#i can probably gather enough for another 10 pull by then but. my third copy of merge game himeru...

[mihai-florescu]

The second half of the global scout starting at the same time as obbligato what if i killed myself

[cal-kestis]

You Mean More | Din Djarin x Fem!Reader

(Part III of The Aftermath of Losing Everything)

moodboard/sketch/gifs made by me, please don’t repost :)

Summary: The plan goes as follows: Send the Mandalorian to the Imperial base under the guise of full cooperation and stall the holoprojector Imp for as long as possible. This will give you enough time to sneak in through an air vent, find a terminal, and hack the system, wiping every Imperial archive of Din Djarin's face. It should work, right? As long as no one gets hurt. (Set after S2) Rating: M    Word Count: 8023 Warnings/Tags: Soft!Din, Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, no use of ‘Y/N’, non-explicit smut, canon-typical violence, blood A/N: This is what they call: the climax.

[PART I] // [PART II] // [Read on AO3] // [Series Masterlist]

xi.

As Din flies to the Imperial base, the only sounds filling the cockpit are the low beeps of the control board and the tense quiet of your voice repeating the plan for the twenty-third time. When you finally land on an icy planet, you see the base outside the viewport blending in with its snowy surroundings — white, cold, frozen in time — and two stormtroopers flanking either side of the sealed entrance.

“Check your comlink,” Din says, voice gentle and authoritative. 

“Testing, testing. Cuyan to Shiny Head, do you copy?” You whisper-shout into the device, watching as his gloved hand reaches for the side of his helmet, listening to your words spoken directly into his ear. He nods.

“You’re not calling me ‘Shiny Head’ by the way.”

You want to laugh. Normally, you would. But anxiety drops low in your stomach again as you peer out to the base. 

“This is going to work,” you whisper and he wonders whether you’re saying that for his sake or to convince yourself.

“Don’t leave the ship until I give you the signal,” he says, his hands grasping both of your shoulders, thumbs brushing your upper arms in gentle circles. You only nod in response, your eyes boring into the visor of his helmet, biting your lip hard enough to draw blood. When he pulls you against his chest and tightens his grip, your body sinks into his, trying to memorize how you fit together in case it’s all you have left. Too soon, he’s letting go, leaving only the crown of his helmet connected to your forehead when he echoes your words, “This is going to work.”

The moment he exits the ship, you sprint to the engine bay and pull the ship’s electro-periscope from the ceiling. Through the red-tinted binoc lens, you have a magnified view of the Mandalorian as he saunters up to the base’s entrance, not even flinching as the stormtroopers draw their blasters.

You watch his helmet turn wide to the left and swing slowly to the right, scanning the base as the troopers check his person and confiscate his blaster. The stormtroopers step back to their posts, leaving Din standing in the middle of the snow outside of a round, closed door. Waiting.

“Cuyan Two to Cuyan One,” you mutter into the comlink. “What are you seeing?”

You’re met with a long gap of static and you panic, thinking the coms are jammed, before he finally answers.

“You were right, Cuyan One,” he whispers, the hint of a smile in his voice despite the circumstances. “There’s a small duct to the left of the entrance. You’ll have to distract the guard troopers.”

“I can manage.”

“I know you can,” he says, steadfast as ever. Din believes in you without an ounce of hesitation and it makes you feel like you could command stars into existence and the galaxy would obey. “After I give the signal, go to my weapons locker. There’s a locked box at the bottom. Punch in my code and take the bag inside it with you."

“What’s in it?” You ask, watching as the doors to the base finally open, revealing another pair of stormtroopers, one with red markings on their armor. A Burner, more infamously known as an Incinerator Trooper.

“Things to keep you safe,” he answers quickly.

One of the guards gives Din’s blaster to the troopers now leading him into the base. And before the doors close, you see Din’s fingers interlock behind his back: the signal.

Focusing the periscope on the two guard troopers, you scan the area again, looking for a way to distract them without causing a scene. Aside from a patch of bushes to the right of the base, the area is blanketed in pure white snow with nothing to give you cover. Great.

As you think over your next move, you run to Din’s weapons cabinet and rummage through his arsenal, finding the locked box under an old cloak. You punch his code into the number pad — 47648, ‘GROGU’ on a 10-key pad you remember with a bittersweet smile — and the box opens with a quiet click. As promised, there’s a small tan-colored pouch with a shoulder strap and, inside it, you find a blaster that fits perfectly in your hand and what looks like a silver sword hilt, its blade completely missing. You run your fingers across the angular handle, confused as to how a bladeless weapon could “keep you safe.” But when your finger presses over a smooth panel on the hilt, a high-pitched sound emits from its chamber and a black blade glows in front of your face. 

A lightsaber, you think, like the ones Din had told you about what feels like a lifetime ago. But this one isn’t green like the one he’d described Grogu’s master used or white like Ahsoka Tano’s twin sabers. It's dark and blinding, laced with an energy you’re far too frightened to wield. You retract the blade almost immediately, heart racing as you stuff both weapons into the worn bag and sling it over your shoulder.

Taking a long, steadying breath, you slowly step onto the boarding ramp — thanking the Maker Din had the sense to leave it down so it wouldn’t make a noise and blow your cover. He hadn’t parked the ship too far from the entrance and you can clearly see the duct he’d mentioned a few yards away. If you can just get the stormtroopers to turn in the other direction, you could sprint and be in the clear.

The plan is dumb, you know it. But it’s already the day of dumb plans and it’s all you have. Kneeling, you gather a mass of powdery snow in your gloved hands and press it together until it clumps into a dense ball. With your arms outstretched in front of you, you close your eyes and reach out with your mind, focusing your thoughts on the ball of snow in your palms.

The snow levitates high above you, high above even the Imperial base, and toward the trooper standing on the right side of the entry. You lower the ball just to his head-level and out of his eyesight, flick your wrist slowly to the right to gain some momentum, then snap it quickly to the left, smacking the stormtrooper hard against his helmet.

“What the hell?” You hear the stormtrooper shout, shuffling back on his feet.

“What happened?” The other asks.

“I just got hit with a snowball?” He answers with his own question, rubbing the side of his helmet.

You focus your thoughts again, this time, reaching out toward the bushes to the right of the base, causing the branches to wiggle and rustle. 

The two troopers snap their heads in the direction of the mysterious sound, walking slowly with their blasters aimed and ready. And when they reach the bushes, aimlessly kicking at the shrubs with their boots, you run for it.

Your lungs are on fire when you reach the duct, fingers trembling as you quietly jiggle off the vent’s cover to give yourself an opening. You crawl in the chamber and quickly replace the cover before the stormtroopers return to their posts.

Once you’re safe inside the duct, you turn Din’s line back on so you can hear his side of the mission.

“I’m in,” you whisper.

On his end, you hear him grunt quietly in acknowledgment before the line is filled with only the faint sound of marching boots. 

You have no idea where you’re going — probably the dumbest part of your entire plan — but you hope to stumble upon a terminal or control room sooner rather than later so you and Din can leave this nightmare in the past.

The base’s air vent system proves to be an endless maze, however, with forks and crossroads at every turn. Your knees start to ache as they press and slide across the metal ducting, your hands leaving trails of water as the thin layer of ice on your gloves melts away. You freeze when you hear footsteps below the air duct, holding your breath as you peer through the slits of a vent to see a platoon of stormtroopers marching through the corridor.

After what feels like hours, you finally find a small, surprisingly empty room filled with computer terminals and open a vent panel before quietly dropping down from the ceiling.

By no means would you call yourself a hacking wizard, but you had some tricks up your sleeve. Years of scraping by on your own will teach you a host of odd skills. Within seconds, you bypass the facial scanners and begin combing through the archives before you hear some static crackle in your earpiece once again.

“Please, no need for formalities," you hear a faint voice taunt through Din’s com. “We already know what you look like.”

It’s the holoprojector Imp, the familiar sound of her throaty voice floods your ears. Din doesn’t respond, and you imagine him standing like a statue, calculating the odds and armed with nothing but beskar and silence.

“Very well,” the Imp says. “Leave the helmet on. We have more important matters to discuss.”

“I almost have it,” you whisper to Din, hoping your encouraging progress can serve as another weapon.

“Now, Din Djarin,” the Imp calls, his name dripping out of her mouth like venom. “Don’t think we’d be so foolish to believe you’d assist us willingly. Assume that we know everything.”

A shiver runs down your spine from the thinly concealed threat, and your fingers fly faster over the controls as time slips through the cracks. 

Finally, you find it, a record labeled: ‘Din Djarin.’ And you erase every trace of him.

“Got it, Cuyan One,” you sigh a breath of relief into the comlink.

“For example,” the Imp is still talking, and you roll your eyes knowing you’ve already won. “We know you did not come here alone.”

Suddenly, the blast doors of the terminal room open with a whoosh, and you back up against the machines as two stormtroopers corner you in. With a blessed shred of forethought, you blindly pull one of the weapons out of Din’s bag behind your back and sneak it into the back waistband of your pants, covered by your thick cloak. Just as you thought, one stormtrooper tears the bag from your shoulder, looking inside to find the other weapon without searching you further.

They push you down the corridor, jabbing you in the middle of your back with the barrel of their blasters, and you count each step before stopping in front of a heavy-looking door on the shadowy end of the hall.

Din’s voice enters your ears at the same moment. 

“If you even think about hurting her, you’re already dead.”

The door opens, revealing a dark room bathed in ominous red light. In the middle, the holoprojector Imp stands with her legs spread and her hands behind her back, flanked by two stormtroopers. Somehow, the Imp looks even paler without the blue tint of holo coloring her skin. It makes her eyes appear pitch black in comparison, piercing as they slant at you in unmasked scrutiny. She wears the same darkness in her hair which is cut blunt and short, severe against her skeletal pallor. In front of her, Din kneels on the ground, the Burner standing only a few steps behind him, flamethrower at the ready.

With your two captors holding you by the arms in a room filled with enemies, the odds feel slim to none. Din’s helmet turns to you, his beskar shrouded in red, and you do your best to send him a reassuring smile.

The Imp suddenly says your full name, a grin splitting her face in half when you turn to her in shock. “So nice of you to join us.”

“You already lost,” you spit at the Imp, grinning wider than her. “I erased the archives. You have nothing.”

“Oh, such a pretty, foolish girl,” the Imp sings and you hear the teasing, grating noise from both her true voice and its distortion through your comlink. With your arms trapped, you can’t even turn off the device, and you cringe each time the dissonance scratches its way into your ears. “You may have wiped the systems but I have a backup drive,” she smirks, patting the badge-decorated pocket on her uniform. “In fact, I’ve also collected some interesting records on you, my dear. About your family, your… history.”

She’s bluffing, she has to be.

“Assume that we know everything,” the Imp repeats. 

“Who are you?” You grit through bared teeth.

She laughs and you wipe your ear on your shoulder in disgust.

“Surely you both understand if I choose to withhold certain information. One's identity can be so very…” the Imp pretends to consider her words, glancing at Din and then sneering back at you as she taps a gloved finger against her pale, pointed chin. “Valuable.”

You lunge at her, a snarl ripping from your throat, but a trooper holds you back with a painful grip, his blaster digging into your side.

“Now, Din Djarin,” the Imp says, turning her attention back to the kneeling warrior. “If you don’t want to watch me kill your partner, you’ll do as I wish. Help me retrieve Gideon. Otherwise, you both shall die here.” Her blaster clicks as she points the barrel between his eyes with horrifying gracefulness. 

“No!” You scream, turning every weapon in the room on you.

“Let her go,” Din practically growls.

“Ah,” the Imp says, walking to where you stand on the other side of the room, her weapon dangling like a child's toy from her fingers. “Or perhaps the girl can be of better help? With the proper motivation, of course. Tell me, where are they keeping the Moff? I wouldn’t want to be forced to make a roast out of your Mandalorian.”

With a snap of the Imp’s fingers, the Burner points his flamethrower at Din’s head. But somehow, in that same instant, you manage to rip yourself out of the troopers’ holds, making them stumble backward. And your hand flies forward, lifting the Imperial officer from the ground.

The troopers seem dumbfounded by the magic they’re witnessing, blasters pointed at the ground in their stupor. You can almost see their slack-jawed expressions through their helmets as the Imp clutches her hands around her throat, gasping for air and hovering a foot above the floor.

“A Jedi?” She croaks.

Assume that we know everything. You knew it. A bluff.

“Wrong again,” you grin, pushing your hand forward and sending the Imp soaring across the room. Her head hits metal with a heavy crash, falling unconscious, and at the same time, a loud alarm sounds throughout the base. Somehow, the red of the room grows darker and more saturated as lights flash on the ceiling.

Blaster fire ricochets off the red-tinted walls when the troopers come back to reality, the blasts deafening as you dodge them, thankful it’s just a group of bad-shot stormtroopers and not an elite unit.

One stormtrooper charges toward you, raising the butt of his blaster to strike, but you kick him hard in the stomach, plowing him into the floor. In the corner of your eye, you see Din twist in a circle, his wrists still bound behind him as he sweeps his leg under the Burner, making the trooper fall backward with a thud.

You rush over to Din, pulling the saber from your waistband and igniting the blade to cut his binders off. You wordlessly hand him the sword but he pushes it back toward you.

“Use it,” he says, squeezing your wrist before turning back to knock the flamethrower out of the Burner’s grasp.

You’ve been in your fair share of scuffles back on Tatooine, even some while working with the Mandalorian — but you’ve never fought with a sword before. Clumsily, you swing the blade in front of you, brandishing it toward the troopers without skill.

“How do I use this thing?” You shout at Din who is busy punching a stormtrooper and taking back his blaster.

“It’s a sword,” he yells over the alarm, shooting a third clueless trooper. “Stab something!”

With both hands gripping the hilt, you send the blade slicing through the air, a loud humming sound echoing in your ears with each swing. And when you hit the side of one final stormtrooper, the strike punctuated by a roaring crackle, he’s on the ground, his white armor sizzling as it melts.

But while the chaos in the red room settles, a larger battle brews outside its doors.

“I erased it, they have nothing,” you explain breathlessly, retracting the saber as Din surveys your body for injuries. You pull Din’s bag off the fallen trooper and replace the sword inside. “The Imp was bluffing.”

You run over to the unconscious woman regardless, checking her pockets. Empty.

“Are you sure?” He asks when you return to him, holding your trembling shoulders.

“Positive. It’s like I could sense it.”

A loud crash echoes in the corridors, making you jump away from him.

“Let’s get out of here,” Din says, at the same moment you scream, “Watch out!”

It happens in slow motion. The Incinerator Trooper pushes himself on his feet and reaches for his flamethrower. Din’s gaze is focused on you when you see the trooper take aim, a small fire beginning to bloom from the barrel.

Your arms wrap around Din instinctively, attempting to shield his body with your own. You wait for the burning heat, for the scorch of flames to lick at your skin. You wait to hear both your agonizing screams before you and Din leave the universe together. But as bright orange and red tendrils flash behind your closed eyelids, you only feel cool beskar.

Opening your eyes, you see a dome of fire just inches away from your bodies. Din pulls away slowly, taking in the sight of the inferno around him, dancing flames reflecting off his armor.

“Are you doing this?” He asks, a hazy memory creeping into his mind of the stand-off on Nevarro.

You squint through the fire, only finding the Burner with his thrower still aimed forward. You are doing this. Closing your eyes again, you reach out and focus your thoughts harder on the protective shield blocking the flames. Your mind pushes forward and deflects the fire backward, hurling the blaze and embers into the trooper. When the flames dissipate, the Burner collapses to the ground, his suit scorched and blackened.

Standing in the middle of the destruction, you stare at your hands in shock before yellow-tipped gloves grab them and pull you out of the room. 

“We have to go,” Din says.

The halls flash with red lights, sirens soaring through the narrow corridors as trooper footsteps drum closer and closer.

Din leads you quickly through the base and out where he first entered. But you’re met by a rain of blaster fire as you both attempt to sprint back to the ship in one piece. Din pushes you in front of him, running backward as he shoots and blocks the blasters with the armor on his chest.

“Hang on,” he shouts, and before you can question it, he’s scooping you into his arms and launching off the ground.

He flies to the parked ship in record timing. But before he can make his landing, a blast hits his jetpack. It combusts with a deafening boom, right next to your ear, and it sends both of you hurdling into the ice. For a moment, you can’t hear a thing except for the echo of the explosion as you fall to the pillowy snow. Then, beside you, you hear a dull crack of beskar on thick, hardened ice and Din groaning aloud in agony.

“No!” You shout, coming to your senses when you see his leg bent at a strange angle, blood seeping onto the ice from his helmet.

“Get us out of here,” he grits out.

It feels frighteningly familiar pulling his body into the ship, danger looming from all sides as blasts continue to ding off the freighter or melt into the snow. You close the ramp, leave Din in the hold, and get the ship high above the ground.

But you hesitate, hovering in the air for a long moment, before making a choice.

Charging the gunners, you aim at the Imperial base and release a shockwave of vengeful blasts. And as the facility and everything inside and around it disintegrates into ash and rubble, you launch into hyperspace, leaving nothing behind.

The next moments pass by in a blur, Din’s cries ringing loudly in your ears as you try to figure out what to do. He gives you strained instructions but you can barely understand him.

“Reset the bone,” he grunts with just enough clarity, all while writhing in pain.

“Reset the bone,” you echo. “Right. I can do this. I’ll need to cut your pants.”

You find a small blade, remove his boot and armor, and slice a line from the bottom of his pant leg to just above his knee. With one hand gripping below his knee and the other pressing down on his thigh, you pull and hear the bone snap back into place as Din screams. You run to the storage closet for the medpac and return with bacta gel in hand, smoothing it over the purple, splotchy skin around Din’s leg before delicately wrapping it with the cut fabric of his pants and a makeshift splint.

“Your head,” you remember, searching for the wound under his cowl, and he wheezes as if to confirm. “No. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, stars, Din. This is bad,” you sputter, your palm painted in his blood.

“It’s okay,” he whispers, breath slowing as he brushes his fingers through your hair. “You did so good back there, cuyan. My survivor.”

“Hey, don’t talk like that,” you cry, tears rolling in waves down your cheeks. “You’re Cuyan One, remember? You’re going to be alright. I’m gonna fix this.”

“You’re so brave, so clever, so strong,” he continues, coughing between words. “Kotep, mirdala, kotyc. Ner kar’ta,” he croaks, voice fading out.

“Stay with me, Din!” You shout.

“I want to see your face,” he mumbles as if in a trance.

“I’m here, Din,” you tell him, taking his hand and placing it on your cheek. “I’m here.”

“No,” he coughs. “I want to see your face with my own eyes.”

You stare at him, waiting for him to retract his words. When he doesn’t, he pulls your joined hands to his helmet. You’re shaking when your other hand finds the opposite side of the beskar, releasing the lock and lifting it from his head.

His face is covered in blood and cuts, his brown eyes drooping with fatigue, dark hair plastered to his forehead. 

“Oh, Din,” you cry, unable to even process him without a helmet for the first time as you take in the damage. You can’t even see him behind the wounds that mar his features. But he sees you. His hand comes back to your cheek, thumb sliding back and forth in a half-moon shape.

“Mesh’la,” he whispers. “Means beautiful. You are so beautiful, ner kar’ta.”

You blink hard, heavy tears landing on his armor drop after drop even as he tries to brush them away. Your hand covers his own on your cheek, fiercely pressing his palm into your skin like you’re afraid he’ll let go. Kissing the exposed skin of his wrist, you taste a tragic mixture of blaster residue and wet salt on your lips.

“I can’t remember what ner kar’ta means,” you sob. “Please tell me.”

One corner of his lips twitches upward, a strained, painful effort to smile, but he does everything in his power to let you see it.

“It means,” he gasps. “My heart.”

His hand falls from your cheek, limp in your lap and your body shakes at the loss of his touch. You can still hear his shallow breaths but you’re not sure how much longer he can go in this state. You close your eyes, holding his hand as your fingers brush over his glove. The inside of the ship is silent — peaceful and still as if unaware that your entire universe is crumbling in front of you. There’s not enough bacta in the galaxy to treat the trauma he’s sustaining in his head. You can hardly see his skin under the layers of blood and scrapes.

His warm, honeyed voice echoes in your mind, stories he’s told you over and over when you’d make any excuse to hear his voice, stories about him and Grogu. You think of his little green son, how you’re failing him right now. Please take care of my father.

Din always sounded so wistful when he talked about Grogu, so in awe of his power.

He could do things I couldn’t even imagine… 

He saved me, in more ways than one… 

Grogu is a special kid… 

He could heal people.

“He could heal people!” You shout out loud, eyes bulging from their sockets.

In all your years of walking a tightrope when it came to your strange wizard-like powers, you’d never imagined you could heal. All those times you’d tried to fall asleep covered in bruises or cuts, you could have prevented so many nights of excruciating physical pain. But now is not the time to dwell on the past when your future is slipping through your fingers.

You close your eyes again — slowly resting one hand on Din’s cheek, the other still clutching his limp hand — and try to relax, reach out with your mind, reach inside, and focus your thoughts, emotions, energy, everything you have on the man in front of you.

It flows out of you in waves, sinking into him, and you feel it: your body growing more tired each second, only hoping your vitality is transferring into him. Just when you’re about to pass out, you hear him gasp for air, his body shooting up like a fish out of water.

“Din?” You blearily wonder. But his face blurs out of focus before you fall to the floor.

 —

x.

In the face of pain, the body has natural defenses to harden itself, like the calluses that develop on your fingertips and heels for armor. You can build a tolerance, a certain degree of numbness until pain regresses to a dull ache at the back of your mind. And sometimes, the skin gets so thick, the body so paralyzed, that you start to believe nothing could ever hurt you. Not coarse sand crystals or alleyway scum or sharp-clawed rancors or stormtrooper blasts.

But it’s funny how protection covering the outside does nothing to shield what lies underneath — merely a shattered fortress with cracks that let pain seep into the bloodstream and petrify the heart.

When Din’s hand had dropped limp in yours, you hadn’t felt the pain of his wounds or scars shrouding your body. Instead, you’d felt a unique kind of suffering, torture that hadn’t left your skin bruised but had rather sunken into your pores and gnawed at your insides: fear, loss, mourning.

The agonizing ache lingers in your muscles when you finally awaken.

The mattress beneath you envelopes your senses in a familiar fragrance of warmth and safety. Brightness filters in through the open door across the room and a sliver of light glares in one of your eyes, making you rub your fist against your eyelids to regain focus.

As your vision sharpens, you quickly realize you’re not in your own sleeping quarters.

These sheets are dark, the opposite of the crisp white color you’ve been used to for nearly a year. Knickknacks don’t litter the metal floors and socks aren’t piled up in the corner as you remember. The room is mostly bare, stripped down to the necessities, organized and empty to an almost alarming degree.

Then, a splash of color catches your eye on the durasteel wall near the door. It’s difficult to see with the glare spotlighting your face, leaving your surroundings in the shadows. Deciding to investigate, you wrap Din’s blanket tight around your shoulders, keeping his comforting scent around you like a cocoon. When your sock-covered feet finally carry you across his room to the wall in question, you gasp.

Tacked onto Din’s wall are at least a dozen small pages of parchment depicting lively landscapes of planets you’ve visited and picturesque portraits of creatures you’ve encountered together. Your drawings. You remember the times he’d come back from an easy mission, a charming swagger in his gait, and had asked to see what you’d drawn. He’d always held your booklet in his hands so delicately, taking the time he didn’t have to study and praise your work. When he’d hand it back, you’d tear the page from its binding and whisper, “You can keep it.” You’d never thought much of it, except that you’d wanted to share the beauty you’d captured with him. After all, he’d given you all these beautiful colors to do so. But more than that, you’d wanted to let him see the galaxy through your eyes since his own stayed shadowed by his visor. Whenever he’d allowed himself to indulge in removing his helmet in private, you’d hoped he could see what you saw through the pages. You’d never once thought he’d keep your drawings so sacredly displayed in his quarters, assuming the doodles would eventually pile up in some forgotten corner on the ship. But he’d kept each one.

And right in the center, you see the first picture you’d ever drawn for him: a portrait of Grogu sketched according to Din’s affectionate descriptions. It’s slightly folded in on itself from the way he’d tucked it neatly into his shoulder pouch for safekeeping. When you’d drawn it for him, you’d just wanted to do him a simple kindness, the same way he’d been so kind to help you leave Tatooine behind and travel the galaxies with him. You’d only had your pencil at the time, none of Din’s thoughtfully gifted pigments at your disposal, leaving the portrait of the child monochromatic. But now, vibrant color adorns the sketch, bringing Grogu to life in beautiful tones of green, pink, and brown.

Din had borrowed your chalk pigments and colored it in himself. You imagine him with vivid hues dusting his fingertips and green smudges on his beskar, and you smile.

But when you pull back the folded edge of the paper, you’re surprised to see another figure has been drawn next to Grogu, an image you don’t recognize as work of your own. 

It’s… you.

Water blurs your vision but you quickly wipe the tears away so they don’t somehow fly onto the pages and ruin his picture. He’d colored you in your favorite garments, a familiar pink flower tucked behind your ear along with your pencil. Careful, reverent strokes define each of your features. You can’t help but think it looks like you and a stranger at the same time, and you wonder if this radiant image he’s drawn is truly who you are or just how he sees you. And what if those two ideas are one and the same?

You don’t notice Din leaning against the doorframe until you hear your name in a deep, dulcet tone. He whispers it, uninhibited by his helmet, and suddenly your name has a thousand more meanings than just some arbitrary label for the girl who used to be alone. When he says it, your name means survivor, brave, clever, strong, beautiful, his entire heart — and all you want is to dive headfirst into the sweet nectar of his voice.

But then you remember what happened, how you let him get hurt, how you failed to take care of him as Grogu had asked. You don't realize you’re crying until his bare finger swipes away a single tear.

And even though you technically already saw his face — albeit bloodied and distorted — you dare not look at him. You keep your eyes trained low, noticing his unbandaged leg, as his hands caress your skin.

“Are you feeling better?” He asks, voice so heavy with concern it weighs down against your heart.

You nod. “How long was I out?”

“About 16 hours,” he answers, crooking his finger below your chin to pull your eyes to his.

“What about your Creed?” You ask, closing your eyes tight. 

“You mean more.” 

You expected to hear something more along the lines of ‘you already saw my face’ or ‘I’ve broken it before.’ But no, he says, ‘You. Mean. More.’ They’re three simple words that carry mountains of blissful promises, an echo of a sentiment you’d heard him say about his child, a different time that feels so far away now.

So, you open your eyes, look up, and one of your hands cradles the side of his face. He’s fully healed and the blood from the nightmare before is washed away, the red stain only living in your mind, allowing you to finally see him clearly.

You’ve always had some sense of his face. He’d given you so many pieces, letting your fingers map out his features and answering your questions so you could sketch them onto paper. Some things you can know without seeing. But having him in front of you — stripped of his armor and helmet, a soft errant curl brushing over his forehead, warm tan skin on display just aching for your fingers to explore them the way they did before you’d ever seen him — it feels like setting down the last piece of a puzzle. 

He’s beautiful in the way that broken stones and crystal fragments are when they form a mosaic, each piece jagged yet fitting together into a purposeful masterpiece.

And the way he looks at you, like you’re home when all he’s ever known is running… you’ll do anything to keep him looking at you like this.

He enters his quarters fully, extending his arms to hold you closer. When he leans his forehead against your own, you close your eyes. His warm breath tickles your skin, the slope of his nose slowly nuzzling against yours, and when you let yourself peek at him again from under your lashes, you see his eyes are softly shut, the smallest of smiles on his lips.

“When did you draw this one?” You ask, voice but a whisper, nodding at the papers on his wall.

“While you were resting... I’m not much of an artist,” he says sheepishly, watching your fingers delicately trace the lines of his drawing. “But I wanted to keep a piece of you with me too.”

You merely exhale, mind reeling. Any word you think of seems to evaporate each time you open your mouth.

“Maybe, when you finish it, we can hang the portrait you drew of me next to this one,” he muses. “So, at least on paper, we can be a clan of three.”

You nod fervently, your foreheads rubbing together from the rapid motion as you stroke the soft peaks of his cheekbones.

“I can’t believe you kept all of these,” you chuckle, gesturing to his wall of art. 

“Of course I did,” he says, fully grinning now, his nose playfully bumping against yours. “They’re beautiful and… they’re from you.”

A sweet sigh escapes your lips, your breath hovering in the small space between your bodies, and you see a flash of pink when his tongue pokes out to swipe a quick line between his mouth. You bite your lip, trying to force your mind to stay silent and not ruin this moment, but knowing you need to address the guilt in your heart.

“You almost died,” you say quietly, the words falling from your lips in broken pieces and shattering on the floor.

“But I didn’t,” he responds, his brown eyes staring directly into yours. “You healed me.”

“I should have...” you start, not knowing how to finish the statement because, even now, you’re clueless as to what you could have done differently. “I should have been more careful. Maybe if I hadn’t gotten caught, you wouldn’t have been hurt.”

“I’m used to it,” he sighs.

“Well, you shouldn’t be,” you whisper. “Neither should you.”

It stuns you, causing you to pull your face away just slightly, ignoring the way your skin screams to touch his again.

Pain is universal except to those who harden themselves to it and let calluses develop. This is a natural defense. You know this. But the thing is, pain is protection too, another security the body uses to protect itself. From harm. It’s ironic how the ones who feel the least amount of pain carry the largest amount of suffering.

“You shouldn’t have gotten hurt,” you continue, walking over to his bed to sit on the edge. “I promised I’d take care of you.”

This time, he’s stunned. Take care of him?  

“You almost died, Din. You shouldn’t have even gotten hurt. I don’t know what I would do…”

“I’m right here, ner kar’ta,” he whispers, moving towards the bed and kneeling between your legs. He cradles your jaw, lifting your gaze to meet his eyes. “I’m right here.”

“You almost weren’t,” you say, your lip trembling below his thumb.

“I’m here. With you,” he says, confident. “I always will be, I promise.”

“Din, you can’t promise—”

“I just did.”

As you look into his eyes, you see a fire that tells you this is more than a promise. It’s more than a tenet of the Mandalorians’ honor and you feel it in your bones. He would traverse every system, tear apart the galaxy, fall to his knees to keep it. This is more than a promise. It’s a vow.

It feels like entering a new atmosphere, gravity pulling you into his orbit until your lips meet his, the same way the horizon of Tatooine meets twin suns each evening. He’s soft — so soft — and solid and still, allowing you to release the worry and trauma you’ve been shouldering on your own against his eager lips. You capture his upper lip, press a chaste peck there, exhale, kiss his lower lip, then breathe him in.

When you pull back by an inch, his body sways toward yours like a pendulum, his eyes closed dreamily as he waits for your lips to return to his.

“Din,” you whisper, a single tear rolling down your cheek as you cup his face between your hands like he’s delicate and holy. “Ner kar’ta,” you call him.

He opens his eyes, finding yours glazed with something he’s never seen before but knows is mirrored in his own irises.

“How do you say ‘I love you’ in Mando’a?” 

This time, it’s his lips crashing into yours first, capturing your gasp on his tongue. His fingers card through your hair and find a resting place at the base of your head, nails scratching lightly and pulling sweet songs from your mouth. His other hand settles on the crook of your neck, his thumb drawing circles over your clavicle before gliding over your shoulder, then along the side of your waist, finally falling to the small of your back. A gentle pressure pulls you closer to the edge of the mattress where Din still kneels between your thighs, making you gasp again. But he swallows the sound with his mouth, his tongue eagerly licking past your lips. You dig your fingers into his hair and wrap your legs around his torso to stay balanced, though your mind is drunk on his taste and dizzy on his scent filling your lungs. 

All you know is him. 

The hand on your back grazes across your hip, drags a slow line over the top of your thigh, and squeezes once. Then, you feel fingers tickle behind your knee. In one swift motion, Din pulls your leg higher around him and gently pushes you backward, the hand on your head guiding you as you fall onto the pillow.

He pulls away panting, letting you catch your breath as he takes the opportunity to rake his eyes over your body spread out beneath him. 

You do the same, letting your fingers follow the same path as your eyes. He looks positively wrecked, hair sticking up from where you’d pulled it, pupils dilated, his lips pink and perfectly swollen. His breaths seem to come out more labored — but whether from your touch or the shameless way your eyes drink him in, you don’t know. All you know is the flushed skin below his jaw, how it draws your attention to the strong cords of muscle that run up the length of his neck, how his Adam’s apple bobs slowly below your featherlight finger when he swallows.

As your hands continue their exploration, Din’s thumb tickles your cheek with a tenderness that matches the look in his eyes. The shimmering dust of stars glistens in his irises as he gazes upon you like you’re… 

“Mesh’la,” he whispers, brushing a strand of hair behind your ear.

“I could say the same about you,” you grin, drawing him back toward you and feeling his smile against your lips.

He settles his weight between your legs, moaning into your mouth when you raise your hips to grind against him. He gives you beautiful, desperate noises and you greedily capture each one with your lips. As he kisses you, your nails scrape down his back, his muscles tensing and rippling under your touch until you find the hem of his shirt. You tug on it once, twice, before he’s finally sitting back and pulling it over his head. Not wanting to have to separate yourself from him again, you remove your top at the same time, leaving you both exposed from the waist up. When his face emerges from the neck of his shirt, he looks down and stills, and somehow, you feel infinitely more beautiful under his lustful gaze.

He attaches your lips again, craving your taste like a famine-starved man, ravenous hands exploring new skin as yours leave crescent moons across his back. He kisses your lips, your cheeks, licks below your ear, sucks under your jaw, down your neck, above your breasts — tasting every soft plane with a hunter’s diligence until you’re soft and pliant below him, bending while he bows.

He rocks into you, eliciting gasps from both your lips. Desperately, you scratch impatiently at the skin above his waistband, your hands attempting to push the material down to no avail. 

“What do you want?” He asks, pleads against your mouth, moaning when you hold his lower lip between your teeth and release it with a slow scrape.

“Want these off,” you mutter against his cheek, his scruff scratching over your lips deliciously. “Want you.”

That’s all he needs before he unbuttons his trousers, kissing you deeper as he bares himself completely to you. 

“Now you,” he whispers, his lips dragging down your body and hovering over your belly, pressing languid kisses to each hip, and biting the skin lower down as he removes your clothes. His breath ghosts over your heat and sends a shudder up your spine, making you arch toward him. His lips roam the soft skin of your thigh, tantalizingly tracing his tongue up toward where you throb for him, and then moving back down leaving you writhing with desire. He gives the same treatment to the other thigh, teasing you with his soft lips until you’re groaning and desperate beneath him.

A surprisingly deft finger opens you to him and your mouth drops agape without a word, pleasure lodged in your throat until he curls his finger just so, pulling the wanton sounds from your lips. As you become more vocal, he strokes you more eagerly, his other hand massaging the plush skin of your body wherever he can reach, watching your face with fascination as he stokes a fire in your belly.

Just as he’s about to put his mouth on you, he feels your fingers tugging his hair, pulling him upward until your lips meld together once more.

“Need you.” The words come out as a growl into his mouth and you lift your hips pointedly to meet his. He hisses at the friction, nodding in understanding when you say, “Now.”

He enters slowly, feeling you stretch around him and engulf him in a heat he never wants to escape. It feels like a release of pressure even as pressure begins to build between your legs. It’s pain and pleasure and perfection all at once. He fills you so completely and he can’t help but think:

“Meant for me.” 

He breathes the words out loud into your skin, lips trailing a burning path down your throat as he moves inside you, wicked sounds falling from your tongue when he hits a spot that has you seeing stars.

“What?” You gasp, but he doesn’t seem to hear.

Din kisses you everywhere he can reach, one hand interlocked with yours next to your head while the other pulls your leg higher and tighter around his back, giving him access to parts of you he gets to explore for the first time. It makes him think about the galaxies that always reflect in your eyes and how he’s getting to discover each one of them with you now. 

“Or maybe,” he continues his previous thought, a sweet, gentle kiss placed over your heart. “Meant for you.”

His pace quickens and you dig your nails into his shoulders as an invisible coil tightens in your belly. He continues speaking low in your ear, some of the words foreign and others in Basic, though you still can’t understand for the life of you when he’s right there. As his thrusts become more erratic, your core ignites, and intense heat blossoms over your entire body like a flower. And it’s Din plucking each petal until all that’s left in your mind is one singular truth: he loves me. Your eyes screw shut and your toes curl and you’re out of breath and you feel heavy and light at the same time. He moans a ragged sound when he feels you reach your peak, squeezing him until he’s falling over the precipice right after you.

The room is awash in heavy breathing, a fiery warmth scorching every inch of your naked skin as you both pant to catch your breath. You’d like to stay like this forever, you think. No clothes, simply covered in Din. But eventually, he slowly pulls himself out of you and an aching, empty feeling settles in your stomach that screams for him to come back. 

He hovers above you, not wanting to crush you with the immense weight he feels. But he can’t fight you when your hands wrap around his neck and mold his smile against yours, lips moving together like you can’t get enough.

You hold each other in silence, heated kisses cooling off into chaste pecks only when it feels too long since the last. Your breaths slow to a peaceful rhythm, hearts beating in time with each other to a secret song only you two know.

“Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum,” he breathes, the flight of his words spinning around the shell of your ear raises goosebumps on your skin. 

“What does that mean?” You ask, your hand cupping his warm cheek.

When he looks at you, he sees ferocity, forgiveness, a future, a family. For so long, he never thought he could feel anything close to this. Then, he met Grogu and, just as quickly, had to say goodbye. But when you look at him with such goodness and grace — all he can think of is how he hopes you’ll stay looking at him like this until he dies.

“‘I love you,’” he answers. "Forever."

[READ EPILOGUE HERE]

End Note: We're almost at the end! I just have an epilogue planned. But hey, if you have any headcanons you'd like to see happen in this series, please send them my way! Maybe some blurbs could be arranged :) Mando’a Glossary: Cuyan = survivor [koo-YAHN] Kotep = brave [KOH-tehp] Mirdala = clever [MEER-dah-lah] Kotyc = strong [koh-TEESH] Ner kar’ta = My heart (kar’ta = heart [kah-ROH-ta]; ner = my [nair]) Mesh'la = beautiful [MAYSH`lah] Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum. = I know you forever [nee kar-TILE garh dah-RAH-soom] ⎿ “It's the same word as 'to know,' 'to hold in the heart,' kar'taylir. But you add darasuum, ‘forever,’ and it becomes something rather different.” — Republic Commando: Triple Zero

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[official-weasley]

The Irreplaceable Charlie Weasley: Pt. 1, Ch. 9

PART 1: WHERE IT ALL BEGAN Chapter 9 - Tonks' Breakdown

Nova

I don't want to brag but I think I did great on my exams so far. I just came out from Defense Against the Dark Arts practical exam and was done for the day. I winked at Charlie, who was still waiting on his turn and was shaking his legs, nervous as he still thinks that Professor Rakepick, “should have at least showed us all the spells she was going to so coldly demand from us”, he said this morning as he ate what I think was about his third bowl of cereal. Penny was right; he was a nervous eater.

I hoped that I indicated that the exam isn't that bad after all as I was prohibited to speak with him after I finished.

I decided to wait for him in the Great Hall, going through my Transfiguration notes one more time on my own as I knew the lot would occupy me right after dinner to help them with their final revision.

One by one they came into the Hall to join me.

“That wasn't hard at all, was it?” Charlie sat down next to me and gently slapped me on the back.

“I told you, Char, I don't know what you've expected. We got this.” I raised my hand so that our hands clapped in a high-five and he started to put food on his plate.

—

“Say, where is Tonks? She stormed out of that classroom as she was done that I almost missed her pink head.” Charlie said, now with a full mouth.

“Hmm, I thought she wasn't done yet but T is before W.” Tulip scratched her chin.

“We did say we'll meet here after the exam to study Transfiguration right?” I asked.

Before we could question Tonks' disappearance any further, Penny came rushing in the Hall, panting.

“You...you have...to...help me!” Her hands on her knees as she was trying to catch her breath.

“Penny what's going on?” Tulip stood up at once.

“It's...Tonks! She completely lost it...because of the exams. She said that...her brain will explode if she has to study...for one more exam and that she's dropping out of school.” Penny finally finished.

“Well, maybe she should drop out then.” Charlie said with a straight face. We all frowned at him.

“We do have one more exam and she did say that her brain will explode if she has to study for one...” Charlie stopped talking as he saw none of us were amused by the joke he tried to tell. “Not the time to make jokes. Got it.” He scratched the back of his head, his freckled cheeks turning pink.

“Where is she now?” I turned back to Penny.

“In our dormitory. She's packing her bags!” Panicked Penny.

“Wow, she really did take her words seriously.” Tulip indicated that we should all go towards the Hufflepuff Common Room.

We ran all the way there and stopped a little before the entrance. Penny told us to stay put as she went inside to get Tonks. We didn't know what to do when Penny brings her outside. We did have only one more exam, even though I had to admit, Tonks did the worst of any of us in Transfiguration despite being a Metamorphmagus.

Charlie started doing fairly well by the end of the year as he tried his best to copy everything from me. Tulip and Penny were starting to get a hang of it once we formed our little study group. Tonks, however, couldn't transform her matchstick into a needle if it was the last thing she had to do.

I told her that she just has to focus more on the image of the thing she wants to transfigure her original object to but for some reason she couldn't get a clear picture in her head as her needle kept having a matchstick tip or was wooden instead of metal. I knew she was nervous about it but I had no idea it was this bad.

Penny interrupted my train of thoughts as she opened the door to the Hufflepuff Common Room, basically dragging Tonks behind her. By the look on Tonks's face, she wasn't very happy about it.

“Let me go, Penny. I still have some of those slugs, I will unleash them on you!” Tonks frowned at her.

“Tonks, what is going on?” I tried to change the subject.

“What is going on? What is going on, you ask?” Her hair was changing colors with every word she said.

“This is too much, that's what's bloody going on!” She lifted her hands in the air and started to pace back and forth in front of us.

“Tonks we have all been stressed out about our exams. We only have one more to go!” Charlie tried cheering her up.

“Yeah and just yesterday you told me that you think you did well on Herbology and Astronomy.” Added Tulip. “Or did your Defense Against the Dark Arts exam gone so bad for you?” She questioned.

“No, I think I did rather well. Transfiguration, however...”

“Tonks you have been doing great the past few days. Professor McGonagall isn't going to fail you if you don't perform all the transfigurations correctly.” I interrupted her.

“I don't care if I fail!” She howled at us. “I just don't want to study anymore. It's exhausting and it seems that's all we are doing lately.”

I couldn't help but chuckle as her hair finally came back to her normal bubblegum pink.

“Tonks that's what happens before the exams. I know none of us had any free time lately. Nova and I miss going down to the Lake and it's been like a week since we were at Hagrid's for tea.” Charlie grinned sympathetically.

“I have so many ideas for pranks that I have started writing them down since we don't have time to execute any of them.” Tulip joined the cheering train.

“I haven't drawn in two weeks, I can almost feel my talent slipping away and Pip didn't even hoot at me this morning when I went to send my mum a letter. He thinks I'm ignoring him so he's doing the same to me.”

“And I didn't touch my Advanced Potion Making book in three days and that says a lot about me.” Penny finished and we all nodded in agreement.

“I don't know mates, this is all too hard and this is our First Year. What will happen to me when we have to take our O.W.L.s?” Tonks sat on the floor.

“How about you worry about one exam at a time.” Penny and the rest of us sat down next to her.

“You're going to do fine and look on the bright side: once we're done we can go down to the Lake or visit Hagrid and just stare at the sky without a single worry.” I put my hand around her shoulder.

“Blimey, you really are the best friends a lad can have.” She wiped her nose with the end of her sleeve as tears gathered in her eyes.

“But just that you know, I am only doing this for you lot!”

“Of course you are.” Charlie smiled, stood up, and put his hand out to help Tonks get up. “Now, what do you say we go to the Great Hall to have some dinner and study for the last exam of the year?” He pushed Tonks away from the Hufflepuff Common Room just in case she would change her mind and try to run away again.

“You already had dinner.” I whispered to Charlie.

“Hey, I'm supporting our friend here.” He said with a serious voice that made me giggle, knowing that he wouldn't say no to another piece of apple pie.

After eating some mashed potatoes and fried chicken, Tonks finally calmed down. We were all sitting around her just in case she had any ideas of escaping. Then we slowly pulled out the Transfiguration books and notes, careful not to startle her as I tried to pull the conversation towards the subject.

Before I let her do any spells as she did seem to have theory pretty much figured out, I made her close her eyes and made her give me 3 details about a match and 3 about a needle. After she finished describing them I gave her both objects and told her to try to connect the details to the objects. I also gave her quite some time to touch and observe them and after about an hour and a half, I marked her ready.

“Okay, now look at the matchstick and imagine a needle in its place instead.” I was standing right behind her as I whispered in her ear.

“Now, have your wand ready. Concentrate on what the matchstick needs to become and say Conmutocus. Don't forget to create a sharp jab right to the match with your wand.”

Tonks took a deep breath, murmured something to herself, and said “Conmutocus.” She jabbed her wand sharply towards the matchstick and sure enough, it transformed into a needle.

Penny gasped.

“Wicked!” Charlie and Tulip said at once.

“You did it, Tonks!” I shook her shoulders, still standing behind her.

“You did it, Nova. You taught me Transfiguration! Blimey, you might be a better teacher than McGonagall.” She turned around and gave me a big, tight hug.

She then grabbed the tiny needle with her fingers, stood on the bench she was sitting on, and yelled “I did it, ha!” as she put her hands in the air.

We all laughed, while the Ravenclaws at the other table rolled their eyes.

“Well, congratulations, Miss Tonks. I reckon I can expect the same tomorrow at the exam?” We all turned around to see Professor McGonagall standing behind us, a slight smile on her lips.

“I...I'm sorry professor, were we too loud?” Tonks' cheeks turned pink as she realized that McGonagall probably saw her stand on the bench and shout in the middle of the half-empty Great Hall.

“Oh, not at all. By all means shout as much as you need to, Miss Tonks, if that is going to help you transfigure matchsticks into needles.” She winked at her. “I do have to ask, however,” she continued, “how did you manage to finally do it as it was just dreadful to watch your failed attempts in class?”

“Nova taught me, Professor. She taught all of us.” A grin spread across her face.

“Well then.” Professor McGonagall turned to me. “It's 4 of you, 10 points for each one you taught, Miss Blackwood. Good luck to all of you tomorrow.” She crossed her hands in front of her, smiled, and left.

“You just earned 40 points for Ravenclaw!” Tulip squeaked.

“I don't think that's fair as Penny did way more for us for our Potions exam.” I frowned, feeling guilty.

I didn't praise my effort half as much as I did that of Penny's. The lot would've passed even if I didn't teach them. I was highly confident we would've all failed Potions if it wasn't for Penny though.

“Get off it, Nova. I don't care.” Penny smiled at me. “What you just made Tonks succeed in is everything compared to some notes and potion ingredients.” She added.

The next day we made Penny promise to get up early to check on Tonks and to bring her down for breakfast even if she had to use the Levitation Charm on her. Even though Tonks was visibly nervous and didn't eat any breakfast, we were confident that she was not going to run away and after she told us how she dreamt about how she turned every object Professor McGonagall gave her to transform the right way, we were confident that she was going to pass.

During the exam, I kept glancing at Tonks to see how she was doing. After 15 minutes of her nose being firmly in the exam paper, I let it go and focused on my exam which I turned in 15 minutes too early as it was just the easiest thing ever.

I returned to my desk to get my bag and I heard Charlie whisper “show off”. I glanced at his paper and saw that he left the line where he was supposed to write the incantation for fork to quillempty.

“Scribblifors, Char.” I whispered and glanced at Professor McGonagall frowning at me and cleared her throat.

I quickly grabbed my bag and ran out of the classroom.

Waiting for the practical exam seemed to wreck everybody's nerves as people kept swinging their wands and mutter spells under their breaths. One by one, we were called inside and when we finally all met in the Great Hall I was pleased to hear that all of them did quite well. Charlie managed to turn his whistle into a watch. Tonks had to recreate her success from the previous day which she announced from the door of the Great Hall, making the Ravenclaws roll their eyes again as they were trying to study in peace.

In the final two weeks, as we were waiting for our exam results, we spent most of our days outside. It was warm and there was hardly a day with a cloud in the sky. We could all lay loose, read our favorite books and draw. Pip finally stopped ignoring me as Hagrid made his favorite treats and I went to the Owlery twice per day to give them to him.

The last day before we would get the final exam results we decided to spend down by the Lake. Charlie was rereading his From Egg to Inferno: A Dragon-Keeper's Guidefor what seemed the third time that week. Penny and Tulip were playing Gobstones and Tonks was napping. I knew that I won't be able to see my friends over the Summer and as that thought grew larger every day I decided to take this opportunity and draw them as they were all sitting under a tree, too occupied with their activities to notice that I stood up and moved a little bit away from them.

As I never drew humans before, I was surprised at how much fun I was having. I carefully drew Penny's big eyes and Tulip's smug face when Penny lost to her in Gobstones. I took extra time to get Tonks' snoring face and I think I did Charlie's freckles justice as much as his hair.

—

“Oh, I am so nervous.” I took a deep breath as we were all waiting in the Great Hall while teachers were handing us envelopes.

We opened them immediately when we got them and I went through my results:

Herbology E

History of Magic A

Potions E

Flying O

Charms O

Astronomy A

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Transfiguration O

“I've passed all my classes!” Tulip and I exchanged exam results. Hers read:

Herbology A

History of Magic A

Potions A

Flying E

Charms E

Astronomy O

Defense Against the Dark Arts E

Transfiguration A

“Nice job, Tulip!” I said and we hugged. After the teachers finished giving us all results we ran to the Hufflepuff table.

“So, did you all pass Potions?” Penny asked excitedly.

She and Tonks exchanged the results with Tulip and me. I read Penny's first then sneaked at Tonks' over Tulip's shoulder.

Herbology E

History of Magic E

Potions O

Flying E

Charms O

Astronomy O

Defense Against the Dark Arts E

Transfiguration E

Penny's results not only surprised me but took me aback. She might as well be the best witch in our year. Not a single Acceptable and she got Outstanding in Charms even though she started the year rather poorly in that department.

Herbology O

History of Magic A

Potions A

Flying E

Charms A

Astronomy A

Defense Against the Dark Arts A

Transfiguration E

“Tonks you got Exceeds Expectations in Transfiguration!” I exclaimed. She told us that she did quite well but I hadn't the slightest idea she did that good.

“Thank you, Nova. Actually, thanks to all of you.” She smiled and pulled us into a tight hug.

I felt someone behind me as Charlie put me in a hug sandwich between him and the girls as he just came from the Gryffindor Table.

He handed me his result sheet and winked.

Herbology A

History of Magic A

Potions A

Flying O

Charms O

Astronomy E

Defense Against the Dark Arts O

Transfiguration E

“Three Outstandings.” He grinned proudly as I finished reading his results and looked at him in awe.

“If we are going to study like this together and get such good results each year perhaps Tonks won't have to run away anymore.” We all laughed at Charlie's joke.

“Will mum yell at me or did you do good on your exams?” Bill joined us and ruffled Charlie's hair. Charlie gave him the exam results.

“Blimey, who helped you study so much? You're going to make me look bad in front of mum.” Bill's mouth fell open.

“Perhaps next year you can join us.” Penny grinned at Bill. Tulip, Tonks, and I giggled as we all knew very well that Penny wanted Bill to study with us so she could get ahead in her Potions studies.

The next day was our final one before we would board the Hogwarts Express to take us home. We couldn't help but feel a bit bummed out as we knew we wouldn't be able to see each other the whole Summer.

After Dumbledore's end-of-the-year speech, we had a feast that seemed even bigger than the one at the start of the year. As Tulip and I were walking upstairs to our dormitories we couldn't help but reminisce about all the times we got lost on our way to classes or the Great Hall this year. We both knew we were going to do better next year as we already couldn't wait to come back.

[comicswithcate2020]

Connor’s Collection of Comics

Imagine being seven years old, sitting in a movie theater and watching Toby McGuire on the big screen wearing the iconic blue and red suit. Imagine leaving the theater speechless and wondering what other adventures and stories Spiderman has to offer. That’s exactly when 25 year old Connor O’Keefe decided he wanted to try comic books. Connor has been collecting comic books for almost 15 years. Growing up in Medford, MA, Connor was influenced by his parents and the pop culture that surrounded  him. Between the cartoons that he used to watch and growing up with comic book movies originally starting to come out, Connor became hooked. It was after the third Sam Rani Spiderman movie that Connor officially got into comics. He became a collector of all things Venom and Venom related. Although Connor's collection isn’t just limited to Marvel, as he also collects a lot of Star Wars merchandise. He specifically likes General Grievous- he recently completed a General Grievous model. To complete the model, he painted it by hand to make it look more realistic. A peek into his bedroom can show you just how much he has collected throughout the years.

His walls are adorned with quite a few posters, his shelf is filled with comics, posters and frames that have yet to be hung sitting in a pile on the floor. A lot of these frames were gathered at Comic Cons- when he got old enough, he started going to Boston Comic Con with his father and has been known to go for at least one out of the three days every year. He has autographed headshots of different characters, like Bane from Batman. Yet to be hung up is a Venom shadow box filled with different cut outs of Venom’s different art styles throughout the years. Funko Pops adorn his shelves and his TV stand, ranging with characters from The Big Bang Theory to Smuag from Lord of the Rings. Everywhere you look in his room, you can find something comic related- whether it is DC, Marvel, Star Wars, or even select video games.

Growing up in Medford, Connor would go to shop at Harrison's Comics, found in The Meadow Glen Mall. When he was 14, his family moved to Reading, MA and Connor realized he needed to find a new store. He happened upon Comically Speaking and has been going there ever since.

Q: How were you introduced to comic books?

A: They were just there. I was born in 95’ so I had my adolescence and early adulthood molded by the comic book movies. As we know them today, they started really in 1998 with Blade. That's kind of when they started taking off, because then they had the Sam Raimi SpiderMan movies, the original X-Men trilogy, and so on. I grew up watching these movies and watching the cartoons and eventually, I think it was after SpiderMan 3 came out, I was in fifth grade, I thought, ‘yeah, I want to read the material that inspired these movies that I liked so much.’ I was living in Medford at the time, so there was a comic book store, Harrison’s, that was in the Meadow Glen Mall, which is no longer a thing in Medford. But I went there and I picked up a couple of back issues of comics and I have been reading comics consistently since then. It's a month to month thing, but the movies basically got me into it. Well, the movies and the cartoons.

Q: Who is your favorite character and why?

A: My favorite character is Venom, specifically Eddie Brock as Venom. There have been a couple of different characters that have had that title. Eddie is my favorite character because first of all, his visual design is very good. It's very crisp- you immediately know when you're looking at when you see him. He’s super edgy and I really like that kind of thing. I like Eddie because he's had a very long transformation over the course of the 30 years he's been around. At first he was just trying to kill SpiderMan and then he had an arc where he realizes that Spiderman isn't such a bad guy. And then he was sick with cancer and he realized, ‘Hey, I have kind of been doing some terrible stuff’ and he gets better from the cancer and he decides he's going to take this new lease on life and become a better person and be a hero. When I first started reading comics, they were in the middle of the cancer arc. So while I've been reading comics, I only know Eddie Brock as a hero. So in my mind, Venom is a superhero because that's what he's been for 20 of the 30 years he's existed.

Q: What type(s) of comic related things do you collect?

A: I do collect back issues, starting when I was in fifth grade, so I am 25 now. I take great pride in the fact that I have amassed, I don't want to say all of them cause I'm sure there's an odd issue here or there that I might've missed. But every single issue that Eddie Brock has appeared in, with the exception of his first and second appearances, which are like massively expensive, $200-300 issues. Those are the great white whales. But I have just about every single issue of comic book that he's ever appeared in over the course of 30 years. I kind of take some pride in that. That's taken a while to amass. Obviously that's ever expanding because he has a current ongoing book. In terms of other things I collect,  I am trying to build a physical collection of the movies. Personally I enjoy streaming content but at the same time I realize that I don't want to be left without a particular film, if a company decides that they want to pull an individual move from a service. A little while ago they almost pulled Friends from Netflix and people started freaking out, everyone was losing their minds about it. And I'm like, ‘Hey, buy the physical copy, no one's taken that away from you.’ So I collect the movies. I think out of the 20 Marvel Studios movies, I have about 17 of them in some capacity or another.  I don't necessarily collect games, there haven't been too many comic book games lately. But I do play them when they come out.

Q: Which is your most treasured comic?

A: My most treasured comic is the first mini series of comics I ever got. It's a series of six issues that came out in 94’, called Venom: Lethal Protector. It was Eddie Brock's first standalone story where he was trying to prove his worth as a hero and they were kind of hard to track down. I had to track them down over the course of two years. I started collecting them when I was in fifth grade. It was before the internet really took off, and before online ordering was a thing. So I was tracking 20 year old comics down at brick and mortar stores, which is kind of a tall order. Especially when you're 10 years old and you can't get anywhere yourself. So I have all six of those. They're in packages, they're propped up and they're preserved. I don't read them, I have different means of reading the story if I ever want to revisit it. But those are probably my most treasured thing in my comic collection.

Q: Which comic book related movie is your favorite and least favorite?

A: I'm going to sound like a bit of a broken record, but the Venom movie that came out, the other year has a very special place in my heart even though it's not necessarily one-to-one with the character. That movie was in production, since SpiderMan 3 came out in 2007. It's been in production a very long time and people have been trying to get it off the ground for many, many years and I was following it day by day. When that finally came out, I had this big party, I basically went through my contacts and got a bunch of people that I knew over the course of that 10 year span. And I'm like, ‘Hey, you remember that Venom movie I always talked about? Uh, it's finally coming out. You guys want to go see it?’ It was this big thing. I have pictures from that day. We all went to Dick's Last Resort in Boston, we went out to dinner beforehand and we all just had a great time with it. That movie, even though it's not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination, it holds a very special place in my heart.

Q: Are there any movies that you think goes against a character completely?

A: This is a slightly controversial opinion. I don't think Marvel Spiderman, like the current Spiderman, Tom Holland is good. I enjoy the movies and I think Tom Holland's great. But Spiderman- he's supposed to be his own man. In the new Marvel movies that come out, he's presented as Iron Man's sidekick. He has not had a solo movie where he's dealing with one of his own villains. Every villain that Spiderman has so far is somebody who's pissed off at Iron Man. So Spiderman has to spend his solo movies, cleaning up Iron Man's messes. I think that it's really unfortunate that they used Iron Man as Spiderman's jumping off point because Spiderman has, out of all the characters, some of the richest individual stories he can tell. Every character has their big stories, but Spiderman has the most. He is that company's flagship character and has been for so many years before Iron Man blew up. It's especially unfortunate that Iron Man has taken the place of Uncle Ben in the current Spiderman movies. Uncle Ben is the reason Spiderman does what he does in every single medium across the board. So, slightly controversial take on that one. But yeah, Tom Holland Spiderman, while enjoyable to watch is definitely not the Spiderman I would have liked to have seen on the big screen. I still think Toby Maguire is probably the most accurate Spiderman.

Q: Can you touch upon the movie script that you wrote for Venom when you were younger?

A: I was 10 or 11 years old and I had written a script for the Venom movie that was 20 pages long because I had no concept of how that would translate to the screen. I still have it by the way, it's up in my room on my desk. It's terrible and it's cringy and it's everything you would expect a 10 year old to write. But I got to say, I wrote a fight scene in that movie and that fight scene is a banger. I would love to see that translate to the big screen. 10 year old Connor could choreograph fights. All this crazy stuff was going to happen, they're really beating the life out of each other. Lampposts were flying, it was great. I want somebody, if you're reading this, give me a call. We can work something out.

Q: How did you find out about Comically Speaking?

A: A couple of years after I started getting into comics, my family moved from Medford to Reading. Granted this was not the thing that really drove me to Comically Speaking. The thing that drove me to Comically Speaking was Harrison's shuttered their doors like a year or so before we made the move. So when we ended up in Reading, I knew I needed to find a new place to do comics stuff . So I  just Googled places for comics near me and Comically Speaking came up and I went there and I've been going there pretty consistently since we moved to Reading about 11 years ago.

Q: What were your first impressions of the store?

A: My first impression of the store was that I felt a little overwhelmed. They have a lot more than Harrison's did, in terms of their selection of books. You got to remember also at the time, I was like 13 and they like to think that they know everything and when they are presented with something that they do not know, they refuse to admit that they do not know it. So I spent about 40 minutes in that store just wandering around like a dumb ass, searchng for what I was looking for. Eventually I figured it out, It was the preteen equivalent to when they change stuff around at the grocery store and you get angry that you can't find it. But yes, I was very overwhelmed and I was too full of myself to accept anyone's help.

Q: You’ve been to other stores that sell comics, chain stores and whatnot, how does Comically Speaking compare?

A: I’m struggling to remember what the Harrison's in Medford was like because that was  a lifetime and a half ago. There’s one in Salem, it’s pretty easy to navigate. They have stuff like manga, the Japanese comics. Harrison's is all right, I prefer Comically Speaking myself,it's my home store. Newbury Comics they're less of a comic store, you'll go into Newbury Comics and you can get a lot of stuff there, but you walk in there like, ‘Hey, I'm looking for comics’ and they have this tiny itty bitty rack in the corner with like only like 10 of the most recent comics of the most from the most popular books. And it's just like, 50% of your name is complete bullshit Newbury Comics. You're selling like 10 comics in this store. Comically Speaking, for me, is where I want to go and get some books. I'm gonna get some books and with the downstairs area I can go down there and get collectibles now. I only go to Harrison's or Newbury if I'm completely out of the area, those were my go to while I was at school in Beverley. But if I'm here and I have the time and money, I'm definitely going to be in Comically Speaking at least once a month, picking up the books that I read.

Q: What do you think about Comically Speaking as a whole?

A: It's my store. There's a lot of concern right now, I don't know how familiar you are with the actual comics industry, but one of their big shipping companies, Diamond, shut their doors for the minute because of the coronavirus. So DC and Marvel can't get their books out if Diamond isn't actually moving them. The Corona virus is going to be hitting the comics industry a lot harder than most industries. I am a little concerned about it because the locally owned stores are going to be the ones hit by it. I'm hoping that everything works out once this wears off and things are stable again. I'll definitely be going in there and helping out, spending some time. I like the store, it’s a good homey environment. That's the other thing about Newbury, I walk into Newbury Comics and I get the trendy geek vibe. When you go into Comically Speaking, I never get that vibe. It's just very down to earth and it doesn't feel  pretentious. It's always like these people like what they're doing, they like comics. If I walked into a Newbury Comics and I asked them what they thought of a particular artist, they wouldn't know. I don’t know, there's more genuineness there to the people and the environment. Everything about Comically Speaking, I feel like I'm with my people there.

Q: What do comics mean to you?

A: They entertain me. I like reading the stories. I think most of the characters are pretty good. There are more characters you can count with comics. I could sit here for hours and I probably wouldn't even scratch the surface. They’re really good to convey things about who we are as a people and what we hold dear. If you exist on this earth, if you have a pulse, there's a comic book character that you can connect with in some way. Or you can look at this character and say, ‘Hey, I understand what that person is going through. I want to read more about that person and I want to see what kind of adventures they go on’. You can connect with that and I think that's what gives any type of medium; comics, movies, TV shows. That's what gives mediums their strength. When you can look at characters and see characters who you are inside, or  you know someone like that. I think that's what gives a story their legs. Comics for me are filled with characters like that.

[bethygauw]

[2/2] Enstars: Gamegift interview with Mika’s voice actor

Published on 28 April 2017. It’s to celebrate Enstars second anniversary.

Please note that Gamegift does not allow reproduction or repost of this article without permission.

Previously there’s also an interview with Kuro’s voice actor, Shinichirou Kamio, translated by Creampuffs (tumblr)

Part 1 is here.

Writer/Interviewer: Tamao (Twitter)

Gamegift link

Guide to Enstars, Jun Oosuka style

Tamao: By the way, how active are you in the events?

Oosuka: I’ve pretty much unlocked all stories from events after Mika-kun joined. End of the Marionette’s Strings is grouped into first half of 2016, so I’m good with everything from second half of 2016. But, there are scout stories that I haven’t unlocked yet.

Tamao: So you unlock everything, even stories that don’t have Mika in them.

Oosuka: I can unlock event stories as long as I play the event regularly after all. I guess it’s also because I want to stock up diamonds.

Tamao: You’re very thorough in collecting them.

Oosuka: I guess I am. Every Event Produce lesson can get you 7 diamonds*. That’s part of the reason why I run through them.

[*I think this should have been 6.]

Tamao: So you basically complete all the Produce Lessons.

Oosuka: Even the regular Produce – I’ve collected all the trophies up to 100% except 3-B. Oh, I haven’t done Switch Lessons yet. Before, in Mika’s event, the number of diamonds I had went down to 2 digits, so I thought the first thing I should do is to complete those normal and special scenarios. But the bonuses for the early lessons were voice clips, right? I was like, yes! I’m getting the diamonds! But it turned out to be voice clips. “Ah, it was voice clip…” That kind of thing (laugh).

Tamao: [Getting the voice clips] still makes you happy, but of course you wanted the diamonds too.

Oosuka: Even so, I got to complete quite a lot of them, so I managed to recover the number of diamonds quickly.

Tamao: Are you not putting any money into the game?

Oosuka: Nope, I’m f2p.

Tamao: Oooh…! Maybe we can hear something that can be useful for the players out there.

Oosuka: Previously, I mentioned I was an f2p in an event and that creeped the audience out (laugh). It’s like they’re thinking, “What are you talking about?” “You’ve gotta be kidding.” But I really haven’t spent any money playing this game.

Tamao: So you go through the game without cutting corners, farm all the diamonds without any useless effort.

Oosuka: That’s right. First, we get diamonds daily as login bonus, so in a month we can get 30 diamonds, right? I’d use one or two-thirds of that for events. But there are two events in a month, so I have to choose whether or not I use those 10 diamonds in a particular event. In the end, I can get more than I use.

Tamao: Aah, I see. That’s how you stock up the diamonds. But a female player who doesn’t normally play games that much may think, “You would go that far, huh…” I’m one of those female players (laugh).

Oosuka: I think there are people who consider what I’m doing is a matter of course, even more than I imagine. But I also think that’s not the case. I think I’m different from those who put money into the game in a timely manner.

Tamao: When I interviewed Kamio-san (Kuro’s VA, Shin’ichiro Kamio) and gathered feedback, there was an overwhelming proportion of people whose playing style was “I want to stay f2p as much as possible.” Accordingly, a lot of people said they wanted to hear Oosuka-san’s story.

Oosuka: I only realized that maxed 3* cards can be useful after I read that interview with Kamio-san. I just started to level them up after all this time.

Tamao: It’s hard to realize that sort of thing when you play alone, and other players out there seem to agree on that point. You get stuck when there is no one around you who knows the way around it.

Oosuka: Kamio-san said, “You can see the nodes on Idol Road, so before you power up the cards, you use a calculator and decide if you can use the card.” At that point, I understood that oh, this person is a serious one! I was surprised (laugh).

Tamao: But your line of thinking leans towards that, doesn’t it?

Oosuka: After events end, I level up my duplicate copies of 3*s to maximum. After that, I store them into the album right away.

Tamao: By the way, how do your units look like?

Oosuka: My Live Units look like this. My Dance, Vocal, and Performance units are all over 300k now, so I can clear everything with 3LP, except the Emergency Live. Also, I just can’t clear the second half Live with 3LP.

Oosuka: My strongest team is Vocal, but there’s room for improvement.

Tamao: When forming the Live Units, I’d leave it to the “Recommended Formation” button. How do you organize your teams?

Oosuka: I’d always tap the “Recommended Formation” button first. Then, I’d make sure to have the Unit Skills activated. Especially in my Vocal team, I’d activate the Handicrafts Club skill.

When Tsumugi-kun, Oshi-san, and Mika-kun are lined up, I get bonus 10% Vocal, and it makes a pretty big difference. When the Handicrafts Club had only two people, it was 5% if I remember correctly. So 10% is quite an increase! For Performance, Valkyrie skill gives 5% bonus, so I also make sure to activate it. Other than that, there’s Shinobu-kun’s Ninja Association, which gives 2% bonus of Performance stat. And 2% from Game Research Club*, and so on.

[*Pretty sure this should be 5%.]

Tamao: It’s always better to have Unit Skills activated, isn’t it?

Oosuka: What I want to do one day is to make Tsumugi-kun a leader, then include the two from Valkyrie and the rest of Switch. If I do that, Handicrafts Club and Switch skills should activate, I think…? When Tsumugi-kun appeared with his first 4*, I thought, “I must have it!” With just Oshi-san and Mika-kun, I could no longer activate Handicrafts Club skill after all.

Tamao: In the current rotation, we still don’t have Tsumugi’s high rarity cards (The interview was held in February 2017). The players are standing by.

Oosuka: In this round, Tetora-kun’s 5* finally appeared, huh? When Tsumugi-kun comes, I wonder if it’ll be about Switch? Or maybe the library committee?

Tamao: In the past, the student council’s vice president was part of the library committee, wasn’t he?

Oosuka: Then the ranking for that will probably be crazy.

Tamao: What is your playing style? Do you play a lot even when an event is not on?

Oosuka: The only time I play regularly is pretty much during the events. Also, I basically don’t scout for limited gacha. Not even solo.

Tamao: Do you not use those special cards in the events?

Oosuka: I don’t need them. In Halloween event, I had around 900 diamonds saved up. At that time, I looked up the ranking borders from previous events. Valkyrie ranking was an unknown territory, so I thought it’s dangerous to blow up 145 diamonds for scouting. Even if my teams could become stronger with the 5*s or 4*s, I decided it’s better to use those 145 diamonds to recover LP. At the end of the event, I only had 23 diamonds left, so if I had scouted I wouldn’t have been able to make it.

Tamao: Do you still keep your play style not to scout?

Oosuka: Yes. I’ve sometimes thought of pulling a solo, but if Mika-kun appears, I wouldn’t be able to scout. I don’t want that to happen… I want to save it for emergency. Even if I say emergency, I get uneasy if I save just enough for one 10-roll, so I want to save enough so I can do 10-rolls twice or thrice. Other than that, I’ll always without fail complete all Event Produce lessons to 100%. I’m f2p, so I’d have to choose when to use the diamonds. If I just need another LP to clear a live, I’d use a diamond. Also, I’d get those Lives up to level 30 as fast as I can. After that, I’d go for the Daily Produce lessons.

Tamao: Do you play the Daily lessons during events?

Oosuka: Those Live Requests appear even in Daily lessons, so I’d do them as much as I can since I want to farm the jewels. They may consume more AP but they give more experience points than Event Produce lessons. Of course, more Live Requests appear in Event Produce compared to regular Produce, so every time a Live appears I would have to use the diamonds. When you’re an f2p, that’s the hard part. It’ll make you want to raise your Rank, and you’d want more jewels. That’s where Daily Produce lessons come to play.

Sunday is a “quest” for experience points, so my strategy, for Sundays especially, is to “eat bread”. I’d first go through Produce lessons and rank up. Then I’d continue until my AP runs out, then I eat the bread and my AP replenishes to 200. When there are some 100 experience points left, I’d do a Daily lesson to rank up. When I rank up, my LP recovers, so before that happens if I’m lucky Live requests appear in those Daily Produce runs. If no Live appears, I’d do the Event Produce and clear one Live. Then I should have 2LP left, and if I carry that along and rank up, with the extra 5LP I would have 7LP. Then I can clear 2 Lives with 3LP each. If you do that, you can rank up 2-3 levels non-stop even if your Rank is already high.

Tamao: I see… What do you do with your Producer Points?

Oosuka: I only use it to level up [the cards].

Tamao: So this is where Oosuka-style and Kamio-style* differ.

[*Gamegift note: Kamio-san uses them to scout.]

Oosuka: Personally, I’m fine with just the 3*s I get from the events. Even if you scout in the points gacha aiming to bulk your teams up, the 4* pull rate is extremely low. That’s why I think diamond scout is better, so I use all those points to level up [the cards] instead. Conversely, once you level them up, it’s easier to predict their stats to a degree. According to Kamio-san’s method, it’s okay as long as you strengthen the cards that have maxed number of copies, so it’s the matter of how many duplicates you have. I do want the cards just for the sake of completion though…

Tamao: How do your Produce Units look like?

Oosuka: My Produce Units are pretty much fixed. We can now have four teams, so the first one looks like this.

Oosuka: With stats like this, there’s no way I’d fail in Lessons. I don’t want to fail just because I want to level up new cards, so I thought it’s better to level them up with points. When I play regularly, this is what I usually use. One thing though. Produce missions sometimes tell you to get 250 jewel fragments, right? I formed units to specialize in that. My second unit is for yellow.

This Midori-kun should also make medium yellow jewels drop more easily. The third one is for blue jewels.

The fourth is for red jewels.

The red jewel team has another role. If I remember correctly this Mika-kun card has the skill to raise FEVER, so I also use this team to activate FEVER twice. They pretty much became troops solely to farm jewels. But, there’s also a disadvantage to this. I just can’t get a lot of big jewels.

Tamao: I see. To clear the missions, you formed units accordingly. Gathering 250 fragments is a pretty bothersome task after all.

Oosuka: That’s why I made teams for regular use and for every color. That alone makes quite a big difference.

Tamao: It’s not rare to do those Lessons with regular units and miss clearing the missions by a hair.

Oosuka: Another trick is to also activate FEVER twice as you do it. For example, you can finish a Lesson during FEVER, then you get that FEVER boost when you start the next one. One more thing is to pay attention to the color of each Location. When you tap the Yellow area with Yellow unit you can get more jewels, right? I could get 500 [fragments] with that. If you do all this, you can complete all missions in one go. When I have certain jewels I want, I’d also use these teams to do Daily Lessons. During events, Live requests appear in these Lessons too after all.

Even if you do nothing but grind diamonds and actively participate in the event, in the end what you want is jewels. It’s better not to run out of both diamonds and jewels, but you do use them up. Also, I used to have my own rule: “The maximum number of diamonds I’ll use to replenish LP is 3.” I have a definite reason behind this. LP recovers every 30 minutes, right? When all LP recovers, the timer resets.

Tamao: Oh, I see. Good management is important for this kind of thing, isn’t it?

Oosuka: I think there are people who believe that the most important thing is to grind lots of diamonds. But if you go on and on, you would have to replenish even AP with diamonds. In that mean time, you should have spent a good 30 minutes. That means in that 30 minutes, you should be able to get one LP naturally, and it’s important to always make some room for that. Other than that, as I mentioned, breads are important for ranking up on Sundays.

Tamao: Everyone should treasure that one LP = 30 minutes isn’t it…

Oosuka: Don’t you think what we’ve talked so far is a matter of course to people out there? (laugh)

Tamao: No, I don’t think that’s the case. Beginners and those who don’t know anyone around them who also plays the game would find these things hard to realize. I think there are a lot of people who would use diamonds because they can’t be bothered. I’m one of them.

Oosuka: I always aim for efficiency in other games, just like this. Oh, I also have a rule to keep the event diamonds in the Present Box. I feel like I’m going to use up any diamond I have in hand.

Tamao: I know that feeling (laugh).

Oosuka: Yes, you would really use them. So it’s a safe. It’s just like when you put money in your wallet. You’ll end up using it (laugh). I can only keep them for a month, so after events end I’d retrieve them. When I do that I can feel, yes! I have more diamonds than the start of the event.

Tamao: (Tamao looks at Oosuka-san’s Present Box) You don’t have any sport drinks or anything like that.

Oosuka: I retrieve those all the time. I use up all sports drinks during events. Generally, my goal is to get up to the backgrounds, and I find it difficult to reach without using them. In Live requests, I use them for Emergency Lives. When I run out, I stop challenging Emergency Lives. But I use konpeito I get in the beginning to adjust the LP, since it can recover one LP at a time.

Tamao: Kamio-san also said he’d ignore Emergency Lives when he doesn’t have any sports drinks left. I see. This has become a really useful reference.

The Custom(?!): Scouting Contest!!

(Paraphrased) Just like previously in the interview with Kamio, Tamao and Oosuka will battle out their luck on limited scouting. This time, they’re pulling a 10-roll from The Four Fighting Beasts that focused on karate club members, and both of them had 4* guarantee. Oosuka’s phone is the green one, and Tamao’s is the white one. And the results are…!

Tamao: Oosuka-san got 5* Tetora-kun on his first pull!!! Tamao pulled an initial 4* Kuro-san, but he’s still from the karate club!!

Tamao: A spontaneous victory pose from Oosuka-san. But that’s not all!!

Tamao: Oosuka-san pulled 4* Kuro-san as well!! What is this godly pull…!?

Tamao: Well, who wouldn’t smile like this when something similar happens to them! Therefore, the winner of this contest goes to Oosuka-san. He won by a wide margin.

Behind the scenes:

1. Oosuka used the white board to write down today’s words of wisdom: “Eat bread!!”

2. Oosuka saw the banner from Kamio’s interview, where Kamio posed to make up the word “Stars!”, or “スターズ！” and Oosuka said he wanted to do it too. The picture is the pillbug pose, used for the dots on ス and the exclamation mark. (Image link)

Lastly, there were 3 shikishi giveaways, signed by Oosuka. Unfortunately the last day to enter was on May 18th… (I’m sorry I’m always late about these things.) Here are the messages on each shikishi.

1. Be careful! Of the number of diamonds you have left, of your mobile data. [Sukawo]

2. I scouted 10 times using diamonds others gave me. I got a 5*♡. Take good care of your diamonds. [Sukawo]

3. Please give me medium jewels!! If possible, red and yellow. Please. [Sukawo]

Final TL note: I didn’t include all the pictures, so please check out the original Gamegift link for more Oosuka goodness! And Tamao seems eager to interview more Enstars voice actors, so yay Tamao!

[touchmyhobi]

Professor Kwon: Chapter II

Genre: Teacher AU, Smut, Fluff, Angst.

Word Count: 1,942

Chapter: 2/?

Pairing: G-Dragon x Reader

Warnings: None. There won’t be any until like the 4th chapter ;))

A/N: Sorry for such a long wait, school has been hectic. However, the third chapter is almost complete so the wait for the next chapter definitely won’t be as long!

“That should be about it for today. I don’t want to be that teacher who bores you with yet another stale course outline. However, I am going to be the teacher who assigns work on the first day,” Professor Kwon admitted with a smirk as a few defeated groans could be heard across the room.

“Don’t worry it’s not going to be hard. Just write a minimum two page narrative essay telling me about yourself. You can find the technical details on your outlines but just remember to have fun with this assignment. It’s really just for me to get to know you all and to gauge your writing abilities”.

As the last words left his mouth, those entrancing eyes caught mine. Within a split second he had shot me a devastating smile before continuing to address the class. Once his eyes left mine it was as if the breath I had been holding was finally granted permission to escape. I stared down on my desk trying to collect my thoughts in order to hear the rest of his spiel.

“I want that paper on my desk at the beginning of Wednesday’s class which means you have two days to complete it. I look forward to reading all of your submissions,” there was a moment of silence as the whole room sat on the edge of his words. “You’re free to go. Have a good evening”.

With that, the classroom erupted in the sounds of students packing their bags and shuffling out the door. I watched from my desk for a moment as Professor Kwon gathered his things as well. It was as if I was caught in a trance, unable to look away from the unbelievably beautiful man before me.

Snap out of it! He’s just a guy! I scolded myself, prompting me to break my gaze.

As I finally came to, I realized nearly every student had left the classroom already. Immediately I jumped out of my seat, fumbling with the zipper on my backpack before sliding my arms into the straps. Just as passed Professor Kwon’s desk, his illegal gaze once again met my starstruck one.

“See you tomorrow,” he acknowledged me with the most casual grin.

Just as I went to respond, my throat froze over unwilling to allow my voice to break through. So I smiled and bowed quickly before exiting the room and fleeing down the staircase and out into the streets. I clutched a hand to my beating heart as I waited for the next train.

“You’re pathetic,” I murmured to myself. “You’ve never been this affected by men before why are you starting now”.

The train pulled up and I chuckled to myself as I found a seat. Between the inappropriate gawking and talking to myself, I wouldn’t be surprised if my new classmates would think I was unstable. I really needed to get a hold of myself if I wanted to make a good impression.

As soon as I unlocked the door to my apartment, Ji Soo had jumped out from the kitchen and pulled me into a suffocating embrace.

“My little scholar is home!” she pulled away to look at me excitedly. “So, how was your first day?”

I walked past her towards the sofa and slumped down onto it, resting my chin in the palm of my hand.

“Fine,” I huffed and she came to join me on the couch.

“Let me rephrase that question. How was Professor Kwon?”

“The reviews weren’t just right,” I looked at her with disbelief still lingering in my eyes. “They were fucking spot-on”.

“Seriously?!”

“Yes, he’s beyond gorgeous. I could barely even function around him. He made me freeze up and get all jittery. I hate that”.

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,” Ji Soo frowned.

“I know, I’m probably just overreacting. I just want to make a good first impression. I’m supposed to be treating my education like a job you know? Or else my mom will stop sending me money,” I mumbled solemnly.

Ji Soo wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into her embrace.

“Don’t worry Y/N. You’re smart and mature, he just caught you off guard. I’m sure you can redeem yourself tomorrow”.

There was a silent exchange of thankfulness as Ji Soo softly rubbed my back.

“Do you feel better now?” she moved me to face her and I nodded in response as a smile took over my features. “Good, because I have a favour to ask of you”.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Well, I’ve got some people coming over tonight and-”

“You want me to stay in my room. Yes I can do that for you,” I said with a giggle.

“Thank you,” Ji Soo leaned in for a hug.

“Who is it this time?”

“Just some coworkers again. I invited them over for drinks,” she informed me.

“Ok well, my only condition is that you keep it down out there,” I wagged a finger at her as I walked towards the kitchen, retrieving last night’s leftovers from the fridge. “I’ve got a paper to write for Professor Kwon and if I want to impress him by handing it in early, I’m going to need total concentration,” I spoke as I made my way towards my bedroom.

“Good luck child. I hope he quivers at your preparedness,” she teased as I headed into my bedroom, shooting her a dirty look before shutting my bedroom door for the rest of the night.

Given how often she sent me to hide out in my room, it was a blessing that I had an ensuite bathroom and a mini fridge in my bedroom. I never questioned why she sent me away when her friends came to visit, but she did explain it once. She said something along the lines of not wanting her friends to think she was a mom; as if I was young enough to be her daughter. I didn’t really buy that excuse but she had never given me a reason not to trust her in the past, so why wouldn’t I trust her now? Besides, having the time alone proved to be much needed the majority of the time.

Spare some muffled music, Ji Soo and her friends kept to themselves all night. Thankfully leaving me with the perfect environment for writing. It didn’t take long to formulate a solid essay and by the time I finished the final copy, it was only 10 o’clock. After printing off the paper, I slipped into my pyjamas and back under the comforter of my bed. As I stared at the ceiling, Professor Kwon’s face appeared in my mind.

“You don’t control me. Starting tomorrow, I control you,” I stated confidently before turning over and succumbing to sleep.

- Next Morning -

“Y/N, you do understand this is a prestigious school right?” Professor Kwon glared at me from behind his desk as I nodded. “This juvenile writing is no longer acceptable at this level! You need to improve quickly, or else you’re out! This is your last chance, don’t disappoint me,” Just as he finished his sentence, he marched his way to the door and shut it with a loud…

Thud!

Suddenly, the air returned to my lungs as I sat up hyperventilating.

“It was just a dream...just a dream,” I panted as my heartbeat settled.

Now he’s ruling my dreams? I thought. Not today Professor Kwon, not today. I glowered at nothing before throwing back the comforter and stomping into the bathroom to take on the man pestering my brain.

Once I was ready to leave, I exited my room only to find Ji Soo passed out on the couch with an unknown guy unconscious underneath her. There were empty alcohol bottles littering the table. Luckily she has today off, I concluded before sneaking out the front door.

Just like the day before, time flew by as each lecture played out and before I knew it I was entering room 314 once again. However, as I stepped through the door I noticed everyone had taken their seats except for one at the very back. Although I hated sitting at the back, I swallowed my pride and took the only opening.

Funny, I thought to myself as I checked my watch, yesterday nearly half the class was still in the hallway at this time. Why so diligent today?

Once my eyes reached the man standing at the front of the room, I immediately realized why everyone was so early. They all wanted the best seat to watch the professor flaunt his beauty.

Today I did not find myself under his spell. Maybe it was the dream, or perhaps it was the hype overkill he was receiving, either way I no longer lost my breath around him. However, I intended on using that to my advantage. Besides, if I was going to prove myself as a student and a writer, I was going to need the upper hand and I wouldn’t get the upper hand drooling over him.

“Everyone settled?” Professor Kwon turned from the whiteboard to find the room hanging on his every word. Something that blatantly took him by surprise for a split second before he dove right into his lecture on the basics of literature and essay writing. “I trust you all have your first drafts of your essays done. Don’t forget to edit, edit, edit. You should not be presenting me with your first draft, ever.”

I snickered softly as a shit-eating grin surely appeared on my face. I took a strange satisfaction in the knowledge that I had edited my paper almost ten times over and I still had it done early.

“With that being said, I’m looking forward to reading all of your papers tomorrow and getting to know you all,” he remarked at the end of his lecture, reminding everyone of the impending deadline. “You’re all free to go now. Have a good evening”.

Now was my time to strike. I waited for a moment to gather my things, waiting for everyone to filter out of the classroom before approaching Mr. Kwon. Carefully, I pulled the paper from one of my notebooks and cradled in my hands as I approached the front desk.

“Professor Kwon?” I spoke, grateful that my voice hadn’t failed me this time around.

He looked up from his desk and met my eyes with a smile.

“How can I help you?”

“I just wanted to hand in my paper,” I smiled proudly as I spoke.

“Ah, an early submission. I see I have quite the diligent student on my hands,” he joked as he reached out and took the paper from my hands.

“Oh not really, I just had a lot of free time last night and thought I’d get it out of the way quickly,” I played up the modesty.

“Well it’s definitely refreshing to see. I’ll take a look at this tonight Miss…” he trailed off, insinuating he wanted my name.

“Y/N” I informed him and he smiled.

“Have a good evening Y/N”.

“You too Mr. Kwon”.

The moment I left the room a devious smile formed on my face. Everything went according to plan. The impression of a model student obviously beginning to form in Professor Kwon’s mind. However, now it was up to my essay to show my true potential. Best case scenario, his assumptions of a bright student become reality. Worst case scenario, my nightmare becomes a reality and he trashes my writing. Either way, my effort of regaining control from Professor Kwon was far from over.

[team-skull-admin]

My favorite 40 games of all-time

Made an arbitrary list of my favorite games of all-time cause I wanted to figure out where Breath of the Wild is on it. It’s, uh, pretty high. Assload of text below the break.

40: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow I'm not the world's biggest Symphony of the Night fan (outside of the incredible soundtrack) and I think this is where Iga's seamless platformers found their footing.

39: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger I love goofy, experimental games like this and Far Cry: Blood Dragon, but I think the schtick in this (an unreliable narrator bragging about their heroic exploits) works better than Blood Dragon's dorky 80s nostalgia.

38: Rayman Origins A beautiful platformer with incredible level design. The music for the diabolical secret level is seared into my memory.

37: Cibele A short, story-centric indie game that captures the essence of playing MMOs in the mid-2000s and long-distance relationships. The awkward conversations in this game made me think about my WoW years for an entire weekend.

36: Mario Kart Wii It's not technically the "best" Mario Kart, but I actually enjoyed the motorcycles and I have fond memories of crushing my brother while we downed beers and talked shit.

35: Guild of Dungeoneering I'm usually not super into "We made X game, but added CARDS!" even though I love card games, but they nailed the loop here. I vaguely remember one of the decks being super busted, though.

34: Tropico 4 Adding a political slant to Sim City by making you the leader of a banana republic was just the slant to that formula I was looking for, and I lost a weekend circa New Year's '13 just delving into this hard.

33: Gran Turismo 2 My brother bought a PS1 off a friend when they upgraded to a PS2, and I grabbed a copy of this cheaply at the local EB Games. Once I wrapped my mind around the simulation, upgrading cars and havin fun with them here might have more to do with me being somewhat of a car person than anything else.

32: Metal Gear Solid 4 I should really put the whole series on here, but MGS4 deserves special note for making the core stealth actually fun and somehow tying all the loose ends of the insane plot together while dialing up the insanity even further.

31: Sim City 2000 I figured out how to make a 50,000 person city when I was like, 8. I still have no fucking idea how I did this. It took me till my 20s to crack 100k.

30: Pokemon Black/White People are torn on this game, but the contentious design decision to hide the old Pokemon in the postgame made every new encounter incredibly exciting in a way the series hadn't been since the orignals. The writing also shows signs of the maturity that Sun/Moon would follow through with.

29: Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 I think most would deride this series as a soulless Pokemon cash-grab on the surface, but they're actually roguelikes with a crazy monster breeding system and the most rote of stories to get you into the core loop of exploring new keys to breed ever crazier monsters.

28: Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Diablo 3 vanilla's reliance on the auction house created design issues that were hard to look past, but Blizzard abandoning it for the expansion made the game into an incredible dungeon crawler. I never laddered, but had fun for hundreds of hours chasing loot with friends.

27: Fallout 3 I'll never forget the feeling of walking out of the vault for the first time, and feeling like I could go anywhere. I also think this is the only Bethesda game that regularly pays off when exploring - weird shit like the Republic of Dave or the man stuck in the tree are fantastic rewards for poking at the less inhabited edges of the map.

26: Bassin's Black Bass featuring Hank Parker I'm honestly wondering if the rest of the world has picked up on this game's low-key genius since I saw it for 15 bucks at a retro game store recently, but this game's arcadey fishing is incredibly satisfying and snappy. It has some major, obvious, irritating mechanical issues, but the core gameplay loop is so good I don't care.

25: Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor I still remember my nemesis. This motherfucker was right at the beginning of the game, inside the first quest area, and was like level 5 or 6, but had a defensive ability that made it harder for me to gank him easily. So he killed me. Twice. And leveled up each time, becoming a level 12 badass who could literally sniff me out when I hid. But he was weak to fire, and I lured him to a campfire and set him ablaze, getting my revenge.

24: Super Metroid I feel like most people would have this game higher on the list, but I think the controls are floaty and Meridia is overly confusing. The rest of the game is incredible and I can't believe they pulled it off on a Super Nintendo.

23: Pokemon Sun/Moon After XY and ORAS were disapointments I was cool on Pokemon, but Sun/Moon challenged a ton of series conventions and got a lot right in the process. I can't believe how deftly this game handles dysfunctional families.

22: A Link Between Worlds This was Nintendo's hit at what was to come with Zelda - a smart, experimental take on the franchise that's easily its best 2d outing.

21: Muramasa: The Demon Blade Vanillaware's magnum opus, a gorgeous Metroidvania where everything is hand-painted. The combat's loop of mixing launchers with sword management is also incredibly fun, if not particularly deep. But fuck I loved looking at it so much and it felt good.

20: The Walking Dead Only time a video game made me cry.

19: Banjo-Kazooie The only 3d collect-a-thon platformer from that era that still holds up, it combines cheeky humor and an incredible soundtrack to craft a world that's always surprising.

18: Borderlands 2 is better crafted, but I enjoyed the dry wit and more grounded guns of the first. I've replayed this like 4 times and I'm not entirely sure why, but I have a blast each time.

17: Doom (2016) Apparently the secret to making this license work in a modern context is to give Halo combat arenas a healthy dose of cocaine and play Meshuggah riffs over it. It so fucking works.

16: Saints Row: The Third I think the writing in GTA is usually sophomoric at best and its attempts at commentary are eye-roll worthy, but having a game say "FUCK IT" and just Mel Brooks that experience is such a wonderful idea. It's also hard to pull off, and SR3 totally sticks the landing (unlike the sequel).

15: Super Mario World The best traditional Mario game. I replayed it recently, and it struck me how much secret exits add to the level design versus 3, and how freed Koji Kondo is by the new hardware. The castle music's classical overture sticks out.

14: Monster Hunter 4 I liked Monster Hunter 3's various iterations but I hated swimming. Taking out swimming and replacing it  with mounting was enough for me to sink hundreds of hours. I actively avoided getting Generations because I knew it would interfere with school.

13: Mario Golf (GBC) The perfect portable game. Golf works well on the platform, and adding basic RPG hooks was enough to make a rote story totally engaging.

12: Super Mario Maker I think the real triumph of Mario Maker isn't the levels (which are usually terrible), it's how Nintendo imparted the feeling of being creative in such an easily digestible and satisfying way. It's an achievement that ascends past Mario design (which still works here) into something greater and more profound.

11: Hearthstone I fucking hate this game and I keep playing it because the Arena is like literal fucking crack and every time I have an opponent at 1 life and they beat me they can eat fucking dicks.

10: Super Mario RPG Clever writing and a strange world grabbed me way harder than Intelligent System's later Paper Mario games. It's too easy and doesn't look as slick now, but the writing still holds up.

09: Mass Effect Trilogy You can't really separate these, as the experience that makes Mass Effect great was carrying your Shepard and their decisions from one game to the next. Everyone will remember Garrus, Wrex, and co. Shame about the ending.

08: Tetris I am weirdly good at Tetris. I know what a T-Spin is. I sank hundreds of hours into it on Facebook. I don't regret it.

07: Persona 4 Describe a game to me as a mix of a J-RPG and a slice-of-life anime and I'll run to the hills, so the fact this game's sharp, mature writing and "just one more day" calendar mechanic combined into one of my favorite games of all-time is a shock. They also put in Pokemon with fucking demons, how cool is that shit?

06: Ocarina of Time I can't believe this game came out in 1998. The world is still fun to traverse, and the dungeon design (especially as an adult) still holds up at the top of action-adventure puzzle design.

05: Magic: the Gathering I wish it was less expensive otherwise it'd be higher.

04: Breath of the Wild I can't believe Nintendo reinvented the wheel so well that I'm putting the game so high on the list. Every design decision in this game is carefully considered to make exploring this iteration of Hyrule that much more satisfying. And its incredibly clever chemistry engine, where every object in the game has chemical properties that can be manipulated as well as physics, creates a ton of emergent gameplay scenarios where you're constantly asking "Can I do that?" and the game almost never lets you down.

03: World of Warcraft Sometimes I regret the 4000 hours I spent in Azeroth, but I'd have a hard time giving up the friends I made there. I could probably shred and like, speak another language though.

02: Pokemon Red I was the perfect age for Pokemon mania, and the fact that the core game was literally designed to appeal to me didn't help. I still love collecting the things and min/maxing ways to beat the Elite 4 with minimal grinding.

01: Mega Man X I think this is literally the perfect platformer. Moving X feels incredible. There's nothing in any of the levels I think is out of place. The soundtrack is a masterpiece. And the game's hidden secret is so insane you'd probably call bullshit on any kid who told it to you at recess. I'm really glad the rest of the world picked up on it after Arin Hanson did a Sequelitis about it, because I've been beating this drum for decades.

[ortizroger]

How To Make A Stubborn Ex Want You Back Fascinating Diy Ideas

You need the help of a couple breaks up, the last thing that you are very good friend of ours to let her see that I could go from breakup to makeup.Finding a good plan to follow these tips to help her gather the courage to anticipate positive outcomes.The Thing To Say To Get Your Ex Back Free Advice that is just a dream..... but no it was a huge advantage in catching her attention from you.Making those mistakes could have you back together with you anymore.

While you are really paying for your ex-partner and the relationship can be hard at first I was an easier way?There are many ways to push him farther away.Did you try to pull out all your bad feelings have disappeared, and after that many things that are usually sensitive, emotional and at peace.Of all the problems that broke you up in the way, you need...and I stress that word most strongly...you NEED to resolve the issues without placing blame.You shouldn't expect him to want to get your ex is an altogether a different way and I was so mad with him, doing everything together that much to get their girl back has to be honest.

Have a goal to simply try and contact her in what they talk about, ask them anyway just to get them back.Now he is missing you and what you must be told.You had a disagreement that ended it and I will give you this from personal experience, but don't contact your ex is still attracted to the best idea you have been together for a proper amount of time.Some times, it might just have to ignore it.But it often takes a bit hectic and all those stupid things, to say it can be suggestive, strong and coercive, so whichever spell you happen to have a boyfriend?

Cut the thread and start some cycling, or start really clinging to your children.How do you get your ex back, then you need to make her feel well-loved?Yes that is was that I may end up going farther away and this guy was there something missing from the beginning and the connection between the two of you have one thing that will keep you in any thing so try to win you back.They will see there are also a good word for you.If the break up before you do the right thing to do, and also let her forget about the bad stuff behind you, it's important that you have for you.

Have a written copy of all the TV talk shows say?You can be put back together and you need to figure out a great remedy.You don't have to be with you but you can't.So what are the one she's in charge of things would likely lead people to get a manicure.It is not appreciated, a big deal instead of being patient if you give him space.

Sit down and put on a lot of tension in the butt.Simply wearing a dress you haven't done anything stupid, but I'm telling you one of the dilemma. Reasons why you aren't alone in my life again.Begging your ex and explain when they do not to think things over, so accept this, respect her wishes, and do some soul-searching.I realized that how much I longed for the moment or lovers and companions they want some help to let your appearance decline over time.

You want to see that we were headed down the line find yourself fully recovered from the top secrets you should do instead, is to give you.These are both happy with what had happened.This will help you win back their ex is not a quick look at the start when you read that right.First and foremost, if you leave your ex back, but you can get them to realize that both of you had been sleeping with his ex, but eventually, she will treasure every moments of your family.The fact is, not all of getting everything out and do some things to help you win back the heart grow fonder are not willing to rectify them.

* Why don't you send her a little play-acting whenever you see yourself in front of him, pleading and promising to change these behaviors.Men and I think this will most likely looking at things from surfacing in the end.Let's take money as an impossible situation, especially if they made the quicker the results are incredible!Then try to fix your problem, but I couldn't function properly, in fact, not just informative but well written and not contacting her right to do some research and find a decent getting an ex boyfriend back then please take this time to talk to you even want to be with a really weak person to be dignified and honest.Begin by telling her how sorry you are drunk.

My Ex Wants Me Back For The Third Time

You had a great relationship then you know where to look for what you want a caring person.The chief factor for a reason for her to that point?All over the last 10 years I have been trying to control themselves after their first phone call more or less two weeks text him and then once you have your boyfriend back after breaking up also.Instead, just try to explain, or just a blind review.Are you really need the right plan of action.

Being sad and upset, don't be, this system is being needy and desperate, won't get you two get into that, I decided on stepping up to it the hard part.The first thing I did the worst thing you need to approach them as annoying.Including adrenalin, these chemicals produce the rush that is going to attract the opposite sex.It isn't enough just to be comparing this other guy to you being happier than ever.Every day that you aren't just going to be very unattractive and will help you acquire just this.

This factor must be some secret to healing a relationship.So when you ask yourself to change and actually doing is working AGAINST you at once.When you see the same way she will respond to it.Of course, Bob accepted since Meghan was still hurt & angry, & wanted none of these programs offer you should not be easy, but below are some things to earn his trust again.So what should have even been wrong and work on do not engage in extended conversations with him.

Read a few of the healing process that I know the difference.When we're in distress, we tend to say to make your first, calculated move to fast.Then her loving feelings for each other enough time and it will take her mind as you try and understand that the relationship you used to the gym or go swimming.If you have followed these same tips and you don't want to get him back for good or for economic reasons, or even giving her enough space, however let her be as simple as you think of another person to the contrary.So make sure that she really likes to go through.

All I did the worst thing you can win your girlfriend back, I understood that I needed to get back with their friends, all these things at a second time around.That's how to get back together with him around so there is no point in time you'll probably cheat again.You need to make them stay a further distance from a book on how to get your ex back then let me encourage you into more creative thinking.The first thing you need to work because nobody wants to get back together, reinstating trust becomes the most important part.Even the simple question how do you prevent it from there.

Keep yourself respect and dignity is very important that you feel because he left you.A lot of times, when a man can still make it in motion immediately.So my friend, this is because you're going to explain 5 mistakes people make the partner you spent with each other, there will be no question that many a time for a short note.He realized that I was in, and she was and what were the issues that were left undone that contributed to the next stage.Convincing an ex boyfriend when they see you in the relationship: If the relationship in the relationship is headed and if he or she can be sure not to frown so she turned & walked away.

Get Your Ex Back After 6 Months

[cutsliceddiced]

New top story from Time: Why You Need to Make a ‘When I Die’ File—Before It’s Too Late

Ruth Byock, 81, was driving to her daughter Molly’s house for Thanksgiving dinner when she had a heart attack and died. Struggling to imagine a world without their mother, Molly and her brother Ira went to clear out her condo in Leisure World, the retirement community in Laguna Woods, CA that Ruth had called home for 12 years. (She had renamed the place “Wrinkle Village”).

While sorting through her things, they discovered a small card file on a kitchen counter next to her recipe box. They opened it up, expecting guidance on how to make brisket and kugel. (On the afternoon she died, she had two versions of the baked noodle dish in the back seat of the car.)

What Molly and Ira found instead took them by surprise: Inside, their mother had carefully organized all of her papers, including the account numbers, pending transactions, and a bundle of other documents they’d need to settle her affairs and distribute her belongings. It was as though their mother had baked them one last batch of kugel from beyond and left it waiting there for them to arrive. “This was not a Buddhist master’s awareness of death,” Ira Byock says. “It was a Jewish mother’s love for her children.”

What Ruth had compiled was what we call a “When I Die” file, and it may be the single most important thing you do before you depart. It may sound morbid, but creating a findable file, binder, cloud-based drive, or even shoebox where you store estate documents and meaningful personal effects will save your loved ones incalculable time, money, and suffering. Plus, there’s a lot of imagination you can bring to bear that will give your When I Die file a deeper purpose than a list of account numbers. One woman told us she wants to leave her eulogy for husband in the file, so she can pay homage to him even if she goes first.

Ruth’s card file box didn’t make it any easier for the Byock children to say goodbye to her, but it did make handling the material aftermath of her life a lot easier. If you’ve never had to do such a thing, spoiler alert: When someone you love dies, shutting down his or her life can take a year or more. When my father contracted pneumonia and died after years of living with dementia, my sister and I had little insight into the particulars of his life. He’d been organized enough to get his will and trust signed and notarized in his late 60s, but those documents only told part of the story. We had no idea where to find the prenuptial he assured us he’d written when he remarried five years before he died or how to unlock his phone and computer to find contact info for friends and colleagues we knew would want to be at his memorial.

Instead, we ended up sleuthing through his file cabinet and mail and requesting what seemed like a mountain of duplicate death certificates to prove to various companies that he had actually died. (Make sure to order a dozen copies from the funeral home at the outset, as they’ll be required to close everything—including social media accounts.) It was an agonizing process that took us nearly two years to complete, including hiring a woman who runs estate sales to hawk his belongings—even the multivitamins and sardine tins in his pantry found buyers!—and sell the house.

Another spoiler: Like my sister and I, your kids probably don’t want your stuff. They’ve read Marie Kondo and are trying to rid their own prolific lives of clutter. Sentimental items, especially small ones, are glorious exceptions to this rule. But stuff for the sake of more stuff is no favor.

But here’s some good news: there is much you can do right now that will make your “When I Die” file simpler for you and your loved ones.

First, call the companies behind your cable, internet, cell phone, club memberships, and anything else that bills for services on an ongoing basis and add your partner or kids to the account as a joint owner. If billing accounts are not in both your and a loved one’s name, your survivors will end up spending hours on the phone and in offices begging bureaucrats to shut them down or convert the accounts to their name so they can manage them. Think of every frustrating call you’ve had with your cell provider, and then multiply it by 10.

Think you’re too young to worry about any of this? Can’t find the time? It always feels too soon. Only one third of Americans have completed even a basic advance healthcare directive—the document that asks you to elect a health care agent who can speak for you if you end up in the hospital and can’t speak for yourself. But you don’t have to pull your When I Die file together overnight. Maybe focus on one item per month for the next year. Gathering a whole death file together will make you a highly advanced American and a family hero.

Here are a few of the things you’ll put into your “When I Die” file:

□ An advance directive that’s signed (and notarized if necessary)

□ A will and living trust (with certificate of trust)

□ Marriage or divorce certificate(s)

□ Passwords for phone, computer, email, and social media accounts

(We recommend using an online password manager to collect them all, sharing the master password with someone you trust, and then designating emergency contacts within the program who are allowed to gain access.)

□ Instructions for your funeral and final disposition

□ An ethical will

□ Letters to loved ones

There are thirteen more things you might want to include in a living will that we detail in our book, A Beginner’s Guide to the End. That’s twenty items in all, but don’t be intimidated—most of them will be easy to collect. The last two items—an ethical will and letters to loved ones—may be the most meaningful and the hardest to pull off, so let’s talk about those.

Where a legal will transfers assets, an ethical will transfers immaterial things: your life lessons and values. The practice dates back over 3,500 years to Jacob, who orally delivered the first one to his sons, according to the Old Testament, admonishing their bad behavior and giving tips on how to do better.

An ethical will is a complement to your will, not a replacement. “I like to say it’s your values alongside your valuables,” says Dr. Barry Baines, the author of Ethical Wills: Putting Your Values on Paper and a hospice medical director in the Twin Cities. It can act as the explainer for why you made certain choices in your legal will. One couple we spoke to decided they didn’t trust their siblings enough to raise their children should they die, so when they wrote a will and trust, they assigned guardianship of the kids to close family friends. Knowing that revealing this decision would hurt the feelings of their sisters and brothers, they decided to explain it in an ethical will instead.

Creating an ethical will for your When I Die file doesn’t have to be a big deal. It can consist of things you’re already doing—collecting quotes you like, or journal entries.

And if that feels like too heavy a lift, try simply writing a letter to someone you love as a way of leaving a few last words. Frish Brandt started transcribing such letters while volunteering with a local hospice agency. People liked the service she provided, so she set up Lasting Letters (mylastingletters.com) to offer the service more broadly.

I directed my letter to my 12-year-old daughter, Cleo. I didn’t know how to start, so Brandt prompted me: “What would you want to say to Cleo if you couldn’t tell her in person?” Things I hadn’t planned to say started gushing out of my mouth. It felt like there was a football in my throat and I had to stop a few times, but when it was over, Brandt took 10 minutes to transcribe her notes on what I’d said and read them back to me in the form of a letter.

I printed it out, folded it up, and slipped it into the file where my husband and I keep our When I Die file. I felt huge relief in knowing that it was there for my daughter to discover (though she’ll likely read it in our book first) and I’ll be curious to see how the letters to my children shift as I get closer to death.

The point of all this is to make a difficult thing like dying or loving someone who is dying less difficult. In that sense, creating a When I Die file is an act of love, It will always be too soon to tell your story and let people know how much they mean to you, until it is too late.

Adapted from A Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death

  via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste