#i have stamps chapters to upload

[indigopoptart]

filled with so many URGES to show off my horror art

[thirsty4villains]

Cool Heat

Summary: You're an assistant for the Avengers. Loki has been hiding up in his room for the past week. You go to check on him and he's reverted back to his Jotun form, but he's not quite himself. The two of you discover that Jotuns go into cycles of heat, and Loki hasn't been in his Jotun form for over a millennia...

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Mentions of dubcon

Tags: Loki lives in Stark Tower with the Avengers, PIV, smut, humor, romance, Jotun!Loki, dom!Loki, spanking, more tags to be added

Find me on AO3, Wattpad. Previous chapters/other Loki fics on Tumblr by me here.

Notes: THANK YOU GUYS FOR BEING SO PATIENT, I'm sorry this chapter took so long to roll out. Real life stuff, I hope y'all understand. Please enjoy!

Tagged users: @nyxxharmonia @mischief2sarawr @drunkbirdbug @lorelibrarianlizbit @strawberry--fawn @thenotoriouserg @hereforsmutbcicantgetenough @salvinaa @bellajg21 lorielulu7 

CHAPTER 4

You woke up feeling more rested than you did most mornings. If you knew Loki was this good at sex you may have hit him up earlier. Asshole or no, he knew what he was doing. Last night’s events replayed in your head repeatedly: your dream that wasn’t a dream, your conversation, and ultimately the conclusion. They spun around in your head as you tried to assess because it was hard to believe that you had sex with Loki. You also wondered, was it wrong that you weren’t angry at him for having sex while you were unconscious? It definitely wasn’t right of him, but you’d been feeling so lonely and horny – horny for him – that you didn’t care. You quite enjoyed it, actually.

After mulling these thoughts, you took a shower, got dressed, and threw the sheets in the washer. It was nearing 11:00 am on a Tuesday. Shit, you were supposed to submit some reports to Coulson by nine!

You ran to the elevator and went back up to the penthouse. Gathering your paperwork and opening your laptop, you opened up the S.H.I.E.L.D. database and began uploading the work you should have submitted two hours ago. Thankfully, there were no text messages, emails in your inbox, or missed calls on your phone, so Coulson must be preoccupied this morning. Hopefully he wouldn’t notice the time stamp that read 11:28am.

In this moment you were eternally grateful the majority of your work was remote because if you came into S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters three hours late because you slept in, Fury would have your head.

With that problem finished, you went to check on Loki. Back down in the bedroom areas, you stood in the hallway and knocked on his bedroom door. A sense of deja vu swept over you.

“Come in,” the god’s voice said behind the door.

The knob turned and you entered Loki’s room. He sat on his bed, staring at the wall opposite him. He seemed not all there.

“Loki?�� you asked. “How are you feeling?”

“Not worse, but not better, either.”

“So you’re still..?”

“Still enormously frustrated sexually? Yes.”

A wave of insecurity washed over you. “It wasn’t… bad, was it?”

He shook his head. “Quite the contrary, it was exactly what I needed. I felt better, instantly. But it came back as soon as I awoke this morning. The fundamental issue I am facing, however, is this dreaded blue color – and these horns. I cannot will this form away with magic no matter how hard I try.”

You apologized for his state.

“Are you not disgusted by me?” the god asked. “After last night?”

“I already told you that it’s okay, you weren’t yourself,” you said.

“I also meant… after.”

“Like, the actual sex?”

He nodded.

“Are you not disgusted by this brutish, carnal form? How rough I was with you. These horns… these claws…” He sneered after looking at his own nails.

“No.” You blushed. “It was really hot, actually.”

For the first time in days, he laughed an actual, genuine laugh. “Sincerely? You human women are so strange. No Asgardian woman in their right mind would bed a Jotun.”

“Their loss,” you said.

He furrowed his eyebrow at you but also, perhaps there was a hint of a smile?

“No matter, my predicament is… URGH!”

Out of nowhere, Loki curled his right hand into a fist and punched the wall. Little pieces of drywall flew outward. Loki retracted his hand and a fist-sized hole was left behind in its wake. He dusted off a thin layer of powder from his knuckles.

You jumped back. “What was that?!”

Loki’s shoulders heaved. “I don’t know! That’s the problem! I don’t know. I have no clue why this is happening now, and why it’s so drastic. I get these changes in mood, like I’m nothing but an adolescent again who cannot even master his own emotions. I feel virile yet emasculated. We had intercourse, so why was it not enough?”

He punched the wall a second time. With gritted teeth and labored breaths he stared at it and you were unsure if the god was lost in thought or would lose his temper entirely. You watched his pecs and the dark blue ridges upon his body move up and down with his breaths. His lean arms, the biceps on them; those horns, those eyes…

Okay, snap back to reality. Loki’s having a crisis. Sex is the only thing that made him feel himself again, even if it was just for a few hours. Like he said, he was in heat; maybe just one go isn’t enough to get the job done.

“Well, we know what we have to do, then.” You outstretched your arms, offering yourself.

He turned from the wall. “What are you –”

“What position do you want me in, Loki?” You interrupted, asserting yourself. You fought the blush creeping up your cheeks. “On my back? On my side? Do you want me to blow you first? Pick one. You want to fix this, right?”

Loki stood there in shock; examining your face, your body language. Or was he checking you out? He dropped his fist that was prepping to punch the wall and his lips stretched into a devious grin.

“On the bed, all fours.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” you replied.

Stripping yourself of your clothes, you approached his bed, staying in the crawling position upon his mattress.

To your side he stripped as well, and he was already rock hard. That blueish purple cock sprang from his pants, rearing to go. He climbed onto the bed behind you, examining your backside. You jolted forward as his cold hands touched your thighs. You’d forgotten how cold he felt. His icy fingers traced the smooth skin of your legs.

Then out of nowhere, he spanked you. A cold, red handprint decorated your bottom.

You gave a small screech, jolting forward again – both from the low temperature and the sudden smack.

“You like that?” he asked.

“Mm-hmm,” you muttered, nodding.

Another smack, and this next screech was mixed with a moan.

“Your assertiveness was quite endearing, but remember your tone when speaking to your king.”

He spanked your ass again.

“My – my king?” you asked.

“Yes, your king. Did I not mention to you the other day that I was kept as a bargain by Odin? I wasn’t any Jotun child, I was Laufey’s son, the king of the Jotuns.”

Another spanking. You felt yourself grow wet amidst the pain.

“N – no, you didn’t mention that part.”

“Though I failed to conquer Earth, and Thor is the first heir to Asgard, since Laufey is dead I am still a king in my own right – of Jotunheim.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, my king.”

He gave you one last spanking, a lighter smack, a playful one. “I forgive you,” he said, lowering himself over your back, so his lips could graze your ear. He placed his hands on your butt, to soothe the irritated skin. The iciness felt good but you also squirmed due to your skin being so sensitive there.

With his new position, his cock rested against your cunt. You prevented yourself from lurching forward. He rubbed the cold member against your lips.

“Now your king shall claim what is his.”

Without further warning, Loki penetrated your opening, sinking completely within you. His chilly member made you clench around him. You gasped as you acclimated to him. Oh god, he was big. You didn’t know how you could forget since the last time you fucked him was literally hours ago, yet you were still in awe. His cool, dextrous fingers brushed your hips, finding the perfect place to grip in order to rail you. Then, he moved within you, and you already felt your juices coating him and your own thighs. Completely at his mercy, you allowed him to take all of you, as you kneeled on the bed, all fours, like an animal. He slipped in and out of your cunt at a deliciously fast pace, hitting the right spot every time. Your arms barely kept upright as you tried to keep up the weight of yourself and your balance as the god of mischief rocked your body.

While fucking you, Loki removed one hand from your hip to grasp your hair and tugged. Your head tilted backward so that you were forced to look straight forward instead of below. On one hand you could count how many times you were in Loki’s room, and you didn’t realize until now that he had a mirror mounted above the bed frame, so when he pulled your hair you were forced to look at the scene. You, your tits hanging, on hands and knees, and the blue god of mischief with one hand fisted in your hair and his cock taking you for all you’re worth. His mouth flashed a devious smile as your eyes connected through the mirror, and his red eyes gleamed of hunger and dominance. He tightened his fist in your hair and spoke.

“Enjoying the view?”

In your pleasure you found it difficult to form words.

He spanked your ass. The combination of that, your hair, the view ahead, and your cunt sent sparks through your body. A high-pitched moan escaped your lips.

“I asked you a question.”

Your legs quaked like jello, but you managed to say: “Yes!”

The light in the god’s eyes danced. Another smile graced his face, “Good.” 

He released your hair. Your head fell forward again, your arms collapsed underneath you, and now your face was buried in the mattress. With nothing but your ass in the air, Loki continued to drive into your pussy, chuckling at the state of you; tired, splayed out, and completely surrendered to him. He gave another playful spanking on your behind.

You gathered the blankets underneath, balling them in your fists as Loki delivered your pleasure unto you. All you could do was hold on, listen to the sounds of his hips slapping your skin and the wet noises of furious lovemaking, and praise his body into the bed. Your legs, before jello, were now an autumn leaf shaking in the wind and you knew you were so close. Loki dug his claws into your hips, claiming you once again and you were gone. Shouting into the blankets, your cunt tensed before finally releasing, and you climaxed on the god’s cold, pulsing cock; riding the waves and yet somehow keeping your ass in the air.

Your climax, however, was the catalyst for his own and Loki burst within you, sending a final few thrusts into your hole. He filled you again, uttering his own release to the heavens. Then you both collapsed onto the bed.

When he found the strength to roll off you, you excused yourself to his bathroom to clean up. After that, as well as re-brushing your hair and getting dressed, you entered his bedroom again to find him on the bed reading a book. Loki was still naked as the day he was born. One long, lean blue leg was crossed over the other as he lay back. Your eyes traced the ridges of his Jotun form up along his toned body, then up his face and ending at the curve of his horns. His eyelashes fluttered against his ruby-red eyes. How in the world did he see himself ugly in this form?

You spoke up: “It’s getting close to afternoon. I’m gonna make breakfast. Want anything?”

Loki looked up from his book and nodded. “Yes, I’ll be up in a minute. I’ll have whatever you are having.”

“Cool,” you said, returning upstairs to the penthouse.

In the kitchen you pulled out the cookware and ingredients to make scrambled eggs and hash browns. The items sizzled on the pans, filling the kitchen with the aroma of eggs, potatoes, and spices. Your stomach growled in approval and restlessness. Loki joined shortly behind you, now clothed in his usual garb of black and green. His horns stood high and mighty, even regal, atop his head, cutting through the air.

“This is the first time I have been out in this state at midday in nearly a fortnight,” Loki remarked. He looked around the room, almost as if he’d forgotten what it looked like bathed in noon’s light. 

“That’s rough. I’m sorry,” you said. “How do you feel now?”

“Better – much. I had thought I would need intercourse once and this would go away. Now, I am not so sure. I am hoping… soon.”

You nodded. “Yeah, especially since we don’t know when the others will come back from that mission, and if you’re still ‘sick’,” you airquoted. “...by the time they get back, I’m pretty sure they’re going to start getting nosy, maybe even suspicious.”

Loki growled, not enthused by that thought. A slight tingle tickled your southern area. Instantly, you wondered: were you an asshole for being attracted to his irritability? It’s not like you meant to, but the growling was, well…

“Do you need help with the cooking?” Loki said, interrupting your thoughts.

“Yes, thank you.” Good distraction from that moral dilemma. Thank you, Loki. “Actually, could you help clean up? Put some of the things away for me while I watch the stove?”

The god nodded and proceeded to help with his tasks. Cabinets were opened and closed as he put the spices away, he went and washed the silverware you weren’t using anymore, and threw the eggshells and other trash in the garbage. The food would be ready in just a few minutes.

The kitchen grew quiet again when he finished. So quiet, you thought he may have slinked off somewhere – to the bathroom or something. Until you felt a pair of hands on your hips.

“And you are well after our encounters?” he asked, his voice low and husky. His cool breath tickled your ear. 

One of his hands moved lower, cupping your ass slightly. A jolt of electricity flowed through you. He had you pinned between his front and the kitchen counter.

“The eggs,” you said in protest. 

“What about the eggs?” he quipped, squeezing you lightly.

“They’ll burn. Don’t distract me.”

“Then don’t get distracted.”

Loki proceeded to move his other hand to your other ass cheek, kneading both hands on your behind through your shorts. His mouth lowered closer to you, gliding his cold tongue against your neck. The hairs on your arms stood on their ends, goosebumps budding. The god licked slowly, deliberately. You shivered and Loki chuckled lightly against your skin. He bared his teeth -- his fangs -- and grazed the points over your carotid.

You tried to pay attention to the cooking food; flipping over the eggs, watching the potatoes, adjusting the heat as necessary. However, you were facing much difficulty ignoring the rising heat within your body.

Loki switched between teeth and tongue, lapping and nipping at your neck. You gasped when he bit your earlobe, smoothing over the pain with another lick. One of his hands moved to your front, sneaking underneath your shorts and underwear to play with you. His fingers toyed with your slit, wetting them in your slick and using his lubricated digits to circle your clit. You did your best to not lurch into the hot stove with his cold hands pleasuring you. Your hands gripped the handle on the oven as you moaned aloud.

“I told you not to get distracted,” the god teased. You opened your eyes – which you didn’t realize you’d even closed and quickly removed the eggs from the heat. The ends browned a bit, but they were nowhere close to burned; just a bit more cooked than you’d like them to be.

Your hands returned to the oven’s door handle, bracing yourself so your legs wouldn’t give in. Loki teased you mercilessly: one hand on your ass, the other playing with your clit, and his mouth, tongue, and lips attacking your neck and ear. You could already feel the hickey forming.

“Turn your head toward me,” the god urged.

You did, and met his gaze. He stole a kiss, deep and wanton, and cold; deliciously and illicitly cold. As you kissed, you realized this was your first one with him. A bit backwards, given you’d had sex twice before even kissing, but not unwanted. No, not unwanted at all. His kiss made you lightheaded and shivery, especially as he dove his tongue into your mouth. All this while he massaged your clit, soft and engorged and wet.

When the kiss broke, you took the hash browns off the heat too. “It’s hard to not get distracted when I can’t even see what’s in front of me.”

“Well, there’s no more distracting then, given the food’s done.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Loki yanked your shorts and underwear down your legs. They pooled at your ankles. He barely gave you any time to shake them off before parting your legs for him, exposing your opening for him, and he entered you swiftly. You gave a choked sound as you adjusted to him, his thick, chilly, irresistible cock planted within you. His hands moved; one on hip and the other under your shirt to pinch your nipples.

“I thought you were good,” you croaked.

“Oh, I’m more than good now,” Loki uttered as he began to move within you.

“I mean… We just fucked… not even twenty minutes ago, and already… Mmmf.” You bit your lip as he hit that sweet spot within you.

“What can I say? I finished cleaning up, then I began watching you. Your shorts barely covering your ass, accentuating your thighs, how your hair cascades down your shoulders. Something like a switch flipped inside me. I had to have you. You won’t deny me now, surely?”

“N – no.” Your thighs pressed together and your eyes shut closed. With anyone else this would be too much, but with him you didn’t find yourself growing tired, nor sore, nor overstimulated. Something about Loki, his touch, his voice made you want his sex just as much as he required it for his sanity.

So he fucked you there, on the kitchen counter, in front of the stove. The god of mischief thrusted into you, his chest pressed against your back. The chill of his skin radiated from his chest through your shirt, and of course his cold hands on your breasts and cock buried inside you aroused your senses and your attention. He drove his cock upward, and the best you could do was hold on for dear life as he fucked his divine jotun lechery into you. As they did when you were taken from behind, your thighs shook, your pussy clenched, and with a snap Loki spilled his frigid seed into you. His fingernails dug into your hips and teeth sunk into your neck as he completed his final thrusts, filling you with his load.

The two of you took a moment to catch your breaths. His chest rose and fell against your back, his wintry breath panting upon your skin. When he removed himself, a wet plop noise sounded as his cock exited you. His seed within you trickled down your legs, droplets of him dripping onto the tile floor. You moaned impatiently upon his removal, as you were still flushed with arousal. 

“Patience, woman,” the god spoke. “I am not yet done.”

Without warning, he grabbed you and moved you to an empty space on the counter. Placing you with your back against the granite, he lined his still erect cock with your entrance. His hands grabbed your ankles, resting them on the dip of his shoulders and again, he drove into you.

You screamed.

The frost giant god railed you with his cock, with complete and total access to your cunt, filling you to the brim. Within seconds, he hit the sweet spot within you at the perfect, fast, desperate pace, and you came on him. Your walls pulsed and contracted as you rode his cold member through your orgasm, screaming at the ceiling of Stark Tower. All the muscles in your body relaxed and you finally opened your eyes to see the face of a demon grinning lasciviously at you. His raven black hair rested upon his shoulders, a pretty contrast to his sapphire skin, and you watched him as he fucked you to a second completion.

A third time today – or was it fourth, since technically you fucked after midnight last night, and then this morning, and now… Your brain was too addled but yes, four was probably right. For a fourth time today, Loki came inside you, his member pulsating within you, ejaculating and filling you once again.

He bent down and bit your neck before separating. His scarlet eyes roamed over your body, entirely used and spent. He chuckled to himself. You must have been quite a sight at the moment, with your hair every which way and utterly drenched of him.

With a flick of his wrist, a golden hue emanated from his hands and then disappeared – the mess with it. All of his cum – on the counter, inside you, on the floor, vanished as if it had never existed. With a light head you carefully sat up and jumped down from the counter.

“You look like you’re about to faint,” Loki said.

“I’ll be fine, I just need food. It’s not customary for me to fuck multiple times before breakfast. I’m on an empty stomach right now and I just came three times in half an hour.”

You redressed yourself and plated the food. “Great, well, it’s almost cold now. You interested in cold eggs? ‘Cause that’s what we’re getting.”

“Are you saying you regret our tryst?” he teased.

“No. Yes… I don’t know. No, no I don’t regret it, but I don’t want cold breakfast either!”

You plopped your plate on the dining table harder than was necessary and sat in the chair, ready to eat your sad breakfast.

The god flicked his wrist again, and instantly steam emanated from your food. The smell of warm food filled your nostrils again and you devoured your breakfast.

“Would a ‘thank you’ hurt?”

“Fank you,” you said, mouth half-full.

Loki quirked an eyebrow at the utter impropriety. He redressed himself and joined you at the table.

“We are probably going to need to fuck once breakfast is finished. I’m already feeling the urge again.”

“Oh, sweet Jesus,” you muttered. This was the worst best problem you’ve ever encountered.

And he was true to his word. When the dishes were loaded into the dishwasher, Loki had you on the counter again.

[fishfingerpies]

Fic: P.S. I Love You

I just uploaded the final chapter of my newest mclennon multichapter fic!

Rated E, 10/10 chapters, 50,000 words

Throughout the seventies, John writes letters to Paul to let out all of the things that he can never actually say. He never intends to send them, of course. In retrospect, maybe he shouldn’t have addressed them and put the stamps on, although in his defense, how was he supposed to know that Sean would go through his drawers and decide to put them in the mailbox?

[thestraggletag]

Kin, Part 2 of 3

Prompt: Dragon, Transform, Capture, Marriage, Nest

Giftee: @minnl70

Summary: Chosen by the Blue Fairy to slay the last dragon, Belle defies her fate and strikes a deal with the beast, Rumplestiltskin. As they search for a way to break the enchantment, an unexpected bond begins to form, but magic is never without a price—and never quite straightforward.

Rating: M

A/N: Surprise, @minnl70, it's me, your Secret Santa! I'm away on holidays right now but I made sure to properly queue this up for you. If all goes well all chapters of this fic will be posted today, but I'll try to check to make sure they are (and, if possible, also upload the fic to AO3, which I know makes it easier to read). Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

He had arrived at the clearing a good deal before he had revealed himself. He had been half-convinced the summons was a trap, a newfound way the Blue Fairy had concocted to try and trap him. He wasn’t the last living dragon for nothing. He hadn’t outlived his kin by coincidence. While other dragons had hoarded riches he had accumulated power and knowledge, and had honed his understanding of magic and mastery of himself till he had become all but untouchable. No fairy could trespass on his territory, or surprise him. Their usual tricks and wiles did not work on him, and he had stamped down his weaknesses till there were none they could exploit. Until he could feel safe. And he was damned if he let that little slip of a girl threaten that.

She was like all the other ones, he reasoned, only with a little bit more sense, which worked in his favour. Enough to distrust the Blue Fairy, and make a choice to try and save herself, if only temporarily. He couldn’t kill her yet, but couldn’t risk her being used a second time against him. So he would find a way to dissolve whatever connection the Blue Fairy had concocted between them, which bound him to her mortality, and then he’d dispose of her. At least she would die knowing her people were safe, which is more than he could say for himself.

In the meantime, there was no reason why he couldn’t have a little fun watching her struggle, watching her try and survive in his castle, away from her servants and creature comforts. With that in mind he went early in the morning to check on his little maid, eager to see what a miserable night of sleeping in the damp, dusty floor had done to her posh look and gentle manners. Her brave facade was unlikely to have survived the night, surely.

The first thing he thought when he opened the creaky door to her cell was that it looked cleaner than he had imagined it. The strewn straw that had covered the floor before had been gathered into two piles, one of straw that was wet or mouldy and another of cleaner straw, where the chit had no doubt slept. The cobwebs had been cleared too, and the mouse holes covered with mud. The girl herself sat huddled in a corner, looking as prim as possible, though her hair was a mess and her face and arms were very dirty. Her eyes looked puffy, and her long lashes were still wet. Tear tracks were evident along her cheeks, which gave him a modicum of delight. It wasn’t quite the amount of suffering he’d envisioned, though, which displeased him.

He left her alone until she went out looking for him, and derived only a small amount of pleasure from pointing her towards the kitchen and its meager array of food, imagining the way the apples and the bread would turn her stomach, the way she would have to battle between her hunger and her disgust. He would have walked her to the kitchens himself, but he had other pressing matters. There were magical artifacts and ingredients to collect, and deals to make, after all, so he flew out just after his interaction with the little chit, content on imagining rather than seeing her unhappiness as she got to know her new home. There was no shortage of blood and gore around the castle, especially in the rooms dedicated to his studies. As a dragon he was, by nature, a hoarder. And though most of his kind tended to beautiful things- and it was in his nature too, to seek out what was pleasing to the eye- he had always focused on power. Power in the form of ancient magical items, rare ingredients and potions and knowledge and mastery of spells and incantations. 

His line of enquiry required him to cut open a lot of animals, from common vermin to oxes and the like, either in search of ingredients or to gauge the result of an experiment. Getting someone to clean up the aftermath had always been a chore, given the unpalatable nature of his work, so he never bothered, choosing only to keep clean those rooms that required it for his experiments. There were entire wings of his castle where the air was thick with the smell of rot and death. In time the little maid could, perhaps, get used to the smell. And the mould. He doubted she would ever get used to the maggots or the flies, though. 

The day proved fruitful enough, with the acquisition of two tricky ingredients he had been having trouble getting his hands on and two favours, no conditions attached, to be used at a later date of his choosing. It always amazed him how careless people were, how narrow-minded their view of a favour was, especially with no specifications. Inevitably when he came to collect and named his price someone would say something along the lines of “You can have anything but that!”, as if they had thought to put conditions to their promised favour when they carelessly gave it away.

He kept his visits to the denizens of the Enchanted Forest short but memorable, remaining unseen when it was convenient to him and growing in size and ferocity when he needed to make an impression. Too much exposure and he’d lose some of the reverential terror he had striven hard to cultivate. Not enough and people would grow complacent and forgetful of the monster in their midst. It was a fine balancing act to remain halfway between myth and reality, but he had perfected it over the years. 

When he arrived home he felt the change almost immediately. Though the little chit was nowhere in immediate sight he could feel her presence about, the definite knowledge that he wasn’t alone. It was a strange sensation, which made him twitchy. He went looking for her, finding her making use of an old bucket, a sliver of lye soap and a coarse brush, down on all fours cleaning the kitchen floor. He could see, even in the dim light provided by the few sputtering torches, that it was slow going, since he had sometimes used the kitchen to open up the animals he needed parts from, and over time a layer of crusted blood and dried entrails had accumulated on the floor, and in splatters on the walls. But now the room looked almost like nothing that violently died there, which was quite a feat.

She was looking the worse for it, though, her dress dirty, the robin’s egg blue looking more like murky grey, her hair beginning to lose its shine, hanging more limply around her shoulders. Her eyes, however, remained stubbornly luminous and defiant. 

“I thought you were a maiden, not a maid.”

He giggled at the way she jumped, clambering to her feet, eager to be in a less vulnerable position in front of a predator such as himself. He saw her glance him over- the novelty of his more human form, he was sure, which tended to be more unsettling for humans, in many ways, than his traditional dragon form- before taking a deep breath and attempting a semblance of a smile.

“I’m just making things a bit more pleasant, that’s all. No reason why my stay here cannot be productive and enjoyable.”

He snorted, plumes of smoke coming out of his nostrils and his mouth, and he watched as she followed the smoke around, fascinated.

“At this rate, dearie, you won’t get past the kitchens.”

And she’d be lucky too. He knew what his castle looked like. A noble lady was unlikely to have the stomach to tackle more than a room or two. And it would be to her benefit, since he was hardly the only danger the castle housed. Several of his treasured magical items were deeply cursed, with magic darker than even his own, and would leave his little maid with at least a missing hand, if not something worse. He told her so, cautioning to never enter a room the little wisp he had conjured for her would not dare go into, delighting in the little flickers of fear that swept through her eyes.

She was a silly little thing, that he unfortunately had to keep alive, but more tenacious than he had given her credit for, as he found out after several weeks of uneasy cohabitation. He almost never showed himself to her, but he spied on her when the mood struck him, mostly to make sure she was alive and in one piece, since he had yet to make any advances on how to break their mutual enchantment. She’d struggled with the food at first, until she’d learned to dip the stale bread in water to soften it, and to distinguish between a bruised fruit or vegetable and a rotten one. She made daily use of the well just outside the kitchens, carrying buckets of water, using an ancient wheelbarrow she had uncovered in the barn, every morning.  It was freezing cold, however, which made every bathing experience an excruciating one, he was sure. The kitchen hearth was clogged and there was not readily available wood to build a fire, so she made do with what she had.

He could have easily made things easier, but he didn’t. The complaints he so sought, however, never came. The girl cried sometimes, in the relative solitude of her room, and looked quietly miserable most of the time, but she never voiced an objection towards her treatment, or expressed any outward sign of displeasure. 

The little chit was resourceful, too. With only the barest of tools and surely the barest of knowledge she managed to find innovative ways of doing everything he set her mind to, from cleaning the castle windows inside out to removing impossible stains or even, one time, scraping congealed blood off the rafters of his laboratory, up in the tallest tower. That had been up there for decades, he had no idea how she had managed to wash it away. He barely remembered how it had gotten there in the first place.

She would not give up on a task until it was finished, pausing only to eat or when she retreated to her dungeon for the night. He found it all deeply… unsatisfying. He had wanted to feast in her misery, to delight in the sight of a human wretched by enduring even a little of the misery humans had foisted on his kind. He had thought it would be grand to see a plushy human suffer as they did, but things were not going according to plan. Blasted girl and her blasted iron pride. He understood, as the weeks dragged on and she remained respectful in her treatment of him whenever she saw him but quietly defiant, that his efforts were for naught. The girl suffered, but in silence, giving him no amount of satisfaction.

As time dragged on he found himself displeased with how his little human wilted. How her hands reddened and her hair grew matted, the cold water doing little to truly rid it of the filth and the sweat that she accumulated while cleaning. She had brought a couple of dresses with her, but both were looking worse for wear, and neither was particularly made for the cold temperatures of the castle, meaning that she spent very little time outside, which made her look pale and sickly. 

He frowned. As a dragon, he was naturally inclined towards beautiful things. Things that looked sparkling and valuable. His maid no longer looked like a treasure, and it bothered his creature sensibilities. Besides, he needed her healthy. There was no telling how her declining health would affect him, given their magical bond. So he instructed his little wisp to direct her to rooms in the castle where he knew there was clothing that would fit her. He had looted his fair share of castles over the century and had accumulated all manner of odds and ends. He had a predilection for fine fabrics, having been brought up by a couple of spinsters as a wee hatchling, so he had taken a fair share of gowns here and there, when a particular colour or texture caught his fancy, all of which he had stored in proper trunks, with all the care he had been taught as a child. There were a few things her size, including some that would be more practical for the wintry weather. 

He unearthed a big copper tub from one of the storage rooms, setting it in a corner of the kitchen beneath a pile of discarded linens, as if he had forgotten it there long ago, along with a pile of wood, properly cut and ready to be made into a fire. Then he cornered her just as she was mopping the entrance hall, instructing her to bathe herself properly, telling her the smell offended even his base sensibilities. She opened her mouth, as if to counteract his insult, but thought better of it and closed it instead.

Later that night he snuck into the kitchens, eager to see if the little chit had stumbled into his carefully-placed gifts and had followed his advice. It was immediately apparent to him that she had, since the kitchen was more luminous than usual, a healthy fire roaring in the hearth and the air damp and smelling of vanilla. He saw her curled up inside the copper tub, steam rising from the fragrant warm water- she had found the bar of vanilla-scented soap he had left deep inside one of the cleaning cupboards, along with a bottle of oil for her hair and a pot of cream for her roughened skin, her soapy hair looking almost red in the light of the low candles. Truly a beautiful human, even with dark circles under her eyes and dirt under her fingernails that would take more than a bath to remove. Fragile little thing too, naked and relaxed, not glaring daggers at him or holding her head up high in silent defiance. He made sure to make a lot of noise before retiring to bed, lest the damnable chit fall asleep in the bath and wake up pruned and chilled. 

He began to bring more food from his incursions outside the castle, sacks of flour and oats, fresh milk and butter that the castle’s larder would keep fresh, sugar and salt and spices. He opened up the castle’s orchards, enchanted into a state of eternal summer, so she could get fruits and vegetables and some much-needed sun and instructed the little wisp to guide her there. It was fascinating to him to see her growing healthy again just from a few small concessions, colour blooming in her cheeks and her demeanor brightened.

It was with a perhaps unusual bit of pride that he came to the conclusion that his little maid was a treasure indeed, beautiful in a way that few maidens stolen by dragons had been. He began to feel possessive of her, like he did of everything else he guarded in his castle. His castle reflected his newfound attachment, losing some of its gloominess in favour of letting in sunlight in the rooms she favoured and keeping dust away from places that the girl would usually spend hours cleaning. He let it happen, reminding himself that her presence in the castle was fleeting, and a few temporary disruptions to his routine were not much concern.

And it wasn’t like he was growing fond of humans in general. His frequent incursions into the outside world kept his dislike for them fresh. Greedy little things who thought the world belonged to them alone, who cut down magical forests and chased creatures away from their homes to raze the land to the ground. When he had been a wee hatchling he had been terrified of them, small and defenceless as he had been, with no kin to protect him or guide him. Over time, as he began to grow in power, he started to see humans as petty vermin beneath his notice, except when one was desperate enough to be manipulated into surrendering something he wanted.

But every now and then, very rarely, a human got the best of him. Surprised him in some way he had not been able to foresee. Very few things could even hurt him anymore, but someone had learned that squid ink was one of them, and had seen fit to catch him with a crossbow on his way back to his castle, having previously tipped the arrow in squid ink. Thankfully it hadn’t done any real damage to the wing, the membrane remaining mostly intact, but it burned like hell and rendered his magic useless till the effects wore off.

He managed to keep himself in the air long enough to make it home, shifting to his more human form with enough energy left to drag himself in front of the fireplace of his trophy room, one plume of smoke igniting it just as he yanked the arrow out, feeling chilled and sluggish as he curled up on the stone floor, feeling the squid ink spread inside him like ice-cold water pouring over him. 

He shrugged it off. It would pass. Squid ink did not last forever, particularly on someone as powerful as him. He’d recover in a few days, would get enough magic back under his control to knit the skin back together and move. He was safe in his home and if the girl chanced upon him he trusted she was smart enough to leave him be.

He woke up what felt like days later, and took a moment to take stock of his condition. He felt as lethargic and sluggish as he had anticipated, his magic responding slowly and weakly to his call, but there was no pain, and no discomfort. The overwhelming cold that had taken over him right before he had passed out was gone, and he could feel something soft and heavy draped over him, keeping him toasty warm.

The next thing he noticed was that someone was bathing his face, a soft cloth with warm water passing across his forehead, over his eyelids and down his neck, soothing the slight ache he could feel there, the remains of a fever recently broken. There was a pleasant smell too, like burnt caramel and vanilla, that seemed to engulf him. He turned his head to the side, his nose chasing after the scent, and realised his head was pillowed on something soft. Something that moved.

“Shh, try not to move.”

The cloth was removed, but before he could protest there was a hand carding through his matted hair, nails scraping just so against his scalp, soothing and not at the same time. 

“What can I do to help, Rumplestiltskin?”

“L-little maid?”

He struggled to get out from under the fog he seemed to be trapped in, feeling weak and vulnerable, exposed. 

“Yes, it’s me. I found you like this a day ago. You had a fever, but it’s finally broken. Is there anything else I can do for you? You’re still bleeding, and I can’t make it stop.”

“Get the wisp.”

A dragon’s flame had sentience of its own if a dragon saw fit to grant it, so his little wisp existed independently of his magic, unaffected by the squid ink, so with a flick of his wrist he set it out to guide the maid into his main laboratory, where he stored, in a small, murky bottle, antidote for the ink. He had told her often, during their few encounters around the castle, to stay out of his laboratories. Had gone into details about all the horrible things that could happen to her if she ventured in there. So he expected her to make a valiant attempt at following the wisp only to cower at the last minute, when common sense prevailed over her sickly-sweet disposition. Didn’t matter, though, the squid ink would fade on its own, it would just take a little longer. 

He closed his eyes, intending to rest them for a minute, but when he opened them up again he knew immediately a long time had passed. The next thing he noticed was that there was a complete absence of pain, even the faint headache he had had before was gone, and when he pulled at his magic it answered back readily. He knew before he moved his shoulder that the arrow wound was gone, his muscle and skin having knit themselves together while he slept. He turned towards the fire, noticing a small amber vial next to him, its contents long gone. He recognised it immediately as the bottle where he kept his squid ink counter potion.

So focused was he on that little amber bottle that he almost jumped off the floor when his little maid came into his field of vision, holding one of her ever-present books with one hand and a glass of water with the other.

“Oh, good, you’re awake. I brought you some water.”

“Go away.”

He burrowed deeper into the quilt she had draped around him, trying not to dislodge the pillow she had placed under his head. He thought about teleporting himself to his nest, but he knew his magic was unreliable at best at the moment and it would be foolish to spend himself so when he was just recovering. 

“This is the only fire roaring in the entire castle, and I’m too tired to light the hearth in the kitchen.”

“The wisp can light it for you.”

He knew he was sounding petulant and ungrateful but he didn’t much care. Whatever it would take to get rid of the little chit so he could have some peace and quiet.

“Flicker has done more than enough. He deserves some rest.”

“You named it?!”

He watched as the little wisp came running, as if called, and danced around the maid’s fingers, as if enjoying a caress.

“Some more sleep would do you good, I think. And maybe some food, when you’re up for it.”

He continued to go in and out of sleep, still too weak to feel comfortable using magic but not enough to complacently acquiesce to his little maid’s coddling. Eager for some solitude he tried to scare her away with his temper, conjuring up even a few plumes of fire and more than a bit of smoke, once managing to singe a bit of the hemline of her dress and the spine of one of her precious books. The latter seemed to be the only thing that truly bothered her, causing her to disappear from his side for an entire afternoon. He told himself he was happy about that, but he couldn’t deny the little twinge of relief when she finally came back, carrying a plate with shredded meat and some more water.

“Maybe you’ll be nicer after eating a bit.”

She was fearless, more so than he had previously given her credit for, refusing to shy away no matter what he did to try and spook her. She was, indeed, a most prized treasure, unique amongst humans, which would explain why the Blue Fairy had failed so spectacularly at making her a dragon’s last sacrifice. 

Too good to kill, he decided as he devoured the meat. Once he figured out how to undo what that little gnat had done to them, he would give her some of his gold and let her walk away and explore the world to her heart’s content.

[melonlord98]

Love That Waits: Chapter 1 - Rhea

Summary:

"He had the type of smile that seemed to increase the light in a room when it reached his eyes. Brown eyes. Deep brown eyes that seemed to become molten when he spoke fondly of something. Though she rarely saw him speak much at all since she met him. She was surprised at her own attentiveness in that moment. When the fuck had she started to notice Jey Uso?"

~

A character study of the romantic relationship between Rhea Ripley and Jey Uso, through their eyes and the eyes of the people who love them. Starting from Smackdown 2023 to the present day. Somewhat kayfabe compliant, but also putting my own little spin on the most interesting love story in the WWE Universe!

~

These chapters are all written in third person, so if that bothers you, I'm sorry 😢. The first two chapters will be exploring Rhea and Jey's emotional states as individuals, but from the third chapter onward, each chapter will be split between both of them equally. With bonus chapters from the perspectives of Damian Priest, Jimmy Uso, Sami Zayn, and many others as they watch the relationship between Jey and Rhea blossom.

I will warn everyone in advance. This story is the textbook definition of slow burn and it will also not be including explicit smut. If anything sexual happens between the characters, it'll be more of a "fade to black" type vibe.

I wanted to write this fic to explore how Rhea and Jey truly fell in love with each other as they navigate through their own individual traumas. And since this story begins around 2023, I will admit that Rhea and Jey are not in the best place emotionally early on. So, be warned, "Fluff" is tagged, but it's not coming for a while 🤣.

My hope is to have a new chapter uploaded every week on Wednesday. This is my first fic and I hope you all enjoy! Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!

Btw, all the chapters will be posted on AO3 as well if you prefer to view it there 😊!

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April 18, 2023

The shrill chirp of her alarm was what woke her. She leaned back, her arm sliding away from the slim contour of Dom’s waist as she fumbled to grasp the device. Cursing as it nearly fell off the nightstand. Rhea grunted as she pulled her other arm free from under her lover’s head, narrowly managing to catch her phone as it forcefully separated from the charging chord. She flinched back at the brightness of the screen and stamped the alarm off before tossing it onto the armchair just beside the nightstand. Sitting up dully, her shoulders sagged at the weight of what she now acknowledged was a rapidly growing hangover. Her head ached and she hissed as a sharp thread of pain shot from between her eyebrows and spread to the base of her skull. 

“Fucking, Damian.” She groaned, falling heavily back onto the pillows, with her forearm falling over her eyes. Somehow a room shielded by blackout curtains was still too bright. They had gone out the night before with the Bloodline to celebrate the beginning of their alliance. She wasn’t usually the most overzealous drinker. She typically left those duties to Damian and Dominik, but something about that night had just felt right and so she had indulged them. Fuck was that a mistake.

A throb, just barely there, began to pulse at the right corner of her forehead and she cursed again. She’d swear off drinking if it weren’t so damn numbing. The thought was interrupted, however, by the sharp snort from the man laying next to her. She laughed low in her throat, wincing as action went straight to her aching forehead. Dom was a rather enthusiastic sleeper with a likely undiagnosed case of sleep apnea. Any other person would have been rudely awakened throughout the night by the sheer volume of his snores, but Rhea, who lived in a constant state of bottomless fatigue, often slept with a deepness just on the cusp of death. A match made in heaven (or hell, perhaps some would say).

Turning onto her side, she reached out to stroke delicately at the hair cascading over his ear. She was amused at the state of him. His body was turned away from her, but his neck was tipped back rather awkwardly and his mouth seemed to follow, hanging out to the side as he continued to snore. Her eyes scanned him lazily, stopping occasionally to scrutinize the dark spots on his purple silk pajama top from the steady steam of saliva that dribbled off his lip. A man who sleeps as immaturely as he lives awake. Rhea shook her head fondly at the thought. Her fingers continuing to stroke her fingers absentmindedly through his hair as she fell face first into the usual cogitations.

Her mind drifted to the previous year, the thought of her new beginning. How she and Damian had betrayed Edge and welcomed Finn. There was always something about it that never sat right with her. They had done everything right. She believed that. Edge had never deserved their patronage and so they outgrew him. Yet, it still haunted her. Even as she, surrounded by her two closest friends, had looked down at her old mentor and laughed in his face, that look in his eyes had remained imprinted in her mind. Betrayal. One in what had become a disturbing pattern. Her mind flitted to Raquel, her first loss. Her partner that had chosen everyone else over her. And Liv, a dead weight she had needed to shed the way a snake sheds its old skin; reborn in new, more vibrant color. Friendships she had sacrificed to become better. She was in the right. Edge had reassured her in the beginning. Damian too. She had needed to be selfish. She deserved to be! She was right—

Dom suddenly shifted in his sleep and Rhea jerked her hand back in alarm. His body rolled back toward her, realigning with his head and he smacked his lips before settling back into his usual snores. Not yet awake. Rhea stared at him and she could feel that familiar coldness in her chest. She cowered away from it. Throwing her legs off the side of the bed and nearly falling over herself as she made her way into the bathroom.

The pulsing forehead spread back into her hairline and she sucked air sharply through her nose as she felt bile rising in her throat. She fought against it, knocking her knuckles against the carved marble of the bathroom sink. The bathroom went pitch black as the door slid shut behind her. She couldn’t see anything and yet she felt stripped naked. Her skin hot, yet damp from sweat. As if she had been laying on hot coals. It was always like this when she thought of them. The memory of her many lost friendships like a disease that clung to the darkest parts of her. Parts she had layered over with molten rock and steel. She had made herself a blade, to protect against the reminders of her own past heartbreaks. However, it was moments like these where she felt like a snake eating its own tail.

Edge had told her that to be warm and embrace comfort was weakness. You could never get too comfortable. He did. So she and Damian had showed him the fruits of his labor as they usurped him. Rocking back onto her heels, she flailed for the switch and nearly fell when the white light of the mirror hit her square in the face. Her eyes burned with it, but the pain of the headache had dulled. An old pain replaced with a new one. A cycle she knew well. She could sleep, but she never rested. 

She was able to blink as her eyes slowly adjusted and she finally caught sight of herself in the mirror. As she looked on, she realized that the dampness she had felt on her cheeks had not been sweat but were tears. The wet onslaught had flowed past her chin, soaking the collar of her t-shirt with a pale layer of foundation she had forgotten to remove the night before in her drunken state. Rhea sighed before turning her eyes down and flipped on the sink. She watched curiously as the water pooled in the cup of her hands before shoving it across her face. Repeating the process a couple more times before placing her hands on the counter and leaning fully over the sink. The harsh gush of the faucet a welcome buffer to the never-ending whirring that went on in her head. 

For a while, she just stood and breathed. The yelling chorus of voices in her head eventually came down to a more gentle stage whisper. This allowed her to move her attention to something much more important than her many past lives. She needed coffee! With two harsh pats to her cheeks, Rhea straightened her back and shed her clothes.

The chill of the hotel hallway could be felt even through the thick cotton of her hoodie as she made her way down to the lobby. This hotel was not as nice as the other ones they stayed at in the much larger cities. This hotel chain’s buildings were always old, but now haphazardly disguised with a new coat of a rather jarring orange and baby blue paint combo whose ugliness Damian often bitched about during his hangover-fueled breakfast rants. He was a surprisingly chipper alcoholic on the morning after a long night of indulgence. Grumpy, but eloquent. Rhea would typically call him in the mornings and they would eat breakfast as a duo, since Finn and Dominik was particularly unpleasant if not allowed to rise of their own accord. This morning, however, she didn’t feel that she had the patience to deal with what Rhea knew would be a good-natured parental lecture about how she “actively suppressed her negative feelings”. Followed closely by an accusation of taking it out on her boyfriend who was no where near as strong as she was. Damian could do it later, once Rhea had been filled with a minimum of three cups of heavily sweetened coffee. 

She stopped in her tracks just as she turned the corner into the lobby at the sight of a familiar face (or back rather). Jey Uso’s silhouette was hard to miss and she would be lying if she said she hadn’t snuck a handful of curious peaks backstage. He had his back to her, his arms hung bare through the cropped sleeves of his shirt and she could see the slight curve at the bottom of his spine that peaked out from the slit in the equally cropped bottom of his t-shirt. Her eyes moved back to the tattooed contours of his arms, the intricate line work shifting and bending with every minute flex. Art in motion. Rhea was always one to appreciate the artistry of a good tattoo. She and Jey had chatted enthusiastically at the club the night before about their many tattoos, though much of the conversation now only existed in jumbled scraps throughout her memory. His face had been so bright then. He had the type of smile that seemed to increase the light in a room when it reached his eyes. Brown eyes. Deep brown eyes that seemed to become molten when he spoke fondly of something. Though she rarely saw him speak much at all since she met him. She was surprised at her own attentiveness in that moment. When the fuck had she started to notice Jey Uso?

Rhea thought back to all the months before. All the confrontations, but nothing really stood out until yesterday. She’d known of him, but she didn’t know him. Even now, in the infancy of this new alliance. Last night was the first time she’d actually spoken to him outside of provoking him to Super Kick her in the ring. She looked at him wholly now. The coffee long forgotten as she pondered him. Apparently, this was a morning of way too much thought. But she’d worry about that later. Something about him drew her in. Made her want to know more as she continued to watch him prepare his breakfast. Now, leaning lazily against the counter as he waited for a paper cup to fill with orange juice. Rhea pondered Jey Uso’s appearance. His hair, his skin, his tattoos, his build. Once again, she had to admit that he was nice to look at. 

However, that was never what truly interested her about him. There was a heat to him. Something buried so deep, yet burned so bright that you could narrowly manage to avoid getting scorched by it. A longing for something that she didn’t think she’d ever be able to figure out without asking him herself; something she’d never even dream of doing. 

Rhea was brought out of her contemplation by the stiff jerk of Jey’s hand as he thrust it into his pocket. She looked on as he glanced around warily before pulling a small pill orange bottle out of his pocket. He hastily popped the white cap and levied the a couple tabs into his palm before tossing his head back and quickly downing the contents of his cup to chase it. Prescriptions from the looks of it. Considering who he fell under, she wouldn’t be too surprised if it was anxiety medication.

Jey bowed his head as he swallowed, the muscles of his back tensing under the thin black layer of his t-shirt. But it was his hand that truly caught her eye. The one not gripping the pill bottle lay open. She could see the patchwork of callouses that decorated the weathered skin there. But to her surprise, his hand was shaking rather violently. From the tips of his fingers to the curve of his shoulder. His whole body taught and coiled like a snake, poised to strike at the first sign of a threat. As her eyes made their way about him, she came to the unnerving realization that his feet were no longer facing away from her and when her head snapped up she was met eye to eye with him. The swiftness with which Jey moved had been what startled her initially, but her focus quickly pivoted to his eyes. No, what hid behind them. Or rather what didn’t. There was nothing there. A calculated emptiness. They both remained anchored in place. She wasn’t afraid to move nor was she afraid of him, but something was keeping her there. Something was keeping him there. Looked in at the eyes, but neither spoke. What was there to say anyway? Any individual with a single modicum of intelligence would tell you that it would be ill-advised to speak to someone who looked you the way that Jey was now. Like an animal. If he had gun it would be drawn. The empty heat she had been pondering before was now looking right at her and she couldn’t look away­–

“Hey, Rhea!” Rhea was embarrassed to think about the rather indignant noise she made at the sound of Damian’s voice that called from down the hallway. She whipped around. Her face set into a glower that deepened as she noticed the crooked-toothed smile Damian flashed back at her.

“Yo, take it easy. Did I scare you?” he teased, nudging her suggestively with his elbow as he came to stand next to her. She turned her head dramatically, her face pinched into a pout as she shoved him back. 

“Fuck off, Priest.” Her voice dripping with an exasperated fondness that she only ever offered to him. He shrugged before pulling his loosely tied robe closer around him and crossing his arms over his chest. His face the picture of amused curiosity as he said, “I called out a couple times and you didn’t answer. So, I got creative.”

Rhea blew air at her bangs, snorting a laugh as she said, “By creative, you mean loud, right?” He shrugged again, then he glanced behind her. Seemingly looking for something that he couldn’t find. She followed his gaze over her shoulder and almost audibly sighed in relief when she noticed Jey was no longer standing there glaring at her.

“Whatcha lookin’ for?” she questioned with feigned innocence. Damian did seem to clock it in his hungover state, but he just shook his head. “Nothing. You just seemed lost in something.” he said matter-of-factly.

“Nah, just staring off into space waiting for our usual appointed breakfast date.” Damian scoffed, but made no objection to her explanation, moving past her toward the breakfast spread where Jey had once stood. She could still almost envision the perfect silhouette of Jey as he had been just moments before. A ghostly visage with some kind of death reflected in his eyes. An emptiness she now realized felt so familiar, because it was one she shared within herself. A loss of something. Of someone. A loss of innocence that only your greatest love can cause. A loss she’d felt twice but had been remedied by the new family she had now. Maybe Jey could use a new family too. She laughed out loud at the absurdity of the thought and Damian fixed her with a concerned look but made no moves to address it. She resumed her pondering. Jey was too loyal to be fooled out of leaving his family. An absurd thought on her part. Impossible at worst. Yet another thing she’d add to the long list she chose to worry about at a later time.

Or she was full of shit, because even as she made her plate and get several cups of coffee in her system (maybe there was a way to just inject it into her veins first thing in the morning instead. She’d have to do research on it.), her mind wandered back to Jey Uso. More alarmingly, Roman Reigns. A man she had yet to lay eyes on in-person yet loomed large over the union of the two factions. The deal had been made by him. Paul Heyman had just been the typical obedient messenger. When she considered it, Roman was largely responsible for the man that Rhea had narrowly avoided a confrontation with just minutes before. He had beaten Jey down so completely that he was left with only his instincts to guide him. A weapon Roman had sharpened to act as an extension of himself. Jey was no longer an individual, but a cog in the great machine that Roman Reigns had built his now vast empire out of.

Roman was a familiar shadow to her. Like her own mentor, who haunted her even now. Roman Reigns did not seem like the type who took kindly to betrayal. Those who grew brave enough to stand before him was put down expeditiously. It’s why the Judgment Day had agreed to the alliance. Why try and fight a god, just to lose everything, when he’s willing to make you kings? Their faction was still young and while they didn’t have much to lose, fear was enough. Perhaps Edge would be ashamed of them now. The man who thought he was bulletproof. The one who taught them to fear nothing, but he showed his weakness then. He made them too strong, too strong to need him and they took full advantage. They had felled the king who believed himself to be the same god that Roman was. 

Still, maybe Roman’s time would be coming soon too. The tension radiated off all the members of the Bloodline in waves. Sami Zayn had opened a door inside a house that every believed to be forged shut with steel. A door no one had thought to check for. And answer to a question that she was sure none of the Bloodline had ever dared to ask. 

But that was none of her business. What choices the Bloodline members chose to make didn’t matter to her. So long as they stayed out of her way.

[fioreofthemarch]

Finding Her - final chapter

Link makes notes, takes photos and keeps time on his quest across Hyrule, in the hopes of finding Zelda and staying sane until he does. [ Previous | First | AO3 ] with artwork by @nocturnalfandomartist at the end!

A photograph of Hyrule Castle seated on a rocky mesa of petrified Gloom. Where once malice and corruption rose high into the air, there is nothing but clear skies. 

A photograph of the rolling meadows of Hyrule Field, with Lookout Landing approaching just over the next hill. Ahead of the camera walks a woman wearing traditional garb, her short golden hair still a little damp.

A photograph of a group of Sheikah, young and old, at the gates of Lookout Landing as they greet the golden-haired woman. Their arms are outstretched towards her, tears in their eyes. 

A photograph of the five Sages of Hyrule, crowded around the woman as they draw her into a group embrace. The woman has her back to the camera as a young Gerudo vai hugs her tightly. 

The same picture as above, only now the woman has turned to the photographer. She smiles, surrounded by her friends and allies. Despite the weariness on her face, she radiates warmth and contentment. She is finally home. 

Caption: Thank you Rauru and Sonia. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you tha

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Scanned text uploaded. Eight (8) documents have been added to the Purah Pad.

1. BATTLE IN THE SKIES: A SPECIAL LUCKY CLOVER GAZETTE REPORTby Penn of Rito Village (Guest Correspondent)

26th Satorember 104AC 

The citizens of Hyrule were treated to an extraordinary sight yesterday after what appeared to be an enormous, demonic dragon emerged from the ruins of Hyrule Castle.

It was approximately midday when what is being dubbed the ‘Demon Dragon’ appeared. Eyewitness accounts state that a second entity, which some have called the ‘Light Dragon’, was also spotted and appeared to confront the Demon Dragon, however this has not been verified. 

About an hour after the Demon Dragon appeared, there was a colossal explosion in the skies that caused several grassfires on Hyrule Field. These were swiftly contained by brave volunteers of the Zonai Survey Team who happened to be in the area. The Gazette can confirm there were no ground casualties.

Earlier this week, the swordsman Link and the Sages of Hyrule departed Lookout Landing to mount an assault on the Demon King Ganondorf. The outcome of that battle is not yet known, and investigations continue as to whether this mission has any links to the Demon Dragon. 

More to come. 

2. A letter, with a stamp that reads ‘Rito Courier Certified’

Link,

Forgive the chicken scratch, I don’t write a lot of letters. 

I heard the Princess is back. Good for her. Knew she wouldn’t abandon us. Good job dealing with the Demon King too -- you saved all our tailfeathers there. 

Tulin’s back with us now. Just writing to say thank you. He’s got a long way to go, but I can tell that hanging out with some responsible adults has put him on the right track. Though sometimes I wish he’d never learned about this Sage business. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard ‘Would a Sage have to do his chores, Dad?’ Ridiculous. 

If either you or the Princess need a holiday, Rito Village welcomes you. I’d sure like to hear the story of the battle against Ganondorf from someone other than a cocky teenager. Let’s just hope that’s the last of Hyrule’s troubles for now. We all enjoy a good fight, now and then, but a broken wing never really heals if you know what I mean.

Fly well, Teba, Elder of Rito Village 

3. A pamphlet advertisement printed on paper that smells of fireproof elixir

MINE-CART LAND: GRAND OPENING 

YUNOBOCO IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE PRIDE OF ELDIN CANYON, NOW OPENING TO THE PUBLIC FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. COME FOR A FUN-FILLED DAY WITH ACTIVITIES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY:

‘THE ROCK ROAST REBELLION’ DINNER AND SHOW 

MINE CART RIDES AND TARGET MINI-GAME

MINE TOURS 

MINING

THIS ONE-OF-A-KIND ATTRACTION IS NOT TO BE MISSED. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL YUNOBOCO SALESGORON FOR TICKETS. 

FIREPROOF ELIXIR SOLD SEPARATELY.

YunoboCo is the author of this pamphlet for the purpose of copyright. © YunoboCo 104AC

(overleaf)

Link! Zelda! 

Look at this! Isn’t it great!? We got it back from the Lucky Clover Gazette just today. Took a bit of negotiating with Traysi to let us use her printers, but we got it done. I can’t believe Mine-Cart Land is gonna open for real — it’s all thanks to you or we’d all be Demon King lunch!

The other Sages said you’d gone back to Hateno to rest. They’ve all got fire ants in their pants wanting to get back to rebuilding, but I say we’ve all deserved a break. How many people can say they saved the world twice? 

Anyway, let us know next time you’re in Eldin. Slergo and Offrak have been asking about you every day. Dinner’s on us!

Yunobo 

4. A letter written in silver ink on lily white paper, in cursive that borderlines on unreadable 

The 8th Day of Octoroktober, 104 After Calamity 

Princes Zelda Bosphoramus Hyrule 5 Wildflower Crossing, Hateno Village Necluda, Hyrule 

The Reception Celebration of the Wedding of Their MajestiesKing Sidon and Queen Yona of the Zora 

By command of the King, the Advisor Muzu is directed to invite

Princess Zelda Bosphoramus Hyrule And Sir Link, Knight-Captain of the Hyrule Royal Guard

to be present at Zora’s Domain on the 3rd day of Naydrember, 104AC

Dear Princess Zelda, 

I hope your recovery in Hateno with Sir Link has been restorative. As Winter draws closer and the days shorter, time of respite is often best spent with close companions. 

My dear Sidon has told me all of what happened to you in the ancient past, and I must extend my deepest sympathies for the hardships you have endured. I cannot even begin to imagine them. I must also express my gratitude that Sidon has returned to us. While he is so humble as to pass all credit for the victory against the Demon King to Sir Link and his fellow Sages, to those in Zora’s Domain he is a hero.  

It would give us great joy if you could join us in a month’s time for I do so wish to meet you. However, I will understand completely if you choose to remain in the quiet solace of home. 

Sincerely, Queen Yona of Zora’s Domain

5. An informal letter, written in an assured hand 

Zelda,

Did you also get an invite to Sidon and Yona’s wedding? Or second wedding? I’ve never even been to Zora’s Domain. You will have to tell me what to wear. Is it cold? Is there really water everywhere? Not that I have a problem with that. 

So your sabbatical with Link has been just ‘good’? I get the sense you’re holding back details. If you don’t want to put anything in writing, you can call me using the Purah Pad. I could tell, Zelda, that when Link brought you to Lookout Landing after our battle with the Demon King, he couldn’t wait to whisk you away again. And what’s this about leaving Hateno next week? So soon!

I suppose I understand. You and I have our kingdoms to take care of. It is nothing less than our duty to do as much as we can. Heroines, I don’t think I’ve ever had a holiday. Even going to Lanayru is ‘official business’ as Chief of the Gerudo. But I will get to see you, and we can talk and laugh and drink all evening. Until then, sister. 

(Or you can simply call me! I want to hear everything, Zelda. Even if he proposes. ESPECIALLY if he proposes). 

Yours, Riju

6. A typed letter, on paper with a watermark of a Sheikah eye 

10.20.104AC

Princess Zelda and Champion Link Lookout Landing Central Hyrule

Princess, Champion--

Thank you for your latest report from Lookout Landing on the rebuilding efforts post-Upheaval. I trust that Purah isn’t working you too hard and that Josha is proving a very dedicated assistant. I know that Impa’s instruction was for you to rest as long as you need, however I disagree. On the contrary, I believe that engagement and activity is the best way to stay invigorated. It worked for me after all.  

I’m pleased to report that the manufacture of a second Purah Pad is nearly complete. I’ll need to finish the work at my lab in Akkala, so will be returning there. You’re welcome to visit any time. I suggest doing so before Dincember. Once Winter starts in Akkala, it really settles in. 

Speaking of Akkala, Granté visited last week and wishes to relay that the house Link purchased from the Hudson Construction Company is complete. He also said something about not knowing if you wanted plants or children’s toys in the house and that he ended up purchasing both. I suggest you liaise with him directly on that matter. 

Regards, Robbie 

7. A hastily scrawled note bearing the mark of the red Yiga eye

To the scoundrel who calls himself Link,

You have slighted us for the last time! Master Kohga will have his vengeance. 

Already our forces gather weapons of ultimate death beyond your comprehension! Just last month, we debuted the HOVERDOOM MK.4!   

Your day of reckoning approaches. As soon as we find his excellency , you will know true fear! So just let us know if you have seen him… if you want to live!!

Damn it, why am I even writing this note? I’ll just leave it in our hideout in Karusa Valley. Link will never get in there… 

8. A carefully and neatly written note, on lined paper 

Zelda, Hyrule’s adored Princess 

I am dictating this note to Josha, as my construct arms cannot grasp a writing quill. I had intended to create an attachment to allow this, however it was not to be. 

It is my request that you gather the Sages to Lookout Landing, where Link and I have built a new balloon ship. Link may no longer have my brother's arm to aid him, but his strength and endurance have proven invaluable in this endeavour. With this ship I intend to bring everyone to the Temple of Time on the Great Sky Island. It will be my gift to them as Sages, and then I must depart. 

There are words I must say before then that I fear will fail me if I try to convey them to you in person. However, you mean a great deal to me, so I have written them down instead. 

Zelda, my dear friend. You had no obligation to aid my people, yet you sacrificed everything to do so. When I thought all was lost against the Demon King, your faith and hope for the future gave me the will to continue. It was your bravery in the face of annihilation and your vigilance over many millennia that turned the tides in our favour and allowed us to finally end the war. Hyrule will be forever in your debt and this act will be your legend. 

I am merely grateful to have survived to your era, to have met your friends and allies (whose wedding feast I was honoured to attend), and to have seen that Hyrule will be under the care of those who are not only wise, but courageous and kind. One such Hyrulean sits at my side now, helping me write you this letter. 

As a final note – during your absence, I saw firsthand just how deeply Link cares for you. When you described him to me, I pictured a brave Knight of course, but the Link I met was more than that. He overflowed with tenacity, even in his darkest moments, and while the past half-year has been difficult, I don’t think he ever truly gave up hope of seeing you again. You are to him as the sky to the stars and the ocean to the waves; whatever you dream of he will dedicate himself to its fruition. I will leave you content in the knowledge that together, you will guide Hyrule to new beginnings and greater futures. 

We will be ready to travel to the Great Sky Island in three days. I hope you will join us on the journey.

— Mineru 

---

Log date: 14:00. 11th month, 12th day 104ACLocation: Akkala Beach, AkkalaWeather: Calm 

Well, it is done. I have read every log, viewed every photo and listened to every recording on this Purah Pad. It is quite the account; the valiant quest of Link, a Knight of Hyrule, to awaken the Sages, defeat the Demon King, and reunite with his beloved Princess Zelda. 

With me. 

I scarcely know where to begin. I can hardly believe I am here at all. Yet, I am here, thanks to Link and the Sages, and Queen Sonia and King Rauru… All of them devoted themselves to Hyrule’s salvation, for which I will always be grateful. Link tells me I was of aid in the final battle, and while it is true that my power was able to restore the Master Sword, a blade is only as strong as its wielder. 

So is this it then? Is this true peace, after all this time? I myself have been restless, falling from memory to memory. I cannot shake Rauru and Sonia from my mind. They were the ones who gave me my life back after all, or so Mineru theorised before she left us. It feels like only yesterday that I was dining with them all in their grand palace. I keep expecting to find Rauru in his hall talking with his constituents, or Sonia out in a garden tending the flowers, or Mineru lost in a book within her vast library. I wish we could be together, but I take solace that they can now rest. I will honour them by protecting the Kingdom that fate has passed to my care – it seems the least I can do. 

Since that fateful day of the defeat of the Demon King, Link and I have attempted to rest. However, I believe it is in neither of our natures. We spent some time in Hateno, the first two days of which we did little more than sleep. During that time, Link clung to me day and night, protesting the second I was out of his grasp, as though to pin me to the earthly realms lest I float up into the sky again. Then, once it became clear I was back for good, neither of us could bear lazing about. The more he told me of his quest to find me, the more I wanted to see all of our friends and allies again. The more I told him of my journey in the past, the more he wanted to show me the Zonai relics he had found. We were back on the road within a week, and have just come from Lookout Landing to visit Akkala and see our new house. 

In quiet moments I have been reading the extensive field notes that Link has kept on this Purah Pad. I cannot describe the feelings they provoke in me. I am constantly struck by the tremendous efforts of all those in Hyrule. Their headstrong Princess set another Calamity upon them, and never did they despair, only banding together to vanquish Ganondorf once and for all. And Link… he suffered so greatly when he learned what happened to me. I’ve felt compelled to apologise for it, and often. When I was lost in the past I ached to return home, but I accepted my sacrifice as necessary. I never thought what sacrifice really meant. To lose yourself is one thing; but to be lost to all those who love you? Such consequence didn't occur to me at the time. 

He does love me, doesn't he? It overwhelms me to read his words, they tremble with it. Yet somehow I never knew. I was so foolish as to never even tell him myself. All that time together, before the Calamity, before the Upheaval, and we never said such simple words. We took for granted that which felt obvious but could be so much richer if confessed. We’ve remedied that now, many times over. And I do love him, more than anything, and I want the life he dreamed of for us. Certainly, we have already begun, first with the house in Akkala, and lately with much practice at the necessary steps towards a family of our own. (I do hope no one but Link ever reads this.)

To that point, this will be my only entry into this particular Purah Pad. It is no longer mine. Through every hardship and triumph of the past half year, this little device has been Link’s constant companion. So I entrust it to him now, to continue recording our story and the story of Hyrule. I pray it will be a good one, though perhaps with a little less excitement than what has occurred thus far.

By the Goddess’ Grace,

Zelda 

A photograph of Link, resting underneath the shade of a palm tree on Akkala Beach. He wears his ancient Zonai tunic – a makeshift beach outfit – and has his hair loose. His eyes are closed and he appears to be taking in the warmth of the sun, and the cool of the ocean breeze. 

Caption: I better wake him up, the sleepyhead...

---

Log date: 14:30. 11th month, 12th day 104ACLocation: Akkala Beach, AkkalaWeather: Calm

A lot has happened. Plenty to write. This Purah Pad has given me a voice I didn’t know I had. Think I’ll start with an account of how we defeated the Demon King (or Demon Dragon) for that Lucky Clover Gazette column Penn mentioned… 

But not now. Not for a long while. 

Zelda’s here. We’re both here. It’s a sunny Autumn day and we have a home to go back to, one that’s up on a hill, overlooking the sea. I’ll make her dinner; a meat and rice bowl maybe, with ginger and Hyrule herb? Then tomorrow we’re back on the road – the whole Kingdom is ours to explore. I’m up for anything – somewhere new to find, someone new to meet, a new puzzle, a new enemy, a new fight. I can face it all, face anything, with her or without. But it doesn’t matter, not right now. She's here, in my arms, watching me type this. Better not write too long. Fate gave us back the time we nearly lost. I’m going to make the most of it. 

Until next you hear from me, 

Link 

A photograph of Link and Zelda, together on the shore of Akkala Beach, the sun shining above. Link laughs and blushes as Zelda snaps the photo – still smitten, even after all this time. 

Caption: Home and heart, heart and home. 

artwork by the wonderful @nocturnalfandomartist

[lathez]

@sulphuricgrin and @kiir-do-faal-rahhe thank you for tagging me in wip Wednesday! :3 since I'm already uploading a finished chapter of Epistle and Elegy tonight, I thought I'd post the opening of a chapter from my WIP fic "The Five Descents of Naome," which I'm planning to post as a completed work. Obviously no edits on this bad boy.

I TAG @pocket-vvardvark @hadvarandralof

Some light gore in this but I don't think it's anything too bad <3

I. THE BAD PLACE

Dovey-Rose awakens to the sensation of late summer prairie grass brushing against her skin and the distinctive scent of Sleeping Tree lilac tickling her nose. She lifts her sleep-hazy gaze to her baby girl's squishy cheeks and happily scrunched blue eyes, her chubby fingers gripped tightly around a soft purple blossom looming in her mother’s sight. The unclouded blue of Whiterun summer sets the little girl in a mid-afternoon halo. She lifts a hand to caress her baby-soft cheek. Having a daughter, she thinks, must be the closest thing to Aetherius a mortal can comprehend. 

Hi Momma. Amia signs, accompanied by a wave of the lilac sprig. Grandpa Isran Flower! Dove pushes herself up on her elbows, pulls her daughter into her arms, and presses a kiss to her forehead, adjusting the loose springs of curls slipping from her braids with the delicate touch of the prairie winds.

“Yes, that’s his favorite flower. He’d be right pleased to have it,” She speaks in accompaniment with each sign. But I might take it first!

Amia wiggles excitedly, hiding her dimpled smile behind the blossom before darting off in a very determined toddle, laughing as her bare feet stamp the prairie’s earthy soil. Dove’s loved her daughter long enough to know this is her silent challenge; you’ll have to catch me first! 

She gives her a momentary headstart before giving chase, the dry grasses grazing her hips, monoliths of bluestem casting golden shadows on her skin. Amia can’t seem to stop giggling as they traipse through the plains, pausing on occasion to pocket a smooth stone, a withering mass of sea oats, a lone bog violet. The growing collection touches Dove’s heart; these are the favorite things of Sorine, Agmaer, and Serana. What could bless a mother more than to see her child seek small kindnesses?

Each wobble-footed stamp tosses her daughter’s curls about her cheeks, her tiny stuffed mudcrab backpacked across her shoulders getting a face full of hair with every bounce. When her sweet girl looks back to see her mother chasing her, she squeals in delight, her nose scrunching up with her smile. 

That nose, that smile, the way her eyes crinkled at the corners. As Isran told it, Amia was born smiling. Happy to meet her mother, who had loved her so much already, he’d said. That baby girl could crack the coldest heart open. 

Sorine had pertinently informed him that she already had, and gestured towards the vampire hunter, drawing a rare chuckle. I thought Isran forgot how to laugh. Sorine had said softly in the library that evening between sips of spiced wine. It’s good. Mia is good for him. For all of us.

The light prairie colors begin to fade into the tall wild rye, and Dove quickens her playful pace as Amia runs headlong into the sunny labyrinth. Even with the wind kissing her cheeks, the grueling heat of deep Last Seed wears the excitement of the chase thin. Running has never been her strongest combat capability; no one could blame her. Try outrunnin’ a pissed off sabre cat after havin’ a kid. She’d drunkenly joked to Serana once. You’ll sure be pissed, just not off. 

“Mia baby, you sure can wear a girl out,” She huffs as she reaches down to scoop Amia’s shadow out of the brush and into her waiting arms. Instead, confusion seizes her as her foot catches on a prairie burrow, her embrace only serving to cushion her fall as her ribs hit the dusty soil. It knocks the wind out of her. She stays there for a moment, catching her breath, rolling her ankle to ensure it isn’t twisted. Good luck -- only a few scrapes to the elbows to show for the matter. She stands and brushes the dust off her day dress, sighing as she notices yet another tear in the seams. Another patch. Serana will be displeased. 

What follows this rather mundane line of thinking is the groan of anxiety settling in her stomach. Around her, mid-day winds rustle the rye. In the far distance, an elk lays hoof upon dried switchgrass. Farther still, a wolf howls. But there is no gurgling laugh, no tiny feet padding about the soil, no crush of flora in search of a pathway. No, in the matter of seconds she had been down, she had lost all auditory indications of her daughter’s whereabouts. And how? Only just a moment past, she was nearly beneath her. A toddler cannot run fast or far. There is only so much agility their tiny forms afford them. 

She takes a quenching breath. Her daughter is here. Somewhere. Distracted by a rabbit, perhaps, or kneeling in the dirt, constructing an effigy out of prairie clay. A mud crab, probably, or an unflattering portrait of her mother. This sets her whirling mind at ease, and she sets off North through the rye, stepping gingerly to avoid any further falls, ignoring the uncomfortable caress of the wraith grass at her hips. 

Motherly instincts tell her to call out for her daughter; these she ignores. Amia was born profoundly deaf; she could hear little but the shadows of a word or phrase with a mouth and a hand cupped to her ear. Across the wide prairie, and with the increasing cry of the wind, it’s doubtful anything would reach her. Dove settles for Laas-Yah-Nir, tossing her voice into the grass expanses to capture her daughter’s aura. A few butterflies. A prairie dog. To her left, a slow-shambling deer. Her throat grows tight. Aura Whisper reveals anything within an acreage. How could she have gone so far so quickly? 

Too soon the grasses give way to pine-littered cliffs, and anxiety again seizes territory in her belly. Amia simply couldn’t have gone this far -- the stones were too wetted with moss, the thick clay paths too muddy for a barefoot toddler to make adequate footing. Her mind fills with images of her daughter sliding off the mountain, crumpled in a heap in the stony tundras below. No. She pushes this away and takes a moment to orient herself, mustering another bout of Aura Whisper. Her heart jumps in relief. Far away the hazy red outline of a little girl appears, though how she managed to get so far Dove can’t comprehend. The woods before her is dense and sticky with coniferous trees, with hardly any room for movement between the tightly packed trees. Still, she unsheaths her dagger and begins to cut into the pine. 

It’s soon after that Aura Whisper flickers away, and she loses sight of her daughter again. She groans in frustration as she cuts into a small clearing, hands, and arms impaled with pine needles and sticky with sap. She whirls around, attempting to acclimate herself. The clearing is shrouded, nearly completely dark. Was it not then just noon? As she slices another thick swath of needles away, a thickening fog settles amongst the trees. Were she not to know any better, she would assume it were late evening, minutes after sundown, the last cries of orange torn from the sky. A sense of urgency beats at her back. 

“Laas-Yah-Nir,” She whispers, but the forest comes back dead. For an acre on each side of her, nothing is alive. The urgency turns to panic, nausea overwhelming her, making her dizzy.  

“Amia? Baby?” Dovey cries. She wants to scream in frustration at the hopelessness of the act. She settles for a Fus-Ro-Dah and shouts with all her might -- hoping the sheer volume will reach her little ears. Her efforts are only met with the collapse of the tree before her, creaking as it falls with a boom to the forest floor. It almost seems mocking. If a tree falls in the woods, no one hears it. 

When the great thrush of displaced leaves settles down, she is met with the sight of an elk gnawing, unbothered by her destruction, on a pinecone.

What possesses her to approach the antlered creature is unclear, but so she does, slowly, a trembling hand outstretched. The presence of the elk provides a momentary ease from her anxiousness. So this forest had not stilled after all. As if to solidify its image before her, she reaches out across the still-shivering tree leaves to stroke the fluffy fur about its neck. 

It does not scatter at her touch as expected but lifts its head above the branches. The elk’s eyes are of an inkiness she’d never encountered in a living creature. The thought strikes her then, enraptured in its strangeness, that Aura Whisper had not revealed this Elk to her. The realization makes her quickly uncomfortable, her knuckles going white on the dagger. It tilts its head, and in a graveled tone, as if spoken between episodic choking:

“This is the bad place.” 

Dovey has stared into the eyes of the World-Eater. She has met the slick cast eye of Daedra with steel. She has borne the vile gaze of many men upon her form, and yet, as the Elk stands with great effort upon its hindlegs, its intention trained upon her, she has never quite so badly wanted to be unseen. Its shadow looms over her, and its jaw moves slack, as if a hand were puppeteering its speech.  

“This is the bad place.”

“Where is my daughter?” She shouts in response, brandishing the dagger outwards to distract from the shake of her knees. The elk takes a hobbling step forward, and as it steps out from behind the tree, Dove feels her lunch rise in her throat. Where soft brown fur had been only a moment before was now a splay of organs, ribs sawed open, lungs inflating and deflating upon the creature’s skinned chest. The belly has been gored, the furls of intestine still unraveling and sitting awkward and bulky below its lacerated liver, as if they had been removed and restuffed in haste. With each step forward its hoofs squish the grisly rope, the tension serving to unravel more of itself.  

There’s no pause. She runs, trying to block out the sounds of hooves moving ever faster behind her, the sound of guts squelching and splattering to the ground. Her hands go to her ears, pine needles cutting her skin bloody as she desperately searches for any indication of a path out. 

“Dove,” 

It knows her name. It knows her name. She hears its whispers as if it were right behind her, hot breath against her ear. 

“You can’t keep her safe forever.”

The phrase sends her tumbling to her knees, skinning them bloodied in the stony dirt. Hoof steps slow and stop behind her as she bends down in a sob, pressing her elbows tightly against her ears. The creature makes a deathly noise behind her, the sound of someone gargling stones. 

“How very Dove Katherine. Always pushing forward,” it whispers. She feels the cold keratin of hooves on her spine, the wet of its gore dripping on her neck. “If you’d only take a moment to look back.”

She hears the body of the elk collapse behind her, a stinking sick mess of decimated organs splattering against her back. Dread unlike anything she’s ever felt clasps itself around her heart. She bends down in reverence, trembling hands palming the ground, and prays to Akatosh. When she feels the gore begin to seep through her dress, she swallows her fear and turns. 

Amia swings slowly back and forth from a tree branch behind her, one tiny eye hanging from the socket, tongue lolled out, little hands cold and limp at her sides. A thick noose cut from the elk’s intestines adorns her neck. Dove can’t find the words to speak, only deep, guttural screams leaving her throat as she sobs. The forest trembles with the power, trees around her felling as she weeps.

Through spotty vision she scrambles to pull her daughter’s body from the noose, breaking the gore in two as she collapses on top of her baby, touching her cool skin delicately. With tears dripping onto her daughter’s freckled cheeks she gently pushes her eye back into the socket, closes her mouth, readjusts her hair. 

“Baby, my baby…” She sobs, her voice going hoarse as she grasps at Amia’s small, freezing body, embracing it as if enough love might bring it back to life. 

It was only in recent years that Amia had gotten big enough to give and return hugs, and ever since then, she couldn’t be stopped. Agmaer once had to hobble around the fort with a little hitchhiker hugging his leg; he didn’t have the heart to peel her off. 

Mommy She had signed one day, wiggling her fingers, her thumb against her chin. When hug you, you can’t see love you.

Dove had laughed and kissed her nose. I know you love me. I love you. That what hugs for. 

Amia had shook her head decidedly, crossing her arms. It was an attitude habit she’d picked up from Isran, one that always made Serana grin. She’d sighed and pulled the little girl into her lap, hugging her tightly, and tapped five fingers one-by-one on her back, each tap earning a giggle. 

Like that, she’d signed as she pulled away. Five taps means love you.

As she holds Amia’s corpse in her arms, five small fingers tap slowly down her back. 

She’s paralyzed. Amia stares back at her, eyes dead, lips blue, but moving. Slowly, she lifts her mother’s hand and closes it around something. Dove draws her eyes away for only a moment as she stares at her daughter’s last gift. 

In her palm lay the still-twitching remnants of a spider. 

[perfectlysanexd]

An archive post for all of my Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis - The First SOLDIER videos. We're going through the whole game, for the love of Sephiroth! Whether you hate mobile games or just don't have the time to grind, you can skip it all here and just enjoy the story.

Or, if you prefer, you can go straight to the Youtube playlist here! The Youtube playlist for the seasonal and event videos is here. Also, posts with all the wallpapers from the game in 1920x1080 are linked at the bottom of this post. ⬇

Note: This game is broken up into soooo many tiny parts. Why, Square? I mean, it's easier to upload, but...it's convoluted. Also, why does the first episode have the same name as the main section title??

Chapter 01: Rhadore Archipelago Survey Main Section 01: Team Glenn's First Mission Episode 01: Team Glenn's First Mission Episode 02: SOLDIER P0 Class Episode 03: Ribbit Sub Section 01: The Sijad Expedition Episode 01: That Thing Episode 02: The Wrong Island Main Section 02: Danger on the La'paina Coast Episode 01: Guided by Stamp Main Section 03: Orchard of Repose Episode 01: The Boy on the Island Sub Section 02: Team Glenn's Decision Episode 01: As Leader Main Section 04: An Anomalous Orchard Episode 01: A Quiet Struggle

Chapter 02: Rosen's Duty Main Section 01: Orchard on the Front Lines Episode 01: A Proposal Too Good Main Section 02: The Rhadoran Lifeline Episode 01: A Chimney Dearer Than Life Itself Episode 02: The Proud Eye of Rhadore Sub Section 01: A Moment with the Boy Episode 01: Vessels of Honor Episode 02: Everlasting Smoke Episode 03: A Gourmet Meal Main Section 03: The Rhadoran Communications Line Episode 01: White Smoke and SOS Main Section 04: Padapili Sea Cave Episode 01: Padapili Sea Cave Main Section 05: The Radiori Coastline Episode 01: Faint Bonds

Chapter 03: An Unfamiliar, Hostile Island Main Section 01: Out at Sea Episode 01: Crossing the Ocean Main Section 02:The Main Island Episode 01: Blindsided Sub Section 01: To the Site Episode 01: An Important Job Episode 02: The Greatest Reward Episode 03: A Faraway Friend Main Section 03: Establishing a Base Episode 01: Team Glenn's Camp Main Section 04: The Mission Begins Episode 01: Candidate Site Search Episode 02: Securing the Area

Chapter 04: Attack of the Rhadoran Main Section 01: Ruins of Certain Death Episode 01: Doom Dodger Episode 02: Magnets Episode 03: The Pursuers Episode 04: A Way Out Episode 05: Help From Above Episode 06: Four SOLDIERs of Shinra

Chapter 05: A Hero's World Main Section 01: Comeback Episode 01: A New Leader, A New Day Main Section 02: The Hidden Truth Episode 01: A Deceptive Ploy Episode 02: Reasons Undisclosed Episode 03: The Origins of a Hero Main Section 03: A World Torn Episode 01: An Unprecedented Weapon of Destruction Episode 02: A Cyborg's Instincts Episode 03: Proof of Existence

Chapter 06: Memories of the Planet Main Section 01: Shinra Power Episode 01: Peace at Last The Rest of Chapter 06 is here, in one post.

Chapter 07 is here, in one post.

Chapter 08 is here, in one post.

Other Videos: The Secret Sweetheart Seasonal Event The Ever Crisis x Rebirth Crossover Event (Nibelheim) The Ever Crisis x Rebirth Crossover Event (A New Journey)

In-Game Wallpapers: Regular + Beach Seasonal + Event New as of March 7th, 2024 New as of March 24th, 2024 New as of April 30th, 2024 New as of June 3rd, 2024 New as of June 21st, 2024 New as of July 21st, 2024 New as of July 28th, 2024 New as of July 31st, 2024 New as of August 8th, 2024 New as of September 2nd, 2024 New as of September 12th, 2024 New as of October 2nd, 2024 New as of October 6th, 2024 New as of November 4th, 2024 New as of November 17th, 2024 New as of December 2nd, 2024 New as of December 11th, 2024

[wander-across-the-firmament]

Final Fantasy 7 - Retry Prolog - A new will to live - sneak peek

Some information about my story: - Name of the story: Final Fantasy 7 - Retry - It will be a Sephiroth x oc story - 18+ - Number of chapters is still unknown - I'm currently on chapter 10 Here is a sneak peek of my story. After watching FF7 Rebirth and FF7 Ever Crisis (especially The First Soldier) this story came to my mind. As I already mentioned, I still have to edit many things, but the core story will remain as it is, because It's really dear to me, despite the fact that I still have a lot of practice to do.

I hope you enjoy reading it and thank you for your interest! I will definitely upload my story to tumblr and ao3 when I finish everything! ______________________________________

It was a rainy evening in Midgar.

The street lamps and the lights from a few shops illuminated the city. People went about their appointments without stopping, without thinking about anything else. People's steps vibrated the puddles, left by the rain between the plates. But in all the hectic, people forgot to enjoy and appreciate the little things in life. To slow down and open their eyes. A few days after the Nibelheim Incident, a group of Shinra Infantrymen attempted to eliminate documents about the "hero" Sephiroth by secretly hiding in the slums and attempting to burn these documents.

The hatred reflected in their eyes followed by an extreme anger and feeling of revenge. But they didn't notice that a young woman named Matsuri was hiding in a house behind them.

Matsuri stood in the living room whose house was burned down and there was already a lot of rubble on the ground. When she heard the Shinra Infantrymen, she knelt in fear in the shadows of the slowly crumbling house and watched what they are doing. She saw that one of the men was trying to light a match with shaking hands because using Materia would probably draw too much attention. The other three Infantrymen were holding the documents ready to throw them into the fire. Because of their nervousness, however, they kept looking up and quickly turning their heads the other way, hoping no one had followed them but their luck remained lost and so several Shinra cooperation troops showed up to collect the lost documents. Guns were pointed at all four.

The sound of pistols being loaded and the loud stamping of the troops made the woman tremble. Her hands began to sweat coldly. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her so that she appeared even smaller and her breathing was heavy. The four Infantrymen were shocked and began to justify themselves with raised voices.

"Sephiroth was a true hero for us! He was our role model, we wanted to be like him because he cared for us!" roared the Infantryman who still wanted to light the match.

He started coughing because of his nervousness and looked over at the three of them, asking them to raise their voices as well.

"We stole Professor Hojo's documents so that he can no longer conduct experiments on people or animals! We now know what is going on behind the doors of Shinra! Please, open your eyes everyone!" "We didn't sign the contract to stand behind and work for something so horrible!" "Exactly! We will always stay on Sephiroth's side. He is a victim as well and the four of us will make sure that -"

However, before the fourth Shinra Infantryman could finish his sentence, the loud sound of a pistol rang out and, seconds later, several in a row. All four Shinra Infantrymen were murdered by the troops.

Matsuri's eyes widened and she couldn't believe what she just saw. "What is happening here?! Why are they killing their own men?! Who is Sephiroth?!" Her questions piled up in seconds and her thoughts became louder, drowning out the sound of the guns. "What should I do?! Where can I go?! Is this my fate to die here too?!"

As she tried to keep a clear head, she suddenly heard an unpleasant laugh that she immediately recognized. Her eyes turned to a man in a white coat, black hair tied in a braid and glasses. Her eyes widened in horror.

"How stupid these insects are. They want to follow a monster but fail miserably."

Professor Hojo approached the men and looked down at them with curious eyes. He grabbed his chin and thought about something before telling the troops his new plan with a grin. "Take the four with you. Maybe they will prove useful in my laboratory. I hope for all of you that this is a lesson and that you have all the documents together...otherwise I can't guarantee anything hahahaha"

"Yes, sir!" The troops started moving and marched towards the Shinra building after everything was done.

The black haired woman remained sitting on the floor for a while, shaking and trying to calm down after what she had witnessed.

Relieved that she wasn't discovered, because if she had been discovered, the troops would had definitely shoot her too because she had seen too much. She looked up again as she heard the sound of paper blowing in the wind and finally getting stuck in the garbage that was lying around the house.

Maybe those were some documents about Sephiroth that were forgotten? The young woman took another deep breath and got up from the ground and approached the exit.

In fact, she hadn't imagined the sound and went straight for the paper while it had already become slightly dirty from the trash. Matsuri knelt down and took the paper in her hand and to her surprise she saw that there were several papers attached with a staple.

"I think someone didn't do a proper job. Will it be noticeable if some of the documents from Hojo are missing?" the woman thought about it and began to stand up again.

"I should leave quickly before they change their mind and come back... and find another place that is safer for me. My family...I'm sorry but I can't visit this place anymore..."

With one last look at the family house, she ran away and made her way to Sector 6 - towards the park. Once there, Matsuri holed up under a climbing frame, looked around one last time and took the documents, which she had previously folded several times to fit into her shoulder bag, and unfolded them again. She placed her black shoulder bag next to her and began reading the documents.

"Sephiroth, our war hero! Even at a young age, he managed to defeat several Wutai fighters and won battles for Shinra, but his strength increased rapidly as he grew older. His swordsmanship is a masterpiece, when I'm honest!

His skills are so powerful that no opponent can withstand the attacks. I'm glad that we have such a strong fighter at our side! He is so cool and always cares about others more than himself. He is a true hero. Shinra did a good job training him!

We now also know how Sephiroth cares for his hair! We have found out that he uses a whole bottle of shampoo and conditioner for his beautiful silver hair. These products he uses are of the highest grade! They are scented with thirteen different perfums including Rose and Vanilla. We, the Silver Elite even managed to take a photo of him! We spared no effort to show you this exclusive photo, my loyal readers! Look at him. He is tall, strong and handsome! We got him so well in the sunlight he's standing in, right?!"

"Is that a copy of an email?!" The young woman can't believe her eyes. "Is that why the four men were coldly murdered?! Because of something like that?!"

She looked at the copy of the photo, with her bright blue eyes, and saw Sephiroth standing in the sunlight. She saw how he had cyan irises eyes and slit cat-like pupils that sparkled from the sun's rays.

His silver hair looked beautiful and Sephiroth's clothing is so unique that she couldn't find words. He wears a long black coat, that is open on the top and has a leather suspenders crossed over it, silver pauldrons, black gloves, black boots, and black trousers. Because of the sunlight you could see the details of his outfit more clearly in the photo. He has a belt buckle with a wing motif in the center and small black feathers hanging from it.

Matsuri continued to look at the photo and noticed Sephiroth's facial expressions. "If you're a hero...then why do you look so sad?" Sephiroth looked dreamily into the distance. Although his eyes sparkled because of the sun's rays, he seemed sad. The camera angle and the way the person, who took the photo, zoomed in on Sephiroth also looked very suspicious. Did Sephiroth know he was being photographed at that moment? Or was he stalked? Being a hero doesn't seem to be easy...

Matsuri pushed her long, slightly wavy, black hair behind her left ear and her many small birthmarks on the left side of her face appeared that even goes down to her cleavage. She flipped over the paper and saw an even more important document. On this paper there was something written about “Project S”, “S cells” and "JENOVA cells". What did this mean? Her eyes moved further down to the written text.

"Project S was a success. It started all in the Nibelheim Shinra Manor. There I began my glorious idea of injecting the JENOVA cells into an unborn baby. When that thing was finally born, I immediately ordered it to be taken to the laboratory to collect and examine the so-called "S cells. The face of the woman who gave birth to that monster was simply priceless as the two were separated. Oh Lucrecia, you did your part. You did it very well." I had a lot of plans and so far I have been successful in creating new things with it cells. My creations are brilliant. Nobody can match my intelligence! I just have to be patient and wait until it grows to take more S cells. Nobody can compete with me! Sephiroth, hurry up and grow faster!”

This was a piece of Hojo's diary entry.

"How much were the Infantrymen able to steal?! Shinra is actually so well guarded that there can only be someone who acted as a mole and helped them."

Matsuri was shocked by what she read, but she was even more shocked when she learned that Sephiroth was being experimented on. She hated Shinra deeply but after what she had read her anger towards Shinra was even stronger. How could the company allow something like this? She shuddered thinking about what Sephiroth had to go through as a child. Was he able to escape Shinra?

Next to the entry from Hojo's diary were more photos of a small, silver-haired boy lying on an uncomfortable bed and next to him were capsules on a table labeled "S-tissue", "S-hair" and "S-Blood".

However, those weren't the only capsules there. There were plenty more capsules behind the other three. Matsuri was horrified.

She thought about Sephiroth.

How he must have felt after what he had experienced all these years.

It's all Shinra's fault. How Sephiroth had to live. How Matsuri's family was destroyed by Shinra. If only she had gotten home in time, maybe she could have done something. She shed a few tears and sat under the climbing frame for a while and stared into the emptiness. She thought that the family house was her final stop. She no longer found a reason to live the way she once did. Matsuri saw herself as too weak and after she lost her family she thought even more that she had no right to continue living a normal life. To this day she blamed herself. But when she saw the Infantrymen trying to burn the documents and risking their lives, something clicked for Matsuri. For some reason she felt compassion for Sephiroth even though she just saw him on the photos. She couldn't get his sad eyes out of her head. Just like the photos where samples were taken from him. She wanted to listen to him, give him the chance to express his feelings. She didn't know him and yet she wanted to try to find him, try to help him and she doesn't even know why. Maybe because his story gave her the will to live again?

After she finished reading the documents, she put them back in her shoulder bag and walked out of the climbing frame.

"I don't have anyone here in Midgar anymore. I should pack the rest of my things and get out of here quickly...because I know too much now."

She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and left the park.

With a new goal to find Sephiroth, Matsuri slowly set out on an unknown adventure. ______________________________ I really hope you like it and thank you again for your interest!

[majesty-madness]

A Past Encounter - Bucky Barnes x reader (nsfw)

Summary: Being in a relationship with Bucky, Y/N prided herself on knowing him quite well but when she’s accidentally teleported back to 1940, Y/N discovers that there is a whole other Bucky that she has yet to meet. The sweet flirt that had everything going for him before his unfortunate capture by HYDRA.

Word Count: 1900+

Warnings: Modern times, scared & angry Bucky, Post-Serum Steve, cursing, mentions of HYDRA, bad explanation of science, Steve's optimism (because why not)

a/n: Not proofread.

Series Masterlist

Main Masterlist

Chapter Four

What was going to happen now? How would this all play out?

Bucky obsessed over those questions even as they were heading home on the quinjet. 

The entire way back to the compound, the super soldier couldn’t bring himself to sit or relax. He simply stood, staring off into space as he got lost inside his own head. 

First and foremost, he was scared; scared because Y/N disappeared and he had no idea where she could be. 

And second, he was confused. 

He knew what he saw, but he didn’t know if his brain could wrap around what he’d seen. One moment, Sam and him were fighting HYDRA agents then suddenly Tony had appeared before them through this glowing blue and orange hole that came into being from the air. 

Where did it come from? What was it? 

And why had Y/N disappeared when she chased Tallis?

So many questions with very few answers. 

Tony had established, before they left the hideout, that there were security cameras all over the place and that he would extract all the footage stored in the cameras from that day, and they would look over the videos together. 

They could not get to the compound fast enough. When they had gotten back, Bucky practically sprinted off the ship and into one of the conference rooms. 

He didn’t care to hide how on edge he felt for his mind was on one person and one person only, everything else fell short on the list of priorities. 

The rest of them came strolling inside the conference room, Tony immediately stepping out of his suit and ordering FRIDAY to upload all the camera footage and play it back. 

“Play all video from the compound from each of our locations.” Tony said, the a.i. doing so before he finished talking. 

Several holographic screens appeared in front of the team, starting each video at the same time stamp, down to the second. 

For the first several minutes, it showed everyone in their own section of the building fighting off HYDRA until eventually the screen showed Tony magically appearing in Bucky and Sam’s sector of the structure. 

“What happened?” Steve asked out loud, gesturing to that same screen. 

Sam stepped forward. “Bucky and I had been in the middle of fighting when Tony showed up.” 

“Randomly appeared, is more like it.” Tony chirped in. 

“So Tallis teleported Tony to a different location?” Natasha asked, knowing the answer already. 

Steve nodded, eyes still focused on the screens. “It would seem so.” 

Then they went silent, continuing to watch the footage, and not too long after seeing Tony drop in on Bucky and Sam’s location out of nowhere, they saw something strange. 

“Wait, rewind it…” Steve told FRIDAY, and she proficiently did so. Her processors rewinding the video to the point in which Y/N disappeared. 

At full speed, Y/N ran down a hallway then quickly turned a corner, sprinting through some blue-orange hole formed in the air and didn’t come out the other side  when it vanished. 

“What the hell…” Natasha muttered out. 

“What is that?” Sam asked out loud now. 

Bucky took an unsteady step toward the holographic screen, watching FRIDAY loop the point from when Y/N ran the hallway to after she was gone. 

His hardened gaze searching for some logic behind the mystery of what he was looking out. 

FRIDAY took the liberty of rewinding and slowing down the speed of the video. Frame by frame they watched again as Y/N jumped through a portal after Tallis and they both were gone. 

“So they both disappeared? Where the hell would they have gone?”  Natasha asked, scanning over the room of individuals.

Steve had his arms crossed over his chest, head dipped down from the screens. “The reports mentioned how the victims would describe a series of events like this; one moment they’d be in one place and then would be somewhere else, somewhere they didn’t recognize.” 

“Like transporting? He can transport now?” Sam added sarcastically.  

“When FRIDAY scanned the building, she tracked a quantum type signature; one that warped the atoms or more specifically bent the atoms of our time.” Tony began to explain, gesturing in the air to FRIDAY even though she had no physical body. 

“You mean he can travel through time?” Steve vehemently asked. 

Sam scoffed, “Great, going full on Back to the Future up in here.”

“Well an argument can be made for Quantum Leap.” Tony quipped. 

“Alright, guys..” Steve interjected before the two could continue their banter. Then he turned to Tony. “Is there any way you can track it?” 

Tony got quiet. 

Steve raised a brow at the man, expression worried. “Tony.”

The scientist shook his head, “Look, I can track the energy signatures here, I mean that’s easy but there’s no tangible way to track Tallis or Y/N without knowing where they ended up.” 

“But they could’ve ended up anywhere.” Natasha pointed out, causing Tony to look her way.

She could then see the remorse in his eyes. 

“So that means-“ Sam began but Bucky interrupted him.

“We can’t find Y/N.” 

Tony only sighed as his answer while Steve shook his head exasperated. 

None of the other Avengers dared spare the super soldier another look, afraid their sympathetic gaze might set him off. It was already easy to tell how much tension was radiating off his body, waiting to break like a compressed spring. Nothing any of them had to say was going to help him feel better. 

In a frustrated stupor, Bucky stormed out of the room, legs carrying him out on the nearest balcony.

The wind felt crisp against his skin, the oncoming sensation of rain coming coupled with the dark gray clouds flooding the sky.

His flesh and metal hands gripped the railing with crushing weight, barely listening to the way the metal crinkled under his touch. 

Bucky leaned forward, resting his body against the hands that gripped the railing while his thoughts raced back through all that happened that the last several hours even to the events of the morning. 

Him lying in bed with Y/N, kissing her good morning, reassuring her inside the quinjet, the panic rushing through him when he lost contact with her, the dread whirling inside realizing she was gone. 

He recalled the conversation they’d had early that morning. 

“...raiding places like this makes me think for a moment that I'm walking into a trap and suddenly I’ll be strapped down to that chair again.” 

“I wouldn’t let that happen.” 

“I know you wouldn’t but that’s what scares me sometimes; knowing that if anything were to happen to me, you’d fight with every part of you to come find me.” 

“Because I love you, and I know you’d do the same for me.”

“You’re damn right I would.”

Goddamn it. 

He promised that no matter what he’d whatever it took to keep her safe, and he couldn’t even do that. 

Y/N managed to travel through time in some glowing portal that some random HYDRA agent was able to pull off, and she could have been sent to the dark ages for all he knew; being burned at the stake just for being a stranger.

The metal railing crushes ever more under his superhuman strength until the framing shattered the glass that made up the wall of the balcony.

Bucky backtracked a few steps as he observed the amount of glass that broke, and cracked under his combat boots; his reflection staring back at him from the ground. 

Fear. Fear is about the best word he could use to describe himself right now. Despite the frustration that fell over him, fear was the real center of it. And again his eyes found the darkened sky, thoughts racing every which way; trying desperately to find some shred of hope that things would be okay. 

Y/N will be home in a matter of days, and then he’ll get to hold her in his arms, tell how much he loved her, how much she changed his life for the better. However, the uncertainty of the situation caused a deep rooted doubt to claw inside his chest. 

“Y/N…” He nearly pleaded. 

Where was she?

“Buck..” A familiar voice said from behind him. The name caused Bucky to go completely still, his natural walls coming up to keep him from being vulnerable. Though he knew he wasn’t going to be able to keep up the act in front of Steve of all people. 

“What, Steve?” 

Steve took a second pause then said, “Tony says that even though he can’t track Tallis, he’s having FRIDAY download every newspaper, article, magazine, photo, to find some kind of reference to Y/N. Seeing as how she ended up lost in time, we should be able to find something.”

Bucky whipped around to face his friend, brows pinched in irritation. “And what if we don’t? What are we supposed to do then?!”

“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out! We always do.” Steve quickly retorted back, no sign of annoyance towards Bucky’s attitude. He understood well how worried Bucky felt right now, and Steve would be lying if he said he wasn’t scared for her too. 

He began to stare Steve down, watching his expression remain undeterred by his concern as the seconds ticked by. And then Bucky’s own face morphed into one of exhaustion. 

“I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay, Buck. I understand.” 

Bucky sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I just wish it had been me instead of her.” 

Finally, Steve walked forward, eventually ending up at the railing beside Bucky. “And if it had been you then Y/N would be right here thinking the exact same things as you.”

The brunette didn’t respond, remaining quiet as he felt Steve had more to say. That was proven right when Steve spoke again. 

“But she’d trust that she could bring you back, so don’t give up hope, Buck, because if you do then she has no one to help her.” 

Bucky shook his head, silently scolding himself for being so pessimistic. Though he knew it was just how he was after all those years under HYDRA’s thumb.

“I know; of course I know that.” Was all he uttered, voice trailing off at the end. 

Then he felt the heavy, but comforting weight of Steve’s hand on his shoulder. “The important thing is that we keep looking for a way to get her back, we’re all worried and we’re all willing to do whatever it takes to bring her home. Remember you’re not alone anymore.” 

Bucky took a moment to collect himself, the eased feeling of humor making its way to his brain. “How do you know just what to say? It’s like you’re some constantly revolving optimistic speech machine; saying exactly what someone needs to hear.” 

That time Steve laughed, retracting his hand. “Force of habit I guess.” 

Bucky let himself smile fondly as he recalled way back when Steve was a small kid who didn’t know any better and yet could still talk from the heart. Steve had always been good with words in a way that made Bucky wish he could be like that. 

The two friends remained silent for a moment, basking in the silence that was more or less comforting even if the lingering fear hovered over them. 

“So what do you say, ready to go find Y/N?” Steve asked, a hopeful look in his eyes. 

Bucky smirked at his friend’s giddy optimism. “Yeah. I’m ready.”

[trashyswitch]

Luigi's Secret

Chapter 3: Cheaters Meet the Tickle Monster

Mario and Luigi arrive back home from visiting family, before starting up a game on their NES. But...when Mario cheats him out of a win, a new, unusually confident side of Luigi begins to emerge.

I WATCHED THE MARIO BROS MOVIE WITH MY BROTHER TONIGHT! And I just arrived home from the theater! So...I decided that Chapter 3 should immediately be uploaded! Lets-a play! Spero che la storia ti piaccia!

Luigi sat down in his bed, super shocked that he had been tickled so much today. Not that he was complaining or anything…but it was unusual. Luigi was living a lee’s dream today! And he was just overjoyed and happy. 

Luigi got into his PJ’s and laid down in his bed for a bit. They had just arrived home from eating supper, and their bellies were completely full of pasta. Luigi took the moment to clean up his bed and turn on their TV. He turned on his NES, plugged in his own controller, and looked at Mario. “Wanna play a quick game?” Luigi asked. 

Mario laughed a bit. “By ‘quick game’ do you mean beating a single level? Or a whole area on the map?” Mario asked. 

Luigi smirked a bit. “I think you know what I mean.” He teased. 

Mario sighed with a smile and walked up, plugged in his controller as well, and readied the controller in his own hands. “Okay. Which character will I be…” Mario asked himself. 

“You’re not gonna pick your usual?” Luigi asked. 

Mario looked at the character close by, and smirked a bit. “Would you be pissed if I just…” Mario clicked a specific character and changed the outfit color to green. 

Luigi widened his eyes and looked at Mario with shock, “HEY! That’s MY character! And MY COLOR!” Luigi yelled, offended. 

“”Aw come on, Luigi. Can’t handle it when I take your character?” Mario teased. 

Luigi growled slightly before looking at the other characters. “If we’re out here taking characters…” Luigi chose a ninja character and made the outfit red. “Then I’m stealing yours too.” Luigi replied. 

Mario widened his eyes and looked at Luigi. “How dare you.” He reacted. 

Luigi shrugged his shoulders. “You started it.” Luigi reminded him. 

Mario rolled his eyes and started the game. 

[Level 1] 

“Alright.” Mario started moving his character around, making it go forward and jump onto the first ledge. 

Luigi brought his character forward as well, and pulled out the sword. “So…What does this-” Luigi clicked the B button, making the character swing its sword in front. “Oh…alright. Guess I have to get used to attacking up close.” Luigi said. 

Mario tried the B button himself, and saw as the ninja threw a black dot…this dot confirmed itself to be a bomb the moment it blew up. “Oh…” Mario reacted. “Looks like I made a mistake choosing a long-range character.” Mario mumbled out loud. 

“Having regrets?” Luigi asked with a smirk. 

Mario bit his lip. “...Maybe…” He muttered. 

Luigi laughed and offered his own controller to him. “Wanna switch controllers?” Luigi asked. 

Mario shrugged his shoulders and switched controllers with his brother. With Luigi now player 1, and Mario now player 2, they started to properly play the game. The goal was to make it past obstacle courses to get to the boss on each level. Beat the boss, and you win that area of the map. Whoever earns the most points in the map, gets a big stamp placed on the side of the world map. 

The boys have played this game so often, it was like clockwork to them. They knew the patterns and the obstacle courses perfectly. The only reason they were playing this game again was because they liked to see who could get more points over the other. More points were given based on who got the next health item over the other, who made it to the door first, who landed perfect shots the most often, and generally who landed the most hits on the bosses and enemies. The game was literally made to screw the other person over…and they loved it for this very reason. 

“Come on…” Mario muttered. 

“One…Two, three…” Luigi counted the amount of perfect pop ups he got on his shots. 

“Quit counting them out!” Mario reacted. 

“I’m aiming for the badge this time. And I wanna make sure I get it!” Luigi argued. 

Mario rolled his eyes. “We’re still on the first level, dummy. We still have 7 more levels to go.” Mario reminded him. 

Luigi ignored him to focus on the next door. “Race you!” Luigi declared, making his character sprint towards the door. 

“What the- YOU GOT A HEADSTART! CHEATING!” Mario shouted, making his character run towards the door as well. 

Right as Luigi’s character managed to make it to the door, Mario’s red character started jumping on the green character’s head, making it hard for Luigi to do any commands. 

“MARIO GET OFF!” Luigi yelled. 

“You cheated! I’m just taking advantage of a stupid glitch.” Mario joked. 

Anxious to get through the door, Luigi moved to the right a small bit. 

…But then Mario’s character swiped its sword at the green character, before going through the door first. 

“HEY!” Luigi shouted. “THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!” Luigi yelled. 

“Suck on that, loser~!” Mario placed his finger in the shape of an L against his own forehead…ya know, like a 10 year old. 

Luigi rolled his eyes and removed Mario’s hat, before slamming it against Mario’s face. “Eat it, moron.” Luigi said, pushing his brother onto his back before starting to fight the boss. 

Mario sat up again and threw his hat to the side, before moving his character out of the way of enemy fire. “Screw you, I almost died!” Mario yelled. 

“Should’ve picked up that extra health, Mario~” Luigi teased. 

“Keep bothering me, and I’ll make you regret it.” Mario warned. “Right back at you, bro.” Luigi replied. 

Mario managed to land some hits on the boss, but still wasn’t able to catch up to Luigi’s level of points. He was growing somewhat desperate to beat his brother. “Come on…” Mario muttered. 

“A few more hits- We’re almost there!” Luigi reacted happily. 

Luigi did a combo move, hitting the enemy in the chest. “YES!” Luigi yelled. “Now-” Luigi started clicking the A button and the B button in hopes of doing a combo move. But…the character didn’t do anything. “What-” Luigi looked down at his controller. “Come on- Why isn’t it-” Luigi tried to move the joystick around. “Why isn’t it working?!” Luigi yelled. 

“Tough luck- YEAH!!!!” Mario shouted, landing the last hit. “NO!” Luigi yelled, dropping the controller. While Mario was celebrating his victory, Luigi turned his controller around and fiddled with the cord. He raised the controller higher, and widened his eyes when he saw the problem: 

His controller was unplugged. 

Luigi grabbed the controller plug. “What the-” Luigi widened his eyes…before tensing up into a pissed-off frown. “Did you unplug my CONTROLLER?!” Luigi yelled. 

“No!” Mario yelled back. 

Luigi looked straight through Mario with only the corner of his eye. Mario slowly started to smile. “Okay, maybe.” Mario admitted with a giggle.  

Luigi placed the controller down and let out a slow breath…in an attempt to calm himself down. 

Mario chuckled and patted his back, before getting up and starting to walk away. “It was still fu-” 

Mario squeaked as he felt himself fall to the ground. “Wha- LUIGI!” Mario yelled. 

When Mario turned himself around to look at his brother, he widened his eyes in shock and slight horror: 

Luigi was looking at Mario with the most evil little smirk on his face. Mario had seen this same face only one other time…and that was when Luigi had hit him with a turtle shell, and passed him in the middle of a go kart race. It was the type of face that told you ‘You…are 100% screwed’. 

“W-Wah-waitwait-” Mario stuttered. “L-Let’s think about this.” Mario attempted to reason with him. 

“Ohohohohooo…” Luigi let out the most evil little playful laugh. “Who needs to talk, when showing you does so much more?” Luigi asked. Then, he pulled on Mario’s ankle, pulling Mario’s foot closer to him. 

“eEEK! LUIGIWAITNO-” Mario yelled before turning onto his back. “L-Luigi, please!” Mario begged. 

“Luigi?” The man clarified, his voice sounding way too smooth to be coming out of the man’s mouth. 

“Y-Yeah! Can’t we talk? Or…something?” Mario asked. 

“I wonder who this ‘Luigi’ is…” The man wondered aloud, rubbing his chin as he thought for a moment. 

Mario felt his heart skip a beat. “Oh no…OhNOnononono- Luigi, you are NOT doing that!” Mario warned. 

The man looked at Mario. “You think that I…am Luigi?” The man asked, his voice as smooth and teasy as ever. 

Mario tugged on his foot in a last stitch attempt to get out of his grip. But it was no use. His foot was completely stuck. 

“Ohoho, Mario…” The man pulled off Mario’s shoe, and removed the sock next. “My name is no longer Luigi…” The man said with a voice that dripped with teasy naivety. 

Mario gasped and covered his mouth in horror. “ohgodnononono-” Mario mumbled. 

Mario pulled one last time on his foot, and quickly attempted to curl up like a coward when his right foot didn’t loosen even an inch. No matter how much Mario wanted to get out, he knew he wouldn’t be able to now…Not until Luigi let him go on his own terms. 

“I’m afraid you have found yourself in the clutches of the much-dreaded…” The man brought his fingers slightly closer to Mario’s foot. “Completely merciless…” He brought his hand even closer to Mario’s foot. 

Mario clenched his fists and squeezed his eyes shut, preparing himself for the ticklish punishment he was about to endure. He knew it was coming, and swiftly so. Though he knew that the touch down would still surprise him, he still believed strongly in mentally preparing himself for such a thing…

Especially when it’s from the dreaded tickle monster…

He kept waiting for something to happen…

But…nothing happened. 

He waited a couple more seconds, but again…nothing happened. 

Mario finally opened his right eye slightly and attempted to look at Luigi. But right when he opened his eyes, a surge of ticklish skitters filled his foot, causing Mario to squeal in shock and lose his composure. Now he knew EXACTLY what it was like for the anticipation to make you more vulnerable. Because his brother, his younger brother, had actually managed to make him feel that for at least a few seconds! 

“WaAAAHAHAHAHAHA! LUIGIHIHIHI NOHOHOHAHAhaha!” Mario laughed, holding his stomach as he attempted to wiggle and roll around on his back. 

“I am afraid I don’t know who this ‘Luigi’ fellow is. Perhaps we look alike?” The man asked, his voice as unbearably smooth as silk. 

Mario reached up and tried to grab his brother and either attempt to tickle him back, or stop him. But the moment Luigi saw Mario sitting up to get him, he quickly went into defense mode.

…By tickling Mario’s toes. 

“aAAHAHA WAHAHAIT-” Mario fell down against his own back again. “NOHOT THERE! NOHOHOT THEHEHEHERE!” Mario begged. 

“Now where?” Lui-the tickle monster asked. “Not here?” He poked Mario’s pinky toe. “Not this pinky toe right here?” He teased, skittering right under the dreaded toe. 

“LEHEHEAVE IT ALOHOHOHONE! IHIHI’M WAHAHARNIHIHING YOHOU!” Mario ordered. 

Luigi looked at Mario for only a couple seconds. Slowly, he removed his hand from his feet, giving him a short little break. Mario happily took this opportunity to breathe in any air he lost amidst this evil tickle attack. “You…” Mario muttered before sitting up and looking at Luigi. 

But…Luigi was still holding his hand only inches away from his toes. 

“Ohno- Yohou’re not dohohone!” Mario reacted. “Ihihi thohought-” 

“Oh…Mario, Mario, Mario…” He said, clicking his tongue three times before pulling a brown and white-stripped feather out of his pocket. “Don’t you ever learn?” 

Mario felt his stomach drop. Oh GOD NO! 

Luigi immediately pulled back his pinky and ring toe, before fluttering the stupid feather against the underside of his toes. 

“GAHAAA!” Mario covered his bright red face with his hands, falling right onto his back once again before cackling himself absolutely wild. “PLEHEHEASE! IHIHI- HAHAHAHAHA!” Mario laughed helplessly. 

“My my, what tickly little toes you have…” The tickle monster teased.  

Mario was too afraid to kick his free leg against Luigi to try and stop him. Because he knew…He just knew Luigi would catch the foot and tickle both at once. And with how hard he was laughing now, one could only imagine how insanely ticklish BOTH feet would be. 

“It would be a shame if I were to…” The tickle monster brought the feather up to the middle to the 2nd toe. “Tickle your big toe?” He teased. 

Mario reached his hand out. “LUIHIHIGIIIII! NAHAHA!” Mario pleaded. 

Luigi sighed. “I have already told you before…” He started fluttering the feather on his brother’s big toe. “I am THE TICKLE MONSTER.” 

Oh NO…LUIGI IS DOING EXACTLY WHAT THEIR DAD USED TO DO! NOOOO! 

Mario wheezed and covered his face all over again. He has such vivid memories of his father not only tickling both his feet at the same time, but also going from the pinky toe to the big toe! 

THAT WAS HIS DAD’S THING! IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN SINCE THEY WERE KIDS!

AND NOW LUIGI WAS USING IT TO MESS WITH HIM! Meanwhile, Luigi had slowly widened his eyes and removed the feather from his toe. The moment he heard Mario’s laughter lessen to giggles, Luigi threw the feather down onto the ground. He looked at his own hand in surprise, and scratched his own forehead. What…the heck was he doing?! And why was he being so brutal to his brother?! All he did was unplug the controller! This did NOT warrant such a strong torture session! 

Lers do NOT take tickle sessions too far! Luigi knew this! But he was failing to put it into practice!

He gently placed Mario’s foot down, and backed up a few feet. Seeing Mario pull his foot back towards himself and hug his legs to his chest, started to make him feel really bad. He needed to say something…

“I…” Luigi scratched the back of his head. “I’mma sorry, Mario. I don’t know what came over me.” Luigi admitted. 

Mario was breathing quite heavily, and soon let go of his legs. He sprawled himself out on the floor before placing his right hand on his own stomach. His breathing was already starting to slow slightly thanks to the relief he was feeling. “M…Mario?” Luigi asked, worried he had hurt his brother. 

“Y-Yeah?” Mario replied. 

Luigi looked down. “I’m sorry.” Luigi said. 

Mario looked at his brother, before placing his head back on the ground with a laugh. He let out a few more laughs with a wobbly smile on his face. Luigi’s worry morphed into confusion the moment he heard Mario breathlessly laughing. “Yohou’re…you’re fine…Ihi…” Mario sat himself up and grabbed his bare feet with his hands. “It’s been years since I’ve been tickled like that.” Mario admitted. “Gohohod…” he said, wiping off his forehead. 

Luigi flew the feather over to Mario. It flew left and right…left and right…floating down towards Mario. 

Mario caught it, and chuckled. “Where did you get this?” 

Luigi shrugged his shoulders. “It was outside…” Luigi admitted. 

Mario held it up in his fingers. “This is a power up, Luigi.” Mario told him with a laugh. “How you managed to use this against me without giving me the cape power, is incredible.” Mario added. 

Luigi widened his eyes and looked down, blushing and scratching the back of his head. 

Mario put the power up into his pocket, and got up onto his feet. “So much for the game…” Mario added. 

Luigi laughed as he turned off the NES, and turned off the TV. “So much for that…”

Mario sat on the bed. “I am not gonna lie, you scared the heck out of me!” Mario told him, throwing his arms up. “You made me feel SO MUCH TERROR-” Mario held his head in shock. 

Luigi was taken aback. “I did?!” Luigi asked. 

“Yeah! From the moment you said…Oh, what was it…” Mario thought. “Oh! “I wonder who this ‘Luigi’ is…”...I immediately knew what you were doing. And…HOLY…” Mario flopped his back onto the bed. “You…” Mario shook his head with a smile. “You really became Dad in that moment…” Mario told him. 

Luigi bit his lip and looked down. “Sorry…” Luigi admitted. 

Mario looked at Luigi and sat up. “I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.” Mario told him. “I’m saying you managed to do something only Dad has ever been able to do!” Mario explained. 

“But I know you’re not always a fan of it, and…I should’ve stopped long ago.” Luigi admitted. 

Mario scoffed. “Dad would’ve grabbed both my feet, and went another 10 minutes on me. You were just fine, Luigi.” Mario admitted. “You remember that he NEVER knew when to press pause.” Mario added. 

Luigi couldn’t help the nervous laugh he let out. “Well…I guess I learned from the best.” Luigi said. 

Mario looked at Luigi with a proud smile. “I need to tell him you said that.” Mario told him. 

Luigi widened his eyes and looked at Mario. “No! No no no, don’t!” Luigi begged. 

Mario leaned back slightly, pure confusion on his face. “Wha- But why??” Mario asked. “He’d be cheering right now! He would be so proud of you-” 

“I…” Luigi stuttered a bit, struggling to talk before pulling his knees up and hiding his face against them. 

Mario raised his eyebrows. “Ohoho…Where did that smooth-talking, confident tickler go?” Mario asked. “Ihit’s like-” Mario couldn’t help his laughter. “It’s like I’m talking to a different person altogether!” Mario reacted. 

“Tickle monster’s gone…Luigi’s back.” Luigi mumbled. 

“Hahaha! Ihi can see that!” Mario reacted. “He’s back in full force, too.” 

Luigi placed his head on his own pillow and removed his hat, still red as anything.

“Wow…You didn’t even need any of those stories to make you blushy this time.” Mario teased. 

“Marioooo…” Luigi groaned, rubbing his temples. “Shut up!” Luigi shot back. 

“You shut up.” Mario said back with a smirk. 

“No, you shut up.” Luigi warned. 

“I’ll shut up as soon as you stop blushing.” Mario teased. 

“I’ll shut up the moment you get over your fear of the tick-” Luigi widened his eyes and covered his mouth. 

Mario looked over at Luigi, with slight shock. “...My fear of what?” Mario asked, a tiny smirk growing on his face.  

“The…tick- the tick-...t-” Luigi groaned and covered his face with his own pillow. 

Mario bursted out laughing at him. “HAHAhahaha! Yohohou cahahan’t even sahahay ihit!” Mario laughed. “Yohou have the fear embedded in you more than I do! Don’t give me that fesserie!” Mario laughed. 

Luigi rolled his eyes and rolled over, letting Mario laugh it out. Clearly he hadn’t tickled him enough to know better. If that evil tickle monster would come out for just those few seconds…then maybe he’d be able to win this fight…

But alas, no such luck. He was now in an irreversible lee mood…and he can’t change that. 

Mario soon calmed himself down and shut off the light in their room. “I’m still gonna tell Dad.” Mario said before closing his eyes. “And just you wait…He’s gonna love you.” Mario added. 

Luigi sighed. “Fine…” he replied, closing his own eyes. “Good night.” 

Mario smiled a bit. “Good night.” 

[rubyjcat]

[Behind-the-Scenes] HELIOS Rising Heroes: Sing in the darkness - Animation Showcase

How I made the sequel to the HELIOS Rising Heroes: Animation Showcase English fandub project - titled "Sing in the darkness", and my final thoughts. It took longer than I had hoped as there were some struggles behind the scenes.

YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0UbdFyWSx0n_ewcd-t0iAB0adGe5lghH

Behind-the-Scenes for the previous fandub: https://rubyjcat.tumblr.com/post/647565364052574208/helios-rising-heroes-animation-showcase-behind-the-scene

Disclaimer: HELIOS Rising Heroes is the intellectual property of Happy Elements K.K and Cacalia Studio. This project is fanmade and does not represent Happy Elements K.K.

OVERVIEW

Timeline Scripts, Casting & Voice acting What I needed for this fandub Improvements from previous fandub Issues Miscellaneous Social Media & Reception Questions no one asked Final thoughts

TIMELINE

Early February: New Heroes were announced. I instantly knew I wanted to make a fandub sequel and scout voice actors! I started grinding four alt accounts (some from the previous fandub) to prepare to pull the new 4* Heroes from the gacha.

Late February: Sage and Nico became playable. I grabbed sample footage of their battle animations from the tutorial, translated their available battle lines and started re-writing the script and voice descriptions.

Late March to early April: Jude and Bianchi became playable. With the 12th Robins’ Quest Result line, I was able to finish Sage and Nico’s scripts and contact the VAs I had in mind for them. Grabbed & translated Jude and Bianchi’s battle lines and started re-writing their scripts and voice descriptions. Also grabbed sample in-game footage for the VAs’ reference.

Mid April to mid May: Held the casting call, reviewed auditions and the scripts during the time period. Grabbed footage from the “Rage Or Silence” stamp event for Jude’s individual clip. Started video editing. Made some last-minute script changes before casting Jude and Bianchi.

Late May to mid June: Sing in the darkness story chapter 3 (last part) was released. Grinded my alt accounts even more to be able to grab footage from the “Robber of Dawn” boss fight (the footage used was from the Sing in the darkness -link- Stamp event, although the boss was permanently added afterwards). Grabbed footage from a permanent stage for Sage’s individual clip. Lots of video editing.

Early to mid July: Started editing and adding VA lines I received. Grabbed footage from “Other Side Heroes -Good Morning-” event for Bianchi’s clip.

Took a break for about two months. During that time, HeliosR no longer worked on the emulator I used.

Late September: Despite no longer being able to emulate the game, I picked up the project again, started putting together parts I didn’t make yet such as the credits, and contacted the VAs who still owed me lines.

October: Was delighted to find out that HeliosR could be played on a a different version of Bluestacks. Recorded the “Castle of scary family!” event for Nico’s clip. I became more motivated as I received lines from the VAs. Made tons of revisions, additions, and finishing touches. I also did multiple quality checks for proportions of elements, volume of lines, subtitle text & timings.

November to early December: While waiting on retakes from one VA, I finished up the video editing, finalized social media descriptions, fixed last-minute mistakes, did further audio balancing checks, and learned how to make portrait-style videos for TikTok & YouTube shorts. I shared the videos to every social media platform I could think of. The plan was to release the individual Hero clips right after the boss battle video, but since it took longer than expected to upload the full video to YouTube (7 hours!) on top of having to make multiple shorts (had to manually edit the subtitles and the zoomed in parts to fit), I delayed the clips until the week after. It was much less stressful for me since I was able to prepare everything in advance!

SCRIPTS, CASTING & VOICE ACTING

English fan translation of battle lines: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ImWrAfvS_hgp6qr5qt30vCP63uHEk2o79uqY0h-3wL4/edit

Making the scripts was straightforward since I already had a fan translation spreadsheet made for the previous fandub and was familiar with the battle lines in-game. I recorded each battle line I found from the game, transcribed the Japanese lines by ear and translated them into English. Then I would rewrite some of them to fit the animations/mouth flaps better and/or for creativity points. I studied the characters' voices & personalities in-depth to provide accurate vocal direction as well. It was important to be faithful to the original Japanese version!

Me trying to figure out how to rewrite a line from Sage's regular burst. Also fun fact: Sage's "I'll show you!" and "Now's my chance!" during his counterattacks were extra lines I made up.

Sin, who I know from another project, and FPontaneles (a.k.a. TomatoVA), who auditioned for my previous casting call, were the ones I had in mind to voice Sage and Nico respectively, while I didn’t have anyone in mind for Jude and Bianchi prior to the casting call.

Tomato auditioned for the first HeliosR casting call! Looking through old auditions can be interesting.

I posted the casting call to both Casting Call Club and the Voice Acting Club discord with the deadline set a month away. In hopes of getting more visibility, I made sure to constantly update the deadline on CCC to keep the project closer to the top of search results.

Nico was up for auditions because Tomato didn’t respond. With the help of a fellow VA (Yan), he later responded to me in the middle of the casting call. I felt bad for those who auditioned already and closed the role early since I didn't want to waste anyone else's time.

Casting went smoothly since I was writing notes & shortlisting auditions in a document as I received them. I was worried about not being able to find suitable voices, so I was fortunate to have received a lot of good auditions! Rarely you'll find a standout who performs as if they were the character themselves, and that was the case with Brandon as Jude. Yan also surprised me with an audition for Bianchi since I didn’t think to invite him. I knew Yan since I voiced for his projects in the past, but he was chosen solely because of his fitting voice and potential.

The project was delayed significantly due to having to wait a long time for the VA lines (and retakes) that also affected my motivation. But I was determined to have this particular cast since not only did they sound great individually, they also sounded great together! These four voices put together sound like a harmony of sorts?! With some persistence, my patience paid off! It took so long, two of the VAs even had a handle/credit change during the time. For comparison, during the previous fandub, the longest I was in contact with a VA was 3 months, while in this one it took as long as 8 months!

WHAT I NEEDED FOR THIS FANDUB

A computer

Android Emulator: Bluestacks

Multiple accounts with the 4* OG 12th Robins Heroes

Recording software: OBS Studio

Video editing software: Davinci Resolve

Audio editing software: iZotope RX, Cakewalk by BandLab

Image editing software: MediBang Paint, Krita

Scripts in English

Voice actors who fit the characters

An outline of all the tasks to be done

A LOT of patience

And an audience - viewers like you!

IMPROVEMENTS FROM PREVIOUS FANDUB

(Some exceptions apply)

60 FPS cap > 30 FPS cap. Due to in-game lag and my shabby computer, footage would vary between ~30-60 FPS, but it was still better than the 30 FPS cap of the old videos. The anime part of bursts are limited to 30 FPS in-game. A few parts also capped at 30 FPS by mistake when I logged into a different account and forgot to adjust in-game settings from their defaults.

NVENC encoding > Software x264/AVC. Better and more consistent video quality during high-motion parts, at the cost of additional load on my GPU. Grabbing sample footage for the VAs' reference first proved useful as I reviewed it later and realised just how blurry it got at certain parts.

Don't use AVC quality (superfast). This is not even a JPEG.

2160p resolution > 1080p resolution in Bluestacks. Results in smoother line art quality when character sprites are far away, with an exception: I used 1080p for the bursts since 2160p made the backgrounds look strange - the colours were separated into chunks like MS Paint quality. However, since my computer resolution is limited to 1080p it probably wasn’t a big difference anyway.

Improved video edits. I learned how to use Fusion more effectively plus additional techniques such as the follower modifier for text, particles, static effects, and light leaks using a noise texture.

All of this just to make the first five seconds of the preview!

ISSUES

The process of grabbing in-game footage was another struggle. Lots of time was wasted from re-recording footage over and over due to:

Lots of lag. As stated in the previous section, footage varied between ~30-60 FPS. I re-recorded footage many times and then put together the parts that didn’t lag/glitch in certain spots. I wasn’t able to grab the Union Attack with 4* Jude without lag, so I had to edit Jude’s image into some of the missing frames manually. Also did lots of frame-by-frame editing and removing same frames that lagged for 3+ frames.

Lots of one-frame graphical glitches/artifacts. They occurred 50%-95% of the time depending on what I was trying to record. They did not go away even after adjusting NVIDIA settings and Bluestacks settings multiple times. I assumed it was due to the older Bluestacks version having issues and/or my computer’s graphics card being outdated and burnt out (it’s the same one used for the previous fandub). I left a few miscellaneous graphical glitches in the videos because why not?

One of the many one-frame glitches I would often encounter while playing. How… beautiful.

The background partially disappearing/turning white during the Union Attack. This happened during the Expert stage of the Robber of Dawn boss fight. The Normal stage still looked like something was missing but at least it wasn’t white, so I resorted to stitching parts of footage together.

The Union Attacks were one of the most laggy things in-game for my emulator and required a lot of re-records and stitching together to look right.

MISCELLANEOUS

Backgrounds/BGMs…

I planned to make this fandub before I knew if there would be any new backgrounds/BGMs to use. I didn’t want to reuse the same background/music for all videos. Good thing the release of the Sing in the darkness story chapters came with three new BGMs and a unique background - I was in awe when the final boss was revealed! I ended up not using the “normal boss” BGM because I didn’t like it much (and it didn’t come with a unique background anyway). I also anticipated upcoming events and used the ones I thought were fitting for the battle clips even if the 12th Robins were not involved in them.

Nico’s battle clip…

HeliosR no longer worked on the Bluestacks version I was using after the August 17th update. I did not think to grab all the proper footage in advance, thus I was missing footage for Nico’s clip. I thought I had to resort to using whatever test footage I had recorded previously. There was another option I tried, that is to record the game on my Android tablet, but my tablet wasn’t cut out to record (laggy, low quality, resolution was also different). I was definitely happy when I was able to play on a different version of Bluestacks again in October, and especially happy because one of my regrets was not recording the “Lock on the Lost Night” event’s background during May. The background got reused for “Castle of scary family!” in October so I definitely made use of that.

Getting the 4* Heroes…

I used my main account for the majority of footage (using 2* forms) and grinded four alt accounts - two of which I made use of in the previous fandub. I grinded each alt starting from February to get enough rubies to pull/pity for the characters in gacha, and then enough resources to make the characters strong enough for the Expert difficulty stages. I ended up with Sage 4* on the 1st account, Nico & Bianchi 4* on the 2nd, and Jude 4* on the 3rd (didn't need the 4th).

My four alt accounts before pulling on the gacha.

Lots of planning involved…

I used the nighttime version (Expert difficulty) of the backgrounds and also picked stages with a good variety of enemies. I ordered my team as Sage/Nico/Jude/Bianchi at all times for consistency. Sage and Bianchi were the leaders in the group so I always initiated an attacking turn with one of the two. During the skills phase, I planned which VA lines would play where, made sure each line would play at least once throughout the project and made sure I never used the same combination of lines twice.

SOCIAL MEDIA & RECEPTION

First of all, it should be noted that the sequel is a niche of an already niche project - this only had 4 Heroes compared to 16 in the previous fandub, the 12th Robins aren’t the most popular, and HeliosR is still a Japanese-only game. With that in mind, I was overall satisfied with the engagement it received on various social media.

YouTube - The main videos did well, although the views were a little low. It was a good idea to make shorts too - they got a handful of likes and comments scattered throughout them. Jude's 4* burst was the most popular! The good thing about YouTube is that the videos will be there long-term, so perhaps they'll get more views over time.

Look at those pretty thumbnails~

Twitter - The 1st post got only ~460 views even with the VAs supporting it. The 2nd post did better as the views shot up by ~1000%! However, I messed up by not posting the link to YouTube as the first direct comment under it which hurt the exposure to the YouTube version. I've also learned that quote retweets work, while replies to old threads don't. Good to know for future posts.

H.E. Fan Discord - We got some nice comments and likes from fans for sure!

TikTok - The clips did well. Each of them managed 200+ views but then became stale rather quickly. A few users liked multiple clips which was always nice to see. Bianchi's 4* burst was the most liked!

Instagram - A flop.

Nico Nico Douga - A flop. The preview did get 1 like though.

Tumblr - I was happy to see someone like five of the posts! Besides that, well, it’s a good place to post a bunch of text like this. xD

Some of the lovely comments and likes received! Thank you so much!! ❤

QUESTIONS NO ONE ASKED

Q: Why did you make this project?

A: It's been 3 years and HeliosR still remains a Japanese-only game. Although HappyEle's most popular work, Enstars, has seen an EN release last year, the chances of the less popular HeliosR getting one is closer to zero. This is my way of showing my love for HeliosR as an overseas fan. I also enjoy working with voice actors! They are some of the most friendliest, talented and hard-working people I've met. I'm able to learn from them to become a better person myself. Lastly, I wanted to show that English voice acting can be done well with proper direction!

Q: Will you be making more HeliosR videos?

A: Most likely no. 1. Do I wanna do it, or can I even do it? Making these videos is very time-consuming. Also, I can only make content for the 4* Hero cards I have in-game. 2. Do the VAs wanna do it? Some of them are too busy and/or no longer do fandubs, and I don't want to go through casting calls for this again. 3. As stated in the previous section, it's a niche project. To be honest, I don't think it's worthwhile to make any more of these.

Q: Will you be making any more content in general?

A: Not sure. HeliosR was the only thing I worked on for the last three years. I don’t have the same passion for anything else at the moment.

Q: What was your favourite part to edit?

A: There were lots of parts that turned out well! I love the follower modifier a lot since it made all the text flow smoothly. Light leaks are simple yet effective. I also liked the static effects for the preview video’s CGs and the Sing in the darkness logo (although it was a pain to edit, haha).

Q: What was your favourite line in the script?

A: “Who’s the weakling of the week?” in Jude’s regular Burst. The Japanese was a play on words (”yowai yatsu ni you wa nai”) which means “There’s no use for weaklings” (literal) and I wanted to retain some of that wordplay.

Q: Who are your favourite Hero(es)?

A: Gray and Sage! I for one am an extremely satisfied fan >///<

FINAL THOUGHTS

Years ago, I fulfilled my dream of a hypothetical English cast for the 13th Hero team from a beloved Japanese-only game. I’m happy to have finally made a sequel for the 12th Robins Heroes! Now it’s time to close this chapter.

I hope fans of HeliosR enjoy the Animation Showcase!

[fishfingerpies]

Fic: P.S. I Love You

Just uploaded the first chapter of my next mclennon multichapter fic :)

Throughout the seventies, John writes letters to Paul to let out all of the things that he can never actually say. He never intends to send them, of course. In retrospect, maybe he shouldn’t have addressed them and put the stamps on, although in his defense, how was he supposed to know that Sean would go through his drawers and decide to put them in the mailbox?

[corbindavenport]

How I added cross-platform chapters to the Tech Tales Podcast

I currently produce and edit the Tech Tales Podcast, and last month, I decided to finally try adding chapter markers to episodes. It turns out that chapter markers in podcasts is pretty complicated, especially if you want listeners to have the best possible experience across YouTube and popular podcast apps. I figured my process was interesting enough for a short blog post, and the steps explained here might help other people.

Audio podcasts are usually distributed as MP3 or MP4 audio files. The show name, episode title, artwork, description, and other data can be encoded in the file using ID3 metadata, though most podcast apps and services now take that data from the show's RSS feed or another source.

Chapter markers can also be encoded in the file using ID3 metadata, with each chapter having a title and timestamp. When Apple added support for podcasts to iTunes and iPod players in 2005, it included support for "enhanced podcasts," which could include per-chapter artwork and web links. Apple still supports chapter-specific artwork in Apple Podcasts, but the links feature seems to have vanished at some point, and per-chapter artwork doesn't seem to be well-supported outside of Apple's software.

I currently edit Tech Tales episodes with Apple's Logic Pro, and I use the markers feature to set each chapter. Audacity has a similar "labels" feature.

Logic Pro only seems to save the markers as chapter metadata when exporting as a PCM/WAV file, not when I select MP3. It's also a bit complicated to export as a mono channel MP3, especially if the project tracks have stereo channels.

MP3 Chapter Data

My solution for the audio version of the podcast is to export as WAV from Logic Pro, then use the free and open-source FFMPEG tool to create a mono-channel 128kbps MP3 file with the chapter data intact.

ffmpeg -i "original.wav" -map_chapters 0 -ac 1 -b:a 128k -f mp3 "exported.mp3"

The extra step is annoying, but it does give me an MP3 file with the exact desired settings and the chapter data encoded in the file. When I re-encoded an earlier episode with those settings and uploaded it, the chapter markers showed up as expected in Apple Podcasts and Pocket Casts.

There were still two problems. First, there's a video version I upload to the Tech Tales YouTube channel, and that needs chapter markers. Second, I discovered Spotify wasn't showing the chapter markers from the MP3 file, even when other players did. It turned out both problems had the same solution.

YouTube and Spotify Support

YouTube supports video chapters, which have to be added as time stamps and titles somewhere in the video description. YouTube gives you some wiggle room with the formatting: the timestamps can be anywhere in the description, and the hour isn't necessary for videos under one hour (e.g. you can have 18:30 instead of 00:18:30). I've also seen different styles for separating the timestamp from the chapter title. For example, a GamersNexus video about Intel Arc Drivers uses a dash surrounded by spaces, while other videos just put a single space between the timestamp and the title.

Spotify supports a few different methods of adding chapters to podcast episodes, but none of them are MP3 encoding, which explains why the chapters weren't showing up. The easiest method, and the only one accessible to me while using SoundCloud as a host, is adding timestamps to the episode description. The format is similar to YouTube, but with a few additional requirements. There must be at least three chapters, and the first one must start at zero seconds (00:00).

Logic Pro can't export markers to a text file, and I didn't really want to type them out each time I published an episode. The best solution ended up involving two different tools. First, I use FFPROBE (a media analysis tool usually included with FFMPEG) to read chapter data from that original WAV file and convert it to JSON format.

ffprobe -i "original.wav" -show_chapters -sexagesimal -of json -loglevel error > json.txt

That gives me a text file with all the chapter data, including detailed start and end times and the titles, in JSON format. That's not the correct format for YouTube and Spotify, but it can be easily read by other tools. As far as I can tell, FFPROBE on its own can't create the format I need.

The next step is using JQ to write the chapters with time stamps to a text file, using the data provided in the JSON file. I actually used Microsoft Copilot to help me write the command, because I'm not too familiar with JQ's options.

jq -r '.chapters[] | "(.start_time | split(".")[0]) (.tags.title)"' json.txt > chapters.txt

This creates a text file called chapters.txt with the time stamps and titles in the exact required format. Success!

When I copy and paste that into the audio episode description, the chapters appear as expected in the Spotify desktop and mobile applications, and pasting the text into the YouTube video description adds the correct chapter markers to the video player.

You can see it working on the latest Tech Tales episode on Spotify and YouTube. I didn't expect chapters support to be so annoying, but I'm glad to have a mostly-automated solution.

Doing It Yourself

I created a bash script file to run all three commands at once on my Mac, and then save the final audio MP3 and chapters text file to the Desktop. You can see it on GitHub.

You need FFMPEG/FFPROBE and JQ installed for the commands to work. Since I'm on a Mac, I installed the Homebrew package manager, then ran the below command to install both packages.

brew install jq ffmpeg

I hope this helps anyone else having similar issues with podcast chapters!

[the-fandom-crossroads]

Sumeru Archon World Quest Chapter 4! King Deshret and the 3 Magi (Full Stream)

We were out late working so I wasn't able to get last nights genshin stream uploaded and the description written. It's still viewable on the twitch but until i get it moved to the youtube you can watch this instead! Have a stream from back during 3.1.

In this VOD Terry Finishes The Archon World Quest King Deshret and the 3 Magi. And also starts the Temporary event "Of Ballads and Brews". Time Stamps are in the description!

[grelleswife]

The Owl and the Raven, Chapter 30: On Bended Knee

In which the veil of secrecy is lifted, and a life-changing question is asked.

According to the AO3 time stamp, exactly one year ago today, @bapydemonprincess and I uploaded the first chapter of this romance between the maid of Phantomhive and one hell of a butler as a proper fic, assembled from an ongoing rp thread here on Tumblr.com. Over 100,000 words and 30 chapters later, we’ve finally reached one of the major milestones in Seb’s and Mey Rin’s love story—though, as those of you who have been with us from the beginning can attest, the tale is far from over! 💖🖤