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reki-of-the-valley · 3 years ago

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More bullet point fanfic by yours truly! - First kiss edition

I woke up at 4 am thinking of this and it's been stuck in my brain ever since. Watch me eventually write it as a whole ass fic

It's the weekend, a slow, hot day. Reki and Langa are in Reki's room, as usual, watching a mix between skating videos and dumb videos that make them laugh (and the occasional cute animal video they will inevitably come across). It's a slow, relaxing day, nothing out of the ordinary for them, except that they can't go out because it's just *too* hot

Langa's got his chin on Reki's shoulder, his eyes falling shut every so often. The heat makes him sluggish, but he refuses to go home where it's cooler or take a nap to sleep the heat away. He's adamant to continue watching what's playing on Reki's phone, even if the light is tiring his eyes

And Reki doesn't mind. He's never minded having Langa close, basically cuddled into his side. Reki likes it, actually. He likes having Langa close. He likes feeling Langa pressed into him, Langa's chin digging into his shoulder, Langa's hair tickling his cheek, Langa's bony elbow pressed into his side. Obviously it's because Reki is used to having people in his personal space. The twins when they cling to his leg, his mother when she hugs him, Koyomi when she's poking him.

So Reki doesn't mind having Langa close, falling asleep on his shoulder. At least, not until Langa is shifting, nose pressing against Reki's neck, the soft skin where no one ever touches him. And his warm breath is heating up Reki's face for a reason he can't tell. Or maybe he can, when Langa is mumble-asking if he can kiss Reki

Langa doesn't mean it. He can't mean it. Langa always mumbles out nonsense when he's half asleep. So Reki laughs it off awkwardly.

Except Langa's nuzzling closer, "please, Reki? Can I, please?"

Reki doesn't trust his voice, knowing it'll come out as a squeak, so he just nods. He has no idea what Langa is going to do, or what kind of kiss he wants, but Reki wants whatever it is, which is weird. Kissing the homies good night was just a saying, not an actual thing, right?

But when Langa's pressing a kiss to his cheek, everything fades away. It doesn't feel weird or wrong or anything. It actually feels nice. Reki likes it. Even if it's just a quick peck, Reki likes it. A lot.

Everything fades, everything goes hazy. Maybe it's from the heat, maybe it's from something else, but Reki's shifting, turning to Langa, Langa with his heavy lidded eyes, Langa with his pretty smile. Maybe it's the heat, maybe that's what's fogging Reki's everything, but something happens. Something happens for Langa to be kissing him, or maybe he's the one kissing Langa; he can't tell who started it. But they're kissing. And Reki feels like he's floating.

Reki is the first to pull away, gasping for air, but langa's chasing his mouth and Reki can't say no to that.

It's not Reki's first kiss - he had kissed a girl on a dare in 6th grade during one of those middle school parties - but it is the first time he was feeling someone's tongue against his lips. It is the first time he was gripping onto someone's shirt to hold them close as the kiss was deepened. It is the first time he was kissing a boy. And he.... Reki likes it. He likes kissing Langa.

When Langa finally pulls back, they're both flushed and panting. Maybe they had gotten a little carried away, but Reki doesn't care. He can't care, not when everything feels blissfully light

At least everything feels nice until Langa's eyes are blown wide open, scrambling to pick his stuff up, shoving them into his bag.

"shit, shit, fuck, I promises my mom I'd be home before dinner. Fuck, she's gonna be pissed. I'm so fucked-!"

And he's dashing off, Reki not even getting a chance to put in a single word. Something twists inside of Reki. Maybe Langa regretted kissing him, maybe that's why he was running away now. Maybe Langa didn't like it as much as Reki did.

They don't talk about the kiss(es). No one brings it up. Reki's too afraid to bring it up and Langa is acting like it never happened. They're both desperately trying to go back to how things were before, but Reki jumps every time Langa's hand brushes against his and Langa isn't leaning in as close as before when they watch videos during lunch at school. It's not horrible, but Reki can feel the tension, which can only mean one thing: Langa hated the kiss.

This goes on for a few days, the awkward no touching but still wanting to. It calms down a bit after a few days. Reki's a little less jumpy, Langa is starting to lean back in (not as much as before, but still always a little closer). They can sit shoulder to shoulder now, not quite touching yet, but getting there. That's how Reki finds himself staring at Langa, watching him eat, looking at his mouth. His mouth that had been pressed to Reki's only a few days ago. His lips so soft despite being chewed at on the daily.

Reki can't blame his actions on the heat this time. He can't blame anything or anyone except himself as he presses a quick kiss to the corner of Langa's mouth. He tries deflecting, finding excuses ("you had something and-!") but it's useless. There's nothing that can excuse his behavior

But Langa simply let's his head fall onto Reki's shoulder. He's not pushing Reki away. He's not telling him that it was wrong of him to do that. None of that.

"M'tired..." "It's the heat, dude" "wanna sleep" "wanna ditch and head back to your place? It's way cooler there" "only if you come"

Reki short circuits as soon as Langa's fingers are twisting with his, tracing the lines in his palm, not letting go.

"can we go? Not like we're actually going to listen to anything, even if we go back"

That's how Reki finds himself pulling Langa up, walking by his side until they're out in the yard and skating off towards Langa's place. That's how he finds himself coming to a halt in front of the apartment he's been in only a handful of times. They always go to his place, crashing in his room. They rarely ever go by the apartment.

Reki watches as Langa unlocks the door, kicking his shoes off as he set his board against the wall. And he follows his lead, though a little more careful, untying his shoes and setting them in a corner with his own board. It's a lot colder in here than it is in his room. The AC must be put to it's lowest.

"you want something? I think my mom bought cookies yesterday"

Reki watches as Langa pulls out more food - they just finished lunch, but Langa is a monster when it comes to snacks, no matter what time it is - before crashing into the couch. Reki follows, like a puppy. He isn't uncomfortable, but still. The environment feels new and he isn't sure how comfortable he should make himself

That is until he's sitting on the couch and Langa is putting his head on Reki's lap, a cookie in his mouth as his bright blue eyes are staring up at Reki. Blue like a clear sky, sun blazing down over the ocean

"I'm sorry," Langa says, holding up his half eaten cookie. "about the other day, I mean. I shouldn't have done that" "I'm sorry too. About- about earlier? It was dumb"

There's a beat of silence. Then Langa is shifting again, sitting up

"Look, Reki, I- I like you and I get it if you dont-!" "Really dude? Like, like like me?" Langa nods, though looking a little confused. "You can do that?" "Reki, you... You do know I'm gay, right?"

Reki did not know that. And when Reki is caught off guard, he acts dumb. That's why he's blurting out "you're gay???"

Langa's still staring at him in disbelief. "yes? I thought it was obvious?"

Apparently not enough for Reki to get the hint. "Oh my god. You like me. You like me. You actually like me."

"Look, you don't have to-" "I like you too! I mean," Reki rubs at his nose, laughing nervously, "i gotta, right? Since I kinda really wanna kiss you again?" "You do?"

And they're both laughing at each other, Langa's face buried in Reki's shoulder. Reki can feel the tears welling up in the corners of his eyes, though he isn't sure if it's from the laughing or from how happy he is

Then Langa's shifting against him once again, look up at Reki with his beautiful blue eyes. "Can I kiss you?"

Reki doesn't answer him, only pressing their mouths together. Because of course Langa can kiss him. He's been thinking about it ever since it first happened

The kisses are slower this time. They're not rushed, not as needy. They take their time exploring each other, feeling what's comfortable, what feels good. It's new, the kissing, and they will have to find how to do it properly. But for the most part, there's more smiling than there is kissing

"Reki?" Reki hums against Langa's lips, not quite ready to pull back completely. "Reki, what does this make us? Does this make us boyfriends?"

The realization hits like a truck. He could be Langa's boyfriend. Never in a million years did Reki think that would happen

"yes? I think? I mean, I want to" "does that mean we aren't best friends anymore?"

Langa's eyes and big and wide and worried. He knows he shouldn't laugh, but Reki can't help it. He can't help but laugh, pressing a kiss Langa's cheek

"no, were still best friends, man. Nothing can change that. And I mean," Reki ducks his head, rubbing at his nose, "it's like what they say in all those Hollywood movies. You know, the cheesy romcoms? In those speeches when the main characters get married? That they're marrying their best friend? Not that were getting married! I didn't mean us-!"

Langa's kisses only got sweeter with time. A quick peck cutting Reki off before he fell into a panicked ramble. "I get what you mean. I just... I don't want to lose you. You're the only best friend I've ever had." "What about boyfriend?" "You'll be the last one."

Reki is satisfied with that. He's more than satisfied as Langa is pressing another kiss to his face, then to his mouth. How long had he wanted this? Reki has no idea, but now that he's got it, now that he's got Langa, he's happy.

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sidespart · 4 years ago

Note

For the fic title thing: Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I’m Falling

Make Up Your Mind (this seriously got away from me and became basically a whole string of conscious fic whoops)

Logince, Bakery/coffeeshop AU Mutual Pining/ Not-Actually-Unrequited love, + loceit friendship

So Janus owns a Bakery (struggling to think of a snake/lie based bread pun for the name but ehh). He is the head only baker and sends most of his time in the basement kitchen blasting the phantom of the opera soundtrack and kneading dough.

Logan is his childhood friend. Janus hired him as cashier after Logan dropped out of collage but then he never left and is now basically manager/ accountant/ hbic of this whole operation.

So one night as Janus is leaving he’s casually like: ‘oh by the way, a couple are coming by tomorrow for a wedding cake consultation’

And Logan blocks the door and is like: ‘Janus. We don’t do wedding cakes. We don’t even do cake. You only make weird artisanal bread. it took me 6 months and 8 powerpoint presentations to convince you to sell banana loaf’

Jan, his eye enormous: ‘but Logan, you should have heard this guy on the phone. They only want to use LGBTQ businesses for their wedding, they want to support the community that’s supported them for so long. He spoke so passionately and eloquently about why it just had to be us I couldn't say no’

Logan, his eyes not enormous: did you tell this man we make wedding cakes just to make the phone conversation end?

Janus: I was going to miss the murder, she wrote marathon, Logan

So Jan manages to escape, and Logan rolls his eyes but like. This is nowhere near the worst ‘cleaning up after Janus lied to get out of a situation and made everything more complicated for no goddamm reason’ incident that he has had to deal with during the course of their friendship so, whatever: he can tell the couple there was a miscommunication when they show up in the morning.

Next day, the guys arrive. Virgil, who barley introduces himself and then stays hunched in his hoodie not speaking for the whole meeting, and Roman.

Roman does not have a problem speaking. Roman has lots of ideas.

Roman has a binder.

Somehow in the course of this conversation Logan goes from ‘we don’t make wedding cakes’ to ‘I’LL SHOW YOU, WE’LL MAKE THE BEST GODDAMM WEDDING CAKE THIS TOWN HAS EVER SEEN’

Maybe it was the passion of Romans argument. Maybe it was the slightly disdainful look on his face when he looked round the shop. Maybe it was the ridiculous amount of money he was prepared to pay (see: Janus insists on only making specific, weird bread as to why the shop’s always on the brink of collapse). Maybe it was the power of the binder (Logan is like 80% sure Roman hit him with the binder at one point). Maybe its just Logan hasn't had a full blown passionate argument like that since high school debate club and the rush of adrenaline made him dumb.

Whatever the reason - they’re now fully committed to making this 6 tier, purple and blue, Disney inspired, multiflavoured wedding cake

(Janus, who skipped out on the meeting because he is Like That: But Logan....we don’t make wedding cakes...this was really irresponsible of you...

Logan: I know where you sleep. I could kill you at any time)

Which would be doable (the weddings a while off, and Logan is ready to RESEARCH) except Roman keeps. Coming. Back.

With new ideas. And tweaks. And suggestions. All of them seemingly designed to make the cake less structurally sound.

Basically every time he comes in they end up having a blazing row, first about Romans inability to make up his mind about the cake and then about...literally everything. One time they spent 25 minuets arguing about whether or not Shakespeare wrote all of his plays, which somehow turns into ‘who was the best host of blues clues?’ which then turned into ‘how would nationalised healthcare best be implemented?’ (the loudest arguments were during the blues clues section).Logan had even fewer customers then normal that day.

(Logan: I hate that guy so much! He shows up at 2pm every day and now my blood pressure has started going up at 1.55pm in anticipation of the fight! He’s causing me actual medical distress because he’s so stupid!

Janus:...you’ve memorised some guys schedule and your heart starts racing whenever you see him?

Logan: yes! because he is my enemy!

Janus:...

Janus: mmKay.)

ANYway, one day Roman turns up and is like: Can’t fight today. Need caffeine. Must Study. and sequesters himself on one of their two rinky dink tables and starts pulling enormous textbooks out of his bag. Turns out Roman is in law school, he’s back home for the whole summer to help with wedding prep and has been neglecting his summer reading. He wants to be an environmental lawyer and, ideally, singly handily prosecute every oil company and give a speech at the UN whilst wearing an immaculately fitted Italian suit.

Logan has a panicked moment of OH NO HE’S SMART (he doesn't need an oh no he’s hot moment because Roman’s been hot the whole time). Very carefully he does not think about how upset hearing Roman mention the wedding again made him feel, and then shares a bit about his own anxiety during college which led to him dropping out.

Roman says degree or no degree its obvious Logan is one of the smartest, most capable people Romans ever met.

Cue: blushing, stammering, Logan standing up to quickly and knocking half a pot of coffee over etc etc all that good fluff.

And after that their conversations are less confrontational (although they still debate like. everything.) and more friendly.

They have one (1) more conversation about the wedding wherein Roman apologises for being so stressed and snappy over all the preparation stuff but he just wants everything to be perfect for Virgil. (Logan, awkwardly: you must love him a lot. Roman, himbo-ly: Yeah!) aaand then Logan changes the subject to the best rhyming structure because Romans big sappy grin is making his heart do awful twisty things-

And eventually, Roman asks Logan to go out with him outside the bakery.

Logan: hahaha this is friendship, we are great friends, we are going out as friends. I am not going on a date with a man with a fiancé because that would be the actions of a crazy person.

So they go on their date. It’s amazing. Roman leans in for a kiss at the end and Logan is delighted!

And then devastated.

He pushes Roman away, yells some creative insult (malodorous centurion?) and flees. Spends the next week basically hiding in the kitchen area, refusing to see any customers and working on the wedding cake.

(which is looking perfect by the way)

So after a week of Logan moping round the kitchen Janus finally blocks the door to stop him leaving and demand he tells him what the hell is wrong. And after a few minuets of filibustering Logan ends up telling him everything.

“In any case, the very fact that he is the kind of man who would cheat on his fiancé means he’s not the kind of man I thought he was. Therefore any alleged feelings I may have developed towards him would now be null and void” says Logan, looking like the worlds sadist accountant

Janus: So...wait. You’re saying wedding cake guy and hot lawyer guy are the same person?

(Logan: you need to come out of the basement more often Janus: YOU need to tell me what’s going on in your life more often. (they have had this conversation many times in the past))

So Janus sincerely tells Logan he’s sorry...and that he’s even more sorry that he needs him to help him deliver the cake to the venue tomorrow.

(this thing is way to big for one person to carry and there’s no way Jan would trust any of their occasional teenage cover staff to do this and ‘we’ll go round the back and you wont have to see anyone anyway comon Lo’ you basically built this monstrosity you should see it home)

So, reluctantly, Logan goes. And they go round the back as promised, and get this enormous cake settled, and then get told to wait there one sec cus one of the grooms is going to come sign for it and before Logan can throw himself out of the widow (get OFF me Janus we’re on the ground floor it’s FINE) from behind them they hear squeeing.

There’s a curly haired dude in a pastel blue linen suit who Logan has never seen before in his life looking at the cake and cooing over ‘all the little details! its perfect! oh Virgil is going to love this! You know he was so embarrassed about asking for a Disney themed cake he had to ask Roman to go with him to -”

“Who ARE you?”

The man blinked at Logan, who realised dimly that he still had one foot up on the windowsill and slowly returned it to the floor.

“I’m Patton” said Patton.

“And I’m Janus” said Janus, removing his arms from where they’d still been clamped around Logan’s waist and stepping smoothly towards Patton, clipboard held aloft “A pleasure to meet you, if you could just sign here...”

“BUT-” Patton paused, hand still raised to accept the clipboard, and looked over again at Logan who found himself mumbling: “but - but the groom is supposed to sign for it?”

And Patton just smiled at him looking a bit bemused and goes ‘I am the groom? And who are you kiddo?”

Logan says he’s Logan. Patton suddenly looks a whole lot less friendly.

“Oh.” says Patton. “You.”

And since Logan’s mind is currently refusing to take in the information in front of him Janus is the one who ends up stepping in between them and going “so just for 100% transparency - you are Patton.

“yes?”

“and today you are marrying the love of your life: Virgil?”

“Yes!”

“And are either of you, at any point today, also planning on marrying one Roman Sanders, caffeine addict and terrible communicator?”

And Paton burst out laughing and says “ROMAN? Virgil’s big brother Roman? He’s my best man but I don’t think we’re planning to take it any further...”. And because Patton is apparently much quicker on the emotional uptake than Logan he gives him a vey soft, if slightly exasperated, look and says:

“Roman - who again, is my future brother-in-law- is helping set up in the main hall.”

And Logan likes to think he said thank you before he took off fucking RUNNING through the building but he can’t be sure.

So he gets to the hall, where a load of people are setting out chairs, putting up flowers etc, and skids to a stop at one end of the aisle. Shouts: “ROMAN.” (Roman and Virgil, who were standing at the other end arguing over a flower arrangements, both look up) “YOU’RE NOT MARRYING YOUR BROTHER.”

“um.” Says Roman “No?”

Explanations are given. Virgil, who is a lot more talkative now that he’s not on 7th wedding appointment of the day burn out, is ready to physically fight Logan for breaking his brothers heart. And then once he understands the full story is ready to kill both of them for being such dumbasses.

Roman: But I s2g I told the guy on the phone that it was the groom and best man coming??? Logan: Yeah he might have lied and said you were a couple for a joke, or he may have just straight up not listened to you. Either way, he is just Like That.

Logan: WHY DID YOU NEVER MENTION VIRGIL WAS YOUR BORTHER?? Roman: I WAS TRYING TO GET TO KNOW YOU AND ALSO SEDUCE YOU WHY WOULD I WASTE TIME TALKING ABOUT MY LITTLE BROTHER??? Virgil: Yeah...he does like talking about himself, sorry he’s just Like That.

Anyway it all ends fluffily, Patton and Virgil get married. Roman cries. Logan and Jan hang around for the wedding. Roman and Logan hold hands throughout the speeches and dance during the reception. Roman has to go back to law school soon but they agree to call each other every day at 2pm to catch up and argue.

Janus gets off with the moustachioed DJ.

And Roman and Logan get another chance at their first kiss.

#sanders sides fic #logince #roman sanders #logan sanders #Loceit #Platonic Loceit #janus sanders #SANDERs sides #YEAH THIS ONE ALSO GO AWAY FROM ME #i might write some of these scenes up properly or draw them out #this was fun #fake fic meme #sidespart writes #Anonymous

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inventors-fair · 3 years ago

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Epithet Commentary

So, this ended up being a fairly popular contest. I think the prompt was really open and creative, but limiting enough that it wasn’t overwhelming. You all did a pretty good job with it, and I’m happy with the turn out.

Some themes I noticed? One was board wipes. A lot of legendary creatures have some sense of power or finality to their epithets. They’re all the biggest, or the strongest, or the most powerful of whatever they are. It led to a lot of ways to kill things, and a lot of black cards. I was impressed with the non-creatures as well: I was expecting a lot of enchantments and auras effectively granting the epithet to something, but there were a decent amount of spells, and even a few artifacts. In general I was impressed with the cleverness this week. Some people had a lot of fun throwing curve-balls. Picking cleverest reinterpretation wasn’t easy.

Enough talk, on to the talking! BTW, if there’s two paragraphs for an entry, the first is an art direction submitted by the designer.

@bread-into-toast - Archive Keeper

mood: flightless aven librarian, suspended in a cavernous maze of shelves

I like what you’re going for here. That first ability sounds really cool, and I could see it being sort of a build-around theme. I don’t know about uncommon, though. There would have to be quite a few ways to put cards into a library in the format, maybe a keyword that does it, like if flashback tucked instead of exiled. The exact wording of this would make cascade particularly scary if it were in the same format. I also like the flavor, caring for a literal library, and the art is great. Now lets get to my big issue with this: the activated ability. I do really like that you gave the card a way to trigger its first ability, but I think you went a little too aggressive with it. First, unless the format is particularly bad it it, this keyword is going to always be active. It’s cheap and requires a very easy resource to get. The fact that it stacks with multiple of these guys is also scary, especially with it being uncommon. Second, it’s off-color. I know it’s your own graveyard, so it’s not like it’s graveyard hate, but blue has never done this. White does it a little. Also, even though they’re separate, it does sort of read U: This creature gets +1/+0 and gains flying until EOT. That really isn’t blue. That’s fire breathing. Blue doesn’t get fire-breathing, at least not for a very, verly long time. White gets it very, very rarely, but I think it might be fine here. I know the colors are an attempt to put this card in the colors of “putting things in libraries,” which I think is good, but the exact payoff for doing it isn’t quite right.

@chungus-supreme - Lich Queen

Interesting take on Lich. Almost like a mix of Lich and Recycle. The number of permanents you have when you play this will never change. Unless of course you’re playing reanimator or something. It’s especially scary if you’re playing non-permanent cards. These types of cards are rather hard to judge, since saying “this is very swingy and will either lose or win you the game with no inbetween” is kind of the point. Putting lich on a creature is especially awkward since it leaves her open to wraths or sweepers. I do like how she doesn’t technically kill you, so she works will in lich-tribal decks which are more common than you’d expect. Still, I don’t think these kinds of cards are healthy for the game, even if they are fun and silly. They just lead to very simple “do you have it or not?” scenarios which can lead to sour players. Still, as I said, a neat take on the archetype.

@corporalotherbear - Young Conqueror

Art direction: A haughty young man, surrounded by kicked and humbled servants, wearing a crown reminiscent of the horns of a certain elder dragon planeswalker.

What an brat. I get what this card is doing. I like how the “young” part denotes its small power toughness, but the high mana cost and splashy ability makes it feel powerful. I don’t know if I quite agree with “conquerer” specifically, since it takes away from your opponents but doesn’t give you anything. I think that’s kinda minor. I like the ability itself, and I think it's probably costed right. The lose 1 life is mostly trinket text, but the other two effects are pretty strong. ETB discard is at two mana, ETB one-sided sacrifice isn’t actually super common, but on spells its about 2 mana, so a combined four mana is probably okay once you factor in the three colors (and it being a rare, unlike the cards I’m using as an example). I’m going to ignore the personal part of me that dislikes blink decks and aggressive ETB effects and say that this is something wizards would think is okay. And at least this loses value as the game goes on or against specific decks. So in total, I like it. And it’s a good use of this week’s challenge!

@col-seaker-of-the-memiest-legion - Royal Scion

Well isn’t that a pretty boy. So I get the treasure part. But I don’t get the last ability. You can spend money to save things? I don’t quite get what story you’re trying to tell. Mechanically, the card is fine, but there’s a few tiny issues. First, the last ability I believe can target itself. As in, you can sacrifice an artifact to make itself indestructible. Not very intuitive, but I expect it will happen often. That will essentially make this guy a 2/2 that comes with a 1/1, with a little utility. I guess that’s okay. The second issue is I don’t know where this guy is going. Treasure decks and artifact decks have less in common than you might expect: the former are aggressive and usually base red, the latter are usually slow and base blue. They both occasionally show up in white or black, but neither probably want a small body that gets you a few chump blockers and protect some stuff. At uncommon I could see this in maybe an artifact heavy set or a set with treasure synergies, but I’m having some difficulty. I think this guy is fine, but I’m just not a big fan of it.

@demimonde-semigoddess - Heart of Fire

Love the art there, it’s very evocative and really seals the card. I’m also surprised to see cipher; I’ve always thought the mechanic was cool, but it’s hard to do well. I think you may have fallen into the trap as well. This card is very strong. Two damage will usually be able to get at least a single blocker out of the way, and then you get to cast this card again for free most of the time. Most cipher cards were costed as though you were going to get two free casts a turn. The “draw a card” one costs four mana, for example, because it usually comes out as a divination + a curiosity rather than a cantriping curiosity. So this card ends up being really close to a reckless rage that you can go face with and can be recast. Think about Direct Current, which was also a sorcery and also cost you another resource and was 3 mana but still saw lots of limited play. I do like the fact that the card deals damage to the creature it’s encoded on, but because of how cipher works it’s hard to make it feel necessary. Unless the creature has trample, the damage is pretty much going to be all or nothing. Dealing small amounts of damage to your own creature is most relevant before combat. Doing damage after doesn’t usually matter unless it kills it. But it still makes it a cost: you can get another copy of it, but it’ll cost you a small creature. Despite all of my issues, I still like the card. It’s creative and flavorful, it’s just the sort of card that could dominate games, and should not be at common.

@dimestoretajic - Torch of Defiance

I don’t know what to say. It’s a good card. It’s got a very basic pump with a slightly fancier extra ability, and it feels flavorful. The defiance part is a little weak, but I get it. I also think you maybe could have upped one of the costs, or made the equip not have red. As is, it’s stronger than a lot of menace-granting equipment, and it even lets you spread it around. But maybe that’s just me wanting to play it safe. Anyway, card is good! I’m very happy with this one.

@fractured-infinity - Shifting Flame

What an amusing little card. The name helps me picture something, but not an equipment. However, seeing it, I actually like that interpretation. The idea of “wielding” a flame is a cool idea. The effect is cool, though a little weird. It reminds me a lot of balefire dragon, a 7 mana mythic, but maybe the fact that it needs a body and time to set up helps bring it down. I do enjoy some of the safety valves, such as it being double red, meaning it's harder to put it on a deathtoucher, and how it’s all or nothing, so you can’t remove the absolute minimum and have an easily repeatable board wipe. I’m still unsure how much I like this card exactly. Outside of balefire and shockmaw dragon, this effect is pretty rare. At a minimum, it turns a creature into shockmaw. Getting a blazing volley every turn is stronger than it sounds. It makes it hard to build up a board or get your smaller creatures bigger. I do like that, the longer this sits out, the more likely it turns into “equipped creature must be blocked.” Even with all the setup required, I’m a little scared of a reusable one-sided board wipe that just sits out until it's necessary. Granted, I’m not as scared to print this as a lot of cards, but I’d just want to see how it plays first. I think you made a cool card with a unique ability that could end up being a little too hard to come back from without direct answers.

@gayagendaofficial - Heretical Healer

For the art, I imagine a human man pulling a corpse out of a grave. The corpse is not yet fully out of the grave, but the man is already measuring it and preparing to saw off a limb.

Wow, this card is nuts! It’s a repeatable reanimator with very little effort. First, let me address some templating. After the “mill three cards” text, you can have the next sentence be connected. As in, “mill three cards, then you may...” Also, you don’t need to say “under your control” because it’s already coming from your graveyard, so it’s kind of assumed. Okay the card. So, if you play this card, as long as you have two creatures i your graveyard, this reanimates a creature. If you’re playing four of these guys, it’s entirely possible to play this, mill another, then reanimate it, then mill a clone, then clone this guy and do it again. If you’ve ever played when Gyruda combo was a thing, I could see this doing something similar. However, the card itself is pretty cool, and I think it’s worth saving. One option you have is just increasing the cost: I would suggest up to seven mana. Another thing you could do is restrict what you can reanimate, sort of like Gyruda. Perhaps it can only exile or only reanimate the cards it just milled? Or maybe come up with some other restriction, like it having to be a creature with a certain mana value or something. In summary, I like this card’s design, but it’s a little too easy to just be way too powerful in a good enough deck.

@ghoulcalculator64 - Dungeon Warden

I love cards like this. O-ring effects that care about what you O-ringed. How very “imprint” like of you. However, the connect doesn’t quite feel right to me. The two effects feel like they’re pushing in completely different directions. Banisher Pirest effects are best in aggressive decks, where having a removal spell on a creature is super relevant, and you can hopefully kill them before they get their creature back. The card draw half of this feels really weird in that style of deck. It seems really strange to have a ticking time bomb like this that just sits there to draw you cards. The high mana cost doesn’t help with that, but I don’t think it could be any cheaper, either. There’s also the fact that it can target your own creature. That feels really antithetical to the design, and can lead to shenanigans that are really counterintuitive to new players. That also sort of ties to one of the first (yet less legitimate) complaints about the card, which is that I think the last ability needs better flavor. I remember in the Discord you mentioned it was supposed to represent interrogating a prisoner for information. But if that were the case, wouldn’t you be exiling your opponent’s graveyard? And if you are allowed to target your own stuff, would you be interrogating yourself? Like I said, this is a little more nit-picky-y, but it really makes that last ability feel disconnected. If I hadn’t seen the Discord message, I wouldn’t have known what it was representing at all. I’ll also say that referring to “the exiled card” even though the card exiles a lot of cards is confusing, but I don’t really know a way to fix that. With all that said, I still don’t think this is a bad card. It’s well designed, creative, and although I say it pushes in opposite directions, sometimes that makes it more viable as a “Plan B” sort of card.

@gollumni - Sun’s Nemesis

Boy, this guy sure does hate the Sun! A little direct on the interpretation here. The white mana symbol is literally a sun, and red mana is… hot. I do love it being a shade, that feels like such a great flavor choice. Mechanically, gotta say I don’t like this card. There’s nothing an opponent can really do once this card hits play. The only real “fun” I think you can have with this card is playing a blood moon, but I don’t know if blood moon leads to fun games anyway. It’s also strange to have a card that does literally nothing but be an overcosted flyer in a lot of matchups. I think the fact that this triggers on every mana is also a bit much. If it cared about the spells being cast, even if it cared about mana costs, that would feel more fair. But right now it’s just so all or nothing, and so easy to make a mistake on. It also will lead to some more annoying players saying “do you tap it for blue or for white?” when a player uses their hallowed fountain to cast a colorless artifact. I get the style here, and I think it’s a really fun way to make a nemesis of the sun, but I think this card leads to unfun games.

@helloijustreadyourpost - Torch of Defiance

I do like the flavor of this card, and the art really helps with that. I like the fact that it just keeps getting stronger and stronger as the game goes on. However, I think it needed to make them stronger. In order to get the first counter, you need to pay a total of 5 mana and have your creature die from damage, all before getting a single amount of value from it. After you do that, though, it can finally start to snowball. Unless they have a bounce spell. What I’m saying is that this card is really fragile. Compare it to Malefic Scythe, which is cheaper, lower rarity, starts with a counter, and works with sacrifice outlets. While I know the damage clause feels correct, I think it’s putting too many restrictions on this card. If you wanted to avoid combos, I think “and it wasn’t sacrificed” would have really helped with that. You could also let counters be put on it when any creature dies form damage, not just the equipped one. I also think you have some extra space to put text on the front of it, so it could grant something while it’s still empty. Menace would be the most obvious and on color, but about anything could work. I could also see it starting with a counter. I like the auto-attach, but it’s really all this card has going for it, and I think it’s hard to take advantage of this card enough to be worth putting it in a deck.

@hiygamer - Cursed Huntsman // Primal Hunter

Fun fact: I have signed foil copies of both of the cards you used for art here. I will not let that color my opinion of the card. Luckily the card is pretty good anyway! I love a good, simple, well-made vanilla. This isn’t technically vanilla, but it’s close (it’s also not french or virtual vanilla, for those wondering). A 3/3 for 3 is a little under curve, but a 5/5 for three is pretty good, exactly what you want from a werewolf. I’m not sure how I feel about the exact flip condition, I kind of feel like a simple “transform this when X dies” would work very well, but then you get some awkward state-based damage effects for the big guy. My biggest complaint with the trigger as it is is that you can play the huntsman post-combat and have it flip right away. The original werewolf clause specifically worked against that, so that it would actually feel like you were transforming a card that had been on the battlefield and not just going straight to the end. I’m also really impressed by the names, which feel like perfect mirrors, sort of like breakneck rider // neck breaker and daybreak ranger // nightfall predator. I don’t normally do judge picks, but I really feel like this is a card I want to see. I like it.

@hypexion - Hate Seed

Now that’s what I call a bad seed! Love the art, by the way, as does my fiance who walked into the room a minute ago. I like this as a card that sort of sits out here and “grows,” much like a seed. It’s pretty easy to grow this guy, especially in mono-black. Playing this one turn two, then playing any number of bobs, sign in bloods, or group pingers like Spawn of Mayhem can get this guy massive by the time you pop him on turn 5, not to mention actual damage! Most cards like this put some sort of restriction on the loss of life, such as paying life, only life you/your opponent loses, or once-per turn. I think it needed something like that, because even without building around this card you can often get it above 10 power by the time you hatch it, at instant speed no less! And with trample! Oofta! From a purely design perspective, I’m glad you put the counters on it, and at the right time, rather than just making an X/X, both because those are hard to remember and also because it helps this card double dip on counter synergies. However, I worry a lot about the memory issues of the first ability, since loss of life comes in many forms and could be confusing to many (i.e. is it more counters for more damage? Does multiple creatures in combat count? What if I gain life at the same time?). Also, and this is really a nitpick, but I think this either wants to tap to activate or be an enchantment. So in total, I think this card is better than it looks and more difficult to play correctly than it looks, which makes for a generally good card but one I’d be worried about printing.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes - Mirror-Breaker

Art direction: On the right, Mirror-Mad's "main" spirit (the one in the hallway) is exiting a mirror, who is being ruptured by this fact. On the left, with their back on the ground, someone is terrorized, a hand raised up as to defend themselves from the angry spirit.

This is a type of card we don’t see a lot of. At a minimum, it’s a big hastey one-hit-wonder. But you can hang onto it for a while if you’re smart! I like the literal interpretation of the name. It literally breaks mirrors. And if it doesn’t, then it gets angry and leaves. You can even use it as an artifact sac outlet if you somehow need that. I’m a little unsure about the deathtouch. It seems very unlikely that 5 power won’t kill, and with flying and 1 toughness it’s rare that they’ll double block and need you to spread damage. If anything, the deathtouch is more relevant for blocking. It’s actually kind of strange that this has a downside for attacking, despite having haste and flying and five power, but you can just have it sitting on the back line, read to trade for any creature they have. I don’t think people would do that, but it’s strange how much it kind of rewards you for not attacking. The strange mix of things happening on this card and the different directions this card is being pulled make it hard to put this in a deck.

@jund-berserker - Locus of Rage

I like what this card is trying to do, but it’s way, way too good. At a minimum, you can cast this, name a number of a card in your hand, then cast it. You get a three mana bolt (which is plenty playable, especially in limited at uncommon) and the inevitable ability to do it again. If you name 1 or zero, you can likely win the game with this the turn or two after you play it in almost every eternal format. Compare this card to Aria of Flame, Imminent Doom, or Eidolon of the Great Revel. All these cards are less consistent and harder to build around, or are symmetrical. This just lets you turn half the spells in your deck or more into free lightning bolts. Also, the fact that it triggers on your opponents’ spells just feels mean and oppressive. However, like I said, I like what ou were trying here. I just think that if this had said 1 damage, or maybe 2 damage but only going face, maybe this would be okay, but right now it’s just too good.

@loreholdlesbian - Slumbering Isle

I like the description of a volcano being a “slumbering isle.” That’s a really clever way to reinterpret that. However, I think the “isle” part was either taking too far or not far enough. Basically, I don’t know why this taps for blue beyond the name. It’s sacrifice effect is entirely red. I’d say add a scry or something, but we already have Surtland Frostpyre. This is especially a strange case because lands, as we all know, are colorless. So it’s not like it’s a break or anything, right? But Maro has said that activations costs follow the same rules as cards when it comes to colors. If this activation requires blue, it should do something blue. Alternatively, maybe drop the blue entirely from this card. Or, if you want to make it feel really flavorful, drop the blue from the cost but make it only tap for blue, to really sell the idea of a normal island turning into a scary volcano.

@maizenolo - Lunarch Marshal

That’s cute. Lunarch, moonfolk, that’s so clever. And it’s really cool that you gave it the moonfolk ability to bounce lands. However, that signature ability is… bad. It’s not particularly fun to keep bouncing lands. As with you card specifically, I have two issues with it. First, I don’t think blue gets +1/+0. The only cards that really do it usually have some other thing attached, usually unblockability, so just a flat buff seems weird. I don’t think it’s a color break, but it doesn’t feel blue. Second, this ability is so repeatable I’m worried players are going to overuse it and it will lead to frustrated players. If you just want to hit for three a turn, you’ll slowly be going down lands. Worse yet, imagine you attack your opponent late in the game and they’re at five life. You can bounce all your lands, and maybe they’ll die, but if you get hit with removal you’re going to lose the game, all because of this ability. Is it unfair to blame the designer for a player misplaying a card? Probably, but it’s our job as designers to encourage players to make the right decisions, because the better decisions they make, the better game they’ll have, and the more fun they’ll have. That's the end goal as a designer, isn’t it? I think a good way to get around this is to increase the mana cost, limit it to once per turn, or make it not as useful on repeat uses. For example, if it gave +1/+0 and unblockable, I think it would be less likely that a player would repeat it (though it would need to be costed differently). I think moonfolk are really hard to design. Still, I like the way you answered the prompt.

@misterstingyjack - River Guide

I like this card, but I also have a lot to say. First, the first ability is weird. In general, cards that get better based on your opponents lands have been phased out. There’s nothing your opponent can do about it for the most part, so it just feels mean. However, a single card ebing drawn isn’t that bad, and it’s especially interesting here because drawing a card is the one thing blue decks most want to avoid letting their opponents do. They want to one for one with counters. So this is more of just a strange hoser ability. The last ability has one obvious issue: you can exert something without tapping it. Currently, as written, after activating the ability, the island would still be untapped. But that’s a simple fix: just say “tap and exert an untapped island you control.” I kind of feel like you could have avoided the exert keyword, since it doesn’t really fit flavorfully and it’s not an evergreen keyword. I maybe would have just said that it doesn’t untap in the ability itself. But anyway, the card itself. I think it’s… fine? It’s sort of like a mix of key to the city and the first Thasa card. I think this is one of those cards where it either does nothing in the format or is a four of in a top tier deck. It really depends on the format. But I think independent of all that, I think it’s an okay designed card. And the flavor is spot on, very clever.

@naban-dean-of-irritation - Fractal Bloom

Oh no! Math! This card adds up quickly. It doesn’t quite double your counters each turn, but it gets pretty dang close. This is a really scary card in two ways. It’s very scary when it’s going off, but it’s also really scary to put in a deck. This card really needs to be uilt around to be useful. Yes, this means having cards that have counters, but it also needs a bit of a payoff, still. You can spread counters around, which is nice, but it’s slow enough that you aren’t going to be using it aggressively. At the same time, you don’t want cards that “spend” counters, like Fertilid, because the counters need to stick. So you’ll mostly want this for doubling the power of trampling hydras. I think this card is a little weaker than it looks. I wish this card had a better fail state. I wish it had some very minor but possible way to add counters. Perhaps an expensive activated ability, or that it puts a minimum of one on a card. As is, the card could very easily do nothing, especially considering it costs six mana, requires a board, and doesn’t do anything until your next turn, giving your opponents a lot of ways to interact with it. I think this could probably cost 5 mana, maybe even four if it has a more restrictive color cost. In general, “win more” cards like this are only really fun if they do win you the game quickly or if there’s something do with them when you aren’t using it to win.

@pocketvikings - Defiant Hero

Art Description: We're seeing our hero from the back, charging the Big Bad and facing whatever spells are being thrown at them.

I get it, it’s a hero! Like heroic! But the fact that it triggers on opponents makes it feel like it’s not just a hero, but a defiant one. One who fights through the trouble. I’m having trouble making up my mind on that last bit. Part of me thinks it’s useless. If it makes your creature indestructible, why would your opponent ever cast a removal spell on it? The indestructible will never be relevant because it will always be there. Which means it is relevant. But it also just sort of feels like hexproof from spells? But not if its exile or -X/-X effects. Though opponents are probably very often going to fall for “give your creature -2/-2 oh woops its too big now” which, while clearly on them is something that should probably be avoided. Basically, it’s an ability that is either never going to be used, feel like it isn’t relevant, or only be useful if your opponent misplays. That’s all kind of awkward. Lastly, and this is a big one, this card isn’t rare. This feels a lot worse than Tenth District Legionnaire, which is at uncommon

@rasputingold - Hunger Tide

So this one’s a bit wild. The insect token is a little closer to its origin card, Grist, than I would have liked for this contest, but I can look past that. The fact that you get one for every creature on the battlefield is crazy powerful, though at least they can’t block so you don’t immediately get chumpers forever. I kind of wish there were more of a limiter there, either non-insect, only opponents control, or only you control. As is, this barely needs anything to get nuts. The last ability is very hard to parse. More often than not, it will just be “each player sacrifices a creature,” since it takes 6 insects before they need to sacrifice anything more than 2 toughness, which I feel is about average. I also realize that it being symmetrical balances both the ability and the card as a whole, since you’ll eventually lose all your insects, but it all seems so weirdly roundabout. Lets say you have a creature and they have two when you play this. You add 3 creatures, pass, come back to you, you sacrifice two of your insects. Those insects have done nothing but make math hard. I’ll also say the fail state of this card is still amazing. It’s been a while, but The Abyss is still a four mana card, and this is very nearly strictly better than it. I will say, though, I really enjoy the execution of the story here. They come in slowly, but eat away at smaller creatures until they eat the big ones or die off. It’s a very, very good mechanical representation of a locust swarm. I just think its too complex for any normal magic set.

@real-aspen-hours - Monstrous Raider

NOTE: this is a render created by me. Originally submitted as text.

Vampire Barbarian is a terrifying thought, but a cool concept. I like the fact that this seems so willing to fight that it will stop trying to win the game in order to kill something. I worry that an on-board way to repeatedly deal with creatures is too strong, though. If your opponent ever has just one creature in play, it’s going to be really hard to deal with this guy. They NEED two creature in play, but the fact that this kills one every turn makes that hard. Also, I’ll say that the template is probably different than what you’ve got, looking at a card like Soltari Guerillas. Still, the two toughness at least makes it pretty easy to kill, so it’s a pretty high risk and a pretty high reward. So while it’s probably fine, I worry that this could lead to really frustrating board states.

@reaperfromtheabyss - Cradle of the Sun

This is cute. Love the feeling of a cradle here, and how different it feels from the original. I also have a soft spot for cards like this: Colfenor’s Urn, Cold Storage, Endless Sands. They all have such weird utility. I like that you kind of skip to the end with this card: rather than playing this, wrathing, then getting your creatures back, you play this, wait for a wrath, then wait for them to build their board, then wrath while un-wrathing. It’s such a weird concept and would probably make for some interesting games. Don’t get me wrong, I like it and I love the concept. I just have no idea how it would play. In general on-board wraths lead to long, drawn-out games because no one wants to dedicate to a board state. The fact that this lets you continue to do so is neat, but could be frustrating. At the same time, you’re leaving yourself to get blown out by artifact removal if you’re not careful. So yeah, as a whole, I like it, but would really want to playtest with it before I printed it.

@scavenger98 - Battle Seraph

So I’ll start off with the obvious, which you even admitted to, which is that this is very close to the card its based on, basandra. Same cost, same type, some power. But the rest is very different! The comparison to Omnath is pretty clear, and I’m glad that card exists to give us a clear idea of the templating. Other than the “is” needing to be “are” I think you got it right. As for the exact ability, I think it’s kind of messy. For omnath, the three abilities felt very linked, even if it was just because they all had the number four. Linking them helped you remember what they do: I get 4 of something, just gotta remember what. Here, the three abilities feel very disconnected. One gains life and is dependant on how much damage was dealt, the second makes a very specific token, and the last is a generically good effect. The triggering condition is also really weird. It doesn’t care which creatures, so you have to pay attention to exactly what happens on every turn to every creature. The fact that the first ability cares about how much damage is also really weird and hard to do. You have to count every damage done to everything every turn. But, if your opponent pings a creature in response, you don’t gain any of it, just the ping. The next two abilities I kind of like. A little token is nice, and I like how it makes it easier to trigger in the future by not having first strike. The last ability is almost definitely out-of-color, but considering how much work it takes (first strike, normal combat, and a spell/ability all dealing damage to creatures) maybe makes it worth it. I’m probably wrong, and it’s still probably not okay to let Boros draw cards, but you gotta try. So as a whole, I really want to like this card, and I really like the directions it's pushing, but I think it’s just really, really hard to keep track of what this card is doing while it's in play.

@shakeszx - Wielder of Mysteries

Love the flavor here, great use of an epithet. I’m wondering if this would finally be the card to make this ability work. For reference, Mind Reaver and Grimoire Thief have tried this sort of “use your own cards as counter fuel,” and neither have been all that playable outside of combos. This guy has no combo potential, but boy does he mill! Each end step and each opponent means milling four cards a turn, more in multiplayer (though this guy doesn’t do much else in EDH, the most popular multiplayer format). The fact that he doesn’t doesn’t sacrifice to counter really sets him apart. Putting the card in the graveyard so it isn’t a hard lock is something I appreciate, and I’ll say here that you probably could have said that as the cost to save some space (i.e. 1UU, put a face-down card exiled by ~ into its owner’s graveyard: counter target spell with the same name as that card). My guess as to what kind of deck would play this is some sort of flash deck that can leave up the mana or maybe a control deck that tries to leave this in play as a mill win-con. I don’t know how great it fits into either of those with it’s squishy wizard body, but at least it has a place. I wish there was a way to make this safer to play. Maybe give it ward or more toughness or even more power and flying so it has something to do rather than sit there and hope to be useful. I think this is better than other cards that do the same thing, but I don’t know if it's quite good enough to see play.

@snugz - The Hidden Realm

Very clever to put this on a land. Lands are almost never legendary, even if they feel like it or have “The” in the name. As for this card specifically, I don’t think you realize what this does. When you tap it for mana, it phases out. It will phase back in at the start of your untap step. That means that this is a five color land with no downside other than that it can’t be untapped and used again if you’re using it for colored mana. In fact, it’s a lot better, since your opponent will never be able to target it with removal, rare as that is. So yeah, this card is way too good. Five color land with upside.

@starch255 - Tower of Triumph

Gotta say, was not expecting this one, and not just because I did not know that path of mettle’s back half had an epithet. I love the towers. It was one of the first “whoops, we forgot to finish that cycle because we didn’t even think of it as a cycle” cycles. I’m a little unsure of the templating here. I feel like there needs to be an “each” or “all” in there somewhere to make it clear that you’re not just “activating abilities” but activating at least one per card. This is one of those funny cards where taking it as face value is hilarious. Requiring 48 mana and 6 overcosted cards in play to win the game is essentially impossible. However, having 6 bad cards in play, then playing Galazeth Prismari or Flame Fusillade and paying 8 mana may be more doable, if not “intended.” So this card has a casual, obvious, fun-but-not-viable way to sue it and another less difficult way to use it. I still wish it had some fail state. Maze’s End, for example, has a long and slow win condition tied into it, but it also fixes your mana slowly. Thassa’s Oracle can let you fix your draws. Win conditions tend to be more fun and more playable if there’s something you can do with them before winning, especially for a card like this where it will need to stand on the field a little while probably and therefore risk getting hit by removal.

@takemuse1 - Sengir Thrall

I cannot find any card that has the epithet “Sengir Thrall.” I think you may have either misread the prompt or submitted to the wrong contest. Either way, the card seems fine. I like what you’re trying to do here.

@teaxch - Celestial Wind

I remember the wind cycle, even had a few, for some reason. Here’s a card that hits a bunch of stuff. Get rid of up to three things, get back up to three things. It’s a little wordy. I think it’s possible to make this non-modal, but my suggestion would be “Choose one or both: -Exile target artifact, target enchantment, and/or target creature. - Return target artifact card, target enchantment card, and/or target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.” It still reads a little complicated, but at least you wouldn’t have the super weird blank space on the upper right of the card. The functionality of the card actually fits the rest of the cycle pretty well. It’s okay. It’s hard to make a nine mana card that feels worth it that doesn’t just win you the game. I think if you’re playing this you’re mostly going to be using it for the reanimation, since it will be pretty rare for your opponent to have all three permanent types, but there’s better ways to reanimate each of those types, and having a mix of types makes the deck harder to build. You really need at least four modes firing for this card to be even playable, and that’s not easy. Obviously multiplayer is where this card shines, especially EDH, but even there I don’t know if you want a nine mana card unless you can cast it for free, and again, there’s better cards to do that with. I think this card is trying to make up for its cost with its versatility, but there’s a difference between a card always having a use and a card always being useful. This will never be a dead card, but I don’t think it’ll ever be exactly what you need. Final note: compared to Blood on the Snow and Casualties of War, this could pretty easily be a rare.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path - Artful Provocateur

I read your submission comment before the text box and you got me excited for a card with provoke. Instead, it’s got goad, which is the opposite but also the better keyword, so yeah, that’s fine. I like the second ability, it’s got a lot of flavor to it and I could see it being a key card in some decks, like Marisi EDH. The last ability is fitting in a goad-style deck, and works well with the theme. The first ability I don’t think I’m a fan of. Spending a treasure to cast this guy feels weird, since you’d need the extra mana anyway to activate the ability. And if you’re not activating the ability, then you’re just attacking with a 2/1, which is not worth sacking a treasure most of the time. I’d say that it’s neat trinket text to encourage players to play this in a treasure deck, but the middle ability already does that. But I’ll stop focusing on that for now. I like the last two abilities and how well they play together and how nicely they fit in a deck. I like the creature types as well. I wonder a bit about the rarity. Repeatable goad only happened by attacking (which means it didn’t repeat often) or by having it permanently on a single creature, even at rare. The timing is also going to be strange, since you’ll be waiting until the declare attackers step 90% of the time, meaning your opponent’s must be constantly aware of you goading one of their creatures as soon as they move to combat. That’s going to make combat a nightmare. Limiting to sorcery speed would be great. If this is meant to be a conspiracy style set, I think this card is doing way too much at uncommon. If this is meant to be in a commander precon, I kind of understand it as attempting to combine multiple themes. In fact, this seems like it’s trying to combine the two commanders of the RB commander deck they just released: Prosper having a treasure theme and the Eye Tyrant having a goad theme. Still, that first ability seems really tacked on and will lead players to misplay. I like what the card is trying to do, but it needed a bit more restraint.

@whuh-oh - Eternal Pilgrim

Love the art here. This is another take on a pilgrim, our second, and a completely different interpretation. This guy mills you and gains you life, at a minimum one (unless he’s killed in response), then lets you reanimate something, even if it’s just a land. So, first things first, this definitely need to be a rare. It’s such a complex ability, and does a lot of things that shouldn’t happen regularly in limited. The way it snowballs, turning tapped creature into more creatures into bigger creature, or at a bare minimum ramping. I also reeeally wish this were green. I feel likeit’s pretty likely you’ll be reanimating lands most of the time, unless you’re built around these guys. Self mill and life gain are also both green. This is not to say this is out of color, I just think it fits better. I also kind of wish it restricted your reanimation to just cards milled. That would encourage you to really get X up there, instead of just laying back, activating two of these guys in response to each other and getting back the same two two-drops you just blocked with. I want there to be a little more going on here than just slow, repetitive value.

@wolkemesser - The Untouchable

I mean, I don’t want to touch him. A very direct interpretation of the epithet. He can’t be targeted, and if you touch him you die. I like the minion typeline, it’s a rare one, but it really fits the deathtouchiness of this guy. However, that’s about all I like. Deathtouch and trample don’t exist on the same card for a reason. It’s an incredibly niche and awkward interaction that confuses new players. Putting this at uncommon means it’s likely new players are going to have to interact with that. Plus, it having shroud means it will have to be blocked in order to kill it, meaning it will almost certainly come up. I do appreciate that the shroud makes it less likely you’d need to do it with more than two creatures. But trample also doesn’t fit the feel of the card. It doesn’t really make it less touchable. It also isn’t needed for power levels, it’s already strong without it. I think this card is a perfect encapsulation of the epithet, but I wish it wasn’t as unfun to have in play.

-Mod Mr. ShinyObject

#mtg #inventor's fair #commentary #magic the gathering #custom magic card #epithet

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beanie-beebo-writes · 3 years ago

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Call for Action

Series Summary: You finally get your dream job, but it comes with a cost.

Warnings: Description of panic attack

Masterlist

Chapter 2

It was a nightmare that set you off the next day. Even though you couldn't remember it, you knew there was no way you could go into work that day, which was a nightmare in itself. Your second day on the job and your anxiety already had to butt itself in at the worst possible time, of course.

You tried anyway, knowing how vital your job was to the process of the series being made. You didn't even bother with breakfast, knowing it would upset your stomach even further. You took a cup of coffee to go just in case, fearing if you drank it, the jitters would only add to your anxieties.

On set, everybody was mostly in their places except for a few PAs as always. You had forgotten to check your phone, so you went to the front office yet again to pick up another schedule. The day was already turning out to be a wreck and it barely started yet. Thankfully, Paul noticed you weren't in much of a talkative mood and let you be in your thoughts this morning.

The schedule was even busier today, making your heart drop into your stomach. You knew a panic attack wasn't far, but you didn't have much time. You tried to forget about it as you ran to the stage for today. Your heart was pounding, and no amount of breathing exercises could quell the deep settled anxiety. You knew people were starting to notice, but your thoughts were too loud to pay much attention.

"Alright, is everyone in their places?" You called aloud, still out of breath.

"Just about, give us less than five!" An A.V tech said from somewhere.

"That's fine." You said.

It gave you a minute to try and control your racing thoughts, if that was even possible. You bent over and held your knees as you tried to control everything bubbling inside you. Great, look at you. Someone definitely noticed that you're acting weird, next thing you know you'll be outcasted and fired. Hell, maybe even blacklisted if you decide to keep up this charade of job to job. Maybe-

A hand to your shoulder rescued you from drowning to the depths of darkness, startling you in the process. You stood up a little too quickly, starting to see dark spots. You blinked them away and looked up at your savior. And of course, it was Jensen.

"Hey I just-" He began before taking in your appearance. "What's wrong?"

You inhaled a deep breath, finding calm in his voice. "It's nothing, just a bad day." You said.

"Are you sure? Because it seems like a bit more than that." He said.

Your thoughts faintly began to start up again. "No, it's okay really. Get to your mark, Jensen." You said, half reassuring yourself and him.

"Alright, just remember what we talked about yesterday." He said.

You nodded and waited until he walked away to pull out a compact mirror, something you kept on yourself for situations like these. Yes everyone had already been likely staring at you when you had a moment, but you didn't want more lingering eyes if your panic attack had screwed up your appearance.

You wanted to roll your eyes in sheer embarrassment. You looked like you had run a mile and you had begun to cry. You thanked yourself that you didn't wear makeup like other higher ups, as you were sure it would be more noticeable. Before anyone could take notice, you set the mirror back down and made your way to the director's chair.

"Alright, everyone set?" You asked aloud.

You got a bunch of affirmative replies before making the decision to call "action" for the scene to start.

Sam and Dean sat in a motel room, arguing about the aspects of a current case.

"There is no way you're going in on this one solo. Absolutely not." Dean said, throwing his arms up.

"Dean, you said it yourself. Going with two people is just asking for trouble. They'll instantly catch on and it'll blow our cover. I understand needing backup but.. I got this." Sam replied.

"For the last time Sam, no." Dean said.

Interrupting their argument was one of Dean's ringing cell phones; it was Bobby Singer.

"Yeah?" Dean asked.

"Well, I found that information you wanted, turns out they are also killed with silver to the heart." Bobby said on the other line.

"Yeah, that's easy." Dean said sarcastically. "So did you hear about this genius plan of Sam's?"

Bobby sighed tiredly. "What now?"

"He wants to go in under cover, but when guns go blazing, no backup." Dean said animatedly.

"Well, he may have a good point you know." Bobby said.

"Excuse me? Bobby, that's suicide!" Dean argued.

"You watch your tone with me, boy." Bobby said. "You said the place is like an underground bar, right?"

"Yeah but-" Dean began.

"And that means he already is going to stick out like a sore thumb. Two of you would mean you're dead meat. He only needs the alpha and the rest will scatter. Now which plan sounds like suicide again?" Bobby asked.

Dean was silent, knowing there was no use arguing with the aged hunter.

"That's what I thought. You can stand by, just give him a lot of space outside the building. Got it?" Bobby said.

"Yeah Bobby." Dean said defeatedly.

"Good. Let me know how it goes." Bobby said.

"We will, talk to you later." Dean said.

"Bye, and be safe ya idjits." Bobby said, ending the call.

And then everything was quiet, too quiet. You felt a nudge from next to you bring you back to the modern world.

"And scene!" You called out, cheeks tinged slightly pink. "Sorry guys, got swept away there."

"You're good, we can just cut it later in editing." Bob Singer said, standing up from his chair.

"Cool. Alright everyone, settle for a minute and then we'll start scene 26." You called out to the stage.

--------

Before you knew it, lunchtime had rolled around again. This time though, you made the move to sit by Jensen and Jared, who had beat you to the table first. They were in a light conversation before you asked to sit with them.

"Of course (Y/N)." Jared had said.

They were currently talking about some sports team that you didn't follow; you listened in and tried to understand where you could.

"Who's your favorite team?" Jared asked.

"Oh, I don't really follow sports, it isn't really my thing." You admitted.

"Aw really? Bummer, another one." Jared teased.

"Hey, knock it off." Jensen said lightly.

"No, it's okay, I know he's only joking." You said, smiling at Jared.

"Okay, just checking." Jensen said with a wink.

Your heart flipped sideways and missed a beat. If you didn't have anxiety, you would have never distinguished the feelings you were starting to feel towards Jensen. Your feelings with crushes were always different from your anxiety, and yet so similar at the same time. Sometimes you wondered how you could tell the difference.

You still remembered the first time you had a crush. You were a late bloomer, so it didn't happen until 7th grade. You were so confused; anxiety was always something you were used to that when you were hit with all of these feel-good endorphins along with the anxieties, you threw up. Literally, in front of half of the grade and your crush, Nathan Sullivan. You had bumped into him in the middle of your moving-up ceremony in the middle-school hallway. You had wanted to say everything and nothing all at once, and ironically your brain chose to vomit instead. Now that you thought about it, you wondered that's where some of your current anxieties began.

With Jensen, it wasn't that different in a sense. You felt all of the bubbling emotions, the confusing anxieties telling you to either go for it or stay low. But you were past that for the most part. Or maybe it was the fact that Jensen made you feel safe, unlike the other guys. There was just something about him that you couldn't quite understand.

"Hey, have you guys ever dealt with anxiety?" You asked as the conversation headed to a lull.

Jensen swallowed his food before answering. "Actually yeah. About a few years back, maybe even longer, I had this huge fear of what others thought of me."

"Really?" You asked.

"Mhm, anything done on set or stage that was seen as funny to everyone else, was actually a huge anxiety factor for me. I was beyond embarrassed and hated being the one everyone laughed at, even if it was literally for comedy." Jensen explained.

"Oh wow, I never knew it was that bad." Jared said.

"I was too embarrassed to tell you at the time, honestly." Jensen admitted.

"I actually deal with anxiety sometimes too, just not as bad as Jensen." Jared said.

"What helps you guys through it?" You asked.

"Honestly? For me it was therapy, lots of it." He said with a chuckle. "But the main thing I keep with me all the time, is to remember that most people are more likely to be absorbed in their thoughts, than they are paying attention to you or me. At the end of the day, what you do may not even matter to them at the dinner table. And if it does, it does."

"Wow, that's some good advice." You said.

"Thank my therapist for that one." He said.

"I use a lot of deep breathing techniques, it tends to quell a lot of things for me." Jared said.

"Why you ask? Something on your mind?" Jensen asked.

"No, just curious. My one friend back home deals with this kind of stuff and I figured it would help to know." You stretched a bit.

"Ah." Jensen said.

"Well, send her some love from us, okay?" Jared asked.

"Of course." You said, finishing up your lunch.

A beat of silence surrounded the three of you.

"Hey, are you busy later?" Jensen asked. "I know you're technically my boss and all.."

You looked up from your food and almost choked. Was Jensen asking you of all people, on a date? This had to be a misunderstanding. Yet again, Jared was practically all over Jensen, just by looking at him with his head in his hands.

"Huh? Uh, no, not really. I usually just pass the time by watching netflix or something I guess." You said.

"You want to grab a bite?"

You felt the tips of your ears burn like a hot stove.

"As a… date? Or…?" You asked.

"Depends."

"On?"

"Well, do you want it to be?" Jared asked.

"Would it even be appropriate? I mean.. Like you said, I'm practically your boss, Jensen." You said.

"Don't see why it wouldn't be. It's not like you're doing any special favors to get me top role or anything." Jensen said with a knowing smile.

You smiled back and lightly rolled your eyes. Oh, this man is definitely going to be something if I date him. How could you say no?

"Yeah true." You said, probably still with a red face. "Sure, let's make it a date then."

"Yessss!" Jared whispered.

He did a silent victory dance on the way to the trash can and shut the trap closed with his hip. He strode proudly all the way back to the stage as if his son had won a competition. Jensen put his hands over his face a moment and exhaled lightly.

"Just ignore him." He said, muffled behind his hands.

"Couldn't if I wanted to." You said with a giggle.

#jensen x reader #Jensen Ackles #jared padalecki #spn reader insert #call for action series #call for action

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empyreanwritings · 4 years ago

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Caught in a Rainstorm

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader (Modern AU)

Word Count: 2.1k

Warnings: mild angst, some language, and a minor threat about kicking shins and breaking a nose, ya know, the good stuff

Summary: Bucky remembers everything about your relationship - the good, the bad, and the ugly. He doesn’t regret a single thing except for giving up on your relationship when he knew you hadn’t.

A/N: big shoutout to @missmonsters2 for beta reading this for me! it took me awhile, but i finally managed to write a full one shot! this is written for @hopingforbarnes 250 milestone - congrats again on reaching that milestone bby, that is huge! sorry this is late, but i sure hope it is worth it. my prompt will be bolded in the story <3 x

Bucky always loved rainstorms. On his hardest days, he'd step out in the rain and let the cold droplets pelt against his bare skin. He liked the way it stung because it reminded him that he was alive. People thought he was crazy for not running away at the first sight of lightning, or the boom of thunder, and maybe he was a little bit. But he didn't really care what anyone thought about him anyways. Who were they to judge? Everyone had something they loved, even if it was a little weird.

He remembered the first time he met you - you were drenched and shivering, cursing at your broken-down car as if your words would make it come back to life. He couldn't help you fix the engine, but he offered you a warm car and a ride to the nearest gas station.

At first, you had been wary. You even made a joke about the man that hitch-hiked with Jeffrey Dahmer, but the more you joked, the more at peace you seemed to be. It seemed if you were going to be killed by a stranger, at least you thought he was pretty. Which mortified Bucky the moment you said it but then all he could think about was how you called him pretty.

You were surprised when he offered to stay with you until the tow truck came. You had no issue waiting at the gas station, but Bucky hated the way the cashier was eyeing you and didn't intend on letting you stick around to find out what was going through that man's head. He wasn't really sure why he cared so much about a stranger. Maybe it was the way your eyes sparkled when you talked about how much you loved the rain too. Maybe it was your laugh. He wasn't sure, but he had to soak up as much time as he could with you.

Part of him didn't expect to see you after that day. He thought you would end up a distant memory - a ghost of what could have been.

When he ran into you the second time - quite literally by crashing his cart into yours - he forgot how to breathe. You were even more beautiful when you weren't soaked from the rain, which said something because he still thought you were beautiful even then.

It took you a moment to realize who you were staring at. The second you recognized him, a smile stretched across your face and you couldn't help but run into his arms to give him a hug.

He remembered the way you called him, "My hero!" Full of light and happiness. Like seeing him again somehow saved the rest of your day.

Bucky refused to let you slip through his fingers that time around. He had a feeling the universe was giving him a second chance by letting him run into you, and he couldn't risk disappointing whatever gods were watching him from above. The last thing he wanted was to be struck by lightning because he didn't ask you out on a date when he had the chance.

From the few hours he spent with you in the car, he knew you weren't a fancy dinner type of person. You were the type to enjoy long talks and getting to know someone; you liked to ask the personal questions that would make most people too scared to even think about asking on the first date. But you never shied away from uncomfortable questions. You always encouraged Bucky to ask you some as well, and it took him some time, but he finally learned that you enjoyed being asked the questions that made you think.

Going to a coffee shop hadn't been his first idea. He thought a nice walk around the lake was something you would appreciate, but the rain ruined his plans. He remembered how easy it was for you to adjust to the new date idea.

It was a blessing in disguise, though.

He learned so much about you just from watching the way you ordered your coffee. You liked it sweet because you weren't a huge fan of strong coffee taste. Lots of almond milk (because you were lactose intolerant and not ready for the date to be put on pause thanks to dairy). You preferred iced over hot. He realized you liked to talk so much that your hot coffee would have turned cold anyways, so you beat it by putting ice in it already. And you didn't use straws because you cared too much about sea turtles. You didn't even let them put a lid on the cup because you were going to drink it right away anyways.

Every detail he put together like a puzzle. Some pieces seemed to make more sense than others, but you were so perfect in his eyes that it didn't matter if some of the edges were jagged.

The worst decision he ever made was letting you go. Because through all of the good memories - your first date, the sound of your laughter when you tried to hold it back, and the way you'd whisper his name first thing in the morning - he couldn't get the look of disappointment in your face when he stopped fighting for you. When he stopped caring about the relationship because he didn't feel worthy of you.

The way your eyes lost a little bit of their brightness would be burned into his brain until he died, and he hated it.

Bucky was always a fan of rainstorms until he realized that he wasn't able to hold you when the thunder made you jump out of your skin. He'd hear the crack of lightning and wonder if you were hiding under the covers, silently praying for the storm to pass over quickly. He'd wonder if you were already with someone else and let them comfort you.

The cool of the rain used to refresh him until he had to stand outside your home in it, waiting for you to gather up enough courage to open the door. He thought the nerves were enough to keep him warm, but they just made him shiver more.

He wasn't sure what he was going to do with himself if you didn't answer the door.

But he never had to find out because eventually he heard the chain slide and knew you were waiting for him on the other side.

You seemed exhausted. There was no life in your eyes - no excitement in your features when you saw him. He tried to smile, but it faltered the second he met your glare. You clearly weren't in the mood for whatever he was about to say, but he appreciated that you were giving him a chance. Another reason why he thought you were too good for him.

You wrapped the cardigan around your body tighter and sighed. You made no effort to step aside and let him in the house. If he wanted to speak with you then he had to do it in the rain.

"What are you doing here, James?"

"I'm sorry."

"You broke my heart and all you can say is I'm sorry?" You scoffed. "Go the fuck home before I break your nose."

You moved to close the door, but he quickly stuck his boot out before you could. A curse sat on the tip of your tongue, and he knew you wanted to throttle him for showing up at all. He just needed a few minutes of your time and that was it. A few minutes to get everything off his chest, and if you still chose to shut the door, then he'd let you.

"I'm sorry is the only thing I really can say," he murmured. "I'm sorry that I just gave up on our relationship. The last few months of our relationship was hell, and it was my fault. I started thinking about how you were the only woman in the world I wanted to marry, and it scared the hell out of me."

"The idea of being married to me scared you? Gee, that sure is romantic."

"That's not-" He groaned and ran his hand down his face. "That's not what I'm saying! I…I grew up thinking that I was going to be the most successful man in the world. I knew that I was going to get married and have a bunch of babies. Maybe have my own company or two. Then I lost my arm. I gained a little weight. Nat divorced me. I was miserable and constantly feeling sorry for myself. And I met you - a woman who challenged me to be more than what the world expected me to be. You didn't even bat an eye the first day I touched with you my prosthetic, and you were the first person to see me as something other than broken."

Your expression softened at his words. The first time he ever told you about Nat, you wanted to track her down and kick her in the shin for breaking his heart. She never admitted it out loud, but he knew she left because she couldn't be bothered by his medical needs after the accident. It was too much for her to handle, and he couldn't blame her for that. You certainly could, though.

"The idea of marrying you wasn't what scared me. I was terrified that I wasn't going to be enough for you in the end. Terrified of disappointing you and making you feel like you were trapped in an unhappy marriage."

You straightened up, jaw clenched and eyes blazing as you stared at him. "James Barnes, have I ever given you a reason to believe that I would have been unhappy with you?"

"No," he mumbled.

"Exactly. I was happy. I wanted us to have our happy ending, and instead, I spent nights wondering why you didn't think I was good enough!" You snapped. "I don't care if you are insecure, you know I am willing to work with you on that, but you had no right to turn around and make me start feeling miserable about myself. It wasn't fair, and I'm not just going to pretend that it's all okay because you're standing in the rain looking like a sad puppy."

"I know."

"You are not a broken man, James. You are so much more than the accident or what Nat believed about you. But if that is what you truly believe about yourself, I can't fix that. You need to fix yourself first because I am not your mother."

"I know."

Bucky looked down at his shoes. Water was starting to bubble out from the sides, and he could feel his socks filling, but he wasn't going to complain. He'd deal with a lifetime of soggy socks if it meant he could spend time with you. Even most of that time was spent with you scolding him for his dumb decisions.

You held your breath for a few seconds, giving your heart a moment to stop racing. You never planned on saying all of that to his face, but it felt amazing to finally get it out. James Buchanan Barnes was the love of your life, but he shattered you. You weren't going to let him off easy with a few apologies and his damningly cute blue eyes. But you weren't going to hold a grudge forever either.

Growing up, your mother told you that relationships were work. The hardest conversations were the most important ones to have in order to make them last. Love wasn't always about feeling the butterflies in your belly every time you looked at your partner. Sometimes it was about just making it through the day, holding each other up and hoping for the best. And even on your worst days when you feel like you can't stand to look at each other, you were supposed to make sure you ended the night with an "I love you."

"Are you going to agree to go back to therapy?" You asked him gently. You weren't trying to make him feel like he was crazy, but you knew it was what he needed the most right now.

"I started going back last month. Haven't missed a day yet."

"Good, I'm glad," you hummed. You shifted back and forth on your feet for a moment before finally moving to the side. "Did you want to come in and dry off? I can make you some coffee if you like."

He nodded and offered you a soft smile. "Sure. Coffee sounds fantastic."

#hopingforbarnes250writingchallenge #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes #marvel one shot #marvel fanfiction

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mcytrabbithole · 4 years ago

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The Crash (Prologue Pt.2)

The second part of the prologue for my new fic! This is a fic about what would happen if the members of the Dream SMP and Hermitcraft got thrown into a new situation together.

If you want to read the first part of the prologue, you can read it here

Tags: @shineisalive ,

Warnings: Suffocation, vomiting, sudden muteness, SMP members feeling some pain

Word Count: 2473

It was a...normal day on the Dream SMP. At least as far as their normal days could go, which was to say that it was the most chaotic thing possible. Todays chaos involved the fact that things had finally boiled over for the seventeenth time. Now it was time for another showdown, this time the showdown was going on right past the fear sign that was outside of Pogtopia.

This was it, another battle for Pogtopia, another battle towards gaining their freedom. At least, it was looking like it was going to be another. The whole server was there, some watching, some ready for a fight. Niki and Eret were watching, because Niki didn’t have enough armor and Eret just couldn’t bring himself to fight. Seeing the people who are your home fight for the right to go back to the place they once called home isn’t something that many people would want to see.

Through out the day, as time led up to the battle, things had been...odd. Not just normal SMP odd either, odd like things had been going weird odd. Dream had noticed this as he always did, because as the admin, or the ‘god’ as he was jokingly referred to, he had to know what was up with his server. So if that meant sometimes he had to watch the chaos a little bit before he understood what was going on, then so be it.

Tommy had lost his pickaxe twice, even though he and Techno both knew it had been in his bag, and it reappeared in a chest that was by the potato farm. They hadn’t even been near the potato farm. Well, Techno had been but Tommy hadn’t been down there so they didn’t know how it had ended up there. Dream knew Tommy had had the pickaxe in his bag, he had seen him with it, so he knew that that had to have been a glitch. No biggie, one glitch isn’t a problem.

Then Dream had had the weirdest glitch he had seen in a while pop up.

Nihachu has burnt to death

The_Eret has burnt to death

The_Eret: Me and Niki weren’t even near one another and I wasn’t near any lava so I don’t know what just happened

Nihachu: I was just working on fixing some holes in a wall and then I just died? Dream could you take a look and see what happened?

Dream: Yeah, did you guys lose anything?

The_Eret: Nah, it says I burnt to death but all my stuff is where it was when I died

Nihachu: Same here.

Dream: I’ll take a look at it

Dream sighs as he reads over the messages a few more time, he didn’t really use his admin powers for much besides getting people their stuff back and giving people the supplies they needed. He double checks to make sure that he’s alone, which he was considering he was by himself in his house, and then he takes off his mask, allowing himself to see the code and take a look at it.

He didn’t take his mask off a lot for many reasons, but it was mainly so that he wouldn’t have to focus on the code that he could see thanks to being an admin. For some admins it was a case of needing something so they could see the code, for others it was a case of needing something so that they couldn’t see the code.

As he looks over the code to try and figure out what was wrong, he frowns. Everything looked right, but something just felt...wrong. It was like that itch at the back of your throat that you get even when you feel healthy as can be. Maybe he just hadn’t looked at the code in a while, maybe it was just the nerves that came with every battle that he fought in. Just because he’s a good fighter doesn’t mean that he doesn’t get nervous before a fight. Especially one like the one that was going to go down outside of Pogtopia, because that fight meant a fight against his friends.

He checks the time, the frown remaining on his face as he realizes how little time he has left until the fight. Dream takes a deep breath, taking one last look at the code before he puts his mask back on. Dream begins to make his way over to Pogtopia, trying to ignore that feeling at the back of his throat. It was just nerves, just his connection to the server being a bit stronger because of what was about to happen.

When he arrived, he saw that the sides were slowly beginning to form. Seeing Fundy, George, his team, fight against him wasn’t something he wanted, but he was willing to put aside his feelings. Dream looks over to where Wilbur, Tommy, and Techno were standing; they were quietly talking about something. Dream acted like he was middle ground, standing in between the two groups that had begun to form.

He couldn’t help but listen to the Pogtopia side of things, being an admin allowed for these moments. Allowed for him to listen in, figure out what people were saying and feeling without having to let himself get close. Some might call it rude, but he knew he needed to hear how the people he was going to fight alongside were feeling, even if he couldn’t reveal that he was fighting alongside them yet.

“Wilbur, are you sure you can handle going up against him? He’s still your son, even if he’s a traitor.” For once, Tommy wasn’t yelling and screaming. He was worried, worried for his friend. Wilbur sighed, taking a deep breath,” I can handle this, Tommy.” Though Dream could tell, Wilbur hated doing this. Going up against his son, it was something Wilbur never pictured happening. “Wilbur,” Techno spoke, using that same voice, but they could tell he was serious,” Am I allowed to hurt him? Cause I don’t wanna accidentally stab your kid if you’re not cool with me stabbing your kid.”

“Techno,” Wilbur looked at Techno, he sounded tired, looked tired,” If you absolutely have to, then stab...and if there is no other option, go for the kill. He’ll just respawn and be a bit pissed at you, or me...probably me.” Techno nods, he was always glad to go into another fight, but he also didn’t want to be the one that killed the people that they didn’t wanna kill.

Dream decides to stop listening to the conversation and just take a second to look around. He wouldn’t listen to the Manburg side, not even what Fundy had to say right now. Dream could see that those who were watching were the ones who couldn’t fight, though if they end up needing them, he’s more than willing to drop the gear that Niki needs or that Eret may need.

Finally, after quite sometime, the sides have spoken quietly to each other and now the real talks could begin. Dream stayed where he was, in the middle, but he was fully prepared to make a break for it and run for the Pogtopia side if he had to. The talks began calmly enough, with Wilbur saying,” Are you lot quite sure that you want to do this?” And Schlatt actually laughed, being far too arrogant for a man who didn’t wear armor,” Oh we’re quite sure, Wilbur.”

Dream sighed, looking between the two sides. He figured taking a shot at one last civil conversation was worth it. “Before you guys decide to go all out and murder one another,” He glances between the two groups,” One last chance to change sides, one last chance to talk things out peacefully, like adults.” He takes a deep breath and freezes at the sudden tightness he feels in his throat.

Both groups had been paying attention to Dream, so when he suddenly stopped talking, they all noticed. Dream tries to take another breath, but he can’t, and suddenly he’s gripping at his throat hoping to god that he’ll be able to breathe again. He’s gasping for breath, and people are trying to figure out what’s going on.

“Dream?” George says his friends name, concern for his friend running through him just as it did for everyone else, besides Schlatt. “He’s just faking it to buy time.” Schlatt says this easily enough, but everybody looks at him like he’s just snorted a bunch of blaze powder. Dream could swear that he was starting to see spots, unaware of the fact that he had started to shake. Fundy almost took a step, but he was sure that Dream would be fine.

Then it hit Dream again, and he hit the ground, landing on his hands and knees. “Dream!” George, Sap, and Bad went running towards their friend. Schlatt puts an arm out to stop George,” Don’t.” George just gives Schlatt a look,” He’s my friend and I’m going to check on him.” Then he pushes past Schlatt and heads over to Dream.

Dream was gasping for breath, trying to get in any air at all, but it just wouldn’t happen. “Dream, can you hear us?” Bad asks this, carefully crouching down next to his friend. “Does anybody have any water?” Sap looks towards both groups, war bedamned, his friend is in pain and he doesn’t want to see him in pain. Niki digs around in her pockets, finding a glass bottle,” I’ll get some water from the river!” She went running towards the river, Dream was a good guy and he needed the help.

Dream manages a nod, he could hear them, but things were getting faint. “Can we take the hood off of your head?” Bad was doing his best, so he figured yes or no questions were the best ones to ask right now. Dream nods again, getting the hood off might help. Bad carefully pulls the hood off of Dream’s head, and it helps for a moment, but then the pain comes back a thousand times stronger, causing him to let out another gasp. He could feel the lack of oxygen getting to him, could feel the bile in the back of his throat from how much the pain made him want to vomit.

“Dream, I think we’ll need to take the mask off of your face.” Bad says this carefully, knowing that Dream hated taking his mask off around people. Dream manages to think about it for a moment, then manages to shakily lift one of his hands, moving his mask just enough for his nose and mouth to be uncovered. That did help, allowing him enough air to breathe for longer than a moment.

Then suddenly, the pain stopped, and he was breathing again, though right after this, he does vomit. Bad rubs his back as Niki comes running up with a bottle of water, which she hands to George, cause she still doesn’t want much to do with Sapnap. George thanks Niki for the water as she heads back over to the sidelines where she and Eret had been.

Once Dream had stopped vomiting, George handed him the bottle of water and Dream practically downed it. Once he had finished the water, he went to thank George for it...and couldn’t speak. He frowns, trying to speak, but nothing comes out. Dream couldn’t talk, he couldn’t talk, oh this could not be happening. George frowns,” Are you having trouble talking?” Dream nods, sitting up as best as he can.

“What on earth is happening?” Wilbur seemed confused, concerned for Dream, but confused. “I think he can’t speak anymore.” Sap frowns, this was weird. Dream never felt any level of bad, so for him to have something like that happen...what on earth was going on?

Dream tries to speak again, but nothing comes out... and the pain comes back, except now it was in his chest. He doubles over, hitting the ground on his back this time. “Shit!” Sapnap and George both looked like they had no idea how to help and Bad was so freaked out that he didn’t even bother to say language.

Wilbur decides he’s going to take a step forward and see if he can help...and then the pain hits him straight in the chest and he hits the ground. “Wilbur!” Tommy is at his friends side in an instant, Niki running over to see what was going on. On instinct, Fundy reacts,” Dad!” He takes off towards them, Schlatt tries to stop him, placing an arm out and saying,” Don’t. Let him suffer.” Fundy responds to that by whacking Schlatt upside the head and ducking under his arm. Unfortunatley the pain to hit him a moment later and send him to the ground not too far from the midline of what had been the land between the two groups.

Schlatt frowns,” What kind of display of weakness is this?” Was this some sort of weird trick? Surely this was the only reason Dream and Wilbur would both be doing this. They had to be playing some sort of trick on him, that was the only thing that made sense.

Tubbo saw Tommy hit the ground and he almost went to him, almost went to his friends, but he didn’t want to risk it. Then he sees Eret hit the ground and he runs over to see if he could possibly help him. Right now, Eret was technically neutral so surely helping him wouldn’t be a bad thing. As he reaches Eret, the pain hits him and he ends up on the ground near Eret.

Then it starts to hit them all one by one, eventually everyone had hit the ground from pain...the only one left standing was Schlatt. “Ha! Look at all of you acting so weak! What kind of weird trick is this?! You think you’ll get pity from me just because you’re all in a little pai-” Before he can finish his rant, which was probably something about how strong he is, the pain finally hits him and he hits the ground.

As the pain hits them, they all shut their eyes, hoping that the pain would stop. That’s when they felt the change, the shift, the feeling of their code suddenly being moved somewhere else. Dream felt it the most, felt the way the server changed, he could practically feel it in the very beginnings of his code.

Suddenly, the pain stops, and when they opened their eyes, things were very different. Some were in an open field, others were separated from one another...but no matter where they had ended up, they weren’t alone. All they knew was this was not the SMP that they knew, at least, not entirely...and the people they saw were definitely people that weren’t in the SMP.

#dream smp #dreamwastaken #wilbur soot #tommyinnit #technoblade #nihachu #fundy #jschlatt #sapnap #badboyhalo #georgenotfound #tubbo #mcyt #mcytrabbithole #rabbit writes #the crash

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beybladefanfictions · 4 years ago

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Ryuga’s Return - Chapter 5

(Description: AU where Ryuga survives Metal Fury but loses L-Drago. He reunites with Kenta and struggles to figure out what he’s supposed to do without Beyblade, his purpose in life for so long. Character’s thoughts are in asteriks.)

Ryuga’s POV

Holding his hood over his head, Ryuga made his way into the familiar Bey stadium. A few people gazed at him suspiciously. However, if they recognized him, they said nothing as he passed. Ryuga glanced up at the bleachers. There were a lot more empty spaces in the crowd than there normally would be, despite the fact that the tournament was soon to start. Ryuga immediately went toward the emptiest space, which just so happened to be towards the front. *Perfect.* From this angle, it was less likely that someone would see his face.

He observed the bladers in the tournament. There were only eight of them and they were all sitting on a bench in front of the stadium, waiting for the first match to be announced. Kenta was among the group. Ryuga also noticed Kyoya and two other legendary bladers. The first match was Kyoya and a kid Ryuga vaguely recognized from America. However, it was hard to tell from a distance.

“Ready?!” The crowd began counting down with the announcer. “Three… two… one… let it rip!”

The two Beyblade clashed against each other, sending up sparks.

“Go Spiral Fox!” the American kid called.

*Spiral fox,* Ryuga rolled his eyes, *What a dumb name for a Beyblade.* He watched the two Beyblades clash as the Blader DJ provided somewhat irrelevant commentary. Leone was clearly winning. It was repeatedly smacking into Spiral Fox, driving the bey backwards towards the edge of the arena. With one hard smack, Spiral Fox knocked Leone back long enough for it to slip away and flee across the stadium. Leone quickly followed.

“Leone!” Kyoya called, “Lion gale force wall!”

As the wind picked up, Ryuga was forced to hold his hood in place so it wouldn’t blow off. He growled in annoyance. The wind swirled into a tornado, flinging Spiral Fox into the sky and ending the match with a stadium out.

*Kyoya is going to be a problem, like usual,* Ryuga thought as the wind died down. The crowd cheered around him. Ryuga didn’t bother joining in: the outcome of this fight was obvious to him from the start.

“Oh, hey Ryuga.”

Ryuga stiffened at the sound of a vaguely familiar voice. He looked up. The girl that worked at the bey shop was approaching him. *What did Kenta say her name was? Madoka? That sounds right.*

"You’re here for Kenta I’m guessing?” the girl asked, sitting in the seat next to his.

“Yes…” Ryuga replied, gazing at the bladers.

Kenta and Yuki, the kid with the glasses, were up next and the two of them were making their way toward the middle of the stadium.

"Three… two… one… let it rip!”

Kenta and Yuki both launched their Beys.

“Did Kenta make you come here?” Madoka asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ryuga turned to her. “Well, don't tell him I think that,” he grunted, his eyes narrowing at her.

Madoka just chuckled. “I won't, but you make it a little obvious."

“How?" Ryuga raised an eyebrow.

“You look bored.”

It was true. Despite his dramatic loss against Nemesis, the drive to fight blazed on in Ryuga’s heart, and being restricted to just watching these fights made him feel tied down and powerless. At least in this fight, Ryuga had someone to root for.

The two beys screeched as they slammed into each other, shooting up sparks. Due to the difference in the beys’ heights, Anubius was attacking Flash Sagittario’s spin track rather than its fusion wheel.

“Go Anubius!” Yuki called, swinging his arm.

Anubius suddenly retreated, rushing toward the edge of the stadium.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Kenta exclaimed. “Go Sagittario!”

Sagittario charged after Anubius. In a swift movement, Sagittario leaned forward and slammed its fusion wheel into Anubius. The blue bey was thrown into the air. Yuki yelped in surprise.

“Don’t give up, Anubius!” he called.

Anubius landed on the edge of the stadium, its spin wobbling slightly. Sagittario slammed into Anubius. The beys entered a fierce clash before Sagittario triumphed, flinging Anubius out of the stadium and bringing the blue bey to a halt.

“Yeah!” Kenta cheered, snatching his bey out of the air.

“Great job, Kenta!” Madoka called.

Kenta glanced at them. Ryuga smiled and dipped his head. Kenta smiled back before walking to the bench to wait for his next match.

“Oh, Masamune and King are up next.” Madoka was gazing at the stadium’s display screen. “That should be interesting.”

“Who?” Ryuga asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Masamune and King. You fought King on Beyster Island.”

Ryuga glanced at the screen. One of the bladers was clearly American, he had the obnoxious face of one, and the other was a kid around the same age with blue hair. Ryuga’s eyes narrowed. He did in fact recognize the kid from Beyster Island.

“Right…” Ryuga’s fist clenched. “He uses reverse rotation. L-Drago is-” Ryuga cleared his throat. “-was the only Bey that should be allowed to spin left. That kid is such a poser.”

King and his opponent started their battle. Ryuga’s gaze fixed on King’s bey which travelled around the stadium in the opposite direction of his opponent, as L-Drago had always done. King’s bey was even partly white. From a distance, Ryuga could almost mistake the thing for L-Drago.

“His bey naturally rotates left,” Madoka argued, her eyes narrowed, “How does that make King a poser?”

Ryuga trembled as he spoke. “I-he- ugh, it doesn’t matter. I beat him! L-Drago is w-was the superior bey.” Ryuga’s jaw clenched and he gripped the armrests of his seat in an attempt to stop himself from shaking. His chest began to ache.

“Oh…” Madoka’s voice softened. “You miss L-Drago…”

Ryuga glared at her. Was that pity in her gaze?! *She’s pitying me! HER pitying ME?! What kind of insult is this?!*

“That’s none of your concern,” Ryuga growled, looking away.

Thankfully, Madoka had enough sense not to question him further. Both of them gazed back at the battle. However, Ryuga couldn’t bring himself to look at the left rotating bey. It obviously wasn’t L-Drago. The sensible part of Ryuga’s mind knew that, but he couldn’t take his mind off his former Beyblade now that he had been reminded of it.

He must have zoned out for a while because when he looked back at the arena, two new bladers were fighting and somehow, neither of them were Gingka. Ryuga recognized Benkei as that one weirdly loyal follower of Kyoya’s and the white-haired kid from the helicopters.

“Where is Gingka?” Ryuga asked aloud. He didn’t even see his former greatest rival in the crowd anywhere. Surely he would show up to a tournament that so many of his friends and rivals had attended?

“I guess he didn’t sign up,” Madoka answered with a shrug.

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“I don’t know.” With a chuckle, she added, “Maybe he’s out getting burgers somewhere.”

Ryuga rolled his eyes. “That’s not worth missing a tournament for.”

“True!” Madoka exclaimed before giggling a bit. “But still, that boy would do anything for a triple or- quadruple- or whatever beef burger.”

“That much for food?” Ryuga raised an eyebrow.

“For that specific food yeah…” Madoka gazed at him for a second. “Oh yeah, you probably haven’t had a burger, have you?”

Ryuga stiffened.

However, Madoka just smiled and continued, “Don’t let Gingka figure that out. He’ll immediately drag you to the nearest burger place and make you try one.”

A shiver ran down Ryuga’s spine. “Noted,” he replied with a nod.

Madoka giggled. Ryuga smiled a bit. Though he didn't quite know what to think of Madoka, he was grateful to have someone to talk to. It took his attention away from his grief over L-Drago. However, in terms of this social stuff, Ryuga still didn’t know what he was doing and didn’t want to sound like an idiot so he fell silent. He gazed back at the arena. Benkei had won the fight and now two of the winners of the previous fights would battle. King and Kyoya stepped up.

“Oh, great, Kyoya,” Ryuga snarled the blader’s name.

“What do you have against Kyoya?” Madoka asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He’s going to give me away.” Ryuga held his hood in place, glaring at Kyoya and King as they started their battle.

“What do you-” Madoka froze. “Wait, are you trying to disguise yourself?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“That wasn’t obvious?” Ryuga rolled his eyes.

A gust of wind erupted from the stadium. Ryuga growled, ducking a bit and pulling his hood further over his head.

“Well, you don’t seem like the type to want to hide from people,” Madoka commented, gesturing to him.

Ryuga stiffened with anger. “I’m not hiding!” *I kind of am.*

Madoka rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say, Ryuga.”

Ryuga froze. *Is that her passive-aggressive way of saying she doesn’t believe me?*

“Lion gale force wall!” Kyoya called from the stadium.

Ryuga grunted. Down in the stadium, King’s reverse rotation bey was thrown into the sky and was flung around in the wind. King’s bey landed back in the stadium wobbling a bit. Leone rushed toward it. King’s bey weaved out of the way to dodge and the two beys slammed into each other from opposite directions.

“Who you rooting for?” Madoka asked, turning to Ryuga with a smile.

Ryuga thought for a moment. *What do I hate less? Kyoya or L-Drago wannabes?*

“Kyoya,” Ryuga decided, dipping his head. “Better him than that reverse rotation bey.”

Madoka’s smile faded. “Why do you insist L-Drago has to be the only left rotating bey?”

“Wasn’t that the whole reason L-Drago was the forbidden bey? The reverse rotation? Then all of a sudden there are two more and no one cares?! It makes no sense.”

“I suppose it’s weird… but Julian and King’s beys don’t…” Madoka shivered. “Steal their opponents’ power.”

Ryuga’s eyes narrowed. “So the reverse rotation is just a fancy extra feature for them. That’s what L-Drago’s most special quality has been reduced to? A trend?”

“Er… well…” Madoka looked away. *She knows I’m right.* “Do you regret it?”

“Huh?” Ryuga raised an eyebrow.

“Giving up L-Drago’s power to Kenta?” Madoka eyed him suspiciously. “Do you regret that?”

“Of course I don’t,” Ryuga sighed, his head hanging low.

*But I thought it would be my final act. I never thought I would have to live in a world without my L-Drago.* A gust of wind burst from the stadium, forcing Ryuga to hold his hood in place. There was a clinking sound. Ryuga looked up to see that King’s bey had been blown out of the stadium and stopped spinning. The crowd around him cheered. Benkei and Kenta, the next bladers, stood up and walked toward the stadium. Kenta glanced at the crowd.

“Go Kenta and Benkei!” Madoka called to them.

Ryuga nodded to Kenta. The kid nodded back then turned to the stadium and readied his bey.

“Get ready Benkei!” Kenta called, his eyes narrowed in determination. “Because I’m not going to lose here! Not with Ry-” Ryuga stiffened. Kenta put his hand over his mouth. “Not with my friends here supporting me!” he corrected, his determined gaze returning.

Ryuga let out a sigh of relief.

“I won’t let you win either!” Benkei countered, “Kyoya’s in the final battle waiting for me and I’m not about to let him down!”

“Ready?!” The blader DJ called. “Three… two… one… let it rip!”

Kenta and Benkei launched their beys.

“Sagittario!” Kenta called, “Switch to stamina mode!” Flash Sagittario’s fusion wheel shifted, making it rounder.

“Good choice,” Ryuga muttered, dipping his head.

“Hm?” Madoka turned to him, looking surprised.

“Benkei’s bey is a balance type by the looks of it,” Ryuga explained, “It will be weak to a stamina type.”

“You’re right. Dark Bull is a balance type…” Madoka looked almost impressed. “And Sagittario might need all the stamina it can get to withstand Dark Bull's attacks.”

“Dark Bull…?” Ryuga stiffened. That sounded like the kind of bey a Dark Nebula blader would use, but he couldn’t recall Benkei ever being part of that organization. “Where did he get that bey?”

“Um… Doji gave it to him a long time ago.”

“Thought so,” Ryuga grunted, his fist clenching at the memory of Doji.

He looked back at the battle. Dark Bull and Sagittario were clashing head-on, neither of them moving from their spot in the centre of the arena. Eventually, Dark Bull was thrown backwards. It wobbled slightly before regaining its balance and charging for Sagittario.

“You’ve gotten so much stronger,” Benkei mused aloud, “I can feel Ryuga’s power radiating from this new bey…”

“It’s not Ryuga’s power anymore, Benkei,” Kenta retorted, resting his hand on his chest. “It’s mine!”

Ryuga dipped his head.

“Go!” Kenta called. “Sagittario Flame- er…” He froze, his eyes wide.

*I took away his special move…* Ryuga let out a dry laugh.

“Go now, b-b-b-bull!” Benkei exclaimed, stepping forward. “Dark Bull red horn uppercut!”

Kenta let out a yelp of alarm. Bull charged for Sagittario, jumping into the air and ramming into Sagittario in midair

“Don’t quit Sagittario!” Kenta called, staring up at his bey.

Sagittario broke free from Bull's attack, wobbling in mid-air before landing back in the arena. Kenta sighed in relief.

“It’s not over yet!” he exclaimed, gesturing toward Sagittario.

The bey raced toward Dark Bull and the two beys entered a fierce clash. Bull smacked Sagittario backward. The bey landed with a wobble, allowing Bull to charge into it.

Kenta let out a grunt. “I have to do it! Sagittario! Switch to attack mode!”

Sagittario’s fusion wheel shifted, becoming more ovular as it dashed past Dark Bull.

“What is he doing?!” Ryuga blurted out.

Bull pursued Sagittario to the edge of the stadium. Sagittario didn’t stop. It flung itself into the air, spinning faster and faster as it flew higher into the air. A ball of fire formed around Sagittario. Ryuga stiffened. *That’s the same move he used on me!*

“Go!” Kenta exclaimed, his eyes narrowed in determination. “Special move! Diving arrow!”

Sagittario shot down from the sky like a comet, slamming into Dark Bull in an explosion of light. Ryuga shielded his eyes with his arm. When the light faded, Ryuga stared in awe at the stadium. Sagittario was spinning in the centre of the stadium, while Dark Bull was nowhere in sight. Ryuga looked up. The bey dropped to the ground beside Sagittario.

“Yeah!” Kenta cheered, retrieving his bey.

Ryuga couldn’t help but smile as pride for his friend surged through him. *He’s come so far…*

Madoka let out a gasp, dragging Ryuga out of his thoughts.

“Your hood!” she exclaimed.

Ryuga’s heart skipped a beat. He pulled his hood back over his head, looking around at the crowd. No one seemed to have noticed him. He sighed in relief.

“And now the final match!” the announcer called. “Kyoya versus Kenta!”

Kyoya stepped up, immediately readying his bey. Kenta seemed frozen. Taking a step back, he held up his launcher.

“Three… two… one… let it rip!” Kenta and Kyoya launched their beys.

“Sagittario! Stamina mode!” Kenta called out immediately.

Sagittario’s fusion shifted to its rounder form before clashing into Leone. A burst of wind erupted from the arena. Ryuga held his hood in place, grunting as the wind whipped in his face. He recalled his own fight with Kyoya back in Battle Bladers. Ryuga had only been using a fraction of L-Drago’s true power during that fight yet, even so, it was still impressive that Kyoya was able to last as long as he had against L-Drago. He was a formidable opponent, no doubt about it. This wouldn’t be easy for Kenta… When Sagittario and Leone clashed, it shot bursts of energy through the stadium.

“So this is the effect of Ryuga’s power…” Kyoya mused, though it was hard to hear over the roaring wind. He raised his voice when he continued, “I may not have been able to defeat Ryuga, but the same won’t be true for his protege!” Kyoya pointed at Kenta. “Leone! King Lion Crushing Fang!”

In moments, a tornado formed in the arena, lifting Sagittario higher and higher into the air. Kenta yelped in surprise.

“Now! Go, Leone!” Leone used the edge of the stadium as a ramp to throw itself into the tornado and toward Sagittario. Kenta’s bey was suddenly enveloped in flames.

“Sagittario diving arrow!” Kenta exclaimed, swinging his arm.

“Huh?!” Kyoya gasped.

Before he could back out, however, Sagittario slammed into Leone in a burst of flame. Ryuga shielded his eyes. When the smoke cleared, Sagittario was spinning steadily in the stadium, while Leone was nowhere to be seen.

“It’s not over yet!” Kyoya exclaimed, his eyes crazed with anger.

Moments later, Leone flopped into the stadium, its spin wobbling.

Kenta let out a grunt. “Sagittario attack mode!” he called, gesturing to the bey.

Sagittario’s fusion wheel shifted before charging toward Leone, smacking into it repeatedly. Leone pushed against it. However, it could barely keep up with Sagittario’s string of attacks. Ryuga’s heart lit up. *Kenta could win this!*

Kyoya let out a roar. “Leone!” He gestured for his bey to retreat.

Leone smacked Sagittario away and charged toward the edge of the stadium. Sagittario tried to follow. Leone hovered in the air.

“King Lion Reverse Wind Strike!” Kyoya yowled.

Ryuga’s jaw clenched. *How many special moves does this guy have?!* Leone flipped upside in midair. A tornado shot from its facebolt, slamming into Sagittario. Kenta yowled in alarm. An explosion of wind wracked the stadium, making the audience yelp in shock. Ryuga squinted. Through the wind, Ryuga spotted Leone slamming Sagittario against the ground, as Sagittario struggled to push back. The ground of the stadium cracked open. Sagittario was shoved into the ground, its spin stopping with a screech. The wind died down. Leone ceased its attack, landing with a wobble beside Sagittario.

“The-” The announcer sounded stunned. “The winner is Kyoya!”

“Sagittario!” Kenta yowled, falling to the ground on his knees.

Kyoya snatched his bey out of the air. In a moment of adrenaline, Ryuga vaulted over the railing separating the audience from the stadium and raced toward Kenta. The movement had blown his hood off. Ryuga didn’t care to notice until the sounds of terrified gasping echoed through the air.

“I-it's Ryuga?!” the announcer gasped.

Ryuga skidded to a halt.

“Ryuga?!” Kyoya exclaimed, his eyes wide.

The crowd’s eyes were all on Ryuga. He froze in place, his heart pounding out of his chest.

Kenta looked up at him, his gaze teary-eyed. “Ryuga…?”

“Kenta! Ryuga!”

Ryuga looked over his shoulder. Madoka was rushing toward the two of them. Finally working up the nerve to move, Ryuga slipped into the stadium and yanked Sagittario out of the ground.

“Come on,” Ryuga muttered as he passed Kenta and Madoka, the latter of whom was helping Kenta get to his feet.

Ryuga fought the urge to run away. He tried his best to look dignified as he speed-walked toward the exit.

“Ryuga!” Madoka called.

“Ryuga! Wait up!”

Kenta and Madoka raced after him. Ryuga avoided the gazes of the crowd by staring at Sagittario. It was covered in deep scratches. Thankfully, however, no pieces had broken off. Once the stadium was far behind him, Ryuga finally stopped, allowing Kenta and Madoka to catch up. They stopped beside him, struggling to catch their breath. Ryuga handed Kenta his bey.

Kenta let out a gasp. “Sagittario!” he yelped, grabbing it and staring in horror at the banged-up bey.

Madoka glanced at Sagittario.

“It got damaged pretty badly…” Her eyes were wide as she spoke.

“After it was just fixed! Gah, I’m so sorry, Sagittario!” Kenta’s voice descended into a sob as he clutched his broken Beyblade.

“It’s not your fault Kyoya decided to implant it into the ground,” Ryuga growled, “What a-” He bit back his next words.

“Oh, come on, I don’t think Kyoya meant to go that far,” Madoka insisted, sternly. She turned to Kenta and added gently, “Regardless, Kenta, I don’t mind repairing Sagittario again.”

Kenta looked up at her. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah, it won’t take long…”

“But don’t you still have Tsubasa and Yu’s beys to fix from the Nemesis battle?”

“And Tithi, Dynamis, Chris, and Aguma’s…” Madoka shuddered. “B-but it’s not a big deal! Like I said, this is minor compared to theirs. I can fix Sagittario tonight and maybe even have time to finish with Eagle’s repairs.” She laughed even as her eyes were wide. “That would be nice. Here, I’ll take it to my workshop now.”

Madoka gestured for Kenta to follow. Ryuga and Kenta trailed after her, ending up a few paces behind her.

“I was so close…” Kenta murmured to himself.

“Hm?” Ryuga looked down at him.

“I thought a few more attacks would do it… I didn’t count on him using Reverse Wind Strike… Kyoya has so many special moves, I can’t keep track of them all!”

*Me neither, Kenta.*

“You’ll have another chance to beat him.”

“Y-yeah… that’s true.” Kenta looked up at him with a smile. “Hey, thanks for coming to watch. I really do appreciate it.”

Ryuga just nodded. *I wish I could have been part of it.* He struggled to push the thought away as he continued on.

When they got to the shop, Madoka held the door open and ushered Ryuga and Kenta inside. Kenta handed her Sagittario. Ryuga followed them down a flight of stairs to a basement of sorts. Madoka placed Sagittario down on the desk. Nearby, were six other much more broken Beyblades, including Eagle and Libra.

“Wow, you really weren’t kidding…” Kenta gazed at the torn-up Beyblades.

“Ha, yeah… It’s a lot of work for one person.” Madoka rested her hand on her forehead. “But I can handle it! No big deal!” She laughed in that nervous way again.

However, Ryuga had already tuned the two of them out. Everything in this room was related to Beyblade somehow: the broken Beyblades on the desk, the tools that would likely fix them, and the drawers nearby filled with spare parts.

Memories of the tournament raced through Ryuga’s mind. *I could’ve beaten Kyoya. I could’ve beaten everyone there, no problem, but I didn’t even have a chance. I’ll never have a chance again.* Ryuga stared at the broken Beyblades, unable to ease the longing in his heart.

“Well, we should be getting home.” Ryuga zoned back in and gazed at Kenta. “Dinner is probably going to be ready soon.”

“Actually, Kenta…” Ryuga bit his lip.

“Huh?” Kenta tilted his head to the side.

“I…” Ryuga glanced at Madoka. “Can I stay here a while longer?”

“Wha-” Madoka stiffened. “Um, okay, sure. That’s… fine.”

Ryuga dipped his head.

“Ryuga?” Kenta stared at him.

“I’ll be there later,” Ryuga insisted.

“Okay… see you then.” Kenta reluctantly began to walk away. “Bye guys!” he called, before going up the stairs.

“Bye…” Madoka waved. Once Kenta disappeared, she turned to Ryuga. “Um, I’m gonna get something from upstairs then work on those repairs. You can uh… chill here I guess.” She made her way upstairs.

Once Madoka was out of sight, Ryuga immediately began looking through the drawers full of Beyblade parts. One had just blank facebolts. Another had just spin tracks, then just fusion wheels, and just performance tips. They were all fairly bland and basic. However, Ryuga couldn't help but stare at the parts as well as the broken up Beyblades nearby.

“What are you doing?” Ryuga froze at the sound of Madoka's voice. She was coming back down the stairs, a phone in hand as she gazed at him in confusion. Ryuga slowly pushed the drawer closed.

“No, no, it's fine," Madoka replied, hopping down the steps. "Just don't break anything.”

The mechanic grabbed another chair and pulled it up in front of the desk before sitting in the chair right beside it. Ryuga took the extra chair. He went back to the drawer of spare parts, shuffling through them and placing anything that stood out to him on the desk.

“Is it okay if I put on some music?” Madoka asked, gesturing to her phone. “I work well with music.”

*Why is she asking me?*

“It’s your workshop."

“Um…” Madoka looked away. “I’ll take that as a yes. I guess.”

She put the music on and set her phone aside facedown, before starting work on Sagittario’s repairs. Ryuga kept his eyes on his own work. He took one of the performance tips, a blue one for an attack type, and attached it to a spin track of a similar colour. They likely didn’t actually go together. Then Ryuga combined the spin track with more parts that didn’t go with it: a white fusion wheel and a plastic red facebolt. All together, they created the dumbest looking Beyblade Ryuga had ever seen.

*I need a life,* Ryuga thought as he spun the Beyblade around with his fingers. Madoka looked up from her work.

“Hey, that bey looks a bit like…” She stiffened. “Oh…”

Ryuga looked at the Beyblade, his eyes going wide. He hadn’t intended it, but the makeshift Beyblade did resemble L-Drago somewhat, having the same colours and an attack type performance tip. He had even spun it to the left.

Madoka paused her music with a sigh. “You miss L-Drago that much, huh?”

Ryuga stopped the bey with his fingers. “You’re not a blader, you wouldn’t get it,” he grunted.

“You’re right, I don’t fully understand. Your fight against Nemesis was…” Ryuga winced. Madoka hesitated before continuing, “Well, I don’t have to remind you. Yet despite that, you still want to Beyblade so badly. Why?”

“Because Beyblade is…” Ryuga let out a sigh. “Was my life. It was my purpose, and watching that tournament reminded me how much I want to fight…” He stared at the makeshift Beyblade. “But I can never replace L-Drago. So I have to accept this new life.”

“Do you not like your new life?” Madoka asked, tilting her head to the side.

Ryuga clenched his jaw. “I never said that.”

Madoka was probably about to reply when a beeping sound cut them off. Ryuga glanced at his phone.

-Kenta’s Mom: Be home before dark.-

Ryuga grunted as he typed out a response.

-Ryuga: Ok-

Muting the phone, he placed it aside facedown with a grunt.

“Ugh, parents.”

“Ha, yeah.” Madoka chuckled. “They can be overbearing… Kenta’s parents, you mean?”

Ryuga nodded.

“Yeah, I’ve met them. I’m convinced they would adopt all of us if they could.” Madoka smiled and raised an eyebrow. “How long did it take for them to want to adopt you?”

“...five minutes.” Ryuga wished he was exaggerating.

“Yep, sounds about right.” Madoka continued to work on Sagittario’s repairs as she spoke, “To be honest, I’m surprised they haven’t officially adopted you.”

Ryuga stiffened. “They’d better not,” he growled.

“Well, you’re older so I’m pretty sure they would need your permission to make it official,” Madoka replied with a shrug.

Ryuga let out a sigh of relief. “Good.”

Madoka looked up at him, placing Sagittario aside. “So, uh, when are you going home exactly?”

“Am I overstaying my welcome?” Ryuga asked, standing up.

“What? N-no, I don't mind.” Madoka stood up as well, gazing up at him. “I'm just confused. Ryuga, if you don't mind me asking… Why are you here? Is it really just to play with Beyblade parts?”

Ryuga’s eyes narrowed. “I'm not playing with them.”

"Then what are you doing exactly?” Madoka asked, gesturing to the makeshift Beyblade on the desk.

“One question at a time.” Ryuga rested his hand on his forehead.

“Ugh, fine. Then answer this, wouldn't being in a place like this just depress you?” Madoka held her hands out, gesturing to the room around them. “Being surrounded by Beyblade stuff?”

“It doesn't.”

If he was honest with himself, Ryuga found this environment peaceful. Beyblade was something that was familiar to him. So even though this was a new environment, it felt familiar and almost safe to him. Ryuga sat back down.

“That Beyblade’s not going to fix itself, you know,” he grunted, returning his focus to his makeshift Beyblade.

“Huh?” Madoka looked back at Flash Sagittario. “Oh, right…”

She unpaused her music and continued working. Ryuga looked back at his makeshift Beyblade, unscrewing the facebolt and reaching for more parts from the drawers. He tried out several combinations of parts and watched them spin. Ryuga put his head down on the table. He hadn't realized until now how tired he was and the familiar whirring sound of a Bey spinning was strangely relaxing. Even the music and the sounds of Madoka fixing Sagittario beside him were somewhat peaceful now. Ryuga's eyes slowly fluttered shut.

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

Ryuga opened his eyes with a yawn, confused to find himself sitting at Madoka's desk still. He glanced at the mechanic. She was sitting next to him, her head rested on her arms beside a mostly repaired Sagittario. Ryuga gently nudged Madoka. She yelped in surprise, her head shooting up.

“Oh, hey,” she greeted with a tired smile. “Good morning.”

“When did we fall asleep?” Ryuga asked, reaching for his phone.

“I dunno…” Madoka rested her hand on her forehead. “Ugh, I do this all the time. I really need to break out of this habit.”

Ryuga couldn’t bite back a gasp: thirteen unread text messages, six missed calls. He stiffened. A cold feeling wracked his body.

“What? What’s wrong?” Madoka asked, her eyes wide.

Ryuga was completely frozen for a few seconds, his heart pounding out of his chest. Finally, he stood up.

“I have to make a call,” he explained, his voice icily calm again.

He went up the stairs and toward the shop exit as casually as he could. Closing the door behind him, Ryuga booked it behind the building. He looked at his phone. Every message and missed call were from either Kenta or his parents, all demanding to know where he was. Ryuga called Kenta. He tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for the kid to pick up. It went to voicemail. Ryuga grunted. He stared at Kenta's parents' contacts, a sudden shiver running down his spine.

*They're going to yell at me…* Whichever one he called, Ryuga anticipated either of Kenta's parents yelling at him for this. They had never yelled at him or Kenta before but the idea chilled him. Everyone had their limit, surely? Doji would've certainly yelled at him if Ryuga had done something like this.

*I'd rather get yelled at over a phone than to my face.* Ryuga hesitantly called Kenta's mother, unable to suppress a shiver. She immediately picked up.

“Ryuga!”

“I’M SORRY!” Ryuga didn't realize how loud he had yelled until he saw birds fly away in panic. He lowered his voice and continued, “I lost track of time and fell asleep at the shop. I won’t…” Ryuga shivered. “I won’t do it again.”

Ryuga couldn't bring himself to continue; he already sounded pathetic enough.

“The shop, okay.” Kenta's mother sighed in relief. "That’s where Kenta said you were last. Thank goodness you’re okay.”

Ryuga froze. “You’re not mad?”

“No, of course not." She sounded almost alarmed. “We were just worried something happened to you.” She fell silent for a few moments before adding, “Kenta went out looking for you a few minutes ago, will you two come home?”

“...okay.”

“Okay, I love you, sweetie.”

Before Ryuga could reply, Kenta's mother hung up. Ryuga froze. *Maybe they don’t want to control me…* His eyes narrowed. *Then what do they want from me?! Why would they care this much about me if they didn’t want something from me?!* Before Kenta, the only person that seemed to want Ryuga around was Doji, who had used him for his own dark plan. Even Kenta initially only followed him to help his other friends. But what reason did the kid’s parents have to care?! *This has to be some kind of trick…*

“Ryuga!” Madoka’s voice shook him from his thoughts. She was running toward him. “What happened?” she asked, struggling to catch her breath.

“Nothing,” Ryuga grunted, putting his phone in his pocket. “I just told Kenta’s mother where I was.”

“Oh, yeah, his parents were probably pretty worried about you.”

“Clearly.” Ryuga began to walk away. Madoka followed, walking by his side and looking up at him.

“Well, uh, parents can be like that,” she replied with a shrug.

“They’re not my parents. I don’t get it.”

“Don’t get what?”

Ryuga froze. *Why did I tell HER that?* He stopped in front of the bey shop, letting out a sigh. *I suppose I have nothing to lose by telling her this.*

“Why they care so much. It doesn’t make sense.”

“How does it not make sense? They might not be your biological parents but you are living with them now and you’re close to Kenta. Is it really surprising his parents think of you as a second son?”

Ryuga looked away, unable to come up with an answer.

“Ryuga!” Kenta’s voice called.

Ryuga looked up to see his friend rushing toward him from a distance. *There he is.*

#beyblade #beyblade metal saga #beyblade metal fight #fanfictions #ryuga #ryuga kishatu #kenta yumiya #madoka amano #kyoya tategami #he's there a lot I guess #bey battles are a pain in the ass to write #very fun #but very difficult #also enjoy Ryuga/Madoka shippers #I don't ship it at all #but I thought it worked platonically here

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xsparklingravenx · 4 years ago

Text

breathtaking [2]

Title: breathtaking [2]

Fandom: Genshin Impact

Characters: Albedo, Klee

Rating: G

Word Count: 2,278

Summary: When the city burns to a crisp and the fate of Khaenri'ah plays out across humanity once again, will the girl in red stand against the beast, or join it?

AO3

1 / 2

First, there was fire and brimstone. Then, there was ash and blood, chalk and soil, and finally, a speck of scarlet in the midst of it all.

The city burned. Buildings crumbled. Those that still lived screamed for help or in sheer terror. The calamity made monsters of men, tore apart the knights who fought to their deaths, brought to life unspeakable horrors—but the speck did not cry out. It moved through the dying city slowly, fighting against the forces that had been set upon it, explosions ringing out at its behest. Not once did it falter. Not once did it act out of fear.

At the centre of the destruction was a boy who was not quite a boy anymore, who held destruction in his hands as it overwrought his body, and the speck, when it came close, turned out to not be a speck at all. It was a girl, not more than a child, who dressed in red, who wore a backpack with a little doll attached, who held a catalyst in shaking hands as she faced the monster she might have once known.

The not-quite-boy recognized her, but there were no words in his mouth that he could give her. And oh, he wanted to speak, how he wanted to reach out and tell her it would be okay, how he wanted to scream at her to run, but there was not enough left of him to tell her so. She was so small, not meant for such a nightmare, and yet she was still there, alive when so many were not.

She came to a gentle stop before him, hazy vision only showing him her visage, hiding her expression from his view. Why was she here? Why hadn't she left?

“Albedo,” she said, her voice cracking on that sole word. “It's still you, right…?”

The power of a dragon long dead thrummed in Albedo’s veins, and it sang a melody of hate and fury. Khaenri’ah, replaying out in front of their eyes, alchemy taken too far, curses blighting a land undeserving. He reached out with one hand, his other covering his face as the power took its toll on his false body. He could withstand so much. Why could he withstand this much?

“Klee,” he hissed out, straining just for that, and where was their Anemo Archon now, when the world was burning and she didn’t deserve this horror? Barbatos hummed on their winds when it so suited him, when he wished to bestow his freedom and his desire, but where was he now, when his beloved city was wrung out and falling beneath ground?

The clattering of steel drew both their attention, and through his dimming vision, Albedo saw knights, the ones who yet lived. They had only their swords and their courage to wield, and yet they were here to kill him, or at least to try. Maybe he would welcome it, if only to make the dragon’s anger die.

This air was poison. He was certain of it, that Durin’s influence held, and he expected Klee to run at the vision of the knights with their weapons drawn, to dash for safety. He wished she would, he held on to the hope that she would yet find safety even where there was none—and yet she didn’t step back.

Instead, she turned on her heel, turning her catalyst towards them.

“You can’t hurt Albedo,” she said softly, and the knights pointed their weapons at her despite how she was still so tiny, not questioning her or faltering in their mision. “Klee won’t let you. He’s…”

She trailed off, her Vision at the ready, and the knights didn’t hesitate. Albedo threw his hand out as they charged, as Klee threw up her bombs—and awoke with a start.

He didn’t suck in a breath, nor bolt upright, because there was a concerned face leaning down into his, with wide eyes and pale blonde hair that stuck up on all ends. Despite how dark it was still outside, she’d lit a lamp with her Vision, and it now sat blazing on his bedside table.

He blinked, her expression making him feel tight and hideous inside. She was knelt on the side of his bed, he realised. “Klee?”

“Is Albedo okay?” Klee asked, leaning over him. She had Dodoco in her hands, the fluffy little doll flopping on its side. Without her hat and in her bedclothes, she looked even younger than usual. “You look a little pale…”

Did he? He remained deathly still in his bed, the remnants of the dream fading from his memory instantly, but the horrified sensation in his ribcage remaining. His hand found its way to his chest, where he might have felt his rattling heart if his body were normal, and he pressed down against it.

He was not so easily shaken, and yet whatever that had been had shaken him. Klee tilted her head when he didn’t respond, and said, “Um, I heard a big shout, so I came in. Is that okay? Is it?”

“It is,” he replied, willing himself to reorientate himself, to figure out what was going on. He was at home. It was still night. He’d apparently shouted in his sleep and roused Klee from her slumber, and now she was in her room because he’d worried her. “Sorry, Klee. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t,” she said, and then she paused. “Well. Maybe you shook Klee a little bit. But that’s because you don’t ever shout! Or wake up! Did you have a nightmare?”

“I might have,” he admitted, finally sitting up. His hair fell about his face, loose from its usual tie. “I don’t remember—but, then again, I don’t often have dreams.”

“Lisa told me that people dream every night, we just don’t remember them all. I bet I have a ton of dreams about Hilichurls exploding! I must do.”

“Is that so?” She shuffled as he propped himself up against the pillows, and he pushed his fingers to the dip in his throat, where the star-shaped mark was etched onto his skin. His voice felt a little rusty, a little dry. “Was I shouting long?”

“Nope. Just a little bit. Does your throat hurt?”

“Not exactly—”

“Klee knows just the remedy!” She hopped up before he could stop her, and off she went, bolting out of the room, leaving Dodoco in his care. It was a couple of minutes before she returned, juggling two mugs in hand. “Look at this! Mona was really sick the other day and her throat was hurting real bad so Barbara showed me how to make chamomile tea! She even gave me some to bring back, so now I can give some to you!”

She handed him a mug, and then clambered back up onto his bedside. He peered down into the liquid, feeling the warmth from it seep into his cold fingers. “Thank you, Klee. I didn’t know Mona was ill.”

“You were busy with Sucrose that day, but that’s okay! I know you’re having fun making stuff. I made stuff too. Well. I made it go boom, actually, but I did it out in the fields, so nobody was around!”

She sipped at her tea, and he followed suit, closing his eyes as it soothed his throat. “I’m glad to hear it was out of the city walls, at least. How many fish did you gather this time?”

“Enough for tons and tons of Woodland Dream, but I gave most of them to Fischl! She needed them for something weird she was making with Bennett, and it was better to give them to her because whenever Bennett makes something, he causes even more fires than I do!”

Ah, he knew Bennett, the adventurer with terrible luck. One day, he’d have to ask him if he could run a couple of tests, but that would require several risk assessments that he hadn’t had the time to consider yet. “You’ve made a lot of friends, haven’t you, Klee? Miss Alice would be thrilled.”

“Yeah! I can’t wait to tell mom everything!” She grinned, putting her mug on the bedside table to hug Dodoco close. “I’m gonna tell mom all about your work, and Lumine too! Oh! Do you think she’ll meet her on her travels? Maybe she’ll see her before I do!”

“Maybe. The world is a large place, but that traveller seems to have a knack for getting into every cranny this world has to offer.” His chest twinged as he thought of her and her draconic sword, the reminder of Durin unsettling something within. “This tea is nice. I’d love to break it down to its base structure…”

Klee giggled. “You always wanna do that!”

“And you always want to research new gunpowder, so we’re not all that different.”

“Nope! That’s what makes us such a good pair!” Klee’s cheer was short-lived, for some reason, her face falling. She hugged Dodoco a little tighter, and then said, “You were really still when I came in. I don’t ever get scared, I’m a big girl! But maybe I was a tiny bit worried. Itsy-bitsy. Sort of.”

He paused, his mug half-way to his mouth. “Klee, I’m okay.”

“I know!” She turned her head and looked directly at him, her eyes burning holes into his. “You’re not breathing again.”

Oh. As always, he’d forgotten. He inhaled, raised his hand to his mouth, and carefully blew hot air onto his palm. A gentle exhale, but the first intake of oxygen he’d had in hours. Most people didn’t notice, because he still subconsciously imitated the motions of breathing, but when he was sleeping, there was no need. Did he look dead, when he was unconscious? What an odd thought.

They never spoke about it. She never asked him why, even though that should have been the first question on her mind. Children were inquisitive by nature, and yet she let that one oddity go. Much the same, he never questioned her inability to fear explosives, or why she enjoyed destruction so.

Bathed in the cosy light of the lamp she’d lit, Albedo leant back against his pillows and tipped his head backwards, focusing on each breath he took. His chest rose and fell, and he wondered for himself why they had ended up together, two strange beings in a world that valued normality. Was it that the unconventional attracted? Could he even test for something like that?

“I don’t think I’m going back to sleep,” he said, because in truth, deep down, there was something within that was still shaken by the dream he could not recall. Not even the warmth of the mug he still held could defeat that kind of cold. “Do you want to play a game, Klee?”

“Not a game, but…um…let’s see…” She tapped a finger to her chin, and then jumped up once more. “Let’s read a book! Can you read it? If your voice isn’t too bad, I mean!”

“Go pick something,” he said with a gentle nod. She rushed off to her room, returning with a battered-looking copy of The Fox and the Dandelion Sea’s first volume. When she jumped back onto the bed, she made sure to adjust the covers so she could slip beneath them, carefully leaning against his side.

She was warm—warmer than he was, partially because she was a being built of soil, and partially because she had a Pyro Vision at her command. She ran a little bit hotter than others (especially those of Cryo affinity), and definitely hotter than Albedo, who blamed his slightly lower temperature on his not-quite-conventional genetic makeup. It wasn’t a bad thing by any means.

“You read the boring bits, I’ll do the voices!” Klee said, calling to attention how he never went past monotone when it came to story-time. “Klee likes the little fox. Dandelion, dandelion, ride the wind to a faraway land!”

“If there weren’t any ‘boring’ bits, then there’d be very little story, and there would be no point in me reading it,” Albedo said, and she settled down with a melodic giggle. Tucking Dodoco between them, she took his mug when he gave it to her and put it on the side. When he opened the book, she held onto the side that she was offered. One half each, shared.

Making sure he carried on breathing, he said, “Alright, Klee, off you go. You know the first line, you already said it once.”

“Yup! Dandelion, dandelion, ride the wind to a faraway land!”

Where she was pressed against him, he could feel her heartbeat, thumping along steadily as it was meant to. As he carried on the narration, as she jumped in to do each character’s voice, a little part of him wished for this fragment of time to remain forever, to freeze like a Cryo Regisvine’s vestiges, unmoving and kept safe, untouched by what may come.

But not even he could stop time, so all he could do was look to the future and hope that, if the worst came to pass, that those around him might have the power to stop him. Lumine, Sucrose, Klee herself. Those he’d managed to somehow form attachments to, those he enjoyed the company of, those he loved—they could destroy him, couldn’t they?

Klee’s energetic voice lulled his fears to sleep, and eventually, the two of them drifted off too, the book still held open, Dodoco caught between them—and there were no dreams to rattle his chest this time, no abrupt awakenings or sharp cries.

Not that he remembered, anyway.

#Genshin Impact #klee #Albedo #albedo genshin impact #klee genshin impact #My Writing #oops accidentally wrote more

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unravelling-the-world · 4 years ago

Text

random thoughts related to kagepro (tw for depression?? death?? suicide ?? implied ?? im not sure and idk what else read at ur own risk)

well idk lately ive been thinking a lot and ik ive uh always (? since i can remember?) have been depressed (i mean...it started around age 12...i dont really remember much before that. most of what i remember are bad moments anyways. or very specific scenes. but they dont feel mine. if that makes sense. its like remembering the scene from a movie. back on track i guess idk well lately ive realized i actually kin some characters and lately ive...been relating a lot to shintaro kisaragi fromkagepro. i mean its ok. there´s always been that specific similarity in us (after all, how many characters in anime are as related to coca cola as shintaro //and me,,im literally a coca cola addict lmao// well anyways. after some days, this lead me to thinking...to a hidden memory within my brain, i guess. I remember introducing my then best friends, to kagepro. one told me haha he´s like u bc the coca cola!! and i think i just laughed and smiled? i truly didn´t see it? i was sad sure, but i couldnt really relate to him. after all, i was the leader of my own little group of 12 year old weebs,right? (i was also 12 btw) i didnt personally dislike shintaro but i didnt rly see myself in him yknow? also i have loved ayano from ever since i have memory so idk like she´s one of my biggest comfort characters and its weird bc if she was ´´real´´ idk if i could date her or anything but im just glad she exists bc it somehow comforts me a lot yeah anyways ayano essay for another time lol. anyways at this age my favorite characters in kagepro were ayano and konoha ( i still love them a lot) thing is, at this point in my life i didnt know/wasnt aware i was transgender but i already kinda liked he/him pronouns so i roleplayed a lot. online. i roleplayed as konoha obviously lmao and actually one of my irl friends related to shintaro ?? and i think we may have roleplayed lmao and stuff.... she even had a facebook account named shin hikkikomori or smth like that. anyways fast forward bc after being 12 a lot of stuff happened obviously. and none of that relates to kagepro until quite some time. i will mention some items that dont really relate to kagepro but marked moments in my friend group that may be relevant later on. Around 2016)? Some of my closest friends changed schools (but we kept contact) yet i still had a big group at school. But it got fragmented along the way. 2017 i went to Japan and formed a new, different friend group with people that even today, are dear to me. When i came back, my friend group fragmented more. I kept contact with other members of the old group but one on one, not as a group anymore. 2018 we graduated, and i broke up my realtionship with one of my former best friends (2016-2018) 2019 was a year of change, and even though i was afraid and shit got weird, i was not doing too bad. i will skip that. Well. Im sure we all know 2020 was a trainwreck, shit happened. i had a villain arc. I lost my shit,definetely. Ups, downs, whatever. 2021 has not been too different. However, even through everything, in early 2020, i kept close relationships with my friend group. as the year moved forward and the restrictions started lifting ( thank you government very cool <3 //ironically obviously, this is the reason this shit wont go away//) some of my friends saw each other irl and stuff, or talked about stuff i didn´t understand/didn´t want to hear while on discord. I felt alienated. I felt empty. I got mad at a friend for the first time, for something he said. I ended up isolating myself. A friend celebrated her birthday. She invited me and never excluded me, asked me a lot of things and asked to virtually include me. But that would just make me feel more alienated, wouldn´t it? I told her it was ok, i didn´t go. Honestly, I felt like a bother. I didn´t want to bother. I wasn´t okay, but i didn´t want to bother anyone, so i isolated myself. I had a very bad breakdown. lasted weeks. When I recovered, it wasn´t the same. It felt like everyone else was closer, while i drifted away. I kind of recconected with some of my friends from Japan after this. In the vacations, i felt like i reconnected with some friends just to drift away again later. However, i never could reconnect with one of my best friends. She never really got mad at me or anything ( i think) but we don´t really talk much anymore. We used to talk daily, be it actual talking, memes, anything. I don´t think we´ve actually talked in weeks. There´s nothing I can do. This year, another friend had a birthday, but I was so disconnected from everyone I didn´t even care. I mean. It´s all broken now, isn´t it? The other day I just started wondering. When did I start relating to Shintaro so much? I had always been like this, hadn´t I? Who am I, actually? Why do I relate so much now? It´s not just about the soda. I had lost friends before, but I never really felt like that. Sometimes I feel like I´ve lost everyone. In a one year span I became a hikkikomori. About a month ago, when I entered classes, I was recognized as Shintaro pfp and I admitted to kinning him to people i´d never talked to before (on chat) // I decided to go apeshit idc anymore about what anyone thinks of me// I had fun. I think I must´ve posted on my stories, because two different people told me they were the ene to my shintaro. I appreciated it. i mean it´s kinda true bc now that i´m only on the pc they do bother me online and try to get me to open up or get better but sometimes the just annoy me lmao but also not bc they all have their own particular lives and they all seem to be doing better than me. Still, my classmates are very nice and inclusive. But it´s not like im close to any of them I guess. I´m just alone now. I´m fucked up man....I don´t feel real anymore. I don´t really know who I am. I guess that´s why I find comfort in seeing a part of myself in Shintaro? But when did i turn out like this? Why didn´t I relate when I was younger? Well, I hadn´t really lost any friends back then. I now know how painful that is. How lonely it is to be alone even when there is people around. idk. and i´ve always been quiet. introverted. shy. a loser. yet now whenever i meet anyone i try to idk connect? but i cant. i wish i could be more evil. maybe it´d just be easier if everyone really, truly hated me. maybe i´d get the strength to actually kill myself then. it´s weird. i really see myself in route xx shintaro. I know that´s fucked up because I know how it ends. but truly, i was trying. I was healing, i think i was going somewhere. and i was trying to keep my newly formed renovated friend group together. I really was trying to. I didn´t mind if we had sub groups on the big group, but we were all there for each other. I tried my best. I felt like i belonged. but now im alone again. and this time there´s nothing i can do. if something, i´ve made it worse. and i keep making it worse. it´s weird. when i first got into kagepro, both shintaro and ayano felt like adults. i thought they were really, really big. im older than them now. now i know theyre not really adults. i get it. i still feel 18. after all, these last two years have been taken away from me. i didnt waste them myself this time. i feel like a rotten 18 year old...when i listen to lost time memory, i just...get it. i always liked the song. i thought the story was so cool. when it first came out.. i still remember. iwas there. i waited for it. i loved it. i still do, but back then, i just saw it all as some really great and cool song. now i feel like i really, really get it. i love it even more. im hiding away in all my memories. but what is my true heart? what do i really want? i don´t know, i don´t know... If I'm 'wise' then, I can't face forward; I have no reason to so, I'll rot away instead It would be nice if time could be turned back. Years may pass but I'll never die I repeat hopeful words to myself, even though I know I still won't be able to reach you. "It doesn't matter, just die already!" I said as I clutched my wrist, simply cursing it. Unable to do anything, I merely indulged myself in life. "If summer can show me dreams, then let's go to before you were taken away" The days where I hid my embarrassment are illuminating upon the atmosphere and burning my mind. If I'm wishing for a dream that can't come true, then I'll embrace this blurry past and have a dream which I don't wake up from and naturally seclude myself from the outside world. "But that means you can't even see tomorrow?" I don't really care 'bout that, so it's ok I stained my hands in order to kill these boring days I'm choosing "solitude" after all A rotten boy at 18 today too, prayed again while clinging on to your colored smile Underneath the blazing sun Asking "Somehow, please take me away instead of leaving like this!" and my murmuring breath was quietly stopped

I guess i just wish someone could actually help me. take me out of this hole. Maybe some kind of closure would be nice. It´s not the same, though. I don´t have enough bravery in myself to actually kill myself. Mostly because of guilt. I can´t take the guilt of dissapointing everyone. I don´t want my parents to get hurt. I don´t want my bunny to miss me. Yet i wish everyday for it to be over. Lately, half of my dreams have been in Japan, with many friends, some who i met there, some who have never been there. Yet my brain shows me the dreams before it was all taken away. I think one of my favorite parts of the day is dreaming. I like to sleep simply because I dream. And i sleep very few. mayb bc i hate myself? I still barely indulge in life. I do anything to stay distracted. If i think, it all goes to shit. it all does. like now. Heh. it´s funny. I guess no one is truly my ene, because no one actually knows how mentally fucked up i got these past months. No one knows how badly i´ve been treating myself and how badly i´ve been doing. Still, i can´t tell anyone but scream it into the tumblr void. No one has to keep up with my shit. No one has to take care of me. After all, it was I who chose solitude. It was me who kept them away. But I don´t get a second choice. I don´t get a change of routes if things go sour. And i guess I don´t get to get a mentally fucked up friend group where I belong for a second time. Once was good enough, wasn´t it? I.. Even when I wasnt as deep as i am now (again) into kagepro, ive always wanted to die on August 15. It holds meaning to me now as well. Every year I used to ask people to go out with me that day. I know im not brave enough to kill myself. I always hoped for a lil miracle i guess. Last year was the first year...I didn´t do anything. I just... I just hope this year i can make it. I hope the miracle happens this year....I can only hope......its too late for me to be saved, isn´t it? I never thought it´d be like this. I don´t get closure. I don´t get goodbyes. I am left behind on a world that keeps moving. I am nothing.

#long post #hinatalks #we live in a society #fr fr #when i die....if god is real..i´ll end this once and for all. all of it #i am left with nothing but pain and anger.... i cant even feel anymore. i think i forgot how to

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