#but she's all set and I look forward to playing a rogue lol

[ndostairlyrium]

La Marzia 💙

[timbit-robin-art]

i loooove your band au it's so cute!! do they have a band name? why did the O5 have a falling out and what did jean, bobby, and warren play? i'm imagining they get their first gig at harry's hideaway because he graciously allows them to set up in the corner and play as long as they don't bother anyone lol. rogue and gambit both go (rogue drives them and helps them set up, gambit goes to cheer on storm) and that's how they meet

I’m glad people enjoy my silly band idea. I unfortunately have no idea what they would call themselves, but I’m sure some ridiculous ideas were proposed from each member. I’d love to hear ideas.

Ah, the O5… I think they split up because of a combination of reasons. 1.) Worthington Senior urging Warren to return home as Worthington Industries’ heir. 2.) Jean going to a prep school so she can graduate early be the professor’s intern in mutant politics. 3.) Hank’s plans to intern at Stark Industries, which he ultimately doesn’t go through with after he transforms. Of course, there would be petty drama on the side that would further strain things, but those three would probably be the main reasons.

I think Hank looking into Stark Industries would be a big contributor because Bobby would feel betrayed. They promised to stay together, and after Bobby learned about Warren and Jean’s situations, he at least thought that he would have Hank. So, to catch Hank researching about a full time internship would really hurt.

I also think that Warren would initially do everything in his power not to return home until he learns about Jean’s plans. He thinks she’s only doing this because it’s what the professor wants, but then he learns Jean is actually really looking forward to this. I also think he’s bitter about Scott’s encouragement of Jean’s plans, because it’s splitting their group apart. And then when Bobby and Hank finally have their confrontation, he feels like trying to ignore his fate is childish and he should just give in to his father’s plans.

They all used to live at the institute together, but then Warren returned home and Jean is abroad at her prep school. It’s very tense between Scott, Hank, and Bobby, but Scott and Hank eventually making up again probably makes Bobby get over his hurt. He didn’t really take the band as seriously as the others; he just wanted to hang out with his friends. Bobby would later show up to the band’s gigs as support, and who knows… maybe Warren and Jean would, as well.

Scott played the drums, Jean was the pianist, Hank was guitar, Warren was vocals (and maybe another guitar player), and Bobby was bass.

Back to the current band set up, Gambit 100% comes to their performances, which eventually leads him to meet Rogue;

Gambit is already the band’s uncle, so it makes sense that he hits it off with the band’s new aunt. Mr. Logan found Gambit suspicious at first (and to be fair, Mr. Logan is at least 80% sure he saw Gambit pickpocket someone from across the room), but when he sees how much Gambit cares for Storm, he begrudgingly lets go of his suspicions. He still keeps a watchful eye over Gambit and Rogue’s interactions, though. Rogue’s still his child.

Bahhh, so many fun ideas with this. I think it would be really cute if other X-Men are thrown into the mix. They may not be a part of the band, but they still contribute to the chaos of the private school (I think it would be funny if Piotr was an art club member who does art for the band, and Sean was one of their sound crew guys. Any ideas for other X-Men?).

[rogue-of-heart-classpecting]

Mayhaps an explanation on how each class can effect the session? I know kights usally means there's a lack of its aspect but what about the others?

Maids’ sessions are controlled by something. Aradia’s session had doc scratch orchestrating all this bullshit event-wise. Jane’s session has the condesce who had all the power in their universe.

Pages’ aspects are kind of what the players hope their futures will bring post-sburb. The trolls lived in a very unpleasant, highly controlled dictatorship. The kids were kind of thinking they would win without any problems.

Mages’ sessions are full of their aspect. There was so much doom in the beta trolls’ session. People kept dying for no reason. There was basically no way they would be able to get along and play cooperatively. Also karkat creating Jack noir basically fucked everything from the start.

Knights’ sessions have very little of their aspect, so the knight is assigned to protect what little is there. Dave had to haul ass to get rose in the session. There was also just a time crunch to finish in general. All the trolls had different ideas of what they wanted, and their conflicting ideas were hard to keep working together.

Rogues have sort of an unaddressed problem waiting to come up. Rufioh grew up to lead a revolution. Roxy’s session had a lot of unaddressed stuff in general. Lots of misplaced confidence, lack of communication, hidden feelings, etc. There are a lot of times in the trolls session where they have the little heart or spade or clubs symbol in their eyes or over their heads and nothing ever comes of it. Nepeta never god tiered.

Sylphs sessions have a dire lack of their aspect in their session and are charged with nursing it back to health. Kanaya was the lone tender of the matriorb that would ensure the troll race keeps being born. Aradias session I guess is full of meaningless nonsense and plot irrelevant shit. She kind of builds it up for thousands of years or however long and then unleashes it all at once. But… she brings information and plot relevance to her session members and to the combined session.

Seers’ aspects are a resource their team hasn’t tapped into yet. They know nothing about it. Even Dave, who seems to be the most cynical and down to earth member of the gang (besides rose) still does not see his brothers actions for what they are (bad) and clouds himself in a shame induced misidentification of who he is and who he is allowed to be. Terezis team has never considered the consequences of their actions. They never set their sights on a goal and plot a course from here to there. They set one foot forward and then the entropy guides them forward with no brakes.

Thieves... I think the session actually needs a leader in that aspect! The thief's job is to find a hidden resource (and looking at the trolls' session, light seems really unavailable lol.) and draw it out, creating a hub of aspect where it can exert itself. For some reason, Vriska also liked pushing Tavros to be stronger and the best him he can be. Actually, that might be a pitch thing... The Sn0wman told her to "steal his will" because "that's what a thief does" or whatever. But Vriska thought he was capable or wanted him to be capable of mercy killing her.

Heirs have plenty of their aspect all around them to work with. I guess they have to kind of bring that to the session themselves, actually! But they have no trouble doing it. John successfully retrieved his presents, fought his dad, started the game, and just began slaying like a beast and rocketing ahead no problem. The world John was born into set him up with a good place to stretch out. Sburb was created without John doing anything at all. The ultimate escape from earth, right? Equius was set up with a world with arbitrary rules and little independent thought. His hemospectrum placement is high enough to give him a superiority AND inferiority complex. For some reason, he has incredible roboti% skills SO THAT he always has something intelligent and logical to destroy.

Bards seem to have an aspect that is like... I don't want to say an abscess because that's gross... It's like their aspect is under a lot of pressure from being suppressed by the world and their team. Just about every member of the team has rage that isn't fully expressed. Gamzee definitely brings out rage and disgust in Terezi. He also makes the rest of his team very aware that just because it doesn't look like it, his aspect is definitely there. It's just waiting to come out. Gamzee himself is the first thing to express its rage... That no one expected him to have. I read somewhere that Gamzee became an agent of his aspect after he "calmed down." He brought chaos and anger and pain to everyone. He's the one who threw all the bodies of people who hated each other (and fefeta) into the sprites to make them useless. I guess Equius was a sprite by himself but. Equius is pretty fucking useless anyway. He's the heir of useless. Gamzee was taken out of mind control and saw that Terezi was stabbing him, and he decided to trick her by acting like his old self to manipulate her emotions. And as soon as she let her guard down, he went apeshit and beat her crazy clown style. He is like a harbinger of confusion and pain.

Princes. Princes' aspects are overgrown. They're clouding the session's ability to function. Dirk basically successfully exploded the romantic tension between all 4 of his team members. In a very destructive and painful way. If they didn't have a prince, they would have been too distracted by their crushes to finish the game. Eridan is a much suckier person, but he does have the same job. Dirk has a more precise excision style like a surgeon, but Eridan prefers mowing down "enemies" with abandon, which makes it harder for his team. In one fell swoop, Eridan killed the future ruler of the Troll race AND the ability for more trolls to be born. And the only troll babysitter. I don't know why the trolls thought this would be a fun game they could easily win, but Eridan completely took care of that.

Witches have an aspect that needs to be understood in a new way. Like gender. You guys know what I mean by that right. I think this is clearer with Feferi-- wait! No, except Jade has a new way for planets to be created! She's not the first one to PLAY sburb, but she's the one to INTRODUCE us to it as a character. Remember, these roles are about your purpose in the story, not in a watsonian way. Jade finds new ways of creating things. Feferi finds new ways of leading that creates beforus which still sucks but is much better than alternia.

[humblegoat]

For the Ask game: Player edition! Playtest, Level one, Initiative, and Dice!

Playtest: What class (or subclass) do you want to try out?

I'm really excited to play a bard for the first time in a long-term campaign once the Candlekeep crew starts our second gen arc! However, what I've actually been itching to play for a long time is an artillerist artificer. I've got TWO different characters I could slot into that one and I'm just steepling my fingers until I get the chance hahaha

Level One: What was your first experience with D&D? How did you hear about it? What was your first game like?

I started learning about it through primarily The Adventure Zone along with early CritRole. TAZ is what sold me on it; didn't take long for my brain to latch on to mechanics. My first experience was playing a few sessions with a bunch of folks who didn't know anything outside of kind of knowing TAZ and kind of reading the rules of 5e (/accidentally mixing in 3.5e rules because the online SRDs were messy and unclear in early 2017!). I was playing Endora, a character I eventually played lv1-20 as a wild sorcerer but who at the time was an arcane trickster rogue. All she wanted to do was befriend a dire wolf puppy. Which is also what I wanted to do in the game LOL

Initiative: What's an RP scene you're looking forward to playing?

I've got a few!! The clearest idea of a scene I have in my head is for my wizrogue Loch, finding and confronting [redacted] about [redacted], as pertains to his backstory. (I cannot reveal this yet in case my Spelljammies friends see hehehe) The more general thing I'm waiting for is the day Juniper Belevere has Had ItTM and really fucking YELLS at someone about something, lets out all the pent-up anxiety and frustration she's currently nursing.

Dice: Do you have any dice rituals? Preferences? Collections? Does such thing as dice luck really exist?

I currently only have one game I play in where we use physical dice; it uses the CoC system. At the start of each session I engage in what I call 'the dice gauntlet', which is when I take all my d10s and percentile dice and roll them off against each other, picking the most favorable rolled numbers until I have a single d100 duo that becomes My Set for the evening. As well as runners-up that get subbed in if the winner of the gauntlet ends up in dice jail. When playing on r20, if I'm rolling like shit, it's time to refresh the browser page. I know it doesn't actually do anything but also It Does Something In My Brain

[quasieli]

Can you believe!!! It's been three years!?! Happy anniversary to the Reforged Campaign!!! Today in 2019, some of our little blorbos met for the first time, gathering up some new friends along the way. We've been through so much together and I just wanna get gushy and talk about my lovely friends who have made this little fantasy game so enjoyable and have contributed to my D&D brain rot for all this time lol.

@army-of-bee-assassins Joyce, playing Whitlock: the axe-swinging, tubthumping, Fighter/Wizard of our dreams ✨️ There's a reason we've said that if you don't love Whitlock, you're wrong. While a badass in combat (I'll never forget the fireball that took out nearly a dozen ghuls at once 🤩🥰), outside of our intense fights, Whitlock is the epitome of kindness and caring. It only made sense that this care combined with his love of the arcane led him to the school of Abjuration, he is a protector through and through. One thing that continues to astound me about Whitlock is that even after almost drowning (multiple times) and losing his home and his whole old life to the seas, Whitlock still has fought for elementals who have been enslaved and mistreated, because that's who he is. He stands up for the little guy, even when the little guy may be much bigger than he is. He is selfless in his actions, some may call him reckless (like being the first to charge into an unknown encounter, even if his initiative score doesn't usually reflect that lol), but I wouldn't. I would call it faith, because he has faith in his skills and he has faith in his friends, to be there right behind him, as he is always behind them. Love our sailor boy, I am forever on Team Beans 💙

@lacklusterlexicon Alyx, playing Kempa/Eun Ha: the best shirtless dragonborn Barbarian bhimbo you could ask for⚡️Alyx first joined our group as a guest, playing the lovely tiefling druid Kaia and it was a pleasure to have hir at our side as we fought the terrors of the Shadowfell and the corruption it brought to the Prime Material. But as that mini arc drew to an end, we as players knew we had found something special with Alyx and knew we couldn't let them go so easily. It was then that we were introduced to Kempa (then Eun Ha) and it soon felt like she had been with us since day 1. Oh Kempa, my beloved Kempa. She had been through a lot before reaching our little group, things that made her angry and that rage fueled her fight. But the rage did not consume her, she instead used her pain to push forward, to try and find her lost friend, and found a new family in the course of that mission. Kempa can sometimes be the goofy jock barbarian stereotype, but she is so so so much more than that. She brings kindness and empathy into everything she does. When we learned a lackey that we captured and interrogated was just a person down on their luck looking to make a living, we could've just let them go and been done with it, but not Kempa. Kempa gave them money, not wanting to contribute more pain into an already harsh world. Sure she can shoot lightning out of her mouth and decapitate a bad guy with a single swing of her halberd, but the core of Kempa is compassion, listening to others to understand rather than just making harsh judgements. I'm glad to have her on our side 💙

@lichfucker Tess, playing Ingot the Feather-Light: the sharpshooting, noble-turned-hero tiefling Ranger/Rogue 🏹 Ingot Ingot Ingot, what's there to say about him (that I can say without crying lol)? From the outside, it may appear as though everything was given to Ingot on a silver platter, what with his noble upbringing and having received the highest standard of archery training. But to look at him through this lens would be to do the utmost disservice to his character. Ingot has worked for everything that he has. He was the one who chose to veer off the path his parents had set for him and for what reason? To stand up for a stranger, a prisoner of war who just so happened to be just like them, a tiefling. Since that day, Ingot started to become the person he was truly meant to be, his upbringing and any devil’s contracts be damned. The real Ingot is not a good little soldier boy who just takes orders from the war machine. No, Ingot is a fighter, using their bow and arrow when they damn well please. You do not want to be on the wrong end of Ingot's ire. But more than that, Ingot's learned to be a lover as well. Despite his cold upbringing, he has forged a new family of his own, one that loves him for him, not for what he can or can't do. Ingot is not a soldier, he is a friend, a damn good one at that, even when he may act like a bit of a bitch. It's okay, we still love him, and it has been an honor to be on Team Tief with him 💙

@keplercryptids JD, our dearest creative, dedicated, a little bit insane (affectionate), and all around amazing DM and friend 💚 Thank you for creating Z’ress and Mahety and Suri and Dagen and Lorne and Nabil and Najiba and Temza and Gell and Ohestra and Z'rael and Levsais and Cover and Ildan (🙄 /j) and Polodren (:fearhamster:) and just the whole entire world that is Sirona, and the planes beyond the material! This world you have created is expansive and feels so real that it makes it so easy to feel like we are our characters, walking through it and living out their adventures. Thank you for the weeks and months and years of hard work you have put into making out little fantasy game. Never did I think we'd have what we have now three years ago, that not only am I still involved with this super cool game, but I made long lasting friendships with some of the best people I've had the pleasure to meet (online at least, but hopefully soon we'll all be together!). You facilitated that, you brought us all together and have kept us together and that's not an easy feat for five adults lol. Thank you for the cool mechanical parts of this game that have been the most insanely fun encounters that really challenge us to think creatively, even when we may get stumped by a puzzle where the answer was we had to walk into an unlocked room to get a key 😅. Thank you for the world of NPCs with vibrant personalities and who are complex and complicated and messy and funny and interesting and loving. Thank you for their wisdom and their friendship. Thank you for your friendship, you've taught me a lot and I will value it forever. Thanks for just being awesome 💙

And last but not least, shoutout to JD's best friend, who played the gentle titan of destruction, Salvador, and @artemissoteira AKA Rowan, as Ithren (if that even is their real name lol) for joining us along the way as guests, who made our little world all the more special. I appreciate and love all of you. Here's to many more years in our funny little fantasy worlds 💙💙💙

[hamliet]

The Crows Summon the Sun

Or, Hamliet’s review of Shadow & Bone, which gets a 4.5/5 for enjoyment and a 3.5/5 in terms of writing.

The true heroes of this story and the saviors of the show are the Crows. However, the problem is that the show then has an uneven feel, because the strength of the Crows plotline highlights the weaknesses of the trilogy storyline. But imo, overall, the strengths overshadow (#punintended) the weaknesses.��

I’ll divide the review into the narrative and the technical (show stuff, social commentary), starting with narrative.

Narrative: The Good 

It’s What The Crows Deserve

I went into the show watching it for the Crows; however, knowing that their storyline was intended to be a prequel, I wasn’t terribly optimistic. And while it is a prequel, the characters have complete and full arcs that perfectly set them up for the further development they will have in the books (which I think should be the next season?). Instead of retreading the arcs they’d have in the books, which is how prequels usually go, they had perfect set up for these arcs. It’s really excellent. 

Jesper, Inej, and Kaz are all allowed to be flawed, to have serious conflicts with one another, and yet to love each other. They feel like a found family in the best of ways. Kaz is the perfect selfish rogue; he’s a much more successfully executed Byronic hero than the Darkling, actually. Inej is heroic and her faith is not mocked, yet she too is flawed and her choices are not always entirely justified, but instead left to the audience to ponder (like killing the girl), which is a more mature writing choice that I appreciated. 

Jesper is charming, has a heart of gold despite being a murderer and on the surface fairly greedy, and MILO THE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT GOAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. I also liked Jesper’s fling with Dima but I felt it could be better used rather than merely establishing his sexuality, like if Jesper and Dima had seen each other one more time or something had come of their tryst for the plot/themes/development of Jesper. 

Nina and Matthias’s backstory being in the first season, instead of in flashbacks, really works because it automatically erases any discomfort of the implications of Nina having falsely accused Matthias that the books start with. We know Nina, we know Matthias, we know their motivations, backgrounds, and why they feel the way we do. It’ll be easy for the audience to root for them without a lot of unnecessary hate springing from misunderstanding Nina (since she’s my favorite). Matthias’s arc was also really strongly executed and satisfyingly tragic. Their plotline was a bit unfortunately disconnected from the rest of the story, but Danielle Gallagan and Callahan Skogman have absolutely sizzling chemistry so I found myself looking forward to their scenes instead of feeling distracted. Also? It’s nice seeing a woman with Nina’s body type as a romantic and powerful character. 

Hamliet Likes Malina Now

Insofar as the trilogy storyline goes, the best change the show made was Mal. He still is the same character from the books, but much more likable. The pining was... a lot (too much in episode 4, I felt) but Malina is a ship I actually enjoyed in the show while I NOTP’d it in the books. Mal has complexity and layers to his motivations (somewhat) and a likable if awkward charm. Archie Renaux was fantastic. 

Ben Barnes is the perfect Aleksandr Kirigan, and 15 year old me, who had the biggest of big crushes on Ben Barnes (first celebrity crush over a decade ago lol), was pretty damn happy lol. He’s magnificantly acted--sympathetic and terrifying, sincerely caring and yet villainous in moments. Story-wise, I think it was smart to reveal his name earlier on than in the books, because it helps with the humanization especially in a visual medium like film. Luda was a fitting (if heartbreaking) backstory, but it is also hard for me to stomach knowing what the endgame of his character is. Like... I get the X-men fallacy thing, but I hope the show gives more kindness to his character than the books did, yet I’m afraid to hold my breath. Just saying that if you employ save the cat, if you directly say you added this part (Luda) to make the character more likable (as the director did) please do not punish the audience for feeling what you intended. 

I also liked the change that made Alina half-Shu. It adds well to her arc and fits with her character, actually giving her motivations (she kinda just wants to be ordinary in a lot of ways) a much more interesting foundation than in the books. Also it’s nice not to have another knock-off Daenerys (looking to you Celaena and book!Alina). Jessie Mei Li does a good job playing Alina’s insecurities and emotions, but... 

Narrative: The Ehhhhhhh

Alina the Lamp

Sigh. Here we go. Alina has little consistent characterization. She’s almost always passive when we see her, yet she apparently punches an officer for calling her a name and this seems to be normal for her, but it doesn’t fit at all with what we know about her thus far. Contradictions are a part of humanity, but it’s never given any focus, so it comes across as inconsistent instead of a flaw or repression. 

I have no idea what Alina wants, beside that she wants to be with Mal, which is fine except I have no idea what the basis of their bond is. Even with like, other childhood friends to lovers like Ren/Nora in RWBY or Eren/Mikasa in SnK, there’s an inciting moment, a reason, that we learn very early on in their story to show us what draws them together. Alina and Mal just don’t have that. There’s the meadow/running away thing, but they were already so close, and why?  Why, exactly? What brought them together? The term “bullies” is thrown around but it isn’t ever explored and it needed to be this season. If I have to deal with intense pining for so many episodes at least give me a foundation for their devotion. You need to put this in the beginning, in the first season. You just do.

A “lamp” character is a common metaphor to describe a bad character: essentially, you could replace the character with a lamp and nothing changes. Considering Alina’s gift is light, it’s a funnily apt metaphor, but it really does apply. Her choices just don’t... matter. She could be a special lamp everyone is fighting over and almost nothing would change. The ironic thing is that everyone treating her like a fancy lamp is exactly the conflict, but it’s never delved into. We’re never shown that Alina is more than a lamp. She never has to struggle because her choices are made for her and information is gifted to her when she needs it. Not making choices protects Alina from consequences and the story gives her little incentive to change that; in fact, things tend to turn out better when she doesn’t make choices (magic stags will arrive). 

Like... let’s look at a few occasions when Alina almost or does make choices. For example, she chooses to (it seems) sleep with Kirigan, but then there’s a convenient knock at the door and Bhagra arrives with key information that changes Alina’s mind instantly despite the fact that Bhagra’s been pretty terrible to her. If you want to write a woman realizing she’s been duped by a cruel man, show her discovering it instead of having the man’s abusive mother tell her when she had absolutely no such suspicions beforehand. There’s no emotional weight there because Alina doesn’t struggle. 

When she is actually allowed to carry out a bad choice, the consequences are handwaved away instead of built into a challenge for her. Like... Alina got her friends killed. More than once. I’m not saying she’s entirely to blame for these but could we show her reacting to it? Feeling any sort of grief? She never mentions Raisa or Alexei after they’re gone, just Mal, and I’m... okay. They were there because of you. Aren’t you feeling anything? Aren’t you sad? The only time Alina brings up her friends’ deaths is to tell Kirigan he killed her friends when they were only there because she burned the maps. She yells at Kirigan for “never” giving her a choice, but she almost never makes any, so why would he? Alina has the gall to lecture Genya about choices, but she herself almost never has to make any. 

Which brings me to another complaint in general: Alina’s lack of care for everyone around her when they’re not Mal, even if they care for her. Marie dies because of her (absolutely not her fault of course) but as far as we know she never even learns about Marie. She certainly doesn’t ever ask about her or Nadia. Alina seems apathetic at best to people, certainly not compassionate or kind. 

The frustrating thing is that there is potential here. Like, it actually makes a lot of psychological sense for an orphan who has grown up losing to be reluctant to care for people outside of her orbit and that she would struggle to believe she can have any say in her destiny (ie make choices). It’s also interesting that a girl who feels like an outsider views others outside her. But the show never offers examines Alina’s psychology with any depth; it simply tells us she’s compassionate when she is demonstrably not, it tells us she makes decisions when it takes magical intervention to do so. It’s a missed opportunity. This does not change between episodes 1 and 8, despite the episodes’ parallel structures and scenes, which unintentionally reinforces that Alina had little real development. 

Inej and ironically Jesper and Kaz embody the concept of “mercy” far better and with far more complexity than Alina does. The Crows have reactions to the loss of people who even betray them (Arken, etc), learn, and course-correct (or don’t) when they are even loosely involved in having strangers die. They’re good characters because they change and learn and have their choices matter. When they kill we see them wrestle with it and what this means even if they are accustomed to doing so. Jesper can’t kill in front of a child. Kaz wonders what his killings do to Inej’s idea of him.

Narrative: The Mixed Bag

Tropes, Themes, Telling vs. Showing

So the show’s themes in the Alina storyline are a mess, as they are in the trilogy too. Tropes are a very valuable way to show your audience what you’re trying to say. They’re utilized worldwide because they resonate with people and we know what to expect from them. The Crows' storyline shows us what it wants us to learn.

Preaching tells, and unfortunately, the trilogy relies on telling/preaching against fornicationBad Boys. It’s your right to write any trope or trample any trope you want--your story--but you should at least understand what/why you are doing so. The author clearly knows enough about Jungian shadows and dark/light yin/yang symbolism to use it in the story, but then just handwaves it away as “I don’t like this” but never does so in a narratively effective way: addressing the appeal in the first place. If you really wanna deconstruct a trope, you gotta empathize with the core of the reason these tropes appeal to people (it allays deep fears that we are ourselves unlovable, through loving another person despite how beastly they can be), and address this instead of ignoring it. Show us a better way through the Fold of your story. Don’t just go around it and ignore the issue.

The trilogy offers highly simplistic themes at best--bad boy bad and good boy good, which is fine-ish for kid lit but less fine for adult complexity, which the show (more so than the books) seems to try to push despite not actually having much of it.

Alina and Mal are intended to be good, we’re told they are, but I’m not sure why beyond just that we’re told so. Alina claims the stag chose her, but in the show it’s never explained why at all. Unlike with Kaz, Inej, Jesper, and hell even Matthias and Nina, we don’t see Alina or Mal’s complex choices and internal wrestling. 

Like, Inej’s half-episode where she almost killed the guy they needed was far more character exploration than Alina has the entire show, to say nothing of Inej’s later killing which not only makes her leaps and bounds more interesting, but ironically cements her as a far more compelling and yes, likable, heroine than Alina. We see Inej’s emotional and moral conflict. We can relate to her. We see Kaz struggling with his selfishness and regrets, with his understanding of himself through his interactions with and observations of Inej, Alina, the Darkling, Arken, and Jesper.

We don’t explore what makes Mal or Alina good and what makes them bad. We don’t know what Alina discovers about herself, what her power means for her. We are told they are good, we are told she knows her power is hers, but never shown what this means or what this costs them/her. Their opportunities to be good are handed to them (the stag, Bhagra) instead of given to them as a challenge in which they risk things, in which doing good or making a merciful choice costs them. Alina gets to preach about choices without ever making any; Inej risks going back to the Menagerie to trust Kaz. Her choices risk. They cost. They matter and direct her storyline and her arc, and those of the people around her.

Production Stuff:

The Good: 

The production overall is quite excellent. The costumes, pacing, acting, and cinematography (for example, one of the earliest scenes between the Darkling and Alina has Alina with her back to the light, face covered in his shadow, while the Darkling’s face is light up by her light even if he stands in the shadows) are top-notch. The soundtrack as well is incredible and emphasizes the scenes playing. The actors have great chemistry together, friend chemistry and romantic when necessary (Mal and Alina, the Darkling and Alina, Kaz and Inej, Nina and Matthias, David and Genya, etc.) All are perfectly cast. 

The Uncomfortable Technicalities Hamliet Wants to Bitch About:

The only characters from fantasy!Europe having any trace of an accent reminiscent of said fantasy country's real-world equivalent are antagonists like Druskelle (Scandinavia) and Pekka (Ireland). When the heroes mostly have British accents despite being from fantasy Russia and Holland, it is certainly A Choice to have the Irish accent emphasized. The actor is British by the way, so I presume he purposely put on an Irish accent. I'm sure no one even considered the potential implications of this but it is A Look nonetheless.

The Anachronisms Hamliet Has a Pet Peeve About: 

The worldbuilding is compelling, but the only blight on the worldbuilding within the story itself (ignoring context) was that there are some anachronisms that took me out of the story, particularly in the first episode where “would you like to share with the class” and “saved by the horn” are both used. Both are modern-day idioms in English that just don’t fit, especially the latter. The last episode uses “the friends we made along the way.” There are other modern idioms as well.

IT’S STARKOVA and Other Pet Peeves Around the Russian Portrayal 

Russian names are not hard, and Russian naming systems are very, very easy to learn. I could have waved “Starkov” not being “Starkova,” “Nazyalensky” not being “Nazyalenskaya,”  and “Safin” not being “Safina” as an American interpretation (since in America, the names do not femininize). However, “Mozorova” as a man is unfathomable and suggests to me the author just doesn’t understand how names work, which is a bit... uh okay considering a simple google search gets you to understand Russian names. They aren’t hard. I cannot understand why the show did not fix this. It is so simple to fix and would be a major way to help the story’s overall... caricature of Russia. 

Speaking of that... Ravka is supposedly Russian-based, but it is more accurately based on the stereotypes of what Americans think of Russia. Amerussia? Russica? Not great. 

The royals are exactly what Americans think of the Romanovs, right down to the “greasy” “spiritual advisor” who is clearly Rasputin and which ignores the Romanov history, very real tragedy, and the reason Rasputin was present in the court. The religion with all its saints is a vapid reflection of Russian Orthodoxy. The military portrayal with its lotteries and brutality and war is how the US views the Russian military. The emphasis on orphans, constant starvation, classification, and children being ripped from their homes to serve the government is a classic US understanding of USSR communism right down to the USSR having weapons of destruction the rest of the world fears (Grisha). Not trying to defend the Soviet Union here at all, but it is simplistic and reductive and probably done unconsciously but still ehhhh. 

However, I’m not Russian. I just studied Russian literature. I’ve seen very little by way of discussion of this topic online, but what I do see from Russian people has been mixed--some mind, some don’t. The reality is that I actually don’t really mind this because it’s fantasy, though I see why some do. I'm not like CANCEL THIS. So why am I talking about this beyond just having a pet peeve?

Well, because it is a valid critique, and because it doesn’t occur in a vacuum. The Grishaverse is heralded as an almost paragon for woke Young Adult literature, which underlines itself what so frustrates me about how literary circles discuss issues of diversity and culture. Such praise, while ignoring its quasi-caricature of Russia, reflects a very ethnocentric (specifically American) understanding of culture, appropriation, and representation. All stories are products of their culture to various extents, but it bothers me on principle what the lit community reacts (and overreacts sometimes?) to and what people give a pass to. The answer to what the community reacts to and what it gives a pass always pivots on how palatable the appropriation is to American understandings and sensibilities. There’s nuance here as well, though. 

I'm not cancelling the story or thinking it should be harshly attacked for this, but it is something that can be discussed and imo should be far more often--but with the nuance it begs, instead of black/white. But that’s a tall ask. 

[glumpiglet]

Beetlejuice meeting his S/O and shes a ghost?

Hi..Thank you for the request.. I had a lot of fun with this one.. It really got away from me lol I hope you like it <3 to those who requested I havent forgotten about you, it’s just easier for me to write on the weekend when I’m not working. K love you guys

Warning: bit of swearing.. basic beej innuendos... thats it.

If you had known that when you woke up that Wednesday, it would have been your last day alive, you probably would have done so not hungover. Stumbling out of bed, sheets still clutching at your legs, you swore at the morning sun shining once again for the high, wide windows in all the bedrooms. It was on the list to replace the sheer curtains, but fabric that long was hard to find and not cheap to buy.

When Great Aunt Gerdy left you her house, the only wish she had was to ‘preserve, protect, and breath life back into Windflew Manor.’

Sweet, naive Gertrude. Spun of sugar more than flesh, your great aunt had been the youngest of twelve and definitely your favourite family member. Growing up, you fondly remembered spending summers here, riding your bike through the halls on rainy days, playing ‘Pirates and Rogues’ in the backyard with Gerdy and her children.

When you got older you begged to still come to the Manor; Gertrude watched you grow and in her own mind, Auntie Gerdy had assumed you would follow the steps of the women in your family, hunker down with a fine man, pop out some kids every few years.

As you said, Gertrude was tragically naive. Never had the heart to ever tell her the truth. That marriage….Children? Had never even entered the equations of goals. You wanted a spontaneous, fun life full of breakable things. Adventure. 

But also it was known that if you didn’t take this house, it would have gone to an auction. It broke your heart the way her children acted, their mother was one of the greatest women you had ever met, a role model. It was what she wanted. You couldn’t do that to Aunt Gerdy. So with hesitant determination, you had set about restoring Windflew Manor.

Due to funds, you were forced to do most of the work, getting help for a few handier friends. But it had been coming along nicely, room by room the cobwebs and mold were disappearing. It was satisfying work.  

Resting your head against the shower wall, however, you didn’t think you could find the strength to tackle the gardens today. It was all your friend's fault, ‘one more drink (Y/N), we’ve worked so hard!’ 

Exiting the shower, wiping the fog from the mirror, you reflected on how tired the image looked as you moisturized, changing into comfy shorts and a tank top without bothering to properly dry yourself. It was a warm day and you liked the cool moisture mixed with the lotion slicking your skin.

Just as you began brushing your teeth, the doorbell rang multiple times. Who the hell was that this early in the morning? The sound came again, more insistent and you had to roll your eyes.

“I’m coming, I’m coming. Hold your horses..” Sprinting down the hallway, trying to steady on the banister, you felt the gravity shift as your feet slid across the hardwood.

You supposed everyone would lament your damned clumsiness, your carelessness. Imprinted on the skin, you held the reminders of how prone to accidents you had been. It had been a joke in the family for years. ‘(Y/N) is gonna kill herself one day!’ 

It was only a matter of time. 

Swing your hand wildly, nothing could be gripped as you felt yourself swinging forward, hurdling towards the twenty-six flight of stairs that as a child, never it was considered it would have spelled your end….  

**

Turns out, it had been nothing more than a neighbor, wanting to let you know the street sweepers would be out tomorrow. 

Life was funny that way. 

Watching in dull horror as the EMT’s took your body away, trying to process the following information.. It came to you so obviously even though it sounded crazy: You weren’t having some out of body experience… You hadn’t taken any hallucinogenic drugs lately.. You were dead. 

Thinking about what the afterlife would have been: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory…. Haunting Auntie’s empty house had not been on the top of the list. 

Time was meaningless now, you could look at the grandfather clock and see two p.m and look five minutes later and see eleven a.m. it was always cold. You cursed not wearing something warmer than your p.j’s that last morning, not that you thought it would have helped. 

Going outside had been a big no-no. Whatever fucked up colossal worm creature had been out there when you tried the one time to leave, was obviously meant to be keeping you here. So here you stayed.

It could have been only a day you spent dead and lonely in the house. Or a week. A month. Years. You were being a little dramatic, you knew it hadn’t been years. Friends and family came by, grieving openly, making your heartbreak; and removing all your items, which was even worse. Obviously to be sold off or stored in your old room. A time capsule.

On one of the many days that found you aimlessly wandering the halls, a book fell before you without pretense. Equal parts startled and puzzled, well as much as a ghost could be, you picked it up.  

‘Handbook for the Recently Deceased..’

Gripping the pages, intent to open, you were halted as your front door swung open. A dozen or so handsome, young men carrying multiple packed things burst into Aunt Gerdy’s foyer, laughing and chatting loudly.  

“Aw, dude this place is awesome!”

“Look at all the space!”

“Get that pong table over there!”

“What the fuck!?”

Stomping forward, you were about to raise your voice louder before you stopped yourself….Right, stupid... They couldn’t see you… The whole ‘being dead thing’.

Watching in impotent rage as they slammed their things on the hardwood floor, scuffing their sneakers on the expensive carpets you had saved every penny for…

This was not good. Not good at all.

**

You had been right.

It wasn’t hard to not like these kids. You weren’t really into the whole ‘boys would be boys’ excuse for male idiocy in their youths. 

You didn’t like the way they treated each other, the archaic ‘hazing’ they would often do leaving you feeling ill. You didn’t like the way they treated the girls they used and laughed as they were forced down the traditional ‘walk of shame’ making you furious.

You especially did not like the way they treated the Manor. It was terrible, gaudy streamers and tacky posters were pinned to the walls. Daily parties...Keggers…. Were held here, the place was a war zone. Litter and garbage cluttered every hall and you were beginning to tear your hair out in helplessness. 

They had turned your Aunt’s treasured home and your hardworking project into a frat house. It was just rude.

What were you gonna do? Time passed and you watched as the house grew further and further into decay when a lightbulb burst unexpectedly. 

Realizing your answer, you hoped the discarded handbook was still where you had dropped it. Returning to the living room, you sighed in relief at seeing the odd-looking text where you left it. Walking up to it, however, you noticed something there that wasn’t there before. 

A card, dusty, and sticking out of a random page. Bending down you began pulling at it, fingering the worn edges. You lifted it up into the light, trying to read it under all the dirt caked on. On the card, it just said one word three times, strangely compelled you said it out loud.

“Betelgeuse… Betelgeuse…. Betelgeuse?”

The burst of smoke made you hack instantly, it was like someone smoked weed in an embalming room, pungent and eye-watering. 

It was a man. Well, no. Not a human man in any case. Duh. You would say this was the weirdest thing to ever happen to you, but nothing was normal after you died apparently.

Observing as he waved his hands, stepping out of the cloud, you couldn’t help the widening of your eyes...He was.. Definitely interesting looking.. 

“Geez, did I come late to the party or what-… Woah.”  

He looked awful and smelt even worse, and why the hell was he here?

The… Character that stepped had gone silent. Awkward and stilted, you struggled to speak. It couldn’t help being noticed his... Hair was changing colour… Most certainly going from an almost neon green to baby pink…. What was he? 

“Don’t be afraid. You’re dead. I am also dead.” There was a moment before an incredulous giggle escaped your lips, you couldn’t help but realize it had been the first time you laughed since.. Well..

“Yeah, I figured that. From... You know… Seeing my dead body get taken away.” The two of you stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, the silence deafening. 

Before he pounced. Flouncing over in a comical manner, he began to circle you, the humour disappearing from you at the look in his eye. 

“Huh, that line usually doesn’t work.. You’re surprisingly calm..” Turning your head until you couldn’t anymore, you swiveled striving for eye contact. He completed his journey around and stood in front of you, seeming to be searching for something. Before he held his grimey hand out…. The intense desire to hesitate held you still. 

It didn’t seem to deter him in the slightest.

“Hello! A pleasure to meetcha-” Leaning forward, you realized in just enough time what he was doing before he could press his lips to yours, jumping back. 

“Uh, excuse me!?” 

“Can’t blame a demon for trying, babes. Anyways uh… What can I do for you?” He fidgeted with his jacket, pulling at the cuffs and flapping the lapels, wafting his stench towards you making you gag. Covering your nose you murmured beyond belief.

“What do you mean?”

“Well usually I only get called when someone needs something from me….. Bio-exorcism. Homicide. Sexual pleasure. I do it all.” This guy couldn’t actually be serious… You shook your head, none of this was helping. You had gone to the book for an answer and had only gotten even more questions. 

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about dude, I just found this card in this book. Anyways, what is happening right now? Who are you and why can you see me?”

Snickering, he continued to very eagerly invade your personal space and it was getting harder to find the space in the living room. The predator was cornering.

“You said my name, sexy. You called me.” 

What kind of name was Betelgeuse? Deciding immediately to shorten it for ease, you opened your mouth but apparently, he was on a roll, and continued. 

“And I already told you.. We’re dead. Deceased. Post Mortem.” Bumping into the wall, just hearing the words from someone else’s lips made you stop… Well, dead. Pun intended. Before they could be halted tears were gathering in your eyes… You weren’t even that emotional about it anymore, had already spent endless nights sobbing about what-ifs and regrets...Not for a while, still, it never got any easier to think about. 

Trying and failing miserably to hide the sniffles, you peered at BJ’s surprised expression. 

“Shit...shit..shit. I didn’t mean to do that…. Don’t cry,” Wiping at stubborn tears that fell against your wishes, you could see BJ shuffle his feet, looking extremely uncomfortable at your sudden breakdown. You tried to calm him, ironically.

“No, I’m fine. It’s just… Not been that great so far... Sometimes I think I might be in hell.” Staring at the ground, you had the overwhelming wish once again for it to finally swallow you whole and take you where you belonged.

“Is it… Your current occupants?”

“It certainly doesn’t help.” Looking up at BJ’s tilted head and rapt expression, the need to confide was making you continue.

“My Aunt left me this house and… I’ve hated seeing what they're doing to it.” BJ looked to be contemplating something before he spoke.

“I could help you.”

You looked at him “What do you mean?”

“I told you.. Again... Sweetheart, you’re smokin’ hot but your memory’s shit. I’m a Bio-exorcist. Getting breathers out is my forte. Well, most breathers can’t see me… But I can teach you! Breathers are waay more likely to see a ghost than a demon.” Riveted by what he was saying, you didn’t realize his pursuit until you felt his grip sound your waist, pulling you closer.

“Mmm… Get you in a little school uniform.. Give you extra credit...” Blatantly ignoring him, focusing on the important part of what he said. 

“What you’re saying is we can get these kids out of here?”

“Of course babes. I take my job very seriously.” Shooting him an incredulous look, you managed to extract from him without much ease, he was really touchy for someone you just met.

“Yeah, I noticed…”

This was insanity. You weren’t actually considering letting this.. Demon?! To teach you how to scare the young men living in your house. It was dangerous and crazy.

Even more, there was no other option. Desperate times.

“Then you’re hired,”

“Oh, this is gonna be so good!” Once again having to duck away from his advance, you pressed a hand to the dirty front of his suit, holding him at bay.

“Stop that,”

“Hmm... Playing hard to get, I respect that.”

Maybe this wasn’t a great idea.

**

In hindsight, it worked out perfectly. Beej, as he had assured, was very good at his job. Just because that job entailed scaring the shit out of anyone and anything around him shouldn’t be held against him. 

Once again, incredulously if you had known in your life that your love of horror movies would have come in handy in your afterlife, you would have paid much more attention.  

Beej was impressed with your novice skill. The voice throwing came naturally to you, and your favourite trick was hiding in the corner of one of their bedrooms, positioning your arms and legs at odd angles and whispering to the sleeping boys, stifling giggles as they awoke, petrified and flew downstairs, waking everyone else in the house.

None of them could actually see you, but you had sworn the one redheaded one had locked eyes in the bathroom mirror, the two of you paused before the urge to scare rapidly left and the need to leave arose. Walking out the bathroom his eyes had definitely followed. 

He never told his friends about it, but BJ had said he watched him lay awake more than one night, clutching his sheets a little too tight. 

Possession was something you felt was unnecessary. Beej had often offered to uh.. Show you how it worked but the thought of BJ well.. Inside of you… It made your skin crawl and you didn’t know if it was from repulsion or excitement.

BJ was.. Unexpected in the best way. Devilishly Intelligent. Hilarious and.. You saw glimpses of his sweetness. He bashfully gave you dead flowers from the garden and was constantly sending you praises that would make you blush if you still had blood. How beautiful you were, how great of a scarer you were…. After getting over the whole stink thing, he was really cute and you might have been... Falling for him. Just the thought made you terrified. 

It all came to an end gradually. It was unexpected, you thought it would have been some big final fright, using all of your cunning ghostly powers. But no, one by one they just disappeared. Claiming to be moving back with family, dropping out, or simply leaving for ‘reasons’.

On the day you stood in the kitchen, now empty save for a few left behind appliances, the beaming smile sent to BJ couldn’t be contained.

“We did it.”

“You did it, babes. I was uh- Just along for the ride, I guess.”

Shifting closer to him, you saw with amusement Beej staring at your lips. The BJ of before would have taken your closeness as an immediate seduction, trying his luck. Now the fact he was trying to control himself, made your heart swell. 

The moment was broken by the sound of the front door opening, you held your breath to see who, or what entered.

A beautiful couple entered, followed by an obvious real estate agent, discussing the house. The couple seemed too good to be true, polite, and awed at the house. Seeing the little bundle of a baby tucked in the mother’s arm as they continued their inspection. You supposed in a way Aunt Gertrude had gotten her wish. And that could be enough.

You turned to Beej watching the scene with an odd countenance.   

“Thank you BJ, really. I’ve had a lot of fun.” You finally noticed. There was purple in his hair, something was making him sad.

“Why does it sound like you're saying goodbye?” 

Oh. oh.

Struggling to answer him, you watched as he further sank in himself. “I read the book, BJ..The Netherworld… Shouldn’t I be…”

“Not yet! Once you get there… We won’t be able to see each other this much... Haven’t we been having fun?” 

“Of course but-”

“Don’t leave!” His voice was frantic, higher-pitched than you ever heard, you couldn’t find the words to calm him.

“Please! I’ll… I’ve been looking into something…” The moment took the oddest turn when Beej practically flew to his knees, reaching out to you to clasp your hands between his before clearly speaking two words you never imagined him saying.

“Marry me.”

The words shocked you. Scandalized, you said the one thing you could.

“Beetlejuice!” That wasn’t it, the look on his face broke you. It was pitiful, desperate.

“No nonono say something else babes, let me explain!” You reached out, stroking his stubble as his giant, golden eyes glittered at you with so many emotions swirling.

“I’m not gonna send you away Beej, stop please.” Taking deep breaths between you, the urge to sink to the floor with him ran over you. Somewhere in your mind you realized how stupid this was, two ghosts having a panic attack in the kitchen, but weirder things have happened.

“If I… Marry a breather. I get brought to life. So I’ve been thinking..” Beej was asking to marry you.. Could ghosts and demons even get married? Would you have a wedding? Invite other ghosts to the ceremony?

“I don’t know BJ… We don’t even know if it will work,” You hadn’t said ‘no’ yet. At the moment, you couldn’t find the desire to do so. You liked Beej, it was the little things in death you realized that mattered. 

“What have we got to lose?.. I thought..”

Looking at him, on the floor with you. Overwhelmed with affection, you leaned forward, noting with glee Beej’s astonishment. Kissing the ghost with the most was... Everything and nothing what you expected. His tasted like cigarettes and dirt, still you leaned into him more.

The one thing that could make death totally rad. Being with him. He was absolutely right. Pulling away, looking at his blissed out face, eyes staying closed, you gave him your answer. 

“Yes. Okay. I’ll marry you.”

[callioope]

HEY GUYS! I watched the livestream of Rogue One with writers Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz. I took notes. Because that’s what I DO. I jotted down some of my takeaways. Please note I was watching RO, watching the stream, taking notes, and also doing a few other things so these MAY NOT BE PERFECT. Please feel free to correct me if you see something I misrepresented. That said I tried to be accurate. 

YES they DO TALK ABOUT the romantic chemistry between Jyn & Cassian but that is literally at the end, but feel free to peruse the rest of the points because there’s some pretty interesting insights (some good and some bad O_O like Cassian’s original storyline, yuck)

ANYWAYS let’s go

Inglourious Bastards inspired the Lah’mu scene (Gary Whitta wrote this scene, although he admitted it changed a lot but a lot of the structure and ideas stayed in)

In the original version of the script, Lyra was a Jedi in hiding, but this was one of the first things that got killed

Mads thinks he plays a bad guy, but Gary thinks he played a good guy

They talked about how Galen originally wanted to use kyber crystals for energy, but it got weaponized (which is talked about Catalyst)

stormtrooper doll is a gareth edwards touch

idea was that there’d be good people on the Imperial side and bad people on the rebel side

Cassian’s first scene on the Rings of Kafrene was written by Tony Gilroy (who wasn’t present in the stream) later. In the earlier versions, the DS is something that Jyn goes and finds. It was much more like Zero Dark Thirty where she was putting together the clues, and it was a battle for Jyn to get the rebels to take it seriously, but that was too much of a slow burn. So the Tivik scene was to replace that and introduce the idea that Cassian can be dark. Everyone admired Diego’s beautiful bit of acting as he's just lost a little bit of his soul in the fight for justice, the morality is the first victim. It’s very subtle but it’s one of Gary’s fave pieces of acting in the movie

Chris said for awhile they had Ord Mandell, then shifted to the notion of something more like in Casablanca, so a bit of a flavor of that, a part of the Empire that has been taken over that is under violent oversight

Gary said in the original, Jyn went to Ord Mantell (mentioned in Empire?) to find an arms dealer to help her find Saw, then went to another planet where Saw was living on a moon called Yarid

Budget realities played a part in the decision making to scale this back; they wanted to put so much more but just couldn’t fit it in

Originally we were supposed to see the rebels evacuate Dantooine and move to Yavin 4, but it didn’t really accomplish anything in the story accept to nod to SW fans. It didn’t move the story forward and would have cost too much

It was Tony Gilroy writing with Jyn getting freed on Wobani. Some original ideas had toyed with possibilities that she was a deserter or Rey-like scavenger, but obviously you can’t do that once you learn what the the Empire does (chris)

Only time they didn’t use a title card was Mustafar bc they wanted fans to go OH SHIT IT'S MUSTAFAR, also worked bc Mustafar would have been one of those off-the-map planets

Gary was responsible for getting Mothma in the movie

How much did the Yavin 4 briefing get worked on? A lot. sort of inspired by a scene from Apocalypse Now.

“I think this movie really beautifully bridges the gap between the original and prequel” and one of the ways it does that is JIMMY SMITS

Lots of gushing over Yavin. “Gareth just shot the shit out of this movie.” so much praise for Gareth’s vision. “Gareth can compose a shot unlike anyone I know.”

The Yavin 4 set was fully contiguous; you could walk from the inside all the way outside in one continuous shot.

K-2SO is a great example of how one character can have many fathers. John Knoll originally came up with him and he was originally a rebel logistics droid envisioned to be a “black C-3PO” (whatever that was supposed to mean - Gary wasn’t sure). Gary proposed that he could be an Imperial droid that was captured by the rebellion and reprogrammed. K-2 was really limited with what he could do working for the Empire, but once he was liberated, he was going to speak his mind. Chris and Tony and Alan all gave him more life, everyone has a little piece of K-2′s parentage.

Only ever one casting choice for Saw, which was Forest Whitaker. Gary also knew Ben Mendelsohn would be cast as krennic, but no one else was cast at that point -- he knew it was down to 3 choices for Jyn, but wouldn’t say who

Chris brought Bodhi into the story (Gary said so but Chris wasn’t sure)

For Tarkin, they took shots from the ANH and unused takes. There was also a mold of Peter Cushing that had been sitting in a prop shop for decades (I didn’t get what movie it was, something where he needed a large prosthetic eye or something), and they scanned that.

Binoculars that Jyn and Cassian look through on Jedha were inspired from the scene in ANH (like when luke looks through them on Tatooine)

Chris was responsible for Jedha, Temple of the Whills, and Chirrut’s connection to the Force. And Bor Gullet, I think. They said Bor Gullet delights in traumatic memories (more delicious to him). There was a cut idea/scene: Bor Gullet made Jyn trade her traumatic memories for information she wanted.

They talked about the two dudes Jyn runs into that are also in ANH and how they survived the destruction of jedha only to get killed by a Jedi the next day - they must have needed to get a drink at a cantina after narrowly leaving Jedha. Puts their presence at the cantina in a new light.

Screenwriters would tell you this [Jyn saving the girl on Jedha] is a classic “save the cat moment” so that we like that character that otherwise we might not -- like jyn [RUDE, but I think they were joking]  [also i took beginner screenwriting in college and YES the “save the cat moment” was like lesson 1 lol

They wanted this war to look like a proper war, and [Jedha] really looks like something you might see happen. Wanted people to feel like it wasn’t just about stormtroopers hassling the guy on the street corner but there were real lives at stake

Commentary on Jyn’s Awesome Fight Scene: this is the first moment Cassian really realizes that Jyn is no one to be messed with 

They guessed that Tony came up with the K-2 gag after Jyn’s fight sequence

Lots of good commentary here about how action scenes need to serve a purpose, they can’t just be fighting: they gotta reveal character and story -- don’t write the specifics of the fight, but write what the action is supposed to mean, let choreographers make it look good

Chris said Gareth kind of requested a character like Chirrut, and Chris had been messing around with a Force priest and they became the same guy. Baze was originally a murderer and criminal, and Chirrut was his confessor figure, and they had a weird codependent relationship in which Malbus would commit crimes and Chirrut would forgive him for it. But in this they are both Guardians of Whills. Baze saving Chirrut reminds Gary of Indiana Jones shooting the guy with the sword. Good example of action sequence having a purpose: showing Chirrut & Baze’s dynamic

Coming up with names in SW -- no real formula, you just know it when you hear it

Lots of freedom to come up with new stuff as long as it doesn’t grossly violate canon. Two Tubes was Tony Gilroy or maybe someone just before him

Allegedly Bib Fortuna’s cousin is in scene at catacombs

Someone wanted a Tusken Raider to leave Tatooine to be one of the rebels, but that was vetoed bc they don’t leave Tatooine

“you don’t want every star wars movie to feel like a remix of your greatest hits” - gary [me: LMAOOOO not everyone got that memo!!!]

Guardians of the Whills: Chris said when he came on board, he wanted to go into some deep George Lucas stuff so he looked at the OG screenplay of SW which is pretty “cuckoo bananas” but it’s unfilmable because it’s so gigantic. but there were so many cool things in it. Originally the Force was known as “The Force of Others" by Lucas so he had Chirrut often referring to it as such

There had to be physical tapes because that’s what was mentioned in ANH. Similarly, Tarkin said it was the first time they destroyed a planet in ANH, so they had to do a smaller test that didn’t conflict with canon but we still get to see the DS do it’s thing

Gary said he got sick of everyone on the internet saying “If the empire’s so smart how come--” so he wanted to make it happen for a reason

Chris said - John Knoll, who apparently has some kind of engineering background, said a project the size of the DS, there’d be hundreds of flaws that would bring down the station. Gary responded - it makes sense that there would be a flaw, but it’s more interesting if the flaw would be there deliberately

They went back to the idea that SW was a fairytale and “only one key that the lock fits in in a fairy tale”

They talked a bit about the “nerdy stuff” and technical details, like how fast does a Star Destroyer go, how fast is travel through hyperspace,” but they were pretty insistent that Star Destroyers go at the speed of narrative. Hyperspace moves at the speed of plot. They don’t think about the gritty details. Story always wins. You try to hide those bits. If tech stuff comes into conflict with story, the story has to win. If you can make it work great, but story should win otherwise. [MY TAKE: I think it’s lazy and you might as well try to make it work if you can, BUT I agree that it shouldn’t necessarily hang up the process, per se.]

They talked about Jyn & Co witnessing the test on Jedha and how it’s important that Jyn & Co witnessed the terrifying destructive power of this weapon, so they know better than anyone how important it is to stop this thing

They said Saw always died in the weapon test. Originally it was on a different moon, but always planned for him to die like that.

Gary mentioned in ANH, there’s more than one empty chair in the DS conference room, but Gary wished there had been only one chair so it could have been Krennic’s specifically and he wasn’t in it.

The idea was that Mothma and other Generals were desperately trying to avoid a war and trying to find a political solution to this crisis, but Palpatine is stringing them along long enough for the DS to be ready. So the Rebels have been strung along and played for fools by Palpatine, but once we realize the Empire has built a genocide weapon, the Rebels finally wake up to the idea that the only solution now is war. Empire has forced our hand. the movie is about the idea that tyrannical regimes always fall bc they go too far and they do something so terrible that people are forced to stand up and fight back. If the empire had never built the DS, Gary thinks they could have won the war and ground the Rebellion down. but bc they got greedy they forced the entire galaxy to take the war seriously, so the DS was really the Empire’s undoing

The Rebellion was like the equivalent of the Second Continental Congress, with squabbling factions and not able to get anything done, and the Empire was able to win in the beginning bc they are authoritarian, unified top down

Gary came up with Eadu, but it was originally in the first act. The whole movie got restructured. Originally they went to Eadu very early and discovered they were building the giant dish for the DS. That was the first scene that Jyn had the clue that the Empire was building something terrible. Later it became less a place where the dish was built and more just where they were harvesting and refining the kyber crystals.

It was originally Saw’s X-Wings that attacked Eadu

“rain = mood” idk who said it but that line popped

originally there were local people called Eadui who told story how facility had poisoned rivers and valleys and farmland. Gary wanted to put a face on the crimes the Empire had committed

Mads doesn’t believe that what Galen did absolves him

In Gary’s version, Krennic came to inspect final version of the dish

Cassian was always meant to be compromised in both Gary and Chris’s versions. He was a double agent: for a long time, he was working for the Empire. Chris added: he had lost people who had been killed by Saw Gerrera, and all he wanted from the Empire was the go ahead to kill Saw rather than Galen. That transmogrified along the lines post-Chris and post-Gary into a rebel intelligence officer who had done terrible things. In the original idea, he changes heart after seeing the Death Star bc it wasn’t what he signed up for, and he had to win back Jyn’s heart bc that DS reveal happens after his double agent ness is revealed.

In the original, Jyn actually gets Galen back to the rebel base, but he’s beyond saving, but his whole speech he gives Jyn in his last moments happened in a medbay

They talked about the score instead of the awesome fight scene after Eadu so BOOO on that. I mean yes the score is brilliant but still I wanted insight into this scene.

I blanked out a little because I was mad they didn’t talk about the Eadu fight scene argh

They were talking about Krennic standing his ground against Vader. and then someone said it was probably something among the Imperial officers that “you haven’t really made it until you’ve been choked by Vader.” O_o sorry we could be talking about Jyn and Cassian DAMNIT

the debate scene on Yavin 4 was recontextualized. always this idea that the rebellion is not one monolithic entity, it’s a collection of worlds all of whom have own leaders and own opinions. rebellion historically messier because it’s democratic and harder to get things done. 

briefly toyed with a Leia appearance (chris) at the big conference scene, but best for Jyn to give the most rousing speech here. 

Who wrote the hanger speech? Spirit of it might be Chris’, but Chris thinks it’s Tony Gilroy. Big difference from version Gary wrote: Jyn convinced the rebels. But he thought it was cool now that Jyn goes rogue and it’s only when Mothma finds out she’s committed to that that she makes the decision to back her up. But in the original she convinced Mothma, and everyone got around the table and said here’s the plan. Chris thinks it was in one of his drafts that they went off on their own. 

in Gary’s version Jyn was Rogue Leader. 

Chris had grunts complaining all the flyboys create dramatic names for their squadrons but that got nixed

Gary had idea that K-2 had scraped off his markings but had to have them painted back on to go to Scarif and K-2 hated it

Mothma talking to Bail is one scene that survived word for word form Gary’s original script

They talked a little bit about the decision to have the characters die, but I was drafting a question and missed it

They talked about how they came up with Scarif and decided to make it tropical -- what sort of place hasn’t been seen before? sort of coming from production and gareth. but also building these places to fulfill the needs of the story -- like building a walkway that only one person can get across

a lot of extras in Scarif were real ex-military, and Gary said a couple of the X-Wing pilots were real-life RAF tornado pilots

didn’t have Blue Squadron in the ANH bc it interfered with the blue screen

Gareth said “give me a mon calamari that looks like churchill’ and that’s Raddus

Chris and Tony killed pretty much everybody. Sounds like Gary just killed K-2? Unclear bc I missed the main part of that when they were talkinga bout it.

They commented on how RO is one of the darkest tonally movies but also so colorful, beautiful blue sky

They wanted to pay tribute to Battle of Endor

they couldn’t remember who was responsible for ‘stardust’ but it wasn’t gary or chris

who’s idea was it to cut off the “I’ve got a bad idea about this”? gary had a different version of it, Jyn said “I've got a good feeling about this” (which ultimately got used in Solo) 

Someone asked about the footage in trailer that wasn’t in the movie: Chris heard on good authority that the TIE fighter in front of Jyn was actually never intended to be used, was always a trailer-specific moment. he said he didn’t know how she would have gotten out of that one. k-2 died on the beach. chris wasn’t sure but as the scenes get cut together in production and post, the narrative necessities can change bc of logistical needs. but some shots were so cool they were perfect for trailers. Some talk on how trailers and movies are very different things in general.

Gary said originally there were two separate facilities on Scarif: vault and comm tower were separated by stretch of beach. so needed to liberate plans from vault and get across beach to tower. as they looked at what they had, there were too many moving parts and they wanted to simplify, so they put vault and tower in same complex.

did they ever consider letting Chirrut pull the lever using the force? NOPE. 

“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me” was Chris. it goes on, it’s supposed to be like a psalm for Jedi, but eh wanted a sort of lord’s prayer type of thing. 

HELL YES someone asked about the romance between Cassian and Jyn! Was there any romantic potential in any script? YES!!! they said!! yes!!! And Chris said he wouldn’t be surprised if a kiss was shot either! 

BUT they went on to say they wanted to side-step the trope that every male and female hero have to be involved.

But clear GARY said yes early on, there was definitely romantic chemistry that got scaled back to a mutual respect, but they’ve obviously grown close. Gary doesn’t think there was anything romantic and they said people found that refreshing. ‘what they’ve been through is the meaningful part” and “‘the stuff that is happening around them is too important" and “it speaks to their character that they wouldn’t let that intrude”

someone said it was like they were walking into a sunset but it was a mushroom cloud and THEN someone QUIPPED that it was sorta like the sunset walking into them RUDE

There was more after that but that was pretty exhausting to keep up with!!!! so i’m wiped. anyone else get any fun takeaways that I missed?

[thelastofgala]

I started The Last of Us, Pt. 2 last night, and here are my first impressions, musings on parallelism, Naturalism, Ellie’s characterization, Joel’s characterization, the “presence” of Riley, gameplay, story development, and more:

***SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT***

Starting with Joel. I always imagined The Last of Us 2 would begin at the end of Joel’s journey, though I will say that I did not expect to pick up so close to the end of the first game. I thought they would start us somewhere COMPLETELY out of context. Like I was prepared for much deeper flashback. In this way, I really felt like I was playing a sequel, which is not a bad thing. I just had no idea how they were going to frame this. The compelling thing about starting with Joel is that it immediately sets up parallels between Joel and Sarah, the character we start with in The Last of Us. There’s no way this was not a pointed decision. Just like it was with Sarah, Joel is our point of reference in a new, strange world. His point of view in this new world is all that we know. We don’t know what the new special world contains, and we don’t know grown-up Ellie at all. Plus, old fans will have missed him. It is a comfort to be Joel, and like a daughter protected by her father, a false and short-lived comfort. We are also now thinking of Joel as, like Sarah, someone who is in danger, whose agency is compromised, who, for whatever reason, is weakened this time around, and who may not survive the story. 

I will say, too, that I really loved that after the 4-years-later cut, Joel is held off-screen. He and Tommy are out on a patrol. They are out there, in danger, and that sort of restraint is really effective. We are ALWAYS looking for Joel, just like we were in the run-up to the release, because he is the only person we truly know in this strange, new world. ND knows and takes advantage of this.

There are many parallels between Joel and Riley. Both Joel and Riley sneak up on Ellie during their first interaction. They’re even wearing similar colors. Both Joel and Riley lied to Ellie in the previous story, and both betrayed her as an act of self-preservation. In Left Behind, Ellie is somewhat chilly toward Riley in the beginning, even as her younger, more optimistic self, just as Ellie is chilly toward Joel in the beginning of The Last of Us 2. Still, you can tell through Ellie’s dialogue with Dina that she and Joel are knitted together—he defended her against the bigoted bartender, and she appreciates this even if she doesn’t outright say it. They share taste in movies and have plans to watch a movie together soon. I haven’t interacted with Joel in the current timeline, but I do know that in Left Behind, Riley has to earn back Ellie’s trust and take measures to reenter her good graces, and that this is a large part of their relationship arc. I also know that, by the time they reconcile, it proves to be too late. The world will not let them have what they want, and nothing is simple. All of these parallels worry me a lot, as Left Behind, while still driven by a strong undercurrent of love (it is a love story, interwoven with Ellie’s desperate search for medical supplies in a bid to save Joel’s life), is a much bleaker, sadder story than The Last of Us, and it has a tragic ending.

Joel's conversation with Tommy feels important. I was very glad to hear Tommy say that he would have made the same choice, in terms of saving Ellie or letting her die for the possibility of a cure. It shows that Tommy is more like Joel than perhaps we knew. Plus, Maria will have taught him something about love and commitment, as the notion of saving the one you love above all else should make more sense to him now that he has foregone the youthful idealism of the Fireflies in order to focus on the practical wisdom of family. As a parent, I understand Joel’s decision to save Ellie at the end of The Last of Us and know I would have done the same. I also understand why Joel lied, even though I think it was the wrong choice. Hearing him confide all of this in Tommy was cathartic. It was also very characteristic of Joel to respond that Ellie “didn’t say nothing otherwise” when Tommy asks if she believed him. In all of his denial, Joel chooses to believe what is conveniently in front of him, even if he knows it’s untrue. Also, I couldn’t tell, but was that a Firefly logo on that guitar he’s shining up? Maybe I hallucinated that. But if it is, I do wonder where he got it.

Ellie’s character is much more deadpan and ruminative in young adulthood. She seems tired, and a little lacking in self-esteem and sort of immediately defeated by what happened during the experience with Joel. When Joel sang, we could see her return to that place, just a glimmer, and her response—that it “didn’t suck”—shows how she still shields her heart with sarcasm, something Dina points out to her later on (“Did I ruin your punchline?”). Joel has been broken down by the events of The Last of Us and now bears his soul to her with his music, unabashed and dedicated to her, and Ellie is now the stoic one, unshakable, sealed inside a heavy, protective armor that seems impossible to pierce. I look forward to getting to know Ellie as a young adult and, ultimately, crying a lot. She is artistic and honest and still a little soft underneath. You can tell by her early interactions with Dina especially that she can still blush, and she can still come undone.

I love the snowball fight lol. I am always so frustrated when these big environment games, like Red Dead 2, Dragon Age, etc., don’t have any kids running around. Why don’t these stories pay attention to kids? Kids exist. They are an important part of almost any open world or quasi open world environment. I love the presence of kids in The Last of Us 2, because the loss of childhood innocence is an important theme for Ellie as a character. It’s also clear we’re trying to set up the edenic innocence of Jackson. It is childhood, in a way, and just like childhood, it will come to inevitable corruption. The scene, too, reminded me of Ellie and Riley on their teen dream adventure, romping through the Halloween store at the mall, trying on masks and talking to the magic eight ball.

I’m really pleased by all the parallels with Left Behind and Ellie’s portion of the journey in The Last of Us. Winter was her season, and that’s where we’re starting now. The horseback riding, the blizzard, and all the blood in the snow bring flashbacks of Ellie hunting on the woods, Ellie alone in the frozen mall, David, and the Lakeside Resort, all of which layer the current moment with a lot of emotional tension for the player.

The opening is, I think, sprawling. I’m having fun but there’s this sense that I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the story. Like Joel in the first game, Ellie is also big-timing me a little and I feel far away from her. I know this will change soon, and I’ll warm up to her, but for now, like Joel, we’re all being held at arm’s length. I actually like the POV shifts we’ve gotten so far and the multiple POVs is something I predicted a while ago, based on ND’s tendencies in the first game. Ppl are going to give The Last of Us 2 shit for being too cinematic but tbh it sometimes feels more like a playable novel than a traditional video game. We’re on a cable car headed straight into disaster and there’s nothing we can do. In this way the game is using the medium itself to perpetuate its Naturalistic themes. We play and we play, and we fight and we fight, but the environment entertains no interest in our struggle and the outcome will always be the same. There is no free will in The Last of Us.

On that note, the gameplay so far is, I think, pretty fun. I have played a lot of stealth games and am always looking for ways the genre is reinventing itself. Like Sekiro and Tomb Raider, The Last of Us 2 is increasing the verticality of the map with rope climbing and scaling up obstacles (though I do miss using Joel’s immense upper body strength to move those dumpsters around lol). In a stealth game I want creativity and problem solving to be central to the gameplay. I don’t want to be magically handed tools and weapons on a constant basis, to meet every individual need. I want to be forced into resourcefulness, and I don’t want to enter a shoot-out unless I absolutely have to. That said, I’m nearly to the tower checkpoint with Dina, and I’ve only fired my gun twice. The dodge/melee mechanic is neat, but more than anything, having real, actionable help from an AI enables stealth kills even in zones crawling with enemies. On that note, I am playing with a headset, and I’m glad I am, because I find the sounds of the goddam clickers to be all-encompassing this time around and a LOT bigger and scarier than they were in The Last of Us. Holy shit. They’re absolutely terrifying. I can only imagine the horror to come lol.

Now, finally, Abby: I don’t have much to offer on this yet. Abby is not who I thought she’d be. I’ll just say it. Still, the melee battle with her and the runners in the woods was AWESOME. For me, the most fun I’ve had yet, because it was completely different than anything from The Last of Us. Playing her, however, I will say, filled me with foreboding. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to help her. She seems beyond desperate and while deeply sympathetic, she is a new character and her loyalties are not mine...so far. I could be very wrong, and please don’t correct me if I am, but I get the sense she might be a Firefly, or somehow associated with Marlene, and she is looking for Joel, in vengeance. Her group was small and rogue, and they seemed new to the area. All I know is that ND is creating a moral dilemma here, and as to what will become of this, the jury is still out completely.

One small personal criticism, take it or leave it: I don’t personally love that the kiss with Dina and scene with Joel defending Ellie was kept off-stage in the game and left to the trailer. We could have started at the dance. That would have taught us everything we need to know about Ellie, Dina, Jesse, and Joel and Ellie’s relationship state. This is my only criticism of the story so far. From a writer’s perspective, it’s just inefficient and clumsy to try and cover all that in expositional dialogue, taking into consideration that many casual players will not have seen all the trailers. Even still, it’s not hurting my experience in any way. Just an observation and maybe a bit of personal opinion on the fact that perhaps the choice to reveal so much scene in pre-release trailers might be a great way to build hype but might not be the most efficient choice in telling the actual story. My two cents!

In the end, I’m overall super excited and can’t wait to keep playing. These are just my own personal thoughts, and I’ll be back with more thoughts soon!! PLEASE NO SPOILERS OR SPOILERY SUGGESTIONS IN THE REPLIES!! I am NOT privy to the leaks and I do NOT want to know what’s coming. Thank you!! ^_^ 

[macgyvertape]

50 or so hours into Cyberpunk 2077

This should be roughly the correct amount of time, ive been leaving the game running as I get up to get food or do stretches. Quests are roughly in order I did them

non spoilers above cut:

 i haven't found a single hat/helmet i like, and since you can't hide them I just am not wearing any. It matters that much.

I posted the other day about bugs, every few hours I play I find new bugs. some require me to go back and reload a save others I honestly can’t tell if it’s a bug or just really poor development

there are several perks that don’t quite do what the description says, like the Anamesis perk. Based on reddit and trying it out it seems to just not do anything.

sometimes in car chase segments the passenger will say “look out” as cars spawn in my path and hit me. Can’t tell if that was deliberate or a pop in issue

Yeah I’ve just totally given up on doing pacifist things unless required by a mission. Given up on doing stealth too unless a mission objective, except for sneaking around to set up a fight.

:readmore:

the delemain car quest is fun. From the shock of the one going "beep beep motherfucker" and doing a hit and run to start it off, to the GLADOS car i see a lot of people talking about. It was fun to explore the city when i might have missed places like the landfill apparently there is follow up on T-bug's death if you go back to the quick hack shop in Kabuki. It's not much but better than nothing I made the pass with Panam of "what if the room just had one bed". I know she won't do a wlw romance, which is fine since I wouldn’t have chosen her.  I enjoy her as a character, don’t get me wrong, my V considers her as a friend, but it seems like theres always drama going on which would be tiring. I would have gone for a fling, i like her leotard-pants combo with all the straps

but also her questline was buggy as hell. Multiple cases of having to reload due to clipping into objects, including her in a driving section, or just insta-dying when collision physics with some rocks broke "your neural network can no longer function independantly of the chip" me slapping my desk: s y m b i o te!!! come on lets have some s y m b i o s i s

in the scene with hellman i really liked how Johnny moved around the room. It made him feel like he was really there. it was hard to follow the convo as I left the room, i would not have understood it without subtitles. But i guess Takemura fucking waterboarded hellman. :|

lol I hope the dialogue is different b/c i refuse to smoke for Johnny

i am level 18 and still can't beat the first opponents in the fist fighting quest. ffs

I looked up the romances options so I went to do the I fought the law quest as soon as i got it. ACAB, but like I literally just met River Ward 2 minutes ago, and I really like him. His earring and cyborg eye, his big fluffy coat. I'm definitely gonna sleep with him Ok i like how when River Ward is dealing with the tiger claws if you interject it leads to a fight. It goes better if you follow his instructions and let him deal with it. Seriously I enjoy that sometimes its good to not pick a dialogue choice.

during the red queen club part, there was no dialogue over the phone. So i reloaded a save and got myself spotted and attacked. Then River showed up to help me <3 and it was more enjoyable having him there. I honestly am not sure if him not going to the club level is bug or not.

then uuuuuugh the worst of irl police "cops are my family" from Detective Han. Again ACAB "FRATERNITY OF CITY COPS RESEMBLES A [Nomad] CLAN NOT AT ALL" ok a few minutes ago i was complaining about bugs, but the character modeling in this game is good (when they're there). You can see body posture, characters jiggle their legs when they are nervous. Like I though character A was just throwing a cigarette on the ground, but then character B flinches back; I realize Char A threw it at B as a fuck you

I'm honestly curious if "I fought the Law" quest will have any impact later on. My choices were that I thought there was more going on than Holt being the only person behind this (based on how complicated the main questline heist is, and keeping an eye on some of the in game news), and told him not to take it to internal affairs, and I loved his response of how he doesn't give a shit what we think, he's doing it anyway.

In the elevator to report in, Johnny said "this muck is deeper than you think, tell them nothing", so i just said that the case was complicated. anyway i love how much of a sarcastic asshole V is

I thought i was being nonlethal with the monk quest, but it seems i accidently killed someone. RIP, but thats kind of the problem with this game. Like when i do the non lethal cyberpychosis quests I equip my non lethal modded gun and hope for the est. I like how a go here kill things quest led to Charles the ripperdoc. He's getting all his parts from scav gang members so I felt obligated to take him out. I got a police bounty for it but w/e.

I merged the Delemain fragments with the whole. Guess he's the meta now. (Side note: some of my favorite rvb fanfic plots are Ai consiousness/memory merging with the humans, so I’m having fun with this game and look foward to introspective fanfic)

Honestly Jonny made some good points, the fragments didn't deserve to die; but also destroying the core and freeing the fragments, they couldn't really function alone.

I was able to rescue Saul fine with stealth. Using cameras and the synapse overload really made it easy.  Can't use the sniper rifle reward b/c I don't have the stats for it, and while it has a silencer the fact that it's a ricochette weapon and not a shoot through walls weapons, makes it not as good imo; and theres a legendary one that is stats free for only 100k.

Lol made a pass again at Panam, and she immediately shut me down. I then did Mitch's quest and I love every time someone tells V they area  good person.

I hacked the operation carpe noctem shard, and wow the corporations are using ai to make people have cyberpsychosis, or something like that. What a shocker /s, I've played Deus Ex HR before

lol driving through the unifinished interstate, past the fight from Panam's first quest I found a "batcave" with a very nice car, and a manifesto written by "muckman'. But here's my complaint about the loot, there is a legendary top, but it had 16 armor. My current top has 84 armor, like why would i switch?? then later i found a bunker with soviet spies in it. Wild

Doing River's second quest, love the timing of as soon as you ask, why are we breaking in, someone shows up to tell you he got kicked off the force. It's funny how Johnny comments how maybe River's into you, and V just doubts Johnny's words. Love how the first kid asks River if I'm his girlfriend. also wow like oof both the second parts of Judy and River's quest are SUPER fucked UP!! oof like i stopped doing first person mode on the braindances for those quests as soon as i could, just made me too uncomfortable seeing that in first person.

DRIVING IN THE GAME IS BAD! nowhere is it more apparent than the sinnerman quest, which took me 3 times to get the driving section done, as cars spawned out of nowhere to hit me. Then when you restart, there is a bunch of dialogue it doesn't let you fast forward through. The rest of the Sinnerman questline is interesting. My V took every option to tell the dude that he was messed up, and what he was doing was wrong. idk, I was surprised how much dialogue there was that let you buy into his whole "forgiveness thing" and how there wasn't any real dialogue to call him the fuck out, that in seeking forgiveness he continues to do harm both emotional to the mother of the man he killed, but also that he got the husband killed via cop. The later follow up quest, I told him that what he is doing is crazy, studio is just going to profit off this vid. Then I refused to join him prayer, and told him fuck no i wasn't going to hammer him to the cross, or even watch. Yes, the man is scared of dying, and the corporation is exploiting him, but he keeps creating burdens for others.  I think the discussion on this quest will be interesting to read, it's definitely my own personal experience with religion coloring my view. Anyway back to a main quest, yeah i don't trust Placide, especially in that scene where he grabs my hand, then jacks in. I ran off to do most of the sidequests here and got some criticism from him. I do love how in the cinema the western movie switches to a mission brief as the netwatch agent talks. its a fun enviromental detail.  I took the netwatch offer, i don't think he's being fully honest with me, but he didn't put a virus in my head. As I told Placide later, I didn't pick a side. I like how you can then talk with the agent, who is a fan of Western movies, b/c they show "a simpler time where all good guys carry badges" :eyeroll:, and then V recommends Unforgiven, which from the wiki summary goes against that theme.

Looks like the Voodoo boys all got killed by Netwatch, but I as revenge for them trying to set me up I'm fine with it. Honestly after speaking with ai!Alt I don’t believe their plan of trying to be on good relations with AI would work. 

doing the johnny flashback 2, and wow Johnny really is an asshole. Like I had gotten so used to him in side missions I forgot how self centered and unlikable he was.You constantly get prompts to drink or do drugs, which I ignored. But i do love the goth/punk love Rogue and others have.

lol i called it, when Hellman said that the engram would seek to override the host, put V on the engram. I really like how as the relic malfunctions, you wind up in the chair with a cigarette, which you can either smoke and say you are turning into Johnny or throw away. My dialogue "your problem is the ends justify the means", which is true!!! He and Rogue detonated a nuke downtown, does anyone know that, and like ask Rogue about it????

(Funny you can ask Rouge about Johnny silverhand, over the phone, then the game bugs out and spawns her npc where you are. She doens't say much about the nuke, but she does say no one trusts you for jobs). The line of no one trusting you for jobs is pretty funny at level 46 street cred where im at “respected” status. really loving the family atmosphere at River's 3rd quest. Also his big strong arms, and the fact he is no longer a cop. I totally let the kids win, and wow the family dinner where they GRILL YOU over the relationship and try to set the two of you up, then the water tower scene!!!!! I don't love the first person sex cutscenes but they do have personality. I'm glad afterwards you got to tell River about the biochip and that you might die. Because he's so far removed from your personal plot. So I took that option to back out of a relationship.

I do love that you wake up with "river's tanktop" that says "fuck the police" It actually has extremely good armor stats, so thats what I'll wear now.

panam 3rd quest, when shes like why did you help me, I'm like "because it's important to you". Basically the closest you can get to "when a friend asks for help you help them", which as an ex-nomad backstory I really choose the nomad options when ever i can Paralezes quest part 2! I love the piano song but I always think of it as ocean's 11 music. It's also fun to see the computer and see Judy recommended you for the first quest. The emails talk about "forgetting" to hire a staffer, on the balocony a strange antennia was scannable, the color of the roses was remembered wrong...  lol guess i was right with those giant wall screens. Its fun environmental details that spell things out before you can notice, and it ties into some other quests where people's behavior is being altered. Actually, this quest "Dream On" I love it! For a while I've been like "wheres the illuminati conspiracy! Here it IS! I chose to follow Elisabeth's wishes and not tell her husband he was being brainwashed. In best case they program him to forget again, in worst case he ends up dead. The gaslighting Elisabeth described is CHILLING, her husband describes a vacation she can't remember and she doesn't know whose memories have been messed with. On your way to the plaza you get a call from someone/something that says the know exactly WHAT you are, any you black out!!! It's such a great feeling of helplessness that you're just one person in a world so big that you can't fight every power. As Johnny said, could be a corporation, could be a rogue ai, either way Jefferson is fucked (and so are you).

[7team7]

Keeping rocks from crushing you

Rather than gifting Fire Lord Zuko a wife, the Southern Water Tribe bestowed upon him a bodyguard by the name of Katara.

At first, Zuko was insulted. Bodyguard AU

A/N: another story where Ozai kind of just goes away without the canon story LOL how else will we make zutara strangers to friends to lovers in this context!! While the arranged marriage fire lady katara trope is Very Good I hope you enjoy this take too :)

.

.

It was after Iroh lost count when he snapped.

He had full faith in his nephew, but the number of assasination attempts against him was too high for comfort. It was natural, expected that not everyone would agree with Zuko’s rise to power after taking down his father once and for all. Even though the Avatar, aged as he was, played an integral role in defeating Ozai, loyalists still saw Zuko as the true villain. They were loyal to Ozai, but not the rest of his bloodline.

Zuko had managed to win over many skeptics, but that didn’t stop fanatic traitors from making attempts on his life. It was only through Zuko’s own skill and discipline that they avoided some close calls. Even though many of the assassins were clumsy in their plans, the fear of a more organized resistance plotting to take down his beloved nephew kept Iroh awake at night.

So in the interest of keeping Zuko in power and by extension, maintaining international peace, he called upon the help of another nation.

Rather than gifting Lord Zuko a wife, the Southern Water Tribe bestowed upon him a bodyguard by the name of Katara. Their greatest treasure, the chief insisted.

At first, Zuko was insulted.

Not only did his uncle not believe in his ability to defend himself, but he brought in a Water Tribe girl to be his personal bodyguard?

“Why would you hire an outsider?” he demanded. All Katara did was show up and he was already angry. What was wrong with Fire Nation troops? How could he be sure if she was trustworthy? And how old was she anyway?

“I would not be so hasty as to complain, nephew. Not only will the Southern Water Tribe take great offense, but she puts me at ease, more so than any of our own troops.”

Zuko settled down, muttering. If it made Uncle more comfortable, he supposed it couldn’t be too terrible having her around. Still, it seemed excessive. He wondered if he really needed her around; wasn’t there another way to improve his relations with the Water Tribes? Wouldn’t this show the world that he was weak?

But then Zuko watched her display impressive skills time and time again, and successfully do her job: keep him safe.

Unlike his usual palace guards, she was better at being stealthy and unassuming. A woman clearly from the Water Tribes looked more like a visitor than anything.

“Fine, she stays,” he conceded after he only realized she had taken someone out when she asked politely what to do with the unconscious body.

“At your service,” she bowed. Personally, she was looking forward to all the adventures she was sure to encounter in the Fire Nation. A dramatic Fire Lord was nothing she couldn’t handle.

.

Those adventures came more quickly than she expected. As the nations grew at a staggering rate, it seemed like Zuko was always being pulled in a different direction to attend to something or other.

This time, a lucrative new trade agreement was to be signed with a group of travelers. At least, that was what was reported to the palace. Zuko’s presence was requested because apparently they were being difficult. He had the power to either make them comply or tell them to sail away.

But in what was a running theme, this group of travelers had ill intentions and quickly drew up arms as soon as the Fire Lord arrived. Why did everyone want to pick a fight?

Zuko, practically dead on his feet from constant exhaustion, was slow to react. He felt his face grow hot in embarrassment when one of them nearly managed to land a hit on him.

But before he could take action, Katara blocked his body with her own, making him look totally uncool.

“Katara!” There was no way she could take on all these guys by herself?! She had to let him fight too. He could at least use his swords; he knew his guards had to hold back from using fire lest they wanted to destroy all the precious goods aboard the wooden ship the rogues came in on.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll save you from the pirates,” she smirked right before spinning away and taking out a handful of men in the process. They were expecting fire, but near the sea, near her element, it didn’t matter what they expected because they wouldn’t win.

Zuko spluttered, too shocked to move. All he could do was watch as she rounded them up and froze them in place.

She turned around to face him as the royal guards moved to apprehend the band of pirates. “I didn’t get you wet did I?” she asked, all sweetness and sunshine. She waved her hand lightly and wicked any moisture out of his clothing, moisture he didn’t even realize was there.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” he muttered, mostly to himself because Katara had turned her attention back to the pirates, giving orders to the guards like she owned the place. He straightened his crown. Spirits, this girl.

.

They traveled more now that, again, things outside the palace required Zuko’s attention and Katara had proven herself extremely capable. On the way there, she talked and talked and talked. He didn’t mind, though. She had so many stories from and about the Southern Water Tribe; her eyes took on a certain sparkle when she talked about her people. He could tell she really loved her family, but that being able to do something besides heal and cook was invigorating for her.

Good, he thought privately, this arrangement is working out for the both of us.

They were examining precious gems near the entrance of an Earth Kingdom cave when they heard a huge boom.

The Earth King jumped, immediately hiding behind Zuko. He turned back to face the cowering man, but in doing so he didn’t notice the way the side of the mountain had started to shake and crack. Zuko ordered him to get back to his carriage; he would take care of the attackers. Katara, as his appointed eyes and ears, of course noticed.

Right as the Earth King and his men scurried away to relative safety, Zuko looked to see who was causing the trouble. He didn’t get a clear view because suddenly, Katara tackled him from the side and rolled with him until they landed out of the way of the massive rock that rumbled down the mountain.  

“What are you doing?!”

“Keeping rocks from crushing you.” Her eyes darted all over, checking to see if there was so much as a scratch on him.

“Well I’m fine,” he said, more softly than he anticipated, but he felt a strange need to make it better, to make her stop worrying.

“You’re fine thanks to me,” she said with a shit-eating grin as she offered a hand to help him up.

“Congrats, you’re doing your job,” he rolled his eyes, trying to ignore the way his heart was racing.

She grabbed his hand and hauled him towards the Earth King, planting him a safe distance away from the mountain. She dusted off his clothing, “Look alive, Fire Lord. Make sure to stay alert this time, I’m gonna finish up in there.”  

As his guards and attendants started fawning all over him, he grumbled, “Why does she get to do all the fun stuff without me?”

.

Back at the palace, he challenged her to a spar. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought to do so earlier, but once they started, they sparred whenever they had a chance. Sure, Katara was protecting him perfectly, but he didn’t want to get lazy or for his own skills to diminish. She gave him a huge smile when he first pulled out his broad swords, saying they reminded her of her brother. Then she nearly knocked him off his feet with a water whip.

She always kept him on his toes, but she wasn’t like other firebenders, always pushing to the limit. She maintained balance during their sparring sessions, they were almost like training sessions than anything. She made sure to give him time to meditate and stretch. And if she seriously hurt him, she was by his side ready to heal him in an instant. Iroh approved, of course.

“I’m a package deal,” she once joked.

Above all, it was just plain fun seeing each other incorporate different bending forms into their attacks. Since they spent so much time together, they had to get creative in an attempt to surprise the other. He always smirked remembering the way Katara’s eyes widened when he first set his swords on fire.

“We’re in the Fire Nation, remember?” he provoked.

She was poised to attack. “Of course I do. And water beats fire, remember?”

The hiss of steam when one element met another made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

.

“Katara,” he said very seriously, “we need to talk.”

She sighed. They had just sat down for breakfast and he was already worried about something? Upon further examination, she noticed his eye bags were darker than normal — something must have kept him up all night. She went for a gentler approach and asked, “About what? Is everything okay?"

“People have been talking.”

“People tend to do that, Zuko.”

“Well, they’re talking about us!” He must have been really bothered because he was already waving his arms around and clearly getting worked up.

“Oh, do tell? I thought you didn’t like palace gossip.”

“They think you’re my girlfriend or something,” he spit out. Well, concubine was the word some had used. He wasn’t sure what was more uncomfortable to think about: sex or emotional intimacy with Katara. He shuddered.

“Let them,” she shrugged nonchalantly. “They’ll think that if you have enough time and energy to run around with a girl, you’re not worrying about other things like, you know, your personal safety. Live a little, Fire Lord.”  

She went back to eating and left him with his jaw hanging open loosely. This seemed to placate him for a while, though, because he actually paid attention to his food.

But the spirits would never let her know peace because he spoke up again with great panic, “Have you been telling people that I’m your boyfriend?”

“No way! Why would I do that? I literally work for you. There’s no time for dating when I’m always saving your royal butt.”

“Because you like to mess with me,” he mumbled.

This made her laugh, seeing him blush. “Oh, Zuko. You’re so cute sometimes.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!”

.

.

A/N: chapter 2? Maybe? Also I hope katara isn’t too ooc here?? I just wanted her to be Confident and sometimes when writing her jokes/quips I’m like this is a sokka-ism...LOL we stan funny and confident katara!! happy start to zutara week, posting early bc i need to focus on my real work now T_T

[mautadite]

february book round up

13 books this month. (haha, half of what i read in january, but i knew i wasn’t going to duplicate that, no way.) a pretty mixed bag.

in praise of shadows - junichiro tanizaki ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ a really really interesting non fiction work on japanese versus western aesthetics, the use of shadows and light, darkness and exposure. talks about architecture, art, people, culture, theatre... i enjoyed this a lot.

beneath a scarlet sky - mark sullivan ⭐️⭐️⭐️ a good story, extremely badly told. it’s a novel of italy in wwii, following a young man who falls in love, guides jews to switzerland, becomes a spy... a lot happens. it’s heavily based the true story of pino lella’s life but man the author should have stuck to bare facts (even if there weren’t many) because his writing is... not good. not structurally, or narratively, or just his prose.

the fever king - victoria lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ this book gave me the always frustrating horror of showing kids being manipulated by adults and the kids don’t know it but you the reader do know it and it’s AGONY. queer teen scifi in a dystopian future where magic manifests as a sickness and those who overcome it develop powers. the world-building was really really interesting, the writing was tight, the characters were amazing. THEY’RE MY KIDS NOW. really looking forward to the sequel.

yellow crocus - laila benjamin ⭐️⭐️⭐️ another well meaning book, lovingly told, but badly told. a novel about an enslaved black wet nurse and her charge, the white daughter of her master, with whom she develops a deep motherly bond. the novel follows them from lisbeth’s (the child) birth to the birth of her own child.you can tell that a lot of research and care and love went into this book, and it didn’t skeeve me off in the usual ways that books about slavery written by non-black people usually do... but it just wasn’t very well written.

boystown 2 - marshall thornton ⭐️⭐️⭐️ second set of stories about a gay private eye solving mysteries in the 80s. in this instalment, nick juggles things with his sort-of-not-really boyfriend, gets complicated feelings about his ex-boyfriend, and has bunch of sex with a bunch of guys who aren’t either of those men. interesting mysteries once again, though one of them kinda ticked me off.

no two ways - chi yu rodriguez ⭐️⭐️⭐️ contemporary f/f romance about a bi girl who hooks up with a lesbian and starts falling for her pretty quickly... but then finds out she’s a huge biphobe. this was good...? but the leads had almost no chemistry, it took too long for jackie to get an attitude change, and when she did, she got off way too easily.

northanger abbey - jane austen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ fun stuff, very enjoyable. i really like how austen does humour, and there’s some good stuff in here about sexist microaggressions and the art of novels. and i really liked the hero.

proper english - k.j. charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ AHHHHHH. i really like k.j. charles, and i was SO EXCITED when i found out she’d dipped her toes into f/f romance. this was wonderful. a very satisfying mystery, the kind that gives all the right hints and clues and allows the reader to figure it out if they’re paying attention, but introduces just enough doubt that you’re not sure. and the characters! the romance! i loved these two women in their first appearance in ‘think of england’ I LOVED THEM EVEN MORE HERE. pat’s assertiveness, fen’s flirtiness... gah.

perfect rhythm - jae ⭐️⭐️⭐️ contemporary f/f/ romance with an ace protag. very cute, if a bit... idk wooden at times? in the writing, the way asexuality was talked about, some of the delivery of the jokes. it definitely wasn’t bad; the characters were complicated and flawed in real ways, and i feel like their romance progressed very naturally, and it was super fulfilling in the end. it just needed a little something more, writing-wise. also, did not enjoy the way it treated the closeted side character. :/

the gentleman and the rogue - bonnie dee & summer devon ⭐️⭐️ this book made me realise... i don’t think i’ve ever read a fiction book written by two authors that i thoroughly enjoyed? i just don’t gel with most people’s approaches to co-writing. not that that was the only thing wrong with this book. historical m/m romance between a veteran lord and the guttersnipe he hires as his new valet. i don’t like rich/poor romance where the rich person doesn’t buy a clue, i don’t like structural inequality played straight, i don’t like plots that are so thin it seems like the author didn’t want to write one. and the writing itself left much to be desired.

scrap metal - harper fox ⭐️⭐️⭐️ really sweet contemporary m/m romance set on a small scottish island, between a phd student who has suddenly been called back to work on the farm he grew up on, and the mysterious man who shows up on the farm in the middle of the night. i really like harper fox’s writing; she can sometimes have the loveliest way with words. and the romance was super well done. my nitpicks with this book are kinda silly but i had them all the same. it hit some squicks of mine and also i really don’t like when harper fox slips in the paranormal as a side-element int he books. why? i don’t know! but i don’t like it.

switchback - s.w. andersen ⭐️⭐️ i only got this audiobook because i really like nicol zanzarella, the narrator. and i mean it’s lesbian romance featuring a mountain bike rider and a chiropractor? neat right? wrong, it was boring and badly written. alas! man i hate omniscient pov, especially for romance.

mama black widow - iceberg slim ⭐️⭐️⭐️ semi-biographical novel of a black drag queen living in the ghettos of 1960s chicago. follows him from childhood to his prime to his decline, with a heavy focus on his childhood and relationship with his mother and the many tragedies that befell him and this family. heavy focus on race, sexuality, and violence. (don’t go into this without hella warnings.) i enjoyed it, mostly, though i felt that doylist misogyny coming through hard. it was written in the 1960s and it shows lol.

and that’s it for february. i started a new job today and probably won’t have a lot of reading time, but i’ll continue to do as much audiobooking as i can on public transportation. currently doing a reread of the hobbit, which i 100% started as a self comfort thing, and will probably be ready very sparsely throughout the month. going to start a hundred little lies. 

[tarotdeckshuffle]

Jello! (Because it's yummy) You're an amazing writer! Making me believe that I'm in a relationship with all of the boys lol (T-T) May I request a happy ending fic? A celebration party is held before Noctis and Luna's wedding and s/o is trying to be supportive for her two childhood friends. She tries to come to terms that she's gonna lose her Noctis. The prince tries to talk to s/o about her distancing herself from him when the emotions were too much she needed flee..

Jello is pretty yummy. I haven’t had that in ages…

I’m so glad you like my writing!! Your support means so much to me! It lets me know that I’m doing something right and that I can bring joy to others, which is really all I’ve ever wanted. 

I am so sorry it’s taken me sooooo long to get to this fic. But, here it is! I’d say it’s a decent mix of angst and fluff with some Noctis x reader, some Luna x reader, and some OT3 with a dash of Disney references! I enjoy anything that lets me write Luna. Four Suns has gotten really out of hand in terms of length, so I’m working to keep my fics a bit shorter and moving a bit faster.  I hope this fits with what you were hoping for! Enjoy! ❤

Taglist: @idiotflowerex, @laststory1013, @sayaoqueen, @jophinabean, @mysme-already

If you like what you read, please consider supporting me on Patreon or buying me a Ko-fi!

Come Home, Cinderella

The wall was cold against your back, but it was better than being in the middle of this commotion. You were in Altissa, attending an “engagement party” for Noctis and Luna. Everyone laughed, drank, and danced around you, relishing the rare moment of communal joy.   The celebration was as much for the happy couple as it was for the entire kingdom of Lucis, as peace was soon expected.

Soon, the Prince and the Oracle would be wed. It was to be an ornate ceremony where the two professed their love for each other as the world looked on. As the rest of the world rejoiced in a celebration of love, you felt a hole form in your chest where your heart had been.

Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change,

You could taste the playwright’s words on your tongue. Perhaps they were overdramatic, but you didn’t care right now.

Noctis was your everything. He always had been.

You had grown up as friends, meeting in the Citadel when your parents worked as groundskeepers. You had fond memories of playing hide and seek with your “new friend”. People had thought the little boy you spoke of was imaginary. Their shock at finding out your friend was real and THE PRINCE was hilarious to your young self.

The two of you tried to stay friends over the years. Many of your games came to include others, like Luna, Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio. No matter who came and went, you and Noctis were constantly together. The two of you grew distant with time, though, as you went to different high schools and made new friends. But fate had other plans.

Noctis was thrilled when you entered the court one day, summoned to be his newest bodyguard. By his side, the two of you became ever closer. A childhood friendship grew into a whirlwind romance. Sweet smiles led to small gifts that eventually led to secret kisses.

The two of you had been together for some time, keeping everything hushed until the future was more certain. The “royals” of Insomnia would not look kindly at a bodyguard the Prince was dating. So the two of you kept your kisses secret and your nights together short, only letting your closest friends know about the two of you.

And now, here you were.

With every memory you had of Noctis as a child, you now remembered Luna being there, too. She was a dear friend of yours. You truly did adore her. Who wouldn’t love the fair maiden with a soft heart and strong duty. But this was all so unfair.

You were here for them, though. You loved Noctis with all of your heart and Luna was still your friend. You had to keep telling yourself that it was your duty to support them.

Noctis had spoken to you as soon as he found out. So much of the conversation was a blur. He didn’t want this to happen, best for Lucis, stay together…blah blah blah. You knew he hadn’t wanted this to happen, but it was hard to see that through his smiles with Luna, now.

Luna’s smile lit up the room next to Noctis.

But he was your Noctis…yours.

It wasn’t fair.

But…he never truly was yours, was he?

The two of you were from different worlds.

Luna was from his world…

A hand on your shoulder woke you from you thoughts. It was Noctis. His soft smile touched your soul.

“Hey…” he said, moving to stand beside you.

“Hey,” is all you could respond. The two of you stood in silence for a few moments, staring out at the party.

“Want to get some air,” he finally asked.

You hesitantly obliged, unsure if you wanted to spend time alone with the Prince after all you had been through.

The two of you stepped out onto a balcony overlooking the sea. Silence and salt filled the space where love once lived.

Noctis sighed, looking down at his hands. “How’ve you been?” The silence did not break cleanly.

“I’m…fine.” You answered. How could you tell him you were being torn apart at your very seams, pulled between duty and love. How could you tell him that you still adored Luna but part of you wanted to hate her? How could you put this raw pain into words?

“That’s…good.” Noctis couldn’t look you in the eyes. He bashed his hands against the stone railing before turning to you. “Please, may I just kiss you? I miss you so much.” His eyes were pleading.

You stared back, teetering between what your heart wanted and what your head told you to do.

“No. It would be inappropriate. Your bride is just inside,” you replied, reverting back to your duty. The facade of the good soldier was easier to wear than that of the hurt lover.

Noctis stared at you, silent. Finally, he sighed, looking away. “Fair enough.” He turned away from you. You wanted to reach out to him, to hold him, to let him know it’d be ok, but…you couldn’t, you wouldn’t.

“[Y/N], I want you in my life. I love you. I…I want us to go forward TOGETHER.” His words were directed more to the sea below, than to you.

“I know.”

“Then…what are we going to do?” He turned to you and you were swept away by those eyes.

“I..” You began to speak, but were interrupted by someone calling for Noctis.

“Erg…wait here, I’ll be right back, ok?” His eyes held a determination in them as he held your shoulder. He turned away to return to the party. You watched his black hair and strong back disappear from view.

“Ok,” you whispered as he left.

What were you going to do? How would you get through this? If you stayed, you’d always hurt. You couldn’t be Noct’s mistress, that wouldn’t be fair to Luna. It wasn’t right. Could you ever be a proper bodyguard if you loved the future king?

A thought crept up from the back of your mind: Wouldn’t it be better if you weren’t involved?

The thought tasted bitter and left you with an awful sorrow, but it wasn’t wrong. Perhaps, this was the best option.

You set your glass onto the railing, determination running through your veins. You turned, making your way along the wall of the party. You reached the steps to the outside and began to run, taking your first breaths of this new freedom.

You were almost to the bottom before your heart pulled.

“[Y/N]!” It was Noctis, at the top of the steps.

Tears welled in your eyes but you kept going.

You kept going until you made it to the docks. A ferry was leaving in that moment. You ran aboard and threw yourself into a vacant middle seat. Wherever this random ship went was fine by you.

Noctis made it to the docks, just in time to see the ferry leave.

It was years later. You had been wandering Eos as a rogue hunter. That fateful ferry had taken you back to Cape Caem, only days before the darkness fell. You had heard rumors of Altissa falling, but you had also heard that both Noctis and Luna made it out. They had set out for Gralea. After that, though, there was little information.

You had been wandering the darkness for five years. It had been five years of wondering if Noctis was alright. Five years of wondering what had happened to Luna. Five years and countless steps plagued by guilt that you had left Altissa and abandoned everyone to the darkness.

You had spent every day trying to help in any way you could. You had escorted countless refugees to Lestallum and ended every daemon that you encountered. You didn’t help Noctis, you had run from your feelings and left him to face the darkness alone. You tried to repent every day by helping everyone else.

Today, you had heard rumors of daemons congregating near the entrance to Insomnia.  None of the other hunters dared to go near the city due to superstitions and the sheer power of the daemons in the city. You felt some sense of duty and need for self sacrifice, which brought your feet to the gates of the city you once called home.

The city that held so many fond memories for you. But standing at the gates to the ruined place made all of those memories feel like they belonged to someone else.

You stood, looking through broken gates into dark streets. “It feels like forever since we were last here. Doesn’t it?” A warm voice asked from behind you.

You spun around to face a dream in white. It was Luna, now a bit older than last you saw her, smiling warmly at you. She leaned on her trident as she took you in.

“Welcome home, Cinderella. You really scared everyone when you took off from that party.” She could have been no end of bitter with you, instead, she greeted you with the warmth of an old friend.

You stared at her, so many emotions swelling within you. “Where’s Noctis?” Your voice cracked, reminding you of a scared child.

Before you could take another terrified breath, Luna was there, holding you. “He’s alright. Shh, he’s just…resting.” She held you close while she explained everything that had happened.

The two of you made camp outside Insomnia, as you were in no shape to face daemons, now. Luna never left your side.

It took some time, but eventually you made your way into the city. The Oracle surprised you, holding her own and striking fear into the hearts of all daemons as the two of you swept through the city like a hurricane. None could stand in your way.

A song of laughter accompanied you as you made your way back to Lestallum. Luna had always been your friend, but this journey reminded you of why.

Having no place of your own to go back to, Luna invited you to live with her and Ravus. The spectral man was rarely home to mind, anyways. It took time, but living within someone else’s light soon thawed your frozen heart.

You found Luna to be the light of your life. Her smile was warm and her wit was sharp. She was utterly amazing. You had been too blinded by Noctis to see it before. All you could hope was that their marriage was filled with joy.

But it is the simple moments that change life the most. You had been wounded on your last daemon hunt. A stray tonberry left a long cut down your back. While Luna had healed it with gentle hands for you, the stiffness lingered.

You were attempting to put on your boots, but your stiff back made it painful to lean over. Luna noticed. With a silent but pained face, she was at your side, helping you with the task.

“Really, you don’t need to worry. I’ll get it,” you protested. You tried to wretch your leg from her, but between her strong hands and the pain in your back, she won.

“When will you stop torturing yourself? You don’t deserve this!” Her hands shook as she tied your shoe. Soon, the dark leather was stained with teardrops.

You stopped, stunned.

“Please, [Y/N]! Every time I see you hurt my heart breaks! Please, stop trying to atone for sins you never committed,” she looked up at you, crying.

“But, I…I…” you hadn’t expected to have to voice your soul. Your head snapped towards her as your voice plead. “I LEFT YOU ALL! I abandoned you in Altissa! And for what? Because I was lovesick and jealous…”

Luna stood, cupping your cheeks in her warms hands. “No, you didn’t. You ran away from a love you could no longer control. From a situation you didn’t know what to do with. No one blames you but yourself.”

“WHY?! Why don’t you blame me,” you cried. You could think of every reason Luna should hate you, but she didn’t. Why did she grant you such mercy?

“Oh, [Y/N]. It’s because I love you.” Her warm words hit you. You couldn’t believe they were real.

Your stunned eyes asked more questions than you could voice. Luna laughed through her tears. “I’ve always loved you! I loved you the moment I first saw you. But Noctis was always at your side. I didn’t want to intervene. I…well, I didn’t know what to do.”

“You…what?”

Luna wiped tears from your face before leaning in to gently kiss your lips. “I love you. I wanted you to stay with us in Altissa, but I was too scared to say anything. Please, won’t you stay now?”

It took a moment for you to fully understand everything that she said. Honestly, it all made sense. She was your moon goddess, your light, and you had always adored her. You had always found everything about her to be perfect. Looking back, maybe you should have realized your own foolishness sooner.

You wrapped your arms around her neck, pulling her in for another dreamlike kiss.

“Yes.”

The two of you were inseparable in the years that followed. Both of you had been planning for Noct’s return. You were trying to figure out how to tell him about your relationship, considering you both still loved him, as well.

The day finally arrived. You met the men in Hammerhead. Noctis was in shock when he saw both of you standing before him, hand in hand.

“I…I don’t know what to say…” is all he could say to you and his wife.

“Well, Sleeping Beauty, do you want to come home with us?” You held out a hand to him.

“There’s room for one more,” Luna added.

Noctis simply smiled. “I…I couldn’t imagine anything better.” He leaned over to kiss you, a rough hand on your cheek. His lips were as warm and soft as you remembered. You free hand wrapped around the small of his back, while your other held Luna’s.

Next, Luna swept in to kiss you. Her lips were a constant warmth in your life, sweet and gentle.

Then, you watched her and Noctis kiss. The sight that once pained you, now brought joy to your heart. You all had always loved each other, it just took time to learn that.

And now, you’d make sure you would have plenty of time to spend with each other. The three of you shared a love strong enough to conquer the strain of time; dameons would be no problem, in comparison.

Together, you walked into the light of a new day.

~END CREDITS SCENE~

Luna: “Wait, if you’re Cinderella and he’s Sleeping Beauty…who am I?”

You: “Maybe Belle?”

Noctis: “Naw, more like Ariel…”

You and Noctis, together: “PRINCE CHARMING!!”

Luna: That makes sense…

[the-wolfs-raven]

An Explanation

So I thought I might finally kinda outline how and why I made Tara the way I did with the background I chose for her.  I know a lot of people don’t like pairing OCs with canon characters, and I knew, even while I was researching, that I wasn’t just going to be able to put it out there without a lot of criticisim.

See, Tarvasha started out as a Warhammer 40k character.  She was a touch-averting, bitchy, angry void-master who slowly crept into being a Tech Heritic with a hard-on for the ship engineer who was basically just a brain in a metal body.

Her last name was Winterscale and, those of you familiar with the lore, would recognize it not only from Winterscale’s Realm, but also the current Rogue Trader of the Winterscale dynasty, Calligos.

I had made her one of his bastard children who resented him for not acknowledging her.  She set out to prove herself by trying to find the lost Baleful Eye (think bionic eye with a laser.  pew pew) of Sebastian Winterscale.  In her mind, if she could find it, perhaps she could prove her worth as a decendant of Winterscale.

Fast forward to getting back into WoW.

Originally, I had wanted to make her Varian’s daughter.  Why, you ask?  Because this is Calligos:

Big, hulking man in a position of power.  And dat chin.

However, once I started looking in the timelines, I realized it would not only be impossible, but also that it wasn’t what I wanted for her.

I did however, want a Varian-baby.

I also wanted Tarvasha to have blue hair initially, like her 40k counterpart.

So Tara became a half-elf.  God only knows how many hours of research I put into all of this.  What it came down to was this:

Her mother is Shalandrala Winterscale, a Highborne elf (like, student/council of Queen Azshara Highborne) who left Zin-Azshari before the sundering of the world.  She brought not only a fair handful of followers with her, but she also managed to sneak a vial of water from the Well of Eternity with her.

After some hundred years, the Highborne elves began secretly crafting halls of learning deep beneath the Tranquil Glades (present day Felwood).  The vial was used to create a new font of power which they hid from the druids of the Glades and used to continue their study.

This hidden sanctuary became known as Cartouche (named after a song by Blackmore’s Night which fits its ambience perfectly). and was hidden away from the watchful eyes of the forest’s druids.

Fast forward to a few decades prior to present time.

In small groups, the elves had been visiting the Kirin Tor, learning and sharing their magics and getting to know the strange beings (humans) from the other side of the water.

Humans seemed to have a natural affinity for magic, and did not need to rely on things such as the moonwells or the Well of Eternity to replentish their magic.

Shalandrala had the idea to breed with the humans to bare children who would be as powerful as the elves and as hardy as the humans.  Children who would not need to rely on the waning magic beneath the earth as they did.

It was a disaster.

While human/elf hybrids aren’t unusual, the rituals they used to ensure strong children backfired and caused a slew of miscarriages and stillborn offspring.

After several years of trial and pain, Shalandrala herself attempted the ritual with the help of a young man from Dalaran who was particularly gifted in the arcane.  It was a success, though it drained a great deal of the elf’s own power to bring her child into the world unharmed.

Tarvasha bears her mother’s mark upon her palm and with it, the untapped power within her.

Good, okay, got ourselves a half-elf baby.  As it turned out, however, I ended up giving her burgundy hair instead, so it was sort of pointless in the long run.  lol

It did open up an opportunity, though.  An opportunity to put her in the one place she could possibly have met and had some sort of relations with Varian Wrynn.

When the Burning Legion came to Kalimdor, they decimated the Tranquil Glades, turning them into the Felwood.  It made sense, in my mind, that the font of power beneath the forest would be an obvious attractant to them.

Now, Tarvasha had been pretty much ridiculed and spat on her whole life by the elves who hadn’t agreed with Shalandrala’s methods or who had lost their own children from it all.

That constant hatred came to a head the night Tara docked her own ears in a desperate effort to seperate herself from her mother’s kin.  With rounded ears, she looked human.  But her mother had caught her right afterwards and it drove her mind to despair, allowing the Legion to infultrate her conciousness.  When the Legion came upon the Glade, Shalandrala helped lead the way through.

She became known as a great traitor amongst the druids there and much of the rest of the Kaldorei.

Tarvasha fled the forest, originally running south into Ashenvale before turning east, desperate to get away from any elves she might’ve come across.

She ended up in Durotar, or the land it was before the name was given to it.

Along the coasts, there were fires.

And there were orcs.

Orcs who would have killed her for being a human were it not for a single savior among them.

Or so she thought.  The orc turned out to be a greasy slavemaster named Oog’tar.

Tarvasha was enslaved for years.  She bore and lost multiple children during that time and finally lost it when one of them was killed in front of her for being born without arms.

Her mental state landed her into the fighting arena with a pack of boars.  The deal was as such, if she lived, she could leave.  She would be let loose into Durotar to make her way somewhere else.

If she died, she would die with honor.

A final game played but her cruel slave master.

By some miracle, she made it through, though she wasn’t capable of standing by the end of it.  Instead of honoring the arrangement, Oog’tar sent in more boars.

Luckily for her, Rehgar and his gladiators were close by.  Varian, unaware of his past, called the detestable slavemaster on his bullshit.  When he refused to send the boars back, the warrior said he would fight in her place.  Oog’tar didn’t want to honor such an agreement, but Rehgar pushed the issue.  It would be good training, after all.

Needless to say, he took down every single boar in that arena.

When she was told she could leave, she begged the human to let her stay with him instead.  She would rather have been a slave with company than be turned loose into the unforgiving lands of Durotar.

Rehgar allowed it, for a time.

During her stay with them, she found herself enamored with the amnesiatic man.  Eventually they would lie together, though much of their time together was out of companionship of their humanity and desperation out of loneliness.

They did care for each other, though it was far from anything lovey-dovey.

She had been so excited when they traveled to Dire Maul.  Watching him fight... He was even finally given a name that wasn’t something she felt uncomfortable calling him.

Lo’Gosh.

Finally, her life seemed to be looking up.  In love with a Crimson Ring champion.  Away from the harsh climates of Durotar.

It all changed when they traveled to Thunder Bluffs, however.

Once Lo’Gosh retrieved pieces of his memories from the pools, she was all but forgotten.  Cast aside for his desperate race to return to his wife and child.

She tagged along for a time, but her gladiator was no longer warmed to her as he once was.

Tarvasha realized that she was baring his child, terrified to let him know.

She stayed behind in Theramore when they journeyed there.

And she found herself in shock when she learned of his true identity.

For some time, she had studied the royal family of Stormwind from books or from conversation.  When her daughter was born, she gave her the name of Varian’s mother.

Taria.

Now, when I created Taria, I got my timelines messed up bad.  I thought Anduin was older than he was, and I originally had Taria pegged as a teenager.

I was so fucking wrong.

So, enter Pandaria.

Tarvasha traveled there with her daughter.  At the time, she was a pretty reputable merchant and this was a great opportunity.

Beneath that, she did some scouting work for both the Alliance and Vol’jin’s rebellion against Garrosh.

During their time there, she left Taria with various innkeepers as she worked, eventually leaving her with Tong in the Tavern in the Mists.  Taria, at the time, was four years old and loved to hunt with her crossbow.

She hunted various beasts around the tavern, her favorite hunts being tigers.  The little girl managed to catch the eye of Wrathion, if only for a moment.

Tarvasha, during this time, had been captured by Oog’tar who was now a quartermaster under Garrosh’s Horde.  After being tortured and branded, she was freed when an Alliance squad took down the encampment.  Oog’tar escaped, but Tara was called upon as a minor witness during Garrosh’s trial to describe her ordeal under a man Garrosh had personally appointed.

She had written to Tong to bring her daughter to the Temple of the White Tiger where the trial was being held.  In the middle of their journey, a massive tiger came upon their cart and attacked them, wounding Tong and slashing the characteristic scars that now sit across Taria’s face.  The beast fell when it lunged for the little girl.  Taria held out a sharpened pole and the beast impaled itself upon it, much the same way Lo’Gosh felled the gator that earned him the name Crocbait.

Taria was crushed beneath the cat and near death as Tong carried her the rest of the way to the temple.  They were met near the steps by a hysterical Tarvasha, screaming and crying as she laid eyes on her dying child.

There was no one close by to heal her, most of them were up at the trial.

However, out of the shadows stepped Wrathion with a deal to be made.

He would make certain she didn’t die, in exchange for Tarvasha handing her over to him.  He had seen the potential she carried while staying at the Tavern.  If he was going to help, he was going to get something out of it.

She regretfully agreed to his terms and didn’t see her daughter against for over two years.

Meanwhile (mostly because I needed a way for her to exist as something other than a child since I’d already leveled the toon) Taria was aged using a combination of chronomancy and mental manipulation.  She was educated and became a fully fledged adult.

I don’t do that child trapped in an adult body crap.  That’s just weird.

I wanted her to be a fully grown warrior and that’s what she became.

In the time before they were reunited, Taria asked to spend her off-time in Durotar.  She had been told many stories about her father, Lo’Gosh, champion of the Crimson Ring, and was convinced he had been an orc.  With her size, it was a reasonable mistake.  Despite not having green skin or tusks, she was certainly as large as a female orc.

After some time, she gained the interest and tolerance of some of the orcs in outlying villages, many of which were too old to care about one human or too young to do anything about her.  Some fought her, some taught her.  But she gained a fascination and appreciation for the race which her father, unknown to her, was once enslaved by.

Eventually, Taria learned of her father’s identity and struggles everytime she passes by Stormwind Keep, aching to know her brother, but knowing better than to reveal herself to the world.

It is a secret that very few know.  Valeera, Wrathion, and Tarvasha’s first husband being about half of them.

Well, this outline turned into a history lesson.  Hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it, and thanks so much for reading!

Oh, and here’s Taria’s Tumblr for anyone interested in my angry Lo’Gosh-baby:  @thepalewolfhowls

[taylorsmiththeauthor]

An Empath, A Psychic, & A Human; first chapter

I’ve decided to take some advice from the tumblr writing community and build my empire, so to speak. So here is my first post about writing, despite the fact that I’ve been on this website for over a year lol. Feel free to check out my wattpad, @Real_Taylor_Smith. I’ve also just put up instagram where I’ll be posting news, extra content, and excerpts as well as here! It’s @real.tay.smith and soon I’ll have a website up. A little heads up, this story has a fair amount of foul language, so be warned. Until then, happy reading!

HUMAN

The air in the truck was tense.

No one had really been sure of what we were supposed to fight. The best that had been offered to us were a few blurry pictures of a massive scaly beast with wings, and audio of a terrible scream that seemed to come from the beast. The world quickly claimed that a dragon had somehow come to be – and we were supposed to fight it.

I glanced around me at the faces. They were all of my friends who had signed up to be in reserves, which was part-time military. We all had our reasons; money, benefits, looking good on applications, or whatever. We wanted to serve from the comfort of our homeland, not fight dragons in downtown Toronto, the biggest city in Canada and seventh most populated in the continent.

I took out a picture I always kept in my pocket near my heart; a photo of my girlfriend. It was one of my favourite photos of her, because it captured her almost completely. She was standing on top of a crazy old Mayan ruin, overlooking an ancient plaza, the jungle, and a large river. She grinned at the camera, hands on her hips, smile lines crinkled around her blue eyes, blonde hair escaping from her bun pinned back with a hairpin made by locals. She looked incredibly happy and in awe of the place she was standing on. That had been taken about two years ago on her last March break trip of high school when she went to Belize with the school. I liked to carry the photo in my uniform, remember that she was waiting for me back home.

“Alright pansies, listen up!”

The sharp command from our sergeant had me scrambling to put the photo away as he stood up and handed out new pictures.

“Now I can’t say that I’ve ever fought dragons before, nor have I been taught the protocol, so I don’t really know what to do. But that’s fine because there is one thing I do know – it is our duty to keep this place safe. Toronto has yet to be fully evacuated and the beast is not contained. We still have no idea where the hell it came from or what the hell it is, but we gotta stop it.”

A photo came around to me and I looked at it, my heart plunging into my feet. The thing gripped the top of the CN Tower, green leathery wings spread wide, head open in a snarl, mouth full of jagged teeth. The thing looked huge, at least the size of a T-Rex. I passed the picture.

“Because we have no idea where this fucker is going to go, we’ve set up a perimeter along the Harbour Front, Bloor St, Bathurst, and Don Valley. We’ve got about fifty platoons stationed around to stop wherever this thing decides to go. We’ll be down on King, by the Princess of Wales Theatre. We’ll be there soon so start your praying, because we’ve got a one in fifty chance of being stuck with this beast.”

I looked over to my left and met eyes with one of my oldest friends, Donovan. He, another friend of ours, and myself all joined together. The other friend, Kaiah, was exceedingly lucky as her family had all gone to another city for a funeral. So, Donovan and I were about to face a dragon.

“What’re the odds it has a video-game weak spot?” Donovan asked quietly, “Like, a soft spot on its belly?”

I shrugged, “With your luck, no.”

“Don’t speak of my bad luck, because then we will have to face the damn thing.”

“Knock on wood I guess.”

“Everything near is us metal, so we’re all fucked then.”

We laughed quietly, the impending doom still very much a real threat. We talked for a little bit but soon fell silent and felt the seconds tick past. Far too soon, the sergeant stood up.

“File out in formation!”

We followed, hopping out of the truck and getting into two straight lines, facing east where the monster would be. To my left was the theatre, and I vaguely remembered going to see a play with Hazel. The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Nighttime, I think. Now, all the signs read Hamilton, which I knew Hazel had been dying to see. She said I would like it, but she felt bad because she had already promised Mackenzie she would take her because she was already a huge fan. I smiled, grateful for the memory.

However, I was violently ripped back to reality when I heard a screech. The videos didn’t capture it. Nothing could.

It was as if a T-Rex and a lion roared while someone scraped their nails against a chalkboard and it shook us to our core. I didn’t pray nor did I believe in a god, but I found myself asking that it wouldn’t be us, please let it not be us.

“And just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

My back straightened automatically and I opened my mouth to make an explanation, but it wasn’t me the sergeant was talking to – two weird civilians had wandered into the area.

One of them was Hazel.

She wore a long white dress with bronze breastplates, shoulder pads, arm guards, and gladiator boots. Her dress was styled like an Ancient Greek chiton,  and the blonde hair piled up on her head sported a style from the same period. From her back sprouted a massive pair of dove wings, the feathers an opal-esque shade, shining dozens of colours, the edges of the wings covered in bronze. At her hip was a woven belt on which hung several drawstring pouches and a dagger.

The person beside her was dressed just as weirdly, but very differently. Their entire outfit was made of brown leather and bronze plates, and it kind of looked like a rogue from D&D. Like, 90% of the pants were extremely tall leather boots with straps and holsters for knives and other things. The top was a green tunic that went just above their elbows and brushed the top of the boots, under which seemed to be brown hide. They had a brown cloak on top with a hood, a green cloth pulled up over their nose, the same pine green as their eyes. They had a mask on their face seemed to be made of moss, covering the area around their eyes. Little flowers sprouted from it as well as small branches with blossoms out the top, making it look like they had antlers. From what little I could see of them, I could tell they had dark brown skin and a very thick afro. I had no clue whether it was a guy or a girl.

“We’re ordering you to evacuate the area,” Hazel said calmly, arms crossed and hip out to the side. That meant she didn’t want any fooling around.

“Except for you, there aren’t any civilians downtown.”

“As far as we’re concerned, you are civilians.”

“Hey, Crybaby, aren’t they militia?” The other asked.

Hazel looked at them and then at the platoon before turning back to her partner, “No, this is the reserve force, it’s part-time military. Civilians, technically.”

“Oh shit, right. Is that thing you were worried about…?”

“Yes.” Hazel spoke curtly and it seemed like she glanced at me, but it was so fast I couldn’t tell.

“We are official military,” the sergeant said angrily, “and you’re civilians! You need to leave immediately, or I will remove you by force, which I do not wish to do.”

“Just try it,” the partner scoffed, but Hazel shot them a look and they rolled their eyes, maintaining quiet.

“I apologize, but you are unfit to deal with this problem,” Hazel said cooly, “We are, however, very well-versed in dealing with wyverns.”

“And just what the fuck is a wyvern?” The sergeant spat.

“What you’re planning to fight,” the partner said, “and my pal here knows that it’s going to be coming this way, so you better get a fucking move on.”

“How in the hell do you know this?” The sergeant asked, seeming to be unsure.

“Classified.” They spoke in unison.

“So please just leave it to us and get your soldiers out of here,” Hazel said, seeming to be losing her patience.

“I can’t do that!” The sergeant was losing his too, “You’re just a couple of wackos who’ll get yourselves killed and land me in a world of trouble.”

“Quite the opposite, I assure you.” Hazel glared at the sergeant and her partner narrowed their eyes, which made him apprehensive.

“Who the fuck are these people?” Donovan asked beside me.

“You serious?” I said, turning to him, “That’s Hazel, I can’t tell who the other is though because of the mask.”

“What?” Donovan asked, looking at them, “How do you know it’s Hazel? She’s wearing a mask too. And what’s with the wings?”

I opened my mouth when another screech ripped through the air.

“You have three minutes before the wyvern gets here,” Hazel warned, danger in her tone, “So either you let us do our jobs or you die and make it a lot harder for us. But one thing is for sure, we will do what we need to do to take this thing down.”

The sergeant shifted, “Well just because you wear weird clothes and know what this is doesn’t mean that you can defeat it.”

“Look, man,” the partner spoke, “we can’t do anymore than is allowed for the situation so how about this – let me fight your best fighter. Whomever wins can kill the beast, old honour style.”

“That’s ridiculous,” the sergeant scoffed.

“Well, your attitude calls for it.”

“Appy,” Hazel warned, “be careful.”

“But you’ll ref, right?” The partner asked, “Fae rules and all?”

Hazel sighed, “Yes, I’ll ref.”

“Great. So good sir, get your best fighter.”

The sergeant scowled but turned to us, “Jackson! Front and centre!”

We all watched as Tyler Jackson, a big muscular prick of a guy, stepped forward with a grin. He was proud and self-centred, and by far the best fighter we had. He had yet to be beaten in hand-to-hand, even from the sergeant. The small person didn’t stand a chance.

“What’re the rules?” Tyler asked, “And do I get a prize?”

“If you lose, you live. If you win, you die with honour. Pick a blade.” The small person didn’t seem to give a shit that Tyler was twice their size.

Tyler grinned and pulled a knife from his pocket. He was deadly with it, and everyone had at least one scar from it.

“Let no blood be spilled,” Hazel said as she and the sergeant stepped back to give the pair space, “Appy, I’m serious.”

“You’re no fun,” the partner complained.

“Where’s your blade?” Tyler teased.

The partner, evidently called Appy for some reason, reached for a bronze armband on their upper arm and pulled it off, glowing as it extended into a massive broadsword. Appy grinned like a maniac and Tyler looked scared shitless.

“Appy,” Hazel warned.

Appy sighed and the sword shrank down to a dagger, “Just wanted to scare the guy,” they complained.

“Make it quick, let no blood be spilled, and may the winner have the honour of defeating the Wyvern. It hath been spoken, thus let it be.” Hazel raised her arms as she spoke, saying it like a chant. A heavy weight settled in, as if the words themselves really carried a spell.

As soon as Hazel finished speaking, Appy lunged for Tyler, but he saw it and dodged. Yet Appy was too fast. They caught him by the middle and flipped him over, causing the blade to fly from his hand. He made an oof as he hit the ground, the wind knocked from him. Appy sat on his chest and pinned his arms with one hand, the other holding a knife to his throat.

“One...two...three. And that’s match. We shall fight the wyvern,” Hazel announced, glancing at the street beyond them, “and just in time. You need to take your soldiers and leave, get as far away from here as possible. But if you see the wyvern, freeze – they like a moving target.”

“What the hell is that?” The sergeant barked, “There had to be some trick!”

“No, trick, I assure you,” Appy said as they got off of Tyler, turning their back to him, “I just guess that military training doesn’t match up to a Knight’s.”

Tyler was enraged, and it was obvious. He had never lost a fight, especially not to someone so weird and small. He snatched his blade from the ground and thrust up on his knees, aiming for Appy’s side.

Appy sidestepped easily and sliced their blade across Tyler’s arm, causing him to cry out in pain and drop his blade.

“That’s one angry dude,” Appy said as they slid their dagger, now an armband, back into place.

“I said no bloodshed,” Hazel huffed as she knelt down next to Tyler and pulled out a roll of gauze.

“The fight was over!” Appy argued, “Besides, he was wanting to give me a scar, everyone in this damn platoon has one from him. Thought I would return the favour.”

“God, you’re like a dumbass Batman villain,” Hazel complained to Tyler as she bandaged his wound, “With less honour than the Joker, you piece of shit.”

“How did you know I was thinking that?” Tyler asked, scared, “You psychic?”

“Term is telepathic,” Hazel said matter-of-factly, “I’m psychic, Appy’s an empath. Now that that’s cleared up, leave.”

The sergeant bristled at the last word as he had watched everything unfold.

“Just because you won one fight-”

“I’m sorry,” Appy snarled, suddenly rounding on the sergeant, pulling their blade out and holding it dangerously close to his face, “Do you not understand basic combat rules, let alone fae? I won, so you leave. You can’t break a deal, or the fae will fuck you up, if I don’t get to you first. Feel fear.”

At this, the sergeant scrambled back, visibly shaken and sweating.

“Appy!” Hazel scolded harshly, “Fear won’t help this, only make him worse. Besides, it’s too late now.”

“Too late?” Someone asked.

“Yeah,” Appy said coolly, “blame these two assholes.” Their head jutted towards the sergeant and Tyler, “If they had only let us do their jobs then y’all’ight’ve lived.”

“No one is going to die,” Hazel assured, taking the sergeant by the arm and picking Tyler up, leading them to where the rest of us were standing. She pushed Tyler off on someone and sharply told the sergeant; “Stay behind this line.” Then she produced a piece of blue chalk from her belt and drew a curved line in front of all of us, chanting quitely all the time. Once she finished, she bent down and kissed it, making the line glow a faint blue. A shimmering wall formed in front of us, Hazel standing on the other side. Then she turned to us, “Don’t move, don’t make a noise, only breathe if you need to. Disobeying any of these will get you and everyone else killed.”

“Crybaby, E.T.A.?” Appy called, a longsword suddenly in their hand as a shriek cut through the air.

“Five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

As soon as Hazel finished saying ‘one’, she pulled something from her pocket, watched by the wyvern as it rounded the corner.

“Oh, we are so fucked.”

[rosegold-thorns]

Lifeguard!Calum

issa Cal fic

Word Count: 1,978

Warnings: nah just a makeout sesh lol

Requested: No but please do

I started this last week and I’d just watched Baywatch for the first time lol

***

“It’s so hot out,” your friend groaned, setting her beach towel down and kicking her flip flops off into the heated sand.

“Because I’m here,” you grinned cheekily, putting down your own belongings next to hers, neatly placing your slides next to her strewn flip flops.

She rolled her eyes with a laugh. “How did I know you were going to say that?”

“You must know me so well,” you winked.

In no time at all both of you had stripped out of your denim shorts and muscle tees into your bikinis, and were now tying up your hair.

Looking out to the waves of the ocean that seemed to sparkle, you didn’t want your hair to knot and make impossible to wash, so you threw it up into a bun that rested on the top of your head.

Your friend finished wrapping her elastic too, then eagerly grabbed your hand, “Come on Y/N! The water is beautiful right now, and I’m melting.”

You laughed and tugged her back, “Sunscreen  first!” You said pointedly.

She groaned. “That takes so long.”

“And it’s gonna take so long for you to get rid of that sunburn, now get this on,” you replied, throwing her a bottle of sun screen.

The both of you simultaneously applied the spray, smoothing it over your skin and watched it glisten as it caught the light.

“Y/N,” your friend nudged. She nodded her head in the direction of the tall lifeguard stand.“Isn’t he just drop dead gorgeous?” She said dreamily, presumably talking about the lifeguard sitting on top, leaning back casually.

You eyed the tan boy, looking at his features, and you couldn’t help but agree.

He had a mop of curly black hair on his head, complementing his black sunglasses that rested on his face. You licked your lips as your eyes traced down the rest of his dark body, taking in the muscular arms and the veins that protruded, and the way the white tank top he was wearing just made him look that much more like a sun-kissed god.

He had an arm thrown over the back of the wooden bench-type seat, and his gaze was fixed in the ocean, scanning for any trouble.

You snapped out of your daze with a “Yea, he is,” hopefully trying not to look to awestruck with the god sitting a couple of feet away from you.

You smiled at your friend. “Race you to the water?”

She smiled evilly. “You’re so on.”

In a fit of laughter both of you ran to the shore, kicking up sand like children and jumping into the water, wading in until you were waist deep.

“Y/N, don’t look now, but the hot lifeguard is looking at you.” 

You rolled your eyes. “No he’s not. That’s his job, to look over the beach.” You glanced in his direction, and saw he was indeed looking in your direction. “He’s just looking at this area.”

“Whatever you say, Y/N.”

***

You guys had spent about half an hour in the water, reluctantly deciding to come out so you wouldn’t start to prune.

But of course another 5 minutes wouldn’t hurt.

You threw a curious glance to the lifeguard stand, to see the hot lifeguard coming down and another girl taking his place.

Must be the end of his shift, you thought.

He smiled at passing people in the sand, and saw him make his way to the water, pulling off his tank top in one swift motion, putting it in a small pile with his sunglasses.

He then lunged into the water and came up a moment after, shaking the water off him and his curls, bringing a tattooed hand down his face. It was hard not to watch him, he was so close to you, only about 2 feet or so, and he just looked so good coming out of the water, you could’ve sworn it happened in slow motion.

His eyes then landed on you, and his chocolate brown eyes made contact with your own.

You looked down, embarrassed he caught you staring, but unexpectedly he threw you a boyish smile, making his way over to you.

“Hey,” he said happily, never once losing his toothy grin.

“Hey,” you said shyly, grinning but staring as your hands as they drew small shapes into the water.

“I’m Calum,” he offered.

“I’m Y/N,” you replied, and finally looked back up to him, catching the glint in his eye. “You’re a lifeguard?” You asked innocently, as if you hadn’t been staring at him already.

“Yeah, it’s great,” he beamed. “I get to be at the beach all day, but at this time it just gets so hot out. I’m on my break now, so I decided to jump in quickly.”

You nodded in agreement, keeping the smile on your face. “Me and my friend jumped in as soon as we could.”

“Yeah I saw yo- I mean, I totally get that.” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck and chuckled softly.

You giggled at him, turns out Y/F/N was right, he was looking at you before. 

“Hey, uh, I still have another hour on my break, do you wanna take a walk with me on the boardwalk?” He asked nervously, lightly taking his bottom lip and chewing it softly in anticipation.

You glanced over at your friend who was not-so-subtly listening in your conversation at the edge of water, and also not-so-subtly made intense eye contact with you, shooing you off with a look at said are you insane? go with him! 

You turned back to Calum with a smile.“I’d love to.”

***

“You didn’t!” You laughed incredulously, looking at Calum to your right as you both walked along the boardwalk.

“I did!” He laughed back, his eyes lingering on your smile as you laughed even harder at his story.

You tucked a fly away hair behind your ear, feeling the bun on top of your head start to weigh you down slightly.

You both fell in a comfortable silence, your eyes trained on the slides on your feet, you had slipped them on quickly while you frantically pulled on your denim shorts and muscle tank, then trailing up Calum’s sculpted body, lingering a little too long on his Lifeguard tank top that he had thrown back on, wondering what it would be like to run your hands under his shirt and over his golden tan skin.

Quickly looking away with a prominent blush cascading over your cheeks, you chastised yourself for thinking thoughts like that, because how far could this go anyways?

“Watch out!” You heard someone in front of you yell, and with a yelp you found yourself pulled into Calum’s side as a rogue rollerblader skated past you out of control.

The speed at which Calum had protectively tucked you into his side had pulled the both of you into the side of one of the game booths on the boardwalk, and to your embarrassment, Calum had braced against the brick wall of the game booth so you both wouldn’t fall.

You gulped at the close proximity of you two: your back against the wall, and his arms braced on the wall on either side of you.

You tried to hold back from hungrily looking at his arms, and the way the veins were very prominently standing on top of his skin, and the way his biceps were flexed, and the way his skin glowed -

You stopped yourself there before you could embarrass yourself any further.

“Y/N,” Calum said lowly, his eyes dark and piercing as you raised your own to meet his.

The way he was looking at you made you go weak in the knees, and you moved your hands from the wall behind you to gripping his shirt.

As soon as his dark brown eyes stared straight into your own, you bit your lip to avoid saying anything ridiculous.

He furrowed his eyebrows. “Don’t do that.”

Your hands loosened on the grip of his shirt unsurely. “Do what?”

He hooked his fingers into your belt loops and yanked you forward. “Bite your lip like that. Do you understand that just looking at you drives me absolutely fucking insane?”

Your eyes widened at his statement, and to your embarrassment you let out a small squeak of surprise. 

It seemed like this was all it took to set him off, and suddenly his mouth was on yours.

His hands moved from your belt loops to your hips and he gripped them as his mouth melted against yours. You let go of his shirt, leaving noticeable wrinkles from how tight you had gripped it, and lightly ran your fingers over his chest, feeling the hard ridges of his abs and lifeguard body. Soon your hands trailed up into his hair and held fast to the curls against his neck, and you felt a low groan come from the back of his throat. He rubbed little circles with his thumbs on your waist, and the sensation left your mouth hanging open slightly. He took this as an invitation to slip his tongue in your mouth, and the heat of the kiss soon turned from what felt like a spark to a forest fire.

He moved his hands to the back of your neck to play with your hair, but frowned as he realized it was still in the bun you had thrown on the top of your head earlier. He pulled away quickly, but you already understood what he wanted. You removed the hair tie from your bun and your hair came down in cascading waves, and the sight had Calum already cupping your cheeks and pulling you in again.

The kiss lasted for forever, and you were surprised you didn’t need to come up for air quicker. When you did, however, Calum moved his lips down your cheek to your neck, and left soft whispers of kisses there. You bit your lip to hold back from making any noise at the sensation, especially when one of Calum’s big hands was on your butt, the other tangled in your hair.

“Mommy! Look at what they’re doing!” You distinctly heard a small voice yell. Calum must’ve heard it too, because you both sprung apart quickly, eyes landing on a small child, maybe 7, holding an ice cream cone with a shocked expression, holding the hand of an angry mom. 

You sheepishly smiled at her. “Sorry!” You nervously squeaked.

The mom shook her head and tugged on the arm of the child. “Come on, Timmy, you shouldn’t be seeing that.”

As soon as they walked out of sight, both you and Calum slowly looked at each other with sheepish expressions, but it was no use because as soon as you saw each other you both burst into laughter.

“Poor Timmy!” You laughed, clutching your stomach.

Calum’s happy laugh echoed in your small space, and once you both had sobered up you were left with the same cheeky boy who watched you from his lifeguard bench. He glanced at his watch. “My shift ends in 5 minutes.” He said disappointedly.

You walked up closer to him, wrapping your arms around his torso. “Funny, I actually think I found my new favorite beach spot,” you teased, letting wild thoughts cross your mind of you teasing Calum on the beach as he was supposed to be working.

He smirked. “Is that so?”

“Mhm. I heard this really hot guard works there.”

“Actually, Ashton works on the other side of the boardwalk.” He teased back.

“I guess I’ll let Ashton know to call me then.”

He tucked a piece of hair behind your ear. “You keep lookin’ like this and I’ll do way more than call you,” he whispered, resting his forehead on yours.

You placed one last peck on his lips. “Good.”

*** 

yeet