#being there up with the two champions and his era ending with him shouting at Suzuka ….. heartbreaking and nothing captures his time | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

watevermelon · 4 years ago

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Possessive | College!Ushijima Wakatoshi x Reader

✧ Summary: Libero to the women’s Fukurōdani volleyball club, you moved away from Miyagi and to Tokyo during your first-year. And while you cherished your high school years, you wondered how different it might have been if you stayed with your childhood friends at Shiratorizawa. After a failed confession in junior high, you were more than surprised to re-connect with the strong ace in college. ✧ Warnings: Implicating language and some out-dated head-cannons ✧ Tags: Fukurodani crew! Akaashi being an instigator from Kuroo’s influence probably, subtle Jealous moments, fluff, cleared-up misunderstandings, angst, and mutual pining at one point ((this is a long one)) -> A/N: If you are an oldie fan of HQ you might have seen this on Deviantart (we shared an acc there and now stuff is getting migrated 😛 )) -> Masterlist

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You were on the phone, lazily chatting away with your favorite Salami and catching-up with what you had missed since the last time he called. You went to Shiratorizawa Academy Junior High with the red-haired middle-blocker and many of the other current third-years. During the break of your first-year of high school, your dad got a new job in Tokyo and it was off to Fukurōdani Academy for you.

It was an amazing three-years that you would not change, from Bokuto’s inconsistent confidence – which did extend to girls! – to Akaashi’s eternal suffering. You were amongst the many who cried at graduation. It was not until you heard your own name called and you were approaching the stage to receive your diploma that it finally hit you that this would be your last walk on the field. No more all-nighters with Akaashi or getting in trouble with Bokuto – well, that’s actually entirely possible in the near future. But it was truly an end of an era and you would give anything to be able to watch memories of those three-years.

Bokuto was a proud dad of his team and put on a strong face. But you were soft at heart and immediately felt tears break your stern façade the moment you saw captain Akaashi. And for once, the usually stern setter smiled at you. It was a pure instance that would forever brand your heart.

There were too many ‘what if’s’ concerning your time at Shiratorizawa and if you had stayed there for high school instead. It was better to be focused on reality than what could have happened. You loved your time at Fukurōdani Academy and connected well with the various people you met.

You can, however, admit to mentally wandering off once or twice during class, pondering how your childhood friends were dealing without you. Did they miss you? How is everyone? You would get various glimpses here and there throughout the schoolyear from the various sports channels, seeing the familiar tufts of hair signifying the guess monster and his ace.

They came to you almost twice a year. Shiratorizawa was a powerhouse school, there was no doubt about it. And they never failed to appear at nationals that were held annually in Tokyo. They were a reliable team, much like your own, and you would meet-up for the customary trash-talk between the Miyagi-representatives and yourself from the Tokyo Prefecture. You could look forward to seeing them around those times of the year, it was that simple. They were reigning champions and kept the title strong.

You could still remember first seeing them at the fall national competition. It was your first Interhigh and the women’s team had advanced to the National Playoffs. You were nowhere near the starting lineup, but you still felt the pride of your school swell within you as one of their libero’s.

The men’s and women’s volleyball team were leisurely walking through a hall of the gymnasium, trying to emanate their most serious and daunting look possible. You walked alongside your new outgoing classmates, Kōtarō Bokuto and the male libero Haruki Komi. Both of them were rays of sunshine, but it seemed Komi was better at withholding his enthusiasm.

“Don’t look now, but there’s one of the rising aces everyone has been talking about at your ten o’clock.” Haruki whispered in your ear, lightly nudging your elbow.

You glanced to the side and the bright-red gravity defying hair was enough to signify who was before you. In the loudest inside voice you could muster, you basically yelled, “I figured swans would be more concerned with looking pretty than anything else.”

Immediately, Tendou whipped around to see who the fuck was talking shit.

Haruki was instantly regretting bringing the purple-clad giants to your attention. He grabbed your arm and quickly tugged you to hide behind your senpai’s, who could handle the diffusing the situation. Bokuto was simply smiling away, both curious and excited to see his prospective rivals. The older, calmer members of Fukurōdani Academy were quick and you felt some weight fall on your shoulder – probably your very captain telling you to silently shut the hell up. But when they saw Tendou’s smile and Ushijima’s confused face, they were just as perplexed.

“Missed me boys?” You waved at the crowd of Shiratorizawa jackets, spotting a few familiar faces.

“We have a traitor in our midst!” Tendou yelled back, ruffling you hair and gaining surprised laughter from Bokuto.

During that Interhigh National Tournament, your team was defeated in the quarter finals by an all-girls school called Niiyama High. With a proud mindset, you set your eyes on your next chance in the spring with the third-years leading the charge. Unlike most schools, you were a powerhouse and not a single problem, like college exams or even graduation, was going to stop the third-years from continuing to Spring nationals.

The women’s team were comprised of mostly strong-willed women with fervent determination. You were quick to pick-up your dignity after the lost match and decided on supporting your male counterparts at the tournament. The match between the men’s teams of Shiratorizawa and Fukurōdani Academy were still going on and it was hype as fuck.

Both schools were known powerhouses, coming with complete cheerleaders, an entire cheering section, a band, and a teacher delegated with the pure role of leading the loud shouts. On the court, it was easy to tune out the audience and keep your eyes focused on the enemy in front of you. But as the women’s team scoured for seats, you could not help but be amazed at the sheer amount of people from your school who showed up to cheer. Bokuto was anxiously squeezing his hands at the sidelines, but you knew he was destined for more.

You and Bokuto had an affinity for befriending members of other teams and after the Interhigh tournament came the Kanto training camp – which rightfully handed you another ass. Other powerhouse schools taught you that you truly had much more to learn. Ubugawa, both men and women, were widely-renowned for their power serves. And as a libero, this awarded you constant red arms and a couple overly-excited receives to the head.

But it also brought you the greatest gift of all – or maybe worst, who knows?

This friendly camp introduced the sassy duo of Tetsurō Kuroo and Morisuke Yaku. Yaku was an amazing libero whom you admired from afar, even in your younger years. And this camp gave you a personal connection to the young man. The first few times you tried approaching him, your shyness would often kick in. Three years later and you could get away with lounging your legs across his.

In your second-year, Bokuto was already vice-captain while you only just gained a position on the starting block. It was, you figured, entirely natural since Bokuto was gaining ranks amongst national spikers. And that year, you secretly believed in your heart, was the best year of the three. The weight of the world had yet to be placed on your shoulders and there was no looming thought of graduation on the horizon. And that year ushered the era of Akaashi. You heard his name constantly, from both Bokuto and other male volleyball players, but was never fully familiarized with the boy.

You knew from bits and pieces that he was charming young man that Bokuto held in high-regard. A junior high picture showed a cute boy with dark scruffy hair, around your height. But hot momma, you were not prepared at all. Akaashi was a good amount of centimetres taller and his build accentuated his role as setter. And you were not going to lie, he was attractive.

You spotted him several times at practice, but you were too shy to actually introduce yourself. It took Bokuto literally shoving you at the poor boy for you to finally say hi. Something about Akaashi reminded you of home. His personality reflected several different members of your previous male team and something in particular about him often had you with a reminiscent smile. He was determined like Semi and incredibly proper like Ushijima. You even saw bits of Tendou in his sass and it was within a few days that you decided that this boy was going to be one of your best-friends.

The pretty-setter was in advanced classes and had no problems being included in courses with his older senpai’s. In the study group, Akaashi was the one often leading the charge and you thanked the stars for blessing your life with such an amazing guy.

By the time it was your third-year, Akaashi was already tired of your shit and would steer you away from any team with a semblance of purple in their uniform. Of course, he could never fully keep you from your original idiots and had to withstand it eventually. You progressed onto becoming vice-captain with your exuberant setter at the lead. The men’s vice-captain wondered on several occasions how the two leading counter-parts were so completely opposite to himself. You almost felt bad, but you knew that Akaashi secretly loved the attention he received from the extroverted cast. Between the two captain’s, you found yourself to be a tiny bit tamer and that caused Akaashi to find friendship in you.

It was during your last Spring Tournament that you felt your heart break. You were entirely focused on the winning title, but of course seeing the boys of Shiratorizawa was something you looked forward to. It was an added bonus to achieving a spot on the national scene. Sure, it was amazing for your volleyball team to achieve a title of that high regard. But it was never about the destination, but the journey. And you had multiple memories of fun and laughter when your team hung-out with Shiratorizawa.

But they never showed up.

You rubbed your eyes to reread the brackets, the name ‘Shiratorizawa’ never appearing on the paper. You asked Bokuto if there was a typo, but he was proud to reply that his apprentice finally brought the great Ushijima to his knees. You knew Karasuno joined the Kanto training camp during the summer, but that did not imply anything. Sure, it was to train powerhouse schools, but neither Shinzen nor Ubugawa qualified for nationals this year.

And yet, after watching the last two sets of Karasuno vs. Shiratorizawa, you knew.

It was over.

Your paradise was long gone and you wondered why Tendou never brought-up the subject while he kept in close-contact with you. You kept your friendship with Tendou throughout high-school. He was eager to text and had no reserves about calling you. Ohira and Semi were both polite, but kept a considerable distance since you were only on generally nice terms before. They had no reason to make the effort and reach out to you. Seokawa had his own problems. And you heard from Tendou that the poor vice-captain was on the chopping block from the starting lineup from the hands of a new first-year.

Ushijima… He was continually elusive. Whether in-front of you or miles away, Wakatoshi would speak to you in concise words or none at all. You were okay with that in junior high, but the emptiness of his expressions seemed to echo with every day you were apart. You were close to the ace before you left, one of the few proud females to call him your friend. The two of you had a mutual understanding, able to communicate without words and truly appreciate the other person. He was not another pretty face to you, but a genuine cinnamon roll who needed help in the world. Ushijima was brutally honest and incredibly dense, traits that radiated in the young-male that you understood from his upbringing.

And yet, when you confessed your feelings to him before you left, he simply replied, “Thanks, you’re a good friend. I like you too.”

Out of embarrassment, you did not want to push the subject and just nodded at his words. Despite the limited amount of terms in his vernacular, Ushijima seemed to always make them sting in your heart. Tendou heard the news secondhand from his best-friend and attempted to confront you, but by then you were long gone. It was easier to dodge the questions when the eyes of the guess monster were not narrowing before you.

Most of the graduating volleyball players who continued with the sport advanced to a prominently volleyball-oriented college. So you were stuck with Bokuto, Kuroo, and many others for another four-years, not that you were complaining. This also implied another four-years of being included in party central and that thought alone made you tired. To your astonishment, Tendou had informed you that Ushijima was also going to Tokyo U, along with a few others from the Miyagi prefecture. You were excited at the prospect of being reunited with a few others, but was quickly heart-broken at the news of the Guess Monster quitting volleyball.

You could only imagine a team with both the owl and cat. It must be hella scary for the opponent! Kuroo, you were sure, was one of the best middle-blockers in the Kanto prefecture and having two formidable aces only added to the team’s repertoire. One more year and Akaashi would join them. That would be the power team you would pay to see. But after spotting the gaudy, yet incredible skill of Oikawa Tooru, you stated that the team was overpowered and needed to be fixed because it was simply unfair.

Your training with Yaku did not betray you and you were proud to represent Japan on the professional scene. Seeing your past rivals from Niiyama High only fueled your passion. It proved your ability to stand at the same level next to previously prestigious “queens of the court.” Only one other female enrolled in Tokyo U with you from Fukurōdani Academy and the two of you were roommates. She was your only friendly familiar face on the team and it seemed like the Miyagi prefecture had more strong males in volleyball than females for the school-year.

The sport itself was nothing in comparison to high-school. Even while attending a private academy, your time at Fukurōdani was more laid-back than college. The men’s and women’s volleyball teams were entirely separate entities and they were not as close-knit like in high-school. Bokuto and yourself had a tight friendship and kept your study group from Fukurōdani, with the addition of Kuroo and Oikawa. As the schoolyear progressed, you saw the addition of Yaku and even later Ushijima.

The only times you really hung-out with the boys was concerning class or getting lit. Kuroo was a party-animal and you learned the different player’s names as they flit through party to party. And since Ushijima was the way he was, you almost never saw him. It was ironic. Tendou attended school in Tokyo as well, but at an entirely different college. And yet you talked to him more than Ushijima, who was always only a few minutes walking-distance.

That was until your spring semester, when you had to share a general-education class with the ace. Ushijima did not ignore you, he acknowledged your presence with a friendly head-nod, but never actually engaged in conversation. It had been three full years since you had a meaningful conversation with someone who used to be your best-friend. Akaashi advised you to stop acting like a little bitch and actually talk to him. And you decided on not letting this opportunity slide.

At the start of the next biology class, you took the seat next to Ushijima’s usual spot. You saw the almost unperceivable narrowing of his dark eyes as they gazed over you, but held your ground. There were a few minutes to the start of class, so you initiated conversation.

“So how’s volleyball?” Three years of not talking and that’s your leading question?? You internally screamed, but later thought of it as appropriate. Ball was literally life for Ushijima, so asking a question of ‘how are you’ would undoubtedly include the sport.

“Fine.”

“How are you handling Bokuto?”

“He is loud, but a rational spiker who is good for the team.”

“Yeah, he tends to bring out the best in other people.”

“Ah.”

“One more year and Sakusa is rumored to join the college team. Looks like Tokyo U might have more rivals within the team than on the outside.”

“I will accept anyone’s challenge.”

“… Nice.”

So much for that! You sighed outwardly, labeling your attempt as a defeat and willing to just end the conversation there. He seemed to notice your distress, but made no effort to address it. Instead, you took out your phone and readied to text Tendou depicting your failure.

Right when you were going to click send, Ushijima spoke and took away from your line of thought, “You were the vice-captain of the women’s team at Fukurōdani Academy.” He was stating more than asking and you simply nodded to affirm his statement.

“How did you know?”

“Tendou supplied daily updates on your status.”

“Oh..” You were inwardly blushing. The Guess Monster was such an instigator, even when he was miles away he was trying to set you up with his ace! You found his actions loyal and damn, he was hard-core bro.

“It is rare for a libero to be chosen to lead a team.”

“I didn’t exactly do that… My friend who was the captain was much more inspirational and had no problems rallying the team. I was more of the foundation that would support you from the distance.”

“Many do not realize the importance of a libero.” The statement was completely ambiguous and you were unsure if it was a compliment or something Ushijima was simply stating.

Your conversations continued on like this for the rest of the semester. The two of you were cordial and even shared lunch several times. However, the dark-haired spiker still spoke with concise and blunt words. To any outsider, it appeared that Ushijima was simply entertaining your attempts at friendship. But you knew. Years of patience and experience had already taught you that Ushiwaka already categorized you as a friend. Otherwise, he would make no effort to even listen to you and would directly shut you down.

During the break, many of the students would return home for the extended amount of time. And to celebrate their last night, Kuroo of course arranged a party to include their soon-graduating seniors. It was more laid back and invited both the men’s and women’s volleyball team. And for once, during the entire first year of college, you saw Ushijima at a party.

You were, by no definition, a party-animal like your close friends. Bokuto and Kuroo thrived under social events and you viewed it as simply trivial. You could enjoy the occasional party and drinking with your friends. But you preferred smaller groups of hanging-out with the few people you cherished. Lazily watching a movie or playing video games appealed more to you than the party-scene. There was nothing wrong with it! You just preferred something more low-key.

There were certain members of the men’s volleyball team that seemed to simply baffle you with their personalities. Kuroo was the master of provocation and off the court, he was the sass master of the new volleyball mean girls – mean boys? You simply named them the salt squad, since it was easier. The combination of Kurro, Oikawa, and Bokuto was too much for one friend group and you often avoided their loud boisterous voices during a party.

Kuroo, however, had no problem spotting you in the doorway the moment you entered and just as quickly there was a drink in your hand. You sipped away, tasting the familiar flavor of honey jagermeister. Bokuto was probably the happiest of the bunch, singing offtune into the karaoke machine whilst the music of the party boomed around him. There was no doubt he would be sad at losing his senpai’s, but that gloomy thought lasted for a brief moment until he was reminded that Akaashi would soon be joining the squad. You worried for the poor setter – by the end of your third-year Akaashi looked done and you could only imagine him at the end of another four years.

You off-handedly expressed this thought to Bokuto once, who simply waived it off and implied that at least Akaashi will be reunited with you, instigating something yet again. Kuroo agreed before slapping you on the back, offering encouraging words along the lines of you finally hitting that.

“One more month until you’re reunited with your lover boy!” He enthusiastically yelled with a distant Haruki agreeing. You rolled your eyes and pushed him away jokingly.

The two – with the help of even Kuroo! – had no problems shipping you and Akaashi together throughout high-school, even going as far to lock the two of you in the storage closet. But you knew. Akaashi had his eyes set on someone else, they were just too oblivious to see how enraptured the setter was. If anything, Akaashi was the brother you never had.

The party was loud and you wondered how none of the RA’s attempted to break-up the source of probably many complaints. It occurred to you somewhere along the way that they were probably at the party as well. It was the end of the schoolyear, of course everyone would be more laid back.

Oikawa offered you a hello and took a quick snap with you for social media before continuing to flit through the party. You wandered on your own, spotting other members of your team and waving joyfully at them. A different red solo cup made its way in your hands, bringing the grand total of drinks to four full red-solo cups in five minutes. There was music booming through the rooms and you were not a dancer, so you steered clear of that particular area. Once you reached the living-room, there was a large aura projecting discomfort and looking entirely out of place.

Ushijima was sitting on the couch, looking incredibly bored and sporting his usual stoic-look, sandwiched between fellow non-party animals, one who you recognized as Daichi Sawamura. You knew the other was generally calm, but not at all reserved. You made eye-contact with the ace, ready to make your way over and the other two acknowledging it. Daichi offered his seat to you and you figured this was an incredibly rare opportunity, which you would not be surprised if never happened again.

“You look like a true farmer against us city-folk.”

“That is because I am from a small town.” Ushijima explained.

“I mean, you look out of place. Maybe that wasn’t the best analogy,” You sighed inwardly, “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“It occurred to me that most of the team socializes this way.” Ushijima explained. “This may contribute to future synergy.” You nodded at his line of thinking and sympathized with the ace.

You sat in comfortable silence, occasionally sipping your drink and mid-way realizing you had never experienced this particular burn down your throat before. It was the number one rule at a party to never drink from an open container or simply from something that you were unsure of the contents. You thought back to your first two, given to you by the trustable Kuroo. But the next few drinks drew blanks and it hurt your head to think about it.

Ushijima, spotting your expression, did not hesitate to take the cup out of your hand and set it on the table. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, just wondering what the hell that was.” You held your head and knew there would be an oncoming headache.

You wanted to get fresh-air, getting up without saying goodbye. You pushed through the crowd, faces blurring together and no one really speaking to you directly. The door was not a far distance and you were quick to rush outside. There was a trash-bin by the lightpost and you leaned over it, the feeling of bile crawling up your throat but never fully making it up. An unfamiliar hand was on your back and you turned around to see Ushijima attempting to comfort you.

“This is far from alright.” He noted with hard-eyes, but did not halt the movement on your back.

“I thought I could take it.”

“Where is your dorm?”

“Looking to finally make a move on me, Waka-chan?” Woah, backup! The effects of alcohol seemed to be seeping down in your mind, but there was nothing you could have done to stop the words from leaving your mouth.

Thankfully, the ace ignored your words and put an arm around your waist and threw your own around his shoulder. The poor man carried you back into the building, but to another dorm room. You felt bad for Ushijima, having to drag along a drunkard to probably his own room.

There was no other inhabitant – you figured his roommate was probably at the party – and you took note of the neat room. Ushijima placed you precariously on his bed before going into another area, you presumed the bathroom. The walls were sparsely decorated – you could attribute that to the fact that everyone would be moving out soon for the semester end.

You sat-up, observing the unusually decorated desk of the ace. You knew instantly that it was Ushijima’s since the first frame was of his team back in Shiratorizawa. From his number, it was during a time that Ushijima was captain, but to you that could have literally been any year. It was no secret that Waka was strong and you wondered if he had a leadership role for multiple years. Another frame was depicting prom, you assumed, with various third-years of both the men’s and women’s volleyball team looking snazzy.

The last frame left you breathless.

It was of your junior-high days. Tendou was happily sporting his unforgettable bowl-cut with Reon showcasing his brand new toy in the background. In the foreground, was you and Ushijima side-by-side. You had an arm tucked in his, but the two of you used opposite hands to form a single heart. The only reason he had agreed was at the sly provocation of Tendou and his general naivety.

But why did he keep it?

You were holding the frame by the time Ushijima came out of the bathroom and instantly commented on it, “Look at little Waka-chan! You were so cute. Ha, you’re still cute.” Ushijima lifted an amused brow before attempting to grab it from your hands. He was guiding you to his bed, placing you there to lay down.

“I wish I meant something to you.”

Alright, you were definitely drunk.

His grasp loosened and you could sense distress in the dark-orbs that gazed at you. “You mean a lot to me.”

You sighed and seemed to not notice him tucking you into the bed, “Yeah, yeah. You told me that before. I’m a great friend.”

“You are referring to the time that you stated your feelings for me.” Ushijima clarified and you were only growing more exasperated.

In your alcohol-induced state, you had no filter and lifted your arms in derision. Taking a deep sigh, “Well duh. I confessed and you just waved me off.”

“I want to get to know you again.” Ushijima stated, “Now get some sleep.” You did not have it in you to fight back, but instead snuggled further into the pillows of your previous unrequited love.

The next day, you were sporting a headache that pulsed from the back of your head and hammered its way to the forefront. Ushijima was a gentleman and you had no qualms about waking up in his bed, squeezed between the wall and his large figure. He stirred the moment you moved, but you were too occupied with the throbbing pain to care. It seemed he was prepared for this moment, handing you a banana and a drink that looked too green in your opinion.

Ushijima put a hand in the small of your back, guiding you to sit-up and drink. You leaned into his touch, too mentally exhausted to really question what was happening. His other hand outstretched across your waist and you off-handedly noted that his roommate still had not returned to the dorm. Eye contact with the ace was too intense for the quiet morning, so you leaned further into the steady chest of Ushijima. You could feel the light thump of his heartbeat and closed your eyes against the reliable man.

Three years and it seemed Ushijima still had you in the palm of his hand.

And unfortunately for you, unlike most who get inebriated, you remembered everything from the previous night.

But Ushijima never commented on your leading words, so you decided to not bring them up. There would always be the mental reminder that you slept with the love of your life! And seeing him would just raise a blush. But Ushijima always seemed unconcerned in the matters of love and you let the days pass without bringing up your emotional distress. The last time you confessed did not exactly result in a happy ending, so you were content with saying nothing. You were happy with the simple memories of his strong arms surrounding you and his manly scent. Ushijima did not use scented shampoos or cologne simply because he found no need to, so his particular scent was entirely natural and entirely him.

There was a shift in your friendship, in the small gestures that you were gradually noticing. Ushijima was not a man of words, but of action. After class, he would wait for you to pack your things or even hold your backpack for you. When walking side-by-side, he made sure to keep a closer distance to you than anyone else. These things always garnered a smile.

Finals were quickly approaching and, even though volleyball was your love, you still had to maintain your scholarship. You haunted both the gym and library, your favorite ace trailing behind you at each destination. When majority of the volleyball males failed to show up to another study session, you were left alone with Ushijima. You took this opportunity to throw endless questions at the ace, who was willing to supply answers.

“I don’t remember Shirabu…” You said.

“He did not attend Shiratorizawa in junior high.”

“Oh. But I’m sure he’ll make a good captain.”

“They have enough talent to carry them far.”

“Kind words from the intense ex-captain.” You commented, then continued.

“I heard Daichi Sawamura is from Karasuno.” You simply stated, waiting for him to interject. Ushijima only looked at you expectedly, supplying you with no words. “If you could, would you play Karasuno again?”

“Yes.” He paused, looking down at the textbook then back up at you. “I wanted to crush them.”

“I understand.” You nodded, “Anyone in particular?”

“Hinata Shoyou and Kageyama Tobio.” Ushijima was quick to respond and it was at that moment that he looked true to the scary rumors spread about him.

He was the type of person you could easily irk, but he would not express it unless you pushed him to do so. Waka was naturally patient and would not engage in useless confrontation. Ushijima and Tendou, you remembered, were prime members of the original Shiratorizawa salt squad, but they never actually hated anyone. And yet you could tell here and now that Ushijima’s feelings ran deeper than just animosity.

“The freak quick duo?"

“Only the setter has true talent.” He stated, but you could tell he was holding something back. You reached over and placed a light-hand on his own. Instinctively, Ushijima clenched it, but quickly relaxed under your touch.

“I hate baseless confidence.” Ushijima hesitated again, organizing his thoughts. “Hinata Shoyou was unable to demonstrate below average skill in blocking and receiving. Every time he served it seemed as though it was his first time. And yet…”

You put your book down at his silence, the sentence carrying with no ending. It was baffling to the ace, who was blessed with immense talent and height to carry him to nationals all three years of high-school. And yet his final tournament was stopped short by someone who was a full twenty-five centimeters smaller him. Not only that, but you could only imagine the disappointment after years of absolute victory to a fallen powerhouse.

“It is indescribable with words.” Ushijima settled on saying, “Hinata Shoyou and Kageyama Tobio have incredible synergy that is impossible to duplicate elsewhere.”

You nodded at his explanation before returning back to the study material. It was rare moments like this that showed that Ushijima was willing to open up his world to you. On more than one occasion, it seemed like you were prying. But Waka was quick to end your worrying by supplying questions of his own and even seeking out your friendship. It was slowly becoming like old times, but with the added benefit of a deeper relationship than one in junior high.

The semester break left you alone in Tokyo with your old friends – the Miyagi crew heading home for the extended amount of time. Thankfully, Ushijima fully recognized your growing friendship and made sure to socialize with you on a daily basis, with texts and even long phone calls into the night. It was quieter without Oikawa, but Kuroo and Bokuto were quick to integrate Akaashi into their group. You felt bad for the poor guy, but at least Kenma was attending the college as well. The blonde did not continue playing volleyball, but you could not separate his presence from the sport.

The new semester issued in so many more names that you literally could not keep up with the sheer amount of new volleyball players. You settled on the fact that every pretty person on the team had to be a setter after seeing the full line-up. Oikawa was fairly obvious, but Akaashi and the new addition of Shirabu Kenjiro definitely reinforced this fact. You had a palpable bias for befriending players from the Miyagi prefecture, since that was your previous home, but it was impressive how many of them from that area progressed to the Tokyo University.

You heard a considerable amount about Shirabu from Tendou and you learned quickly that he would add to the salt squad of Oikawa, Kuroo, and Bokuto. Sakusa was incredibly quiet and you wondered why Bokuto painted the poor boy as such an antagonist. Of the top five nationally ranked spikers of your graduating year, three of them were on the same team now. You wondered, several times in fact, how the hell the college was able to procure such a strong team.

Nishinoya was a ball of sunshine and a libero that made you wonder how he slipped under your radar. You got a quick glimpse of his skill when you watched his match against Shiratorizawa, but it was nothing like the upfront experience of his receiving skills. His dexterity was recognized by Yaku and the three of you, along with the other older female libero, formed a training regimen for your benefit.

Since you had priority registration this time, you were able to schedule classes with a friend in each one. Many of the volleyball members took sports medicine as their mandatory science elective and a good amount of you vowed to take it together. It was a class that few others would sign-up for and you were sure that you would all be able to enroll into the same class time. At first, it seemed like a good idea to share a class with many of your close-friends.

But, holy shit, you were wrong.

It was clear that this was not thoroughly considered. Your roommate was so enthusiastic and her attitude was fueled by the mean boy’s trio of Oikawa, Kuroo, and Bokuto. If that was not enough, of course, Akaashi and Ushijima were roped into taking the class.

The elective class, comprised of forty people in total, had a combination of seven crazy volleyball players and it was rare for a class to go by without your group getting yelled at by the professor. Literally, every single one of those boys were the captain of their respective team in high-school. And yet??? How?? You wondered more than once.

It would always start with Oikawa’s never ending anger at Ushijima. From there, Akaashi could either decide to mediate the situation or allow Kuroo to provoke Oikawa more with teasing. If it was the latter, Ushijima seemed immune to their words and that only caused the two to get louder and more irritated. If it was the former, Bokuto would urge Akaashi to allow the two to settle their issues and it easily became an even more exasperating situation.

The worst option, was when the salt squad put aside their issues to provoke the ones around them. In high-school, Kuroo and Bokuto had no problems shipping you with Akaashi and Oikawa caught wind of this news fairly quickly. Your roommate from Fukurodani knew the truth, since you told her your history of Ushijima long before when the two of you were still attending high-school. But that fact did not stop her from joining in teasing you.

It was hella annoying, but your efforts to stop them halted long ago since there seemed to be no end. Both you and Akaashi would usually just ignore their teasing. But since Ushijima was in your class, fully present and listening to this, you stopped their attempts to get you and the setter together.

“But seriously.” Kuroo was urging you yet again during the break, “You guys are so cute.”

“You would have volleyball children!” Oikawa joked.

“Make sure they join the Fukurodani team.” Bokuto added, not looking up from his notebook as he copied down the notes off the board. You would urge on several occasions that this was not the case. Ushijima seemed to believe you words. And yet, every time he was present to hear the teasing his eyes would linger for a second longer or be a little too intense. But it was gone in seconds.

They took it too far one night, claiming to invite everyone out to dinner but only the two of you would be present. Akaashi had no problems with proceeding with dinner and you were fairly hungry. There was originally nothing stopping you from having a good time anyway, if not for the presence of Ushijima Wakatoshi. He just so happened to be present with Tendou at the restaurant, lounging by the window and listening to the boisterous voice of his best-friend.

You wanted to remain unseen, but unfortunately was seated directly next to them.

“(F/N)-chan! Wow are you finally dating?” Tendou asked, skipping all introductions to call you out. “Wait, I’ve seen you a few times on (F/N)’s Instabook. Good for you girl, he’s a good catch too.” Tendou lifted a thumbs-up in your direction and winked at Akaashi.

Akaashi, sick and tired of shit and future shit for the past four years (with an additional imminent three), slapped a palm to his forehead. Tendou gave a nervous laugh when the setter raised his head and settled a hard gaze on the red-head. “We are not dating.”

Akaashi then slowly turned his head to Ushijima and narrowed it with a certain passion that had the ace minimally narrow his brow. However, neither male waivered in their gazes. “I would not be subjected to this if a certain someone,” He took a long pause, “would confess their feelings for (F/N).”

Tendou was only more confused, turning his head to gaze between both boys. “Our friends are trying to get Keiji and I together. So they invited us to dinner and didn’t show up.” You explained.

“Oh.”

Ushijima and Akaashi had yet to relieve themselves of the eye-contact and you wondered why the hell they showcasing here and now their immense male pride. Tendou rolled his eyes and refused to comment on the situation.

Akaashi started, “With all this time (F/N) and I are spending together, we might as well date.”

That elicited a response, however incredibly minimal, from Ushijima. Unfortunately for the previous Shiratorizawa ace, his two best-friends were witnessing his unusual behavior. You and Tendou had spent so much time and were fine-tuned to the quiet man. And the slight narrowing of his gaze did not go unnoticed by either of you. Additionally, Akaashi was incredibly perceptive and observed the movement as well.

Akaashi lifted his chin and continued to push, “Maybe our friends were right. Maybe we should date – it’s not like there’s anything stopping us, right?” Akaashi turned to you and suddenly all three pairs of eyes were concentrating on your response.

Having Ushijima’s tense gaze pointed at you, it was overwhelming. You could see him clench and unclench his fist under the table, a form of stress-relief that you noticed the ace doing more than once in the past.

“What a love triangle we have here.” Tendou commented, smirking away and attempting to disseminate the tense atmosphere.

You opened you mouth to reply, but it was at that moment the waiter approached your table. She asked for your drinks and possible appetizers and by the time she was gone, so was the guess monster and his ace.

“Sorry Tetsurō jr., since when did you provoke other people?” You inquired the setter across the table from you.

“I always have, you’re just too dense to realize.”

“Excuse me?!”

“I spend most of my time with Kuroo-san, Oikawa-san, and Shirabu. Believe me, I’m the good one.”

“You mean Kōtarō is the good one.”

“Yeah right,” Akaashi scoffed and you tilted your head in surprise, “The moment you walk away Bokuto-san has no problems ogling your ass like the rest of them.”

The rest of your night went along smoothly, with of course, more teasing between you and the setter. Your friendship never wavered, even with a good year apart (not really since c’mon you texted all the time and had dinner multiple times together anyway). It was nice to have the entire squad back, but this time including your most beloved member from Shiratorizawa and other crazy Miyagi members. It was like your second-year at Fukurōdani Academy, but better.

Akaashi walked you back to your dorm, since he was a gentleman, not matter how sassy. You waited outside your door and he was quick to say something, “Don’t think I’m going to kiss you. I just said those things to elicit a response from your crush.”

You laughed as you smiled, “Really?”

“You’re cute (F/N), maybe in another life we could be together. Who knows? We could have been married, had cute volleyball babies, and spent our lives basking in one another’s company.” Akaashi tenderly stated, gently pushing a strand of hair behind your ear, before his entire expression dropped, “But for now, you’re not worth getting my ass beat.”

“Wow!”

“Sorry sweetheart, I have my own love to pine unrequitedly for.”

“But she likes you.” Akaashi rolled his eyes and ‘lightly’ pushed you into the door, resulting in you getting thrust fully against the partition.

You landed in a loud thud as you giggled, not at all surprised if your next door neighbors heard it as well. Your door immediately opened to show both your roommate and a furious Ushijima, who quickly guarded you by pushing your body behind him. He looked entirely ready to fight Akaashi and you grabbed the crook of his left elbow before the situation got out of hand.

“Wakatoshi, we were just joking around. Thanks for seeing me home Keiji-kun.” Akaashi had a face you could not describe with words, a mix of two opposites: frightened and belligerent. Like he was prepared for this fight to happen, but already knew that he would lose before going into it.

He waved goodbye and you closed the door lightly, turning towards the two occupants in the room.

Your roommate was the first to talk, “I just realized I forgot something in Bokuto’s room! I should probably go get it before he falls asleep.” And with that lame excuse, she was gone.

“What are you doing here Waka?”

“Do you like Akaashi?”

“Of course, he’s one of my best friends. Akaashi has had my back for the past few years and I honestly can’t imagine high-school without his friendship to anchor me.”

Ushijima nodded and continued, “Would you date Akaashi?”

“Absolutely not.” You replied instantaneously, “I don’t think I could ever be able to view him in that light.”

“Earlier Akaashi referred to the possibility of someone confessing their feelings to you. And that would stop your constant association with him.”

“Yeah…”

“Who was he indicating?” Ushijima seemed genuinely interested and you had no idea how to address the situation.

Akaashi, in his deranged mind, believed that Ushijima returned your feelings and the only barrier to your relationship was your own refusal to confess. But he was wrong, you knew. You knew more than anyone else that Akaashi was wrong in every way. Ushijima’s only love was volleyball. It consumed his heart and mind and there was no room for anyone else, especially not you. And the past few years was enough concrete evidence.

“It doesn’t matter. Akaashi was wrong and just making a false assumption.”

“Then what is stopping you from dating Akaashi?” Ushijima sat on your bed, never breaking eye-contact with you, “You two are intimately acquainted already, single, with similar interests.”

Ushijima never really took an interest in your personal life. He was distant about personal barriers, never even getting close to the line. And yet here he was, freely asking and you were providing answers without hesitation. That was, until that one in particular. You knew the reason already, but to explain that to the object of your affection seemed entirely out of the question. You cherished your friendship with Ushijima and did not want to ruin the dynamic you had just recently rekindled.

“I’ve only had romantic feelings for one person.”

“And that is?”

Taking a deep sigh, you closed your eyes and reopened them to see the expectant eyes of Ushijima Wakatoshi. But they were laced with something else: hope? No, it was pure vulnerability. It was rare to see that on the stern face of your favorite ace, but it was undoubtedly splayed across his visage. You felt the tendrils of hope crawl at the corners of your heart. Even one of the most nationally recognized volleyball players could get anxious, but seeing it was reminder that Ushijima Wakatoshi was human.

A living, breathing, human susceptible to the clutches of emotion and maybe even love.

Grabbing onto your already fading confidence, you dragged out. “You know already. Wakatoshi…” You hesitated for a second, wondering how you should word this, “You’ve had my heart since junior high.” You murmured and quickly looked down at the ground, feeling just as exposed at revealing your darkest secret to your love of nearly eight years.

You returned your eyes back up to the ace, who was gazing fondly back at you. He was off the bed, standing at full height with his mouth open only slightly as if he wanted to say something in reply. He towered over you and you felt the full weight of your confession in the growing silence. Ushijima clenched his jaw and you quickly assumed that your words were a mistake that he did not want to hear - for a second time. Your breath came out ragged and you were sure tears were already formed at the corners of your eyes. You sorely wanted to take it back, to go back just a couples minutes and make up some excuse, but it was far too late.

Eight years was too long to be in love alone.

You clutched at your chest and turned to leave your own dorm, but Ushijima was quicker and grabbed your elbow. He spun you around and you landed softly against his chest, encased in the arms that you yearned to be in since that night you were drunk. He was looking down at you, a rare smile directed towards you alone and that fact single-handedly had your heart soaring. Ushijima nuzzled his nose into your hair and pulled your arms around his body.

“You should have been this clear the first time.” Ushijima spoke, his phrases getting muffled against you and yet you understood every single word. “Since it was been the same for me.”

“What?” You pulled back to look at him, “But you rejected me.”

“No, I did not. If I remember correctly, I told you that I liked you too.” Ushijima corrected, arms resting at your waist to get a good look at you.

“You said I was a good friend! You put me in the friendzone, never to date and just some pal like Tendou.”

“You and Tendou are not the same to me.” Ushijima raised a brow at you, “I do not want to date Tendou. And I certainly do not want to kiss him.” Any argument dissipated in your mouth and you were sure your eyes were wide eggs peering up at Ushijima. One look at his face and you could tell from the amused tilt of his lips that he was teasing you.

You smiled and leaned further into his chest, propping yourself upward on the edges of your toes. He had that small grin reflecting back at you, inclining himself downwards toward your height. Your noses gently bumped one another before he claimed your lips, placing a light peck on the silky skin. It lasted no more than a few seconds before Ushijima leaned back, placing one of his large hands on the back of your head for a more possessive position.

You kissed him eagerly, not showing even the slightest bit of hesitation when he swiped a warm tongue against your lower-lip. In response, you could not stop your growing smile and he was quick to explore your cavern.

Ushijima pulled back after an unmeasurable amount of time, leaving you heavily disheveled and clothes upturned. Never, in your nineteen years of life, would you expect Ushijima to be so passionate in something besides his beloved sport. Placing a curious touch on your lips was enough to signify that they were swollen, you could only imagine how you looked at the moment.

He was leaning his forehead against yours, moving his hands to cover your own and rub tender circles over the skin. “It is around midnight, I do not want to impose over your sleep-schedule.”

“But I don’t want you to leave.” You whispered back, placing a light kiss on the tip of his nose. Seeing the mighty Ushijima with a flushed face ignited a fierce desire in your heart. But when he started biting his lip, you were not sure if you were still breathing.

“Neither do I.” He placed a prolonged peck on your lips, raking a lazy hand through your hair while the other stroked your hip beneath the loose cloth of your shirt.

“We could’ve been doing this the entire time.” You spoke, words coming out in a small whimper under his ministrations.

“Looks like I have to make up for lost time.” Ushijima mumbled near your ear, in his deep husky voice. You nearly mewled purely from his words, but when he lightly sucked at your collarbone, you swear you died right there. The desire you previously felt sparkling beneath the surface was being dragged to the forefront, ready to combust and roaring proudly in your ears. You were surely intoxicated off the glorious specimen that is Ushijima Wakatoshi, the love of your life.

And suddenly he was grasping you chin, nuzzling your noses before lightly brushing your lips against one another. Ushijima paused, barely touching you and yet breathing in the same air, before crushing his lips against yours. He did not hesitate to take your bottom lip into his mouth, sucking away. It was an action so possessive and yet so Ushijima that you moaned into the touch.

“It’s only ever been you.” He murmured against your skin and you were fully unable to respond, head spinning purely off his affection. You never took Ushijima as the type to shower his significant other with fond words, but that was not entirely fair since you never imagined him even dating.

By the time you pulled away, it seemed Ushijima had already placed you to sit on your bed. It was astonishing how much you trusted him, how much he could get away with and you would sincerely follow him. He had a knee of the bed, dominantly hovering over you and invading all personal space.

“Ushijima,” You whispered against his lips, tenderly grabbing his face with both your hands to get a full look at him. He was always handsome, but seeing him with affection pointed only towards you – you were sure that he was your soulmate.

He hummed in question, eyes marginally open and a minute smile gracing his face. You continued, “I love you.”

Ushijima’s smile only grew, “I love you too.”

--------xXxXxXxXxXx------

-> Masterlist -> A/N: Hope you enjoyed the long-ride of this fic! There’s a lot going on and this was made around 2017-ish, so I’m happy that some of it hasn’t been disproven. :))

1K notes · View notes

itsadamcole · 4 years ago

Text

bet pt. 2

fem!reader x adam cole

Reader and Adam come face to face after six months apart at Survivor Series ... “please, forgive me”

word count: 3.4k+

warnings: smut, angst, a lil bit fluffy

— hey hey, here’s part 2 of the short adam cole series .... on a side note, i’ve really been in the holiday spirit so i’ve started writing some christmas / fluffmas imagines ... the first two are scheduled to be posted december 1st and 2nd —

masterlist || part 1 || request an imagine here

~ 18+ content below - read at your own risk ~

Survivor Series. The day you've been dreading for six months since you left Adam.

Six months ago, you walked out on the best and the worst thing that's ever happened to you. Six months ago, you lost a piece of yourself and turned to sleeping with your best friend, Tyler Breeze, just to fill that void.

But it's not filled. It'll never be filled. So you stopped about a month ago, and Tyler now has a girlfriend so nothing's weird between you two.

You've never gone back to Adam. It's taken everything in you to stay away from him. You've barely spoken to him in six months, but since he's NXT Champion and you're Raw Women's Champion, you both have matches at Survivor Series.

You sit in your dressing room, scared to leave. Scared to run into Adam or one of the Undisputed Era boys. It's your worst nightmare.

"Y/N! You're on in five minutes!" someone calls through your door.

Sighing, you get up and grab your title, throwing it over your shoulder. With your anxiety rising, you leave the room.

You don't know what you'll do if you see Adam. It's been so long and he's probably moved on. You haven't, but you've tried.

Once backstage, you stretch out. Your opponents, Smackdown Women's Champion Sasha Banks and NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai, into the small room.

"Hey, girlie," Sasha says. "You have an audience in catering."

You sigh and say, "If it's Adam then I don't care."

Sasha says, "Y/N, come on. I've told you before. That man is head over heels for you. Maybe the beginning was a lie or a bet or whatever it was but he truly loved you. I saw it. We all did."

Your music hits and you say, "I can't talk about this right now, Sasha. I have a match to focus on."

You make your entrance, forcing a smile onto your face as you step into the ring.

****

Adam's POV

She looks beautiful in her dark red gear. It's my favorite ring gear that she owns. It sparkles but is dark at the same time. Definitely her two personalities mixing together.

I miss her like hell. I haven't been able to move on from her. It's been six months and I'm still infatuated with her. I love her. I've loved her for so long. It pains me to see her. Rumor has it that she's seeing her friend, Tyler.

I stand in catering to watch her as the match begins. My match is next and I know they'll call me back any minute and I'll come face-to-face with her when she walks through those curtains.

She's distracted by something. Her footing is off and she's not selling moves like she usually does. Maybe Sasha told her she saw me in catering. I told her I was going to watch Y/N here on the TV.

"Yo, Cole," Kyle says, clapping me on the back. "Your match with Drew and Roman is next. Let's head backstage."

I say, "Yeah, okay." I leave the TV and walk backstage with Kyle, Roddy, and Bobby.

We get backstage and I see there is a TV. I watch it.

Roderick says, "Talk to her after your match. I know that you've been wanting to talk to her."

I sigh and say, "She doesn't want to talk to me. She doesn't even want to see me, Roddy. There's no point."

Bobby says, "You should still try instead of sulking."

I look over at Bobby and say, "She left me, Bobby. If she wanted to talk to me then she would have already." I'm starting to get heated.

Kyle says, "Adam, bro, calm down."

"You want me to calm down? Seriously?" I say, my voice rising. "You three are the reason I'm in this mess. You three came up with the bet and I accepted it because I was drunk and secretly was crushing on Y/N. I never should have accepted it because I fell in love with her and now she's fucking gone! I can't live without her, and the only reason I'm still in this damn company is because of the title around my waist. There's nothing else for me here because she's gone!"

What I didn't know was that Y/N's match ended and she came through the curtains in the backstage area with Sasha and Io. The guys were all looking behind me and that's when I realized she was standing right behind me, listening to every word.

****

Your POV

As you walk backstage, you can hear someone shouting.

"... I was drunk and secretly was crushing on Y/N. I never should have accepted it because I fell in love with her and now she's fucking gone! I can't live without her, and the only reason I'm still in this damn company is because of the title around my waist. There's nothing else for me here because she's gone!"

The voice is Adam's. He's shouting at the guys. You've never once heard him raise his voice at anyone, not unless it was important or serious.

You stand backstage with Sasha when Adam turns around and he sees you. His title is secured around his waist and he's wearing his black and gold gear with his Undisputed Era t-shirt.

There's nothing else for me here because she's gone. Those words stuck with you. If it wasn't for that title around his waist, he probably would have left WWE and gone to work with Ring of Honor again or maybe even AEW.

Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns come backstage at this moment. The tension between everyone in the room is thick. Drew and Roman realize this and ask to make their entrances first.

Right before Adam makes his entrance, you rush out of the backstage room. Sasha right on your heels.

Tears have started running down your cheeks. You get to your locker room and throw your title on the couch.

Your win tonight means nothing anymore. It doesn't matter that you won. Your happiness was swept away when you heard Adam ranting to the guys about you. Six months later and he's still trying to defend his lies.

He'd have left WWE if it wasn't for that title he's managed to hold for two and a half years. It's the only reason he's still in WWE.

You start to throw things around the locker room. You're upset, you're angry, and most of all, you're frustrated. Even after finding out about the bet and after he lied to get you to sleep with him, you still love him. Six months later you still love him. After everything, you'd go back to him.

Sasha grabs your wrists and says, "Y/N. Y/N, stop it. Please. Before you hurt yourself or break something super expensive."

You look at your best friend and cry, "Why do I still love him even after he lied to me? Why would I drop everything and go back to him if he asked me to? Why would I take him back?"

"Because deep down you know that he never lied to you," Sasha says. "You know that he actually loves you and it wasn't for some stupid bet he made with his friends. Love is crazy and makes us do crazy things."

You sniff and wipe away your tears. "Can we get out of here? I don't want to be here when his match is done because I know he'll want to come looking for me," you ask.

Sasha nods and says, "Of course. Get changed and we'll head back to the hotel."

You nod and change out of your ring gear and into your street clothes. You let Sasha borrow some extra clothes you had so the two of you can leave as soon as you're changed.

****

Back in the safety of your hotel room, you order room service and watch Grey's Anatomy on Netflix as you lay in bed.

There's a knock on your door at around midnight. You think it's Sasha coming to return the clothes she borrowed earlier so you answer the door.

It's not Sasha at your door. It's Adam Cole.

"What?" you ask. "It's late."

Adam says, "I looked for you after my match. I wanted to talk about what you heard."

You say, "I don't blame you for wanting to leave WWE since I left. I'd want to do the same thing if I was you."

He says, "I tried to leave the company. A few weeks after you left, I went to Regal and Triple H to get them to let me go. I was ready to drop my title just to leave the company but they convinced me to stay."

You look at Adam as he talks. This is going to be a long conversation so once he's done talking, you say, "Come inside, Adam. We can keep talking inside." You move to the side and he walks inside.

Closing the door, Adam says, "I get why you left. I lied to you a few times at the start but within two weeks, I called off the bet."

"Adam," you say.

He shakes his head and he says, "Let me explain."

You sit on the bed and look at him. "So explain," you say.

Adam walks and stands in front of you. He says, "The night of the bet, the four of us got drunk. We drank a lot and we started talking about relationships. I mentioned to them that I had a little thing for you and that's when Bobby came up with the bet. He said that there was no way that I'd be able to get you into bed. Kyle and Roddy joined his side. I accepted the bet because I was drunk and liked you for some time. I was the only single guy in the Undisputed Era. But, like the dumbass I am, I took it a step further and started a relationship. Two weeks after the relationship started, I completely called off the bet because you meant so much more to me than a stupid bet."

You say, "Being drunk doesn't excuse you from accepting it. It won't work on me."

He says, "I'm not done yet. After the bet ended, I told myself that I'd never tell you about it because of this happening with us. You getting mad and leaving. I'd never choose my career over you because I know in the long run, you'd always be there for me. Wrestling is something I'll do until I'm fifty or so but there's nothing for me after that until I met you. Then I messed everything up. You're even seeing someone else right now so I don't expect you to come back to me."

You sit and listen to every word. Once he's done talking, you say something. "I'm not seeing anyone right now. I've been single for the past six months, But if I asked you to retire right now, you'd do it?" you ask, testing him.

Adam nods and says, "Yes, I would. You mean more to me than a bet or than wrestling. I love you, even after all this time. Please, forgive me."

You sigh, "I have forgiven you, Adam. For the most part. I just can't forget what happened and what you said to me that day. You lied to me just to get me in bed. You lied to start a relationship with me. All you had to do was say, 'hey, Y/N. I like you and I'd like to take you out on a date' because I would have said yes. I liked you for so long, Adam. All you had to do ask me out."

He looks down at you and he says, "You don't have to forget because we can both grow from what happened. I'm a dumbass, I know. I was just nervous and in a way, the bet made me talk to you. I just want to make it up to you, Y/N. Let me make it up to you. Let me take you on that date. A real first date."

You look up at Adam and say, "I don't know. I don't fully trust you, Adam."

Adam tucks a piece of loose hair behind your ear and he says, "I can make it up to you, Y/N. Let me at least try. I've learned from this and I want to show you that I've learned from this."

Your heart pounds in your chest as he touches you for the first time in six months. Without knowing it, you lean into his touch and close your eyes.

His hands rest on your cheeks for a second before he pulls you up so you're standing in front of him. You look up at Adam. "I'll think about it," you say, finally reply to what he said.

You feel Adam's hands leave your cheeks and slide to your waist. He pulls you closer to him. You're eye level with his chest before you look up at him with your eyes, meeting his pretty blue orbs.

"Can I start right now?" Adam asks as he starts to lean into you. You grab a fistful of his shirt, not knowing if you should back away or not.

Your lips brush against Adam's and you say, "I still need some time."

His lips move down to your neck and you gasp softly, tilting your head back a bit. Adam mumbles, "I need to make it up to you, Y/N." He starts to kiss your neck gently. Your hands slide into his hair as he picks you up by your thighs. You wrap your legs around his waist.

Sighing as he kisses your neck, you give in and say, "God, make it up to me, Adam. Make it up to me all night if you want to. I need you."

You look down at Adam and he looks up at you, pulling away from your neck. He kisses you hungrily. Your lips move feverishly against his, both of you letting out soft moans into the kiss.

He lays you down on the bed and hovers over you, not breaking the kiss. He grinds his bulge against your clothed core. You moan into the kiss, reaching down and pulling Adam's shirt up over his head. That breaks the kiss momentarily but your lips connect again like magnets right after.

The passionate kiss becomes more intense when Adam slips his tongue into your mouth. His fingers dip into the waistband of your sweatpants, rubbing you slightly over your panties. You moan against his lips.

Adam's hands run up your body, slipping under the shirt you're wearing. He pushes up the shirt until his hands are on your breasts, massaging them. You gasp and moan, pulling back from the kiss. You lift your arms above your head so Adam can pull off your shirt. You never put on a bra when you got changed earlier.

He pushes up your shirt, kissing and sucking on your breasts. Your eyes close and you smile.

"You're so beautiful," Adam mumbles against the sensitive skin on your breasts. "I am so in love with you."

You sigh, "Less talking, Cole. More fucking."

Adam smirks and says, "With pleasure."

Within seconds, both your pants and Adam's pants are off with both your underwear. Adam hovers on top of you between your legs.

His lips are on yours, moving feverishly against yours. Your hands are on Adam's back, holding him close to you.

The tip of Adam's erect member runs through your wet folds, making you moan into the passionate kiss.

"Adam, baby," you mumble against his lips. "If you don't stop teasing me instead of fucking me, I'll walk out the door. I swear to God-" You're interrupted by Adam thrusting hard into you, making you cry out in pain and pleasure. Your fingernails dig into his back.

He has a smirk on his lips and says, "You were saying?"

You stare up at him and move your hips so he's completely inside of you. "You gonna do something or are you just gonna lay there?" you ask.

Adam positions himself above you so he thrusts into you. Slowly but deeply. His hips are already flush against yours as he pushes your legs up so they rest against his arms.

He's kissing your neck as he thrusts his hips into you. Every few seconds, his thrusts get faster and harder. Your fingers slide down his back, definitely leaving scratch marks.

The room is filled with your moans and the sound of skin slapping together. A layer of sweat has appeared on both your bodies. It's a little warm in the room.

Your moans get louder the harder he moves. Your hands eventually make their way into his hair, gripping it a little bit as he moves.

Adam lets out soft groans as he thrusts harder and deeper into you than he ever has. You throw your head back and pant, "God, I love you so much. I love this so much."

He smiles and starts to kiss your neck. His thumb rubs your very sensitive clit, making you almost scream out his name. "Fuck, Adam. Just like that," you cry out.

The bed begins to creak and hit the wall a bit when Adam picks up speed again. Your legs begin to shake and your walls clench around Adam.

Adam realizes how close you are and he says in your ear, "Come for me, baby. I want you to come around me like you always do."

You don't wait anymore. You release around Adam, crying out his name. He pulls out right before he comes, releasing his seed all over your core and stomach. His fingers help you ride out your high.

Adam collapses beside you, grabbing his shirt and wiping you down. You pant and stare up at the ceiling.

You think about the day you left and you close your eyes.

Maybe you overreacted a little bit by leaving. You never heard the whole story, until today. You never let him fully explain.

You let out a sigh and ask, "Do you really love me? Even after six months apart?" Your eyes open and you look over at Adam.

Adam looks over at you and says, "I was ready to love you forever. Of course I love you after six months apart."

"Do you have any other secrets you need to tell me?" you ask.

He shakes his head and says, "I'm a completely open book to you now. No more secrets, I promise."

You lean over and press a lingering kiss to his lips. After a few seconds, you answer the question he asked you six months ago right before you walked out the door.

"Then yes," you say, not pulling back very far from the kiss.

He tilts his head and asks, "Yes, what?"

You smile and say, "I'm answering the question you asked me six months ago before I left. Yes."

Adam thinks for a second before he finally gets it. He smiles wide and puts his hands on your cheeks, pulling you down for another kiss. You giggle against his lips.

He rolls onto you then gets off the bed. He fetches his jeans, pulling something out. "I've carried this with me everyday for six months, hoping that one day you'll accept it," Adam says, coming back to the bed.

In his hand is the same velvet black box that he held out to you six months ago and inside, the same diamond oval engagement ring he presented to you.

You smile as he pulls out the ring, sliding it onto your left ring finger.

Adam lightly kisses you and says, "That's my promise that I will not keep another secret from you, unless it's a secret to surprise you in a good way."

You giggle and look at your ex-boyfriend turned fiancé before you say, "The guys and Sasha will be so confused when I show up with a ring on my finger."

"Let's worry about that tomorrow," Adam says. "I still have a lot to make up for and it might take all night."

And with that, you spend all night having the best make up sex with Adam. You don't fall asleep until the sun has begun to rise.

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electronicdelusionstarlight · 3 years ago

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In a way the whole "Izuku is the Dragonborn" fic would need to leave most of the backstory of Izuku the 4-14 years old dragon slayer on luck or Inko doing all the work while Izuku is, like, put in a position of safety (he still needs to eat dragon souls tho, same for Miraaks... How would that work even?) So I might need to move things around a bit.

Basically here's the backstory on all major shit:

Helgen: Inko and Izuku run away with Hadvar. They are not scheduled for execution because, you know, Hadvar might not go out of his way for a stranger but there is a small kid involved, younger than his cousin dammit, way younger than your usual Stormcloak Child Soldier Conscript from Dawnstar (an actual canon thing believe it or not) so he puts his foot down. In the keep Hadvar does most of the work obviously, even if Inko does, in her desperation, cut down people getting dangerously close to Izuku. She is a better lockpick than she expected, especially with her Quirk, and Izuku in his curiosity ends up pawing off the book and a strange, mysterious ring inside the Mage's cell. They then go to Riverwood with Hadvar, where they are directed to both Farengar and the College for matters regarding magical space travel, so to speak.

Riverwood: However, they are pennyless and alone in a foreign world, so Inko tries first to make money by working at the local lumber mill as she sends a courier to Whiterun for the Dragon Thing. Assume we are playing with my modded version of the game, which means Riverwood is currently the home of one Triss Merigold from the Witcher. She is also spacially displaced as of late, and is searching for Yennefer, Ciri and Geralt, with whom she jumped into this reality before getting lost from them. Dorthe and Frodnar will direct the small Izuku to her, since Dorthe is the one "babysitting" Izuku while his mother works so he's playing with the slightly older kids. Basically, they know she is a mage of some sort since she showed them some sort of light show, and Inko still needs to make money if she wants to leave with the proper equipment so they can't even go to Farengarym yet.

This allows us to 1) Set up the Triss Merigold X Midoriya Inko endgame and NO I AM NOR FUCKING STUTTERING and 2) Give Inko a competent bodyguard of sorts before she actually does get used to the unforgiving land of Skyrim and starts giving people heart attacks with her Quirk.

Of the Major Guilds:

Companions: Inko Joins as a way to make money for Izuku. With the mercenary work she manages to buy the house in Whiterun, so now Izuku can be left in a safe location, with "Aunt" Lydia as his babysitter. Whiterun Shenanigans ensue with Izuku befriending Lucia and Lars. Also Braith but, like, after lots of character development. Lucia is obviously the first to be adopted.

Inko is the one who becomes a werewolf and the Harbinger in the end, Izuku is not involved in this Storyline outside of some encounters with "Aunt" Aela and "Uncles" Vilkas and Farkas. Inko renounces her condition in the end.

College of Winterhold: They move to winterhold together since Farengar can't help them. Izuku is actually a quick study, as exemplified to that one spell book he found in helgen that thought him within seconds how to shoot lightning from his hands, much to his mother's worry. He ends up killing a bandit in self defense that way when he's barely 5. It was either do that or let them get to his mom.

Anyway, Inko is enrolled, but so is Izuku, the two now living on College Grounds. Triss is also there as an honorary lecturer. Anyway, Whe most of the adventuring is still done by Inko, is Izuku who receives the visit of the Psijic Order and, ultimately, he is the one to kill Ancano and close the eye of Magnus. Inko becomes Archmage still, even if she tries her hardest to have Toldfir step up instead.

The way Izuku kills Ancano is actually more based on guile than actual magical prowess. He is the only one not paralyzed in the boss fight, so what he does, is grab one of J'Zargo experimental Scrolls, summon a Skeleton Minion (Oblivion spell he was recently taught so to have someone protecting him in times of crisis), and then run with it against Ancano, too busy as he is being a megalomaniac, suicide bombing himself. He survives, but only thanks to the Restoration Professor quick intervention as Ancano dies and the paralysis falters.

Restoration magic did save the day in the end.

J'Zargo, who is usually aloof and snarky over his experiments, is actually horrified his rival's son almost got killed because of him, so he pledges he will do everything in his power to find a way to help them with their issue. He is a great magician after all, and his class is one of the brightest to date, they can find a way out for them.

Dragon War: Since all they can do now is wait for the College, Inko returns to Whiterun with Izuku and Triss, but on the way the watchtower is attacked, Mirmulmir is slain, and Izuku absorbs his dragon soul. This jumpstarts the events of Skyrim, with Izuku and Inko having to go on a pilgrimage to High Hrothgar to better understand what is happening to her son, who is now terrified of talking least he blew his mother apart with his voice.

A 5 years old kid makes a poor warrior, so the Greybeard offer to train him for his destiny, but Inko refuses. They don't need her son to kill dragons, just to eat their souls, so what she can do, is do the actual dragon slaying, and then have Izuku eat the souls. This still forces her to bring Izuku on her adventures, which isn't ideal, but only the dragon related ones. Izuku still learns the shouts of unrelenting force and whirlwind sprint as well as Dragonrend, but is Inko the one wielding the blade.

As a side note, Paarthurnax, for once not having to deal with a 4th era Nord, can finally give the unadulterated lore of the order rather than the imperialized, akatosh centric one, which leads Izuku to grow interested in Kyne, Warrior-Widow of Shor, for how much she reminds him of his mom.

Anyway, Inko is the one doing most of the stuff, Paarthurnax isn't killed, and Izuku gets two dragon buddies, one a wise and aging mentor war criminal, the other a brash and snarky red dragon he can call with his voice.

Izuku and Inko go both to Sovengarde. Inko meets back Kodlak, but also Ysgramor, who she now recognizes as a war criminal bastard, and she is the one dealing the killing blow on Alduin. Inko, Breath of Kyne, is the one sand in the songs now, the mother of the dragonborn who delivered them from evil.

Thieves Guild: Inko also does it all, but is the start of Izuku's involvement with Daedras. Inko takes the pledge to Nocturnal, so her soul is now bound to her realm, but is her son that catches the Prince's eye. Inko also tries to reform the guild back to its old robin hood ways, with divergent results.

Explorer Guild: This is the Legacy of the Dragonborn Mod. Inko founds the explorers guild and moves to the now bigger home in the Museum in Solitude. Proudspire manor has been bought by Yennefer, now advisor to Queen Elisif, who thanks to her influence has grown more confident. Girlboss helping Girlboss prosper and all that. She lives there with husband and daughter, and there's a reunion with Triss. Usual angst about "is she going to leave me? Are our adventures over?" But Triss stays because she cares about Inko and shit.

Anyway, inko is the one doing most of the stuff here too, but she now has a big enough home to adopt more than just Lucia.

She adopts every orphan, as well as Sissel and Britte in Rorikstead after murdering their abusive father. She then kills Grelod in Riften, so to also be able to adopt the orphans at the orphanage. To do so, she catches the attention of the Dark Brotherhood since she just stolen their contact. She of course adopts Aventus Aretino too.

Dark Brotherhood: All Inko. Unlike thieves guild, Izuku isn't even aware she's doing this, since he's back in Solitude with his new siblings.

Princes:

Izuku does Sheogorath. He's playing in the streets with his siblings and the other Solitude kids, when he finds Sheogorath abandoned follower. So he sneaks in the blue palace, gets to the forbidden wing, and meets Sheogorath, the Hero of Kvatch. Does his quest since it's a pretty easy quest even for a 5 years old kid, and then gets the Wabbajack in exchange.

Inko does Sanguine. The sham marriage is actually to Triss this time, which leads to more angst obviously.

Inko also does Vaermina (destroying the staff), Dagon (Destroying the Razor), Hircine (Gets the Ring), Malacath, Namira (Saves the priest and kills the cannibals), Molag Bal (Just... Never completes his quest and leaves the bastard hanging), Boethia (sacrifices one of the two racist dudes in Windhelm after trucking him into following her), Azura (Uncorrupted Star) and Peryte.

Izuku finds Meridia's Beacon but it's Inko who does the quest.

Izuku is the one meeting Barbas and they have "A boy and his dog" adventures together before he manages to bring him back to Clavicus Vile and convince him to take him back without needing to do his quest. He gets the Mask as a Result, but also a dog in the form of Styx, the spectral wolf, another mod.

Izuku does Mephala, pretty early on too. He befriends Baalgruf's bastard son while still living in Whiterun, who tells him about the whispering door, and after a couple of deceptions he gets the blade. He never charges it tho.

While is Inko the one getting the Ogma Infinium, she can't open it, and is Izuku the one opening it and gaining the boost in knowledge, as well as becoming Herma Mora champion.

Dawnguard and Dragonborn are also done by Inko, but is Midoriya who is sent to Apocrypha when she opens a black book. There he has a odd "Older Sibling trying to murder Younger Sibling" relationship with Miraak, and is ultimately forced to see him get killed by Herma Mora. Aunt Serana becomes a permanent fixture in the house.

Bard College is done by Inko but Izuku is also part of the college now.

Most quests are done by Inko, but the misc quests that require either speech or guile are done by Izuku, especially if they involve children. This includes stuff like paying for Erik the Slayer armor in Rorikstead, or cheering up that girl in Solitude whose uncle was executed for aiding in regicide.

Speaking of which:

Civil War: Inko does it obviously, and she sides with the empire, because 1) Hadvar, 2) Baalgruf, and 3) Elisif.

And also because she went to Windhelm one time to stop a serial killer and gods she couldn't believe how racist those fuckers were.

Modded followers are obviously Inigo, Lucien and Shirley Curry, to name a few.

Forgotten City is done by Inko, Izuku is not even in the time loop. Project AHO is done by Inko and ends with her freeing the slaves and murdering every single slaver in the settlement. Most modded quest mods are done by her honestly.

Izuku obviously keeps himself up to date with his magical studies, which means around 8-10 years old he moves back to winterhold, still waiting for a way home, so J'Zargo can study him to reverse engineer his quirk, and he can learn more spells. Most of his siblings are almost of age by now too, and his mother has started calming down in her worry, since she trusts her old coursemates and teacher to keek Izuku safe...

Ok, no, she trusts Onmund and Toldfir to keep Izuku safe, in this order, but it's still more people she would trust if he started living with any of her other guilds.

Anyway, can't think of much else.

#skyrim #bnha #boku no hero academia #skyrim au #bnha au #midoriya inko x triss merigold #I will make this a tag mark my words

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a-love-poet-at-heart · 4 years ago

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chess 03 american concert really had their cake and ate it too plot wise instead of just choosing Broadway or West End. They went with a West End plot but with a Broadway plot touch up, (which pretty cool its so west end since it happened in America). Like it is a Disservice to it to just say the plot is Broadway based

cause like the first act is normal West End stuff until the end where Freddie actually loses his title. He didnt quit and abdicate, Anatoly won fair and square and Anatoly was crowned champion and defects. Then Second act is in Bangkok for another championship, pretty West end yea?, but Freddie is the challenger not the Chekov’s gun of Viigand. Now the rest of the second act is super West end plot, like they even have the Interview and an almost full version of The Deal song, but also include the Freddie Goes Metal song from Broadway. Obviously first they change who sings the interview and has Freddie’s parts given to the ensemble/chorus and interestingly enough the Deal gives half of Freddie’s part to Walter. Walter talks to Anatoly and tells him about The Deal and to throw the Game. He gets told he’s total shit, then Freddie talks to Florence and is rebuked. And for the Freddie goes Metal/A Whole New Board game, it happens right after The Interview but after Freddie gloats, Florence shows up, having heard it all, and says that part she already said in Florence Quits and is later reused in The Deal, “Who'd ever think it?/Such a squalid little ending/Watching you descending/Just as far as you can go/I'm learning things I didn't want to know”. Now this is how they transition to Pity the Child.

Now for the ending! Endgame is Weird. It has bits of both versions. The bit between Walter and Molokov is actually the West End version. Molokov talks about “having trust in one’s player” and “working for one who believes in loyalty, heritage, true to his kind come what may”. With Walter following up with “your late unlamented employee knows winning than the only thing won is the chess”. Then we have Florence say her bit, then Anatoly his. But then we switch gears and do the broadway endgame. Freddie says his lines about thoughts straying and Florence being Anatoly’s messes with him. Then its Anatoly’s part but its sung by a mix of Florence and Svetlana

Anatoly jumps back in with his part about her and her father and about “living his life alone then feel like I had harmed her”. Then Anatoly throws the Fucking Game. Freddie wins, the Dethroned King is Back with shouting Check and gloating to Florence about her backing the wrong side like the Broadway version.

now as the second act was mostly West End based there was no Fake Father and his lullaby. And when Walter and Florence talk after the You and I reprise its a mix of plots with the “IF he’s still alive” and “we dont know For Sure” from the West End but with the “we got recovered some key agents” from the Broadway plot.

Also as this fits in nowhere before, but they do remove The Soviet’s Machine which is understandable. But a bit disappointing as its giving Molokov less to do and I like that song, but Understandable. Also they fully cut out Commie Newspapers/Press Conference so its Merano, Freddie’s Entrance, Merano reprise, Anatoly and Molokov, Where I want to be then Us vs Ussr. And the show’s first real song is Merano. Before it is just the overture and plot details from The Narrator Arbiter. The Story of Chess is sandwiched between Anatoly and Florence talking after the Endgame and the You and I reprise. So Pretty Weird.

Now this whole version is pretty interesting as Freddie actually loses and comes back but gets no redemption arc. He says he has changed in The Deal but he hasn’t, he showed that earlier by basically blaming Florence for his loss in the first act during Freddie Goes Metal. (I like that that song parallels the Florence Quitting in the First act with Florence reusing song lyrics) Another interesting thing is during the Deal where after Molokov says that Florence might not believe Walter and his bluff of her father being alive he says “There are others to call in to assist us”. Which is kinda weird as its Walter going to Anatoly to tell him to throw the game. I guess this could also pertain to Freddie since when he is groveling to Florence he directly says “in return I’ll show you all that they know in Moscow” and “he won’t help you, he won’t throw the match”. Which makes me question why Freddie is so happy when Anatoly makes a “mistake” in the Endgame as he directly knew about The Deal and the possibility of Anatoly throwing the match. But since he was so confident he wouldn’t throw the match I shall say that Freddie believes that Anatoly actually messed up and didn't throw the game, but just happened to lose.

Side note: Odd that 2 songs earlier Freddie spoke to the Press so confidently blaming Florence for his loss and saying how better he was without her, when she could have still read that in the papers later instead of hearing it from his own mouth if she wasn’t there. So she still would have heard Freddie Bad Mouth her. And then during The Deal he just grovels, says he’s changed and asks for her back and says “they will bring back the Golden Era”.

Also really weird for during the Endgame Walter still says “Though it gives me no satisfaction” before talking about how if Anatoly wins he only wins the game. He and Molokov are on the same side, get Anatoly to lose, then Profit. But from that line, it seems he believes that Anatoly will not want to win the game. And with Molokov’s saying that how easy the game is when you trust your player. In the West End plot Molokov’s lines are about Viigand and him just gloating to Walter while Walter says that he hates to admit it, its better for Anatoly to lose the match. Now Molokov’s lines are about Anatoly, who doesnt have loyalty to his people as he just defected, so odd that Molokov is suddenly saying he trusts him and odd that Walter would hate to admit to Molokov that its best for Anatoly to lose the match. Now you could argue that Molokov was saying it sarcastically or hypothetically or he was talking about Walter’s perspective as I guess Anatoly is now Walter’s man. So it would make sense for Walter to basically say “No actually, you’re wrong I don’t trust him, I think he will lose”. But that seems very odd to me as before it is shown that Walter and Molokov are both on board with Anatoly losing, especially more so when you find out he recovered some key agents since Anatoly threw the match.

Also interesting is how Florence and Svetlana are apart of the Endgame and sing Anatoly’s lines. Now with Svetlana’s lines it there seems to be two interpretations, first that if Anatoly went back to her she would not take him. “Is this [being married to Anatoly] the life I need?” She says he is selfish and childish but ends it with saying me, “Those around me bleed to death”. So I see that as the people bleeding to death is her children, so she is harming her children by choosing life with Anatoly. The other option is that Svetlana was always talking about herself, just like originally Anatoly was talking about himself when he said those lines. She’s blaming herself and chess itself for Anatoly’s actions. Personally I do not like this so, I’m going with the first option.

Overall, I kinda like this version of Chess. Nice that they didn’t just pick a plot, but changed things up and mixed things together. Didn’t add anything really new to Chess, like the Kennedy Center Production. Also interesting they mostly used the West End plot instead of Broadway when it happened in America. Personally I didn’t like Freddie not changing and no redemption arc for him, but I just have a soft spot for him.

There are some techinical problems with the production, mics not being on at the right time, some fumbling with words, the orchestra coming in too early and drowning out Freddie when during his small dialogue before the second chess game of the first act, Adam Pascal’s mic going off for a few lines during One Night in Bangkok. Also I think Walter flubbed a line during the Deal cause he says “we all stand to lose, you, me, the lady also” so

#chess the musical #chess musical #chess #oh wow this was much longer than planned #i just love this musical

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bigskydreaming · 3 years ago

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This isn't a meme thing or anything but I was wondering if you had a top ten favorite characters from books? I actually end up getting a lot of good book recs from reading your blog so I was just curious lol.

LOL I wasn't going to do this ask because I was like ugh I suck at top ten lists because I can never pick just ten. But then I thought about it for like, five whole seconds and realized I DO have ten standout characters in answer to this so its like oh hey, learned something new about myself today! Lmao.

Anyway, in no particular order:

1) Anyanwu - from Wild Seed by Octavia Butler - Can not stress how like fucking...formative Anyanwu's character was for me as an abused kid who first read this when I was like 12. The book heavily deals with the back and forth across centuries between these two immortals, Anyanwu and Doro, as Doro basically tries to control her every which way he can, and Anyanwu just defies him at every turn, and it just....you love to see it. She's a bad-ass and I adore her.

2) Prince Corwin and Merle Corey/Merlin - from Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny - Yes I'm cheating but its me so you should have seen that coming. Another fave series from when I was in middle school, its ten books in total, and the first five are in Corwin's POV and the second five are in the POV of his son Merle/Merlin. So I maintain it counts. And is fine. Shhh, let it go, Elsa said so. ANYWAY, I actually probably like Merle better than his dad, because I mean, lbr, Corwin is a total asshole. But he's MY asshole, y'know? Wait, that came out wrong. Don't quote me there. But you know what I mean. Merle is a lot more level-headed, and quick-witted I think, and I like his supporting cast of relatives who want to kill him and he sometimes want to kill more than his dad's supporting cast of relatives who want to kill him and he always wants to kill, but like. Both are Valid. Also shout out to Fiona and Rinaldo, with a side shout out to Flora, who are probably my next three favorites from the series. Dara would be up there too but she knows what she did.

3) Elric/Corum/Dorian/etc - from the Eternal Champion books by Michael Moorcock - Look I'm already cheating so why not continue on a theme. But basically this counts too, I'm just saying. See Michael Moorcock's big project going all the way back to the 60s was he created a fantasy multiverse of different dimensions where this one Eternal Champion, meant to balance the scales between the Lords of Law and the Lords of Chaos, like, is reborn over and over again in different incarnations but who are all essentially him. So Elric of Melnibone, Dorian Hawkmoon, Corum I can never remember his last name.....they're all essentially the same guy.....but they're all at the same time very very very different, and they have extremely different storylines. But I maintain if you're gonna read one you kinda gotta just read them all, all Pokemon like and such forth, because the real beauty of these books is seeing the familiar traces of the Eternal Champion threaded through each of these incarnations but also contrasting how different they are from each other and like, looking at what makes them so different each time and how much it stems from their environment and situations, etc.

4) Civet - from the Dragons of the Inland Sea series by Laurence Yep - This is a kids' series, like for ages 10-12 kinda, but easily my favorite from when I was a kid. I reread them so many times, and I love pretty much all the characters from Shimmer to Thorn to Monkey, but Civet was always a standout. She's essentially a tragic character and her ending is bittersweet, but like.....she fully knows who she is and what she's about and makes no apologies for that, and she ends on exactly the note she wants to. Like, her story and her characterization was pretty damn dark for such a young-aimed series, but that's part of what drew me to it, it managed to capture the tone it set out to convey but in a completely age-appropriate way, and in an era when most books aimed at kids dumbed down most of their story concepts and themes, this one was refreshing for just being....real. Despite being blatantly fantasy. Also the Boneless King is one of the best villains ever, despite being deliberately over the top a lot of the times....idk what it was about him, but he was just chilling.

5) Jack the Bodiless and Diamond Mask - from the Galactic Milieu series by Julian May - These are linked as well because they're a couple and their stories intertwine so much that there's no real point in separating them y'know? That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But anyway, they're a weird choice for me because Julian May is hit or miss for me overall....I HATE her Saga of the Pliocene Epic, which is technically in the same universe as her Galactic Milieu series, but they have totally different vibes and the latter series doesn't contain any of the elements from the Saga of the Pliocene that I loathe, so it just works. Plus it has Jack and Diamond Mask, and like.....I don't actually know why I love them so much? They're just so different from pretty much any other characters I've ever read. Like, May does a lot of really high concept stuff across the board, but Jack and Diamond Mask are like.....high concept character wise? If that makes sense? Its okay if it doesn't. I'm literally just spitting words out here. Honestly, its hard to say anything specific about them because so much of their characters conceptually just doesn't make sense without knowing the in-universe concepts that led to them even existing, but like. They're weird and off the wall but still astoundingly human for all that and I love them.

6) Naomi Nagata - from the Expanse books by James S. A. Corey - I mean, if you've seen me ramble all the Naomi love in my live-watches of The Expanse TV show, this should be no surprise, but my love for her in the books like, exists manifold. She's great in both, but the books cover so much more content-wise, that her character has so much more room to breathe and be explored in all kinds of directions the TV show never touches on. The funny thing is, I actually prefer the TV characterizations overall....I think the authors of the books are actually pretty shit at characterization a lot of the time, but the basic thread of Naomi's character is consistent and the sheer abundance of story material she has in the books like.....keeps me going back to them even just for her. Her conflict with Marco in the books in particular just has so much more depth than in the show....like, I don't hate the show's version at all, anyone who's seen my posts there knows that lol, and I'm not actually even sure which version I actually like more in terms of that particular storyline.....but I just love that both versions are so different, while still being recognizably the same, y'know? I don't even know. Nobody knows. Its a mystery. Just nod and say yes, shh, its fine.

7) Locke Lamora - from The Lies of Locke Lamora/The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch. This is an odd one for me, because in one sense Locke is a very contrived archetypal character from an author that doesn't always pull it off as successfully as I feel he thinks he does.....like, what I mean is Locke is inherently that type of character that is SUPPOSED to push buttons and straddle a line between likable and unlikable....and to be fair, that is VERY hard to pull off without at least some of the time falling on the wrong side of that line and alienating at least some readers. But there's something very genuine or sincere feeling about the character underneath all that, which is ironic for a character who is an acknowledged pathological liar and hardly ever tells the truth....like I said, its an odd one for me because I can't actually put my finger on what makes this particular character work for me when so many similar characters just bug the crap out of me.

8) Damien - from Black Sun Rising/The Coldfire trilogy by C. S. Friedman - This one is a whole fucking lie because I don't actually even like Damien that much lmao, but the thing is, I don't have a particular fondness for any of the characters in this series? But I gotta put it on the list anyway because I just love the world in this series so much, and its practically a character in and of itself. Like, so this was a science fantasy series set on a distant planet in the future but otherwise steeped in fantasy archetypes about spirit creatures that only Adepts could see, and like, Fae and life energy and sorcery that had roots in scientific principles but was otherworldly all the same. And that's like.....all literally my jam, and so I can't deny that this series was very formative for me even if its not the best example of those concepts. Its just the one I tend to go back to the most in my mind, like....the world and its characters are very standout and larger than life for me, even if they don't specifically APPEAL to me? They're impactful all the same. Its another odd one. I'm odd. You just kinda gotta roll with it. Its a thing. Its factual.

9) Yeine Darr - from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin - This was a tough one because I love literally everything by Jemisin and all her characters are just so....ooof. They're very very real, even in the most fantastical of settings. I have mad characterization envy every time I read her stuff, but like. Its so good. So really the struggle was picking one character or even two, because I mean, The Fifth Season and its sequels are easily her best known works and have a ton of fantastic characters, and I think her Dreamblood duology is vastly overlooked but in the end I had to go with The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms even if just cuz of nostalgia. Its the first of her works and when I first started reading her and so its just.....anyway, if I was gonna go with that, it had to be Yeine, because she's so central to everything and also just....fantastic. Nahadoth and Sieh are also standout characters who get mentioned a lot in talk of this trilogy, and they're both such big personalities that at times they kinda overshadow Yeine, but Yeine has such a compelling.....undercurrent to her that she never actually gets lost in the shuffle even when surrounded by all these larger than life gods, and just. You love to see it. I do anyway. And its my list so nyah. But also if you're gonna read Jemisin, read everything Jemisin. It just makes sense, y'know? Good for the pores.

10) Cayal and Arkady - from The Immortal Prince/The Tide Lords by Jennifer Fallon - All the other Tide Lords can rot, but Cayal is hilarious in a depressing way. He's a ten thousand year old immortal whose greatest wish is just to die, which is how he meets Arkady who is a historian who just wants to like....know everything he knows once she realizes he actually is the figure of legend he professes to be and is so mad at him for not really giving a shit about all the weight of history he's been present for, but Cayal's just like, umm, I LIVED it so that's why I don't care, I'm allowed to not care, that shit hurt. Did you miss the part where one of the other Tide Lords threw a fucking meteor at me? And Arkady, distinctly unimpressed, is just like....I thought YOU did that, to Jasper. And Cayal's like, no that doesn't sound right. And Arkady's just like, you literally JUST told me that story. And Cayal's like, huh. I must have been lying. I do that sometimes. And Arkady's like, I thought you never lie, that's your whole thing? And Cayal's like, ahah, but what if THAT was a lie too? And Arkady's just like, bitch I hate you so goddamn much, how are you the worst of all the Immortals while still the only one who will actually talk to me and answer my questions. Cayal's like, we may never know.

Anyway, there's my list but like there's a lot more obviously because I'm me, I don't do moderation, its against my religion, but also I have to stop some time and the ask was for ten and those were the ten that popped into my head so they must be the right ones! Probably. Until I change my mind at least.

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talldarkandroguesome · 3 years ago

Text

6th of Frostfall, Middas

I had just settled down for the night, finished my prayers and done up my hair, when there was a call outside my tent door.

It was Nenet.

I cannot say that I was pleased to be disturbed when I was finally calming my mind from all that had happened. Yet I rose, not bothering to do more than drape my robe over my shoulders.

It did not seem to bother her, but I wanted to get across that she had disturbed me and it seemed the fastest way to do do.

She asked where it was Seryn and I had gone.

I told Nenet that it was a sacred place and its location secret, even from me.

I could already see that look in her eye, like a nix hound with the scent of raw meat. She was not going to stop. Not until she had what she wanted.

She asked, nearly demanded, to know if I had gotten the staff.

I told her that the Ashkhan did in fact have the staff and that he was going to be attending a meeting back here soon and that Seryn and I were to attend and going to try and convince him to give it up.

I do not know if it was my tone, or if I said enough for her to feel satisfied, but she left and I tried to sleep. It took finishing off the last of the brandy I had before I could keep my eyes from opening back up as soon as they were closed.

Morning came and I went and enjoyed a meal with Seryn and the rest of the tribe, thanking them, as always, for their grand hospitality. It was nice to just enjoy a moment of peace.

It was not to last long.

By later in the day, Chodala returned, looking, I am embarrassed to say, rather radiant. Certainly dashing.

He went into Skar, where the wise woman had already entered to prepare. Seryn looked to me and I knew it was time.

I headed briefly back to my tent and retrieved my records of the Failed Incarnates’ words. Then we entered and I had to fight my awe at yet another magnificent and sacred Velothi locale. I took a deep breath and focused my mind as the wise woman lead us to a podium opposite of where Chodala stood.

I asked Seryn how I would best support her and she said that she would be refuting each of Chodala’s evidence that he was the Nerevarine and when she needed the words of the previously failed Nerevarine, that she would ask me to read the appropriate passages. I nodded, unable to keep myself from a small smile. She was truly everything that Azura had said.

I stood by as Chodala laughed and asked why Seryn could not simply accept the truth, that he was Nerevar reborn. The wise woman said that the traditions much be maintained to allow the verdict to be passed.

He scoffed at Seryn openning her mouth to speak and said that even I, a Housemer, could tell that he was the most power Ashkhan.

Well, it was quite the introduction to his arguments. But for all his bravado, and charming looks, Seryn was easily able to out maneuver him.

He grew enraged by what I read, saying I had no place in Velothi affairs, that anything I said could clearly be fabricated.

I offered him the writings, transcribed from the spirits’ own mouths and the wise woman confirmed that Azura had permitted me to hear their words and write them down, that there might be an objective record.

That got him even more up in arms, for as one sent by the Houses, I would certainly have my own motive, one likely to involve the prevention of his goal to unite the tribes.

I knew that for most other Housemer, that would certainly be true, so I tried not to take it so personally that I was accused in such a manner.

I tried to assure him that I had simply written what I heard and no more. I was there entirely neutrally. That he was as welcome as Seryn to use the words I had written for his own arguments, I was simply there besides Seryn since she had invited me.

Seryn began to fight back against his rebukes for her naivety and soon the siblings were shouting from their podiums at one another.

Raised voices were enough for the wise woman to call for silence as she made her decision. And as predicted, Chodala’s anger seemed only to rise. I could tell that there were, at the edges of the great hall, soldiers standing at the ready. And I could tell, these were Red Exiles.

The wise woman had lived up to her name, a denial would certainly mean an attack.

We needed for Chodala to be calm enough to convince him that the staff was endangering people and affecting him negatively.

I tried to used my birthgift, but his anger was so great that it did not have any effect on his anger in any way.

Finally, the wise woman returned with her judgement. She ruled in Seryn’s favor based off the arguments of the failed incarnates.

That was the last straw and Chodala roared that the decision changed nothing. That his staff protected him. That he was still the Nerevarine, even if conspiracies attempted to stop him. Then he ordered the Red Exiles to attack.

My heart sunk. I felt for Seryn. Chodala was so intent in his anger that he was beyond reason. A part of me felt like I was reliving the whole Veya situation all over again. Only with very different political implications. Why was this happening!

I launched myself forward and drove my blade into the first of three attackers, Seryn sending a warm light around me. I felt faster, lighter somehow, and it was moments before the two went down. Then as we headed for the door that Chodala had run out, several more came at us. These were archers, but I teleported out of the way as Seryn drew a shield around herself. I slit two of their throats and Seryn brought down the other two. Then we reached the door, just as the Gulakhan blocked our way.

I could tell that she was far more skilled and experienced than the others and I gave warning that we did not wish to hurt her. Seryn told her to stand down and let us pass. But the Gulakhan refused and leveled her weapon in our direction.

Working in tandem, Seryn and I made quick work of the gulakhan, though it was clear that Seryn was grieving the lives that were taken. I mourned that we had to fight them as well, though I had likely far fewer opportunities to know them than Seryn had.

We raced outside to try and stop Chodala, but he was nowhere to be seen.

We headed back in to check on the wise woman, she yelled at us for wasting time, told us she was fine, and told us to hurry up and stop Chodala before he made an even graver mistake.

Seryn and I nodded as we headed back out to try and track Chodala.

I could see that she was shaking. Though judging from her stance, it was from anger. Anger that made her eyes threaten to spill over with tears.

I told her that we would see this through. That I would do all in my power to assist her.

She turned to me and began to explain how much she hated what her brother had become, when suddenly her head fell forward.

I felt a strange feeling, like a sort of resonance within me, then Seryn’s body began to levitate, a bright light eminating from within her. When she opened her mouth, it was not Seryn’s voice, but that of the Lord of Twilight.

I was warned that while we had proven Chodala not to be the Nerevarine, we had not managed to get the staff away from him and prevent his march towards godhood. That while he still held it, he would be nigh unstoppable. That, as little as She cared for the pompous arse, my words, not Hers, Vivec must not be allowed to fall to Chodala’s staff. That there was another power, far greater than Chodala’s at play in all this. That Seryn and I must see to it that Vivec’s powers were restored and that I must continue to protect Her champion until the end. Provided Seryn survived that long.

It was an ominous series of statements. Particularly about Seryn.

I realized that Lord Azura probably meant there was a danger in the strain of being a Prince’s vessel. I recalled how my soul had been torn from my body when my own Prince had used me as vessel and it was only through Mother and the Farseer’s magic tethering my soul to my body, that allowed me to survive then.

I agreed, pulling out a greater potion of health, just in case. I was not familiar enough with what spells might be required, but I would do whatever I could to aid Seryn.

Her body slowly lowered until her feet touched the ground.

Then her eyes opened with a startled gasp and as she reached out blindly forward, I took her hands in mine and asked her if she was alright.

It took her a while to speak and she thanked me for my concern. She asked what had happened and I explained that she had been the Lady of Dusk and Dawn’s vessel and also named Her champion.

Seryn seemed a bit in disbelief, and not a little shaky.

I apologized for having to carry her, then lifted her in my arms and brought her back to her yurt and laid her down. She complained that we had to go after Chodala.

I told her that I knew well the taxation upon a mortal body of being a Prince’s vessel and urged her to rest for just a few moments and drink some water and that I would gather tracking supplies.

She smiled at me fondly and told me that I was going to have a lot of secrets to explain to her. I laughed and agreed.

Even now Seryn is regaining her strength. I believe we must inform Vivec’s trio of servants of what has happened. Chodala must be stopped, for I fear that if godhood is his aim, he is attempting to make of himself a god in the way that Almsivi did in the last era. It makes sense that Azura would be so concerned. After all, she was the one who tried to stop Almsivi from their stealing power to become gods, it would do no good for another mortal to simply steal the power from one of them to take Vivec’s place. At least Vivec’s ambitions are to a less war-minded objective.

I must have faith in our ability to stop this. For so many reasons. I just hope we can do it without having to end Chodala’s life. There has been enough bloodshed already.

#ESO #TES #RP #Dunmer #Elder Scrolls Online #The Elder Scrolls

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yandere-sins · 5 years ago

Note

Requests are open, yay!! Since you do Pokemon SwSh, could I request a scenario for Leon with an s/o who actually managed to beat him and ended up as Champion?? Maybe that's the reason he got obsessed with her, bc s/o is the first person to beat him after so many years of him being the 'unbeatable champion'?

Yay! I really love this idea, thank you so much for requesting it ^-^ But for the sake of it, Leon didn’t win against a child in this.

»»————-———— ♡ ————————-««

Around him, the sound of firecrackers and shouting hit every inch of the arena. But where he stood, it was surprisingly quiet. As if in his own bubble, there was nothing to be heard at all, and his eyes had all their focus on her, across the grass, all the way over on the opponents stand.

Time ran a bit slower, now that he lost. Now that the adrenaline, the action wore off, everything seemed to come to a screeching halt. Everything, but her. From where he stood, he saw her bubble too. Only the two of them had the privilege of feeling like this, being allowed to not be rushed with the feelings of losing and winning. They could take their time.

She looked at him with the most angelic expression he had ever seen on her. It had been their fifth, maybe sixth match this arena season, and it had been his pleasure to see her grow through it. She was the only one that never gave up on the dream of beating him, even though she never became a gym leader or anyone of that importance. After her challenge years ago, she disappeared for a few years, before coming back, ready to try again, and so she did. She tried, and she tried and now... she beat him.

What she had done the last few years, he didn’t know. Who she had become even less. People, faces, they all passed him by, the longer he stood up to more and more opponents. She hadn’t been ‘special’ back then when she first started the arena challenge. But she was now.

Slowly, her mouth opened, mouthing, ‘Oh my god,’ as the realization started to trickle down her back. He could see her eyes catching tears in them, face contorting in a sob. This was it; this was what she had always wanted. And if Leon was truthful, it was what he had always wanted her to do too.

He wished he could have told her not to raise her arm, hide these teary, shining eyes from him behind it. Her face, pained with how happy she was, might have been his favorite sight of what she showed to him ever. Leon couldn’t help but wonder what kind of face he made, while the two just stood there, an arena erupting in screams and cheers around them, as a new era was born.

Behind her, he saw family, friends, supporters rushed onto the green, ready to celebrate their new champ. But at least for a little longer was he able to have his eyes on her and only her, as she slowly but surely sobbed into her hands. He, too, felt like crying, but for so many other reasons.

Leon felt free. Finally, after so many years, there was not only a stone rolling down his shoulders, but a whole mountain breaking off of him. She had freed him. This couldn’t have been unintentional. With how hard she tried to beat him, this could have only meant that she wanted to free him. Take all this pain and burdens from his shoulders so he could move on from the champ title he held for so long.

She was his savior.

It wasn’t long now that the other people would reach her. Claim her, put the crown on her head as it belonged there. Soon, all he went through would be what she would have to endure the next few years, and Leon almost felt... bad.

They’d feed her lies, and make her do things she wouldn’t even consider doing. She’d have to fight, train, work and sleep without ever taking a break from it. How would she handle this? Good? Bad? Worse than him? He was free now, while she was damned to their illusions of being a champion. How cruel this seemed, for a heart so pure as hers. How utterly destroying.

Only Leon knew what it was like to wait for an opponent to finally beat the champion and let them go of it. Only Leon could understand what she was going to go through now, and he couldn’t help but return the favor. There must be some way, he was sure, and he would find it.

But for now, he would take what he could. The sun didn’t seem to stop shining as her friends and family reached her, hugged her - things he wanted to do to her too. Finally, she looked up again, the widest, most genuine smile on her face he had ever seen, shining from side to side. It was that moment that Leon knew she was the sun herself. His sun.

And he couldn’t just let her get caged and dimmed down.

It was all on him.

Only he could save and return the favor to her.

And bowing his head, tugging in his cap, he already started to make plans in which the two could finally be free. Together.

#Leon #Leon pokemon #pokémon #pokémon sword and shield #pokemon swsh #yandere pokemon #yandere!pokemon #yandere swsh #yandere! shwsh #yandere #yandere imagines #yandere headcanons #yandere scenarios #yandere fanfiction #yandere writing #yandere x reader #yandere x darling #Yandere TW #Anonymous

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botwstoriesandsuch · 4 years ago

Text

Where Time Takes Us

Destination - Part 1

- - - - - - - - - -

Watch the home while she is off to war

The Slumber King versus the rearing boar

Awake, arise, do not be blind

To tales and destinies entwined

In the world we said that we would leave behind

— excerpt from folk song, The World Behind, writer unknown, dated back to the Era of Myth

- - - - - - - - - -

6 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days before the Hyrule Castle Slaughter, the Akkala Citadel Massacre, the slaying of the Champions, the death of the hero, and the rise of Calamity Ganon...

Her job ends on doomsday.

She should be working, and truly she wanted to, but circumstances had led her to walk towards the echoing laughter.

Already trying to prepare the quip she would throw back at them, (as undoubtedly they’d complain about her being late again), the researcher weaved through the familiar roads of West Castle Town. Most of the houses were dark, with the only light source coming from the occasional flickering lantern, and the pale complexion of the midnight moon. Needless to say, it made the warm glow of The Adequate’s Tavern stand out all the more as she approached.

Another roar of laughter and shouts escaped from an open window on the south side of the pub. The bags under her eyes curved with her smile as she recognized one of the voices. She absentmindedly traced her fingers along the outer walls of the tavern as she walked, loose chips of faded blue paint falling to the pavement below. The wooden sign above the door creaked with its askew weight. The Adequate’s Tavern was printed in bold, blue letters atop a faded yellow outline. The missing e’s and t’s gave evidence to the building’s true quality.

Pushing open the door, the researcher was met with a swirl of familiar scents, ranging from alcohol, apples, bread, and leather, along with a smokiness coming from the fireplace near the back of the bar.

Closing the door behind her, she walked through the entrance, passing under a wooden overhang, and alongside a long, stone-slated bar counter. She overheard a conversation between the barkeep and a waiter.

“Yes, they’re here again, so get out there already!”

“The scientists?” the waiter asked.

The man started shoving her towards the storage door behind the bar. “Yes, yes, now hurry up and stock up on that apple cider. I’ve already turned four full pitchers from the three of them, and the fourth is no doubt on the way. We can turn a bigger profit from those kids than any random alcoholic that stumbles in here tonight!”

The waiter disappeared into the back, and the barkeep was left muttering by the counter. Chuckling to herself, the researcher moved away, starting to search for the scientists in question. Other than a single, beige wall that separated the edge of the bar with a support beam in the middle of the room, the pub was very open and lively. Square and circular tables were littered across the floor in mismatched patterns, ranging from oak brown to birch white. Clearly, aesthetic was not the centerpoint of the place.

She walked about the pub, scanning the faces of the men and women alike who crowded by the booths and tables. The tavern mainly housed a sea of Hylians, who let out the occasional drunken laugh, or hearty chuckle. It was a miracle she could hear her thoughts at all, as the air was rich with the sound of clattering dishware and the patter of dancing feet, as in a small corner to the left was a semi-circle stage housing a small band. A Hylian man with umber dark skin, much like her own, blew away at a Lurelin-made, seashell harmonica. To his left, a blonde woman extended her arm in quick and elegant strokes with a bow and fiddle. Two others struck away on small drums and bells, and the playful gig they performed had gotten several people up from their feet to dance for Hylia knows how long. The music wasn’t terrible, but she had heard better, from a certain Sheikah in particular...

As if fate had read her thoughts, she finally caught sight of her friends.

It hindsight, it was easy enough to expect the bard to be at the table closest to the stage. Yet, it was probably the three heads of cloud white, Sheikah hair that gave them away the quickest. A young teenage boy sat across a square table from two other Sheikah, a boy and a girl. He was looking at nothing in particular, as he plucked away at his lute, presumably tuning it. Wrapped around his head was a small cluster of green wooden beads, woven with brown string. They dotted like a line of stars in his fluffy, white hair, alternating between pine and sage shades. The knot tying the strings and beads around his head hung loosely like vines just by his right ear. He was just asking to look like a starstruck, homeless traveler, if it weren’t for the bright red cape pinned across his shoulders. The golden, Hyrulean emblem holding the crimson cloth together signified his status as an important worker of the palace. Although, no one would be surprised that this thin, skinny teenager was a bard and court poet, and not a royal knight.

Suddenly, the bard looked up and met her gaze, a pair of warm, red eyes catching the light of familiarity. He patted the empty seat next to him and said something to the other two Sheikah in front of him. One of them looked back, a young man with storm wild hair that seemed to part like lightning. He had a beige, long sleeve coat over a red tunic, as was the classic Sheikah style. However, the style of his white jacket told of his rank as a scientist. With chocolate eyes and a contagious grin, he nudged the girl next to him and fake coughed.

The young woman wore roughly the same outfit, although she had a navy blue skirt and boots compared to the other guy’s black pants and shoes. Her eyes were also red, albeit, with a more striking scarlet color, compared to the other boy’s warmer wine shade. Looking back, she adjusted her bright, Sheikah red, round, sparkly, diamond decorated glasses, complete with white accents that matched her hair. It was pulled in a messy bun, a hairstyle that her close friends knew was less for looks, and more for practical purposes, as supposedly, “the stupid strands always find ways to bother my eyes. No, stop, I don’t need a comb! My eyeballs are just sensitive, okay?”

Pivoting past a waiter, the researcher finally moved closer to the trio, brushing her curly dark hair above her shoulders as she prepared for the sarcasm to begin.

The stormy eyed scientist spoke first.

“Purah, Purah! Is that...a ghost I see? It looks like Adello, but I feel like I haven’t seen her in a century, I surely thought her dead! Am I being…haunted?”

Purah turned in her seat and gave a fake gasp. She adjusted her red rimmed glasses at the sight of her. “You’re right, Robbie! I’ve heard about these spirits. They only come at midnight under a full moon, and they appear when you have friends that don’t know how to time manage and haunt you by coming to your birthday party with their terrible fashion sense 45 minutes late!” She clapped her hands along with the syllables of “45 minutes” to let her point be known.

Robbie awed at Adello in sarcastic wonder, and the boy across from him exhaled out of his nose with a smile.

Adello put a hand on her hip. “Save your breath, I was just working a bit overtime on the Divine Beast sketches. You know, work? For the jobs that we all have? So we can pay our taxes and shit? Unfortunately, not all of us have fancy salaries Mrs. Royal Scientist.”

Purah turned to Robbie, pulling down her glasses and looking at him sternly. “See, this is another trait of these kinds of spirits. They’re cursed to only say excuses for eternity.”

He shook his head. “Coupled with the fact that their fashion only ever consists of one color? Truly, a terrible fate for a ghost indeed.”

Adello narrowed her eyes. Smoothing out her juniper colored tunic, she said, “Okay, first off, green is a great color on me, it pairs well with my skin tone. You’re both just blind, no wonder you need glasses.” Purah put a hand on her chest dramatically, but she continued. “Plus, I’d really rather not get fired since that ceremony thing with those Champions is tomorrow and, as you all know, I just got that promotion.”

The researcher propped a black leather boot up on the empty chair by the table, flipping her jet black hair dramatically. “How does it feel to be in the presence of someone with an actual on-the-field career?”

Purah stuck out her tongue, and Robbie cupped his hands and booed. However, the boy sitting on the other side of the fourseated table gave a celebratory strum of his lute, giving Adello’s pose a bright background flourish with a few upbeat chords.

She winked. “Thank you Zimiri, at least someone can recognize skill.” The bard gave a little bow with his head, grinning. “A few chords is all it takes to enhance a dramatic, late night entrance.”

Adello chuckled, finally sitting down in the empty seat beside him. The old oaken chair and floor creaked under the new weight. Robbie let out a huff.

“You kids need to learn to respect your elders.” He announced the word “respect” with the tip of his tongue. The researcher rolled her eyes.

“Ah yes, a whole one year gap between us. What astounding age and experience that these elders emit.” She gestured at Robbie and Purah with a sweep of her arm.

“Uh, excuse me, but I believe in my case it’s now double that. A whole two years, my dear, naive child. For as of 4 hours ago, I now emit the knowledge of an existence spanning two decades!” Now it was his turn to pose dramatically, pointing towards the ceiling.

Everyone at the table groaned, turning to occupy themselves with something else. Purah started writing in her journal which she pulled out from her satchel, and Adello started to become very interested with the ceiling. Zimiri continued to pluck nothings on his lute.

Robbies crossed his arms, his white long sleeves folding across the Sheikah red shirt underneath. “Oh I see! So when Adello brags, she gets a musical accompaniment, but when I do it, it’s suddenly annoying and embarrassing?”

Adello smirked to herself, and answered, “Yep, that’s how it goes!”

“Alright, you don’t get to speak, Miss I-don’t-know-how-to-be-punctuation!”

Purah promptly smacked Robbie over the head with a pen.

“Hey! W—”

“The word is punctual, you idiot.”

Robbie slumped his shoulders and made a face. He tapped his thumb and fingers together, mimicking the opening and closing of a mouth while he muttered mockingly in Purah’s tone under his breath.

Purah finished off a note in her journal before turning to the rest of the table. “Alright Adello, time to catch up. We’ve been playing ‘Till You Spill and I’ve already got some juicy stuff in here!”

Turning the pages of her journal towards Adello, she gave a chaotic grin. “Last round, Zimiri revealed that he once got teary eyed in front of the King himself after reading a poem about clouds.”

Zimiri raised his hands in defense. “Look, the clouds were an analogy for lost childhood innocence and I got choked up with that author’s amazing choice of imagery and descriptions, okay?”

Purah pointed her pen at him to hush, and continued. “Of course, him being a sentimental dork isn’t anything new, so he lost that round to Robbie who revealed the identity of his first crush.”

Zimiri muttered something about the game being rigged towards the birthday boy, but Adello talked over him, excitedly.

“Ooohhhh? Robbie?? Who are they?” She propped up her elbows and cradled her chin in her hands, excited at the prospect of more embarrassing information she could hang over his head.

He mumbled, looking to Purah for assistance, but she only cupped a hand over her ear, waiting for him to respond. “You all fuckin—” he sighed, “it’s…she’s…c-ch…” he avoided everyone’s gaze, “her name is...Cherry…”

Adello gasped, gleefully. “That girl from your old university?? The writer you hung out with!?”

Purah beamed, shaking Robbie’s shoulders excitedly. “I know right???” She loosened her grip and allowed him to wiggle out of her grasp for a moment. “Oh sweetie, campus days may be long gone for all of us prodigies and geniuses,” she flipped a few strands of her white hair with a turn of her head, “but I’m sure you’ll get her someday. You just gotta turn up the charm, find a way to woo with words. I’m sure writers love that.” Purah pulled down her glasses and gave a forced wink at him.

Adello tried to hold her tongue to no avail. “Pffft. Yeah, you can try wooing her with your punctuation.” This got a snicker out of Purah, and caused the birthday boy to blush furiously and slump further in his seat. Zimiri finally spoke up.

“Now, now, let’s all play nice. We don’t need to pester him further about it, he did win the round after all.”

“Uh, yeah. Speaking of the game, you still need to drink up, mister.” Purah slid a tan brown cup of apple cider towards him, the translucent contents sloshing around like muck in a gutter.

He leaned on the back two legs of his chair. “Isn’t it punishment enough to smell it? The cider isn’t even near my face and my mouth is already burning.”

She shrugged. “Them's the rules of ‘Till You Spill. Your secret sucked, so swig!”

The poet groaned, but complied. Tipping the cup towards his lips, Zimiri took a hearty slurp of the cider, much to everyone’s amusement. It felt like hot, molten copper mixed with old apple skins. How could something both burn and freeze your throat at the same time? He let out a gag, to which Adello patted him on the back with a short laugh.

Raising his posture, Robbie crowed, “When we finally have Zimiri’s birthday maybe then we’ll actually upgrade to the alcohol.”

Adello raised an eyebrow. “Uh, right, because the upgrade from disorientingly strong, smelly apple cider, is you two being flat out drunk. Right...”

Purah slammed both her fists down with pride, letting the cups and pitchers slosh a few amber colored drops onto the worn wooden table. “Bold of you to assume I’d drink at all, considering I’ve never lost a round! Mwahaha!” She blew a raspberry at her. “This tongue is apple free, baby.”

She gestured with her pinky and index finger at Zimiri and Adello. “Now, you two! The late combatant and the latest loser shall spill next. Give us your juicy gossip!!”

The bard, still reeling from his drink, leaned back in his chair and gave a nod toward Adello. “Ladies first?”

While she wasn’t undefeated in this drinking game, she sure as hell was playing to win. Especially since somebody needed to knock that smug expression off of Purah’s face. Adello thought to herself quickly.

Zimiri, no doubt, is probably gonna say something self-deprecating again, as he’s too nice to actually reveal anything embarrassing about anyone else. So...I just need to say something unexpected and interesting...perhaps something embarrassing about...hmm, I’ve already exhausted all my info about those cushy nobles and guards in past rounds…

Suddenly, she snapped her fingers. “The princess has a secret stuffed animal collection.” Seeing the light in her co-workers’ eyes twinkle, Adello knew she had chosen her words well. Purah leaned in. “Ooh? And how did you come across this juicy piece of information?” She rested her chin on an arm with an innocent smile.

“When I sent my application for the new job a few weeks ago, I gave it to the princess directly. It was late at night, and I bumped into her as she just left her room. The door was cracked open for a few seconds, before some royal, pompous guard slammed it right in my face. Yet, it wasn’t before I saw the pile of,” she counted on her fingers, “cow, sheep, bird, dog, and several horse stuffed animals piled high by her big, blue bed. I bet if I peeked for just a few more moments I could have found enough to pin her as a true horse girl.”

Robbie shrugged his shoulders, unconsciously rapping the table with his finger. “Well, speaking as a horse guy myself, I can attest to the fact that the childhood horse obsession phase never leaves, so I find Princess Zelda’s collection quite admirable.” He gave a nod towards Zimiri. “Either way, it’ll be tough to top that, Zim. Cute, yet slightly concerning, fact about our future queen? Quite the competition. Shall I signal the waiter for a refill now?”

Zimiri plucked a few more strings from his lute, before finally setting it down on the floor. He tilted his head, playfully. The string with sage green beads seemed to sway with the tavern’s music, and he spoke with a glint in his eyes. “Well, I might be faced with impending failure and ultimate defeat, but hells if I’m not one to try instead of mope.”

He combed his fingers through his messy, white hair, pondering his next choice of words. Fiddling with the beads and strings wrapped around it, he thought out loud.

“Let’s see...to top out on an embarrassing fact about a respected princess...it's natural to combat it with something...personal? That always seems to be the more valuable information in this game…” Adello shook her head. He was playing right into her hand.

“Well...Robbie won last round with the identity of Cherry...so, how about I dish out something similar. See, I’ve...uh…” he rubbed the back of his neck, “Oh! Well. Court poet, shrine researcher, the job gets you close with the princess...kinda...I’d like to think we’re close anyhow…” He mumbled the last part of his sentence and let out a short cough. Then, he went back to fiddling with his short, messy hair.

“So… ever since I moved into the castle, When did my mom move… five years now? I’ve, uh… had a crush on... Zelda…” He gave an uncertain grin, and raised the palm of his hands as if to ask, “well?”

At first he was met with silence. In his head, he started to celebrate the victory of his first ‘Till You Spill round in literal months. That was until he was met with groans and pitiful mutters.

“Oh Zimiri,” Purah sighed, “I was rooting for you too.” Seeing the bewilderment creep onto the poet’s face, Robbie answered the question before it even escaped his lips. “Literally everyone here knew that bud, it’s not a secret.”

The bard started to sputter, moving his hands in wild, questioning motions.

“But? Wha— I? You!? Didn’t you— I… W-Well I mean, I know Adello knew, I told her years ago, but you guys—”

“Oh my gods. Zimiri, you literally talk about her all the time, you’re totally in love. Given that we’re also the recipients of your long spiels and ballads about how ‘intelligent and thoughtful and amazing Zelda is,’” Purah said the words to mimic the tone of Zimiri’s honey sweet voice, “it’s exceptionally, extremely, very, very obvious.”

“R-Recognizing a person’s positive traits doesn’t instantly mean in love!”

The royal scientist leaned across the table and patted his head. “Right, but you also started attempting love songs a coincidental 2 weeks after starting your job of shrine research with her. Your eyes are already red, so whenever she passes by it’s like your pupils magically form into adoring hearts. Try to stay away from poker, it’s for your own good.”

Zimiri continued to sputter, his cheeks becoming roser by the second. Robbie turned to Purah. “So, all in favour of finding Adello’s spill better than Zimiri’s?” The two of them raised their hands in unison. “Alright buddy, secret sucked, so swig! WAITER PLEASE!”

Adello watched as the same woman she had seen near the bar earlier made her way to the table. Picking up a pitcher, she poured out a fresh cup of Adequate’s Apple Cider. The four of them had been here so many times, they didn’t even need to verbally ask for the order.

Before he could even start to reach for the cup, Adello snatched it out of the way. “Nah, it’s okay. I’ll do one for you, Zimiri. These two monsters have already tore you to shreds, and I’m sure I need a punishment anyway for coming in so late.”

He started to protest, but after catching the look in her dark, iron eyes, he relented. “Well, I thank you for your generosity.” The other two, however, were not as compliant.

Purah cupped her hands around her mouth, yelling, “Booooo... Boo to pity! Boo to generosity!” Robbie mimicked her.

“Yeah you have to respect your elders’ wishes. We demand blood! Suffering!”

Adello cracked her neck for show, before downing her glass of cider in a few gulps. The stench and tingling sensation seemed to stick to the sides of her throat. It would take more than water to clear that out. “Adequate” was being very generous when describing its quality.

“Mmmm. The cider’s weirdly salty tonight, I think your attitudes got mixed in here.”

Purah blew another raspberry at her.

They played for a few more rounds, the clatter of cups and breaths of laughter decorating the hours. Much to everyone’s distaste, Purah continued her winning streak, getting by with unbeatable information about the King, royal guards, and one embarrassing anecdote about how her little sister, Impa, had caught her writing an interesting letter to the “local archery hunk.”

Yet, Purah laughed along with the rest of them, the eyes behind her red rimmed glasses held no shame, which Adello envied. Of course that sort of attitude would make you a master at this game. Robbie and Adello attempted to team up and be biased towards Purah in an effort to get her to lose, but either Zimiri didn’t take the hint, or he just really liked playing fair which wasn’t exactly out of character, even if it meant more drinks for him.

Suddenly, a bell towards the back of the pub rang, signifying the end of the band’s gig. The dancing paused, as people gave their thanks, varying from politie applause to drunken yelps. Robbie then rapped the table with his hands, excitedly.

“You know what else tonight needs? Some amazing music, eh Zimiri?” He bounced his eyebrows up and down at him, and gestured towards the lute leaning on one of the table legs.

“I don’t know,” Zimiri replied, “I’ve only a part-time hire for the weekend rush hours, and I wouldn’t want to blindly get on stage and sing without being given permission.”

Adello scoffed. “Uh, are you kidding? The owner would love for you to play without paying you. Haven’t you heard the talk around town? The Adequate’s Tavern: Home of alright food and acceptable ale, but an outstanding bard!”

He fiddled with the string in his hair again. “Oh yeah? I’d love to meet him someday.” At this, Adello clicked her tongue and promptly shoved him out of his chair with her hip.

He laughed to himself as he stumbled aback. “Alright, alright, but only because the birthday tyrant requested it.” Robbie clapped his hands in a “chop-chop” fashion, to truly signify his role as the newly dubbed tyrant.

Suddenly, Zimiri perked his head. Stepping back towards the table, he reached for his cup. “Oh wait, I just lost that round. I still need to drink my—”

Adello grabbed the cup right out of his hands. She tipped it 180 degrees and let the cider spill completely onto the wooden floor. He hopped back, and Purah let out a surprised yelp, saying something about letting the stench seep into the floorboards. Robbie just started to laugh, wildly. Noticing the small commotion, a few other guests looked back at them and started to snicker to themselves.

Setting the cup back on the table, the researcher said, “Great, now you don’t need to ruin your voice any longer. Now get up there and one-up the last band.”

The bard pushed his chair under the table. Picking up his lute as he stood and faced Adello, a charming smile on his face. “Heh, well. My singing voice is grateful. I suppose now I’m in debt to comply.” He gave a curt bow.

Robbie clapped his hands again. “Great, great. Now quit the manners and let’s go already! I still have to order the cake pie!”

Both of the girls rolled their eyes in unison. Zimiri shrugged and started to walk through the small crowd of standing Hylians, and towards the small stage.

A few of the regulars who recognized him let out whoops and whistles, yelling out “Bard!” or “More music!” in support. It seemed that no one really knew his name, but it was nice enough to know that even working here part time would grant you the honor of being recognized by a bunch of random folk. One confused patron, who only associated him with “z” yelled out “Yeah, Zelda!” before promptly slumping under the table. Looking around, a blonde girl caught his eye, as it seemed she was staring at him. He waved, and her cheeks, much to Zimiri’s confusion, turned pink at his gaze and she turned to her friends who started giggling.

Moving past the last of the Hylians with an, “excuse me, sorry!” he finally stepped on the stage. The bard pulled up a small stool to the stage, leaning against it. Most of the folks continued to whoop in approval, seemingly eager for another chance to start dancing. Even the barkeep clapped his hands, probably excited at the thought of a free gig.

I guess, if no one is stopping me…

It was a rowdy bunch, but not a new one. Zimiri had played for these kinds of audiences before.

“I see that quite a few people are itching for a new tune. So, uh, any requests?” he announced as he strum a chord on his lute.

A mass of different voices bounced around the tavern, requests ranging from The Babbler’s Jig, Misko’s Tale, The Eldin Bluffs, and Can I Get More Ale? Although, Zimiri wasn’t quite familiar with the chords of that last song.

He couldn’t stop himself from being biased towards the request of a certain dark skinned girl to his left.

“The World Behind!” Adello said. “Enough with those new ballads, I demand a classic!”

Robbie pumped an arm in the air. “Yes!” he shouted. “I second that! So is my decree as birthday tyrant!”

The bard smiled, preparing the fingering on the neck of his lute. He turned towards the audience. “Well, I’m afraid I have no choice but to heed to such authority.” He began to pluck the beginning notes, tapping a tempo with his boot against the stage. “Now then, a beat, if you all would be so kind?”

The tavern chattered in approval, before piping down. There probably weren't more than 30 people, but the beat they made was definitely sufficient. The sound of stomping, banging mugs, and clapping filled the room. The tempo didn’t even need much adjusting, as The World Behind was pretty familiar around Castle Town. The beat was like a child pretending to be a marching soldier, unconcerned and playful.

Zimiri’s smile widened. A lively crowd indeed, this will do nicely.

With that, he started to sing. His silvery voice echoed across the tavern, as he closed his eyes and began to play.

The boys have gone out to the wishing well

Will they come back? Oh only time will tell

A rupee for a life refined

But time and dreams never align

So tell the world we’ll leave it all behind

Many of the guests had started to dance again, while the rest continued the beat of the song. As Zimiri plucked rapid notes on his lute, he heard a supporting holler from Purah. Next to her, Robbie was slamming his fist to the beat, clearly enjoying himself.

Have you seen the soldiers’ drinking ale?

They wish to sing along with nightingales

To dance on home with songs and rhymes

To banish all the fears from mind

Yes tell the world we’ll leave it all behind

Another pause between the verses, and the bard played the “decorative” rapid notes in between. He didn’t mean to seem like he was showing off, but Adello would attest to the fact that this happened whenever he got too into the music. Looking towards her, Zimiri saw her give a double thumbs up.

Of beasts and men and all atrocities

The damn-ed fate, she owns all that you see

To a better day of new design

Forgot about the gods divine

Oh tell the world we’ll leave it all behind

At this point, some of the guests were singing along, though not to the point of overpowering his own alluring voice. Laughter rang out around the warmly lit room once again. Zimiri looked out at the dancing patrons and smiling guests, grinning at the feeling in his chest this brought. He continued the last verse.

Watch the home while—

“HEY!”

The sudden gruff voice startled the bard to the point where he nearly slipped off the stage.

Lumbering through the double doors, three guards entered the tavern. The one in front, who had interrupted the music, wore a typical knight’s outfit, the same as his male and female coworkers behind him. However, the black hooded cape he wore atop his metal armour swayed with every step he took across the floor, his supposed rank silencing the room.

Well, mostly, silenced the room. A few ticked off guests were booing, groaning, and mocking him for ruining the entertainment.

“Oh would you lot shut up for 2 seconds?!” he said, his voice booming across the tavern. “Listen, I’ll be blunt. I gotta give two messages for this establishment.”

The guests shook their heads, mumbling. Their booing and insults continued, but their volume quieted, it was too early to be getting cross with a couple of knights. Even Zimiri quietly slipped off the stage back towards his friends so as not to be at the end of the knight’s intimidating voice.

The female guard behind the knight handed him a slip of parchment. Unfolding it, the guard cleared his throat.

“Firstly, your music and pounding is disturbing the noblemen next door. He’s staying at the inn or something and wants you to, quote,” he read from the paper, “quit the mindless thumping, for Castle Town is a place of serenity and peace, not of nonsense jigs and banging.”

The groaning and insults started up again; the man gave a shrug, stating something about how he was just following orders.

Adello couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “HA! Well, with an attitude like that, this’ll probably be the first and only time he’s been banged— he should be grateful.”

The room exploded into a mess of laughter and whoops. Even the guard smirked to himself, but attempted to hide it with a shake of his head, saying “Watch the mouth, girl.” Although, his stern tone wasn’t in it.

After a second, he cleared his throat again. With a stomp of his boot he regained the pub's attention, the laughter suffocated out.

“Now, we’re also here looking for a Dr. Robbie Kimura? I received word they might be around here?”

With the attention now towards a single table, most of the guests went back to their idle banter. A few waiters nodded their head towards the table in the back, and the man caught sight of three, white haired teenagers, who were sitting with the dark haired girl who had quipped out earlier.

The scientists turned around too late, in an effort to avoid the knight’s gaze. “Gee, what a bunch of snitches,” Robbie mumbled. The three guards started to walk over to the table.

“Dr...Robbie?”

“Who’s asking?” Robbie squinted with his dark brown eyes.

“Doctor? Really? Is this some kind of prank? You and your friends don’t even look old enough to drink.”

He scoffed. “Okay, first, yes I am a doctor! I didn’t fly through all those courses over four years just to be called, ‘Mr.’ And secondly, I’ll have you know that I am a ripe 20 years of age today, and I’m here drinking expired apple juice with my associates. So take that, pal!”

Beside him, Purah gave a proud nod in agreement. Zimiri started to wave politely at the guard, but Adello grabbed his arm before he could finish the movement. The guard was a bit unsettled with the way that girl was glaring at him. What was some random Hylian doing hanging out with a bunch of Sheikah anyway?

“Right, well, look here, son. Some curious aristo-brat snuck into the courtyard and caused one of those flying, metal Sheikah things to fall apart. My boss said that it was your prototype so you should come back and clean it up before something explodes, and possibly give a sincere apology to the meddling kid who got a few scratches.”

Robbie threw his hands in the air, exasperated. “You’re really gonna pull me out of a birthday just so I can go apologize to a spoiled kid for breaking in and ruining my Guardian?”

“If it lets me keep my job, then yeah.”

Robbie mumbled something about not getting a slice of the apple cake pie.

Suddenly, Adello got up and pushed her chair in, smoothing out the belt around her tunic as she walked towards them.

“Ah yes, well, thank you my dear assistant for the assessment but I’m capable of taking it from here.”

The guard raised a bushy, black eyebrow. “Sorry, wha—”

“You said you only wanted Dr. Robbie? Well great job, you found them. Now let’s get going, I need to finish up a new design anyway.”

“You’re...Robbie? You’re a... clearly not—”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I should have had my mother consult you for your opinion before I was given my name.”

This time, the guard didn’t smile along with her quip. “This is not the time for—”

She held up a finger to silence him, and glared at the three guards with her iron eyes.

“Look, I’m not a nobody. I’m more than capable of fixing up the guardian and any other disasters you might have left lying around the castle grounds. If I’m feeling generous, maybe I’ll even lick the kid’s boots, it’s not my first time dealing with this, alrighty?”

The knights looked at each other, quizzically. The researcher crossed her arms.

“You’re still following your precious orders, aren't you? How would you know what Dr. Robbie looks like? You can’t be faulted for not knowing someone you never met. So, you’ll just have to take my word for it.”

The blonde man behind the gruff, black caped guard, whispered something to his female coworker. Her gaze switched between the girl and the man. Still seeing the uncertainty in their eyes, Adello leaned closer to the knight and lowered her voice. “Come on, have a little heart, it’s his birthday.”

A beat of silence sat, only filled by the mild mumbling and chatter of the tavern. Finally, the guard let out a sigh.

“Alrighty Dr. Kimura. I’ll help escort you to the site.”

Robbie started to protest, but Adello quickly silenced him with a wink. The guard turned towards the rest of the room, yelling, “The rest of you, the sun is gonna rise in a few hours so save your rioting for then! Am I clear?”

The patrons just responded with stupid groans and half-hearted agreements. They started walking towards the door. The female guard started to put a hand on Adello’s shoulder, but she brushed it off, saying something along the lines of “I can walk on my own two feet, thank you very much.”

Purah turned in her seat. “I’ll save a slice of cake pie for you!” Adello turned her head and responded with a two fingered salute, before disappearing out the door with the guards.

The tension in the tavern was almost immediately cleared, the moment the knights left. Most of the people went back to their normal conversational volume, and the waiters began to patter about with more confidence. However, Zimiri slumped in his seat, letting out a sigh.

“Why does she always do things like that?”

Robbie fiddled with the edge of his cup, tracing his finger around the rim. “Well, you know her. Undermining authority? Check. Insults and quips? Check.”

Robbie continued to list off more traits, but it faded out of Zimiri’s ear. Always jumping onto other’s burdens. Ah, that idiot. I bet she hasn’t slept for the last two days.

Purah suddenly piped up, taking out her pen and rapping it against the table. “Alright you two, let’s not let the sacrifice be in vain. Pool your rupees, we’re getting Robbie the fancy cake pie.”

The clatter of a few red and blue rupees echoed on the wooden table, although Zimiri knocked Robbie’s share aside, saying how the birthday tyrant shouldn’t have to pitch in. Purah turned in her chair and started to wave her hand, in order to get the attention of a waiter. The bard watched as a woman with a tray started to walk over to the table. Then, he turned to Robbie.

“So what should we do while we wait?” Zimiri asked. Robbie stroked his chin, looking around the room.

“I think...the people could still use some music.”

Looking out at the crowd, Zimiri noticed how the guards' interference had really dampened the atmosphere. The warm and lively laughter that was present just a few moments earlier was now replaced with more monotone chatter.

He nodded his head in agreement, putting on a charming smile. The place needed a new pick-me-up, did it?

Well, what else is a bard for?

Stepping back onto the stage, he strummed an open chord, double checking the tuning. The whooping and clapping started to return, much to his delight. Plucking a familiar melody, the warm feeling in his stomach returned as he watched the new smiles that started to fill the room. However, before he began to sing, Zimiri first focused on craning his neck to look out a window, trying to catch a glimpse of a certain girl in the night.

It seemed the moon and sun were balanced on the edge of the world. The night had started to submerge behind the walls of West Castle Town, with only the brightest stars still perched upon the ink of the navy blue sky. The silver lining of greying clouds just barely glowed from the faint light of the day, still trying to break out of the eastern waters.

Adello’s footsteps echoed through the cobblestone streets, but she could barely hear it against the shifting of metal plates from the guards in front of her.

The gruff man looked back, scratching his peach fuzzed chin as he spoke. “Listen, if you finish your work quick I might be able to escort you back here.”

Adello shook her head. She turned to retrieve a journal from the pouch on her belt, opening its pages as an excuse to avoid his gaze. “No, it’s fine. I still have some more work I should be finishing up at home anyhow.”

“You...live at the castle?”

“Mmm.”

The guard took her blunt response as a sign to not continue with the niceties, much to Adello’s relief. Looking up, she gazed at the looming castle. Its towers were like mountain peaks, sitting above the blurred silhouettes of the buildings of Castle Town.

Taking out a bit of charcoal, she started to sketch its outline on a fresh page in her journal. While she only had one color, she tried to capture the shadows and lighting that cascaded on one side of the castle to the other.

The female guard slowed her step, starting to walk alongside the researcher.

“Already working?”

Adello didn’t look up from her journal. “Uh… you could say that.”

She laughed. “Well you best hope you know what you’re doing. This kid’s father has been yelling at Her Highness all night. Supposedly because she’s helping to lead Sheikah research, so everyone associated with guardians is at fault.”

Adello finished up the tower of Princess Zelda’s study in her sketch. She smiled to herself at the finished work. It was one of her better pieces. Putting the journal away, she turned back to the guard and scoffed. “Is that so?”

The guard hummed a yes, her blonde braid swaying to each side as she walked. “Apparently, the kid is the son of some visiting nobleman from the East Post. It’d be in your best interest to apologize profusely if you still wanna walk around alive.”

Adello shook her head. She didn’t know it then, but looking back, many moons from now, she would laugh at the irony of her response.

“I’d rather die.”

#botw #breath of the wild #legend of zelda botw #loz botw #botw fanfiction #where time takes us #botw oc #adello #zimiri

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daleisgreat · 4 years ago

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Getting Rowdy: The Unreleased Matches of Roddy Piper

A few months ago I covered the DVD set WWE released chronicling the ‘unseen’ matches of “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Today I continue that trend covering those lines of DVD collections with 2019’s Getting Rowdy: The Unreleased Matches of Roddy Piper (trailer). Like with WWE’s other ‘unreleased’ line of home videos, all the matches and segments featured in here have never been released on video before. With WWE already releasing a comprehensive three-disc DVD set to Piper with 2006’s Born to Controversy, that means we are getting a collection full of deep cuts here. This two disc DVD is compiled similarly to the Randy Savage set where we get original, newly recorded interviews intersperse with the archival content. The interviews are from Piper mega-fan, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey which are mixed in with archived home video interviews with Piper for added context. There are six sets of Rousey interviews, and they are sporadically inserted throughout the collection which also features 19 matches, nine promos and 12 editions of Piper’s legendary interview show, Piper’s Pit. WWE has established that Rousey is essentially the endorsed successor to carry on the Piper legacy, with Ronda paying homage to “The Hot Rod” by rocking her version of Piper’s entrance attire and carrying on his nickname. With that in mind, having Ronda being the featured new set of interviews to draw from seems like a fitting choice to commemorate Piper’s career here and are nice ways to mix up this collection.

Ronda’s interviews are insightful on how she drew on Roddy for inspiration on MMA needing an antagonist, and how excited she was to finally meet him. I presumed she maintained a close relationship with Piper, and was surprised to learn in Rousey’s interviews here that she only met him once early in her MMA career when she got the blessing from Roddy to use his nickname and then a second time when she appeared on Pipers podcast, which was just a month shy of his death in July of 2015. Rousey went on to say one of her biggest regrets is not having a close relationship with him. There is a nice variety of the nine Piper interviews/promos included. There is a handful of the vintage Rock ‘n Wrestling era promos where Piper bellows out promos in front of a blue screen backdrop. A nice nostalgic bonus is a few vintage commercials where Piper maniacally shouts at you to purchase the latest WWE action figures. There are a few standout go-home PPV interviews here where Piper is on fire and by the end of them he got me just as fired up as Virgil for his upcoming WrestleMania match against Ted Dibiase, and on top of that is an especially intense promo with Bret Hart leading up to their WrestleMania VIII battle. There are three Roddy promos from his late 90’s WCW days, with a bewildering rant from a cell in Alcatrez and Hulk Hogan provoking Piper to cut loose on him and Bishoff in front of his son, Colt, standing out the most. These WCW promos have boisterous crowds capturing the high times WCW was riding at that time in the ‘Monday Night Wars.’

It is no surprise that Piper’s rougher, brawling style will not warrant many five star classics, but a fair amount of his 19 matches here have crowds eating up the chaos Piper is delivering. I have only seen a handful of Piper’s early NWA work before, so seeing a few more of his NWA matches unearthed for this set was a treat, and his match against Jay Youngblood is a smashmouth brawl that goes to a time limit draw, and I loved seeing Piper tag with Ole Anderson against Mike Davis and Buddy Landell. There are a lot of the big arena house show matches here that were previously televised only in local markets, and like a lot of those matches in other sets, usually feature good action until a hokey finish. That is the case here with a killer clash against Paul Orndorff in 1985 fresh into their rivalry, with the crowd going bokers for them until a double countout finish. Just as riveting is Piper’s match in this set against Rick Rude where the crowd is losing it throughout, but a lot of tomfoolery I will not even begin to explain transpires and is the catalyst for one of the strangest DQ finishes I have seen.

Piper teaming with Eddie and Blue-tista, looking like gold! Piper feuding with the nWo had the crowd on its feet! There are two matches on here against Mr. Perfect worth going out of your way to see. I know Mr. Fuji was an accomplished wrestler in the 70s, but never seen him in a match until this set where he is pummeled for a couple minutes against Piper until his fellow managers run in for the save. A lot of the latter matches in the back half of Getting Rowdy are quick TV matches with wonky finishes unfortunately, but for what it is worth, still draw rabid crowd reactions. There are two Nitro bouts included against Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in 1998, but both bouts have several nWo run-ins that result in both matches being thrown out. I forgot about Piper’s brief 2003 run with Sean ‘O Haire, so it was nice to see those two again when Piper had a short encounter with Rikishi. The last match is an awesome impromptu bout against The Miz for $5000 of The Miz’s money, with Alex Reilly (remember him!?) as guest referee in 2011. I have zero recollection of this match, and even at a couple minutes long it was an absolute delight!

Getting Rowdy was jacked with 24 installments of Piper’s Pit, but WWE had quite a few more to draw upon from the vault with 12 more here. Some of the early ones in this collection that were a riot were where both Jimmy Hart and the Brooklyn Brawler ruthlessly provoke Roddy to giving them a a well-earned beatdown. There are a bunch in the second half of this set when Piper would periodically show up on RAW and SmackDown for a special Piper’s Pit. Two that really got me were one with John Cena where Piper does a tremendous job at needling Cena into living up to his then-current t-shirt slogan, ‘Rise Above Hate’ and another where Roddy moderates AJ Lee attempting to get back into Daniel Bryan’s good graces after costing him his WrestleMania match against Sheamus. I enjoyed this collection more than I anticipated. As I mentioned earlier, Piper was not known for his epic wrestling abilities, so I was not letdown from the wide range of match quality from the 19 matches in the set. There are a few matches that are hidden gems in here for what it is worth, but the real reason everyone should check out Getting Rowdy: The Unreleased Matches of Roddy Piper, is for the many unreleased promos and Piper’s Pit interviews. While he may not have been a five star wrestler, Piper was easily a five star entertainer, and that is readily apparent from beginning to end in this collection.

Those Piper action figure commercials are iconic, and this set is full of iconic promos I have never seen before where the Hot Rod made Virgil look like a million bucks! Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Hulk Hogans Unreleased Collectors Series Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT: From Secret to Sensation NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold Randy Savage Unreleased: The Unseen Matches of the Macho Man RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge Shawn Michaels: My Journey Sting: Into the Light Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division TLC 2017 TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania III: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

#Wrestling #Rowdy Roddy Piper #ronda rousey #hulk hogan #paul orndorff #bob orton #mr. perfect #Rick Rude #the miz #daniel bryan #aj lee #Randy Savage #WWE #wcw #nwa #nwo

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syncogon · 4 years ago

Text

[QZGS TL] Butterfly Blue 2015/05/23 Q&A

Another translated Q&A with The King’s Avatar author Butterfly Blue! This one is from May 23, 2015, at a signing event. The event was transcribed and compiled by this user here: https://weibo.com/p/1001603845803637668081.

There’s a few typos in the transcription, so I’ve done my best to just convey the gist of the questions and answers. The transcriber’s notes are in [brackets], and my own notes are denoted by [T/N: ]. As before, the Chinese is included for reference. A few questions have been omitted, for being no longer relevant (after all, this is 5 years old now). However, as usual, Butterfly Blue’s insights are extremely interesting!

Past BB Q&A translations may be found here: /tagged/bb-interview

***

Q：代妹子问的，她是唐昊的粉，想知道唐昊的性格就是比较自傲的吗？有没有其他性格描写？以及会不会护短呢？

A：性格的话，人的性格书里面应该都有提过的，没有提到的，就不要胡乱脑补了。没有写过护短就是没有护短啊~（一直挠头皮）

Q: I’m a Tang Hao fan, is his personality just relatively prideful? Does he have any other personality descriptions? For example, does he try to hide his own shortcomings?

A: Personality-wise, the novel should have mentioned everything. For things that haven’t been mentioned, don’t go around randomly making things up. If I haven’t written about him hiding his shortcomings, then he doesn’t do that…

Q：世锦赛叶修真的没有带账号卡吗？会不会出现叶修拿着一叶之秋的账号卡场面？

A：应该不会，在我写的设定里，账号卡是锁定每一位选手的，不能随便更换。其他没写到的不要随便脑补了。

（提问的汉子紧接追了句什么不清楚，虫爹说没写过。我：呵呵呵呵呵呵，拜托尊重下孙翔好不好？！！！）

Q: Did Ye Xiu really not bring his account card to the World Championship? Would it ever happen that Ye Xiu takes over the One Autumn Leaf account?

A: It shouldn’t. Based on how I wrote things, every account is locked to a character, they can’t be randomly swapped around. Other things that I haven’t written about, please don’t make things up.

Q：吴羽xiu（策）为什么执着于鬼剑士的账号？

A：谁？

Q：吴羽策虚空战队吴羽策

A：什么执着啊？

这里非常混乱，有个汉子（大概是上面那个。）问为什么用女号？

A：性别不重要，我说账号卡的性别

Q：不是性别，我说职业。

A：没有人要求他换啊

Q：经理啊。

A：啊经理啊（呆萌笑），那是他个人的选择。喜欢吧

Q: Why does Wu Yuce [misspoke the name] insist on using a Ghostblade?

A: Who?

Q: Wu Yuce, Team Void’s Wu Yuce?

A: Insist what?

[very chaotic here, someone else asked why he used a female account]

A: The gender doesn’t matter. I mean the gender of the account

Q: Not the gender, I meant the class

A: No one asked him to switch classes

Q: The manager?

A: Ah, the manager. [laughs] It was his own choice. Probably he just likes it

Q：范围里说孙哲平，叶修身边有吴雪峰，我想问下，一开始孙哲平喜欢的是叶修还是吴雪峰？

A：他没有喜欢，只是认为他比较强。

Q：那就是喜欢他们这个组合，所以要找张佳乐做组合？

A：不是说喜欢这个组合，是觉得这个组合很强。（大孙立场）一个人应该打不过他们，我也需要一个帮手。

Q: About Sun Zheping in the prequel – Ye Xiu had Wu Xuefeng by his side, I wanted to ask, at the very beginning, did Sun Zheping like Ye Xiu or did he like Wu Xuefeng?

A: It’s not that he liked them, he just thought they were strong.

Q: So it was that he liked this partnership, so he wanted to find Zhang Jiale to form a partnership?

A: It’s not that he liked this partnership, it was that he felt that this partnership was very strong. He felt that one person wasn’t enough to defeat them, so he needed a helper as well.

Q：叶修有没有官配？是千机伞吗？

全场笑开花，女神自己也是裂开嘴了。

A：下限，这是下限……千机伞只是道具！

Q: Does Ye Xiu have an official pairing? Is it the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella?

[entire audience laughs]

A: Shameless, this is shameless… The MMU is just a prop!

（下面这个问题是po主问的，当时好紧张，没问清楚，问了两次我就写在一起了。）

Q：叶修离家出走的时候用的名字是叶修还是叶秋？

A：在我的（选择里？），只有很相熟的苏沐橙和苏沐秋知道他是叶修。

Q：那他一开始离家出走就是用他弟弟的名字？他这个人还有没有节操了？

A：是叶修。只不过后来打网游之后，我们都用网名（笑）。

Q：也就是说一开始就是用叶修的名字吗？

A：是啊是啊。（可爱）

Q：叶修立即出走用叶修的名字，苏沐橙为什么取的是一叶之秋？

（底下说造孽啊，为什么呢？为什么）

A：（愣）哦，对哦（扶额），那可能不是根据他的名字来的（自己在那边笑死了）。也许就是个错别字，反正也错了一个嘛，那就错两个吧。

Q: When Ye Xiu left home, was he using the name Ye Xiu or Ye Qiu?

A: In my [choice?], only Su Mucheng and Su Muqiu, with whom he was very close, knew that he was Ye Xiu.

Q: Then when he left home at the very start, he was already using his brother’s name? Does he have any morals?

A: He was Ye Xiu. It was just later on when playing online games, we all use internet names [laughs].

Q: So in other words, he was using the name Ye Xiu at the very start?

A: Right, right.

Q: So if Ye Xiu was using the name Ye Xiu immediately after he’d run away, then why did Su Mucheng come up with the name One Autumn Leaf?

A: Oh huh, that’s right. Then maybe it didn’t directly come from his name. Maybe it was just a typo. There was already one typo in the name so might as well have two.

[T/N: The account name “One Autumn Leaf” (一叶之秋, yi ye zhi qiu) is a typo of the phrase/proverb “one leaf knows autumn” (i.e. “one leaf signals the coming of autumn) (一叶知秋, also pronounced yi ye zhi qiu). Ye Qiu’s name (叶秋) uses the same characters.]

Q：到底是叶修和黄少天在一起还是喻文州和黄少天在一起。（台下就各种喻黄叶黄地喊了。）

A：你说如果队友性质的话那就不用我来回答了啊。

Q: Are Ye Xiu and Huang Shaotian together, or Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian together? [audience: shouts of “yuhuang” and “yehuang”]

A: If you’re talking about being teammates, you don’t need me to answer that.

Q：你记得邱非吗？想问新嘉世。

A：新嘉世嘛，就是回到联赛里，继续努力，和每一个队伍都一样嘛，为了冠军。

Q: Do you remember Qiu Fei? I want to ask about New Excellent Era.

A: New Excellent Era, they just return to the Alliance and continue to work hard, just like every other team, for the championship.

Q：叶修一开始去看全明星到上海，以及后来去卖攻略，为什么要坐飞机。现场笑。

A：因为（这里是心虚的拖长音）（这里太模糊了）大概就是说对杭州不是很了解，没有查。谁问的！！当初就是考虑不周的问题。

Q: When Ye Xiu went to Shanghai to watch All-Stars the first time, and later when he went to sell the skill point guide, why did he have to take a flight? [audience laughter]

A: Because… [sounding guilty] [somewhat unclear/paraphrased:] I didn’t know Hangzhou very well, I didn’t check. Who asked!! At the time, I didn’t consider it carefully enough.

Q：黄金一代里面，喻文州楚云秀他们是在第四赛季就接任了队长还是第五赛季？

A：喻文州是第四。（不假思索）

Q：那楚云秀和肖时钦呢？

A：我还没写过他们的。

Q：就是喻队在第四赛季就接任了，别的都没有写过

A：对对，相关的我可能写过……

（为什么是省略号！！！因为妹子说谢谢谢谢！！谢什么呀？虫爹还没说完，然后虫爹也说谢谢然后就没有然后了！！！气！！！）

Q: Among the Golden Generation, Yu Wenzhou and Chu Yunxiu and the others, did they become captain in Season 4 or in Season 5?

A: Yu Wenzhou was in Season 4.

Q: Then what about Chu Yunxiu and Xiao Shiqin?

A: I haven’t written about them yet.

Q: So it’s that Captain Yu became captain in Season 4, you haven’t written about any of the others

A: Right right, I might have written about something related…

[ellipses because the asker said “thank you” and then BB never finished his thought >:/ ]

Q：世邀赛会有第二季第三季，叶修会一直是领队吗？

A：（笑）那不好说吧，也许他就不敢想干了呢？

Q: If the world championship has a season 2 and 3, will Ye Xiu continue to be the leader?

A: Well, that’s hard to say. Maybe he wouldn’t be interested in doing it anymore?

Q：你写叶修写得那么嘲讽，是不是根据自己的性格？

（底下都说是的）

A：没有没有。我说是很纯洁的人。

（全场笑，自己也笑场了）

Q: You wrote Ye Xiu to be so mocking, was it based off your own personality?

A: No, no. I’m said to be a very clean and honest person. [audience laughter, BB laughs as well]

Q：方士谦，之后怎么样了？

A：那是刚写过的番外，你们是还没看到吗？还没出来是吧？会有的都会有的。番外里有比较多的方士谦，因为主要是微草的。

Q: What happened to Fang Shiqian?

A: That’s the prequel chapter I just wrote, you all haven’t seen it right? It hasn’t come out yet right? It’ll come. The prequel has rather a lot of Fang Shiqian, because Tiny Herb is a focus.

Q：微草刚出场的时候是一个冠军的角色，前一年的冠军，当时的设定他会是最终boss吗？以及微草这两年的成绩是不是因为他的制度问题？

A：没有，微草从一开始设定的是一个转型（过渡？）的战队，一个拿过冠军有一点点衰落的队伍，不是说制度问题。

Q: When Tiny Herb appeared in the novel, it was like a championship character, the previous year’s champions. Early on, were you planning for them to be the final boss? And were their results these past two years because of systemic problems?

A: No. From the very start, Tiny Herb was designed to be a team in the middle of transitioning styles. A team that had just faded a little after winning the championship, not because of any systemic problems.

Q：你当时是处于一个什么样的考虑把苏沐秋给写死了？

A：从一开头就看到这个人是不在的，不是什么目的，是因为我只需要一个主角。

Q：为什么是一个悲惨的死法，不是正常的死法啊！为什么是车祸死的，比较意外啊

A：这样比较突然啊啊，不让你让叶修伏在病床前照顾他吗？

Q: At the time, what were your considerations when you decided to write Su Muqiu as dead?

A: From the very beginning, this character was absent. There wasn’t any goal, it was just that I needed such a character.

Q: Why is it such a tragic death and not a natural way of dying! Why is it a car accident, so unexpected

A: This way it’s more sudden. Otherwise, do you want Ye Xiu to hover over his hospital bed taking care of him?

Q：如果你写第十一赛季的话，林敬言退役之后会加入一个什么样的新角色？如果写的话，有多大的可能性是设定哪一个战队是冠军？

A：我没考虑过哎

Q：那你觉得霸图的可能性有多大？

A：这个我实在回答不了你，我写完的时候就表明了未来不再由我来设定了嘛

Q: If you were to write Season 11, after Lin Jingyan retired, what kind of new character would join? If you were to write it, which team would be most likely to win the championship?

A: I haven’t considered it

Q: Then how likely do you think it’d be for Tyranny to win?

A: I truly can’t answer this. When I finished writing, that meant that the future was no longer up to me to design.

Q：小点到底死了没有？

A：狗的话，（笑）我没养过狗啊，我不太清楚狗到底能活多久？

Q: Has Little Dot died?

A: If it’s a dog… [laughs] I haven’t raised a dog before, I’m not too sure on how long dogs can live?

Q：因为老韩的年龄差不多到了，如果他退役的话，会不会继续留在霸图当教练或者指导之类的？

A：以我写的他的这种性格来说，这个几率会比较大。包括最后他放弃进入国家这个情况，他就是为了霸图，所以应该会的。

Q：那么张新杰呢，他会留在霸图吗？

A：张新杰，他就不好说了。

Q: Because Old Han is about at that age, if he retires, would he remain in Tyranny as a coach or advisor or something like that?

A: With the personality that I’ve written for him, that’s pretty likely. Including at the end when he declined joining the national team, that was all for Tyranny. So he probably would stick around.

Q: Then what about Zhang Xinjie, would he stay at Tyranny?

A: Zhang Xinjie, that’s harder to say.

Q：当初取账号卡的名字，像微草全是中草药的名字，然后各种名字都不是很非主流。

A：是这样的，非主流的，因为字也不好打对吧？取这些名字的话，显得我比较有文化一些。

[T/N: Honestly, I can’t really tell what the question is supposed to be asking or what his answer is supposed to mean… so take this one with salt]

Q: When coming up with names for the account cards, Tiny Herb’s were all names of herbal medicines, and then all sorts of names weren’t very non-mainstream [T/N: “alternative”].

A: This is how it was, non-mainstream names are harder to type, right? I picked the names that I did because it makes me sound more cultured.

Q：黄少是出于什么考虑选择机会主义者的风格？

A：这不是他的选择，这个正好是体现他的特点，天生的性格而已。

Q: Why did Huang Shaotian chose his opportunistic style?

A: This wasn’t his choice, this just perfectly reflected his characteristics, his natural personality.

Q：那问下刘小别拿了喻文州的钱包买了饮料之后究竟去了哪里，他回来了吗？

A：（笑笑笑）他肯定会回来，我只是没写而已，比赛正在激烈地进行中。

Q: Then when Liu Xiaobie took Yu Wenzhou’s wallet to go buy drinks, where did he go after that? Did he come back?

A: [laughs] Of course he came back, I just didn’t write about it. The match was getting intense at that point.

Q：蓝雨和微草的风格，一个是放养型的，一个圈养型的，你觉得哪个更好？

A：没有哪个是放养型的？

Q：蓝雨

A：蓝雨也没有很放养，也是在悉心照料下的两个人

Q: Blue Rain’s and Tiny Herb’s styles, one is more free-range parenting, one is more helicopter parenting, which do you think is better?

A: Neither is free-range though?

Q: Blue Rain?

A: Blue Rain isn’t very “free-range”, they’re still being taken very good care of by their two leaders

Q：我等下可以和你拥抱一下吗？

A：（笑）你上来啊然后是话筒故障了

A：刚才我觉得一定是说错话了哈。

Q：我想知道王杰希退役以后，高英杰应该就是接手王不留行的账号，但是高英杰的性子是有点软的，队里面应该是谁做主？谁带领微草的？

A：高英杰在目前的全职高手里看到的性格是比较软的，但是他们全队都是在期待他的成长，这需要一段时间，但是王杰希退役也需要一段时间。

Q: I want to know, after Wang Jiexi retires, Gao Yingjie is supposed to take over Vaccaria’s account, but Gao Yingjie’s personality is a bit soft, so who’s going to take the lead within the team? Who will lead Tiny Herb?

A: In the current The King’s Avatar, Gao Yingjie’s personality appears relatively soft, but the entire team is looking forward to his growth. This requires some time, but there’s also still time before Wang Jiexi’s retirement.

Q：老韩还可以再战几年？

底下全是一百年一百年。

A：他心里意愿的话，应该就是一百年。

Q: How many more years can Old Han fight?

[audience: “one hundred years!”]

A: If his heart is willing, it should be one hundred years.

Q：你后来手机丢了换了什么牌子的？

（荣耀荣耀）

A：我没有换荣耀，还是华为（……），刚才摔了一下。（笑）

Q: After you lost your phone, what brand was your new phone?

A: I didn’t switch to Honor [T/N: “rongyao” aka “Glory”], it’s still just a Huawei [something], I dropped it earlier [laughs]

Q：苏沐秋到底死在哪儿？死在哪条路上？你可以告诉我吗？

A：我不知道，这个我不知道

Q: Where did Su Muqiu die? What road did he die on? Can you tell me?

A: I don’t know, this I don’t know

Q：你是��什么要根据地下城来改编这部小说的？（原提问，汉子可能措辞不太对）

A：你说游戏是吧？因为当时正在玩，然后觉得游戏职业设定挺好的，启发了我的

Q：你玩了什么职业？

A：玩了好多号（笑）

Q: Why did you want to adapt this book based on Dungeon Fighter Online? [this was the original question, wording may not be entirely correct]

A: You’re talking about the game, right? Because I was playing it at the time, and then I felt that the class design was pretty good, so it inspired me

Q: What class did you play?

A: I played many [laughs]

Q：喻文州开始是怎么跟黄少天把关系搞好的？

A：我不是写过番外吗？没看到吗？

Q：那里不是也不鸟吗？

A：因为有实力啊。

Q: How did Yu Wenzhou improve his relationship with Huang Shaotian at the beginning?

A: Didn’t I write the prequel? Did you not read it?

Q: Even then, wasn’t he kind of ignored?

A: It was because he had strength. [T/N: I assume this is addressing the original question, and I assume BB is referring to YWZ]

Q：王杰希喜欢什么，除了荣耀，平时有什么爱好吗？

A：这个我没做过设定

Q：不会是算命吧？

A：不会不会（笑）

Q: What does Wang Jiexi like, aside from Glory? What kind of hobbies does he have normally?

A: This is something I haven’t decided

Q: He wouldn’t do fortune-telling, would he?

A: No, no [laughs]

Q：之后的番外会写虚空相关吗？

A：虚空啊，虚空暂时没有写到

Q：有肖时钦吗？

A：肖时钦啊，也没有。最近写完的一个是微草，再一个算是霸图吧。这两个在一个赛季里的

Q: Will there be any later prequel chapters about Void?

A: Void, I haven’t written about Void for now

Q: Will there be Xiao Shiqin?

A: Xiao Shiqin, also no. The one I just finished was Tiny Herb’s and then the next can be considered Tyranny’s. These two were in the same season.

Q：我想问个稍微严肃的问题，我看这个书几年来带给我特别多的感动和欢乐，我想问下这个书对你来说有什么特别的意义吗？

A：这个书对我来说给我带来的收入上飞速的增长。（全场笑）我的成绩从这部书里出来，这个应该是我目前来说成绩最好的书。

Q: I want to ask a more serious question. This book has brought me a lot of feelings and joy over the years, so I wanted to ask, do these books have any special significance to you?

A: This book has brought me a rapid increase in income. [everyone laughs] My achievements have come from this book. I think this book has done the best out of all of mine so far.

Q：你在起王不留行这个账号卡名的时候，你知道它的功效吗？

A：我知道啊，因为搜索的时候会看到，但是我觉得这个名字挺酷的，疗效这个无所谓的。

Q: When you named the account card Vaccaria, did you know the herb’s usage?

A: I knew, because I saw when I looked it up. But I felt that this name sounded pretty cool, so it didn’t matter what its medicinal effect was.

Q：能为我们描述一下蓝河的性格吗？番外里确定没有他吗？

A：你说哪个里面没有他？

Q：番外

A：目前写到的番外里没有他，暂时的计划里也没有他。

Q: Can you describe Blue River’s personality for us? Is it true the prequel won’t have him at all?

A: You said what won’t have him at all?

Q: The prequel

A: The prequel chapters that I’ve written so far don’t include him, and my current plans don’t include him.

Q：关于黄少话唠的这个梗，因为他在比赛喜欢刷文字泡，我想问下，他现实中是话唠到什么程度？

A：话唠这个，我觉得就是，能用一句话说清楚的东西，他可能会用更多的字来描述，不是说一句话重复三遍。

Q: About Huang Shaotian’s talkativeness, because he likes to send messages during matches, I wanted to ask, to what degree is he talkative in real life?

A: His talkativeness, I feel it’s like, for anything that can be said in one sentence, he might use more words to describe it. It’s not that he’ll repeat one sentence three times.

Q：在你的设定里，小卢未来会用流云呢还是会接手夜雨声烦？

A：他这种的培养的话，黄少天退役之后，他是可以接过来的。

Q: In your plans, in the future will Little Lu use Flowing Cloud or will he inherit Troubling Rain?

A: With how he’s being raised, after Huang Shaotian retires, he would be able to inherit Troubling Rain.

Q：以后会不会打算写喻文州和黄少天在蓝雨训练营的番外？

A：写过了呀？

Q：会不会写轮回的番外，轮回未来是会怎样发展？

A：我的番外是以时间轴的，理论上来说，轮回作为第五六赛季冒头的，应该是写到的。如果我说继续写下去的话。他是很强的队伍，毫无疑问，因为他有很强的选手嘛

Q: Later, do you plan on writing prequel about Yu Wenzhou and Huang Shaotian in Blue Rain training camp?

A: Haven’t I written that?

Q: Will you write prequel about Samsara? How will Samsara develop in the future?

A: My prequels follow chronological order. In theory, as a team that really started to take off around Season 5 and 6, Samsara is a team I should write about, if I continue to write. They are a very strong team, without a doubt, because they have very strong players

Q：老韩是会拿到冠军完美落幕呢还是会一直打下去直到退役？

A：他拿过冠军啦，第四赛季就拿过了。

Q: Would Old Han win a championship as a perfect end to his career, or would he keep playing all the way until his retirement?

A: He has gotten a championship already! He already won in Season 4.

#quan zhi gao shou #qzgs #the king's avatar #tka #全职高手 #mine #translation #bb interview

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turqrambles · 4 years ago

Text

The Five Worst Things About Digimon World

I did it.

It took 20 years but I did it.

I finally beat Digimon World for the Playstation 1, a game that has haunted me for most of my lifetime, and I did it with a Phoenixmon, the reason why I use “Turquoisephoenix” as a handle!

This is who I used to beat the game, named after an obscure Ratchet and Clank character because that’s just how I roll. The final boss battle involved a lot of Prominence Beam spamming and med recovery floppy spamming but I did it fair and square.

Before I get into what I thought about this game as a whole - and I do have a lot of good things to say about this game since I obviously enjoyed it enough to get to the end - I gotta talk about my least favorite things about this game. In a concise, Buzzfeed-esque list because I like writing things in easy to digest chunks.

Because, like most charming yet difficult games of the late 90′s, this game is very flawed and the flaws are pretty annoying!

1. Care Mistakes

The three emojis - Smile, Cool, and Poop.

Okay. This one - my least favorite part in the game - is going to take a bit of explanation.

First off, I don’t actually hate care mistakes existing as a mechanic. I think it’s a cute, virtual pet-y way to add a different wrinkle to evolution requirements, even if I think it’s a bit counter-intuitive to have to suddenly abuse my little companion once they reach Champion just because I want them to evolve into a floating metallic ball with a chainsaw.

My problem with care mistakes is that there’s literally no way of telling many care mistakes you have on your given Digimon.

Literally everything else in this game is concisely recorded and easily displayed on your Digimon’s stats screen. You can see how much your Digimon weighs. You can see their Happiness, their Discipline. How much Life they have left. Their Age. Even how many poops they need to make before they digivolve into a sentient pile of feces.

But Care Mistakes? Naaaaw, you just gotta remember every single thing that you did to your Digimon from the moment it evolves in your fallible human brain. What’s that? A good portion of this game involves grinding in the Green Gym and it’s really easy to make a Care Mistake there without knowing you did so because you mashed A too fast like the stat-grinding numskull that you are? Well, that’s just too fucking bad for you, then! Enjoy not getting some of the best evolutions, you piece of shit. You stooge. You moron!

This game, multiple times: You know who I hate? The player.

Care Mistakes are such an invisible mechanic that, to this day, there are many guides with misleading info about what counts as a Care Mistake and what doesn’t, which...really stinks for a game such as this where you will be using a guide pretty extensively to get the Digimon you deserve. And you know why that is? Because we don’t get any indication as to whether or not some random event counts against you when raising your Digimon.

And honestly, having one of your main mechanics of the game being entirely invisible to the player is a terrible idea. Just put a little number in my profile that says “Care Mistakes: 0″ in there. Let me know this information without guessing.

2. The Glitches

Pictured: Something that will CRASH YOUR GAME if you try it on a physical copy.

Let me start with a disclaimer that most of the glitches I’m going to complain about were added into the game when Digimon World was localized and therefore aren’t the original intent of the developers. There are certain versions of Digimon World that are more stable than others (The English PAL version is the best version to play because of this) and, if you play this game via “certain methods”, there are patches to circumvent some of the bigger problems.

That being said! Boy! Isn’t it ironic that a game where I’m exploring the digital world is plagued with so many annoying, game-ruining glitches? Especially if I’m playing this game on a physical 20-year old copy like a dunce?

“Ohhhh...so Agumon thinks that they can block the Digimon game with their big fat Digimon-blocking head, do they?!”

The NTSC version of this game has a jukebox that will crash the game if you try to use it, keeping you from ever using a bonus feature meant to be a fun little reward for completing a certain dungeon, but that’s not as heinous as the Spanish, French, German, and Italian PAL versions of this game locking a good portion of the game to players because they forgot to make the Agumon in front of Ogremon’s Fortress an object you can interact with.

So that means, if you happened to get this game in one of four lucky countries, you can’t complete the Ogremon mission, you can’t recruit Whamon, you can’t recruit Shellmon, you can’t recruit anything tied to Shellmon’s bulletin board (which means no Vademon or Skullgreymon), and you can’t go to Factorial Town and recruit Giromon, Andromon, or Numemon. Ogremon is a key part of the Digimon World storyline and causes so many different things in the game to change, meaning that it should’ve been imperative to make sure this part of the game works!

But no. Instead this one little bastard Agumon keeps most players from finishing the game, because it starves players of those PAL regions of a bunch of Prosperity points, the main source of progression in this game. That means that Mt. Infinity and the final boss is just that much harder to unlock. It’s doable, but it’s more grueling process.

This really is a problem with the translators and really highlights a lack of general care with testing this game. Why this game was allowed to be shipped with such glaring bugs is anyone’s guess, especially in an era where you couldn’t release any patches over the Internet to fix retail versions.

3. The Monochromon’s Shop Minigame

Ohhhh....this one was so close to getting the top spot. When I first wrote this draft, this was the top spot.

Monochromon was only spared of my true ire on account of the fact that it really only exists for one part of the game (rather than being a constant problem like the Care Mistakes and the Glitches are) and you can easily cheese it by sleeping in front of the store so that you can save scum your way to victory. Like a true Digital Champion!

At one point in the game, you gotta help a entrepreneur dinosaur rhino man make a profit, because he was stupid and put his convenience store in the middle of a giant canyon next to a gaping chasm. So you play a little game of haggling, where you try to ruthlessly oversell a bunch of random items to customers until you make enough of a profit that this talking dinosaur tells you that you passed his secret test of character, abandons his store, and moves into File City.

There’s just one problem with this minigame - everything is decided by RNG.

“Get the hell out of my shop”

This minigame hates you. It wants nothing but to see you fail and to waste your time. The difference in profit margins of the three items (Meat sells for 50g, Portable Potties sell for 300g, and Medicine sells for 1000g) are so stark that, if you get too many customers asking for Meat, you might as well just reset the game and start over because it will be literally impossible to meet the requirement even if you busted the customer’s proverbial balls and squeezed every last bit out of their cutesy penguin faces.

Oh! It’s also RNG as to whether or not your customers will take your asking price or storm out of the store without buying anything!

It’s all the fun of working at retail! In a video game!

4. Three on One Battles

What you see before you is a battle system that is really fun when it’s one vs. one, manageable at two vs. one, and downright unbearable at three vs. one.

The battle system works for the most part. You don’t have full control of your Digimon (and yes, you only have one Digimon with you at one time, so you can never stack the numbers in your favor) so you shout commands at it, commands that the Digimon’s AI are pretty good at following, and hope for the best as you chuck healing items at it.

It’s not the best battle system, but it’s fun. And it definitely reinforces the whole “this is a pet you’re taking care of with its own thoughts and feelings” atmosphere that this game is going for.

However, nothing can protect your Digimon from enemy fire concentrated on them, especially if you did the thing that most players do and equipped your Digimon with the most powerful attacks that also happen to have slower cast times than the faster, weaker attacks.

What then happens is your Digimon’s Health is slowly whittled away as you are powerless to stop it, watching as your digital friend is straight up bullied by enemy Digimon as they keep falling to the ground over and over and over and over again.

The one saving grace is that Friendly Fire exists in this game so that oftentimes the enemy Digimon will damage each other in their mad dash to ruin your day, but that seems more like a band-aid than an actual fix to this system.

5. Fishing Seadramon

“Hi, kid. Let me guess - you also thought you had to talk to the Tankmon in Factorial Town in order to unlock me, huh.”

This one is a lot less of a pain than the other four and it’s only a little annoying but boy...getting Seadramon kinda sucks in this game.

It took me almost a goddamn hour to catch Seadramon. One hour of gameplay devoted to catching one fish. Just like real fishing!

I will say, besides Seadramon, the fishing minigame in this game is pretty competent. It’s just that Seadramon is very elusive, showing up at only two hours in a 24 hour day, and is a very finicky fish that won’t take your bait even if you literally placed it in front of his dumb fish face.

Don’t be fooled by this screenshot. The heart just means you have the right bait. The heart means that you didn’t actually get within range of hooking him.

IT’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!!

Seadramon is also subject to almost as many gaming myths as the Care Mistakes are, due to how elusive he is, but that’s less to do with poor communication (the game does at least explain multiple times in multiple places how to find him) and more to do with the fact that catching him is just such a goddamn chore to do that players of this game always assume they’re doing something wrong.

When in reality, Seadramon is just a picky little bitch.

Next time I discuss Digimon World, I’ll talk about things I liked, don’t worry. I just had to get all of this negativity out before discussing the full game proper.

#Digimon World #Turq Reviews #Turq Plays a Game

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itsadamcole · 4 years ago

Text

heaven knows

fem!reader x finn balor

(requested by anonymous) “Reader and Finn have been best friends ever since they were at NXT. Reader have a crush on Finn but never express their feelings because she feels Finn only thinks of her as a friend. Until finally the reader dating Dolph and Finn began to realize his feelings. Reader first moved to RAW and started dating Dolph, 3 months later Finn also got a shake up to RAW. Dolph had to move to Smack Down and the reader and Dolph relationship ended because of that.”

word count: 4.1k+

warnings: smutty (that’s about it for warnings ig)

— thank you to anonymous for this request. i had a lot of fun writing it ... this imagine is based on the song “Lost in You” by Westlife —

masterlist || request an imagine here

~ 18+ content below - read at your own risk ~

*** 3 months ago ***

“Finny!” you shout, running up to your best friend. Finn Balor turns around and looks at you.

He smiles and says, “Hey. What’s up? How’d the meeting go?”

You basically shout, “I’m moving to the Raw roster!”

Finn’s smile drops a bit but you don’t notice it. “Raw?” he asks. “I thought ya like it here on NXT.”

You look up at Finn and say, “Ya know that I’ve wanted to go to Raw for a while.”

“I know,” he says. “Ya haven’t been on NXT for that long and I thought ya liked it here.”

You say, “I can talk to Regal and to Vince to get ya moved to Raw with me.”

Finn shakes his head and says, “I’m staying here for a while. I had my time on Raw and they never used me right.”

You pout and say, “I’ll still come visit when I’m home. I’ll be home all the time, I promise.”

He smiles at you and says, “I’m proud of ya for being moved to Raw. Ya will be the best damn announcer that the red brand has ever seen.”

“And I better be the first person ya call after ya win the NXT title,” you say.”

You smile at your best friend and he says, “Of course. Ya will be the first person I call after I win the title.”

“I better be,” you say. “Maybe I’ll come back to NXT eventually but I’ll make sure to watch every week.”

You smile and hug Finn.

When you were told that you were being promoted to Raw, it was a bittersweet moment. You love NXT and you love the roster. Not to mention you don’t want to leave Finn, your best friend and crush since day one in NXT. You’re both from Ireland and have always stuck together. It’s how you became such close friends.

Now you’re leaving and you hate that you are.

***

*** present day - november 2019 ***

You sit in your dressing room, brushing out your long brunette hair. You hum quietly to yourself as you brush your hair.

There’s a soft knock on your door so you get up to answer it. You open the door, revealing your boyfriend Dolph Ziggler. “Hey,” you say, smiling. “I was just about to come see you.”

You have Dolph have been together since you moved to Raw three weeks ago. He asked you out the day you arrived and have been together since.

He kisses your cheek before walking into your dressing room. Dolph says, “The shake up is today and I was just told that I’m moving to the Smackdown roster.”

You look at Dolph and say, “I thought ya told them that ya wanted to stay on Raw.”

“I did tell them but they’re moving Bobby and I to Smackdown,” he says as you approach him. He looks down at you. “We’re going to be on different brands, Y/N.”

You hug him and say, “We’ll make it work, Dolph. We have to.”

He runs his fingers through your hair and say, “I would love to make it work, Y/N. I would love to, but you know what it’s like when couples work on different brands. It rarely ever works out.”

You look up at Dolph and ask, “What are ya saying, Dolph?”

Dolph says, “You know how much I like you and how much I like being with you, but we can’t be together if we’re on different brands. It never works out in the long run.”

“So you’re saying we should break up?” you ask.

He nods in response. “Maybe one day we can reconnect but right now, we can’t be together,” Dolph says.

For some reason, you’re not disappointed by this news. You like Dolph but you’ve always thought that there was someone better for you out there.

Someone like Finn Balor.

You miss Finn. You haven’t spoken in a month because of your schedules. He's been busy defending his title on NXT and you've been busy with being an announcer. You've tried to find time to talk to Finn but either he's busy or you're busy.

Dolph says, "I'll, uh, see you around, Y/N."

"Ya too, Dolph," you say. Dolph leaves your dressing room and you sigh. You go grab your phone and try calling Finn.

Finn doesn't answer, leaving you upset.

There's another knock on your door and you answer it. Triple H stands at your door. "Hi," you say, surprised. "Can I help ya with something?"

Triple H says, "Just coming by to drop off the card for tonight. Pierce is sick."

That's when it hits you. Triple H usually runs things surrounding the NXT brand. You ask, "Is NXT involved in something tonight?"

"Possibly," he says. "If I can get Vince's approval. This is the card with the matches on with that NXT is involved in."

You nod and take the card, reading over it.

Adam Cole versus Drew McIntyre. Lana and Dana Brooke versus Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. Seth Rollins versus a mystery opponent is slated to be the main event tonight. "Who's Seth's opponent?" you ask.

Triple H says, "I don't know. He's issuing an open challenge tonight. That's all I know."

You nod and say, "Well, thank you for the card." He gives you a kind smile before walking off. You close the door and sigh.

NXT is getting involved and you can't help but wonder if one Irishman is going to be making an appearance.

To distract yourself, you get into the attire that was left in here for you. A lacey black dress that sparkles. Your shoulders and arms are the only parts of your body that can be seen under the dress because the lace is sheer. The dress falls to just above your knees.

A third person knocks on your door as you're about to do your makeup. You answer it, revealing your best friend, Becky Lynch. She smiles and says, "Look at ya. Looking all snazzy. I like the dress."

You smile and let her in. "Thank you," you say. "But I have no control over my wardrobe. The dress is kinda cute though."

Becky kind of laughs and sits down. You do your makeup as Becky says, "I heard Dolph's moving to Smackdown."

"Yeah, he is," you say. "He came in here and said that relationships don't really last when the couple is on two different rosters. Well, he said that it usually doesn't work out, so he ended it." You shrug.

Your best friend squints her eyes at you and says, "Ya don't seem that upset about it."

You do your eyeshadow and say, "I liked Dolph, but I always thought that there could be someone out there that's better for me."

As you speak, your mind wanders to Finn. You wonder how he's doing. You hope that maybe you'll catch a glimpse of him tonight. Maybe he'll be Seth's mystery opponent. You don't know.

Becky says, "Someone like Finn Balor? Because he's calling ya."

Quickly, you grab your phone that you threw on the couch and you answer the phone. "Finn?" you say as soon as you answer it."

"Hey," he says. "There's my favorite announcer. How ya doing?"

You smile and say, "Fine. I'm doing okay. How are ya doing?"

Finn says, "I've been better. I saw ya called and I wanted to see if something was wrong."

Becky points at you and mouths, "I knew it." You wave her off and say into the phone, "Nothing's wrong. I was just thinking about ya earlier so I thought I'd ring ya to see if ya were busy."

He says, "I'm a little busy but I have a second to talk."

"I was just getting ready for Raw but I can stop for a second," you say.

Finn laughs softly and says, "So, tell me about Dolph. Everything okay there? Ya seemed happy the last time we talked."

You say, "I, um, we kinda broke up. He's being moved to Smackdown because of the shakeup tonight."

He's quiet before he says, "Oh, that's terrible. I'm sorry."

You shrug and say, "It's fine. I know there's someone better for me out there." You glance at the time. "I have to go now but can I call ya later?"

"Yeah," he says. "Call me after Raw is over and we'll actually talk for more than a few minutes."

You smile and say, "Okay. I'll talk to ya later then."

You both say your goodbyes and you hang up the phone.

Becky says, "Tell me how long ya have had a thing for Finn Balor. I don't blame ya, by the way. That man is very attractive. Maybe not as attractive as Seth but still attractive."

You laugh and say, "I've had a thing for him since our NXT days. Basically since day one." You rub the back of your neck. "I'm sure he doesn't feel the same way about me though so I never said anything to him about it."

She laughs and says, "Tell him. You're single now and ya said that there was someone better than Dolph Ziggler out there for ya. What if that person is Finn?"

"He's not on this brand either," you say. "He's NXT champion so he wouldn't have time for me anyway."

Becky says, "Well, that's not true. When Seth was Universal Champion, he still had time for me."

You blink at her and say, "You and Seth were champions at the same time, Becky. You traveled together for press and everything."

She thinks for a second and says, "Yeah. That's very true. Okay, anyway. I have a match tonight against Asuka so Imma go get ready for that. I'll see ya out there."

You nod and finish getting ready for the show tonight.

***

There are five matches on the card tonight, plus the main event. The first match was Dana Brooke and Lana versus Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax. Shayna and Nia won.

The next match was Becky versus Asuka for the title. Asuka retained, which left Becky mad.

The third match was a six-man tag match, with three teams of two. Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston are a team against the teams of my now ex-boyfriend Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode and two members of the Undisputed Era, Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong. It's basically a mini Survivor Series match, minus the eliminations. The stipulation is if the Undisputed Era loses, they stay on NXT. If they win, they get moved up to Raw.

The Undisputed Era wins the match and all four of them are now members of the Raw roster.

The fourth match is Keith Lee versus Braun Strowman. Keith wins.

The fifth match is Drew McIntyre versus Adam Cole. Randy Orton interferes and costs Drew the match.

It's main event time. Seth's music hits and you say into your microphone, "Making his way down to the ring, he is the Monday Night Messiah, Seth Rollins."

Seth gets into the ring. He doesn't have his disciple, Murphy, with him as he's handed a microphone. "So, as you can see, my disciple Murphy isn't here with me tonight. That's because he's a traitor and left me. So, I'm issuing an open challenge for anyone to come out here and prove to me that they have what it takes to be my disciple. Come on, anyone. From Raw or Smackdown, or even NXT. Come on out."

Everyone looks at the stage to wait and see who comes out. Everyone in the arena waits.

And that's when Finn Balor's music hits. Your jaw almost drops, happy and excited to see Finn with his title. The crowd jumps up and cheers. You smile in the timekeeper's area as Finn makes his way down to the ring. He's handed a mic on the way down.

Seth has a smile on his lips as he looks at that title around Finn's waist, who's dressed and ready for a match in his white ring gear and a matching white leather jacket. This is the gear he wore in his last main roster match at Summerslam in 2019 before he went back to NXT in October. The NXT title is now over his shoulder as he steps into the ring.

Finn is looking at Seth. His music fades and he says, "Hi, Seth. So, I heard ya are looking for a match tonight. How's this? Ya and I in the ring right now. If ya win, then ya get my title and I'll be your new whatever ya call it. If I win, I keep my title and ya never can challenge for this title, or any title that I hold, whether it's the WWE Championship or the United States Champion. I think ya get the point."

You look over at Seth and he says, "You're on Balor. Let's get a referee out here and get this started."

The crowd cheers and you're handed a card with something to read on it. You nod and as the guys get ready in the ring. You look up and say, "This match has just been made official by WWE officials. The following match is scheduled for one fall and is for the NXT Championship. Introducing first the challenger, weighing in at 217 pounds, from Davenport, Iowa. He is the Monday Night Messiah, Seth Rollins."

You listen as the crowd boos Seth. You forgot how much the WWE Universe loves Finn Balor.

Once the crowd dies down, you talk into the microphone again. "Weighing in at 190 pounds, from Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, he is NXT Champion. Finn Balor," you say, smiling as the name Finn Balor leaves your lips. The crowd cheers. Finn looks at you and points at you, making your face heat up.

The ref takes the belt and holds it above his head. Someone runs over and grabs it, bringing the belt back to the little area. You look at the gold belt. It looks so pretty with Finn's side plates on it.

The bell rings and the match is underway. Your eyes are on Finn the whole time.

It takes 20 minutes but Finn hits the Coup de Grace and pins Seth, retaining his title. You take the belt and run to the ring, not being able to hold in your excitement. You bring your microphone with you because you have one more thing left to say.

Once you're in the ring, you almost tackle Finn with a hug. He hugs you back and you hand him his title.

"And still NXT Champion, Finn Balor," you say as Finn's music blares in the arena.

He looks down at you and takes your microphone. You stare up at him as he says, "I, uh, I need to say something really quick."

The crowd dies down and you stare up at your best friend. He looks at his title and he says, "This title isn't mine anymore. This title isn't mine anymore because as of this moment, I am on the Raw roster. As a full-time Raw superstar, I cannot hold the NXT title." He puts the title down on the ground before looking at you. "But as a full-time Raw superstar, I can spend all the time in the world with ya. Travel with ya, talk to ya whenever I want. And most importantly, take ya on a date or two whenever we want."

Your eyes widen as you stare up at Finn, realizing that he has feelings for you too.

"If ya would like, of course," Finn finishes with. The crowd collectively gasps as they wait for your answers.

Finn's arm is still around your waist and you're still standing close to him. So, you give your answer in the one way you've been wanting to. You put your hands on Finn's face and pull his face down to yours. Your lips crash to his and immediately begin moving against them.

He smiles into the kiss and drops the microphone, wrapping both your arms around his neck as his arms wrap around your waist.

The crowd cheers loudly as you kiss Finn in the ring.

***

Eventually, you and Finn make your way back to your hotel room. He tells you about what he had to do to get to Raw.

Since NXT was part of the shakeup this year, there was a chance that he could get sent to Raw. It was small because he held the NXT title. So after some negotiations with William Regal, Triple H, and Vince McMahon, he would voluntarily relinquish his title after a match tonight. So that's what he did. He voluntarily relinquished his title and is now apart of the Raw roster.

He also told Vince that he wants a run or two at the WWE Championship, which is held by Drew McIntyre. Vince agreed because he knows the fans love Finn versus Drew. Add a title in there and it makes for a few good championship matches.

Once back at the hotel room, Finn says, "I need to shower really quick then we can watch movies or something for a bit."

You nod and watch as Finn disappears into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. The water starts and you sigh.

It would be really bad if you just walked into the bathroom and told him everything that you've been feeling, especially tonight.

When Finn walked out in the white gear, a little ache formed in your core and you tried what you could to stop it.

Your feet are carrying you to the bathroom before you can do anything. You shed the dress and your shoes before walking into the bathroom.

The shower in the bathroom is a glass stand up shower. Most of the glass is distorted but the top maybe 16 inches aren't so you can see from Finn's chest up. His eyes are closed as he rinses his hair.

Quickly, you take off the bra and panties you're wearing before you open the door to the shower. Finn looks down at you and asks, "Y/N, what are ya doing?"

"Saving water," you say. "Kinda."

He smiles down at you as you close the glass door. You stare up at him and he asks, "Now what are ya really doing?"

You say, "Seeing ya in the white gear tonight made me feel things, Finn. I know I shouldn't just get in the shower with ya, but-" You're interrupted by Finn's lips coming down to yours. You gasp, surprised by the kiss.

His lips move against yours before he pulls back and says, "Ya are telling me ya want me to, what?"

You stare up at him and say, "Whatever ya want, Finn. I just need ya to do something to me."

Finn smirks a bit and his hands come down to your waist. He guides you so your back is against the wall. You stare up at Finn and he says, "Is this what ya really want? I want to make sure it's what ya want one hundred percent."

Your hands rest on his chest and you nod. "It's what I want, Finn," you say. "I've wanted this for a while."

He smiles and kisses you. The kiss is rougher than the kiss in the ring and his hands start to roam. Soft sighs leave your lips. As the two of you share the kiss, Finn moves and presses you against the cold wall of the shower. Your hands are on Finn's cheeks, slipping your tongue into his mouth. Finn smirks against your lips.

The kiss continues for a second before Finn leans down and picks you up by your thighs. You wrap your legs around his waist as Finn pulls back from your lips and he starts to kiss your neck.

A soft moan escapes your lips as your hands slide into Finn's short wet hair. You smile and say, "This has gotten longer since we last saw each other."

Finn smirks and looks up at you, detaching his lips from your neck. He says, "I'm guessing ya like it."

You giggle and nod, saying, "It gives me something to hold onto." He laughs and kisses you again.

He reaches to the side and turns the water off. Carefully and slowly, Finn leaves the shower with you wrapped around him. He's careful not to slip on the tile floor of the bathroom as he leaves the room.

Finn walks out to one of the beds, laying you on your back. The kiss breaks as he looks down at you, eyes wandering all over your body.

"I've imagined how ya looked for weeks and this exceeded all of my expectations," he says, smiling down at you.

You giggle and stare up at him, saying, "I could say the exact same thing." You glance down at his semi-erect member that's poking at your thigh.

He starts to kiss your jaw and he says, "You're so beautiful. I can't believe that maybe you'll be mine after this."

Sighing, you say, "I've been yours this entire time, Finn."

Finn smirks against your neck. You slide your hands down his sides and use one of your hands to stroke Finn's member. He gasps a bit against the skin against your neck. You feel him begin to harden as you stroke him.

"Keep going like that and I won't last as long as ya probably want me to," he gasps.

You leave kisses to his head and say, "We have all night, Finn. And all day tomorrow."

He looks up at you and says, "Good, because I won't be able to stop once I've started."

You reach up, pecking his lips before you say, "Then start."

Finn smirks a bit before he kisses you harder than he ever has before. You sigh softly against his lips as he runs his tip through your already soaked folds. "Finn," you mumble against his lips. "Please. Tease me another time. I need ya right now."

Slowly, Finn begins to push himself into you. You gasp into the passionate kiss.

You're not a virgin but you're not really that experienced in bed. Finn knows this so he's making sure he's careful with you. On the other hand, you know how experienced Finn is in bed. He's never had to tell you. You used to travel with him when you worked for the NXT brand and stayed in the hotel room next to him sometimes. He's not really that quiet, and neither is whoever he's with.

He moves slowly and shallowly at first, making sure that he's not hurting you. The little bit of pain that you feel slowly melts away to pleasure, and you're a little bit of a moaning mess underneath Finn's body. You drag your fingers down Finn's back as he moves.

Every few minutes, Finn picks up speed and thrusts deeper into you. You wrap your legs around Finn's waist again. Your back arches off the bed ooccationally and chase Finn's hips. He slips deeper into you, making you moan and gasp under Finn.

A wave of confidence overtakes you a couple minutes later. You roll so you're straddling Finn's waist with him still inside you.

Finn stares up at you as you begin to move your hips, riding him. Finn intertwines his fingers with yours and helps hold you up. You throw your head back as you bounce up and down on Finn's now rock hard member. Moans escape your lips and Finn grunts and growns beneath you.

Your walls begin to clench around Finn and you moan, "Finn, baby. I'm about to come."

"Come, princess," he gasps, thrusting up into you as you move your hips.

Your eyes are squeezed shut and you release around Finn as he quickly pulls out of you and comes all over your stomach. You collapse onto Finn, your sweaty chests sticking together as you come down off your high.

Finn wraps his arms around your shoulders and you sigh, your ear pressed against his chest. His heart is beating quickly. You feel him leave kisses on your forehead. You smile and look up at him, resting your chin on his chest. Finn smiles down at you.

"So what do ya say?" he asks. "Will ya officially be mine?"

You giggle and nod, leaning up and pecking his lips. "Yes."

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