#great the first thing I see in map chat while just trying out the spear is homophobia

[manasurge]

.

[misslilli]

Felix Felicis

MSR. AU. PG-13. | tagging @today-in-fic | read on AO3

Chapter 15 - Siblings And Secret Sting Operations

[ DS ]

Sundays are reserved for church and phone calls with my family, so after mass and the church brunch, I make myself a cup of tea and grab my blanket, heading upstairs to curl up on the Adirondack chair on my private balcony. I take out my phone and call my brother Charlie.

He picks up on the second ring. “City morgue. You kill ‘em, we chill ‘em!” I almost choke on my sip of tea.

“Hey Charlie! That’s a new one, very funny. Almost killed me with it!”

“Aah killing with jokes is my specialty. Sorry sis! How’s it going over there on the main land?”

“We mere mortals manage to get by, always a little in awe of the Gods of the Cape. Hey can you see me?” I get up and wave across the bay to where I can picture him standing in front of his little cottage, waving back.

“I deign to gaze at the mere mortal waving like a crazy person, yeah! So what’s new with you?”

“Nothing much, busy with school, the usual. How about you? How’s Pete? Did he get the promotion?” I can hear the smile in his voice at the mention of his boyfriend.

“Yeah he did, I’m insanely proud of the big-shot broker that I call mine!” Against all odds, they make a pretty great couple, the artist and the stock broker. “So, speaking of… how’s your love life? Seeing anyone?” He always asks me this and the answer’s pretty much the same every time, but today, I surprise him.

“Mhh yeah, there’s someone…” The gasp he gives is so loud, it almost carries across the bay.

“Shut up! What? Who? When? Are you really seeing someone?”

“No… not exactly. But… there is the dream of someone else….” I sigh into the phone, smiling at the mental image of Fox Mulder that pops into my head.

“You’re kidding. Who is he?” As I recount the moments that happened between the two of us, Charlie is practically jumping with glee.

“God, that’s so great, sis! So, what happens now? Why are you pining for him from afar instead of putting on the big-girl pants and ask him out on a date?” I shake my head.

“You know why, Charlie. I’m really scared I’ll screw this up and the fact that I care about his kid so much makes it even more difficult. Oh God, and can you imagine what Dad will have to say about him being divorced and a single parent?” Charlie groans into the phone in frustration.

“Not this again, Dana. You can’t live your life the way you think will get you dad’s stamp of approval, you deserve to be happy and from the sound of it, you’re pretty excited about this guy. I can tell you from experience, if I had chosen to chase dad’s approval, I’d still be so deep in the closet I’d need a map and a compass to find my way out. So, your other concerns are valid but you’ll never find out if he’s the one if you don’t try!”

“I know, I know, you’re right, just like you were right the other thousand times we’ve had this conversation. What am I supposed to do, just walk up to him and ask him on a date? I can’t do that!” The thought alone sends a cold shiver down my spine.

“YES Dana, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do! We’re living in the 21st century, we’re not playing this stupid game where a boy has to ask a girl out, it’s okay if it’s the other way around!” I hang my head and sigh in resignation, he’s right, as always. I want to hate him a little for it.

“Alright, I’ll think about it, happy?” – “Overjoyed! So let me tell you about that art show that I’m putting on at the gallery!”

We chat for a little while longer, waving at each other again as we say our goodbyes.

----------

In the meantime, downstairs in the kitchen

The three other girls are sitting around the kitchen table having a very late breakfast, the smell of coffee and pancakes filling the house. They speak in hushed tones, not wanting to be overheard by the fourth friend upstairs.

“Girls … This Mr.Mulder- Dana situation is killing me. I just can’t take it anymore, they’re pining for each other so hard but they’re both too chicken to do something about it!”

“What are you saying, S?” Alex blows a cooling breath over her coffee cup.

“I’m saying that these two need a hefty kick in the butt!”

“Ooooh I get it now!” Holly bounces in her seat excitedly. “We’ll be the trusty matchmakers for these love-birds!”

“The two of you are out of your minds. She’ll see right through it, you know she will! We’ve talked about it with her Friday after Friday but nothing has happened! And he’s not making a move either.”

“Yeah… we can’t just go up to him and ask him if he’s blind or stupid or both and tell him that he should get his ass in gear and ask her out already!” Sarah spears a piece of pancake with her fork, twirling it thoughtfully.

“What if we enlist the help of his kid?”

“Holly, no, we can’t do that! He’s six for god’s sakes. Besides, I think they have another thing coming with him when they actually dostart dating. You know how kids lash out when their parent starts dating again, and he loves D to pieces. No, we need a more subtle plan.”

“How about we spike her drink at the birthday party with some hard stuff? You know, lower the inhibitions and all that” Sarah waggles her eyebrows suggestively.

Holly gapes at her friend. “Sarah! We can’t drug our friend into sleeping with him! It’s not right and she’ll have our heads for it if she ever found out, rightfully so! What about the Halloween fair, they’re both working there, but D doesn’t know that he got roped into it?”

Realization dawns in Sarah’s eyes and her mind works out a plan. The other two nod enthusiastically when she tells them about it.

“Oh this is so exciting! We need to talk to Miss Hannigan and some other people but I think it’s a good start to push them closer together! Now that we’ve got a plan, we just need to figure out how to keep it all from D. We live together, so she’s bound to overhear us talking about it at some point.” Holly and Alex nod in unison.

“We’ll go all secret sting operation on their ass, codenames and all. They won’t know what hit ‘em.”

“Codenames, S?”

“Yes codenames, come on it’ll be so much fun, like a secret society, Illuminati-style!”

Alex laughs: “Alright, what are our codenames for these two?”

They all think hard about this. “Well their real names are out, of course. Middle names too. Red and brown?” – “No, hair color’s too obvious, A!” – “Mom and Dad?” They share a laugh, shaking their heads. “That’s weird. Can we do something with the first letters of their names? F and D? S and M?” Holly bursts out giggling. “Okay maybe not S and M! … M and S? Can we do something with that?”

A slow smile spreads over Sarah’s face. “I’ve got it! A thunder of jets in an open sky, a streak of grey and a cheerful “HI!” – BOOM - a loop, a whirl and a vertical climb and once again you’ll know it’s time for the adventures oooof…?”

Holly jumps out of her chair and yells out excitedly: “Moose and Squirrel! Sarah that’s brilliant!!” Alex nods her agreement, grinning.

“We’ll call it Operation: Bullwinkle!”

“Man, Squirrel’s so gonna kick our asses…”

[wonderful-writer]

15 - Great Escape

Summary: Tensions run high as Clarke and Y/n still don’t trust Mount Weather. Upon the reveal that an officer with severe radiation burns is nearly healed less than a day later, the girls make a break for it and discover a secret that Mount Weather has been hiding for years.

Word Count: 3.43k

Based Off: 02x02, “Inclement Weather” & 02x03, “Reapercussions”

The next day, you and Clarke sat on her bed, trying to figure out the map. “It just doesn’t make sense. No exits, no emergency plan, nothing.”

Jasper looked over the rail of her bed and said, “It’s not bad. Maybe they’ll hang it up on the walls here one day.”

You smiled at your brother and he smiled back, turning his attention to the door as Miller and Maya walked through. 

“Miller,” Clarke said, sitting up on the bed with you. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

You gave a short wave to him, which he returned. “Yeah. It only took, what, 3 surgeries?” 

“I hear you guys are fitting right in.” His tone seemed upset, puzzling you. Clarke looked to Maya and she looked away bashfully before handing a bottle of pills to Miller.

“Twice a day, don’t forget. You’ll be okay in a few days.” She slipped the duffel bag off of her shoulder and handed it to him, turning to Jasper and walking away, while Miller put his bag on the bunk next to Clarke’s.

Not long after, alarms startled you and the other delinquents as maya turned and made her way out of the room. Clarke stopped her and you got to them in time to find out that the alarms meant that someone from the patrols had returned injured.

You and Clarke turned to follow her, but Jasper grabbed you by the wrist and spun you both around. 

“Hey, Y/n, what are you doing?”

“Maybe they found survivors. If our people are hurt, we have a right to know.” 

“I’m pretty sure we shouldn’t just go wandering around.” 

You both had left before he could properly finish his sentence, following after Maya. Jasper ran to catch up with you.

“Who attacked them?” Clarke asked the man who was briefing Maya.

“What are they doing here?” He asked the girl.

Clarke turned and took the keycard from the man behind her, pressing it to the keypad beside the door.

“Stop! It’s not safe!”

“It is for us.” You said, walking through the door with Jasper. 

You ran down the long hall with Clarke, passing paintings as you went. She stopped as the hallway ended and split off into two directions. 

“Guys, slow down!” Jasper called after you. You ignored him and followed Clarke into the first door on the right. “Stop pushing so hard, these people are--”

He stopped himself as he saw the body on the table, covered  by a clear plastic sheet. You and Clarke looked at the wound, before she continued Jasper’s sentence.

“Are lying to us. That’s a bullet wound. Grounders don’t use guns.” 

“Unless the grounders got the guns from us,” Jasper tried. 

“I don’t think so.” You stepped in. “I think our people are alive out there.” 

You turned around with Clarke to see what Jasper was looking at, when Dr. Tsing and two other men, all in hazmat suits, brought in a man covered in blood and burns from the radiation. Another man in a hazmat suit led the three of you out of the room and the quarantine ward, back into the regular halls of Mount Weather. 

Jasper went back to the 48’s living quarters, while you and Clarke went to the dining hall to confront Dante.

“We need to talk.” Clarke demanded.

“Sure. Let’s talk over breakfast.” The man agreed.

“Who shot that soldier?” You asked abruptly. 

Dante guided you and Clarke to the corner of the room to talk privately. “The patrol that was looking for your people was attacked by what you call grounders.”

“We’ve fought grounders. They don’t use guns.” You explained.

“I never mentioned guns.” Dante defended. “Sergeant Shaw was shot by an arrow.” 

“That’s not true. I-I saw the wound.” Clarke countered.

“Sometimes, we feel so strongly about our people we see things that aren’t there,” Dante told  you. 

“We’d like to see the body.” You asked. 

“Of course,” Dante smiled and went to put his plate away. You looked at Clarke with suspicion about the situation, her looking at you the same way. Both of you knew something was going on and were determined to figure it out. 

“Come with me.” He directed you back to the quarantine ward and you waited in an empty room for Dr. Tsing to bring in the body.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” She said as she wheeled in the gurney. “We had to finish decontamination.”

She stood next to Dante as you and Clarke stood beside one another on the other side of the gurney. 

“Thank you, Dr. Tsing.”

“The man with the burns,” Clarke brought up. “How is he?”

“He’s improving,” Dr. Tsing told her with a little bit of hesitation.

“We would like to talk to him,” You mentioned.

“Sir,” She addressed the President. “Only patients are allowed in medical.”

“We can arrange that,” Dante told you. Dr. Tsing pulled down the sheet to Sergeant Shaw’s waist as Clarke pointed to the round object sticking out of his chest.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a dialysis shunt,” Dr. Tsing replied. “We all have them in case of exposure.”

“Would you like to see the exit wound?” She asked you. You and Clarke nodded and she began to pull Sergeant Shaw's arm to get his body on it’s side, showing you the exit wound.

“Sergeant Langston was forced to push the arrow out in the field.” She and Dante, who helped hold the body, let go as she went to the cupboard behind her to retrieve the arrowhead.

She showed it to you and Clarke, who seemed to begin to believe the fact that she only thought she saw a bullet wound, but you didn’t. If Sergeant Langston was forced to push the arrow out on the field, why would they still have the arrowhead? Why would he keep in to give to the medical staff instead of leaving it where they put it after it was out?

After that, you went back to the living quarters, which were much less lively than this morning. Jasper approached you and fell in line with your walk.

“What did President Wallace say?” He asked.

“He showed us Shaw’s body.” Clarke told him. “It looked like an arrow wound.” 

“Maybe because it is an arrow wound?” 

“Or that’s what they want us to think.” You suggested. “What? They could have doctored it.”

“Y/n, you sound like a crazy person. Why do you want to screw this up for us?”

“Yeah, well, I’m not. The arrowhead was still bloody when they showed it to us and they said they had to push out the arrow in the field. No one keeps the arrowhead of an arrow if they’ve already removed it from a body.”

“And we don’t even know what this is.” Clarke said.

“This is… safe. This is food, a real bed, clothes, and my personal favourite-- not getting speared by grounders. How long do you think they’ll let us stay here if you two keep this up?”

“Did someone threaten you?” Clarke asked him.

“Heh, no. No. It’s common sense. Look, we’re guests here. Not prisoners. What would you do with a guest who kept calling you a liar and generally acted like an ungrateful ass?” Jasper asked.

“Kick their ungrateful ass out.” Miller responded from his bed without looking up from his book.

“Right now, our biggest threat to us is you guys.” With that, Jasper walked away and left you and Clarke standing there. You didn’t feel like a threat. You knew these people were lying to all of you. You and Clarke just had to prove it to everyone.

Later that night, the 48 were all hanging around in the dining hall, doing their own things. Music played and everyone chatted while you and Clarke sat in chairs near the entrance, her holding the map she drew. Frustrated, she balled it up and threw it in the trash.

“Langston,” One of the guards said, catching your attention. “Where are you going man? Tonight’s movie night.”

“I gotta pass. Doc says I got one more treatment.” He replied. Just a few hours ago he was red and covered in burns, how had he looked almost untouched by the radiation now? 

You looked at Clarke, wondering if she saw the same thing. She followed Langston and you followed her, watching as he got in the elevator to go to medical before heading back to the living quarters. 

“Only patients are allowed in medical,” She muttered, looking at the sharp corner of the bunk bed. You nodded at her from the other side and she removed the bandage from her arm as you did with yours, running your arm across the corner, cutting your stitches as Clarke did. 

You could’ve reopened your stab wound, but cutting it with the edge of the bed would have been really hard to do and you couldn’t have reached it by yourself. However, the cut on your arm proved to be enough as Clarke collapsed soon after she cut herself. You weren’t bleeding as much as her, but you extended the cut further than it was, passing out a couple of minutes after. 

After the bandages were placed on your arms, you and Clarke woke up, watching as Dr. Tsing walked to the door at the other end of the room and scanned her keycard to go into the restricted room. 

Clarke got out of her bed and you followed, watching her try to wake up Langston, but to no avail. The burns on his hands and face were no longer as bad as before, also noticing that his dialysis shunt was in use, pumping blood into his system. 

Your eyes followed the tube from the machine and into a pipe, following said pipe along the wall, until it disappeared. Clarke tried opening the door that led to the other room, but it was keycard activated. You took a step back and noticed a vent, just beside the door.

“Clarke,” You whispered, pointing to the vent once she turned around. You opened it, using all of your upper body strength to climb into the vent, Clarke following after. You crawled the length of it, pushing the opening on the other side until it clattered to the floor, allowing you to get through.

The first thing you heard was the mechanical whirring and a ventilator hissing, realizing what it was for when you looked around. Two people hung from their feet, monitors and wires connected to them as they were unconscious. You noticed a tattoo on one of their bodies, marking them as a grounder. 

Tubes were taking their blood and circulating more back in, bringing you and Clarke to the same realization: They were using grounders for their blood.

You turned after Clarke called your name, seeing even more grounders in cages, moaning in pain. They reached out to the two of you as you passed their cages, watching Clarke bend down to one of them. You did the same, recognizing who was in it as you bent down.

“Anya?” You and Clarke asked. 

“I’m gonna get you out of here,” Clarke assured the woman as she struggled with the lock. After she couldn’t get it open with ehr bare hands, you and her walked away to find something to open the cage with. 

Clarke found an electrical pipe and ripped it from the wall, using it to break the lock open. You opened the cage door while Clarke started helping Anya out of the cage. Dr. Tsing came into the room and caused you to panic, Clarke pulling herself into Anya’s cage with her while you hid at the end of the cages, praying she wouldn’t see you. 

As soon as she was there, she was gone, and You moved from your hiding spot to meet Clarke and Anya and help support Anya by putting her other arm around your shoulder like Clarke had done. You made it over to one of the doors that said it was the end of the containment area, entering a room with no other doors. The doors behind you slid closed and you began to panic as Clarke attempted to pry them open. 

An alarm similar to the one from when you tried to leave started to blare and Clarke stepped away from the door, back to where you and Anya stood.

“What is that?” She asked. 

“I don’t know,” Clarke responded. The floor gave out beneath you and all three of you began to fall, sliding down some sort of chute. You landed among more bodies, most of them still breathing. Barely alive, but alive nonetheless. 

You three began to panic, getting out of the body ridden cart, while Anya stayed sitting, checking to see if the boy in front of you was still alive. 

“Anya, take my hand!” Clarke yelled. Anya accepted and pulled her out of the cart, landing on a railroad. 

“We’re out.” Clarke said, noting the door that would lead us back into the mountain. You looked around and saw what looked like a pile of clothes, moving towards it. 

“Hey. Come on, get dressed.” You said, kneeling down and picking up the clothes. “We’re not going to cover any ground dressed like this.”

Clarke followed, picking up some boots and sorting through the clothes as Anya still rested on the cart.

“I won’t leave my people behind.” She said. 

“Anya, listen to me. My people are still inside that place, too,  but they have guards. They have weapons. Once we get out of here, we can find help. We can come back.” Clarke assured her.

“There is no ‘we’.” Anya snipped. You heard voices come from the other end of the tunnel and Anya noted that someone was coming.

“Not just someone. Reapers.” Clarke said. Anya went to pick up a boulder to fight, but Clarke argued that she could barely stand. 

“I have a better idea, come on.” You got into the empty cart on the tracks, helping Anya get in while Clarke threw the clothes into it. She hopped in and you all closed your eyes as the reapers approached the cart, tossing the bodies from the cart you fell into along with you three.

The cart began to move, wheels creaking as they moved along the tracks. You tried your best to stay still and keep yourself covered as the reapers hauled one of the bodies from the cart and away from you. You heard him scream and Clarke got up to check if the reapers were distracted, which they were.

“Okay, come on.” 

You and Anya sat up, but she went over to the other person laying in the cart.

“What are you doing? Let’s go.” Clarke asked, keeping her voice low. 

“Yu gonplei este odon.” Anya whispered, snapping the man’s neck and saving him the misery of being torn apart by reapers. 

You moved to get the clothes out of the cart with Clarke, jumping out and moving back down the tunnel without being seen. You got dressed as you ran, Clarke cursing as you couldn’t find your way out.

“Damn it! This place is a maze.” 

Anya coughed and stopped running for a few moments, giving you time to shrug on the jacket you found. “What are they doing to us?”

“They’re using your blood.” You responded. “We saw a soldier come in with radiation burns; hours later, he was fine.”

“It’s like your blood is healing them somehow.” Clarke told her. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

“Come on, this way.” You and Clarke started walking again and Anya went the other way. You turned around to catch up with her. “Hey, what are you doing? That’s the way back to the reapers.”

“You go your way, I’ll go mine.” Anya said. 

“Anya, we need to stick together,” You told the woman. 

“I told you, there is no ‘we’.” 

“I saved your life.” Clarke rebutted.

“You saved my life because you need me.” Anya corrected her. “I know the way back to your people. I know where the traps are hidden. You’d never make it alone.”

“We don’t have time for this.” Clarke decided, turning back around with you. “Our best chance of making it out of here alive is together. All we need to do is keep moving and hope—“

She turned and saw no traces of Anya, causing the both of you to whisper her name and go the way she went. You turned around once more and started running when you saw firelight, indicating that the reapers were coming. 

You kept running through the tunnels, pausing every little bit to catch your breath and check to see if reapers were behind you. You stopped abruptly when a reaper started towards you both from the direction you were running in. You went to the natural light on another pathway, but another reaper stopped you, and you turned around and saw even more coming from that direction.

It was safe to say you were trapped, and likely going to die. You backed yourselves up to the tunnel wall as the reapers closed in on you, but as a high-pitched ringing filled your ears, the reapers cowered away and covered their own. You and Clarke looked to your left to see two guards in hazmat suits. One with a flashlight, and the other holding the device that caused the sound.

“Get the hell away from them! Now!” The reapers started to run away and the one holding the flashlight turned to you.

“Clarke Griffin and Y/n Kane, you’re coming with us.”

The guards led you back to the door and as you approached it, Clarke began to speak. “I saw everything. I know what you’re doing to them.”

“That’s why you’re both going in the harvest chamber with them.” The guard told you. 

“Alpha-Delta 2, we’ve reached the intake. Two prisoners in custody.” He spoke into the intercom.

“Your mission was to bring back three. The outsider cannot be allowed to leave this mountain. Alpha-Delta 1 is coming out now.” A voice came from the intercom. 

To your surprise, Anya jumped down from somewhere you couldn’t see and attacked the guard that held you. Clarke grabbed the mask from the man who was at the intercom, leaving him to the radiation. 

“His mask!” You shouted. 

Anya pulled the mask off of the other guard and told you she found a way out. You both followed her back down the tunnel, but not before Clarke grabbed the discarded gun. You ran just as more guards came through the door. 

You both ran with Anya, stopping at an opening that led to a very far drop into water. 

“Wait, there has to be another way!” Clarke yelled over the rushing water.

“There isn’t,” Anya shouted back.

“Just give up, girls. You have no place else to go.” The guards shouted as they aimed at the three of you.

Anya looked between the two of you and jumped down into the water, Clarke calling her name as she went.

“We don’t have to kill you two. Do you hear me? It doesn’t have to end like this.” The guard told you. “Just surrender.”

You and Clarke kept looking from the guards to the lake below, weighing your options. Clarke dropped her weapon and you put your hands up, walking towards the guards. As they looked away you turned and ran, jumping into the water with Clarke, when everything went black.

You woke up again on rocky terrain, coughing up the water that had entered your lungs. Clarke was beside you doing the same thing, and Anya beside her, waiting for you to finish. You rolled over and sat up, hearing Clarke thank Anya for saving her.

“I think we should go back to the dropship first.” Clarke suggested. “So I can see who my people--” Anya smashed a rock over Clarke’s head and straddled her. 

“We’re not going back to your dropship. You killed 300  of my warriors. I can’t show my face without a prize.” She tied Clarke’s hands together with rope and then did yours, you putting up no struggle to void getting hurt any further.

She hauled you both up and tied a longer rope to both of your bound hands, dragging you along like you were her pet. You didn’t know that this was what was going to happen when you escaped Mount Weather, and now you had to try and fight your way out of another bad situation and try to get home. 

Taglist:  @soullessbabee�� | @hyperion-moonbabe-art3mis​ | @dummythiccwitch​ | @sireddobrev​ | @gxvrielle​ | @hurricane-abigail | @holyhumorliteraturelight

[stormobsessed]

Part 2 of Kalidin Vs. The Blackthorn.

Imagine a world where Kaladin was born a little earlier, or Dalinar and Gavilar  started their uniting of Alethkar later. They’re going through the country, destroying villages to weaken resolve.

In this dangerous time, all boys old enough are taught to fight, even the son of a pacifist surgeon, in the hopes that it would add even a few seconds onto their lives.

Sadeas is promised the small farming town of Hearthstone once they capture it, which they don’t expect to be hard at all when none of the men there are anything more than simple farmers and townfolk. However, to Blackthorn’s surprise, there is a commotion on one side of the battle. He pushes through the fighting men to see a young lad, barely old enough to fight, mowing down men like a master of the spear. The young lad is dispatching dozens of his own, highly trained, men. He is standing over the corpse of an even younger boy, and tears are streaming down his face but still he fights, swift as the wind.

So, what started out as a simple plot divergence AU post transformed into an increbly long fic that has become increasingly annoying to scroll through and past, so I decided to start a separate part 2, but no fear! You can find all of part one here: Part 1 Tumblr

or read it on Ao3 here: Part 1 Ao3

So, this will be part 2 to keep the old post from getting any longer. Thank you and I hope you enjoy!! 

The Blackthorn poured himself one last heaping mug of wine before he joined his family to meet with the radiant. His fingers itched to prepare a second, but he knew that neither Gavilar nor Evi would have approved of him pre-gaming as much as he already had, and he had no desire to distract them on such an important day. He heard the familiar sound of the tent door opening and had to fight himself not to hide his drink like he was a child attempting to sneak a cremling into the house. He turned, solemnly preparing himself for a lecture, only to come face to face not with a member of his family, but with the new Wit. This was even worse.

“Wit.” He grumbled, eyeing the strange man warily. There was just something off about the new Wit, a twinkle in his eye that said that he knew much more than he let on. It unnerved the man, and yet it was compelling as well. Storms, it seemed like each day that passed, he understood himself less. The warlord grit his teeth, anger at himself flaring in his chest. “Blackthorn,” the infuriating man said with a bow. The Warlord grumbled in reply, sinking into one of the tents low seats. He topped off his mug, refilling the bit that he’d already drank, not caring about the opinion of this fool. “I thought Gavilar had ordered you away from the feast.” The Wit blinked before making a show of looking around the sparse tent, empty but for a simple table and chairs overflowing with plans and maps, and the wine casket that Blackthorn had already dipped into. “Oh my, I can see you’re right. This is obviously the very most important area of the feast. Why look at all of these strips of paper, and but of course! The clear lack of food. How could I have been so foolish to come at what is clearly the epicenter of the festivities.” “Alright, alright. You’ve made your point.” “Well I should certainly hope so. You know, when I first took this position-“ “Two days ago.” “I was absolutely shocked at the discovery that really the most important part of being a good wit, is simply pointing out the obvious.” The Kholin snorted into his cup. “I wouldn’t call you a good wit. You reused the same insults over and over.” “Of course.” The willowy man replied, sounding affronted. “I don’t know anyone here nearly well enough to insult their character. I’m sure in time I will come to hear all of the unique types of stupidity exist in the Lighteyed court, but until then I’m not going to make something up. Why, imagine if I started to use insults that weren’t true, I would lose all credibility. However, I could know right away those that were ugly, smelly and old, and so I simply stated the obvious.” A small smirk wormed it’s way across the scarred man’s face as the Wit settled in the chair across from him. The black-clothed man seemed content to end the conversation there and pulled out a small flute. He let out a few notes then smiled, seeming pleased with himself. The Blackthorn took a long pull on his drink and closed his eyes, mentally preparing for a day of pandering and diplomacy when all he wanted to do was fight. Maybe he could get in on one of the duels. No, no, Adolin was going to try for a Blade today, he didn’t want to overshadow the boy. Suddenly, Wit spoke again. “Well if my skills as Wit has not yet impressed you, maybe my talents as a storyteller will. Hmm, something short, I suppose we are on a time constraint.” Suddenly he let out a series of trills on the flute, the sounds seemed to… echo back at him, but that wasn’t right. They were in a war tent in the middle of an empty field, sounds shouldn’t echo. Yet he had no compulsion to open his eyes, instead he simply leaned back and took another sip of drink as the sounds seemed to carry him away. The Wit’s voice grew dissonant, seeming to meld with the sound of the music that still rang through the canvas. “Ages ago, when the world was different and beings of intense power still walked the earth, there lived a very large, very kindhearted family of laborers. They worked the land day in and day out just to have the food to survive, yet they were extremely kind to their neighbors. They shared as much as they were able, and oftentimes more. One day, one of the family’s children was performing his usual chore of transferring livestock from one field to another, he spotted a figure crumpled on the ground. The child ran to the figure and found an old woman, blood crusted on her temple from an unknown injury. The child acted quickly, pulling the woman onto the back of one of his creatures and using it to haul her back to the house. The boy’s mother stayed up for days bringing the woman back to health, taking precious food off of their table. Finally the woman was well enough to walk and stand. Almost immediately she made to leave, not listening to any argument the family made to give herself time to hear. However, before she left she gave, to the child who had first found her, a clear globe of glass, similar to what men use to gamble, but several times larger.

The family was perplexed by the sphere, and the child simply gave it to his infant sister to play with. However, as is often the case in a house so full and so busy, the sphere soon got accidentally kicked under a bed in a corner, and no one stopped to recover it. The sphere was soon forgotten.

Yet the next day, had anyone cared to look, they would have noticed a small speck of red in the previously clear crystal. For the woman had not been a normal human, she had been a creature of great power, and a ruby was growing from the clear glass. The next day the speck grew even larger, the next day larger, until the entire sphere transformed into a perfectly cut gem the size of a grown man’s fist.

However, the family had never given it a never thought since the day that it had rolled under the bed. So, while untold riches grew just below their noses, they continued to scrape and save and starve, never knowing that the toy they had discarded was a gift greater than they could have imagined.”

The notes flowed, and slowly began to fade.

Dalinar opened his eyes when the last of the notes had faded completely, turning to see the black-clothed lighteyed man reclining against the chair, flute tucked away. He frowned, the story tugging at his mind. “What did that mean?”

Wit arched a brow. “What do you think it means? It is not a storytellers job to tell a man how to think, rather it is our job to give them something to think on.”

“I thought it was your job to state the obvious.” Dalinar replied, and Wit grinned.

“Sometimes, the obvious is not as clear as we would like it to be.”

Dalinar frowned at the odd wording, but he was too focused on the story to give it much thought. He mulled it over, setting aside his glass, despite the fact that it was still half full. “Change.” He finally replied. “Change only affects things, if people are able to see it.”

Wit smiled enigmatically, the expression giving nothing away. “It sounds like you have a lot to think on, Highprince Dalinar. Though, that may have to wait for another day. I believe the festival is about to start. Don’t worry, I won’t mortally offend your precious Radiant. Though, I am sure that I will enjoy the show.”

Kaladin looked over the men and women of Heathstone. They were smiling, chatting amongst one another, more animated than he’d seen them in months. Since Gavilar’s invitation and Roshone’s very public acceptance, thepeople had been in a frenzy. The women had washed and mended their threadbare clothes several times over, and the men had polished their shoes and belt buckles, as well as buffing any jewelry that their wives had saved. Laurel had even passed out her jewelry to some of the women, and allowed the younger women to use some of her extra havahs. The people seemed to have been transformed, seeming to have shorn off the tragedy of just a few weeks prior.

He wished that the facade weren’t so very fragile.

He wished that there was no woman, weeping in the corner over her son who would have loved to visit the feast, that the young woman in Laurel’s dress didn’t look into the mirror with wet eyes as she pictured what her recent groom would have thought of her. He wished that the young man in the corner wasn’t staring blankly at where the sleeve of his freshly washed shirt lay limp, his arm ending in a stub at his elbow. He wished… he wished that it was easier for him to see their joy than their pain, that he could appreciate their excitement. However any joy he could have had was lost to the pain of a town nearly halved.

He’d never been especially good at smiling through the pain. Though he supposed that tonight he would have to try. Though he believed in Adolins plan, well semi-believed it, it turned his stomach to think of sitting there playing nice at the feast, no doubt being gawked at by dozens of  important lighteyes who were simply enthralled at the idea of the dark eyed radiant.

A light touch made him jump, and he whirled to see him mother smiling at him, though concern darkened her eyes. “There are storms in your eyes, the Stormfather himself would be impressed.”

“Sorry, mother, I’m just… nervous about tonight.”

Hesina cupped her son’s face in her hands. “I will not lie to you.” She said softly. “I wish that this burden was not yours. I fear it will weigh you down, make you a pack mule when you were meant to be something much greater. However, I know this without any fear or doubt, I know that you are strong enough to bear it. You have the strength of a chull but the ferocity of a whitespine. I know that this is scary, but you will succeed.”

Kaladin let out a shuddering breath and closed his eyes, growing strength from his mothers love and confidence, allowing it to pull him out of the void of darkness he sometimes allowed himself to get drawn into. It was so much harder to stay clear of the void when Tien was gone.

“Besides,” His mother said, and her voice had taken on a familiar, amused tint. “Remember, they are the ones courting you, not the other way around. Feel free to make them work for it.” She lightly kissed his forehead. “Now come, you should get changed. We will have to head out soon.”

Kaladin frowned, but obediently followed the woman. Roshone had reluctantly pulled one of his son Riller’s old suits out of his untouched room, and one of the town’s seamstresses had tailored it to fit Kaladin’s thinner, taller frame.

“Does everyone know what to do?” He asked. He already knew the answer, but he needed to hear it said one last time.

“Yes. The townspeople know better than to trust the Kholins. Everyone will be safe within the keep by the time Mishim has started to rise. Your plan with the Blackthorn’s family will not start until well after that. Everyone should be safely back here before any trouble starts.”

Kaladin nodded, relief flooded through him as he slipped into a small room to change. The majority of the town would be attending a festival with Kholin’s soldiers and army followers, while Kaladin, his family, Roshone, Laurel, Rock and Teft would go to the fancy feast Gavilar was throwing. It was hard to convince Roshone that Teft should join them, but Kaladin had managed to convince him that he was the most knowledgeable about the army and should therefore be there to consult. He’d wanted Rock there as well, but he needed someone to make sure that the rest of the town stayed safe and came back on time.

The plan was for Laurel, Teft, and Hesina to go back at the same time as the rest of the village. Roshone said he would decide later, after he’d ‘felt out the situation’, but Kaladin had no doubt that the coward would choose to go back then as well.

As Kaladin made his way back to the room Roshone had commandeered to use to discuss strategy, he consciously sucked the stormlight from any lamps down the hall. If things went poorly, he could potentially be flying 5 other people back with him. He’d been practicing that in the yard all week. A smile finally graced his lips as he remembered it, sending some of the town’s children flying, making sure to hover them a few inches off the ground, less they fall. It had taught him a great deal of control, and they had loved it. Maybe it wouldn’t go bad though, maybe they would let him just walk off with the Blackthron’s wife and kids.

Who was he kidding? This was going to be a disaster.

Gavilar listened critically as Navani read out a complete list of all of the features of the festival. It sounded marvelous, a celebration the likes of which this town certainly had never seen. It wouldn’t be enough, the Radiant was extremely stubborn, but it would be a decent first step. He would be given the chance to talk with the boy in a more one on one setting, show him what he could be missing out on. He’d had a long talk with Amaram about how much of the truth he should tell the child, but he had the feeling that now was not the time to reveal much of the truth.

Some of it, perhaps. Hint towards a greater coming danger, that would get the boy’s protective instincts flowing. That was what the Windrunners were known for, wasn’t it? Yes, he could use that.

Satisfied, both at his mental plans and the party plans that Navani read, the man looked around the room.

He frowned when his eyes lit upon his son. Elhokar was pouting again, which could only mean two things. Either he was fixating on something he could not change, or he was choosing to mope rather than fix something he could. Neither attribute was especially befitting an heir apparent.

“What is the matter son?”

“It’s not fair, everyone has something to do to help but me! Renarin and Adolin have been visiting the Radiant, you are the King, and Uncle Dalinar is your warrior. What am I supposed to do?”

The boy had a point, as poorly as he’d said it. Besides, it was partly Gavilar’s fault. The boy had been with him in the strategy tent, planning, when Dalinar’s lads had made the bravely foolish choice to approach the young darkeye. Still, Elhokar was a good son, and with some more fostering Gavilar knew he would make a fantastic king.

“I’m sorry that we haven’t spoken of this son, but you are vitally important.” Elhokar perked up, and from where she sat Navanni cast a skeptical eyebrow. “As proven by Adolin and Renarin, the Radiant has been more responsive to people his age. It is something that I should have seen earlier, but I cannot change the past. Regardless, you have the power of the throne, but will be more relatable to young Kaladin. I want you to try to befriend him as your cousins have, that will make it even easier to strategize with him when we finally win him over.”

Elhokar nodded, his face serious. Gavilar returned the nod. Well, that was one problem handled, now to find that ridiculous Wit and keep him from interfering.

That man knew far more than he should. Far more than anyone should.

Adolin rolled his shoulders and gave a few gentle squats, more getting used to the feel of the shardplate than anything else. He felt his mother’s necklace lying against his skin, and it gave him confidence somehow. He didn’t have his helm on yet, and he wouldn’t get possession of the blade he was using for the duel until a few moments before it. So now he was just waiting, along with the rest of the army and what felt like half of Kholinar, for the door of the keep to open.

There was a strange anticipation in the air, lighteyes and dark alike shifted nervously, many tired from the past few frantic days of planning two parties.

The Kholin’s stood in front of the crowd, surrounded by the royal honor guard. Weapons gleamed and Kholin blue contrasted brightly against the crem covered ground. Sadeas stood just behind them, his face violently blank and holding none of the charm that Gavilar was purposely portraying.

Dalinar frowned, seeming contemplative and a million miles away, which honestly was a relief. Honestly, their plan would work best if he was distracted.

Commotion had been steadily growing behind the doors of the keep for the past several moments, increasing the tension of the awaiting crowd. Adolin felt like the group was going to snap, and he found himself continuously running his finger along his helm, wishing he already had his blade.

Then, finally, like a bolt of lightening the Radiant appeared over the doors of the keep, hovering there and locking intense eyes with Gavilar. Adolin, who hadn’t found the man especially intimidating when they’d been face to face, felt himself shiver at the figure he made now. The man made a sharp, unique gesture, like making a salute by crossing his arms, and the doors swung open.

A lighteyed man, the towns brightlord most likely, stood at the front, beside a younger lighteyed girl, and an older darkeyed couple. Behind them stood the rest of the town, all standing tall with their heads held high.

The Lighteyed man walked straight to Gavilar, Kaladin swooping down to land beside them. Gavilar greeted the man solemnly, but pleasantly. “Brightlord Roshone, I presume.”

“That right.” The man said, sniffing as though attempted to pretend that he was superior to the king of Alethkar. Adolin matched eyes with Kaladin and, since unlike the Radiant no one was looking at him, rolled his eyes. Kaladin’s lips pressed together as though he were attempting to stave off amusement.

Gavilar nodded, managing to keep his eye on the Lighteyed man rather than the Radiant he actually respected. “We will have much to talk about, but first,” He made a sweeping gesture. “I hope you’ll enjoy the festivities, you and your people.”

That seemed to break a dam, and suddenly figures were streaming out of the thin door of the keep, their excitement almost palpable as they made their way to the festival grounds that had been set up. It  was only then that Gavilar turned to the Radiatnt. The king surprised Adolin by offering a shallow bow to the Radiant. It wasn’t a full, proper bow, but it was a very clear show of respect. Kalading gave a nod in reply, though he didn’t bow. Gavilar seemed to have expected that, and was almost immediately working to make a good impression on the lighteyes and the solemn darkeyed couple that Adolin recognized as Kaladin’s parents from the portrait he and Renarin had found.

Adolin however, made his way to the Radiant, along with Renarin. Elhokar was following closely as well, and Adolin could only hope that Kaladin was smart enough not to mention their plans with the prince hovering so close.

Kaladin eyed Adolin’s plate, bulky and gorgeous and painted a striking Kholin blue. Adolin grinned, “Its for my duel. I’m going to win a shardblade!”

Kaladin opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly his eyes shot to the side, staring at something that Adolin couldn’t see. The teen whispered something to the Spren, too low for Adolin to catch. The smile wiped off of Adolin’s face.

“What’s wrong?”

Kaladin shook his head. “Syl doesn’t like the blades.”

“Syl? What’s a Sy?” Elhokar’s voice piped up, ad immediately Kaladin’s eyes narrowed on the prince, sizing up the stranger.

“Syl is my Spren. And you are?”

“I am Elhokar Kholin, the son of Gavilar and the heir to the throne.” Elokhar said proudly, and Adolin had to hide a wince. Elhokar couldn’t know, but that was porobably one of the worst ways he could have introduced himself to the powerful darkeyes.

“Oh.” Kaladin replied, dismissive. Adolin’s cousin seemed stunned for a moment before indignation and anger flasheded across his face. He puffed himself up and began to say something, but luckily Renarin cut in before he could.

“Shall we make our way to the dueling grounds? We can watch some of the eariler bouts and explain the rules while we wait for it to be Adolin’s turn.”

Kaladin was still eyeing Elhokar uncertainly, but he nodded and all four of them turned towards towards the town.

It was hard to find room sufficient to hold a dueling ground in the nice part of town where they were holding the lighteyed feast, so they’d ended up using it as part of the divider between it and the common festival. Adolin… kind of liked it. They had gathered a crowd of darkeyes, from Hearthstone and the soldiers alike. Each bout had a soundtracks of cheers and screams that were absent in the traditional, formal, solemn bouts that Adolin was used to. He loved it, more than he would have thought.

He grinned at the crowd. In the Lighteye seating area the Kholin’s held the seats of honor. Gavilar was smiling and chatting with Roshone, but Dalinar and Evi were smiling over at him encouragingly. Adolin couldn’t keep the grin from his face. He was going to win his very own blade, and his dad was actually going to be there to see it.

Renarin followed his eyes and smiled softly. “Are you ready?”

“Yup, I even have a good luck charm, Mom gave me her necklace.”

“Did you eat Chicken for lunch?”

The grin slipped off of Adolin’s face. Did he? He’d had to eat quickly to help organize the stands for the Darkeyed festival, but he’d had… pork. His eyes widened and he whirled on Renarin. Eating chicken was the only pre-duel tradition that he held, and he wasn’t about to break it before what would probably be the most important duels of his life.

Renarin understood instantly. “I-I’ll go find something.” Kaladin startled at that, tearing his eyes from the stands where he’d been watching his visibly uncomfortable parents. Lirin, who so staunchly disapproved of violence, whas clearly not enjoying this game of brutality. However, Renarin’s sudden disappearance was enough to draw the radiant’s attention. .

“Really? Chicken?”

“Traditions are important.” Elhokar interrupted. “I myself have several that I perform before every duel.”

Kaladin eyed him. The Radiant was clearly unsure how to take the older man. Adolin could understand. He loved his cousin, but he didn’t always make a great first impression. “Like what?” The Radiant asked hesitantly, and Adolin got the impression that the teen was trying, in his own way.

Elhokar began detailing some of his usual traditions, fairly similar to Adolin’s own, then quickly changed to begin telling the man stories of the oddest traditions he’d heard of, which ranged from odd to ridiculous. By the time Renarin retured, Kaladin almost looked amused.

Panting, Renarin shoved… something wrapped in paper in Adolin’s hand. “It was all I could find nearby. Most of the stands near here are only selling snacks or sweets.”

Kaladin wrinkled his nose. “What is it?”

“It’s chicken, uh, I think they called it Chouta.” He shrugged. “That Herdazian stand was selling it, it seemed popular so it must be decent.”

Adolin looked over the way his brother had pointed, quickly locating a busy stand selling items that looked similar to what he’d handed him. The stand was stuffed with four Herdazian men working to make and hand out the Chouta, and… did one of them only have one arm?

Adolin shook himself and forced himself to take a bite before he could talk himself out of it. Immediately after taking a bite, the young man perked up.

“Hey, this is actually really good!” He took another bite and hummed appreciatively, ignoring Kaladin’s frankly disbelieving expression. Adolin shrugged, but was distracted when a ‘boo’ sounded throughout the crowd and Elhokar cried “Foul!”

“What happened?” Kaladin asked, and Elhokar grinned from cheek to cheek as he began explaining.

Adolin closed his eyes and took several long, deep breaths, centering himself. It would be his turn in three bouts, then he would be a shardbearer.

[the-truest-sentence-i-know]

Chapter Nine | Flings

Fandom: Disney’s Descendants

Summary: Quinn Little, raised in Auradon by Little John, finds out that her heritage is not what she thought it was. When Little John tells her that her real father was a villain, she must go on a journey of self-discovery that will bring her to all the forbidden places in the United States of Auradon.

Pre-canon & canon compliant to the first Descendants film.

Word Count: 5.1k  |  9/23

ao3 ||| ff.net ||| wattpad ||| quotev

Another part of being in the Crew was working at the shop. One day, when Quinn came into the shop for her shift, she found Jax, Saoirse, and Seamus in a heated argument with two people she did not recognize.

“…gotta be a better way we can settle this,” Jax said, managing a calm voice even though Quinn could see his frustration.

“We’ve had to make some new considerations, move some things around,” said a young woman with short dark hair and chestnut skin.

“What kind of considerations, Fabienne?” Seamus demanded. “We have not broken any of the agreements we made with Maleficent. She has no reason to change the terms.”

“Maleficent needs no reason to change the terms,” Fabienne said, haughtily.

“Yes, she can do as she pleases,” piped up the smaller redhaired girl beside her.

“Hush, Winnie,” Fabienne said. “You’re here to observe how negotiations work.”

“This is hardly a negotiation,” Saoirse muttered.

“So, what are the new terms?” Jax asked.

“You pay 75% of full price for supplies, stay off the shipping docks and not attack Maleficent’s castle or any of her associates or allies, and we won’t attack you either.”

Jax’s jaw clenched. “That’s hardly a fair deal.”

“Would you rather pay full price?” Fabienne asked. “And start a war between us?”

“No,” he said firmly. “Very well, it seems I have no choice.” He smiled stiffly and held out his hand. “It’s a deal.”

Fabienne shook his hand firmly, a triumphant look on her face. With a nod at Saoirse and Seamus, she and Winne turned to leave. “Pleasure doing business with you,” she tossed over her shoulder.

Neither spared half a glance for Quinn, which she was grateful for because Fabienne emulated Maleficent to a nearly uncanny degree. And while a lot of the VKs here were alright, the old footage of Maleficent shown to them at Auradon Prep still haunted her.

Jax leant against the counter looking frustrated and exhausted, brow furrowed. “Alright, Seamus, go to Tuka, see if the Defiant Doom also had a change in agreement. Try and negotiate supplies through our alliance. Saoirse, look at the numbers and rationing. Send Cyrus here to plan with me. And have Jukes go out scouting so we know how exactly Maleficent has moved things around.”

They nodded and quickly left the shop. Quinn quietly approached the counter, hanging her jacket on the coat rack. Jax looked up at her, his expression softening into very nearly a smile.

“And, so, your education on the inner workings of the Isle continues,” he said.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Quinn asked.

“Not unless they taught you about how to negotiate with unreasonable magic-less witches at your princess school,” he said.

“I’m afraid not,” Quinn said.

He nodded. “Didn’t think so,” They stood in silence for a moment. “But I could use someone to brainstorm with until Cyrus gets here.”

Quinn sat on the counter beside him. “So Maleficent controls the docks,” she said slowly. “And so, although she may not have more people has more negotiating power.”

Jax nodded, watching her with interest.

“The only way to even the scales is with some kind of leverage or new variable between us and Maleficent.”

She heard Jax inhale sharply and looked over at him. A grin was growing over his face. He hopped off the counter and faced her. “Quinn, you are a genius.” He kissed her cheek quickly and hurried out of the store.

For a moment, Quinn sat frozen on the counter, biting her lip to stifle the wide grin beaming over her features. “No problem,” she whispered.

•••

When her shift ended a few hours later, it was Corinna who came to take her place instead of her brother.

“Where’s Cai?” Quinn asked.

“Apparently something important’s happening,” the little Powder Monkey said. “Everyone has to report to the Jolly Roger immediately.”

Quinn nodded and shrugged on her jacket as she headed out the door. Arriving on the Jolly Roger, the meeting had just ended belowdecks. In the center of the space was a large table with a map depicting the entire island with figures representing important players in the various gangs.

Jax turned and saw her. “Did no one call Quinn for the meeting?” he demanded.

No one said anything.

He sighed. “Alright, Quinn you’re with me, we’ll brief you as we go.”

Everyone headed out in small groups of two or three. Jax, Cai, and Hugo stayed behind for a few minutes.

“So, what’s the plan?” Quinn asked Hugo.

“Our group is going to sneak into Maleficent’s castle and kidnap Mal for leverage over her,” he said quickly.

“And what’s everyone else doing?”

“The duos are watching the Faciliers, Weseltons, and Shan Yu’s kids,” he said. “Cyrus, Jukes, and Blake I don’t know – their mission is secret; I’m pretty sure only Jax and Saoirse know.

Quinn nodded.

“Alright, guys,” Jax said and they all gathered around him. “Everyone else has had enough time to get into position, time for us to go.”

They walked casually through the city, staying mostly in the shadows, but not so much to seem suspicious. They passed Seamus and Nia, standing across the street from the Weseltons. Jax nodded discretely at them as they continued.

“What about Yzma’s kids?” she whispered to Hugo. “Who’s watching them?”

“Only Yoyotli and Ynes are with Maleficent,” he explained. “Yolanda and Yesenia are with Defiant Doom and they agreed to keep them occupied tonight.”

They neared Maleficent’s castle, looming over the rest of the city like a bad omen. In addition to its size, its gothic architecture set it apart from the ramshackle urban jungle of the rest of the Isle.

The four crouched behind a pile of empty crates near the main entrance. A troll stood on either side of the huge doors.

“We’re going through the front door?” Quinn whispered.

“All the others lead to a maze of passages,” Jax whispered. “We’d never find our way out.”

They watched the trolls a few moments more. They did not patrol back and forth, just stood still.

“Quinn,” Jax said. “If I get you up to that ledge,” he pointed at one about eight feet up. “Can you climb up to the window?”

Quinn looked up the wall, noting where bricks stuck out. The window was about twelve feet up. Trees were more her thing, but… “Yeah,” she said.

“While Cai and Hugo distract the guards, you climb up there and let this rope down. Cai and I will climb up. Once we’re all inside, you,” he turned to Hugo. “run and help where it’s needed.”

Hugo stepped out into the street and walked toward the trolls. “Good evening, gentlemen!” he called pompously. “I was hoping to ask a few questions.” He beamed up at them. “Do you enjoy working for Maleficent?” he asked. “I mean, I know there’s not a great job market for. Ogres? Are you ogres? Or, tall dwarves?”

Quinn looked over at Jax and Cai. This was the plan?

“He can be very annoying when he wants to be,” Cai said.

It seemed to be working too. Quinn saw how their jaws clenched as they both turned to look at him. Cai slipped from behind the crates and in the shadows of the street. He did a spectacularly bad job sneaking behind the trolls and was easily spotted. A troll spotted him, grabbed his arm and shoved him over to where Hugo was still chatting away.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked gruffly.

“Oh, no,” Cai gasped melodramatically.

Jax nodded at Quinn and they snuck out behind the trolls while they focused on Cai and Hugo. Rope slung over her shoulder, Quinn looked up at the wall. Its sheerness was much more daunting up close.

Jax knelt and laced his fingers together for Quinn to step on. Lifted up, she got a firm grip on the ledge with both hands and began to scramble up as quickly as possible. She was briefly reminded of the tree climbing races they used to have in Sherwood. She had never been the fastest – Ada Dale and her lanky limbs could climb absurdly fast – but she had been decently good. It was often considered the least practical of all their games but was coming to good use now.

She reached the window with a sigh of relief and tumbled inside. It was a very bare small room, only a table and a fireplace inside. But the table looked heavy and Quinn quickly tied the rope to it. Running back to the window, she saw Hugo had annoyed the trolls so much that they were slashing their spears at him. He jumped and ducked out of the way, still taunting them. She let the rope down the wall to Jax, who was watching the encounter with a slight grin. Just as he began to climb, Hugo managed to steal a hat right off of one of the trolls’ heads.

“Hey!” he boomed as Hugo scampered further down the street. The troll charged for him, calling for the other to follow. With a grin, Hugo sprinted down the street, trolls in hot pursuit.

When Jax reached the top, he was laughing. “Nothing like talking to Hugo to get you in a murderous rage.”

They both looked out the window, where Cai was starting to climb the rope. Quinn noticed a girl approaching the castle.

“Who’s that?” she asked.

“Shit,” Jax said. “Yoyotli’s the runner, she warns Maleficent’s people when she’s attacked.”

The girl stopped in front of the castle, having spotted them. Then she turned and ran back in the direction she had come from.

“Cai!” Jax called down to him. “Yoyo’s spotted us, make sure she doesn’t get to the others!”

Cai nodded and quickly scrambled down.

“We’ve got to hurry now,” Jax said and they ran out the wooden door into the dark corridor.

If the main entrance was the most straightforward way, Quinn would hate to see the maze-like parts. The corridor curved and split constantly, but Jax seemed to know the way. In a few minutes, they stopped in front of a wooden door, spray painted green and purple. The main design was Keep out! in all caps.

Jax motioned for them to be quiet as he carefully opened the door. The room was fairly dark, but Quinn could make out the shapes of the furniture and the designs covering the walls. She was a talented artist.  

Then she noticed that the bed was empty.

“Didn’t you read the sign?” a voice asked, and Quinn was suddenly tackled from the side and fell to the ground. She caught a glimpse of purple hair as she struggled to get her off. She managed to shove the girl away, and quickly rose to her feet, dagger out.

“Wait, you’re just a kid,” Quinn said, staring at the girl who could not be more than ten or eleven.

“Yeah? What’s your point?” she said. “I could still take both of you.” She charged at Quinn, but before she was withing reach, Jax had stepped behind her and grabbed her arms. Mal struggled but it was useless, and she glared at them.

 “You didn’t say she was a little kid,” Quinn whispered to Jax. Mal was sitting tied to a chair across the room.

“We’re not going to hurt her,” Jax said. “When Maleficent gives us a better deal, we’ll let her go.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Quinn asked, even quieter so Mal did not hear her. “Villains don’t seem to be too fond of their kids.”

“No, but they do need their kids,” Jax said. “They’re heirs, means to ends, whatever.”

Quinn sighed. “Alright. What was your plan for getting her out of here, because she definitely isn’t going to come quietly.”

Jax walked over to her and knocked her head with the butt of his dagger.

“What the hell!” Quinn exclaimed. “You could have killed her.”

“She’s just unconscious,” he said. “She’ll be fine.”

Mal carried between them, they had nearly reached the little room again, when they heard running footsteps. They echoed in the stone halls so much that it was impossibly to know where they were coming from. They ran faster, glancing behind but not seeing anything.

A boy and a girl, both with red hair, suddenly stepped out into their path.

“Willa, Wesley,” Jax said, smiling winningly. “What can we do for you?”

“I think we’ll take that off your hands,” Willa said.

Quinn looked over at Jax to see how they were going to get out of this. She could see his mind going over the variables of the situations. “Hold this,” he said, letting go of Mal so all her weight was on Quinn. He drew his sword and charged at the Weseltons.

Quinn realized that she had never seen Jax really fight before, only in training. Like every other move he made, it was graceful, effortless. He made it seem almost elegant. And since she had some training, she could appreciate it more. At no point was he unaware of his opponent’s movements, at no point was there an opening for them to exploit.

She understood even more how he was captain. Not only could he explain strategies and plan attacks, but he was an active participant, the reason they could succeed. She remembered the something that Dad used to say, that a true king led his people into battle.

She was so mesmerized by Jax’s swordplay that she almost did not notice when Mal moved. Before she could do anything, the girl had slipped from her grasp and stolen the dagger from her belt. With it, she cut the rope binding her wrists and feet. Quinn unsheathed her sword.

Mal smiled sweetly. “We both know you’re not going to fight a little kid like me.”

Quinn hesitated. She was right. She did not want to fight a ten-year-old.

Taking advantage of her hesitation, Mal ducked under her sword and barrelled into Jax, throwing him off balance. He managed not to fall but caught the elbow of Willa in the jaw.

Quinn rushed forward. They just had to make it to the little room and the door was only a few steps away. She sprinted and pounced on the back of Wesley, who stumbled under her weight, crashing into Willa. Quinn tumbled off his back, disoriented for a moment before Jax grabbed her hand and pulled her along the corridor. They stumbled into the room, slamming and barring the door behind them.

Jax ran to the window, looking out at the city. Quinn joined him. “What are you looking for?”

He pointed and Quinn followed his gaze. Flying from the main mast of the Jolly Roger was a green flag.

“We did it,” he said, out of breath.

“What?”

Jax lowered his voice, glancing over at the door. “This was all a big distraction,” he said. “the real mission was to make a secret entrance to the supply warehouse; that’s what Cyrus, Jukes and Blake were doing. That flag means they were successful.”

“So we have food and supplies?” Quinn asked, a smile spreading over her features.

He grinned. “We have access to all the supplies we need.”

The moment was interrupted by a loud crash. The door rattled on its hinges.

“Guess we’d better go,” Jax said. “Princesses first.”

Quinn rolled her eyes and started down the rope, Jax right behind her. They were halfway down when a louder crash told them the door had just been broken down. Willa and Wesley appeared at the window above them, wasting no time in climbing after them.

Jax and Quinn jumped the last few feet and sprinted into the dark streets.

•••

They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, hearing the pounding footsteps behind hem. Jax looked over at Quinn, his adrenaline-inspired grin mirroring hers. They turned into a narrow alleyway that twisted and turned between decrepit buildings.

Suddenly, he pulled them into a small alcove and they waited for the Weseltons chasing them to speed past. They stood very close to each other, Jax’s hand still gripping Quinn’s arm. They both were still out of breath from running and Quinn’s heart raced.

Quinn almost spoke but Jax gestured for her not to, as Willa and Wesley came past. Once they were gone, Quinn looked back up at Jax and found something in his eyes she had not seen before – or perhaps she had, but not with this intensity. He pulled her closer still and she inhaled sharply, unsure of what to do.

Then he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers and Quinn felt her heart hammering more than ever. It was not like it was entirely out of the blue. They had both quite clearly expressed interest over the past few weeks. What did surprise her was that he decided to do this now, in a chase situation.

What surprised her even more was that she quite liked the idea of doing this now.

Their chapped lips created a certain friction and Quinn could not help but think how wonderful it felt.

His hands, which had been on the small of her back, pulling her even closer to him, now moved to her waist as he pushed her backwards until she bumped into the wall behind her. Cautiously, Quinn slipped her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers in his long hair.

Soon they had to break apart due to lack of air, and Quinn looked at Jax, slightly breathless, a smile involuntarily growing over her face. “Why…?”

He flashed her his nonchalant, mischievous grin. “Don’t overthink it.” After checking that the coast was clear, he motioned for her to follow him. Trying to collect her thoughts, Quinn hurried after him.

•••

By the time Quinn and Jax returned to the Jolly Roger, the party was in full swing. Everyone was laughing and speaking loudly over the blaring music, drinks in hand. At the centre of the deck was a table laden with bread, slightly overripe fruit, and other scraps from Auradon, presumably straight from the warehouse.

Jax quickly disappeared into the crowd with Saoirse and Cyrus, briefing them on what happened. Quinn found Nia, Nabil, Hugo, and Clove standing to the side and joined them.

“Lead the trolls on a good chase?” she asked Hugo.

He grinned. “Yup, I led them all around the Isle. Even went past the shipping docks and picked up a few more.” He looked over to where Jax stood in the corner speaking seriously with Saoirse and Cyrus. “So what happened? Why didn’t you get Mal?”

“I thought it was all a distraction,” Quinn said. “The goal wasn’t to kidnap her.”

“Saoirse told me that they’d hoped they could do both,” Clove said. “The warehouse was the priority but Mal as a hostage would have been a nice plus.”

“Well, anyway, Willa and Wesley showed up,” Quinn said.

Nabil looked over at Nia, who was quieter than usual. “You and Seamus were watching the Weseltons, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah, they managed to slip by us somehow. We didn’t realize they’d gotten word of the attack until they were gone. Seamus told me to stay and watch Winnie and that he’d go warn you guys, but I guess he was too late.”

“Well, at least we got the warehouse,” Quinn said smiling, trying to cheer Nia up. “And that’s what we really needed.”

“Cheers to that,” Clove said, holding up their cup. They all touched cups and took a swig. Quinn’s face screwed up at the bitter sour taste and she tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle a cough.

Hugo snorted.

“Have you never had beer before?” Nia asked.

Quinn blushed a little. “No, my dad was strict about that.”

Clove grinned. “Well then, tonight should be fun.”

Soon Cai appeared and pulled Clove into a dance. Then Corinna, the oldest of the Powder Monkeys, blushingly asked Nia if she wanted to dance and she agreed.

Quinn stood with the two guys for a few minutes before turning to them. “So, are you two gonna buck up and ask someone to dance?” she asked them.

They looked at her in surprise.

“Nah,” Hugo said, dismissively.

Nabil was quick to agree. “Yeah, dancing’s lame anyway.”

His foot tapping and Hugo’s slight swaying to the beat betrayed them.

Quinn rolled her eyes and stepped in front of them, holding out both hands. “Come on.”

In the dense tangle of bodies moving to the music, the three spun and turned, laughing and trying to shout-sing along. Jukes joined them for a moment before pulling Quinn away, so they were dancing together.

“I heard you did good,” they shouted over the music. “You and Jax work well together.”

Did she know? Was that a knowing smile? Quinn suddenly thought. Jukes did always seem to read her too well. She just nodded. “Yeah.”

Quinn had been trying not to think about the kiss – or, at least, not to overthink the kiss. She was prone to overthink things after they happened, especially reckless things. And a kiss in an alley with a pirate while being chased definitely counted as reckless.

So she let herself get lost in the music and the pounding bassline that she could feel in her bones and the rest of the Crew dancing around her. It was a kind of belonging – though much different than any one she had felt before.

Amid the slight chaos of limbs and torsos, Quinn caught sight of Jax, watching her with a slight smile. And she liked him. She really liked him. So she beamed at him – a type of smile only possible with the happiness that comes with loud music, friends and one and a half beers.

And as the crowd engulfed her again, she saw his lips curl into a different smile – more to himself than her. It was a soft smile, one that comes with a warm heart and tender eyes.

•••

While tipsy Quinn could avoid overthinking, sober Quinn had a harder time. Throughout their pickpocket training with Sheela, she could not help but let her mind drift back to Jax. It was not that she had any qualms about being with him, or that she was uncertain of either of their feelings.

But she did not know how all of that worked on the Isle. There were romantic relationships, but she had never heard anyone referred to as a boyfriend, or girlfriend, or partner, or even that they were dating. The only word that seemed to be used was ‘fling’.

VKs don’t date. Jukes told her this during a scouting mission that night. While the mission against Maleficent had guaranteed the Crew supplies, it did mean that she was likely to retaliate.

“Okay,” Quinn said. “Then what about Blake and Seamus?”

“They’re a fling,” they said.

“So it’s a short-term thing?”

“Not necessarily. It can last for a long time,” They turned to her. “It’s an alliance of sorts, but more than a regular one. You trust each other more and...” They grinned. “you get a little fun on the side.”

Quinn looked out again and shifted so she was sitting on the edge of the roof.

“You and Jax are a fling, aren’t you?” Jukes asked after a moment.

After a pause, Quinn said, “From what you described, I think so – or, nearly.” Quinn glanced over at them. “Is that good? Bad?”

“That depends,” they said, grinning a little. “How is he at kissing?”

Quinn snorted and shook her head, rolling her eyes as she looked out at the city again.

“That good, huh?” they said. “Well, then it’s good. As long as you’re enjoying it, it’s good.”

•••

Quinn was just heading to the guest cabin on the Jolly Roger where Seamus was staying temporarily so she could change his bandages when she heard arguing voices from inside.

“...don’t see how I could have prevented –” Jax exclaimed.

“If you had listened to my advice about a truce with them this wouldn’t have happened!” Seamus shouted.

“We can’t just bow our heads to some smaller gang just because they threaten to attack us,” Jax said.

“That smaller gang did attack us and nearly won too.”

“But they didn’t and no one was too badly injured.” Jax spotted Quinn in the doorway. “He’s well on his way to recovering, right?”

Quinn did not want to barge in on this, but perhaps her presence would calm the situation. She stepped into the room. “Yes, but you do need to rest a little longer.”

Seamus was looking better; he was less pale and, judging from the argument, getting his energy back. But he did not look happy. He eyed Jax angrily.

“We’ll, uh, talk later, Seamus,” said Jax, giving Quinn a nod before leaving the room.

Quinn set about removing the old bandages. They were really just strips of cloth that she had washed as best she could. The wound was looking good, no discolouring or other signs of infection. “I would recommend not exerting yourself too much – in shouting matches, for example – or you might pop your stitches,” she remarked.

“Yeah, well, he’s the reason I was wounded in the first place,” Seamus muttered, wincing a little.

Quinn said nothing and continued with her work. She did not know enough about the situation to comment, but she hoped that Jax was in the right here.

Fortunately, Seamus’ attitude got improved as he did, and Quinn heard no more arguments between them.

•••

The next day, when Quinn came into the shop for her shift, she smiled at Jax. “Horrible morning,” she said, cheerfully.

He grinned. “Catching on are you, princess?”

Quinn grinned in return as she tossed her coat onto the coatrack. “Don’t call me that.”

“As you wish, your highness,” he said with an exaggerated bow.

“Okay,” Quinn said, rolling her eyes at him. “I am nowhere near royalty.”

“Closest there is around here.”

She glanced around. “Are you sure you should be saying stuff like that?” She stepped towards him. “Isn’t it supposed to be a secret?”

Shrugging, he said, “I told them you were homeschooled, remember? The only other homeschooled VK is the daughter of the Evil Queen. They’d assume I was referring to her.”

“Why is she homeschooled?”

“Some spat with the all-powerful Maleficent,” he said in an exaggerated tone.

Quinn giggled and he raised his eyebrows at her.

“I’m working on the laugh, okay,” she said, pushing him lightly.

“Good, because that makes you sound,” he leaned in and whispered, “like a princess.”

She pushed him again, grinning. “Funny.”

As Quinn turned away, he grabbed her arm gently and she looked at him again. “You were out of it the past couple days,” he said. “What changed?”

After thinking about it for a second, she gave him her most mischievous grin. “I feel... bad.”

A grin spread over his features and he pulled her closer. “About damn time.”

•••

Quinn had never actually dated anyone before. She had kissed Winston, Will Scarlet’s son, when she was sixteen, but that had been about it.

She was willing to bet, however, that dating in Auradon and flings on the Isle were different. In Auradon, it was all chaste cheek kisses before going to class, hand-holding in the hallways, and maybe a make-out session under the bleachers. Boys and girls were magically prevented from visiting each other’s dorms after sundown, so if anything was happening, it had to be pretty sneaky. It was not that they were expressly told not to have sex, it was just kind of understood. Many kids got married not too long after high school anyway.

But on the Isle, everything was passionate, unashamed, and entangled in fight training – at least, that was what it was like with Jax. Sparring turned into making out and back again just as quickly. It certainly taught her to be on guard at all times, but also added an element of thrill and adrenaline to their time together.

And there was no judgement. Quinn had already walked into the room above the shop with the other sailors to find Cai and Clove or Blake and Seamus multiple times. The others had kind of rolled their eyes and turned to leave. So, when the same thing happened to her and Jax, she was not as embarrassed as she otherwise would have been.

Jukes found it all very amusing. “Of course, you two ended up together!”

“Was it that predictable?” Quinn asked. They both had the night off and were sitting at the bar.

“No, it’s that unpredictable,” she said. “Jax has never had a fling with anyone on the Crew before.”

“People have flings between gangs?” Quinn asked in surprise.

Jukes shrugged, taking a swig of her beer. “Not often, but it happens. People used to swear he was with Harriet, but now that we’ve actually seen her, she looks too old for him. He definitely had something with Francoise though. It didn’t last long because her dad, Frollo, found out, and was furious.” She laughed. “So I guess we just never knew what his type was. I mean, he also made out with Tuka once at a party, but I think that was just a one-time thing. Although,” she looked at Quinn. “Now that he’s with you, maybe we at least know his type in girls.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Francoise’s dad is the leader of the Innocents, and you were homeschooled, and you’re, you know, you,” she said, matter-of-factly. “You’re softer types.”

“What do you mean, soft?” Quinn said, defensively.

“It’s not always a bad thing,” Jukes reassured her. “Sheela’s soft too, and she’s great.” She grinned. “And, I mean, if Jax is into it…”

Quinn rolled her eyes and threw back the last of her beer.

“You know what’s another great thing about all this?” Jukes continued. “It drives Blake absolutely nuts. It’s all he talks about at home.” She lowered her voice to imitate Blake, “She’ll get special privileges. She’ll be sleeping in his cabin before we know it. And being with the newest recruit? As a leader, he should know better.” Jukes snorted. “And then Dad and I roll our eyes, cause, I mean, holy shit, how’s he supposed to have a fling if he has to make sure everything is fair between the Crew?”

Quinn felt herself blush slightly at the mention of Jax’s cabin. “So, what about you?” she asked, leaning back in her chair. “Any notable flings?”

“Oh, you have no idea,” she said with a grin. “Cai, for a few months last year, before he was with Clove. I also kissed Cyrus once,” she mused. “and I know that was a bad idea, cause they’re brothers and all, but hopefully Cai doesn’t know. Also, Florian.”

“Francoise’s brother?”

“What can I say, the Innocents get around.”

[anjoholegacy]

Since we still have no details on Fire Emblem switch, I figured I would make a list of hopes I have for the next entry in the series.

Since Fire Emblem is an ever evolving series, adding more elements as they go, I figured I would split the list into two sections: a "Keep/Add" section, and a "Remove/don't add section"

Keep/Add

Keep My Units, I am 100% for custimizable units in jrpg's and keeping that feature from the last 3 games would be great.

Add more customization for male MU's. This is something I notice with Jrpg's in general, there is a pretty big lack in good customization options. In most games, I just opt to play a female character because they not only have more options than guys, but better options. I can have multiple different, good looking, styles to pick from as a girl, but really only 1 or 2 styles that look passable as a guy. Let guys be pretty damn it.

keep the branching paths of other FE games and enhance them, make the choices actually matter. And furthermore, add far more choices. The choices in Sacred Stones and Fates were just simple choices of what static path you wanted to take, adding very minimal replay value in total.

Add more manaketes. This isn't some deep game design aspect, I just like my dragons.

Keep the dungeon and rpg elements of Gaiden/Echoes. Those aspects were incredibly unique and were the best things to come from those games, it would be a shame to never use them again especially since they were refined in Echoes.

Keep weapon skills from Echoes. These added some much more depth to the normal combat formula and provided an incentive for diversifying the weapons you used and not just giving everyone a generic weapon.

Bring back old style forging. I hated the forging in Fates. The weapons were already horrible in that game and forging them honestly offered no benefit, especially since you had to not only have multiple copies of one weapon type, but also had to have a specific resource type. Not to mention you had to keep upping the amount for higher level forging. So I think a return to either Awakening style or Radiant style Forging would be better. Personally, I am partial to Radiant style as it makes a weapon from the ground up and allows you to change it cosmetically. Speaking of....

Add more cosmetic options in forging. In the Radiant games, we were given the option of choosing what color we wanted our newly forged weapon to be. This could be anything from a spear handle to the blade of a sword. While it’s simple, I thought it was pretty neat. In lieu of that, what is we could add more? What if we could add things such as particle affects, changes in design, different blade types, guard types or what not? What if we could could change the way magic attacks looked? I know that this is, again, nothing mechanical or too important, but I just think it would be a neat thing to toy around with.

Add more difficulty, and not in the way Conquest did. Conquest was supposed to be an answer to fans of the game who said that the games were getting to easy. But instead of using fair difficulty like smarter and more aggressive AI or better map design, Conquest went for gimmicks. Take the wind tribe level for instance, it was a horrible mess of relying on one gimmick that the player had only a fraction of control over by using a limited number of non-respawning dragon veins to prematurely activate a wind effect that would move enemies. But, it would still also move YOUR units making using them almost pointless. On top of that, if you didn’t activate the vein, the wind would go off anyway, providing no difference other than the fact that ENEMIES wouldn’t be moved. So even if you didn’t use the veins, the affect would mostly be the same regardless.

Add more classes. You can never have too many classes.

Bring back weapon durability. The unlimited use weapons in Echoes weren't that bad, but that’s because they were all optional and units didn’t even have to wield them to fight. Not to mention they actively benefited the units by providing weapon skills to use. This is not the case for Fates. The weapons in Fates were horrible, being both weaker than the limited use weapons and also giving the units that use them negative affects like silver weapons decreasing attack and skill with each use and steel weapons dropping your speed by a whole 5 points. I don’t care if I have to continually buy new weapons or watch weapon uses, I would prefer that over having to watch my unit’s stats drop each time they enter a fight.

Add way more non-romantic supports. This always bothered me in Awakening and Fates, most supports were always geared toward unit marriage. While I still like these supports, I would also just like to see two units hang out as friends with no focus on romance. Not to mention, it just seems unrealistic that two guys in the same army would have nothing to say to each other, but they would chat up every girl they see.

Add more LGBT units/ marriage options. I know Fire Emblem hasn’t always had very deep supports for a long time, or even ones geared toward romance for even less. But I feel like it would simply benefit the experience to allow there to be more than just straight couples.

If weapon durability does come back, make legendary weapons unbreakable. It makes no sense that they would be breakable in the first place.

If you don’t make them unbreakable, bring back weapon repair. This was something only used in Genealogy of the Holy War, but I have no idea why it was scrapped. The ability to allow you to add more uses to weapons, especially special or forged weapons, should be a no-brainer. It just feels stupid to spend so much gold on making a weapon powerful, only to have it permanently break eventually.

Add more cosmetic items. Fates added the costume shop, and with it, the ability to buy cosmetic items to have units wear. I want that expanded to more than just masks and pauldrons, but also to wearable costumes, hairstyles, etc.

Keep the full voice acting like from Echoes. Dear god, the voice work in Echoes was a masterpiece worthy of being the first fully voiced FE game. Every character sounded how they should and every delivery was spot on. I want this to be a regular feature in fire emblem from now on.

Please make multiplayer better. Awakening’s multiplayer was kind of sub-par and unengaging and Fates’ was an easily hacked, unbalanced, mess that favored using the same 5 units over and over and over again, especially with the advent of skill castles being formed from just how easy it was to crack the game.

Add cooler critical animations. Listen, I’m a fan of all the one-liners characters have in the recent games, but the sprite criticals from the GBA games were better by far. I know it’s harder to bring back in 3D, especially with the camera buttons having multiple angles, but I feel like it’s entirely possible to spice up the rather dull critical animations 

Add an explanation to what a fire emblem actually is. At this point, there have been 7 fire emblems and they don’t have any shared commonalities other than being an all-powerful macguffin that may or may not being related to dragons. 

Bring back double roll rng. Hybrid roll didn’t work, might as well bring back double roll and throw the player a bone.

Remove/ Don’t add

For the love of god, don’t add child units. Holy War did it right, having the story broken into two sections, one where the parents were the focus and the other where the children were, thus giving the children their own identity away from their parents by virtue of having accomplished things on their own. It also made sense for the story. Awakening did it worse but still passable, having the children be woven into the story in a time travel subplot and establishing them as being their own person without their parents around. It wasn’t great, but the kids were so I let it slide. The children in Fates were both horribly written and horribly implemented. They had no story nor logical reason to exist and the pocket dimension bullshit was absolutely a garbage explanation. These children also very rarely had any real redeeming character traits or well written personalities. All in all, unless you actually have a story reason for them, and a story reason that works well, just don’t do it. Let it go.

Don’t reuse My Castle. This feature was honestly more annoying than anything, adding a bunch more annoying or outright pointless functions such as materials, crafting, or having to spend points to upgrade a weapon or rod shop just to actually get sub-par equipment. I know I talked a lot about aesthetic additions and how much I liked customization, but when customization gets in the way of proper game-play, scrap it.

Don’t tie this game to any other previous entry. I get it, Awakening and Fates made big money, but it’s high time to move on. Intelligent systems has been favoring these two games too heavily in Heroes and Warriors, and it would only stand to hurt the new game if you tied it into the plot of Awakening or Fates. Just let it have it’s own identity.

DON’T PULL THAT POKEMON SHIT YOU DID WITH FATES. Fates being cut into 3 games did nothing but harm the development of the game, player reception of the game, and force players to waste money on 3 different games all to understand the full plot and it was NOT worth it. Keep the game to one copy.

Stop adding beginner’s trap characters. I know this has been a staple in FE since the beginning, but can you just cut it out already? If you seem so keen on teaching players not to rely too heavily on one super-unit, then why put it in at all? Just focus on making the earlier levels about having different units be used for different tasks and not try to screw with unit leveling early on.

Tone down the fan service. I get that the latest entries have been centered on it and it brought more people into the series, but no one in Fates wore pants. It’s getting out of control.

Get rid of Heart and Friendship seals. I honestly see no good reason why these were added in the first place. Second seals did their job just fine and didn’t require you to grind support levels just to get more classes to switch to. These were just a waste of development resources honestly.

Remove the second seal de-level loop. Allowing your units to infinitely level up to their max stats broke the game outright, don’t allow units to reset their levels with second seals any longer.

Please, PLEASE, do no add motion controls. This is something people have hated since the wii, forcing gimmicky control schemes or innovation focused controls where they don’t belong. The game has no need for them, just don’t do it.

Don’t pull the “it was an evil dragon all along” cliche. It wasn’t clever the first time, it’s not clever now, and its continued use has done nothing but make the story predictable and actually damage how good some villains are as their whole motivation can be summed up as “I must serve my evil master who is very evil, because I am also evil.”

Don’t add the skinship feature back in. People were more upset about its removal as a meme, no one actually wants this awkward and kind of creepy feature back. If I want something like that, I would just play my copy of Senran Kagura.

Remove phoenix mode. Casual mode was already a great introduction to newer players, and provided a minor punishment for mistakes so that new players could learn tactics more comfortably with no real risk. From there, players would go on to play normal mode or harder difficulties with more confidence. Phoenix mode doesn’t do any of that. Phoenix mode teaches you nothing, does not benefit new players in the long run, and does not incentive higher levels or difficulties of play. Fire emblem requires the challenge to be engaging. Otherwise it’s just a boring slog with a pretty uninspired and not entirely well-written story. Focus on improving the game play, not harming it by adding a “press X to skip combat” button.

[ddrkirbyisq]

You'd think that being unemployed I'd blog more often instead of less often...but I guess it's more just that the days of me feeling like i NEED to say something about =everything= are past.  I definitely remember that stage in high school where I just found it really nice, theraputic even to just type everything out as a way of processing it and to distill any of those leftover thoughts and feelings that I had.  I'd like to (?) think that I am a little bit better at being able to acknowledge my thoughts and feelings as they happen and "let them pass", so to speak.  Kind of like meditating, you know?  Where you don't necessarily feel obligated to act upon every single thought or feeling. Speaking of which, I think I'm really feeling a lot better so far about (not) stressing out about things in general.  Of course there is still an internal alarm bell (or whatever metaphor you want to use) that starts going off whenever I haven't gotten to one or more of my responsibilities for a long time, but I think it's been easier to not stress out about that alarm going off (and trust that I will be able to get to it).  Perhaps more importantly, it's also been easier to manage that alarm in the first place, since I really feel like I am doing a better job of keeping up with things in general now, with letters, music, etc.  Things will never be perfect and my plate will never be fully empty, but as long as I'm making forward progress I'm happy. I did some tai chi for the first time in forever the other day!  It felt nice, just went out to the park after doing some stretching and such at home.  I'm super out of shape of course, but actually not =as bad= as I thought, so that was nice.  It didn't take a ton of time either, so hopefully that's something I can start doing randomly a bit more often.  Though it is a bit less fun doing it alone compared to when it was with others.  But it's sort of fun to be alone in its own way, too, I guess. Worked on a bunch of music stuff today!  Got started on an interesting request to remix Gliding Dance of the Maidens, which took quite some tries to get started on, but I think I'm making headway there, yay.  Also did OHC today, in which I tried to emulate puru's progressive sounds.  I was eh...about halfway successful I think.  I managed to get pretty tight drum sequencing, which I think worked really nicely -- I'm going to have to push this "clean" style of drums more in the future.  I really stumbled on making the proper trance pluck sounds though, something which I feel like I used to be able to do but I guess I've gotten out of practice with it.  After OHC ended I spent some time experimenting with that, trying to get the hang of it not only with the classic 3xOsc synth, but also with Harmor and Sytrus.  I actually might start trying to use Sytrus a bit more often for this type of supersaw sound, as it's fairly easy to get a good unison saw sound out of sytrus and the filters actually work pretty nicely.  Harmor can do it too, of course, but...I dunno, the UI in harmor just feels more clunky and confusing, really.  Both Sytrus and Harmor are capable of doing subtractive synthesis, even though Sytrus is built for FM/ringmod and Harmor is built as an additive synth.  So maybe more Sytrus is in my future when I want to play around with synth stuff...?  Anyways, it felt good to be doing so much work on music.  It's just as well too, since I already have a commission lined up for next month too! Xmas letters are progressing smoothly!  I've gotten 25 of them done, and also took care of some birthday letters along the way as well.  Only 6 more days left!  I still have some of the longer ones left to do though, so hopefully I can schedule them in at good times.  I still have to do my Japanese letter too, which will probably take a while, haha.  Once all the letters are done I have to make sure to not relax -- need to get all the gift shopping done early otherwise deadlines will sneak up on me before I know it... Progressing further and further in Dark Souls, which has been keeping my interest pretty well!  I've also started listening to the Bonfireside chat podcast (that, the "Analog" melee podcast, and Limited Resources for MtG are my 3 podcasts to listen to while driving) alongside my playthrough, which...well, I wouldn't say it's the =greatest= podcast in the world, but it's enjoyable enough, for a drive.  Anyways, the main cleric character (Sayuri) has a bunch of points into Faith and uses lightning spear in addition to the Jagged Ghost Blade (currently reinforced to +4), which fortuitously dropped from one of the ghosts in new londo ruins.  It's just as well too, because we spent a LOT of time down in those ruins fighting those ghosts wayyyy before we were supposed to...we ended up clearing the ENTIRE area out and got confused because there was nowhere else to go (turns out I had just completely missed the door to the lower undead burg, argh).  Anyways, it's been serving really well, as it's got really nice base damage AND procs a nice bleed effect as well.  The only thing is that it doesn't do too well in narrower spaces or against short or flying enemies as it mainly has horizontal slash attacks, so occasionally we'll switch to the good ol mace (one of the better weapons in the game actually) and use those vertical attacks to smash things. The jagged ghost blade doesn't have much scaling, so eventually we'll replace it with some sort of divine or just regular reinforced dex scaling weapon.  Our scimitar is currently a divine scimitar although we haven't needed it yet (once we go into the catacombs, I guess?), and we just picked up a falchion so that could be a candidate.  Some sort of katana would actually be great -- apparently there is an Iaito somewhere in blighttown that you can get to by jumping to a platform, so maybe that, if we end up going back there.  I might just do some backtracking through blighttown (ugh) anyways, as I'm sure I didn't get everything there.  I actually also should go back to the lower burg since I apparently completely missed Griggs there, lol. Anyways, we actually made our way all the way through the depths, through blighttown, and beat quelaag, rang the second bell to presumably unlock sen's fortress (?) and are now near the ruins of chaos.  There are quite a few different directions we can explore go at this point, though I guess sen's fortress is the next real progress area (?).  There's no shortage of unexplored areas, at any rate, as there's the bridge in valley of drakes that i don't know where it goes (shortcut to somewhere?), there's the crest of artorias door which I don't know where it leads to, and a bunch of stuff in blighttown probably.  There...is certainly a lot of stuff in this game, lol.  Also, we accidentally killed the Chaos Servant guy guarding Quelaag's sister, whoops!  Didn't see the option to talk to him since I was holding my shield up.  Fortunately that doesn't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, just sort of unfortunate.  Wish somebody had left a message there that indicated something about that dude though.  We also missed beating Kirk in the sewers -- didn't realize he was an NPC to be beaten.  Whatever, there's no way to expect to get everything right on the first playthrough. My second character is a sorcery-focused int build, which is a drastically different playstyle, as she gets to really nuke things with hard-hitting magic attacks, but it requires a different set of tactics as she's sort of fragile and the magic takes time to cast, so it's tricky sometimes to find a good window of time to fire them off.  I've beaten the Gaping Dragon with that character, so next is to head down to blighttown. Third character is sort of a lolzy one, just focusing on strength and two-handing huge weapons.  I haven't played with that one very much at all, I think I only beat the taurus demon so far.  Don't know if I'll continue, though it does seem funny to just hold really huge weapons around haha. Cleared a Space Alert mission successfully for the first time in about 3 years, which was fun!  Really gotta keep your wits sharp to succeed in that game...it's still fun though. I've started playing through Hollow Knight as well!  In earnest this time, as the last time I tried I didn't get very far at all.  Currently just got to the Fungal Wastes...man, a LOT of attention and detail went into the art for this game, it's pretty insane how fully-featured all of these environments are and so far the different feel of all the areas is coming across really well.  It's been fun so far. Things that are coming up (a.k.a. things that I have to get done, lol)...besides stuff that is not really worth mentioning (getting my flu shot at some point), I actually still might want to do a short post-mortem for Bath Time, lol.  Speaking of which, there's a pretty annoying touchscreen bug, so (sigh) I probably will try to fix that up and make a new mobile build for it.  At SOME point I'll have to try to actually get back to development on Rhythm Quest, though it is certainly intimidating since there is so much that needs to be done there.  Besides all the content, I want to redo how the map screen works entirely if possible, maybe the main menu as well, but also have to make a calibration screen of some sort, etc etc etc. For anime, Inuyasha (lol) is on hold at the moment, but I finished off Evangelion for reals (yay).  I didn't expect the ah..."change of direction" at the end of the series to be so...SUDDEN...but thinking about it, it makes sense.  For some reason I expected that to start happening earlier, but it really was compacted into the last little bit.  Anyways, now I'm making my way through the latter parts of Onii Sama e...which has had some quite nice episodes.  I don't really know what to say about it without having to explain a lot of other things about the anime, so I won't really bother, but it has been good. Not much melee these days, but one thing that is exciting is that Rishi and KJH made it into summit!  Woot!  Should be a good lineup!  That's pretty exciting. Also been catching up on going through random music that I've got backlogged on my drive, including Chronology (jazz rearrangement album of Chrono Trigger, it's pretty nice!), as well as Harmony of Heroes (super smash bros giant rearrangement album) and the Final Smash extension (those two didn't have that much that was to my liking, but a few things here and there were nice).  As I said, it just feels nice to be making progress on things.  I even went through all of my accumulated deviantArt notifications the other day, haha.  I'm actually trying to get back into my habit of using my little batch script to open up a bunch of websites every morning for me to check for updates!  Anyways, all of these things feel great to be going back to.  I should also be putting out my "Monthlies" release for this month relatively soon too!