" thing, but even then I still was tanking a lot of damage. Why "less likely" and not "won't?" Hitboxes and timing.

Because of how the hitboxes are coded, Elise gets hit seemingly at random sometimes, even if you're directly next to a tree that was not shaking even the tiniest bit for minutes before you got there. I think the hitbox that detects "you're close to a 'bird gets mad' spot" might be too big or something, but I'm not a programmer, nor do I know if hitboxes are even the issue.

Solution: This one is twofold. The lesser one is to have Rozenmarine give you more useful dialogue when you talk to her as a party member beforehand, that way the player is incentivized to actually speak with her. The greater one is to re-examine the hitboxes in the area to make sure they're fair, and also maybe make the time that a tree is safe last longer so you don't just get jumpscared by random damage.

WITCHING HOUR 4

I hate children.

Honestly though, this is one of the least offensive Witching Hour sections in the game. The only real struggle point is the collapsing tile part right at the start, which luckily is the only part that isn't timed. Still, it can be improved, because I had to reload a save several times to figure out the whole "shaking tiles will fall" thing.

Solution: Make the shake more obvious. That's it. Just increase the range of their shiver by a few pixels. The rest of the area is fine.

WITCHING HOUR 5

Honestly? No major notes. Tense, genuinely scary, and requires some actual skill without being overly punishing. Maybe the water chasers could be slowed a bit, but that's just a personal balancing idea and not something I feel is necessary.

Though if I had to complain, I don't like the "guide the spirit to its other half" part. I thought by now game designers knew that "following partner who is way slower than the player and who returns to the beginning if you stray away for too long and also there's chasers" was universally despised. Especially when, depending on where in the movement cycles you are, you'll have to run away from the spirit and onto land.

Solution: Make the spirit faster. And give a bit more leniency to how far you can stray and for how long before they return. Or even don't make them return at all.

WITCHING HOUR 6

Ah, the boss fight. How I loathe you.

Most of this Witching Hour isn't very bad. I don't really like the plot setup for how it occurs, but I'm willing to overlook it.

But the boss. Oh the boss.

Such minimal windup on its attacks that you can't easily dodge.

Random cycles so you can't just predict what's coming next.

Timed questions (on a tight timer!) between each phase that instantly kill you if you answer wrong or run out of time, forcing you to redo the whole fight.

A screen flipping effect that is infinitely worse than anything in Lisette's chases in Pocket Mirror in terms of how unfair it is.

I want to be honest. Everything about this fight feels so poorly thought out and designed that I am astonished it got past testing. In fact, my only explanation is that the people who tested this fight were all people who were so familiar with the game due to development that they knew the attacks and the question answers.

I needed to spam healing items. And I'm lucky that I grinded out the best possible amount of money you could have so I could afford lots of them. But if you don't have healing, you need to play this insanely unfair fight close to perfectly.

Solution: Honestly, I don't think there's an easy solution. The entire fight is so badly designed that it'd require a full rework. But here are some ideas.

Add longer windup to the attacks, with a more obvious indicator of which one it is. As it is now, you have maybe one second to both recover from the last onslaught and figure out what the boss is doing now before you are being attacked again.

Remove the entire screen-flipping and control-reversing gimmick. It worked in Lisette's chases due to how it was done there, but it does NOT work here.

Finally, lessen the penalty for an incorrect guess. Maybe make it 1-2 hearts of damage + redoing the phase. It may sound too generous, but I personally hate this idea of "haha instant-death you gotta do it again" that seems to exist in both games. I thought we left that in 2016.

WITCHING HOUR 7

No notes.

CONCLUSION

I have to imagine that the main people who play-tested this game were those who worked on it. Some of the decisions are incredibly hostile to the player, both due to non-conveyed information on puzzle gimmicks as well as the occasional bit of odd coding/implementation. The Witching Hours on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday are the only ones I don't have major issues with.

I really say this with a heavy heart, but I just feel like the puzzle design has regressed since Pocket Mirror.

PART 3 - MISPLACED EXPECTATIONS

I want to quickly address a point I briefly brought up at the start of this post. This part won't drag on very long, don't worry.

"I was there only months after the original Pocket Mirror came out all those years ago, and I've been in love with the game ever since. And that may potentially be part of the reason I'm so critical of both GoldenerTraum and LGTS."

Elaborating on what I mean by this: My expectations may simply be too high. And I think its important that I acknowledge my complete and utter bias. I try to be as fair as possible and push off most of the weight of my expectations on my rankings, but its impossible to not have it somewhat matter.

When I heard "Pocket Mirror is getting a remaster," there was a lot of things I hoped. Most of which didn't come true. I'll get into those later, that is its own section.

And I've been waiting for LGTS for basically seven years. From what I remember, it was announced that there would be a sequel very soon after the game's release, with concepts and everything. And while I know the game was only in proper development for like, 1/3 of that time, it still sat dormant in my mind for all that time.

Maybe that's why I'm so harsh on the game's problems. In my mind, this has been years upon years in the making, and its hard not to be let down by even the tiniest little things when you've been building excitement for that long.

Finally, I want to re-iterate: I like LGTS. I think it is a good game, both as a Pocket Mirror prequel and as a standalone. However, I will add the caveat that it is mainly for the plot and characters, not for the gameplay. I think Pocket Mirror is far superior in that regard.

PART 4 - MY (FEW) COMPLAINTS WITH GOLDENERTRAUM (2)

If you remember, I made a post almost five months ago, which was right after the game's release, about my issues with Pocket Mirror ~ GoldenerTraum.

Just as in that post, I want to state first and foremost: I think GoldenerTraum is superior to the original Pocket Mirror in basically every way. The graphics, extra lore and ending, and general quality of life features more than make up for my complaints.

This will basically be a rehashing of that post. This post is to the original what GoldenerTraum was to Pocket Mirror: an update. It will include the original points, with me adding in my changed opinions and anything that has been fixed about the game since I made that post.

"There’s a major audio syncing bug during the “chalk” scene before Harpae’s theater. My theory as to why this issue exists is because they changed the scene slightly, but did not update the music. I understand if the devs either were unwilling or unable to redo the music for this scene, but it’s majorly immersion breaking to have the sound of glass shattering be separated by an entire several seconds from the associated visual."

As far as I know, this has not been fixed. And from the looks of it, the game is no longer receiving patches or fixes. This is by far the most immersion-breaking point in the entire game.

"Mashing through text is SLOW. For a game that expects you to play several times to see every ending, there sure is no fast text option that I could find. Even mashing four buttons at once for frame-perfect dialogue skipping, it’s still slow. Scenes like Enjel’s Theater especially suffer from this, with it basically being a full six minutes even when mashing as fast as possible."

Already discussed, see above.

"This one is more of a personal thing, but I was hoping at least some scenes would be slightly rewritten. Some of the dialogue is very stilted and odd, with some questionable punctuation choices as well. Harpae’s area is especially bad. I get that the conversations being cyclical and neither of them wanting the other to take blame for anything is thematic, but it is a bit annoying to sit through basically the same conversation over and over again."

I've sort of reversed this opinion since I stated it. While I was hoping for some dialogue rewrites, I understand that the game was a "remaster" and not a "remake," with the main goal being to put it visually and gameplay-wise on par with the upcoming LGTS.

"Finally, the game is still kinda buggy. I know the team has worked super hard to patch the game several times, and I’m really thankful. I know it’s difficult to fix bugs, I really do. But encountering a softlock even after the “softlock fix” update, and other random issues, makes the game discouraging to play sometimes."

Quite a few of the bugs I was thinking about still exist in modern versions. They basically all have to do with issues related to fast text-mashing, which as I've stated, is required if you want to keep your sanity playing the game several times.

"Sprites. My biggest example of this is the scene where Harpae slaps Goldia. The handprint on Goldia’s face that was present in the original immediately after is completely missing. Also, in Enjel’s Theater, there’s no longer a unique “mouth zipped” sprite for Enjel, DESPITE THAT SPRITE EXISTING ON GOLDIA IN THE WITCHING HOUR ENDING. This one genuinely makes the scene less coherent, as Enjel’s mouth getting sewn up is the focal point of the scene."

ACCORDING TO A PATCH NOTE, THE LATTER COMPLAINT HAS BEEN FIXED, AND ENJEL WAS GIVEN HER PROPER SPRITE

I can't say it was because of me, but I will continue to privately think that.

The former complaint still exists. They couldn't have added a slap png to Goldia's face?

"Less impactful choices. The two I can think of here are both in Lisette’s area, with the “Accept or Protect” choice, and the “Help Me?” choice. In the former, it used to be a screen-wide filter was applied, and the text that you were choosing between was large and stylized to cover most of the screen. In the latter, you had to physically stand over your dialogue option. I understand if the engine doesn’t support these “special” dialogue choices, but replacing them with just normal choice boxes is a bit disappointing."

This is what I meant in that post. A few of the choices feel less impactful. In the latter especially, it was changed from standing on your option to just choosing it in the menu like every other choice.

That's the bulk of my complaints on GoldenerTraum. A lot of this probably sounds like "old person yells at cloud about minor changes to game" but I think its important to recognize that the original Pocket Mirror was superior in a few places.

I hope GoldenerTraum gets one last patch to fix some of my issues.

PART 5 - CONCLUSION

I love this series. I want it to be the best it can be. That's my only motivation behind making this. I'm nothing if not nostalgic and petty, so I feel like I'm an okay person to point out minor things that could be improved in both GoldenerTraum and Little Goody Two Shoes.

Again, and I know I've worn out this point by now, but I love these games. GoldenerTraum is a superior game to the original Pocket Mirror in 99% of cases, and LGTS is an amazing sequel. I just see a lot of tiny issues in the former (which to be fair, do add up) and a lot of missed potential combined with odd decisions in the latter.

If anybody from Astral Shift happens to be reading this, I have nothing but respect and admiration for the work you have done over the years. I don't want anybody, team member or random person reading this, to think I intend to disrespect or show disdain for anyone on any of these projects, or to think I won't be happy without perfection. These are all simply minor-to-moderate complaints I have, and I'd be fine if none of them are changed. I simply wish they would be.

I have high hopes for future projects, and I definitely don't think I'll be let down. I believe in this team, and have full confidence that whatever they make, Pocket Mirror related or otherwise, will be, if not perfect, of incredibly high quality.

If you read all of this, thank you, and goodnight.

(it is three in the morning and i have been writing this for like an hour)

#little goody two shoes #pocket mirror (game)#pocket mirror #pocket mirror goldenertraum #astral shift #astralshift #author commentary ahead #this is the last post im gonna make about LGTS until i finish the game entirely #i simply wanted to put all of my thoughts in one concise place. i may issue erratas to this post at a later date #i didn't add in complaints about issues i havent personally experienced either #i know lots of people got softlocked or hard-pushed into an ending for a minor mistake they couldn't have known about in advance #but i didn't bring that up because it didn't happen to me personally and thus i can't be a reliable source on the matter

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rockybloo · 1 year ago

Note

Thinking of writing a fanfic crossover where Jack and Nana end up in Decking city after a magical accident (Still fleshing out the details of how said accident worked).

If comfortable answering:

I'm curious about how you think Nana and Jack would react to such a such a big change in a new place like that, in a general sense. Especially if there's a bigger issue bringing them here and they realize they have to solve it to go home.

Thank you, and lovely day either way ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡

A fanfic of Jack and Nana would make me screech because they are the most ship ever for me and I'd be overjoyed. 😭💚❤️ The concept of anyone considering taking time out of their day and writing a fic about my OCs in general makes me happy.

and WOW my brain waves are powerful because I was literally thinking of an old Beanstalked plot point that basically dealt with the idea of how the main team get yeeted from Lore to Earth and have to figure out how to get back and how to tie it to Glitter and Guilt for a funny little crossover arc.

I won't go into detail about the ACTUAL events that cause it to potentially happen (bc I dunno if I'll do it...I mean I probably will but as a separate oneshot from the main storylines of both stories) BUT I can def answer how Jack and Nana would respond to a similar situation.

This will be a long one so buckle in

First thing to know is that Lore and Earth are two separate planets in the same solar system. Both are waaay closer than either think.

Lore occupants know about Earth, specifically they know it as "The World without Magic/Happy Endings/Fairy Tales/etc." It's kinda of mythicized.

Earth has no idea Lore is a thing because Lore has magic rings (kinda like Saturn's but cooler I dare say) that spin around it and make it invisible.

Bloopers are a glitch in reality in Lore where things from Earth often pop up there. Often old or lost objects.

Jack works part time for Baba, who tends to have a whole bunch of bloopers in his shop, which means he has very mild knowledge of Earth. Not a whole lot but if he winded up there-he would know "Oh! This is Earth!" and he'd be able to point out some stuff and name it. So he would know a car when he sees one-it's just a matter of actually being aware of how one works.

Hazel and Kettle have a TON of bloopers they hoard in their bedroom which serves as the attic for the inn Miss Castor is the keeper of. Specifically, they have the super fun bloopers like retro game consoles and comic books. Chances are, they even have some Sweetheart merch but are under the belief that she is merely fictional character.

So Jack is vaguely aware of Sweetheart. SPECIFICALLY as "The pink hero my little siblings thinks is cool".

Merch of villains is a whole lot more locked down with most being illegal save for what is made for the Decking City Park of Heroes AKA the Disney World/Universal Studios of Decking City entirely focusing on it's homegrown hero culture.

So Bitterbat is def not someone Jack is aware of.

When it comes to Nana, she doesn't really dabble much in bloopers or even learning about Earth. Unless it's from Jack's ramblings or mini adventures, she tends to limit herself to Lore and its shenanigans. She spent most her life living in a forest and is just now branching out to learn more about Briar Patch and Lore as a whole thanks to Jack making her realize "Oh hey the outside world is kinda fun".

She's taking baby steps and Earth is a very big jump she ain't trynna make yet.

So when it comes to them getting yeeted to Earth, SPECIFICALLY Decking City, Nana is def more reliant on Jack when it comes to knowledge. Where ever he is going, she is gonna be right there, hugging onto one of his arms for dear life because neither wants to lose the other.

Decking City is very interesting with how it's the least mundane setting for Jack and Nana to wind up in, which works perfectly because they come from a fantasy world. They will ironically feel a lot more comfortable when they see a giant monster attacking or some hero versus villain battle going on than dealing with crossing the street with a buncha traffic or even walking through a grocery store aka over stimulant central.

The biggest problem would be adapting to their temporary stay. Decking City is loud and busy and both would be overwhelmed quite easily from just the sights and sounds alone. A city is vastly more imposing than a kingdom when it comes to its buildings and even then, Jack and Nana spend most their time in Briar Patch which is a small humble town.

Nana would have the worse time because her keen Lupine hearing means every car honk, screech of tires, Kaiju alert siren, civilian yelling at another civilian, would lead to the biggest headache.

Protecting the other and making sure they're safe is their main priority. They care deeply about each other and seeing the constant look of discomfort on Nana's face and how nervous she is is enough to break Jack's heart. And the second anyone so much as breathes in the slightest bit of irritation at Jack seeming to not know where or what he's doing, under the belief he's a tourist, would lead to Nana snarling with her full set of chompers on display.

That's enough to cause anyone in the proximity to steer clear of them...or at least treat Jack very nicely because it's very obvious the two are traveling together.

ULTIMATELY, both would want some safe place so they can gather their thoughts, which are currently being scrambled by the city sights and sounds, calm down and figure out what they need to do to get back home.

Whatever they need to do, they are def willing to accomplish because they are used to being in some slice of hell situations. They've always figured their way out of them. Back on Lore, the gang adventures a bunch and have encountered a lot. Some of which I cannot share for spoilers but just know they are no strangers to dealing with the unknown.

It's just a big matter of figuring out exactly what unknown they are dealing with this time.

#ask #ask: beanstalked #ask: red beans #ask: jack #ask: nana

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microwavedmetal · 2 years ago

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Day 6: canon divergence rec list

a ghost never leaves a haunted house

bluebears

Mike looked at him unimpressed. “See you say that. You say that. But you never actually mean it.” He flung his hands out, gesturing at him. “You’re always making stupid promises that you can’t keep.”

Will gaped at him. This was ludicrous. “Name one promise that I haven’t kept!”

“You keep leaving!” Mike burst out. He practically shouted it. If the outburst took him by surprise, he didn’t show it. “Everytime I just get you back you end up leaving again. And it was fine at first, I guess. With the Upside Down and the MindFlayer. Like at least then we knew how to bring you back. But now there’s nothing taking you away but you still aren’t here. And I can’t figure out why. I’ve racked my brain trying to understand what’s going on with you but I just don’t get it! We’re supposed to be best friends but lately it’s only felt like that on my side of things.” ____

The Upside Down is gone. Or so everyone keeps telling him. But Will knows the truth. You can burn all the vines and close all the gates. But you can’t flush out a virus once it’s already been spread. After all, how do you kill something that’s intertwined with the very root of Hawkins without affecting the real world?

These feelings are not my own

Corvi_dae524

Will Byers has enough to deal with already. After returning to Hawkins, he has been getting flashes of what's happening in Vecna's mind too often for his liking. Not to mention everyone keeps their distance from him in case he goes all mind-flayer-super-spy again. Well, almost everyone. On second thought, maybe it would have been better if everyone did stay away.

Or, Will accidentally forges an emotional connection between Mike and himself, and he doesn't know how to deal with it

Don't bite your DM (unless he says yes)

Pennyplainknits

An argument arises over the damage potential of a human bite. Mike and Will settle it in a totally normal way

The Stars You Wrote Me

MrHalloween2

Mike Wheeler is a Star Trek fan.

He also happens to think that Kirk and Spock are soulmates, like many do, and secretly writes about his two favorite characters.

Will Byers, just looking for his coat in Mikes closet, is invested and also very in love.

Ready As I'll Ever Be

snow_bunn257

Turn the world upside down? Did he even have the power to do that? What could he really do? Make the world a better place? With the Upside Down? He had already remade the entire Upside Down in his hometown’s image. If the Upside Down actually leaked into Hawkins, could Will remake the whole town? Make it better? Could he finally make a world in which he could be happy? Those were delusions of a villain, weren’t they? Words injected into his brain by Henry. And yet…

That didn’t sound all too bad.

My take on a Will Villain arc! I really think that the only way he'd switch sides is if convinced it was for the right reasons. Inspired by Ready As I'll Ever Be from Tangled The Series!

By His Side

careful_wish

“You guys saved me, Mike,” Will whispered. “You saved me. I’m okay.” He giggled – actually giggled – when Mike leaned over and kissed Will’s cheek, the smile on his face infectious. He then rested his forehead against Will’s, feeling Will shaking slightly, and thought his mouth would fall off his face from smiling so hard as Will whispered, “I like you too.” Mike hugged him fiercely now, Will letting out a louder laugh as he was knocked back to the floor. Mike moved so he wasn’t squishing Will, squeezing him tightly. “You’ll go to the Snow Ball with me?” he breathed in disbelief, burying his face in Will’s shoulder. He felt Will hugging him back just as tight, nodding. “Yes, Mike, I will,” Will mumbled. “I won’t leave your side all night.”

Mike doesn't think through asking Will to the Snow Ball, so when Will says yes...

broken hearts can always mend

sarol3

"The Road to Madness really wasn’t just a grayscale painting. It had colors scarcely hidden along the way - they were tiny patches in size, yet they felt bigger than life itself, the darkness making them even more vibrant as they called out to the eyes with their beauty. Their presence made the journey feel all the more sorrowful."

Or:

While growing up, Will is being visited by a tall, 15-year-old boy with dark hair and dark eyes, who looks just like his best friend, Mike if he were a little bit older. Will thinks he might be a ghost; he always disappears without a trace after all.

#BylerFicRecWeek2023 #byler

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dragontamer05 · 2 years ago

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Whenever I hear anything about people either wanting a new console release or whatever in regards to the Switch I just hnng, I mean I’m glad you’ve got the money to want and be able to purchase anytime new one is popped out but I’m happy with what I got.

Now I get it, new console means likely updated/upgraded hardware which means increased performance and all that so I’m not saying its bad for a new one to be a released or that Nintendo shouldn’t eventually have something new but my main concern- as is often what happens with new consoles are released is

- Will the old Switch games work on it / could I still run any new games released after on my old console even if it means having a slightly lowered performance rate?

Because lets be real consoles are expensive, not to mention the fact that they’ve now merged the home and hand held console to one which brings its own problems personally. Now for the switch they did eventually release the Switch Lite - which the fact that they chose to release it and people bought it (I’ve got one and so does my sister) and I think it did pretty well I think kinda proves that while people love having a plugged in console to play on their T.V

there are people who either can’t afford or simply don’t want that and just want and enjoy the portability of hand held gaming.

Look I’ve got a Wii have enjoyed playing games on the T.V. but I also like my DS and having gaming I take on the go and personally anyway if I had a Home console type version of the Switch the hooks up to the T.V I can’t imagine ever daring to take that with me on travel (especially cause doesn’t it need to be docked to charge where as even if its not the best choice I can technically charge my Switch lite with my phone charger)

The only thing I’d want from the new switch is let me idk some how Copy? share? my Switch profile with another while still keeping it on my original device. or at the very least idk share game file data.

Look I don’t know how that would or even if it could be programmed to work like that only that right now you can which is kinda a downer because lets say I did want and could by a Switch right now or maybe let’s say I got the special Pokemon SV one or I got really lucky someone gifted me one or won a contest whatever

With everything saved to the Switches memory now all my games now that I have sure I can still play them but it would be all fresh new saves, I wouldn’t be able to carry over my old saves without like removing them off my current switch- I have no idea if like saving stuff to a memory card and just swapping out would work though I assume not.

If such a thing could be programmed I’m not even saying you have to be able to do it an infinite amount of times. I’m just saying keep they already available transfer option of data off one device to another but also what if even if it was just like a one time deal or idk I’d imagine there’d be some other condition attached to it or something instead of transferring everything off it would copy whatever current data you have on there and basically paste on to the new one.

Maybe you can only do it once or because its copying your already existing data it won’t necessarily automatically update with any new changes you’ve made-in terms of downloads n stuff (on what’s basically viewed as your main console where it copied from) so to keep up to date you just have to synch up the two consoles now and then like regular save data might be fine but if say a game had some kind of patch /update to it or you bought and downloaded some new dlc on the main console if you want to share it to your profile on the secondary you gotta sync it up.

Basically how you sync an old phone up to a new one if you want to keep the stuff that was saved there. But like it doesn’t like wipe the old phone clean of that data either (unless you choose to like factory reset afterwards)

At minimum being able to do that would mean being able to back all your saves and things up on another console and not just SD cards or the cloud- which not all games use anyway.

Tbh the only other thing I’d want out of a new console change the controllers I can’t even say specifically in what way but I look at them and all I can wonder is exactly how user friendly are they for left handed people? Now the switch light for the most part I’ve never had too much trouble with so maybe it wouldn’t be to bad or I’ve just been lucky with the games I’ve played so uh hey any other Left handers out there that’s got a plain ol regular switch or a pro I guess- you know not a Switch Lite pls share your experiences would love to here.

(in the tags, reply or just reblog and comment whatever floats your boat)

#nintendo switch #idk I get we're bound to get something new eventually probably #but personally I'm content yah switch ain't perfect I see the issues but it's serving me well #that and I've yet to see anyone when it comes to speculation talk about or question how the handling of old saves and profiles be dealt with #since unlike old consoles even if its backwards compatible the cartridge no longer holds the save

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willel · 2 years ago

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This post is a great example of "show not tell".

I admit that it can be frustrating when relationships are built off screen and you're expected to believe certain things happen based on context clues.

But context clues exist for a reason. If one pays attention to the show, then you know Will's clothes are hand-me-downs from Jonathan. That Joyce makes Will's (and probably Jonathan's) outfits whether it's for Halloween or a random D&D campaign. Instead of buying new clothes for herself, she just patches up her existing clothes to save money.

There are so many little things that exist like this in the series. Do I think the writers could make some of it a little more obvious? I mean sure. At the same time, is it really beneficial to cater to viewers who refuse to take an extra second to... think? Consider? Analyze even a little tiny bit?

Lately in this fandom, I have seen this.... almost anti-intellectual behavior of "If I don't see it, it must not exist." ESPECIALLY when it comes to the Byers family which baffles me to no end. Do you say that about gravity? Are you someone who thinks the earth is flat?

Of COURSE you're not going to see EVERYTHING on screen. There are some relationships that WILL develop off screen because we only visit these characters for 1 of out 52 weeks of their year.

Today, I saw a significant amount of people say, "Will and El aren't close because we didn't see it on screen."

I just want to grab these people by their shoulders and say, "HOW DID YOU WATCH SEASON 4 AND COME AWAY WITH THAT???"

You know who (sadly) aren't that close probably? El and Jonathan. I guess I understand, he's a teenager going through a rough time and probably spends more time with his first friend in forever than anyone in his family (even Will). EVEN STILL, there is an implied closeness there where Jonathan shares secrets with her and they make promises with each other (in this case, about Jonathan's smoking habits)

Off screen, Will and El have lived together in the same house. Eaten at the same dinner table. Watched the same tv. Went to the same school. Shared at least one class together.

Despite Will and El being quiet folk, we see them exchange glances. We see Will encourage her. We see them quietly argue. We see Will worry about her. And when they finally unite, they literally hug each other tightly and cry. They hug each other so tightly that they almost fall over.

If you cannot see that, or rather, if you refuse to see that, then that is YOUR problem.

And another thing I want to call out in general, stop using WillEl for stupid pointless idiotic unless ship wars. Will and El as siblings has NOTHING to do with Mileven. It has NOTHING to do with Byler. Everything Will and El have done for each other is out of love and support.

Stop using WillEl to shit on their characters. Stop using WillEl as proof for ever. Stop using WillEl as a "gotcha" against another ship or pretend like people only care about it because of so-and-so ship.

WillEl existed BEFORE the ships. WillEl will exist AFTER the ships.

I want to reiterate. WILLEL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR ROMANTIC SHIPS

Here are your romantic ships:

This is where WillEl is:

If the chart above does not match your perception, understanding, and feelings about WillEl then something is wrong with YOU.

Either you think Will is a threat to your ship or maybe El is a threat to your ship? I don't know but I just want to remind you guys that they are platonic. You know, brother and sister? Not only that, William Byers is gay. Unless you have some weird kinks about love triangles like that, then I need you to sort yourself out and stop pretending like WillEl has anything to do with your ships because it DOESN'T.

The end.

This is your reminder that since the Byers don't have money to buy costumes, Joyce hand-makes Will's to see her son happy.

#stranger things

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the-ultimate-muses · 1 year ago

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For some reason, all of Seto's recent attempts to "pay his dues" with members of the Kuzuryu Clan had ended with the men running away like frightened mice. Since it seems they didn't want his services that way, there was really only one other reason people kept him around.

Spotting the young yakuza heir, he ran over with a heavy bag over his shoulder, calling out, "Sparrow! Wanna see my latest haul?" He brought the bag to his front and opened it to reveal it was filled to the brim with priceless, perfectly cut jewels. "Pr-pretty sweet, right? I don't know how much the Kuzuryu Clan normally pulls in, b-b-but this should be good." (@nickelsdrocs Seto just needs that home security

___

For some reason, Seto kept insisting he pay his dues by entertaining the members of the Kuzuryu clan, something that Fuyuhiko was taking great pains to make sure never happened. A threat here, a bullet there, and even a few words from his sister seemed to be working out pretty well, at least as far as he could tell. Sure, he couldn't keep a leash on everyone all the time, but he would do what he could to keep anyone from even thinking about laying a hand on Seto. He wouldn't be used like he was before, not while Fuyu still breathed.

Speaking of, Fuyu had just finished reminding one of the newer clan members that just because he was small and 'hardly more than a child', Fuyuhiko was not to be messed with unless they wanted...say...a shiny new bullet imbedded in their leg. Judging by the screaming as a few other guys carried the poor schmuck off to be patched up, it was a reminder well received. "Anyone else have something they wanna fucking say?" The question was, of course, met with resounding silence as the remaining onlookers hanging around the house scattered, it allowing Fuyu to startle at the sudden appearance of the thief without worry of being judged.

"Fucking- Don't do that." He didn't want to instinctively hurt Seto out of fear. "A-And, don't call me Sparrow, what the hell does that even mean?" Well, Shuichi was Bluejay, so clearly it was a nickname born out of...affection? No...certainly not.... Straitening his tie to give his hands something to do after pocketing his gun, Fuyu managed to push down his blush just in time for his attention to be brought to the bag of goodies Seto had brought in.

"Holy shit, where the fuck- Actually nevermind, I don't wanna know. But shit man, good job..." Unable to hide his genuine awe, the young heir plucked up one of the jewels to inspect, it being pocketed along with a few others a moment later for...reasons before he took the bag and hoisted it over his own shoulder. "I'll get you some cash after we drop these off at the vault, alright? Damn good haul, Seto." Said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, Fuyu knowing very well why the thief felt the need to do something like this in the first place. There was no stopping it, and it was better than the other ways he had tried to earn his keep. Fuyu would rather him steal then....

"C'mon, I got another job that needs doing, I'll tell you about on the way. Was going to save it for later, but since you're here now, there's no point in waiting." Ominous...but not exactly out of the ordinary in a household such as theirs. "How much do you know about the Togami family?" It was a rhetorical question of course, it wasn't like it was the first time Seto had screwed them over, and it sure as shit wouldn't be the last. "Job needs to be done by tonight, I need you to get me into their place and out without being seen, think you can handle that?" Said with a playful smirk, like Fuyu even had a single doubt they couldn't pull this off. It's what they were trained for, after all...

#i have ideas : )#they mostly involve nearly being caught and hiding in a closet : )#muse: fuyuhiko kuzuryu #nickelsdrocs

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thecraftymagician · 3 years ago

Note

You can absolutely say no and I will understand! But if you’re feeling some angst, Julian and Asra comforting MC who is grieving a loved one who passed? A listing, scenario, whatever you’re comfortable with. i’m a glutton for cathartic angst

I too am a glutton for cathartic angst lol To be fully transparent like always I want to handle this with grace. I've lost someone close to me a few years ago and I can't say I exactly know how to handle these situations myself. Almost every single person I know is very dismissive with this or is extremely distant emotionally about it. I know that's not everyone and for myself I don't find that to be healthy but sometimes that's just how people cope. It's definitely something difficult even though I have philosophies about passing on and everything, it's never easy. If you're experiencing anything like this, please feel free to reach out, I'm hear to listen.

I'm sorry for getting really deep with this one, I know you said you just wanted some angst haha but this one does hit home for me so again, want to do my best with the topic. Honestly this took alot out of me for that reason haha but I think in a way I needed to get this out right now so thank you so much!

Warnings: Talk of passing/unalive, Grief/loss, angst, comfort, advice, coping skills, *Spoilers* for Asra and Julian's Routes

Asra💜

After losing his parents and you passing away, they know the pain and hurt all too well. When someone you love passes away they make it a point to not leave your side unless that's what you ask of them. When they lost you, they isolated and refused to see anyone because of the guilt and rage that consumed them. At first they blamed everything on themself and didn't want to see anyone or be reminded of their failure. In the end Asra finally let himself open back up slowly to Muriel at first and with his help slowly learned how to keep going. That's what you would want right? But this time is different. They feel guilty now more than ever about bringing you back because it's only natural that you'd feel the same and maybe even want to make a deal yourself. Should it arise, Asra helps talk you down from it even if you're screaming and crying. He'll even take you yelling at him for bringing you back in the first place because he knows you don't mean that. He knows sometimes the pain is just too much. In these ways while he'll try his best to hide it, helping you opens his own wounds from losing you. Guilt grips him further because he can at least get to hold you and listen to you speak and know you are safe and here with him.

He'll be the one to keep making you tea and take care of the shop so you don't have to, even closing it on days when you need him. They'll always try and make positive remarks on the worst days where you're too numb to talk. "I think your favorite flowers are almost in bloom. You know the patch in the forest? Maybe sometime this week we can go for a walk and see them." They won't force anything, staying with you through every emotion and stage. If you can't bring yourself to get out of bed, that's okay. Asra will let you sleep for as long as you need but will make sure you're eating and getting water. If you want to do something like a memorial, they're more than happy to help. During the plague there wasn't much time to do such things, save for a pile of wilting flowers for the ones who were lost in the square. They're more than happy to help you make something proper. If there's something your loved one liked to do or that you did together, they'll see if you're up for it. Gently they'll try to get you into doing things you enjoy again. Eventually when you start to feel a bit better, they'll suggest visiting friends or maybe even travelling to take your mind off things for a while.

Julian🖤

While he was still very young when he lost his parents, he remembers the feelings vividly. He had to comfort Portia through it while still not really understanding what it all meant. The grandmas helped significantly making sure to take care of him too so he didn't have to grow up too fast. He learned alot from them and unfortunately alot during the plague as well. Of course he knows the medical side too as much as he's very "do as I say not as I do" / "very seldom follow my own advice" with it. This is like most things with him where he's very forgiving with people he cares about's emotions but not his own. To an extent he might stay up more often, a mixture of worry and his own ghosts and maybe nightmare's haunting him. He makes sure to take care of you both though, forcing himself to use the hours you're able to sleep to calm his own mind from the resurfacing pain. While he still goes to work all the while, he's cut his hours significantly to spend time with you. He'll mostly keep you in his arms, just holding you and gently rocking in his arms like he used to with Pasha. If you don't want to be touched or want distance, he'll respect that even though it breaks him a little as he's not sure about what else he can do. Even so he won't leave completely, staying on the couch if he has to. He also makes sure to get you water and food even if you don't finish it. Mazelinka and Portia will likely send over some food if not come to visit and check in on you, too.

Julian doesn't really like silence so he'll start telling you stories, reading to you, even singing; all soft but nonetheless comforting. When you do talk to him, he's very happy and listens intently. He loves hearing about your loved one and doesn't tire of it for even a second. He'll do little things to help you with self care like setting up nice baths for you, tidying up so you don't need to stress, etc. While nothing as intense as going to the Rowdy Raven, he will try to coax you out to have dinner at Portia's or even just grocery shopping with him. He'll do the heavy lifting and everything but he just wants you to get out of the house even for a little bit. If you see a book or anything that makes you smile, he'll get it for you. Whenever you cry it takes every bit of him to not follow suit. He'll rest his chin on your head so you don't see tears brimming because he doesn't want him to worry about you. He just cares about you so much and wants to do what he can, second guessing himself this whole time wondering if he's doing the right things or if he's doing enough.

#the arcana #thearcanagame #julian the arcana #julian devorak #asra the magician #asra the arcana #the arcana headcanons #the arcana fanfic

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kimetsunoyaibawritings · 3 years ago

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Burn like the Sun

Rating: General

Relationship: Reader/Kyojuro

Summary: “Simply knowing you are safe is a plentiful reward in itself.”

As a survivor of the Infinity Train accident, the reader seeks out the man who had saved them to try and offer some sort of proper thanks. And while he is severely injured -- enough to have to lay down his duties as a Hashira -- Kyojuro is nonetheless happy to know that his actions had protected someone.

"Is this the home of Kyojuro Rengoku?"

The question pulls the attention of the young boy standing outside the front of the gate of the vast home behind him, who had been sweeping diligently before your approach.

His bright, firey-colored hair is striking, but it is dwarfed immediately by the sharp red of his eyes as they move up to look at you. The resemblance to your savior is striking -- so much that you are sure that this is the right home before he even opens his mouth to speak.

"I-It is, yes," he says, voice oddly timid. "May I ask uh, why you are looking for him?"

He can't be older than twelve or thirteen. You try to offer him a comforting smile and gesture with your chin down to the small, cloth-wrapped bundle in your arms.

"I was one of the people he saved from the train accident a few weeks ago. I heard he was badly injured because of it and I..." you let the words trail for a moment as the boy (his brother? his son?) stares at you with a look that is not at all accusatory, but sharp all the same.

You clear your throat and speak, tone renewed, "I wanted to show him my appreciation and wish him well for his recovery."

At first the boy doesn't say anything in response. In the growing silence, you almost feel foolish. It had been hard enough to learn the man's name in the first place after the accident, but something about his presence had left a moment of terror and hopelessness instead with such warmth and comfort that the simple prospect of gratitude seemed the least you could offer.

Lost among your own thoughts and worries, the sound of the boy's voice rings out and drags you back into the moment.

"Let me go ask him first, if that's alright."

You're barely able to offer but a syllable of a reply before he's already slipped past the front gate and out of sight into the grand house beyond. It is as large as you were told, though you can't recall any prominent businessman nor politician with the family name of Rengoku. Some of your contacts had called him a swordsman -- had his family once served as samurai?

The possibilities proffered more questions than offered answers, leaving you to simmer in your own curiosity for several minutes until the young fire-haired boy emerged from the house and hurried towards you.

"He says you can see him -- he's also happy to know you're okay."

The boy -- Senjuro, you later learn as his name -- quickly explains how to get to Kyojuro's room, though you're too lost in the warmth in your chest from the too-simple notion 'he's happy you're okay' to pay all that much attention past the first two turns. But you thank him all the same and shuffle towards the house, leaving Senjuro to continue sweeping up with only the slightest, softest curiosity in his eyes.

Once inside the house, you’re taken aback by how… empty it feels. You’d expect a home as large as this to be busy with people — whether family or workers tending to it. You find neither, greeted instead by silence and an unnerving amount of peace.

It doesn’t take long to start trying to recall the directions that the young Rengoku boy had given you. A turn down the left hallway, past the third door and then… ah?

You couldn’t quite recall after that. Left or right? Was there another hall, or was Kyojuro’s room along the outside? One question bumbled into another until your unsureness twisted itself up into a ball of knots. Despite the confusion, you didn’t want to seem even more foolish by moving back to Senjuro and asking for directions again when he had gone out of his way to describe them once already. So you stand there, frozen by your own indecision at the edge of a corner-

Until someone suddenly turns it, running straight into you with enough force to leave you stumbling backwards. You would have fallen on your ass if it wasn’t for the fact that the same offender reached out suddenly and grabbed your arms, which were otherwise holding with a vice grip on the wrapped bundle still against your chest.

“I’m so sorry!” a bright voice offers, soft but merrily. “I didn’t see you standing there. Are you alright?”

It takes a moment for your thoughts to straighten and your gaze to fix upon the person who had both run into you and kept you from toppling backwards.

Blonde hair with firey tips, eyes brighter than rubies and sharper than a fine point. Though his face is covered in bandages and there’s a patch over his left eye, the recognition feels like icewater dumped over your head.

“K-Kyojuro Rengoku?” you ask, embarrassed in the stutter of your own voice.

“Yes?” the man tilts his head. You’re not able to say anything further before he suddenly winces, pulling his arms back against his body and drawing your gaze down over the rest of his body — as well as his multitude of injuries. Broken bones and layers of bandages seemed to but scratch the surface for all that he is dealing with, which made you feel the heavy weight of gratitude twice, no, three times over in his saving your life.

“Shouldn’t you be laying down?”

Kyojuro merely laughs. Though the sound must pain him, it doesn’t muffle the blossoming warmth of the noise as it fills the air around your ears. It’s strange, in a way; does the sound of his voice often have this effect on people?

“I’m well enough to walk,” he finally says, pain and aches hidden so dutifully behind his eyes that you have to second-guess yourself whenever his lips press together in a brief, but tense line. A smile, however, quickly moves across his face. “I thought it would be easier if I met you halfway so you didn’t get lost! You are the one who came to visit me, correct?”

You nod.

“Y-yeah. I’m uh. One of the people you… saved. On the train, a few weeks ago. I wanted to thank you and… maybe get to know you a little bit.”

The man watches you silently as you explain yourself, but not for a moment does a sense of judgement press on your shoulders from his attention. He simply listens, politely waiting for you to finish before responding.

“It must have been hard to find me,” he comments almost idly, some mixture of amused and impressed. “How did you manage it?”

The question is filled with an odd sort of praise, so you lower your head down until your eyes are on the ground and your mind is a shambling mess trying to piece words together.

“I uh. I have some friends in high places, you could say.”

“Well!” he chuckles. “That almost sounds like a threat!”

“Oh no, no no no no-” flustered, you immediately raise your eyes up and begin waving one hand about frantically as if to dissuade the notion entirely. “I promise I didn’t mean that as a— I mean, my family—… I…”

Your broken explanation is cut short when Kyojuro reaches up a hand towards your face, index finger curling ever so gently beneath your chin that you barely feel the heat of his skin against yours.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs, and for a moment you feel your heartbeat go still. “I promise I meant it only as a jest. You went to great lengths simply to see me, and you certainly didn’t need to.” His hand slowly lowers, but your gaze is held to his as if bound by unseen threads. “Simply knowing you are safe is a plentiful reward in itself.”

“I- I uh. It’s not-” the words fall broken and useless from your lips like shards of glass with no hope of coming together to make a cohesive sentence. Perhaps it’s for the best, since you’re not even sure what you can try to say in response to such an earnest notion of safety from someone who didn’t even know your first name.

And that is what finally pulls your thoughts into clarity.

You step back, providing just enough space between yourself and your savior so that your mind can clear and your heart can stop beating so damn quickly. Once you regain a sense of sensibility you all but glare at the man.

“My name is-” you say, brows knitted and stance firm as you all but aggressively introduce yourself to the man who had sacrificed so much of himself for your safety. For the safety of hundreds.

And Kyojuro watches, and listens, and then he smiles.

“That’s a nice name,” he says, then chuckles again, then bows his head for a moment. “Though you seem to know already, I am Kyojuro Rengoku. It’s quite the pleasure to meet you then! Properly meet you, at least. One less train involved.”

As the words settle humorously in the air, you watch Kyojuro turn and make a gesture to follow behind him. For a moment you’re confused, but he turns his face back to you and nods in the direction of the hall a few steps ahead.

“You wanted me to rest, yes? We can do so overlooking the back garden. I figure you’d like to sit and talk for a while-” and then he pauses, as if a moment of realization is just now moving across his thoughts. “…unless there is somewhere else you need to be?”

Bashful instinct presses at the root of your tongue to agree, perhaps even to make up some silly excuse for why you couldn’t stay for long. But then your eyes catch and hold onto a gaze that seems like brilliant rubies, and his voice echoes so warmly in your ears. And then you remember noting how empty the house felt when you stepped inside of it, devoid of anyone but what might be the last few members of the Rengoku family.

How lonely.

A shake of your head and motion of your legs happen before you can even think.

“O-oh no, I… have the day free. Though of course I didn’t assume you yourself had the time to entertain anyone, with you… healing up, and all.”

Kyojuro smiles for a moment before leading the way down the hall, his motions a bit stilted by injuries, but proud all the same. You held a deep respect for the man and his willpower despite knowing so little about him — and you certainly wanted to know more.

“I actually enjoy the company,” he says, just as you move in-step beside him. “And you are the first person from that accident to try and find me — perhaps the only one! So, if you’ll humor me for a bit of your time… I would like to learn more about you as well.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you can see him smiling. Despite the countless injuries that undoubtedly leave him in pain, some perhaps permanent, the man continues to smile as wide and as bright as the sun itself.

And you are glad to have met him.

#kny #kny x you #kny kyojuro #rengoku kyojuro x reader #kny x reader #fic #readerinsert #sfw #sfw writing #writing #sfw fic #rengoku x reader #rengoku kyoujurou #kyojuro #demon slayer #demon slayer spoilers #mugen train spoilers

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thr-333 · 4 years ago

Text

Just Another Class Trip :)

Part 1

No, no ignore the smily face i assure you it means nothing foreboding, nothing foreboding at all.

Next >

---------

“It’s suspicious,” Marinette glares as they leave customs.

“What would that be, Mari?” Chloe yawns, not bothering to dedicate her limited remaining brain power apparently.

“Lila,” She whispers back, “She’s been so quiet all the way here,”

“What about how she weaseled her way into first class?” Chloe yawns again, sleep mask resting on her head.

“Or tried to steal your bag,” Kagami says with venom, her having saved Marinette from that disaster.

“Accused you of giving her the wrong flight time,” Adrien adds, somehow being full awake even after their long flight.

“Slipped metal into your pocket so security would go off,” Chloe downright glares at Adrien, but would never admit to the bags under her eyes.

“Came by and woke you up every time you fell asleep,” Kagami looks at her pointedly, shadows under her eyes being her only give away.

“Too quite,” Marinette whispers, the list going largely ignored as they approach the security scan.

“Just relax Mari,” Adrien pats her shoulder, not enough to break her concentration, “Lila will be so distracted by being in Gotham she won't have time for you,”

Adrien was wrong.

Of course he was wrong.

This is Lila they're talking about.

“Oh Marinette!” Lila all but yells as Marinette is placing her bag in a tray, “I’m so glad you didn’t go through with it,”

Marinette cringes, the security guards all looking her way as Lila dances off. She just sighs as she is escorted away by the airport security, to the protest of her friends and not much else.

“No sir I am not holding any firearms or weapons,” Marinette answers as monotone as possible, the security guard didn’t deserve her ire not matter how tiresome this was getting.

“We interview the source,” Oh no “Apparently you were discussing terrorist activities,”

“I was not sir, Lila must be mistaken,” Yep big mistake, I’m sure that's all it is , “I’m simply here for a class trip,”

“You’re wearing a bulletproof vest,”

Yeah probably should have left that one at home

“My parents are protective, they know how dangerous Gotham can be,” They were not fans of the horror stories Aunt Selina used to tell her from this city, “They insisted I have it as protection,”

While they most certainly wanted her to be safe the vest was more her idea. It was also more for enabling trouble than avoiding it. At least she was trying to be safe about secret crime fighting.

“Makes sense,” He sighs from across the table, checking through some paperwork, “You’re seventeen, here on a class trip right?”

“Yes sir,”

“Well if you’re here on a Wayne funded trip they probably did and extensive background check,” He pauses for a minute looking deep in thought, “Alright then, you can go,”

That seems kind of lax

“Are you sure?”

“We literally have super villains walking through here every other day,” True that, “You’re holding no weapons and have been endorsed by the Wayne's that's better than most people that have been in here,”

“Well if you’re sure,” Marinette stands awkwardly walking to the door as he waves her off, “Is there anything I need to sign, or…”

“Unless I want to fill out extra paperwork, no,” He seems so tired, Marinette wished she could get back at Lila for making his job harder.

“Have a good day then!” She smiles brightly, getting a small one in return.

She leaves, the security guards handing back her bag, fortunately not mentioning the miracle box or her Kwamis. She smiles brightly, even with Lila trying to ruin her trip she could still enjoy her time here in Gotham- and her phone buzzes with an Akuma alert.

With a sigh, Marinette ducks into the nearest bathroom, locking a stall behind her.

“Kaalki,” The Kwami zips out of her bag, “Tikki, Combine,”

With a flash of light followed by another she appears in Paris dropping Kaalki’s transformation.

She looks over the city, some Akuma attacking the Eiffel tower. At least they didn't seem to be the brainwashing type, she didn’t have Chat Noir there to help with crowd control.

With a flip she jumps, planning to kick the Akuma on the way down. They dodge and she lands in front of them instead.

“Well, well if it isn’t the bug,” The Akuma, in a horrible patch work costume mocks, a purple mask appearing over their face, “Hand over your miraculous!”

How about you come and make me Hawkmoth? I promise to stick that cane up your ass

Oh how she wishes she could say just that, but it wouldn't be very Ladybug of her. Why did the younger her have to have a stick up her butt?

“Not today Hawkmoth,” She says instead, making sure to put the practiced amount of enthusiasm into it, “Or any other day for that matter,”

“How are you going to save Paris without your little kitty cat?”

How are you going to beat me with that terrible fashion sense

Besides Chat Noir deserved a break. At least she hoped he was taking a break, he couldn’t tell because of secret identity reasons. It wasn't like she had any right to stop him, she was having a vacation in Gotham right now, and she was out all the time for work. She could manage without Chat for a while, he deserved that much.

“I will do whatever it takes to protect the people of Paris,” Ladybug remembers to answer the question.

“Hand over your miraculous now!” The Akuma lunges at her

I should have chosen a different persona

She dodges the beam of light that can’t mean anything good. Jumping back to get some distance.

Chat Noir had the right idea

She bites back the cutting remark on the tip of her tongue. Instead throw out her yo to wrap around their arm. The Akuma pulls it forward, sending her through the air. She leans into it swinging around to get a better vantage point, studying the monologuing Akuma below.

Maybe I can for Starling

She has created Starling as a vigilante identity to use in Gotham, if the class was ever in trouble. No not if, when . With a sigh she summons her lucky charm getting a table tennis paddle.

Although I’m only meant to use that identity as a disguise to protect the class

The only thing that stood out was the Akuma's hand, she'd have to gather more information before striking.

Maybe Starling can have a word or two with Lila, that could be fun

She drops down in front of the Akuma. They seemed to like monologuing, maybe all she had to do was probe a little bit.

“Why would you want to side with Hawkmoth?”

“This is my family's greatest heirloom it has been passed from generation to generation for centuries, some fool broke it and I was crushed having disappointed all my ancestors!” The Akuma holds up a broach type jewel, “But Hawkmoth- Hawkmoth brought it back and now my greatest and dearest treasure will forever be-”

Ladybug smacks it to the ground, crushing it underfoot.

The Akuma looks at her shocked, letting out a long drawn out gasp. Marinette does not meet their eye as she catches the Akuma. She throws the paddle she used to smack it out of their hand into the air to cast the cure.

I must be really jet lagged, I’m usually at least a little more creative than that, but it worked

She pretends not to see the reporters coming in for interviews, seeing the victim and their broach in one piece. She makes a speedy exit, needing to transport back to Gotham before the class get too ancy.

“I’m sorry the rented bus left a long time ago,” The attendant informed her, looking sorry for the dishevelled teen.

Marinette groaned, so much for running around the airport for thirty minutes with a dead phone. Thanking the attendant she sulks off to collect her bag instead, she’d have to figure another way to the hotel.

She spends another hour hunting down her bag. Chasing after leads of people who might have mistook it. Checking again with Airport security, who again pulled her aside for having a suspicious missing bag. Luckily the security guard before defended her, she brought him a coffee and two for herself.

“Maybe someone will return it?” Tikki whispers, her and Kaalki hidden in the folds of her scarf.

“It’s fine Tikki,” Marinette sighs, halfway through her first cup in under a minute, “I have replicas of all of them anyway, I’ll just grab some samples from the MDC fashion show,”

She’d have to stop by later, the outfits should have been transported last week along with most of her recent catalogue. The only problem was all the other necessities she lost. But that wasn’t a problem, she carried the miracle box in her backpack and that's all that really matters.

“And some of my… special outfits when we go back home,”

She had altered her current outfit to transform into her vigilante disguise. Her scarf pulled up and could be turned inside out into a mask. Her skirt could be transformed into a cape and hood combo. A zip down the middle of the skirt to split it for the cape and a zip up hood that lay flat along her skirt. She simply turned it inside out and wore it around her shoulders. Combined with a bullet proof vest it wasn't half bad, her belt full of weapons could always be hid under her skirt which was a big plus.

She sighs waiting for a taxi in the cold Gotham air, hating it more than most. Although she supposed superhuman strength was a fair exchange for extra cold fingers. Marinette fought to stay awake, she had also been holding Kaalki for so long she was starting to develop the ability to sleep standing up and would doze off randomly. Certainly helpful at times, but not right now.

“Hello,” Marinette is startled out of her drowsiness.

She looks at the hesitant young man before her, looking just as tired as she is.

“Hello?”

“Is something the matter?” Something sparks at the back of her mind, a feeling she often gets from Chloe whenever she is helpful.

Do I look that bad?

“Just a mix up with transportation,” She smiles, he clearly knows it’s fake.

“Do you need a ride?”

“No I’m-” She sighs, what could go wrong getting in the car of a random person in Gotham, “Yes, I do thank you,”

“Over here, I’m Tim by the way” He stifles a yawn, leading her towards a limousine, the door being opened by a driver.

“Marinette, here,” She hands over the extra coffee, “You look like you need it just as much as me,”

Tim looks at her like a god sent, taking the coffee as they reach the limo.

“Good call Alfred,” Tim whispers to the driver, slipping into the car.

“Hello miss, I am Alfred Pennyworth,” She shakes his hand, something stronger fires at the back of her mind, a true holder perhaps? But Chloe was a true holder right?

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” She smiles, trying to assess what miraculous would suit him.

“Best get inside Miss Dupain-Cheng,” She climbs inside at Alfred's behest, “Gotham is awfully cold for a Lady,”

She gets the feeling that is not chivalry.

“Where to Miss Dupain-Cheng?” Alfred asks, already in the driver's seat.

“Wayne hotel please,” She pulls her backpack onto her lap, still regarding Alfred suspiciously.

“Traveling alone?” Tim asks absentmindedly, still nursing his coffee cup.

“I’m here with my class, they left without-” No that's no good , “I got held up they went ahead,”

“Class… staying at the Wayne hotel…” Tim mumbles to himself.

“I believe what Master Tim is trying to ask is if you are part of the Martha Wayne foundation trip,” Alfred informs from the front seat.

“Yeah that,” Tim takes another scalding gulp of coffee.

“Yes I sent in the submission, I’m still surprised we got it,” Marinette had been thrilled at a trip to Gotham, it is where her Aunt Selina lives after all.

“You seem very responsibility Miss Dupain-Cheng,” Alfred complements, “Almost as if you could shoulder the weight of Paris,”

“I didn’t say where I was from,” Marinette tenses getting more than a little unsettled, he seemed to know something more.

“Not to worry, I have close connections with the Wayne's and was aware this years class was from Paris is all,”

“I see,” Marinette nods along, the possible meaning behind the comment still being concerning.

“We forgot your bags!!!” Tim suddenly yells, jumping up and making Marinette jump, they both curse in sync as they spill coffee on themselves.

“It’s alright!” luckily the coffee landed on her black tights, so no noticeable stains, “My bags were stolen,”

“Oh…” Tim relaxes back, “Wait… that's not alright at all!”

“It’s fine, I already have a plan to get some spare clothes and I just need to run to the store,”

“Right… to the Wayne hotel was it?” Marinette nods and Tim starts tapping away at his phone.

She fishes out some wet wipes from her bag, passing them to Tim, who looks confused until she points out the growing coffee stain. With a smile and a few more taps at the phone he takes them off her.

“Left behind and bags stolen, doesn't sound like your Lucky day,” Alfred presses, and he needs to stop, it could be chance, surely its just chance.

“I guess not,”

You don’t know the half of it.

“Well I hope the rest of your day is much better,” Tim bids as they pull up to the hotel.

“Thank you, and thank you so much for the ride,” Alfred opens the door for her to get out.

“Not a problem,” She waves them off, watching them disappear down the street.

They’re nice, probably wont ever get to see them again, thats a shame

“Dick! Holy fuck!” Tim kicks down the door of his brothers room, “I just met the nicest girl who's had the shittest day on earth,”

“First of all welcome back, how was your trip?” Dick greets hanging from the ceiling as Tim takes his desk chair, “Second, what are you talking about?”

“Met a girl at the Airport who didn’t have a ride, she gave me coffee,”

“That's enough to buy your loyalty,” Dick grins, Tim flips him off.

“Listen, she's part of that Martha Wayne Foundation trip and her class left her at the Airport!”

“What?!” Dick drops from the ceiling onto his bed, “Thats so dangerous, especially in Gotham,”

“Right?! She even had her luggage stolen!” Tim pushes the chair over to Dick, “And she was still so nice, even after an eight hour flight!”

“You said she was part of the Wayne foundation trip?” Dick asks, getting a nod from Tim, “Yeah, we are definitely seeing her again,”

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