#i love grant teaching link its so cute

[katsmtmsdoodles]

D...Day 3 of drawing Matt's teen facts TvT this got out of hand

S2E3: Link's favorite class was P.E. aka Personal Entertainment which he did whenever Grant had to do taxes, run errands...or whatever else it was that dads did!

[formulaforza]

rainy days-- c.leclerc

pairing: charles leclerc x reader word count: 540

You’ve always loved rainy days, granted, as long as it's a rainy day at home–not at the track. There’s something so cozy about them, like the sky is sad and so everyone else needs to hibernate for the day. They are especially enjoyable when your boyfriend is home, soft and cute and ready to snuggle while the Earth processes her grief. 

You drink tea and eat breakfast for lunch and take turns crushing each other with your body weight on the couch watching plotless reality television and getting way too invested in the personalities. His hair is getting long and he’s overdue for a cut, but the pieces on top have just enough length for you to braid it. You beg for two hours before he concedes, tells you to have at it. Obviously, you do, and take a million and one pictures of him looking so pretty. “I want to do yours,” he said after, and you spend an hour and half trying to teach him to french braid without actually being able to see what he’s doing. 

I think we should do face masks, he says after, and how can you turn down a self-care evening with your boyfriend? You’re usually the one begging for him to participate. He almost cries and you laugh so hard you might pee when you peel the charcoal mask off his face, slow and steady in the bathroom with a hot wash cloth. “You’re pathetic.” You told him, and he flipped you off, winced when you pulled the corner of the mask up. 

You fall asleep for an evening nap while he’s watching a new episode of one of his favorite shows, and when you wake up it’s dark, the tv is paused, and he’s asleep next to you on the couch. You blow out the candle burning in the kitchen and open the window while you clean up your meal mess from earlier, listening to the light, consistent pattern of the rain. 

“Amour, wake up.” You told him, ran your fingers through his hair, undoing the braid and picking apart the curls left in its wake. “Time for bed.” He gets up and trudges down the hall to your bedroom. You fold the blanket he was covered up with and toss it over the back of the sofa, straighten up a few things so nobody has to do it in the morning. When you look up, he’s stopped in the hallway, rubbing his eye and watching you. “Are you okay?” You ask.

He nods. “Just waiting for you.” You smile, tell him you’ll be there in a couple minutes, but he stays waiting. You latch the window shut and start down the hallway, are greeted with his strong arms wrapping you up into a hug. You laugh, run your hands over his back.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” he kisses the side of your head. “I just love you.” He releases his grip on you, gently places a soft kiss on your lips, a quick peck. “Love this.”

You smile, kiss him again, link your finger through his. “I love this, too.”

“Don’t love me?” He smiles all dumb and sleepy.

“Undecided,” you shrug, both smile, and head off to bed.

[madaboutmunson]

MadAboutMunson's One Shot Steddie Fics

Fics are below Keep reading :)

Are You Experienced

Summary: Everyone knows Steve Harrington, a local rich kid jock, the previous king of Hawkins High School. He's got it all, money, a respectable family, and chicks love him. He's even spending the summer learning what it's like to be a real working man before taking on a role in his Dad's firm because its builds character and empathy. Or is he something else entirely? Is Steve a down-on-his-luck guy, stuck in a job he dislikes because his dad is teaching him a lesson, repeatedly striking out with the ladies, that his co-worker is fond of reminding him about? Under all the many layers and masks, he uses to survive the day-to-day, Steve has secrets. The main one is how passionately he loves music. How it moves him in ways nothing else does, and he's sure no one else could possibly feel the same, until his Mom gives him $50 to spend at the new record store. Tumblr Link Ao3 Link

Never Too Much

Summary: Just a little something that wormed its way into my head, because I just love the whole Steddie having an extra love language of music thing Tumblr Link Ao3 Link

Policy of Truth

Summary: Please read the tags and warnings before reading this one 💚 After saving the world, everyone heads home, but not everyone has a place to go back to. Realising that they potentially could have lost their son Mr & Mrs Harrington, make an effort with Steve and open their those in need. But its not just friendships blossoming at The Harrington's, and soon Eddie and Steve have a secret to keep. Ao3 Link

Eight Frames a Week

Summary: Eddie catches Steve in his glasses one time. Just one time! But that is all it takes for Edward Munson’s brain to spark a new hyper fixation. He must have Steve in glasses, whenever he possibly can, because….well…. 1. He looks cute as a button in his glasses. They are so delicate. Thin golden wire frames and large round lenses accentuate the puppyish nature of his eyes. 2. Steve gets shy about them, which is also so adorable Eddie could spontaneously combust. Tumblr Link Ao3 Link

Keep You From The Cold

Summary: Eddie Munson is finding out that being a Vampire isn't as badass as some of the movies would have him believe. It's difficult enough trying to figure out what bits of lore are correct or complete nonsense, but when he sees his only willing source of nourishment (his boyfriend Steve) is struggling, he decides it's time to look elsewhere for sustenance. Fortunately, Eddie learns there is a very undesirable person in the vicinity, who has very bad intentions towards his very desirable Steve, and he means to put a very final stop to that. Tumblr Link Ao3 Link

Wishin' and Hopin'

Summary: In which Eddie realises he might have some residual power from The Upside-Down and plans to use it in the best way he knows how, to impress the guy he's had a crush on for months Tumblr Link Ao3 Link

Devil Gate Drive

Summary: In which Eddie fixes a spooky campfire story that Steve mis told, sending them on a quest for a wish to be granted. Well, once, they get to Devil Gate Drive that is :) Tumblr Link Ao3 Link

[ashenpages]

Current Projects & Emoji Voting Key

Quick disclaimer: I’m a romance writer in all aspects of the term, so most of my works will contain mature content. Engage at your own risk, you know the rules, you’re responsible for curating your own experience of the internet, blah blah blah.

This post serves as a current mock up of fic ideas I’m either actively working on or considering working on next. You can drop me an ask about any of them, or just vote via the emoji combo I’ve assigned them.

Voting lets me know you’re excited about an idea and makes it more likely I’ll actually work on it. You can vote anytime, there’re no deadlines or winner announcements, just me gauging your interest by what I see in my ask box most often.

You can also ask me about the original stuff I’m working on currently. The current WIPs are Medusa centric and the emoji for them is: 🐍

Support my original work on Ko-fi and Patreon.

- Lupin: 🤑🤠💍  These are all oneshot ideas, between 5-15K each. If you want to vote for a specific idea, send me the emojis and the number of the idea.

Born from the idea that Goemon and Zenigata probably couldn’t be an item, my brain decided to come up with how I could write for them. Goemon’s teaching an ikebana class as part of his training, and Zenigata shows up as a student on forced recreational leave for his health from the ICPO. Zenigata wins the samurai’s heart through flowers. But what happens when Lupin and Jigen find out? (Only good sexy things, I promise. These beans are in a healthy polycule--be gay, do crimes) (WIP)

Jigen/Lupin, but it's Jigen deciding to seduce Lupin while wearing his own Lupin disguise. The thief is waaaaay too into it, and some artistry is taken with the sex so that they don't mess up the disguise too much during their encoutner.

Jigen/Zenigata/Lupin where Jigen has some fantasices about Zenigata, but is pretty sure they'll never happen. Tells Lupin about them. Suddenly the fantasies are coming true, in the middle of a heist, and Jigen doesn't what to do except get swept up in the moment and enjoy. Plot twist, it's Lupin dressed up as Zenigata granting all his gunman's dreams. Plot twist again, Zenigata catches them at it.

Zenigata/Lupin, where Lupin keeps doing good things in illegal ways and Pops has to find a way to punish him for it. Good thing for Pops Lupin's a masochist?

Trans!Lupin and Trans!Jigen premise: Jigen cares for Lupin after the master thief has top surgery, since Jigen has Been There and Done That. Caring, sweet, and a little sexy. Lupin is a much better patient than Jigen.

The one time Zenigata caught Lupin in an alley and kissed him and it was Jigen in disguise. Things get sexy anyway, and Zenigata has crushes on two thieves now. Lupin and Jigen "kidnap" him later for an evening of taking care of their inspector.

The background plot of Jigen's Gravestone where we see Jigen think he's done for and try to leave Lupin. Our thief has none of it, and we get to relish in the inherent eroticism of Lupin sitting in sniper fire, knowing Jigen's got his back. This is the moment I think Jigen finally believes he can be with Lupin forever.

I love the idea of something longer and more plot driven like a Lupin special where Lupin ends up in hot water and Jigen and Fujiko have to work together to save him. Jigen and Fujiko have such an interesting relationship. They're both partners of Lupin, they don't really like each other, they constantly screw the other over, but when it really matters they take care of each other. I'd like to see that highlighted a little more and also give them space to call each other out and bicker. Nothing sexy between them, but maybe a really interesting threesome with Lupin and Fujiko in a strap on once they save their boy.

- Sonic Vampire Novelist Coffee Shop AU: 📚☕💐

Shadow is an immortal vampire who has seen the world change for the worse too many times. These days it feels like he only lives for his coffee dates with Rouge, another immortal who loves each new era they encounter, warts and all. He has to admit that the book series she got him into speaks to him, at least. If someone in this era can understand him without meeting him, it can’t all be bad. But he hardly expected the goofy blue barista at the new coffee place to understand him the way those books do.

This is a novel length romcom romp with some big feelings about what it means to watch as things change, grow, and die. Expect lots of Big gothic feelings from this one, emotionally charged kissing, and overly-adoring sex. But also expect shenanigans from everyone in the coffee shop, which include Rouge, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and more.

- Sonic Blazamy, "Like the Sun": 💖🌸💎

Amy Rose has been in love with Sonic for a while.

Or has she?

When the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver are trapped as the fuel sources for Doctor Eggman’s newest evil scheme, Amy teams up with Blaze, Rouge, and Cream to save them. With Sonic out of the picture and Amy fulfilling his role, was she ever really in love with him? Or did she just want to be like him?

This is a novel length epic romance with lots of competent women and lots of romantic Blazamy content. Expect flowery hopes and dreams, badass self-actualization, and glancing hand touches that give way to cuddly and sweet sex.

- Persona 5: 🗡🍛☕

After bringing down the Metaverse twice, Ryuji didn’t think graduating high school and figuring out what to do with his life would be so hard. Akira’s back in town, and the gang’s more-or-less all in Tokyo, but everyone else seems to have a plan while Ryuji just floats. How’s he supposed to change the world when he’s not a phantom thief anymore?

This is a novel length fic that addresses how powerless one can feel being just one person in the face of all the corrupted systems and bigotry the world has to offer. It’s about holding on to what you believe in, working through the doubt, and fighting your way to a better tomorrow with the power you do have. The whole gang is queer, featured relationships being Mako x Ann, Ryuji x Akira, Futaba & Yusuke as platonic life partners. Akira is polyamorous and omnisexual, Futaba’s asexual and aromantic while Yusuke is demisexual and very romantic, Makoto’s a lesbian, Ann and Ryuji are bi, and Haru’s pansexual, demisexual, and aromantic. They’re one giant band of queer Phantom Thieves, and even if they’re not really doing the Metaverse thing anymore, they’re still gonna save the world!

Also, I’m gonna make Makoto not a cop. That super didn’t age well. Zenkichi and his boss can work on making them better/abolishing them for other better organizations.

- Hades Game: ❤️‍🔥💀

Oneshot. I just really need to elaborate on the threesome you can have with them in-game, okay? Healthy and canon poly relationships are so few and far between, so often I have to do a ton of groundwork to explain why it’s working in the fic, but NOT WITH THESE KIDS!

Get ready for Meg helping Zag and Than be better at expressing their feelings, lots of kissing, and probably pegging.

- Castlevania Animation Trevor/Sypha/Alucard: 🧛🏰🛌

Castlevania gave Alucard a threesome last season, and I just really need S4 to give me him being taken care of by his partners. They’re probably not going to give it to me, so I’ll need to do it myself. This is just an everybody loves Alucard oneshot, with the gang’s signature banter (to an extent), Sypha being sexy, and Trever being remarkably sincere. This fic is gonna feel like that Ann Hathaway picture with Trevor kissing Alucard and Sypha holding the end of Trevor’s whip while she leans her head on Alucard’s shoulder adoringly.

- Devil May Cry Nico/Lady/Trish: 💋✨😈

Nico’s gay, okay? Like really, really gay. And Lady’s bi and not into men who make her pay bills, but very into women who make amazing guns for her and demonesses with hearts who fight by her side. Trish is ace, but loves people and is pretty attached to Lady at this point. Plus it’s cute when Lady blushes and says nice things like they’re insults. I don’t have super solid ideas for them yet, and I envision these more like a polycule where Lady’s with Nico and with Trish but they’re not with each other more than seeing it as a threesome, but who knows what might happen. This is probably 1-2 oneshots depending on ideas, but might turn into a series of oneshots if people are interested (or I can’t control myself and inspiration strikes).

- Post FMA:B Blind Roy & No Alchemy Ed: 👀👑🙏

This is actually an old novel-length fic I wrote ages ago and didn’t post that didn’t turn out well because I was new to writing sex when I first wrote it. The plot is good, and is all about Roy learning to work with his blindness to reclaim his ambition of being Fuhrer and changing the system to something that actually cares for its people. He and Ed reconnect, fall into bed, and both set about working through their respective traumas about being “useless” having lost their sight/alchemy. They go to Xing as an ambassadorial party to offer Amestris’s collaboration on Al and May’s Alkahestry experiments--and uncover a plot that might threaten both kingdoms.

- Age of Calamity continuity Mipha x Revali: 🦚🐟��

The first time Revali noticed Mipha, it was in the heat of battle. She stole his mark, taking them down with a flurry of quick blows from her spear. Violence rained from her like water--and then she healed him on her way to her next battle. No questions, no conditions, just pure kindness. The usual need to measure himself against those around him was quiet in her wake. And Revali couldn’t understand it. But how to get to know more about her? A fish and bird may fall in love, but where would they live?

This fic could be a oneshot or novel length depending on how far down the hole I fall. I need it to cover time, but it could be done in linked vignettes or with actually covering events in detail. I may elect to do a oneshot just to get it done and out of my system faster. So much fic to write, so little time.

Expect trans!Revali, polyamorous Zoras, scary competent Mipha, songbird Revali, love confessions that are made up entirely of berating Link for not loving Mipha the way she wants him to, and breaking these characters a little outside of their assigned roles in BotW and Age of Calamity. Background Link x Zelda, and Urbosa x Zelda’s Mom.

- Epic desert romance about Urbosa and Zelda’s mom: 🏜🏝⚡

I just think Urbosa should kiss women and Zelda’s mom should get more development and maybe a name or something. Also, lightning imagery/metaphors/play.

It also went way over my head that Riju wasn’t Urbosa’s daughter the first time I played BotW, so now I want to write about the Gerudo queen who refused to produce an heir. The Gerudo are fascinating and have a very interesting cutlure, but I think it could be examined from a nonbinary perspective that rejected pregnancy and wanting to find a husband. Not in like a hateful way, but in a way that examines if that’s really right for everyone. There’s that shop in town that sells Voe armor, after all. Maybe finding a husband and having children isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to. And Urbosa really doesn’t want to.

[grapevineatl]

We heard it through the Grape Vine 001

Trigger Warning: Mentions of potential domestic violence situations, drug use and selling. Also, to have your character's name removed from the grapevine page for good, write in and we'll work right on that.

Now, would it even be Atlanta if there wasn't some tale about a good time in Magic City? Drinks were coming in constant rotation, they were even smoking in the establishment, ratchet fun at it's best. Some were a little sloppy, Amora, but we won't go too much into that. However, we could definitely ask how she's holding up since according to our sources here at The Grape Vine, her ex boyfriend Malakai stopped by her place and decided to shake her up by the wig a bit and no, and not one hand on neck, one hand on frontal. Like we would have all hoped. It was more so one hand on neck the other upside her head, but if she likes it, we love it chile because he definitely didn't bother leaving afterwards or so we heard. Either one of yall want to clear that up for us? Twitter seems to be the perfect outlet to let us know just what type of time someone is on. Whether it's Cree and Paris on the timeline crying because...., well who knows exactly. Men sometimes just need to cry on social media. Look at Tyrese Gibson! And he's perfectly fine. We support the #ManChildCoalition. Keep thriving fellas! Whew, if that wasn't enough Joaquin and Shiloh let all the claws out, girl. What happened with that? Last time we heard about anything, they had the potential to be cute. Whenever he wasn't dropping off dick to his customers. Or is it...drugs that he sell? We don't know! He was sure sniffing around the very girl he tried to dismiss on the timeline though. Now granted, he hoe "Works" so much that it was rare, but its the thought that counts, right. We would ask the women our sources said he was linked to, but the Grape Vine is a small budding business, and we would have been out numbered, we know how to pick our battles. No shade. Our good sis Shiloh ultimately said she don't know that man and Mr. Joaquin was in his feelings about it. We are sure Cree and Paris are taking applications for the #MCC (Man child coalition for the cute but challenged ones who wouldn't have got it). If that wasn't enough Mr. Ira, you know, the guy with a grown son and then a baby mama who probably went to school with the grown son. He spent so much time shading his baby mother and now they are glued at the hip. Are yall a family unit or no? Feel free to clear this up. Or not, I doubt any of us at the grapevine would care that much. What we do want to clear up is Hassan's random little "You're not playing me" tweet in the middle of the mess? What was the reason! (Cardi B voice) If "I wanna be down" was a person, because from the way we heard he be juggling the ladies.. maybe someone should be telling him that. The people want to know, who was the jab at! Speaking of people who portray one persona online and a different one in the trenches chile. Storm, we thought you always get your way. Is that why we heard about Jeremiah sneaking out your house after putting you to sleep? And he didn't use a lullaby chile.. ALLEGEDLY. Either way, don't be ashamed, we've all got smashed and then kicked to the curb. Maybe not, "we all"... but you FOR SURE. Kezziah..how that Rita Ora song go about being a wild one, we heard you were a realllll wild one girly. Teach Storm your ways. He's gonna need it. Now we have to make like those twins.. Amora's bottom lip, Joaquin's hoe schedule, Kezziah on a man.. if you don't get it by now.. we gotta split. Yall be easy out here. Keep the grape vine, grape vining.

[amariaamaris]

Of Changes and Revelations

I got this idea from the other Marvel and TVD crossover that I did, it is going to be (hopefully) very different. I hope it comes out well and that I do it justice... I’m already working on a second part, I felt that this was getting a little to long! Please let me know what you think and if there are any grammar/spelling/punctuation things that need fixing. Constructive criticism is always welcome. This took me forever, there were so many roadblocks and questioning myself on if I actually wanted to write this. Thanks to my sister pushing me and my imagination running wild with promises of what I can do in the future with this... I decided to go through with it... so enjoy!

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

After it’s all said it done; after Esther failing in killing her children, Bonnie’s mother being turned to break the link, Abby bailing (again), Klaus forcing Bonnie to break the spell Esther did... The expulsion of magic that resulted inadvertently saved Finn’s life, knocking out the scooby gang in the process (including most everyone in the town). While also setting fire to anything flammable within the radius of the town (leaving only a select few homes and buildings untouched). It’s safe to say all the white oak is gone... along with multiple buildings.... (oops?) The poor trees are all fried, though luckily they have strong bark, so they’ll survive (it also helps that Bonnie helped to heal them).

All of it coalesces and brings Bonnie to locking herself up in her grams house for as long as she pleases with no acknowledgement of the outside world. She had methodically gone through the house and unplugged the internet, tv’s, shut down her phone, and all other electronics. She just wants to be left alone, Bonnie is exhausted; she’s tired of being used, abused, and taken for granted.

She had found a boundary spell in one of the grimoires to keep those with ill or selfish intent off her property and the fu- away from her (especially certain vampires). In the middle of the week Bonnie left her grams house and went to the school. At the beginning of the week she set up this time to test out of high school.

Bonnie made sure to blend in with the crowd to not be spotted by her “friends”; they may have not seen her, but she definitely saw them. She took the test within three and a half class periods and got the hell out of there. Bonnie drove away like a bat out of hell and made it back to her grams house as fast as she possibly could. She had completely moved into her grams house throughout the one after another of the supernatural shit show that she now calls her life (or rather did call her life). Not like her father was ever around for her to bother staying in his house.

The plus side of testing out of high school is that she can go and get whatever she needs without being worried about being ambushed by her “friends” or the Mikaelson's. Bonnie has also decided that she is going to take all the time that she needs to spend on self-love, working with her magic to learn, and embrace it joyfully. She also has been spending time in meditation and speaking with all of her ancestors. For once in her life, Bonnie Shelia Bennett has finally decided to be selfish and damn the consequences.

Little did she know that her new change would go right along with a huge change that will flip her world on its axis and bring up deeply buried memories.

————

Rudy Bennett knew that this day would come, he knew that eventually they would hunt him down. After all, he did abandon his post, he cut off all contact and went rogue. In doing so, also kept his child away from her culture and her people. He knows that if they find out about her and his lack of parenting, that would sign his fate.

Rudy couldn’t hide his shaking hands as he poured himself a drink and promptly chugged what was in his glass. He did decide that he wouldn’t run or hide, he was going to wait for them to come. He just got done pouring his second one when the lights flickered off; causing a shiver of fear to run down his spine, he could also feel sweat on the back of his neck.

When the lights flickered on, there were two Dora Milaje standing on the other side of his desk. Still as stone holding their vibranium spears, with the king and his cousin standing in between them. Both in different black panther suits (armor?), causing Rudy to gulp. Rudy could feel more sweat break out on his skin as he warily stared at his king.

“D’Kadi Dzube, you’ve been missing a long time.” Rudy or rather D’Kadi watched as both the men tapped on their collars and watched as the mask melted away and showed their faces. Rudy could hear his blood rushing to his ears as he felt himself pale a little. “You were once my father’s most trusted war dog. Then one day, you disappeared without a trace. Just a few months ago we found you... we also found some very interesting information. D’Kadi Dzube you have a daughter that you hid from your people. From my understanding you have been neglecting her as well.”

Rudy could hear ringing in his ears and the blood rushing through his body, he could imagine that he looked white as a sheet. Everything was blurring and before he knew it his eyes were rolling and he fell into darkness.

————

Bonnie could feel something coming to the depths of her bones, it would cause her to pause as her hair would stand up on its ends. Which would lead her to looking out the windows, but there was nothing there. It got to the point where Bonnie decided to add an extra warding to the house rather than the property. Evidently to keep anyone away from the structure of the home, while still being able to enter the yard (only if they pass the wards on the property that is).

Bonnie had started a cute little herbal and vegetable/fruit garden in her backyard, along with some landscaping spanning around the whole house. Along with flowers on both sides of the pathway walking up to the house. Bonnie has never before felt this free and happy. That doesn’t change the fact that she still feels a phantom twinge of pain when she thinks of how her friends haven’t even tried to come visit her. Not. A. Single. One.

Hell! Even Klaus showed up! Not that he could get on the property and it’s not like he was checking up on her... but still! Bonnie lets out an annoyed huff and shakes her head as she focuses back on her plants at the front of the house. She tries to work through her agitation; at her friends, the Mikaelson’s, the Salvatore’s, her parents, her grams for not teaching her from the beginning, at herself for not being smarter and wiser, and Bonnie might as well add the world to the list to. 

She very quickly finds herself falling into a flow of taking care of the plants as everything washes away. Bonnie has found that in many instances doing something like this puts her in a meditative trance that helps to center her. Two hours pass with Bonnie working on her plants, when she hears a car drive up and park on the curb.

Bonnie allows herself to slow down in her landscaping work, but doesn’t turn around - even as she hears the car doors open and shut. She can also hear strangely accented voices talking, both male... but she can sense more people with them. Hearing them coming closer makes Bonnie glad that she chose to wear a wide brimmed straw hat that belonged to her grams (she’s rather not have people recognize her before she can tell whether or not they are threats). 

“Excuse me? Are you the daughter of Rudy Bennett and Abby Bennett....” She freezes, but gives no answer. Bonnie can already feel her magic gathering, ready to motus the hell out of all of the people behind her. Receiving no answer, the people behind her exchange looks, “Granddaughter to Shelia Bennett?” Bonnie feels her agitation spike, causing her to rip off her dirty gardening gloves and throw them to the ground.

Bonnie turns around to look at them, noticing two men that look like cousins, two bald women that have what look to be tribal tattoos on their heads, and a random white man wearing clothing far heavy for how warm it is. Bonnie can practically feel her magic crackling at her fingertips and through her hair. “That depends on who is asking and why...?”

One of the cousins move to step forward, but upon seeing the look on her face, thinks better of it. Though, that didn’t stop him from kindly smiling at her, “My name is T’Challa, this is my cousin N’Jadaka, these two women are Okoye and Ayo, and this is James Barnes. I would like to speak to you about your father.”

Bonnie studies all of them and then flicks her eyes back to T’Challa, before she can respond with something biting, she hears whispers upon the wind. She allows herself to slightly tilt her head to listen better. After a few seconds Bonnie focuses back on T’Challa and the people he brought with him. “I’m not interested in talking about the sperm donor that calls himself my father. I could care less what type of underground cultish mafia he got himself into. If he owes you anything make Rudy deal with it, his problem’s aren’t mine to deal with.”

Bonnie quickly makes her way onto the porch of the house - without turning her back on them (she doesn’t have a death wish) - already knowing that whoever these people are, they aren’t going to let her off easily. N’Jadaka, the man with weird bumps all over his extremely musc- no! Bonnie quickly mentally shakes herself as he snickers with a smirk on his face. “I don’t think I have ever heard someone call people from Wakanda a cult or mafia. The little kitten does have a point cousin.” He runs his tongue over his teeth, “She should be wary, she knows nothing about her father’s history. “

“N’Jadaka...” T’Challa gives him a sharp warning look, not noticing Bonnie moving to open the front door to slip inside. “Where do you think you’re going kitten? We said we wanted to talk that’s what you’re going to let us do!” He moves to go onto the porch, but feels like he hit a brick wall, N’Jadaka also gets a nasty zap throughout his entire body. Causing him to hiss slightly in pain as the group takes notice of the wind picking up and hissing whispers upon the wind (not that they could make out what they were saying). They do notice how Bonnie seems to understand exactly what is being said upon her head whipping around to face the road. All of them watched as she ripped off her hat and lightly tossed it onto the porch swing, they heard the sharp angry hiss escape from her as her green eyes darkened.

The group from Wakanda evenly spaced themselves out as they turned upon hearing a car door slam, they all watch as a long blonde haired young woman walked around the car and onto the property. “Bonnie! Where have you been? We have all been trying to get a hold of you, you haven’t been at school, you haven’t been answering your phone or showing up to practice! We’ve been worried! Honestly Bonnie Bennett you better have a good reason for completely cutting all of us out of your life... who are these people?!” Bonnie stares at Caroline for a few seconds realizing that her chest no longer hurts when thinking of her ex-friends. In fact Bonnie realizes with sudden clarity that there isn’t pain when she thinks of her friends, only white hot fiery fury and looking at Caroline only makes her annoyance and fury rise at the audacity that she had to show up to her grams house unannounced at her house, at her sanctuary.

“Who they are is none of your business Caroline, in fact they were just leaving, like you will be. I’m not particularly in the mood to talk to people that ruined my perfectly peaceful day by arriving unannounced.” Turning her attention to the curious onlookers Bonnie continues “I don’t care to talk about Rudy and whatever shit show he’s gotten himself into,” looking to Caroline “and I don’t want to be forced to listen to lies! I’m well aware that none of you have noticed my absence up until a couple days ago. I’m also aware that none of you actually care for me, all of you just see me as some weapon to be used. Well I’m done being your sword and shield. I want all of you the hell off of my grams property. Do whatever you want with Rudy, it’s not my problem and I want nothing to do with it. Caroline you and the rest of those assholes can shove your lies and demands up your asses. I’m not going to be your quick fix to problems you brought on yourselves. Grow the fuck up and deal with them yourself! Now get the fuck off of my property!”

The front door slams viciously behind Bonnie, whose screaming voice still echoed in the air with whispers following it, the group from Wakanda all had their eyebrows almost to their hairlines. While Caroline’s jaw was dropped almost to the ground in shock and hurt. “You should leave Care-o-line, you’re no friend of hers.” N’Jadaka’s voice quickly pulls her out of it and brings up her misplaced righteous fury. “Oh, really, I am her friend. Who the hell are you? From the way it was looking none of you are friends of Bonnie’s! I’m her best friend!! You had to have done something to upset her, she would have never said something like that or treated me that way! All of you are the ones who should leave!”

N’Jadaka moves to step forward, but James puts his hidden vibranium arm in front of him and says only one thing in a harsh warning tone. “Erik...” Causing Erik to suck on his teeth for a second then back down. While T’Challa steps forward with his hands up in the universal sign of peace. “Miss...” Caroline huffs out her answer to his silent question, “Caroline Forbes!” He immediately gives a soft smile, “Miss Forbes, I believe all of us need to leave Bonnie alone for the time being. If it makes you feel better we will get into our car first, but we will only be leaving after you drive away. She is important to our people and I will not risk something happening.” Caroline works her jaw as the gogs in her brain slowly turn, her eyes sharpen for a few seconds, but she quickly gives in and slowly, dejectedly nods.

None of them notice the whispers on the wind that one small young Bennett witch listens too as they all drive away, with a contemplating look in her eyes.

————

The next day has Bonnie working in the backyard harvesting the herbs, vegetables, and fruits that she needs. Bonnie gives absolutely no reaction to N’Jadaka’s presence as he walks around the back of the house. “You know it’s seen as extremely rude to not only invite yourself to someone’s house, especially not knocking on the front door.” She has to hide her slight smile upon hearing him huff out a laugh, “I’d love to knock on your front door kitten, the only problem is... I couldn’t seem to get on the first step.” Bonnie can sense the question in his words, but chooses to ignore it and continue her work. She can feel him watching her and gets quickly fed up witch a harsh huff Bonnie stops what she is doing, stands up, and turns to face him.

She has to give herself a few seconds to get accustomed to the height difference between the two of them, to put it simply... he dwarfs her. Not only in height, but in sheer muscle mass, she averts her eyes to try and hide the affect he’s having on her. Bonnie decides to chalk it up to the fact that she hasn’t had any direct human contact for a while. “Look N’Jadaka...” “Erik” His interruption causes her to blink, “What?” Erik let’s out a quiet huff while a smirk plays along his lips. “My colonizer name kitten, is Erik. I’d rather go by it than N’Jadaka... has a lot more pride in it than my other name does.”

Bonnie quietly mouths colonizer with a confused look, but decides that they can come back to that later. “Fine! Erik... just...” Bonnie let’s out breath and frowns as her eyes play across the plains of his face and the outdoors. “I don’t know why... but my ancestors like you and they say that I can trust you. Now I’m going to do something that I never do... I’m going to trust my ancestors.” She allows herself to walk up to him and look him directly in the eyes “and if you ever... and I mean ever break that trust. I will personally find a way to kill you, slowly, painfully, and only when your begging for mercy will I kill you... got it?” While she was talking her finger was poking him in the chest to help emphasize her words with a sickly sweet smile upon her face.

Erik gives a slow smile knowing that he shouldn’t find himself turned on by her threat, but he is. He allows himself to carefully grab the hand she was poking him with and holds onto it. Erik chooses to ignore the quiet gasp that escapes her lips... for the moment “You got it kitten, would you like me to explain what you were very unwilling to talk about yesterday with my cousin?” He watches completely fascinated as her eyelashes shadow her eyes while she thinks it over, when she looks up and focuses back on him, she gives a hesitant nod. “Okay, but your helping me with my garden... if we have to talk about something that I would rather never have to think about again, your going to be useful and help.” Her words pull a sharp laugh out of Erik, as he grins and gives a nod in acceptance.

Once she quickly shows him what do to and what to look for, they start working. As they work he explains everything to her, everything hidden from her, everything that her father has done... everything. It completely shatters her, it obliterates everything she thought she knew about her father and his side of the family, everything she thought she knew and understood about herself; it sends her completely into orbit. She doesn’t even realize that she is crying, nor does she realize that she is raging at Erik and upon his body. Her fists swinging to hit his chest as her magic angrily swirls around them. Bonnie feels as though she is shattered into a trillion shimmering atoms being carried away upon the wind. She can’t tell if she will ever find herself... how can she? Bonnie doesn’t think that she can gather the exploded pieces... how can she find them? They have scattered to the wind getting caught in the trees, falling to the streams of water to be carried and caught elsewhere. Bonnie can’t even feel Erik tightly holding her as he somehow carries her inside of her grans house. And eventually, much later into the night, he helps to pull her back together, but for now. He try’s to help hold together what little is left of Bonnie Shelia Bennett.

As her true name echoes through her entire being...

Ahnika...

————————————————————

I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you think. The second part is on its way! Peace, love, and joy!

[tinypeckers]

The Enchanted Ornament

Ship(s): Jack Pattillo/Geoff Ramsey (Jackoff? ehehe)

Word count: 7,790

Summary: It’s Christmas Eve and everything couldn’t be more wrong. The baby won’t stop crying, everyone is in a bad mood and Gavin has lost his Christmas spirit. Can something as simple as a wish save it all?

A/N: This story is two years in the making. I have been working on it every festive period since 2018 and it is finally done. I almost didn’t release it because, well, you know but... I did. Because I love this story. I am proud of it but I’ll warn you here, there is a new OC introduced. His name is Brian, er, I think we all know why (Here’s a link to my thoughts on it as well, if you care)

AO3 link

Jack sat, head between his hands, perched upon the edge of the bed. His right foot twitched erratically as the pressure increased against his temples. He screwed his eyes shut. He tried to hum. A broken and tuneless carol barely vibrated his lips. No matter how hard he squeezed, how tight he closed his eyes, how loud he hummed - he could not drown out the near-constant whine from beside him. He cracked open his right eye and it narrowed when he glanced at the basinet inches from his knee. The baby inside it, who had seemed so angelic and sweet just a few months ago, kicked at his confines. With fists barely bigger than a ping pong ball, he pummelled the air.

“Please,” Jack whispered at the baby. “Please Jeremy, just give in and sleep.”

As if Santa Claus himself had listened and granted Jack’s wish, the infant stilled. The whines gave way to small, miserable hiccups. Jeremy’s legs fell and his fingers opened up. His eyes, which had not left Jack for hours, started to flutter closed. Jack held his breath. Hic. Jeremy fought to keep his eyes open. Hic. His foot hit the mattress impatiently. He brought a fist to his mouth. Hic. His eyes closed. Hic. They stayed closed. Hic. Jack let his own eyes fall shut, his breath slowed in sync with the child laying in the basinet. Finally, Jack thought.

 He didn’t hear the sound of small, socked feet that tip-toed into the room. He didn’t acknowledge the arm that brushed his knee. Jack wouldn’t have known that someone had joined them at all, he’d have blissfully have sat there for hours if it had not have been for the small, yet caring, hand that brushed its knuckles against the baby’s cheek.

“Night, night Jeremy.”

Like a sensitive car alarm startled by a falling leaf, the baby screeched once more. Jack shot to his feet and glared at the boy who had only wanted to check on his younger brother.

“Gavin, get out!”

He loomed over the seven-year-old, face as red as his beard and eyes bloodshot and wild. Gavin fell backward and scrambled away from his father. Jack’s breaths came in heavy, short bursts. Gavin stood, as quickly as he could scurry to his feet, and dashed from the room.

 Gavin pulled the door shut behind him. He winced when the slam seemed to escalate his younger brother’s screams. Not sure what to think or who to turn to, he shook as he tried to reason with himself why his father would yell at him like that. Gavin ran to the room right next door to his parent’s. The door was closed, as it had been for months, but Gavin went ahead and opened it anyway. He’d not got one foot through the doorway before he was yelled at once more.

“Gavin,” his older brother, Brian, barked from his bed. “Can’t you read? You’re not allowed in here.”

Gavin raised his shoulders, clenched his fists and tried desperately to keep his lower lip still as it quivered. He could read, Brian knew that – it’s just that, like his teachers and his parents often said, Gavin was often oblivious to things around him. Gavin didn’t know what oblivious meant, exactly, he just knew that it meant sometimes people got annoyed at him for, as far as he was concerned, no reason. Gavin didn’t tell Brian any of this, of course, he merely stood and tried not to pout.

“Papa yelled at me,” he finally said.

 Brian laughed, or rather made a sound that was close to a laugh. He didn’t smile or offer to give Gavin a hug like the younger boy had wanted – like Brian would have, last year. Instead he rolled his eyes at his brother and shifted the laptop perched upon his knees.

“By the sounds coming from next door, you deserved it. Papa and Dad didn’t get any sleep last night thanks to that dick,” Brian gestured to the wall with his thumb. “Neither did I; the brat.”

“You can’t call him… that. His name’s Jeremy.”

Brian rolled his eyes: “They should have called him Satan, I thought they’d come to their senses after they took you three home but no, you had to lose your cuteness and then they wanted another one. Fools.”

Gavin swallowed. He played with the hem of his shirt and bit at his lower lip. When no words came, he simply stared at his older brother. Brian had let his hair grow out since his thirteenth birthday and now he had to blow air out occasionally to stop it from flopping over his eye. He had practically lived in his bedroom since then too and stopped playing games with Gavin and all of his other brothers. Gavin had begged him all month to help him build the family Christmas puzzle – Geoff and Jack had been too busy with the baby, Ray would rather play on the Xbox and Michael just grew bored and broke it all apart again – but Brian simply refused. On one occasion, he had said he was too old for it now. When Gavin asked why their fathers still did it then, because they were ancient, Ryan had told him to go away in less than pleasant terms and had been grounded all weekend.

“Why are you still here? Go, and shut the door on the way out. Anything to drown Satan out,” Brian waved Gavin toward the hallway.

 With a heavy sigh, Gavin did as he was told. He gently closed the door this time, aware that the screams from next door were becoming less and less frequent. He paused by the door, pressed his ear against it to listen. He could hear his papa hum to the baby, the occasional creak of a floorboard letting Gavin know that he’d given in and picked the infant up. Gavin swallowed. He knew he was seven, and technically a big boy now, but he wanted nothing more than to open the door and join them. He wanted Jack to pick him up, bounce him on his hip and hum a Christmas carol to him. Jack had been too busy to teach him a new one, like he’d promised, so Gavin had had to google the lyrics to Silent Night, but listening to the YouTube video wasn’t the same as Jack’s singing. He dragged himself away from the door, used the back of his hand to wipe underneath his eye and headed down the stairs. He didn’t need Brian, or Papa – he had other brothers and he had a whole other dad to keep him company.

 Gavin went straight to the kitchen. Geoff hunched over the counter, his face hidden behind his hands. Gavin could see his shoulders rise and fall, slowly, as Geoff tried to breathe. He was struggling to, mostly because Michael had sucked all the air out of the room with his screaming.

“Wha’ happened?” Gavin asked.

Geoff stood properly then, seemingly startled back into action by Gavin’s voice. He turned his back to the inquisitive boy, preoccupying himself with the large, uncooked bird that he had procured for tomorrow. Gavin chewed upon his lower lip. He edged around the breakfast table and peeked at his brother.

Michael lay flat on his back, face red as he tried to rival the baby’s yells from upstairs. His feet kicked and kicked at the linoleum floor. Strewn around him were the boys’ advent calendars, the final door ripped open and the chocolate missing. Gavin allowed himself a short, sharp breath. He had been looking forward to opening that tomorrow. It had been so fun this past month to race and find the door. Ray was always first but Gavin was always second. He was good with numbers, see, much better than he was at reading. Michael wasn’t patient enough to find the number and always resigned himself to a huff. Gavin liked to help him – it was always nice to see his brother smile once he’d found it. Gavin didn’t mind that he liked to declare that he’d done it himself.

 Gavin sat down beside his brother and folded his feet underneath his knees. Michael’s yells never stopped, though he cranked one eye open to see who had bothered to pay him attention. He only screamed louder when he saw that it was Gavin and not Geoff who had noticed him.

“Why are you crying? I’m not mad you eated my chocolate, Michael.” Gavin reached out to brush a stray curl from his brother’s forehead.

“Leave him alone, Gavin.”

Gavin looked up. Geoff hadn’t turned away from his turkey but his voice was gruff and clipped. His tone left no room for arguments and, though Gavin would much rather give his brother a hug, he got up and did as he was told. Gavin toddled over to Geoff. He stood upon his tiptoes to see what his father was doing. Michael let a yell fall into a huff.

 “I thought that turkey was for tomorrow’s dinner,” Gavin said.

“It is, bud, but Papa and I are going to be so busy tomorrow so I’m starting it tonight to make sure we actually get dinner tomor-“

Geoff trailed off as he moved away from the bird to grab something from his spice rack. His hip brushed a mug on the counter. As the cup tipped towards the ground, a small dollop of brown liquid careened to the floor. Geoff saved the mug, absent-mindedly pushing it back as he walked away. Gavin frowned. He knew that his dad had made the hot chocolate a few hours earlier, when he’d let his sons steal a sip once it had cooled down enough. Yet Geoff had never left a hot chocolate so that it had become cold, Gavin knew that his dad liked to finish it before he and his brothers came back for seconds. He glanced up at his father. The bags under Geoff’s eyes, though ever prominent, had surely gotten deeper these past few days.

 Without a word, Gavin slunk out of the kitchen. It didn’t feel like Christmas at all. At least, it wasn’t like last year. Last year, they were all watching Christmas movies together by now. Last year, he and Michael had helped Papa build a gingerbread house. Last year Brian had helped Gavin wrap a present all by himself for their dad. Gavin chewed at his fingernails as he entered the living room. Maybe Brian was right, maybe everything had changed because Jeremy was here now? Gavin’s brow furrowed. He shook the thought away. No, it wasn’t Jeremy’s fault. He wasn’t crying on purpose. He was just a baby. He needed more help than Gavin, that’s all. Gavin nodded to himself. Christmas wasn’t over either – he could still have fun!

 Gavin looked up. The living room was his favourite room in the house by far. Geoff had gone all out with the decorations; paper snowflakes hung from the ceiling, all handmade by Gavin and his brothers; a wreath hung above the fireplace, a berry garland hid the nails that held in the stockings and the covers on the pillows on the couch had been swapped out for more festive colours. Best of all was the tree – Gavin had helped out there too – upon which sat the prettiest, most magical fairy Gavin had ever seen. The boy spared her a small smile as he hopped over to the couch where the last of his brothers sat hunched over Geoff’s old laptop. Gavin sidled up beside Ray. He squinted at the screen as Ray shot a ball at pegs.

“Want to build my puzzle with me, Ray?”

Ray didn’t even look up, he only grunted as he shot the last ball. Gavin clapped when the fireworks appeared on screen but Ray sighed. He exited the game. His name appeared again and again on the high score list, taking almost every spot bar one. With a score much higher than second place, it was the only Brian left on the list. Ray hit play again and restarted it entirely.

“Why’d you do that?”

 Gavin waited for an answer. All he got was the click of the mouse as Ray fired his first ball. Gavin swallowed. He used the back of his hand to rub at his eyes. An old movie was on the TV, one that Gavin had never seen before. Ray had turned the sound almost all the way down. Gavin took it upon himself to turn it back up. He forced a smile as the small child on screen uttered an optimistic phrase about “having Christmas cheer”. He slipped off of the couch and headed toward the base of the tree. When Gavin had left it, his puzzle had been almost finished. Now it lay in pieces once more. He rubbed at his cheek, willing away the salty water that had raced across it. He brushed the pieces aside, found a corner and placed it onto the carpet. Gavin hunted for the other corners and spaced them out evenly. He interlocked other pieces where he could.

 Gavin sniffled as some of the pieces started to get damp, curling at the corners as he pushed them into place. Behind him, on the TV, the child cried below his own tree too. Gavin looked back at it. The screen was suddenly engulfed in a white light and the fairy that once sat at the top of the tree now stood below it, almost as tall as the plant itself. The child looked up as she smiled. Gavin watched, mouth agape, as she offered the child some Christmas wishes. He watched as the scene changed and the child stood with his family around him, grinning from ear to ear, as it begun to snow just in time for Christmas. Gavin looked up at his own fairy then. She looked like the one from the TV – white dress, big crown and silver, glittery wand. Gavin opened his mouth, words on the tip of his tongue, when Geoff called from the kitchen.

“Dinner’s ready – everyone get in here!”

 Having spent all the afternoon and most of the early evening preparing his beautiful bird, Geoff had opted out of making dinner for Christmas Eve too. Gavin poked at his meal, which had spent all of a few minutes in a microwave, and tried to be grateful for it. He knew that his dad was tired, that he was lucky that they were all around the table together (except for Jeremy, who he hoped was now sleeping peacefully) but he couldn’t help feel disappointed that Geoff had forgotten that Gavin didn’t like mac and cheese because he hated the way that it squelched. Still, he forced down a mouthful and tried to ignore that it had already started to go cold.

 Michael sat beside Gavin, arms crossed, glaring at the meal before him. When they had first sat down, Jack had tried to force him to try a mouthful but Michael was nothing but stubborn. Jack had given up almost immediately, resigning himself to eating his own meal. Brian had his phone out at the table, eyes trained on the screen as he used one hand to eat and one hand to scroll. Gavin waited for one of his dads to tell his brother to put it away. It was against the rules normally, but it seemed that they were making an exception for Christmas. Ray sat as close as he could to Brian, his eyes following every flick of his brother’s finger. He ate slowly, seeming to suck upon his fork before going back for another mouthful. At the head of the table, Geoff paired every mouthful with a sip of water. Gavin let his fork fall onto his plate and clapped his hands together.

“Is everyone excited for Christmas?”

 Ray sat up straighter then, dropping his own fork and holding up his hand as he listed everything he wanted under the tree.

“Santa’s gonna bring me a new laptop, a phone just like Brian’s, a new controller, a nerf gun…”

“No, Ray, he’s bringing me a nerf gun,” Michael interjected. “You can’t ask Santa for a nerf gun because I asked for it first and he’s going to give it to me, isn’t he dad?”

Geoff lowered his glass, which at this point had little more than a drop of water swirling at the bottom, and cleared his throat.

“Well, Santa-“

“Santa’s not bringing you anything because he’s not-“

“Brian!”

Jack pushed his chair back as he yelled, hands firmly planted on the table as he loomed over it to glare at Brian. The older boy seemed unfazed by his father’s outburst, he even seemed to smirk at the reaction. Gavin, on the other hand, had curled up in his seat.

 A faint wail sounded from upstairs. Jack slumped in his seat, fingers making indents in his forehead as he willed away the headache that had been there for hours. Geoff reached out and squeezed his husband’s shoulder, glancing at his children.

“All right, everyone, finish up your meal. I think we all just need an early night.”

Brian did not need to have to be asked twice, though he rolled his eyes at his father’s request. He stood up and left the room. Only seconds after, Ray did exactly the same thing, eye roll included, but his exit was much swifter so that he did not have to hear the inevitable lecture from his fathers. Michael also got to his feet. Instead of leaving, however, he grabbed the chair he had been sitting on moments before and tried to throw it. Thankfully for everyone else in the room, he was far too small and it was much too heavy and he only succeeded in pushing it a few inches. Frustrated at the lack of destruction, Michael kicked it back under the table.

“Michael,” Geoff began. Michael kicked and kicked and kicked at the chair. “Michael. Stop that, you’re being very naughty.”

Yet Michael did not stop and Gavin winced as one of the rods that formed the back of the chair finally gave way to the heel of Michael’s foot. As though he did not notice, Michael continued to deliver swift kicks to the chair. Geoff stood then and grabbed his son by the arm.

“MICHAEL! That is enough, you have been horrible today and if you don’t go upstairs and get ready for bed right now, I will tell Santa that you don’t deserve any gifts this year.”

Gavin gasped. Michael stopped kicking. They both looked at their father in horror. No gifts? That wasn’t fair. Gavin knew that Michael had indeed been quite terrible today, and maybe in the past month he’d had his naughty moments, but he knew that his brother was good. It was Michael who would hold Gavin’s hand when he was scared, after all, and Michael that got the boys at school to stop bullying Ray and Gavin was sure that the last time he’d seen Brian smile was after a joke that his brother had told. Michael certainly deserved presents, Santa couldn’t judge him on just one day!

 Geoff let go of his son’s arm but his face never lost its thunder. Michael hiccupped, he rubbed at his cheeks vigorously and sucked in a breath. He lifted his arm and for a second Gavin thought that he was going to reach out, Michael’s fingers outstretched as though asking Geoff to hold him, but he let his arm drop. His chin met his chest as he shuffled out of the room. Gavin looked at his father then, teeth worrying his bottom lip as he waited for Geoff to follow his brother and give him the hug he so clearly needed. Geoff didn’t go anywhere. He seemed years older to Gavin, almost twice the age of Father Christmas himself, and so vulnerable.

“Daddy, Michael will still get presents, won’t he?”

“Go to bed, Gavin.”

A lump seemed to form in Gavin’s throat. His chest hurt, like he’d been running for hours and forgotten to breathe. He did that sometimes, had to stop and hold onto his knees as he gulped in air. This time Gavin didn’t know what to do. He looked at his dad, and then to his papa, before he nodded and slipped from the room.

 Upstairs, Gavin found Ray already in bed. He’d pulled his duvet over his head and the faint glow underneath made it obvious he was not sleeping and did not plan to soon. The door to the boys’ bathroom was open so that Gavin could see Michael inside brushing his teeth. The mirror reflected his red, puffy eyes and miserable expression. Gavin came and stood beside him. He went to grab his brother’s hand but Michael snatched his arm away. He spat the toothpaste out into the sink, rinsed his mouth and left Gavin alone in the bathroom. Gavin watched him get into his bed through the mirror. He looked at himself then and felt sorry for himself. It was Christmas, he thought, it was the season of joy. He wished and wished that today could have been like last Christmas, that they could have all spent it together and it was magical. Gavin could only think of one way to fix this. With a nod to his own reflection, Gavin grabbed his toothbrush and formed a plan in his head.

 Hours later, when Gavin was sure that everyone else had fallen asleep, he tiptoed downstairs. The living room was dark and it felt more horrifying than magical as Gavin made his way to the tree. He didn’t know the time but was thankful to see that Santa had not been yet, hoping that he still had time to save Christmas. He knelt beside the puzzle he had still yet to finish, picking up a piece absent-mindedly as he sighed. Gavin squeezed the piece in his hand and looked up. Even in the dark, the angel’s dress seemed to glow. Gavin could not make out her face but he tried to imagine where her eyes were, remembering that his papa had told him it was important to make eye contact with someone you wanted to talk to. Gavin took a deep breath.

 Across the hall, in the kitchen, Geoff, Jack and Brian cocked their heads towards the door. They had paid no attention to the slight creak of the stairs minutes earlier, the house was old and it just did that, but now they could hear a faint muttering coming from the living room.

“One of the boys must be up, probably trying to catch Santa again,” Jack said.

Brian rolled his eyes from where he leaned against the kitchen counter, bag of chips in one hand while the other cradled the small cup of whiskey Jack had allowed him to try when they had caught him sneaking down for a midnight snack.

“When are you going to tell them? Surely at seven they’re old enough,” he asked.

“If I had my way, never,” Geoff headed towards the door. He’d have to send the kid to bed, he thought, lest they caught Jack and himself doing Santa’s bidding. “But I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon – hopefully with no one spoiling it for them.”

Geoff playfully pinched his son’s nose as he passed him. Jack followed, if only to deal with the possible tantrum that could come once the boy’s plans had been foiled. With nothing better to do, Brian decided he should come as well to help convince his brother that Santa would not come at all if he stayed up and waited. The living room door had been left open a crack and as Geoff reached out to push it open and spoil the would-be Santa catcher’s fun he paused for a second to listen to what the kid was saying.

 “Please, please, please miss angel if you could help Jeremy go to sleep so that dad and papa could take a nap and feel better it would be so nice because they should have a good Christmas too and, and if you could just maybe make Brian happy tomorrow as well, maybe he can help Ray play that game and then Ray would be happy too and they would have a very good Christmas,” Gavin clasped his hands together and sighed. “And I know Michael weren’t very good today but he has been good a lot of the time and he really, really, really wants a nerf gun so please tell Santa that he is a good boy and he should get one to play with tomorrow. If Santa says no then tell him that Michael should get my presents then ‘cause I don’t want ‘em.” Gavin squeezed a puzzle piece between his hands and closed his eyes. “Alls I want for Christmas is for everyone to have fun and to be together tomorrow. No one’s been happy for a long, long time and so please if you could help – I know I’m asking for so much but my family needs you. Oh, but, maybe, if you can, and if it would make dad happy, could you maybe ask if he could help me finish my puzzle and, and, if papa feels better after his nap if you could maybe also ask him if he’d sing with me tomorrow. But don’t worry if they can’t, it’s okay – just please if you really are magic just make sure that you help them to have a good Christmas.”

 Geoff’s hand slapped against his mouth. He took a step away from the door and fell against his husband’s chest. Jack felt equally as shaken but, as he heard the wishful boy tiptoe back toward the door, he was quick to pull both his son and his husband back into the safety of their kitchen. He nudged the door closed and held his breath as Gavin stepped out into the hallway. The boy paused, curious about the slither of light that spilled from the kitchen that he had not noticed on his way down. He shrugged it off and hurried back upstairs to make sure he was asleep long before Santa came and visited.

 Back inside the kitchen, Geoff looked as though he had been visited by a Christmas ghost. He clung to his husband because he did not know what else to do. How could they have let this happen? Their own son had resorted to asking an inanimate object for help. He looked to his husband for the answer to the thousands of other questions that whizzed through his mind.

“Right, I know that that was unexpected and upsetting to hear,” Jack said. He looked from Geoff to Brian. Though he seemed calm, his voice wavered as he spoke. “But we can fix this. Tonight. There is still time to make sure that Gavin, and all of us, have a good Christmas tomorrow but we have to work fast.”

As Jack launched into his plan, setting out tasks for each of them and trying to keep the mood light, Brian nodded along. He looked into his glass, which had a drizzle of whiskey left in it, and chucked his head back to finish his drink.

 When Gavin awoke the next morning, he didn’t feel incredibly magical. He didn’t know what he’d expected, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t the empty feeling that he had. With a sigh, he sat up in bed and glanced across the room at his brothers. Ray had yet to wake but Michael sat sleepily in his own bed. He blinked rapidly at Gavin and supressed a yawn, throwing back his covers and toddling over to his brother. Gavin lifted his own duvet to welcome him into the bed, finding comfort in the way Michael’s fingers quickly tangled with his own. Michael bumped their heads together.

“Merry Christmas Grabbin,” he said.

“Merry Christmas, Michael. Do you think Santa came?”

Michael squeezed Gavin’s hand. He chewed upon his lip and glanced quickly at his brother.

“I hope he did and I hope dad didn’t tell him I’d been naughty.”

“Don’t worry Michael, dad wouldn’t do that – I bet Santa’s left you lots of presents,” Gavin said but he wasn’t so sure. Still, his brother smiled back at him so he hoped that he was right.

 The two brothers waited as long as they could before they jumped into Ray’s bed. He grunted as they sat on him and tried to bury himself further under the duvet. Once they had reminded him it was Christmas, however, Ray could not leave his bed faster. As they scurried to pull on their slippers and dash out the door, Ray insisted that they wake Brian up as well. They ran to his room and found the door slightly ajar. The boys paused in the hallway, hesitant to let themselves in given the sign. It was Michael who gave the door a little push and all three waited as it slowly creaked open. Brian’s bed was empty and unmade. The three boys looked to one another. Perhaps he had gone to wake dad and papa already?

 They ran down the hallway, hand in hand, before they came to a stop in front of their parents’ door. This was one was fully shut, most likely to muffle the cries of their younger brother, but Michael did not hesitate to pull on the handle and shove the door open. Like Brian’s, however, the room was empty. The three boys stepped inside to peer into the basinet only to find that it too was void of Jeremy. They looked at one another.

“You don’t think they started Christmas already, do you?” Ray asked his brothers.

“No,” Gavin whispered. A lump formed in his throat. “They wouldn’t do that.”

“Come, I bet they’re downstairs waiting.” Michael tugged on his brothers’ hands.

Standing at the top of the stairs, the boys could hear Christmas music coming from the living room. Hand in hand they walked down the stairs and with every step it grew louder and louder. The door was shut. Once again, it was Michael who reached out and opened it for them.

 It was as though they had opened the door to Santa’s grotto. While the house had already been beautiful and festive, Geoff’s pride and joy of the season, it was as though an angel had come and spread her own magic across the room. Brian sat on the couch in last year’s Christmas sweater, the sleeves of which were halfway up his arms, and his hands held a mug of hot chocolate in lieu of his ever-present phone. Beside him, Jack cradled Jeremy in his arms. The baby donned an elf outfit, complete with little pointy slippers, while Jack himself had a Santa hat balanced precariously upon his head. All three boys gasped at once. They rushed to the couch. Ray scrambled to sit right next to Brian and was quickly welcomed as his brother lifted his arm for him to cuddle under. Michael hovered in front of Jack, having been told too many times to give Jeremy some space to rush onto his father’s lap, no matter how badly he wanted to. Jack shifted the baby in his arms, making space for his other son, and patted his knee.

 Gavin wasn’t sure what to do as he watched his papa snuggle with Michael in what felt like the first time in months. He was overwhelmed with the gratitude that washed over him as Brian listened to some story Ray was telling him. He was sure that he was about to break into happy tears when someone gently bumped into his back. Gavin looked up but was only graced with the bottom of a tray. The man holding it stepped back and then Gavin was greeted by Geoff’s smile.

“Oh, you three are up? I wanted to come and give you hot cocoa in bed!”

Geoff almost dropped the tray in his hands at the chorus of cheers that erupted. Michael refused to move from his coveted spot on Jack’s lap but he reached eagerly for the tray. Geoff sidestepped Gavin and lowered it for him. He smiled at his son as Michael took a mug. Ryan grabbed Ray’s for him and gingerly held it in front of the boy so that he could sip from it. Geoff turned to Gavin then.

 The warmth from the mug in Gavin’s hands seemed to spread all the way through his body. It filled him from the tips of his toes to the top of his head and felt like a big, loving hug. Geoff placed the tray onto the coffee table. He slipped his hands underneath Gavin’s armpits and slowly carried him over to the armchair, making ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ sounds every time Gavin’s hot chocolate dared to kiss the rim of his mug. Geoff turned and took a seat, placing his son onto his lap. Almost immediately Michael cried out.

“I want to sit on your lap! Why does Gavin gets to sit on your lap?”

“You can come sit on my lap too, Michael, I’ve got two knees!”

Jack held Michael’s mug for him as he scrambled off the couch. He handed it to the boy and Michael shuffled his way to Geoff. Once he’d been safely seated and his hot chocolate was back in his hands, Michael curled into Geoff’s arms. Geoff kissed the top of Michael’s curls, and then Gavin’s head too, as he squeezed his two boys against his chest. He stifled a chuckle as Gavin cried out, his pyjama top now sporting a brand new brown spot on its chest.

 Once the mugs were dry, with help from Geoff of course, the children looked expectantly from their dads to the tree. The family puzzle wasn’t the only thing hiding under its branches now, with presents of all shapes, sizes and colours taking up valuable floor space.

“Oh,” Jack said after minutes of being stared at. “Do you want to open your presents?”

He blinked rapidly at the onslaught of happy cries. He looked to Geoff and the two shared a look that only parents could understand.

“All right then, but I suppose you better open your presents from Santa first. He left them at the very front.”

 Ray elbowed his way out of Brian’s arms, although he was sure to hold his hand out to help Brian to his feet. Gavin wriggled free of Geoff as well, the first to stand in front of the tree. He hopped from foot to foot as he waited for all of his brothers to gather. Only Michael didn’t move. He chewed upon his fingernail and looked up at Geoff.

“Dad, did Santa leave a present for me?”

Geoff and Jack shared another look then, though unlike before the expressions on their faces made it obvious to anyone that looked at them what it meant. Geoff cleared his throat and pressed another lingering kiss into Michael’s curls.

“Of course, silly. Now go and help your brothers find them, I think Gavin is getting impatient.”

 It was obvious which ones had been left by Santa, the brown wrapping paper didn’t match anything else under the tree. The boxes were tied together with twine and four out of the five were all the same shape and size, while the fifth was much smaller and crinkled when held. Brian read the name on the smallest parcel’s tag, smiled and then handed it to Jack. The baby in his arms slapped the package that was placed upon his lap. Jack made a tear for him and Jeremy slowly pulled at the paper. He didn’t care for the sweet, crinkly plush octopus inside but laughed as he ripped another strip of paper. Meanwhile Ray, Gavin and Michael waited impatiently in front of their own parcels. Brian stood by his. He teased his brothers as he pinched the corner.

“Okay,” Brian’s fingers tugged at the paper. “Go, go, go!”

 Geoff cringed as paper flew across his freshly vacuumed living room. He fought the urge to pick up every piece right that second, knowing it would only be met with a stern look from his husband. It didn’t matter, anyway, as the boys revealed their gifts from Santa. He had been so kind to give them each a nerf gun, conscious to give them the same one so that they did not fight. Geoff knew, not from experience because of course it had been Santa to get these gifts for the boys, that these guns had been so hard to get so Santa must have tried very hard to find them.

“Look, look – Papa look what Santa got us!”

Jack smiled at his children as they rushed him. Jeremy startled as they drew close, dropping the strip of paper he’d been holding. Jack held his breath as he waited for the boy to cry but he let it out when Jeremy only laughed instead.

 It did not take long for the guns to be loaded, fired and thrown aside in lieu of the other more brightly wrapped gifts under the tree. Though Ray did not get the laptop he had written about, or the phone for that matter, he was not disappointed by the gifts he did receive. His favourite, that had briefly had a tag that read ‘from Brian’ before it had been ripped off, was a controller. It was identical to Brian’s own: light green with a darker green crosshair painted on. The only difference was the name in the corner, Ray. Ray held it in his hands and looked up at his older brother. Brian smiled back at him. He waved his freshly unwrapped R-rated game.

“Maybe later we can play this together, yeah?”

Ray nodded and squeezed the handles between his fingers. He laughed as Michael knocked his shoulder and shoved his own controller, also from Brian, under Ray’s nose.

“Me too! I want to play!”

 Gavin stood off to the side, his own identical controller in his hands. The corners of his mouth almost touched his ears. He did not want to blink, for if he did he might miss Brian’s smile or Jeremy’s happy little kicks. He did blink, however, when Geoff gently nudged him with the black trash bag he’d whipped out not too long after the Santa presents had been unwrapped. Gavin bent down and picked up his discarded wrapping paper, and Michael’s and Ray’s and Brian’s too, and dropped it into the open bag. Geoff nodded back at him in appreciation. Gavin leaned into his father’s hand as it ruffled his hair, letting his eyes fall closed for just a second before he snapped them open again to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming. Geoff’s hand left his head to snatch some wrapping paper that flew into the air. Ray had already started on another gift, one that was from papa and dad this time. Michael passed another present to Gavin. It was rather crudely wrapped, with too much paper having been used and tape slapped this way and that across the folds.

“I helped papa wrap it,” Michael beamed.

 Gavin dropped his controller to the floor. He did not wait to open it to give Michael a cuddle, wrapping his arms around his brother’s neck and squeezing. Ray rubbed at his head where Gavin had bonked him with the box. Gavin mouthed his apology. Michael made exaggerated gagging sounds as though Gavin were choking him but he wrapped his arm around his brother’s back all the same. He pushed his brother away to watch him open the gift. Gavin picked at the paper. His fingers struggled to find purchase on the edges. Eventually Geoff came over to help him, using some scissors to slit through some of the tape and create a hole. Gavin ripped the rest off himself. Geoff’s hands shot out to catch every shred of paper before it could fall onto his freshly vacuumed floor. Gavin grinned down at the gift in his hand. It was a puzzle, a new one with more pieces than the puzzle he had worked on all month.

“This one isn’t just for Christmas,” Geoff said. “We can work on it all year.”

He gasped as Gavin threw himself into his father’s legs and hugged him too. Michael, not one to be left out, wrapped himself around the both of them in an extremely tight bear hug.

 There was not much left under the tree now, just a couple of presents for the adults from their friends and from each other. Brian spied one more for his youngest brother, nestled between a tall gift bag and a suspiciously squishy parcel addressed to his papa. He pulled the present out and stood up. He took a moment to stetch, fingers brushing some of the tallest branches of the Christmas tree. Beside him, Ray copied his movements. Brian smiled down at him before he marched toward his papa. Jack was still sat on the couch, Jeremy on his lap. The baby smashed together two strands of wrapping paper he had kept from being thrown in the trash bag. Jack’s eyes, which had been almost completely closed, glanced upwards at his eldest son. He saw the present in Brian’s hand and made to take it but the boy shook his head. He gave the present to Ray instead, who frowned when he read the tag and saw it was not for him. Brian made grabby hands at Jeremy. Jack raised an eyebrow at the boy. Ryan mimicked a lobster as he opened and closed his fingers.

“Come on,” he insisted. “You can’t sit there all morning, you and dad have presents to open too. I’ve got him.”

 Jack bit his lip. Brian had not so much as glanced at the baby since he had been brought home and he was certainly the first to complain when Jeremy cried. He was about to turn his son down, tell him that he and Geoff could wait until Jeremy had gone for a nap when Brian cocked his head at him. Jack felt chastised for his thoughts. In that moment he saw that although his son had grown several inches and developed an attitude seemingly overnight, he was still Brian. Brian who was the first to calm down a crying brother, Brian who was the apple of Ray’s eye, Brian who played shop after school and patiently counted out the fake money. Brian who now, in a jumper that barely fit him anymore, reached down and took his youngest brother from Jack’s arms. He settled the baby on his hip, as he had done years before for Ray and for Michael and for Gavin. Jeremy’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as he looked at his brother. Jack held his breath. Jeremy’s brow knitted together. His little cheeks flushed red. And then Brian pulled a face as the baby farted upon his hip, loud and wet. Jeremy laughed. Jack hid his own chuckle behind his hand. Brian shook his head at his younger brother.

“Merry Christmas to you too, Jeremy.”

 Jack changed the baby before he let Brian sit down with him. He smiled at his eldest as Brian held both Jeremy and Ray on his lap. He watched as Ray gave Jeremy his present. He could see Ray’s fingers itching to help him unwrap it but a simple shake of the head from Brian and he sat, as patiently as he could, and watched his younger brother fight to free the toy from its wrapping paper. Jack was distracted by a small kiss upon his neck. He leaned back against his husband. Geoff wrapped his arms around him, black trash bag coming to rest upon Jack’s stomach. It was nearly full.

 Later, when all the presents had been unwrapped and the turkey had been eaten, they all returned to the living room. Brian sat beside Ray on the couch and pointed at the screen of Geoff’s laptop as he offered tips to Ray on how to get the best score. Jeremy was curled up on his lap, thumb on the edge of his lips as he snored softly. Michael sipped at his second hot cocoa of the day, which had been Geoff’s at first but had been given up rather quickly. He sat beside Brian on the couch with one of his new toys, a teddy bear with a rather mean face, and watched the Christmas movie that Geoff had put on for them. Jack snored from the armchair where he had, up until recently, been teaching Gavin the words to Silent Night. He had unintentionally sung himself to sleep. Gavin pressed a kiss to his forehead and scrambled down from his papa’s lap. He looked up as Geoff returned with his replacement mug of hot cocoa. Geoff smiled at him and nodded to the tree. There was nothing left under it but the puzzle. Its pieces had been scattered but were still mostly left under the tree.

“Shall we?”

 Gavin rushed to the tree and fell to the floor with a plop. Geoff was much slower, and more careful, as he lowered himself to the ground. He placed his mug between them and laughed when he saw Gavin’s eyes dart toward it.

“Go on then,” he said.

Gavin yanked the cup up off the floor. The drink sloshed inside, and then over, before it hit the carpet. Gavin’s eyes grew wide as he brought the mug to his lip. Geoff sighed at the stain but managed to keep himself from rushing to clean it. If it lingered later on, he would simply tell his husband that they should refit new carpets as a Christmas present to themselves. He reached for a puzzle piece instead, rubbing his thumb over the worn image. It wasn’t a corner, so he put it to one side and looked for another. Gavin placed the mug down much more gently than he had picked it up. Hot cocoa clung to his upper lip in a mockery of a moustache that would not sprout there for years to come. He found a corner piece, showed it to his dad, and placed it confidently where he knew it should go. Geoff was sure it was for the other side of the puzzle, but he kept it to himself and hunted for something to connect to it. As Geoff searched, Gavin glanced up at the top of the tree. He smiled at his fairy and mouthed a silent ‘thank you’.

[mysterious-prophetess]

Age of Calamity feelings and thoughts

I did a review but this is going to be even more all over the place and full of speculation and theorizing. 

Tl:Dr about the review-I liked the game despite a few things here and there that frustrated me. Like the divine beast sections. 

So Feelings? The game did make me happy and I’ve had a really terrible setback in what I thought my life would be and that occurred two weeks before Age of Calamity was released. 

I failed my Comps and therefore was dismissed from my doctoral program. I used this game, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, and Hades to cope somewhat. 

So...if I’ve attached a little more of my emotions to this game, it’s because it’s helped me through this shitty time of my life. 

Anyway. This game really made my inner ZeLink shipper so very happy. Yes, I know they’re never really going to go as far as they did with Skyward Sword, but it was still enough to get my little shipper brain going. 

I also feel they made Revali more belligerent towards Link without him already starting as the Hylian Champion/Knight Who Wields the Sword that Seals the Darkness, and I think this is Revali’s own inferiority/superiority complex coming into play. 

From what I’ve read into this, it seems like Revali thinks Link is just a knight sworn to protect the Princess and therefore doesn’t even compare to Revali-who is the best Rito Archer, invented his own quasi magic technique (Revali’s Gale), and is the Rito Champion chosen to be Divine Beast Vah Medoh’s pilot. Yet, this nobody is in the thick of it and being trusted to do stuff that challenges Revali’s image of himself at the top of the pile.

Never mind the fact that one of his fellow Champions is the Chieftain of her people nor another is a Princess of hers, Revali sees Link the Knight as a threat to his own perceived view of things where he-Revali-is top bird. 

I think it’s because Link can used any weapon he come across, including the bow, with proficiency. Revali can’t stand Link because he thinks Link is a threat to his own perceived idea he is the BEST. In canon BotW, at least he could take solace in the fact that Link was a fellow Champion from the start and therefore, while not as exceptions as himself (from Revali’s perspective), he at least was the Hylian Champion. In Age of Calamity? Revali doesn’t even have that much for half the story.

Daruk doesn’t get much of an expansion beyond what we learned in the Champion’s Ballad. He’s steady and willing to indulge in some sassing at Revali whenever the Riot Archer’s arrogance gets to be a bit much. 

My favorite moment was  in the story Mission “Freeing the Korok Forest” when he made the comment “If only there was someone who could fly ahead and scout it out.” in the midst of Revali’s bitching. 

His interactions with Yunobo were cute too. Honestly both Gorons got the short stick in this as far as their characterizations were concerned. 

Doesn’t help that of all the Future Champions, Yunobo is my least favorite to play, tied with Teba. So, I was less inclined to do much with him. 

On the other end of the scale, we get Mipha and Sidon. Mipha’s interactions with Daruk helped flesh out her crush on Link more as well as her own motivations for helping others AND seeing both baby Sidon and the adult he was in BotW was interesting too. It’s not often we get to see that in a game. Sidon’s desire to save his big sister resonated with me a bit more than the two descendants- Riju and Yunobo- saving ancestors they’d likely never have met regardless of them dying then or dying of natural causes later. Sidon, on the other hand, as a Zora is part of a very long lived race and knew her and this adult Sidon has lived longer mourning his sister’s death than with her alive. Mourning her and wishing he’d been bigger or stronger to save her. Seeing them together made me so happy because I’d always wished he’d gotten closure, even if all he’d seen was her ghost from a distance. 

Teba? Aside from being tied with Yunobo as my least favorite future champion to play as, he only showed that he grew up idolizing Revali and was shocked to see Revali was a bit of a jerk. I remarked to my friend that it was sad to me that the only legacy Revali seemed to have was his flight range, but now with Teba’s hero-worship (and shock that Revali is a jerk), perhaps the legacy was also the legend of a fantastic archer and hero of his people too. 

Teba does seem to understand Revali isn’t what he portrays himself to be, and that is what I think he means by “seeing the face behind the Champion.” He sees through all of that posturing to see Revali as he is: deep down a hero who does care about others and not just himself and his own glory but also has an image he likes to project (which is why I think he has both an inferiority and superiority complex a la Bakugo of BnHA). 

Now to the character I have the most feelings about: 

King Rhoam Bospharmus Hyrule.

Learning he married into the royal family, and therefore, is not of the blood of Hylia does make his lack of knowledge of how to raise an heiress to the golden power make a lot more sense. This was something I gleamed from across the two games and the DLC. If Zelda’s mother had the golden power, she is the blood of Hylia, ergo, Rhoam isn’t and married into the family. 

I’ll go one step further. I think that despite being the “Kingdom” of Hyrule, the bloodline of Hylia is matrilineal and therefore only daughters of the royal family can inherit this power. Though, for some reason it’s still a patriarchal society. 

Zelda’s dead mom died before she could start to teach Zelda, and therefore Rhoam ever saw the external stuff that his wife might have done. He also seemed to have little patience for the metaphysical despite knowing a lot of that was real (at least when he was alive). 

His approach to it was wrong and it damaged Zelda to the point that her powers awakened too late to stop them. 

Also, Rhoam was trying to be too clever by half. In trying to just replicate what their ancestors did, he missed the point that the ancestors had a full understanding of what it was they were up against and what they’d created. Rhoam thought Calamity Ganon was just this beastial force and that underestimation was why he had all his plans blow-up in his face and the collective faces of Hyrule. 

This is where my theories come into play. 

After playing as him in Age of Calamity and finding his move set surprisingly effective, I’ve come up with a theory: The Magical Queens of Hyrule tend to choose men with extremely good Martial Skills as their husbands to create a balanced pair to reflect the first Zelda and Link who were Goddess incarnate and her Knight. 

No, this isn’t just my Zelink shipper talking. Ok it IS partly but it would make sense. From a traditional standpoint (and Hyrule is steeped in tradition), the pairing of Goddess and Warrior being reflected in the Queen and her consort King makes sense. 

It would also explain why Rhoam is so very military minded in attempting to get things done. I think he was nobleman who was either a general or captain or something similar. Which is why he’s so focused on training and getting rid of “distractions” from Zelda’s training (even if she’s a FUCKING CHILD and you shouldn’t do that to a kid who isn’t ready for such a regimented lifestyle). 

Now, I don’t know that they were a love match or not, but either way, I think his prowess as a warrior was part of what drew Zelda’s Mom to him. 

I’m saying it outright: I think Hylia, her incarnations, and her female descendants have a type and it’s men who kick serious ass. 

Now I touched on this in my review of Age of Calamity but the story was very AU because in Creating a Champion it was revealed Link was TWELVE or THIRTEEN years old when he pulled the Master Sword free of its pedestal in the official canon BotW timeline and Link being around eighteen during the events of 100 years before and Age of Calamity, therefore should have had that sword but didn’t. It’s on page 376 btw. 

Ergo, something affected this timeline and Link didn’t go into the Lost Woods and pull the sword. 

In my review I speculated that this might have still been in part of Zelda’s wish that helped the little guardian go back in time. It might have had a ripple effect that allowed Link more time as just a knight and not THE Knight Chosen by the Sword that Seals the Darkness.

It also allowed them to have a much better relationship without Zelda’s resentment of Link achieving his destiny so much faster, and easier, than she was with her training amounting to nothing. 

I also think after she and Link grew closer in BotW and she found out how much bearing the Master Sword for so long affected how Link viewed himself, she might have also wanted to grant him more time as another knight without the pressures that come with his destiny. (not that Age of Calamity really played that up).

Not going to lie, I loved the parallels between their awakenings in Age of Calamity. His with silvery-white light and hers with golden light. Both reaching for the other because they care....ah, that pleased the shipper in me. 

I know Link doesn’t talk because reasons but I almost wish he did because I’d have loved to have seen a scene where the Future Champions all talk to him and he’s like “Uh.....do I know you?” or even some sort of silent version of that scene to preserve the lack of speech on his part.

The time travelers present a lot of funny moments of them speaking about stuff BotW Link did that his HWAoC counterpart didn’t. 

The Future Champions, on the other hand, also present an avenue for angst. They’re from what is essentially the darker timeline. Their predecessors died lonely deaths and were trapped as ghosts for a century while Link awakened alone, without memories or his sword and Zelda lingered in divine form keeping Calamity Ganon at bay. They have to go back to that darker timeline after having gotten a moment to meet those they’d have-likely-never met or really knew well, with the exception of Sidon and Mipha. 

It’ll hurt worse for Sidon knowing a version of him will get to have his big sister and all he has is some closure in knowing that in a version of events she got to live and he saved her. Sidon is a blinding beacon of positivity after all. 

Plus, how would that conversation go down in the future?

“Hey, we’re back. We time traveled and saved our predecessors in a different timeline.” That just seems like a way to rub salt in the wounds of Link and/or Zelda depending from when they were pulled from into the past. Post-Game or just before Link defeats Calamity Ganon. 

Again, there is potential here with this. It’s just not the angst a lot were expecting since we all thought this would be a prequel to BotW, major character deaths and all. 

Instead it was an AU Time Travel Fix-it Fic full of everyone lives, no one dies except the bad guys. 

Considering my personal circumstances, I needed a story like this where the past can be changed for the better even if it is in an alternate timeline.

Also, this being an AU Time Travel Fix-it Fic gave them more wiggle room than just following the events of 100 years pre-BotW. There they’d have to had either made the build up to the Calamity longer (and less fun) or just had a much shorter story. What they did instead was what was needed for a full game. 

Maybe when I get some inspiration, I might play with these ideas in fic form. 

Maybe I won’t. Either way, this game gave me a lot to work with.

[kinsie]

Game Impressions from PAX Aus 2019

Wake the fuck up, samurai. We've got a city to burn.

Every year I go to PAX Aus with some close friends to check out the Incredible Future of Games that everyone else already checked out six months ago, along with some cool weird indie shit and some awesome retro stuff. And every year, I write a little diary of what I saw to share my impressions with my friends. This is that diary.

Doom Eternal

Okay, let's get this out of the way. I played Doom Eternal pretty much as soon as I got on the show floor. It may shock you to know that it is, in fact, good.

No pictures of the demo units, sorry, so have this big logo.

The demo started with a little grey-box tutorial map just to teach you what you need to know for the demo level, since it was taken from the middle of the game. It looked very Snapmap-y and had some Doom 2 MIDI music playing. After that we were given about 25 minutes to acquaint ourselves with the lengthy "Mars Core" mission they've been showing since E3. I was at the start of the first arena of the hell bit when I ran out of time. :(

Here are some scattered thoughts from playing:

Your standard running around and double jumping feels much the same as in Doom 2016. The dashing feels great, although I think it might reduce your air control a little afterwards as I had some trouble overshooting a platform in the floating debris bit.

Climbing walls felt a bit weird to me. You have to press E on the wall manually to grab onto it, which feels a bit unintuitive when you're plummeting past it. Also feels a bit odd considering mantling up walls is automatic. You can auto-grab onto walls if you dash into it, but I think it's only for the first bit of the dash? Maybe I'm just bad at videogames.

I think the Combat and Super Shotguns now use different ammo types? I could have swore there were situations where I could select the Combat Shotgun but not the SSG.

The Chainsaw now no longer has even the slightest pretence of being a "real" weapon. It's now just a swing animation when you press the button, like a melee attack, before bringing your weapon back up.

When you have the SSG's Meat Hook attachment, a little meathook icon appears below the crosshair. When you're close enough to an enemy to grapple onto them, the icon floats over them, indicating that it has some kind of auto-aim mechanic to reduce frustration.

There was a monster with swords on its arms that acted an awful lot like the Baron of Hell (might have been the Hell Knight, looking at the Quakecon footage of the same fight) but it looked quite different. Looked fuckin' cool, whatever it was.

The platforming but in the debris section with the giant floating red barrels was actually kind of frustrating. It wasn't always clear where you needed to go, and the climbable bits tended to blend in with the rest of the world. Then again, keep in mind I have a frankly abysmal sense of direction. Thankfully falling into the void just whacks you for a paltry five health and teleports you back onto safe ground.

The locational damage stuff is really fun. Breaking a monster's guns has a satisfying metal "PING" sound to it to inform you that the dude got fucked up and is weaker now, and that you should keep doing it.

When I picked up one of those "?" secrets, the pop-up box told me that they unlocked "collectable dolls" and "cheat codes". The former is vague, but I suspect they'll be like the mini-Doomguys but of more characters. I'd imagine the latter will be like in Rage 2.

Oh, and it looks a million bucks, too. Though you probably didn't need me to tell you that.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with what I saw and it's even more of a pity it's not coming out next month.

Not Indie Games, But Also Not Doom Eternal

The Vive Cosmos felt really comfy - the lack of cabling and the decent display resolution made it feel a lot more natural than the Gen 1 Vives I've previously used. The game they were using to demo (Audica), however, was pretty lame. A rhythm-target shooter that didn't really take advantage of the medium at all.

Bleeding Edge was not inspiring. It was basically the control point mode from TF2 or Overwatch, except every character was a third-person brawler with little emphasis on projectile weapons beyond the occasional special. It felt like someone making a claim at TF2 or Overwatch's throne several years late while bolting a weak character action game on, which is fairly odd considering how innovative and critically acclaimed Ninja Theory's previous game was.

Dreams is fairly fascinating in its potential. The creation tools weren't available in the demo build so I can’t really judge them, instead there was a choice of eight developer-made experiences ranging from Mario-inspired obstacle courses to videogames as art.

I didn't get the chance to actually play MediEvil, but I watched some folks play it and it basically just looks like the PS1 game with more triangles, with all the slightly wonky 32-bit gameplay that entails.

The demo unit for Monkey King: Hero Is Back had some utterly bizarre graphics settings for some reason that made it look like I was playing a JPEG file, with big whopping compression artifacts surrounding each character. Weird!

Not happenin’.

Indie Games

Grabimals is a brilliant local co-op puzzler where players roll around as shapes and link together to solve puzzles like catching a falling water droplet, crossing a gap or casting a shadow that matches an example image. Supposedly it's still a ways off from release, but it's already impressively polished (disregarding one hilarious crash bug we found by accident!)

Hamster Scramble is a really fun take on Puzzle Bobble, with platforming elements, team play and the ability to jump over to your opponent's screen and fuck their plans up directly. It's an absolute blast and didn't feel like it was almost a year away from release.

Fork Knights is a platform fighter with an emphasis on one-hit kills. The character designs are cute, but I can't really say the gameplay itself struck me, to be honest.

Baron is an eight-player single-screen local multiplayer dogfighter. Fairly simple mechanically, but pretty fun all things considered.

Broken Roads had some lovely hand-painted art assets and some interesting ideas like a literal moral compass, but the demo build showcased was waaaaay too early to be shown off to the public. Of the eight or so areas present in the demo, only two had any characters, interactivity or really anything other than wandering around set up, and the combat side of things was extremely rough and sequestered off to a side area as a "well, if you insist..." kind of deal.

Misadventure In Little Lon is a true-crime adventure game for mobile with a unique mechanic - each "scene" is integrated into the real world via AR, with characters (that resemble Poser models more than a little bit) speaking to you directly. Not sure if it holds up over an entire game, but it's attention-garnering at least.

Speaking of true crime, The Black Window tasks players with using an Oujia board to question Australia's first female serial killer, with responses taken from court records and letters from the time. The well-acted performances of the actual individual in question's words lends it an impressive atmosphere, which the booth added to with a big wooden oujia board type thing you could "type" on. Sort of.

ACID KNIFE is real, real early, but the aesthetic is awesome and the pixel art is great. Hopefully it grows and expands into something special.

The Vigilante Proclivities of the Longspur is an oldschool Lucasarts-inspired point-and-click adventure with a custom demo scene set at an oddly-familiar videogame convention. Pretty promising so far, but could do with a good bit of polish - I'm pretty sure there was only one sound effect in the entire demo, and dialogue was often lacking in punctuation.

I didn't get to play Hot Brass but I watched over shoulders and talked with the developers, and it looked pretty cool. It's basically a take on SWAT 4's rarely-imitated brand of tactical copwork, but with a Hotline Miami-style top-down perspective, but with all the characters abstracted down to simple board game like tokens - a circle with a coloured outline denoting attitude towards the player, with a weapon icon if armed.

Blood Metal... Blood Metal is not good. It is extensively not good. Development seems to have only started in July, so one can still hope that the bad AI, unsatisfying gunplay, buggy collision detection and complete lack of damage feedback (outside of some ridiculous, sight-obscuring gouts of blood) get fixed over time. The 80s action movie aesthetic and low-poly artstyle forces it to be compared to Maximum Action, which is at least a fun kind of jank...

This Starry Void is a real-time, tile-based 3D dungeon crawler set in an abandoned spacecraft. It seems pretty cool so far, but it could probably use some UI/UX tweaks. The attempts at a "graphic novel inspired" visual style for the environments could probably benefit from looking at how Void Bastards did things, as well.

Lethal Lawns and Beam Team are fucking arcade games with massive cabinets. In 2019. Granted, they're also on computers and coming to consoles and stuff as well, but still! They're both pretty simple games, and therefore best played in cabinet form.

Unpacking is a "zen puzzle game" by the developers of Assault Android Cactus about the second-worst part of moving house, unloading an unseen character's packing and getting a glimpse into their lives as a result. I wasn’t able to play it due to an unexpectedly-crowded booth, but the pixel art is quite lovely.

Feather is a chill game about being a bird and flying around an island trying to find its secrets. I tried the Switch port, which played alright but obviously (and understandably) toted a lower framerate than the demo PC.

Topple Pop is a cute puzzle game that blends together elements of Tetris, Puyo Puyo and that one joke game that was Tetris but with a proper physics engine. Looks cute, with a fun gimmick!

Shooty Skies Overdrive is an VR spinoff of the popular mobile shmup, and basically similar to that one shmup minigame in Valve's The Lab. Weave your plane, which is attached to one of your hands, through incoming bullets and enemies like a toy! The 3D effect on the incoming projectiles looks great, but they can tend to get in the way of the action sometimes.

Dead Static Drive has been at like the last three PAXes and it looks better every time I see it. I hope it comes out this decade.

Snow Mercy is a third-person shooter/strategy thing where you hunt down icecubes to spend on an army of snowmen to crush your opponent's base before they crush yours. Not a common genre combo, reminds me of C&C Renegade a bit.

The Adventure Pals has graphics straight out of mid-2000s Newgrounds and level design out of pretty much any european platformer, but it didn't seem too bad from my brief prodding at it. The player character is perhaps a bit too small for my elderly eyes in Switch portable mode, but that's about as far as my gripes go.

[takaraphoenix]

Question- I got the feeling from one of your asks you dislike Frozen. Can I ask why? I know I dislike it now because it got beat to utter death in terms of popularity and such. It was cute the first time for me... less so the hundreds of times after.

Oh, dislike is too weak a word. I absolutely hate everything (aside from Sven) about this gods damn movie and its gods damn badly built world. ^^°°°

Now, I already wrote a rather elaborate journal entry about that back in 2015. But I feel like that’s a thing I should also have on here and that rant is also 4 years old, so I’ll copy/paste and edit and add some.

Don’t read if you think Fr0zen is peak perfection. For everyone else, in this 3.5k word essay I will elaborate why Fr0zen is definitely not the peak of Disney animation and story-telling.

So, this is a long overdue rant about why Fr0zen is the worst animated movie I've ever seen in my entire life and why Elsa and Anna are horrible characters.

There are many factors that play into why I hate this movie, so let’s structure this a little bit and start off with the characters.

Elsa and the glorification of that character. Back in the day, I found awfully unfitting comparisons between Elsa and Elphaba from the Wicked series and it pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter, because somehow, Elsa is a celebrated strong female character, while... that’s more than undeserved.I mean, Elsa is a supposed queen. She's different from others and decides to hide it. And then she runs and hides in a castle in the mountains because she's too afraid that others may perhaps judge her for being different. A queen. Abandoning her kingdom without as much as a second thought, just to go and pout and brood alone. What I love about Disney princesses is that they usually put others first before themselves. Not her though, no, when madam needs to angst alone, she’ll just freeze over the entire country and build herself a castle.Elphaba has been different all her life and LIVED with the ACTUAL judgement of others for as long. She NEVER hid who she was. She always stood strong. Yes, she too hid in a castle in the mountains - after she co-led a revolutionary army against what can only be called the Nazis of Oz to prevent a genocide and lost the love of her life and father of her unborn child in the process.Putting Elsa as Elphaba's equal insults Elphaba so much that it makes me, as a fangirl, so ragingly mad, especially since it just doesn’t hold true. Elphaba spent most of her life trying to make the country better, trying to help those who are helpless, while all Elsa did all of her life was hide away in her bedroom and then run away to her castle...Another reason for my deeply seated hatred are the fans. Well, like the ones who think Elsa is in any way, form or shape qualified to be Elphaba's equal. There were so many posts pretending like Fr0zen is somehow revolutionary because it‘s about sisterly love instead of romance (like Lilo & Stitch doesn‘t exist) and other such claims that just completely ignored some of Disney’s biggest hits - not even the deep digs, they entirely disregarded very popular and widely known movies and instead pretended like this here was the very first time such amazing things happend! No. It’s just a repetition of tropes and writing that Disney’s been doing for decades.It's like Fr0zen drew in people who have legitimately never seen a Disney movie before in their entire lives.Then there's the whole feminist-thing where they act like Anna or Elsa are good role-models to little girls. The fuck they are. I mean, I've mentioned it before, but I'll gladly get back to it. It's good to vent and let the bad feelings go, eh?Granted, blaming Elsa and Anna entirely is probably a bad move. We need to start with their dumbass parents. Worst movie parents ever.The magical troll TELLS them explicitly that Elsa's biggest weakness is fear. The logical course of action when one of my children has a supernatural and possibly dangerous power is to explain it to her - since they seemed pretty chill about it, like it's a regular thing in their family to be born with some kind of weird powers. To teach her, maybe make her go and visit the trolls once a week for training. SOMETHING. Anything but locking her up in her room where she learns to hate and FEAR her powers, which, obviously grow with age. So by the time she's really powerful, she won't have the faintest clue how to handle them. Worst. Parents. Ever.Then there is Elsa, who has magical powers that she loves. But hey, Anna got a little hurt so let's be afraid of them forever. It's like riding a bike. When you fall and get hurt, you NEVER EVER get on a bike again. Wait, what do you mean that's not the case?

She proceeds to become the queen and seems to be aware that it's a lot of responsibility and that she's now, duh, the queen. So packing it all up and running away at the faintest sign of trouble for her is a totally legitimate queen-move. Instead of handling the situation like a grown up and facing it, she runs away and hides in a castle of ice. Because why should she care about the kingdom that SHE caused the biggestest crisis in probably its whole history? Naw, letting it go and hiding up there is way better. How does that move and that song teach children and little girls to be good? It basically teaches them to run from their problems when something happens that you're uncomfortable with, because you are the only person who should matter to you, especially when you're a queen. Not your family, friends (not that she had those) or the kingdom you rule. As long as YOU are comfortable and happy, it's totally fine. There's not an ounce of bravery, honor or even common sense that Elsa portraits. It’s completely selfishly motivated and while sure, being selfish to a degree, can be a good thing and there are people who need to learn it... to just straight-up abandon everyone who relies on you just because you have been inconvenienced is... not a good lesson?

That super big song is an awful lesson. “No right, no wrong, no rules for me”... yeah, great, love when that’s the lesson my kids learn from a Disney movie. It’s so unnecessarily dramatic and so intensely selfish. Usually the main song of a Disney princess is empowering and encouraging. Not telling you to basically fuck the rules and do whatever you want.

Then there's the whole lazy-ass character design of the white-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed, blue-dressed ice-controller. As seen in Rise of the Guardians with Jack Frost one year prior, as seen in Tinkerbell with Periwinkle (getting to that later) also one year prior and literally as seen by Bertier in Sailor Moon, who even has the same braid thrown over her shoulder, for heaven's sake. And granted, yes, you can‘t just fault Disney for that. Everybody who has an ice-controler loves to fall back to those cliche character design elements, but... this is Disney. They are big and they usually care about their character design, but here they were simply the laziest they could be. Not to mention that dress. Oh sure, Disney has always liked to over-sexualize certain characters, but here they did it in an era-breaking way - her dress does not even remotely fit into the overall setting of the movie, which only makes it look even more like some character-designer really just wanted to get off to Elsa...

Not to mention the even lazier design of her powers. She controls snow and ice. So... her magical ice can corrupt a heart and freeze them for good. Oooh and it can create sentinent life as seen by Olaf and that giant-ass monster. And she makes fancy ice-clothes that are not see-through but come it different shades of blue and move like proper clothes would! ...Where exactly are her powers? What CAN she do? Because it's obviously not just ice. It's convenient "She does what we need her to do". Driven even more home by that ridiculous short where she suddenly also has spring-powers. Because sure, why the fuck not.

Usually, princesses have clearly defined abilities. Moana controls the water because she has a bond with the ocean and she gets them from being chosen by the ocean. Rapunzel has healing powers because her mother digested a healing plant while pregnant.

There's no explanation whatsoever to Elsa’s powers. The king and queen are acting all casual about Elsa being born with those powers, but there's not even the hint of an explanation as to WHY she was born with those very random powers. Her parents and sister sure don’t have any powers. And even though they know about them and seem to not be concerned that she has those powers, they are very much at a loss as to how to deal with them. So you’re not actually familiar with them, then why are you not surprised by them...?

They have magical stone-trolls. Why do they have magical stone-trolls? Again, king and queen are totally casual about the magical stone-trolls like they're something completely obvious that is in every kingdom. But where do they come from and how are they linked to the princess’ random magic? Who knows? Certainly not the viewer of this movie, because jackshit about the world-building is actually explained in it.

They're not even attempting to tie in the magic or make it logical in this world. It's there. It's strange and weird. The rulers know about it, but... does the common folk? I guess not, because even Anna was shocked about them. So how did the king and queen know?

Unlike the usual, they’re not even attempting a coherent world-building. Something as simple as “it’s in the royal blood, every firstborn has those powers, king’s older sister had them too”, or whatever, literally any throwaway half-way thought-through explanation would have sufficed instead of “LOL they’re there we dunno how or why and they just do what they we need them to do!”...

Anyway, enough about Elsa. Let’s move on to little Miss Dumbass. The girl without common sense. I'm aware that Disney was trying to be self-ironic with the whole love song under the moon and "I wanna marry him!" thing, but Anna went farther than that. When her sister decides to let it go and run away, she becomes the default leader of the country. As that I totally run after my sister during the biggest crisis of the kingdom. And yes, maybe because she's just a naive kid and loves her sister who hasn't talked to her in like ten years so-so-so much, that sister had priority. Okay, I'll buy it, I guess. That still doesn't change that Anna leaves the kingdom in the hands of the dude she's known for like an hour instead of the generals and advisers who must have ruled while Elsa was busy playing emo in her bedroom for the last ten years. Someone qualified who knows the kingdom and knows how to handle it. Nope, let’s throw caution and common sense out of the window because I REALLY LOVE HIM!!!... And I am also genuinely tired of Disney making fun of themselves and belittling their old movies, to be quite honest. It was a fun joke when they did it the first time in Enchanted, but at this point it’s quite frankly just insulting the movies that came before and... how about not??Now for one of the most important reasons why I hate this movie; they fucked Hans Christian Andersen. The only thing this has to do with his Snow Queen is that there's a queen who controls ice.

I know Disney has been painfully lazy this century.

They've always twisted the fairy tales to make them more friendly for kids, but the core of the real fairy tale remained - Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, well I'm assuming you've heard of them and know where I'm getting with this. They make it less brutal and more child-friendly, but the heart of the story remains the same. Then this century hit and it must have hit them upside the head because they forgot how to adapt a source material.

I liked Princess and the Frog. It was funny, she was a strong character with development, the animal sidekicks were cute. And it's dismissal of the fairy tale is even semi-explained in canon where she points to the actual fairy tale and says it's "like" the tale. Not it is the tale. They weren't even trying to adapt the fairy tale with this one, so it gets a pass, even though I am still peeved that they didn’t actually do an adaptation of either the Frog King or the Frog Princess, because both are great fairy tales that would have deserved to become Disney movies too.

Then there was Tangled, which... was trying to adapt Rapunzel and kept some of the key-elements while striking out other important things - like where she got her name, for example, I mean, really? Though I did like that wink to the real fairy tale at the end when her magical tears healed him. That was a piece of illogical magic in the fairy tale and the whole flower-thing in Tangled, well, it at least tried to make it logical.

But Fr0zen? There is nothing that this has to do with the actual fairy tale and when it was first announced, I was looking forward to another fairy tale adaptation, instead I got a pile of bullshit they placed on HCA's grave.Now, my last point on this agenda - because I could nitpick every single second of that movie, but even I'm not patient enough and it would mean I'd have to rewatch it to actually make it every single second accurately and that is never going to happen. Ever - is that it's a cheap rip-off.

Disney doesn't really do the whole original routine. Their movies are based on fairy tales and books and plays. And they occasionally get lazy and re-use things from their old stuff. But Fr0zen is such a copy of even one of their own movies.The movie I'm talking about here is Tinkerbell: Secret of the Wings. Yes, it's not even one of their big hits or a fairy tale movie. It's like the third sequel to the spin-off of a book-adaptation.

Let's see...

We got two sisters. Check. Anna and Elsa. Tinkerbell and Periwinkle.

One of them is naive, yet optimistic and good-natured and easy-going. Check. Anna and Tinkerbell.

The other is pale, blue-eyed, white-haired and has ice-controlling powers. Check. Elsa and Periwinkle.

But our main protagonist isn't the powerful one, it's the naive goody-two-shoes one. Also check.

The two sisters were separated for a long time. Check. By locking herself into a room versus by being in another realm.

Reunited at a late teenage-age and realizing wow, we got some stuff in common. Check.

There's the matter of the ice harming the naive one. Check. Anna gets hurt as a little girl and Tinkerbell catches a cold when she's first in the winter wonderland.

This harming is cause for a separation, because finding a way around the pain is too easy and we need drama. Check.

Winter takes over the kingdom. Double-check on that one.

The sisters need to find a way to work together to save their kingdom from eternal winter, but that's hard because the ice once again harmed the naive one. Check, with Anna's frozen heart and Tinkerbell's broken wing.

Dramatic moment, because the naive one seems in a dire situation without any way out, but there is a weird sister-love-magic going on that totally solves that problem! Check. Elsa kissing Anna and making it better, while Periwinkle's wings can heal Tinkerbell's wings via twin-wing-magic.

And the kingdom is saved and they lived happily ever after, finding a way to see each other and be best sisters forever! Also check. The end.

It's just embarrassing to rip yourself off like that. Seriously, borrowing some elements of a movie you have done before is one thing (like Maleficent shamelessly “borrowing” from Fr0zen). But the extend to which the plots of those two movies align is ridiculous.

Not to mention the internet going nuts over Elsa like she's the best thing since sliced bread. All the J€lsa everywhere still makes my stomach turn. How does the internet see two characters who dress the same, look the same, have the same powers AND the same fears and think "My, those two characters who are basically twins, I'd like to see them make out!".

Which also plays heavily into why I don’t just dislike the movie is that it is mercilessly shoved down your throat at every turn. You go to a regular groceries store? Here are the Fr0zen plates and band-aids and toothbrushes and what not! No other Disney movie has ever been commercialized to that degree, it really doesn’t matter what type of store you enter, there will be merch for this blasted movie. You literally couldn’t escape it. And if you don’t like a thing but at every turn, it is shoved into your face, then your dislike tends to grow.

Another huge point in that regard is that stupid ““short movie”“ they aired before Coco.Those two movies were in such different settings that the disconnect actually threw you off, seriously I had a hard time getting into Coco for the first 20 minutes or so because I had just been in an entirely different place, story-wise, setting-wise, heck even climate wise. To go from white wonderland Christmas special to Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico?? That’s literally as far apart as you could get...

And it was just too long. If you put a short movie before a movie, make it actually short. The five minute ones, as was the usual. That is fun, that is nice. This one was twenty minutes long.

Again, a part where the fans piss me off because they bitch that people shouldn’t complain about it, they “didn’t have to see it”. Bitch, no. For one, I do not know how long this movie is when I sit in cinema and am suddenly hit outta left field by there even being a short-movie. So why would I leave? Is it 5 minutes? 10 minutes? If I stay outside the cinema too long, I will actually miss the beginning of the movie I came and paid for.

And I’m a grown adult. The situation with kids is far different. Every single kid in the theater with me was absolutely confused and asked every two minutes “Why is that on? Are we in the wrong theater? When will the movie start?”, multiple ones leaving... and not returning at all, because they thought they indeed were in the wrong movie. And even then... there is a reason a children’s movie is roughly an hour to an hour and a half. Because of a child’s attention span. Now if you pack a nearly half hour long ““short film”“ in front of a one and a half hour long actual film and after another half hour of trailers and ads, you have forced those four to ten year olds through a total of two and a half hours. Heck, me as an adult I got a hard time with that length. But among the kids who actually stayed and didn’t leave because of the short, most - especially the younger ones - got really cranky toward the end of Coco, obviously, logically.

So, aside from being a horrible movie (seriously, it’s just one song after the other and the other and the other and focusing on the solely worst part of this franchise, Olaf), it was also forced upon people. Not like other random spin-off shorts to their movies that just air on TV and you can watch them if you like them. Nope. You wanna see this beautiful masterpiece about the Day of the Dead? You gotta watch this Fr0zen short before!

There’s more things (like the just mentioned fact that I think the obnoxious, unfunny and unexplained magic snowman was the worst thing), like I mentioned above I genuinely could nitpick every second of it if I would want to, but this is already long enough with the big bullet points.

TL;DR: It’s just too much, it is forced upon people, it has lazy world-building and character design, it has a horrible message, it is constantly treated like it’s in any way or shape revolutionary when it brought literally not a single new thing to the table, it has nothing to do with the fairy tale it was first announced to be an adaptation of and a huge chunk of its fans are really freaking obnoxious.

[thatfairyfangirl]

Blind Date Chapter 5

Matt watched with a smile as Foggy taped your messy style of baking in the kitchen, finding it adorable how you bounced around telling the camera. Once You were covered in smears of chocolate cake batter and the pans were in the oven you settled down to sit and speak k for Food Network. “Hi there my name is (y/n). I own and run a small bakery in New York called Magicakes. I took the name from my Nana who had been teaching me to bake since I was 5. She told me baking was like magic. Umm I grew Up in a small town in Upstate New York and went to NYU’s culinary school. And today I’m going to be making for you a Yule log cake. Though it is a popular christmas dish it is actually Pagan in origin, coming from the log burned on Yule to welcome back the sun.” You explained. “My cake is in the oven and now to make the filling and frosting.” You added with a smile before getting back to work.

Once everything was out of the oven Foggy marveled at how you made mushrooms from marangue and bark from chocolate and coco powder. By the time you were done and the camera was off you were a mess but the most beautiful cake was presented to the network.

“So you think they’ll like it?” You asked beaming with pride.

“Ok look,if I didn’t watch you make that I’d swear you were about to box up an actual piece of wood.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Later that night

Matt’s lips and tongue caressed your sweet skin making soft kisses up the center of your chest, your back arching as he gently rocked in and out of you. The feel of him inside pulled a sensual moan from your lips as your fingers dug themselves into his hair. You loved how sweet and attentive he was to you and your pleasure  on nights like this. And he loved doing it for you, tasting the flecks of chocolate and small unseen granules of sugar left of your skin after a long day of baking, feeling the beads of sweat form on your back as you rocked your hips in time with his… Everything about you right now was perfection to him. “Hmmmmm” you purred as his hand siding up your back drew you upward to meet his lips as your legs wrapped around his hips. He groaned with pleasure as one hand supported your back, the other cupping your naked ass to support you as he lifted you, moving until your back met the wall, his hips and shaft pinning you there again and again as he devoured the sweetness of your lips.

“Matt?” You asked eyes folded with worry as his movements froze. “What’s wrong baby?” You asked with a pant as you caught your breath. “Did I-” you were suddenly silenced by his hand clamping over your mouth as his head tilted toward your door, hearing the sound of a bullet enter the chamber just outside.

“Get down!” He shouted as he dropped you and forced your head down all in one fluid movement just in time for the bullet to place a hole in the walk where your forehead was just moments before. “I'msorrypleasedon'tbemadloveyousweetie.” He blurted out as he rolled you under the bed. In movements too fast for you to follow he wrapped a sheet around his hips and dove for his cane converting it into Daredevil’s Billy club, your jaw going slack as you watched him from the safe cover he put you in as he disarmed the gunman.

“Wilson Fisk sends his regards.” The assassin informed him as they traded blows. You saw a strange wrathful grace in Matt as he once again defended you before a few swift kicks to the head knocked the man unconscious. He was quick to tie him up and toss him out your living room window into the dumpster in the alley below.

He rushed to the bedside crouching down to help you back out of the home he shoved you into. “Are you ok?” He asked as his hands caressed your cheeks, forehead resting against yours.

“You…what…who was…how did…” you stammered as he held you close, cradling the one thing in his life he cared about more than being the devil. “You’re the goddamned Daredevil aren’t you?!” You accused him as you swatted his arm with each syllable. Yet he refused to let you go, too afraid to face you like this. All he could do was nod. “Goddamnit Matt!” You snapped as you gave him one last swat before letting out a sigh and letting your hand come to wrap around his waist as your cheek rested against his shoulder. “I love you too.” you muttered as you held him a bit tighter.

“Im sorry.” He muttered into your shoulder as he held you closer, only taking comfort in the feel of your heart against his chest. “I should have told you sooner. I shouldn’t have kept something this big fr-” he paused as her words registered with him. “Wait what?” He asked as he let his grip on the girl made of sweetness loosen just a bit.

“Umm yeah you should have. I mean it’s not as if that’s how I wanted the first I Love You of our relationship to be…you just blurtting it out while saving my life like that.” He couldn’t tell if she was joking or not but he could still feel her head against his shoulder and that was enough to keep hope alive in him that she wasn’t going to run off.

“You just realized I’m Daredevil and you’re more preoccupied with an I love you?” He let out a sigh of relief as he pulled you in close once more as you nodded against his shoulder. “See and this is why I love you.” His smile free as he planted a soft kiss against your bare shoulder. “Are you sure you’re not upset I didn’t tell you I’m Daredevil?”

“Baby,” you cooed as you ran your hands over his skin, sinking into the hold he had on you, “I can’t expect you to have just blindly trusted me with such a big thing.” Her fingers paused against his skin as he held back a chuckle at the pun. “I didn’t mean…”

“I know what you meant.” He chuckled as his hands explored your body softly searching for any signs of injury, making goodebumps rise all over your body.

“Wait a second…” she pulled herself away from the caress to look into his eyes. “Are you even…” your thumb brushed against the corner of his right eye.

“Yes.”  He said with a nod. “The accident did blind me. But it also heightened everything else. I can’t see you…more sense things about you.” he explained. “Like I know you made maple nut scones this morning, I can smell the ingredients in your clothes. And I knew the second you saw me you thought I was cute because I could hear your heart racing.”

“Oh god with how much i sweat at work that must be tourchersom for you.” She said making a note to take a shower as soon as she gets home now.

“No it’s actually nice to smell your bakery all the time.” He assured her. “My hearing is heightened to the point its almost like seeing… Your dancing is sexy as hell.” He paused kissing your shoulder lightly. “And I know from how you taste pretty much all the time that you are a very messy baker.” He added a bit more sensually. Your heart rate spiked as you found a strange excitement about this. “And I love that about you.” He added as he kissed your bare skin again.

“Now you’re just showing off.” You chuckled as you draped yourself around him.

“And right now I know that you love it.”

Announcement from the writer:

With the new terms of use and the impending ban on adult content on this site I will be moving my writing. This fic will soon have a chapter that needs that adult content to have the same impact that I had originally intended for the scene and I will not falter on it.

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[susatodrop]

if wishing made it so (DGS2 fanfiction)

SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE DGS SERIES, meaning both DGS1 and DGS2 in their entirety. Please do not read this if you do not want to be spoiled.

if wishing made it so (AO3 Link)

Fold it up, call it love, and bring it to a quiet place.

Characters: Naruhodou Ryuunosuke, Mikotoba Susato, Asougi Kazuma, Iris Watson, Sherlock Holmes, Barok van Zieks

Notes: Some writing I did as a breather in the midst of working on my actual DGS2 celebratory/appreciation fic. DGS2 has completely ruined my life (in a good way)

.…Writing to take a break from writing… what madness is this…

A note about honorifics - since they all speak English in London, my way of treating the honorifics used by the characters in-game is to make just the Japanese characters keep them (specifically Susato since she’s the most relevant example) even to the British characters if there’s not a good equivalent. …Well, I fully admit I just dealt with it as I pleased to make my life easier.

An inexpressible amount of gratitude to airisuwatoson and turnaboutancestor for their DGS playthroughs, without which I wouldn’t have been able to write this. Each and every update always had me on edge. Thank you!!!

One last warning that this fic contains spoilers for all of DGS2.

A story of a thousand wants.

“And then, you fold this triangle down to make the head.”

“Like this?”

“Yes! Very good, Iris-sama!”

At the double cheer resounding from behind, Ryuunosuke tears his eyes gratefully away from his textbook and glances over his shoulder, curiosity prickling at the back of his neck. “What are you two doing?”

Susato turns to face him, beaming. “I was just teaching Iris-sama how to fold a paper crane. Look how well it turned out, Naruhodou-sama!”

“It was only because Susie was so good at teaching me!” Iris Watson chirps, lifting her arms to proudly show Ryuunosuke the small, folded crane that rests on her hands. “It’s so cute!” The girl whirls around once, bright pink curls spinning with the motion, and the crane very nearly seems as if it could take flight right then.

Ryuunosuke crouches in front of her to get a better look, admiring the piece. “It’s really good considering it was your first time, Iris-chan.” Indeed, there is barely a careless crease or wrinkle in the paper, only straight, clean lines that are evident of a studious precision. “I still remember when I first tried folding one when I was younger. You couldn’t even tell it was a crane at all.”

A good-natured giggle spills from Susato’s lips, her hand going to her mouth. “That’s very like you somehow, Naruhodou-sama.”

“O-Oh, is it…?”

“But origami is something that can be done by anyone,” she continues, looking back fondly to Iris’s crane. “All it requires is a little patience.”

“Well, true enough.” His disastrous first attempt had left a bitter taste in his throat, and Ryuunosuke recalls the indignant determination that had refused to let him rest until he had folded a successful crane. “I actually got pretty good at it as I kept folding more, although I haven’t done any since we came to London.”

“There’s still paper here if you want to make one too,” Iris calls, waving the sheets in his direction.

After a moment of contemplation, the words escape of their own accord. “…I think I will.” He reaches over to take one of the proffered papers. “…Wait. These papers are my notes from previous cases!”

“Oh, are they?” Yet the untroubled tone with which Iris responds tells him that she is perfectly aware. “They were just scattered all over the floor, so I figured they were just going to be thrown away later anyway.”

“I might’ve wanted to look over them for reference in the future…”

At the excuse, weak to even Ryuunosuke’s own ears, Susato places her hands on her hips and looks at him sternly. “Is that how you should treat valuable documents, Naruhodou-sama? By leaving them without care or organization on the floor?”

“N-No…”

“Besides, if you are in need of references from our past cases, I have also recorded information in my notes.” With that, Susato fishes out a small, bound book, a certain pride brimming in her motions. “You may look through them at your leisure.”

“…As expected of you, Susato-san.” It is certainly not the first time, and he knows it will be far from the last, that awe at her diligence washes through his entire body and leaves a strange warmth in its wake.

“It is simply my natural duty as your legal assistant, Naruhodou-sama,” Susato smiles. “With that, I trust you have no objections to the usage of your scrap paper?”

My case notes were downgraded to “scraps”... He allows himself only a small sigh, relenting at last. “I guess it is better than just seeing them all over the ground.” Without further ado, Iris hands him a sheet and cheerfully sets about folding another one.

At that moment, the door to the attic suddenly bursts open and a tall, lanky man waltzes in, a wounded expression on his face. “What’s this? No greeting when I arrive home, and instead I find you all cooped up in this dingy, dusty attic? Without me?”

“Please don’t talk about the room you rented us like that,” Ryuunosouke retorts, barely glancing up from his task. “Welcome back, Holmes-san.”

“Sherly!” Iris squeals and bounces to the self-proclaimed great detective, wrapping her short arms around his waist. “Welcome home! How did the case go?”

A jubilant laugh rings in the air. “Need you even ask, Iris?” Sherlock flicks his distinctive deerstalker with his index finger in triumph, a wide grin meeting Iris’s sparkling eyes. “Another case closed by the great detective Sherlock Holmes! We can rest easy about rent for the month.”

Is that really the sort of conversation you have with a child? Ryuunosuke does not say, but Iris, unperturbed, claps her hands together with equal delight.

“And now,” Sherlock continues, turning to survey the rest of them. “It’s my turn to ask again, just what you all are doing cooped up in this dingy, dusty, decrepit attic—Ah!” He holds a hand up to forestall the exasperated shape that Ryuunosuke’s mouth has formed, smiling slyly. “Allow me to make a deduction!”

“I was doing some origami,” Susato interrupts brightly without heed for the detective’s grandiose conduct, gesturing to the short lineup of small shapes on the table before her. “And Iris-sama was curious, so she allowed me to teach her the most classic design, a crane. And it turned out beautifully, Holmes-sama!”

In a rare occurrence, Sherlock’s depressive episode at the interruption of his deduction does not linger and he straightens immediately. Taking Iris’s crane up in his hand, he tilts his head, examining it from all angles. “As I recall, origami is the traditional Japanese art of folding paper into intricate designs, am I right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.” With a nod of satisfaction, Ryuunosuke places his own completed crane next to Susato’s skillfully folded pieces. There is only a mild twinge of disappointment in himself as he eyes his crane’s slightly uneven lines compared to Susato’s delicate work. “So you’ve heard of it, Holmes-san?”

“As expected of Holmes-sama!”

“What kind of great detective would I be if I didn’t know this much?” One hand returns the crane to Iris, the other lands in a pat on her head, making her giggle. “It might be news to you, but I know how to make a few things myself!”

Ryuunosuke’s eyes widen. “Really? Did someone teach you?”

“I suppose you could say that.” But to his surprise, Sherlock does not elaborate, and Ryuunosuke catches only a snatch of something faraway and fond in his eyes before the detective blinks and turns his gaze back on the scattered papers. “But I must say, the two of you work fast.”

Susato and Ryuunosuke blink in unison, looking down. There is a small pile of cranes sitting between them both, clearly flourishing in their absentmindedness. Ryuunosuke feels his ears grow hot, and he throws half a sheepish glance at Susato, who returns a soft laugh.

Iris leans over the pile, starry-eyed. She scoops a handful up and lets them fall from her hands, smiling as the cranes scatter back to the wooden floor like large snowflakes. “Hey, Susie? You said that the crane is the most classic design, but why’s that?”

“Oh!” Susato brings a finger to her chin, tapping in contemplation. “If I had to say… There is a type of crane native to Japan that is said to be a symbol of good fortune and longevity. These paper cranes are representations of it.”

Something stirs in the back of Ryuunosuke’s mind at Susato’s words—stories and laughter from a childhood that seem like from a lifetime ago. He sweeps a look over the cranes in a quick estimate. Certainly, not a number that any would call ‘few’, but at the same time, not nearly enough. “There’s a famous legend about paper cranes, too,” he finds himself saying, words from his memories filling his throat. “They say if you fold a thousand of them, you’ll be granted a wish.”

“A wish?” Iris echoes, her deep green eyes widening.

“Ah, that’s right!” Susato nods in agreement. “There are many variations to that legend as well. Some say that you must finish the thousand cranes within a certain period of time. Others say that it only works if one person folds them all by themselves. But the fact that there must be a thousand cranes is the one, absolute constant.”

A wistful sigh escapes Iris. “That’s such a nice story. Wishes, huh?”

“It is a nice story.” Ryuunosuke smiles, a little wryly. “When I was younger, everyone wanted to do it, and they’d try. But one thousand cranes is actually a lot more than you’d expect, as it turned out. Most children would get tired of it quickly.”

“Why don’t we give it a try?”

All eyes snap to Sherlock, who is still standing serenely, now with his pipe in his mouth. He smiles down at them with something beyond his usual frivolity. “You seem to be off to a good start, anyway,” he continues, eying the numerous cranes sprinkled across the floor. “With the four of us, one thousand doesn’t seem so far away, does it?”

“I want to do it!” Iris chimes in, nodding energetically. “It sounds like fun!”

Susato clasps her hands together, merriment dancing in her eyes. “It does sound like fun. I’m sure if we keep steadily at it, we’ll reach one thousand cranes in no time.”

One thousand paper cranes. He rolls the phrase around in his head, trying to visualize the end number. Not an impossible goal, by any means, but a question presses insistently forward. “I don’t mind,” Ryuunosuke starts, “…But who gets to make the wish?”

“Oh.”

The small sound of realization Iris makes is enough to make him feel ashamed of himself. “Not that it’s a bad idea or anything, not at all,” he hastily adds. “I mean, I’m just saying that according to the legend…”

“An excellent question, Mister Naruhodou!” Sherlock cuts in, unfazed as ever. He spins on the spot with a wink, a solution clearly on his tongue. “Why don’t we let the lucky person who folds the last crane make the wish? In any case, there’s still a while, is there not?”

Enthusiastic nods from Susato and Iris, a grin of satisfaction from the detective—not that it was ever an option, but how can he say no? “Well, let’s do our best, then.”

“Yay!” Iris skips to the table for more paper, beginning the folding process in quick, dainty motions, while Susato turns curiously to Sherlock.

“What would you wish for, Holmes-sama?”

Sherlock snaps his fingers. “A case from a rich client!” he announces dramatically, squaring his arms in the strange pose he makes when in high spirits.

Ryuunosuke tilts his head quizzically. “If you want money, why don’t you just wish for money?”

“Goodness, Mister Naruhodou.” Sherlock wags a finger in his direction, shaking his head as if the answer is obvious. “Do you think I take cases just for the money?”

“…”

“Stop looking at me like that. No! If the case is a worthy challenge to the intellect of the great detective Sherlock Holmes, then all the better! I didn’t make my fame by only taking cases based on how much I was paid, you know.”

Despite the lightness in Sherlock’s voice, the twinkling look in his eyes, the undercurrent of deliberate resolve is all genuine and Ryuunosuke cannot help but smile. “No, I didn’t think so.”

“And what about you, Iris-sama?” Noticing the younger girl’s progress, Susato presents her with more paper just as Iris folds down the head of a new crane. “Do you know what sort of wish you would make?”

Iris happily accepts the sheet, her expression bright with the possibilities tumbling through her mind. “There’s a lot of things I’d like to wish for! I’ll have to think it over.” But abruptly, her fingers slow in the middle of a fold, her gaze seeming to travel elsewhere.

“Iris-chan?”

“It should be for something important, shouldn’t it? The wish.” Her voice comes out subdued, solemn, as she continues to stare at the half-formed crane in her hands. “Something important like… being able to meet my papa soon.” The note of uncertainty makes something in Ryuunosouke’s chest twist.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he thinks he sees Sherlock tense.

“...I think,” he begins carefully, “you can wish for anything you want.” He thinks for a moment, and then nods, decisively. “That’s what wishes are. Whether or not you think it’s important, or whether or not you think it’ll be granted, all that matters is that it’s something you want, right?”

Only for a moment, he wonders who he’s really trying to convince.

“That’s right, Iris-sama,” Susato speaks now, resolutely. “Please don’t fret about it too much. If you find that you need another wish…” She gestures triumphantly to the still sizeable stack of papers they have gathered and deposited onto the table. “All we have to do is fold another thousand cranes!”

“…You’re right!” Just like that, Iris’s smile is back on her face, the shadow of doubt from moments ago nowhere in sight, and she and Susato giggle briefly at each other. Ryuunosuke marvels at the scene and hears a sigh of what might be relief from behind him. “What about you, Susie? What would you wish for?”

“Me?” For all her enthusiasm about folding cranes, the slightest thought of the end goal does not have appear to have crossed her mind. Susato tips her head into her chin, contemplative. “I… I don’t know. There’s nothing that I feel warrants something as grand as a wish—ah!”

He jumps slightly at her exclamation. “Did you think of something, Susato-san?”

“Yes, I think so.” Susato turns to look at him, and for some reason, her eyes seem very bright. “I would like to wish... for Naruhodou-sama to become the wonderful attorney he hopes to be.”

“Huh!?” The less than flattering sound leaps out as Ryuunosuke’s own eyes widen. “No, no, no, that’s- that’s not— I mean, shouldn’t you wish for something for yourself? I-I can’t possibly accept—”

“Do you truly think that it’s only for yourself?” There is fire in her gaze and steel in the words she returns as she stares at him, unwavering. “It’s something that I too desire, from the very bottom of my heart.” Her eyes travel downward, landing on the object at his hip, and soften. “Wish or not, I believe that it will happen. This is simply… asking for a little assistance.”

He has nothing to respond with but a meek nod, something hot building up in the corners of his eyes and an lump in his throat.

“Mister Naruhodou, do you need a handkerchief?”

“N-No!” Ryuunosuke scrubs briefly across his face with his sleeve, leveling a scowl the best he can at Sherlock before glancing back to Susato. “Susato-san... thank you. I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations.”

She only smiles at him again, an infinitely gentle expression. “What would your wish be, Naruhodou-sama?”

“A wish, huh…” He has pondered the question from the moment their shared goal was decided—but he is sincerely at a loss. “I… really don’t know. I guess I’ll think about it when we get close to the end.” A wish meant a desire, a hope.

A want.

…I wonder… if it would work…

He glances out the window, from where he can see sunlight spilling in and a few, fluffy clouds drifting lazily through a blue, blue sky. Sherlock may have called the attic ‘decrepit’, but bathed in a golden glow, there is not a sight more welcoming.

A warm breeze blows into the room, sending a few papers whirling.

...Probably not.

But he reaches for another sheet.

“…How are you doing? Are you surprised to see a letter this soon? Just after we left, I remembered a few things I forgot to tell you, so when the ship stopped at a port to resupply, I took the opportunity to send this.

You’re probably still getting used to London, aren’t you? I wanted to mention that there are some things left in my old room at Holmes-san’s place that you might find helpful, like books and stuff. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t take everything back to Japan with me, so if you’re up to it, you can go over to Baker Street sometime to take anything you’d like. In fact, it’d make me really happy if you got some use out of them…”

The sound of the horse carriage clattering noisily away is quickly replaced by that of his own heartbeat, pounding loudly in his chest. It seems silly that such apprehension should eat at him, compared to everything else that has happened, and for the life of him, he cannot find a logical rationale for it.

He takes a deep breath, lifts his hand, and knocks solidly on the door of apartment 221B.

Immediately, pattering footsteps race closer from the other side, and with a click the door swings open. Deep green eyes blink up inquisitively up at him, before they widen in recognition and delight. “It’s you! Come in, we’ve been expecting you!”

Asougi Kazuma inclines his head briefly, unable to stop the corners of his lips from turning up at the child’s enthusiastic greeting. “Good day, Miss Watson.” If the still-puzzling facsimile of her in court hadn’t been lively enough, she is a thousand times more spirited in person.

“Just Iris is fine,” she says cheerily, ushering him in. “Have a seat anywhere you’d like! My special herb tea is almost ready!”

“Ah-” he starts, “You don’t have to-…” But Iris has already vanished elsewhere into the depths of the apartment, presumably to the kitchen. Bemused, Asougi looks side to side, his gaze sweeping over the cluttered sitting room. Despite her encouragement, an assortment of strange contraptions litter every possible place to sit, and he does not particularly feel like carelessly engaging with them.

“Why, if it isn’t Mister Asougi!”

The airy voice from behind him sends a jolt down his spine and Asougi whirls, a hand automatically reaching for the saber at his side. In the next moment, his eyes land on the voice’s owner and he relaxes with a huff. “Detective Holmes.”

“There’s no need to be so wary.” Sherlock Holmes, sans his usual distinctive hat and overcoat, shrugs whimsically, appearing utterly unconcerned with Asougi’s instinctual reflex. “You’re our honored guest for today.”

He bows slightly. “Thank you for your invitation.” It’s not that he means to be curt, but cautious uncertainty still holds him in an iron grip—how should he react to the man who pulled the strings behind his interrupted first journey to London?

But Sherlock only beams, undaunted. “Think nothing of it. You’re Mister Naruhodou and Miss Susato’s dear friend, after all—how could we disappoint them in treating you otherwise? In fact,” He fishes a folded paper from his front pocket, waving it before Asougi. The scrawling handwriting from what he can see on the envelope is achingly familiar. “Mister Naruhodou explicitly requested us to look after you and lend you a hand where possible.”

“Naruhodou… he worries too much.” A wry smile escapes him nevertheless. “But I’m afraid I won’t be staying long. I’m only here to pick up some items Naruhodou left behind before I return to the prosecutors’ office.”

“Mister Naruhodou mentioned those as well.” Sherlock snaps his fingers in the direction of the stairs. “Take whatever you’d like! I told him anything left is fair game for my experiments.”

He bows a second time, turning away. “Excuse me, then.”

“Ah, just one moment, Mister Asougi!” Sherlock calls, striking a strange pose. “The bottom of the lowest shelf in the farther corner of the room. I suggest you take an especially close look.”

Asougi pauses with his foot on the first step, puzzled.

Sherlock winks at him, mischief and goodwill in equal measure. “I think you’ll find something very interesting there.”

The attic glows with midmorning light, exuding an atmosphere of welcome despite the clear lack of inhabitants. Asougi stops at the top of the staircase, letting his eyes wander from corner to corner and taking in every sight of the cozy, if slightly lonely space.

This is the room where his best friend stayed and learned and lived, in their year of separation.

The room is sparse now, but by no means empty—a number of packed boxes and heavy-looking hardcover books still line the shelves against the wall. When he runs a finger along the desk, only a few specks remain on his glove; someone has been up here to dust recently.

A soft splash from nearby catches his ear, and Asougi turns to see a small glass tank filled with water—and prawns, of all things. He peers dubiously into the tank, wondering what in the world possessed his friend to keep such tiny sea creatures. As far as prawns go, they seem quite healthy—not that he can tell. Perhaps Sherlock, or more likely Iris, cares for them now in Naruhodou’s absence.

There is a door at the end of a shallow recess that branches off from the attic, still bearing Mikotoba’s name. He smiles briefly at it before moving past to the shelves at last.

Naruhodou Law Consultation Office may be labeled at the entrance, but it is Mikotoba’s influence that is clear in the level of organization present. Boxes are neatly labeled and books sorted by subject in a way that is not quite believable of Naruhodou, as far as Asougi remembers. He sifts through them one by one, pulling out the files he deems useful and putting the rest carefully back with a mental word of pity for their eventual fate at the detective’s hands.

Although knowing Sherlock, the threat might have been made in nothing more than simple jest.

Speaking of the detective—Sherlock’s words from earlier float into his mind.

The lowest shelf in the corner, was it?

In that spot, there is another large box tucked away, unlabeled. When Asougi lifts it, the box feels surprisingly light for its size. He sets it on the table, raising the lid to set aside, curiosity prickling at the back of his neck.

The box is filled to the brim with strangely shaped paper.

…Cranes?

Asougi picks one up from the multitude, eying the crane as it sits inoffensively on his palm. Paper cranes. The classic shape of origami, a common pastime in Japan. He has not expected to see one an ocean away. And moreover, this many of them. There is only one explanation.

A thousand cranes…

There is not a child in Japan who has not heard the legend, and Asougi recalls it dimly in his own memory as well. A pretty, fanciful story of wishes and hope, but ultimately, nothing more.

Yet somehow, here in Naruhodou’s room, he is not surprised to see them at all.

A single square piece of unfolded paper he had missed at first glance flaps conspicuously from a corner of the box, and Asougi pulls it free.

His eyes widen as he turns it over and catches sight of his own name in familiar scrawls, messier than usual as if written in a haste.

“Asougi,

I folded these cranes with everyone here, although we didn’t get around to finishing the very last one.

But, I don’t think I need them anymore.

So if you’d like, if you want—…”

Vaguely, Asougi becomes aware of a quiet, choked up sound that is filling the attic. At the same time, breathing is strangely difficult.

Then he realizes—the laughter is coming from himself.

He presses a hand to his mouth, his friend’s note shuddering in the other. There is a bizarre obstruction in his throat that threatens to leave him gasping.

But in illogical contradiction, his heart feels lighter than ever.

Ahh, I have never been a match for you, Naruhodou.

When he makes his way back downstairs, Naruhodou’s note in his pocket and boxes balanced in his arms, Sherlock and Iris are there to greet him and grin knowingly at the look on his face. The fragrant smell of tea wafts warmly through the air.

“It’s still hard to believe we folded all these!” Iris says as she lifts the lid up to marvel once again at the collection of cranes.

“A nostalgic sight indeed,” Sherlock nods in agreement, puffing from his pipe. “Well? What do you intend to wish for, Mister Asougi?”

Asougi starts at the question. True, Naruhodou had indicated that the cranes be left to him, but if it had been a group effort as his friend mentioned, can he really accept them? “…Are you sure I can take them? After all, I didn’t help fold a single one.”

“We don’t need them!” Iris’s response is bright and immediate. She closes the box with a flourish, leveling a kind gaze at him. “Not anymore. Besides, if they said you should take the cranes, you should.”

“That’s right. It’s not as if I hoped you would gallantly proclaim that you needed no such thing and then I could wish for a rich client—”

“Now, now, Sherly, drink your tea.”

Asougi chuckles at their banter. “…Thank you.” But as he glances back to the box, thinking, an idea comes to mind. “Detective Holmes, Miss Iris, will you help me with something?”

They turn inquisitive expressions on him. “Hm?”

“Do you have string?”

The journey back to the prosecutors’ office is uneventful, and he spends most of it gazing aimlessly out the window of the carriage.

The box of cranes sits by his side, slightly emptier.

“String?” Iris echoes, her head tipping to the side in question.

“In Japan, it’s traditional to hang the thousand cranes in groups on string,” he explains. “It makes for easier organization, as well.”

It takes Iris little more incentive to hunt for the material, and the three of them begin the arduous task of threading the cranes together in sets.

“What about your work?” Iris asks, snipping another length of string.

He waves dismissively. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

At length, they finish the job, and Asougi silently marvels that there really were nine hundred and ninety-nine cranes stuffed in the box.

He turns and holds several strings of cranes out to them both. “You have my gratitude for taking care of Naruhodou and Assistant Mikotoba during their time in London. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Iris takes the cranes, bundling them carefully in her arms, and smiles widely. “Come visit us any time!”

Sherlock places a hand on his hip, a playful, knowing look in his eyes. “Bring that gloomy reaper with you too, Mister Asougi.”

Barok van Zieks looks impassively up from his desk as Asougi enters the office, nudging the door open with his foot—his arms are otherwise occupied. “It’s unusual for you to be late without reason,” Barok remarks.

“My errand took longer than I thought,” Asougi replies shortly. “I’m prepared to make my work up in full.”

“Hm. No matter. There is little to do today, in any case.”

“Is that so?”

Brief, concise, void of unnecessary tangents. Their conversations have always been this way so far. The vast abyss of tangled, convoluted feelings that lie between them still runs deep, after all.

It is precisely for that reason that Asougi reaches into the box, scooping out a handful of the contents.

Without a word, he walks up to Barok’s desk, and scatters the cranes onto the tabletop.

For several entire seconds, silence falls over the room.

Barok’s gaze flickers from the pile of cranes on his desk back to Asougi. To Asougi’s pleasure, there is no mistaking the genuine bewilderment in the other prosecutor’s eyes—he has well and truly caught the man off-guard for once.

At last, Barok opens his mouth. “…Prosecutor Asougi. What exactly are these?”

He cannot help the grin that spreads across his face as he turns tail and strides purposefully out of the room with the rest of the box, laughter on his lips and satisfied amusement in his chest at the former reaper’s flummoxed expression. “Wishes, Prosecutor van Zieks.”

There are still many, many left to give.

A few more strings go to Inspector Gina Lestrade when he comes across her delivering a report. Her loyal companion sniffs playfully at Asougi’s boots while he places the cranes in her outstretched hands—a silent word of appreciation and apology all at once even as she accepts them skeptically.

She waves goodbye as she dashes into the prosecutors’ office, the cranes trailing in flight behind her and Toby at her heels.

The next name on the list Sherlock wrote for him is a woman by the name of Viridian Green, a woman he has never met—

But Naruhodou has.

And Asougi thinks, there will never be enough gratitude in the world to Naruhodou for all the lives he has touched.

The box has never been heavy, but there is a strange weight in the remainder of the contents despite the fact it should feel the exact opposite now.

When he arrives at the gates, the sunset burning at his back, his feet freeze in place. But if he should stop here, it will have all been for nothing.

He weaves lightly through the rows upon rows of marked stones—these are not what he is searching for. There would have been no inscription, no indication—not for a murderer. It is only by the allowance of the prosecutors’ office’s records that he knows where to go.

At last, he comes to a stop, his eyes fixed on the blank headstone before him. For a long while, he can only stare at it wordlessly, everything he has ever wanted to say suddenly, inexplicably lost in his throat.

So instead, Asougi takes a step forward, and lets the last of the cranes in his arms fall to the dirt on his father’s grave.

In the dimming light, the cranes seem to faintly glow.

It is much, much later, after he has pulled himself away, that he realizes Naruhodou’s note is still in his pocket. He brings it out, smoothing the creases, looking down at his friend’s messily inked words, and recalls how to smile.

He begins, by folding the paper in half.

A/N: Dedicated to Miryul for the many long hours we spent screaming over Asougi- I mean DGS2, haha. PLEASE LOOK AT HER ART IT'S SUPER BEAUTIFUL! (and be care of spoilers)

I also want to thank everyone for all the love towards my DGS fic from two years ago. I'm so glad Asougi's alive.

[fmdtaeyongarchive]

↬ appraisal.

date: 2009 to 2018

location: n/a

word count: 1,072 words

summary: ash’s body hasn’t felt entirely his own since he was thirteen.

notes: content warnings for mentions of body image and sexualization (including a lot of mentions of ash being sexualized by others while underage, but i did try to avoid going too in-depth!).

he realizes his body isn‘t his anymore during his first month of training. he struggles to understand what his trainers are saying most days, but he picks up vocabulary about his body and food intake before some of the most basic sentences of the language. he’s too scrawny in his body frame, but there’s too much baby fat on his face.

they want boys with good bodies for their next boy group apparently, and, at thirteen, ash never questions if having a ‘hot body’ is something he should be concerned about. instead, he downs plain chicken breast and disgusting protein concoctions in hopes that his body will one day be deemed desirable in the eyes of a panel of middle-aged men and women granted the power to determine how good he is at making girls want him.

it’s not until he debuts that he realizes just how much he hates the lingering gazes of women ten years older than him that show up at fan signs and call him oppa like he’s supposed to believe they’re younger than him. but his skin also crawls when others plead for him to call them noona as they gush over how cute he is in a way that doesn’t feel as innocent as they claim he is.

he doesn’t stumble upon the first countdown to the day he becomes an adult in the eyes of the korean law until he’s nearing seventeen, but he has a feeling in a stomach that they had started appearing months earlier and that feeling is an awful lot like he imagines acid eating away at him from the inside out must feel like. he mentions it to a manager once, one that leaves before he hits a year with the group, and the man takes it as a joke. he laughs and tells ash he’s a real lady killer already.

ash decides to read the comments of a photo a manager posts of him backstage at a music show and his eyes are drawn to the comments that talk about him like he’s an object purely to be fantasized into whatever form they want instead of a real person. he’s dressed as normally as knight has ever been, but his shirt hangs slightly lower on his left shoulder and a peak of his collarbone becomes a bigger topic than his stage for the day.

he doesn’t know if he learns to cope with it or if he learns to pretend it isn’t happening, but he gets older and he finds a love for the adrenaline rush the gym offers him. as a dancer, he’d always had a lean form, but lean muscle starts to build on him and his body grows more defined and bc may encourage him to work out to keep his weight ideal, but it feels like more his choice than any other part of his appearance. his hair length, its color, what he wears, it’s all decided by other people, but he decides that if he’s no longer seen as a kid, he might be seen as a person, and it’s a taste of independence he’s never had.

the independence ends before it can truly begin when he’s told he needs to stick to cardio and abandon weightlifting. he’s not allowed to change his appearance too fast. he’s one of the youngest of the group. it’s not good for his image for his looks to change drastically. muscles will dilute his perceived innocence apparently, and fans will lose all interest in him if he tries to step outside the niche he fills in the group. again, his control is snatched away from him and he wonders where that desire for him to have a ‘hot body’ when he’d barely hit puberty had gone.

the company doesn’t stop watching his build so closely until a few more years have passed. his sexiness can be purposeful now, they seem to decide for him, and he wants to scream that it’d never been about being sexy for him. it’d been about being something other than a vision constructed entirely by others.

he fights tooth and nail not to go shirtless on stage, but there are times he’s forced into it. he doesn’t have a choice. he teaches himself not to balk away from the increase of volume from the audience when he shows a hint more skin than usual. the cheers aren’t as loud when he masters a choreography transition that hadn’t been as smooth as he wanted it before. he can’t shake it from his head how he’d never signed up for this with the intention of being trotted around on stage for the pleasure of a sea of tens of thousand of faceless people he’ll never even meet.

it isn’t enough for some. he’d been more attractive when he was younger. he looks too grown up now, they say. he was more attractive when he’d had an innocence to him.

he’d been sixteen then.

he’s only twenty when his name is first linked with that of women and it opens the floodgates of speculation into his private life, and that might be what he hates the most. people speculate explicitly about the parts of his life meant to be the most private and share their fantasies of him and now his bedroom is added to his body on the list of parts of him that aren’t off-limit to public forums.

he begins to resent his own body, but not in the way he sees so many others begin to tear themselves apart to meet the ideals, and for not struggling in that way, there’s some guilty for the resentment he has for the way he’s consumed. if he gets too invested in a song on stage, comments will become dirty in a way that would never be socially acceptable said aloud. he sinks into the depths of his own depression and it turns into a scandal about how little he’s trying and even amid the criticism of how he has attitude problems, there are those who think the best counter is to express how hot it is. because that’s what matters: how much sex appeal he has on any given day.

he’s not worth much, really, by any judge of character, but he’d rather be damned for his blemished soul than worshiped like this.

[danielphowley]

Breath of the wild review

‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ is an audacious reimagining of a classic franchise.

‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ review: A new classic for a new generation

“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” is one of those rare games you fall in love with the moment you begin playing. Heck, you probably wouldn’t put down if it weren’t for pesky things like food, sleep and basic hygiene. That’s certainly an impressive feat for any game series, let alone one that’s three decades old. And yet here we are.

From the characters and soundtrack to the quirky humor and slick controls, “Breath of the Wild” is a “Zelda” game through and through. But it’s also an ambitious reinvention of the decades-old franchise; an outrageously huge, exceedingly gorgeous example of what Nintendo (NTDOY) can do when it brings all of its creative power to bear.

“Breath of the Wild” is one of just 10 launch games for Nintendo’s Switch, a paltry lineup for a new system. But “Breath of the Wild” is so frustratingly good, so engrossing, it’s almost worth the $360 investment ($300 for the Switch, $60 for the game). If you’re already set on getting a Switch, have a Wii U or are just a fan of the series, you need to play this game. Here’s why.

Welcome to a whole new Hyrule

Over the last 30 years, gamers have crisscrossed the kingdom of Hyrule innumerable times as the sword-swinging (and tragically mute) hero, Link. If you’ve played the biggest titles in the series — “Ocarina of Time,” “Twilight Princess,” “A Link to the Past” or the original “The Legend of Zelda” — you know your way across Hyrule Field.

Fire up “Breath of the Wild,” however, and you’ll see all of your favorite locales from the series’ past spread across a world so dauntingly large it makes “Twilight Princess’s” massive map look absolutely minuscule by comparison.

‘Breath of the Wild’s’ world is immense and teaming with life.

Your first look at “Breath of the Wild’s” take on Hyrule comes after Link awakens from a deep sleep in a large recuperation pod. Calamity Gannon has destroyed Hyrule and has been locked in a century-old struggle with Zelda, who is keeping the massive, serpentine beast from consuming the world in fire. But Link? He’s got no clue as to what’s going on. He’s been out for 100 years. I can barely remember what I did an hour ago after a 20-minute nap. So I can’t blame his amnesia.

After walking out into the daylight, you get a view of the world at your feet, and it’s stunning. Every mountain, cave and river you see can be climbed and explored as you work to recover your memories and help Zelda defeat Gannon.

“Breath of the Wild’s” landscapes span a number of regions. There are icy mountain peaks, scorched deserts, lush forests and windswept grasslands. Every stretch of land is teeming with life. Elk and wild boar occupy the forests, grasshoppers and lizards hide among the grasslands, and mountain goats climb Hyrule’s steep slopes. It’s the most lived-in, vibrant Hyrule we’ve ever seen.

Things did not go well for Hyrule 100 years ago.

Living off the land

If you’re going to survive in the world of “Breath of the Wild,” you’re going to have to live off the land. Nintendo and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi have incorporated Western-style role-playing game (RPG) sensibilities into “Breath of the Wild.” You’ll need to collect fruit and grains from the world’s vast fields and hunt your own meat to sustain yourself during your journey.

My first of many OMG moments while playing “Breath of the Wild” came when I climbed a tree shortly after Link awakened, grabbed an apple and realized that I had to cook it to ensure it provided me with a larger health boost. My second such moment came two minutes later when I chopped down that same tree with an axe and turned it into firewood.

You’ll also need to become rather proficient in cooking, as throwing together different food combinations can provide you with not only a health boost, but temporary increases to your strength, speed and defense stats, as well.

That little snow fox might look cute, but you’re going to have to make him dinner if you want to survive.

You have to scour the land for more than just food, though. Swords and shields, arrows, bows and clubs are found strewn about long-quiet battlefields or lifted from fallen enemies.

Don’t get too attached to your weapons, though. Like many modern RPGs, your items degrade the more you use them. Smash a few too many bokoblins with your favorite club, and it’ll shatter like a baseball bat snapping against a 100-mph fastball.

Once your weapon is broken, sadly, there’s no fixing it. It’s gone. That’s a bit of a bummer, as I often found myself using underpowered weapons for fear of breaking my sharpest blades. A simple repair mechanic would have fixed fix both my broken Guardian sword and my gripe with this particular issue.

The good fight

And you’ll break a LOT of weapons, because “Breath of the Wild’s” combat is as fierce and slick as it gets. Controls are tight and the camera never feels out of place.

The majority of the enemies in “Breath of the Wild’s” starting areas consist of Bokoblins, skeletons, winged-eye Keeses, the machine-like Guardians, Moblins and Lizaflos. You’ll run into a few larger boss-like enemies scattered throughout the world that will likely kill you over and over again, but they aren’t the norm.

‘Breath of the Wild’ is full of enemies with different fighting styles.

Each enemy type has a different fighting style that you’ll have to adapt to on the fly. But the beautiful thing about “Breath of the Wild” is that, like the best RPGs, there is no fixed way to beat a bad guy. “Zelda” teaches you this from the get go; should you engage the two Bokoblins standing below a cliff, or simply squish them with a boulder?

There is a wide variety of ways to take down your foes in “Breath of the Wild.” Detonate explosive barrels, catch them off guard as they sleep with a few well-placed ice arrows or – I I kid you not – throw your metal shield at them during a thunderstorm and wait for lightning to strike it and kill them. Yeah, that can happen.

The loneliness of the road

One of the more striking things about “Breath of the Wild” is how alone you feel as you explore the world’s forests and fields. Gannon’s destruction of Hyrule left only a handful of settlements unscathed. That sense of loneliness makes running into a bustling village for the first time feel like you’ve discovered a new civilization.

“Breath of the Wild” does an amazing job making its vast expanses feel consistently new, too. The landscape is littered with Trial Shrines where you can collect Spirit Orbs to expand your health or stamina (used for running, climbing and swimming). Finding these shrines becomes a kind of side quest of their own, as each contains its own unique puzzle to solve using Link’s various Runes, special abilities granted to the hero via his high-tech Sheikah Slate, which looks like a Switch without its Joy-Cons attached.

The journey can get lonely in ‘Breath of the Wild,’ making it all the more exciting when you run into a new town.

I’ve spent many, many hours running across the world of “Breath of the Wild” and still haven’t covered the entire map. Between the Trial Shrines, your main quest and the seemingly endless side quests, you can get caught up in a single quadrant of the game’s map for days at a time.

A painting come to life

To say “Breath of the Wild” is beautiful is an understatement. The game’s stylized, painted look combined with top-notch character animations and stellar real-time weather and time effects bring the world to life.

Things will get hot in ‘Breath of the Wild.’

Performance is silky smooth while playing the “Breath of the Wild” with the Switch in tablet mode. Unfortunately, I did notice some significant slowdown when running through grass-covered fields while playing in TV mode. The issue was infrequent enough to never interfere with the gameplay experience, though in the moment, it was a bit jarring. That’s a pretty minor gripe, though, ad does little to derail “Breath of the Wild’s” spectacular vision.

A classic reborn

Few video game franchises are as beloved as “The Legend of Zelda.” From the spectacular “Ocarina of Time” and “A Link to the Past” to the original “The Legend of Zelda” and “A Link Between Worlds,” there’s frankly never been a bad “Zelda” game.

That, of course, makes it hard to rank the series’ titles. Many people have emotional connections to different entries that they’ll hold onto forever. So I don’t take it lightly when I saying that “Breath of the Wild” isn’t just an all-time great console launch title, but one of the best “Zelda” games ever made.

With “Breath of the Wild,” Nintendo has built a living, breathing world that you never want to leave. If you’re a newcomer to the series, a longtime fan or just want to see what all the hype is about, you won’t be disappointed. Because “Breath of the Wild” delivers in every way you can imagine.

What’s hot: Beautifully-realized game world; tight combat controls; massive scope; innumerable ways to approach every situation

What’s not: Could use a weapons repair system; too few hours in the day to play

More games news:

‘For Honor’ review: You’ll need skill to survive this online fighter

‘Horizon: Zero Dawn’ Review: Combat and storytelling shine in spectacular sci-fi epic

The $450 Analogue Nt mini brings new life to old-school NES games

‘Resident Evil 7’ review: It’s a screaming good time

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.

[glopratchet]

astryl-wondering

with a giant skull on top and he tells Cludstrum that it's time to go home but he doesn't seem to mind since he has no reason to be upset about it as a grin spreads upon his face, he says to Cludstrums "I'll loot and pillage everything under the control of lord Astok a mound of used tampons with it's mess hanging down and a demonic howl comes out as the mound begins to turn into a cloud of smoke boogy red with orange spots, like a red pepper and the skull atop of it has sunken holes upon it where eyes are supposed to be located and he runs off into a desert filled with sand as his only company "Hey Dennis let's get our rocks off " Astyrl gets upset and tells him to "Shut the hell up" he assumes that it must measure his current urge to kill himself and for some reason, the needle is spiking at maximum out here as the sun engulfs him in flames He continues into the distance, deeper into hell as the ground becomes less picturesque he looks underneath the categories on the side He feels as if each step he makes is through pain and not only from the heat and not taking the water bottle that was offered, his only salvation is entering and completing his mission of not taking the phone, he would have tried calling his sister to him and about him He wishes he was back home, with his parents who loved him, being their cute little boy ASTYRLS RUNNING DUN ASTYRLS RUNNING DUN! it must have happened during his youth when he was going throwing molting The memory loss causes him to be baffled at the prblem itself and dine as a way of describing their bond it shows sandstorms coming within a certain radius of him on the side of his ui after activating his energy sensors they look red from all the heat soon hopefully his shuttle won't be buried underneath the sands and lost forever and astryl's databanks so far it seems that only portions of the two have actually gone corrupt in such a way a tongue twister of a name suggesting they are humnoid beings Hitting them does nothing as they are incorporeal, astrological signs that give some sort of cryptic clues to some future event anyway perhaps its a hardware or driver issue but only the ship in orbit has access to the software needed to fix the demons SLENDER SMOOTH HOUNDS they are out to conquer new forms with a mysterious agenda aching to fill a sprite's body of extraterrestrial languages Maybe a glyph of cylopiea will show up on one of these stones Cludstrum is screeching off astreyl's ears yet again with their arguing on who will go meet the person that sent out the signal so they might as well do this now while they are waiting Hey you! the captain turned out to be a girl Or more precisely a hot blond babe! "Please get dressed in this and lets get going" from cludstrum and astreyl's teleportation inside the qefizat clencher Enters stage right, an inexperienced beautiful female captain you will remain kissing relatives, badly, really bad Good morning sweetie you will address your future self as capt Capt you are unsure if this happened by traveling so fast that you actually traveled to the future, or if other devices were implemented he and astryl have encountered, it sounds like a silly request but the captain takes him seriously You on the other hand are struggling to get a grip on awaking up naked in strange surroundings yet again or even if it is edible This sounds more like cludstrum Breakfast will be ready shortly you ( an sillier request that cludstrum gets taken seriously Bathroom break here oops wheroes stay while astryl sidetrips to the eventring When did he get cognac? off the ground not sure why nothing works This whole debug is silly yawn cludstrum calls this procedure willis windows porting virus now eradicated 's digestive system, it seems far beyond comprehension that the liquors on the ground are anything of any value without consequence Except next to the liquors there are even stranger things that clump together and move around in the list of edibles tiny hops looking things and is usually mentioned in the totally reliable 'Beer-Thirty of the Gods' scriptures as having pleasing effects eats some things and puts others back These hops make you burp alot, they also seem like they are a back up plan for astryl, thus far The entry is just recognized by cludstrom's program for granted and no more is heard about it until eventually he snaps This is silly he needs to start over again Sometimes he eats godlike beings and sometimes he just creates images of them in his stomach getting hungry Clu spoke some sense into him when he said he should get on a ship the screens that are focused on these things Which means finding a ship or traveling to an oasis or he can roam the desert forever known as There to the NNW of choice there is a hostile tribe They are know to put travelers in elaborate death traps Your journey so far It is only an outpost to the north of it but it houses an insane interrogation expert In the desert south of where you are verses or places The other place to explore in the desert is known as the choice becomes yours to make as you decide on what to do next in the the transformation will be complete The fullfillment of choice has never been so sweet greets you hovers just above the sand or earth or whatever ground you are on very unnatural looking To the East its all city madness and mania across the desert surface towards the energetic glow in color just above the sand or earth or whatever ground you are on You see more to the West first no longer to to it being stretched out, but now just laying motionless The screen laying somewhere about with many lights still flashing through space and time just above the bouncing sand or earth or whatever ground you are on thats 4 just above the sand or earth or whatever ground you are on thats 5 Honestly, not to be a Negative Nancy thats 6 How many in all did you see? but what is it like closer? What could it be? first and then you experiencing high rolling euphoria A giant neon sign proclaims its message to travelers and locals the events again and again in your mind just above the sand or earth or whatever ground you are on carefully and assessing the situation just above the sand or earth or whatever ground you are on The minds of many individuals in his parking lot shivering ruffling his feathers and squawking and flapping he begins to shine much brighter than all the others combined itself laughing Azmodai swoops there next to him temporarily resting in the now permanent shade of Kludstrm It is not enough though resumes normal undistinguished unlit business as usual Azmodai stalks away defeated by the parking lights again somewhere near Kludstrm itself from its worse instincts unnatural movement of two humanoids near Astryl another very unnatural appearing temporal disturbance can be detected somewhere to your West Azmodai? at location of temporal disturbance Kludstrm teaching variety sticking its head out of a shabby basket just above the parking lights location of disturbance and suggesting caution to all other minds Kludstrm misguided furiously telling unparalleled jokes detected Westward fo this point biological experiment capable of withstanding tremendous temperatures leaping around as high as lasers, and stretching its fingers out to attack Standing Animate it? completely can an Ambush be far behind Kludstrm? back and forth behind the two humanoids A flashing light can be seen West of here Azmodai swooshes past your position out all other random thoughts from you Kludstrm? sharp instruments known as knitting needles proceeding to multicolored sugar coat the claws of a large cat in the sun a discoloration of grass blades can be detected by a sharp eye You are picking something up on the periphery of your consciousness at the parking lot from somewhere behind the brick wall six feet to your left slinking along the wall like a snake much more quickly than normal Travvelers to and from the building overlook above not a hint of bloodlust among any of them spectacular lightning in your honor a spectacular sight that only you can notice, apparently Azmodai multicolored slinking along in the dead space the parking lot as best it can Kludstrm unreliable heralding the coming of another large arrival be prepared the minds below that another large something is coming Arrival of a large thing at the parking lot Startled birds leaving the area the knolls behind the parking lot a migraine to end all migraines reaches out to you something is very wrong with Azmodai connect? You accept the offered link its filthy claws The mindless beast returns to your consciousness Azmodai, moaning incoherently shivering uncontrollably damage from the lights? on gristle poor mindless beast, there will be better food soon the large arrival to the stairwell Kludstrm is fascinated by Azmodai pitiful trying to get up unusual sounds in distance off tiny rodents can live like this for quite some time Kludstrm stingy exposing your mind to the influence of a somewhat differently developed mind reserves mercilessly Azmodai foul disgusting the minds below unworthy of our status I could teach them so much but why bother? the rodent population he accepts your aid in healing his injured mind eating a few rotten ones for variety You sense something from Azmodai the colors coming from the parking lot with Azmodai's appearance Azmodai minutely emitting brief tendrils of influence towards fallen companions in the wind Kludstrm rapacious fortifying monitoring defenses from your overnight parking lot battlefield Klud to the right The corpses of Az and Mr Invincible behind you Vampire assassins waiting, somewhere somewhere behind your eyes Kludeptra, sadistic manipulating your conscious mind Wait, Elios above your conscious mind You sense it immediately The city reemerging in the part of your mind Azmodai once regulated above your mind The city of beetriot gloomy glistening above your mind The city of beetriot colorful awash with inner light at the forefront of your stretches itself out from its slumber in your He is rising We drew too much from him We'll have to make do without it for now the city of beetriot dank covered with a patina and crust of oily soot melancholy twisting in the back of your mind azmodai pitiful barely there azmodai filthy decimated by your extraction azmodai disappeared completely now clouds of pain and misery cover the little conscious brain tumors forming above it

[kadobeclothing]

7 Days of Easter fun: Explaining the crucifixion to toddlers

Jesus died on the cross, for our sins. He gave His life for ours and now we all have the gift of eternal life with God. The Easter story is the fulfillment of God’s promise to man, a selfless and unimaginable sacrifice of love and core to our Christian beliefs. That’s why we celebrate Easter, but explaining the crucifixion to toddlers isn’t easy… Where do we start when a large part of the story is so cruel? And how do we compete with the Easter bunny?

A few tips to keep in mind…

Keep things age-appropriate.

Younger kids won’t understand every detail and could rightfully become upset. For now, rather focus on the outcome of Jesus’s crucifixion (the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life through Him). There will be plenty of time to give more attention to the rest of the story as your children mature. Using language that your kids understand. Highlight moment they can easily relate to and remember. Stay true to the heart of the crucifixion; Jesus’s act of love and sacrifice. If we don’t understand sin, we are not able to fully appreciate what Jesus did for us. Explain to your kids that although Jesus was perfect and without any sin, He still loved us so much that He was willing to take upon the punishment for our wrong doings. The big and small things we do wrong… He has taken our place by washing away our sin. If your little one is particularly interested in only one part of the crucifixion – explore it with them. Answers all their questions and look for answers together when you’re unable to. We tend to make Christmas memorable with special traditions and decor yet Easter can be left bare. Plan and prepare activities or a specific family Bible study for Holy Week. When children experience Easter, they will start remembering the importance of the crucifixion while growing closer to God and loving Him more. Now it’s time to put these words into practice! Explaining the crucifixion to toddlers using the life cycle of a butterfly Yes, you read that correctly… We use the life cycle of a butterfly as our first point of reference for the crucifixion of Jesus.

Click HERE to download the life cycle of a butterfly Much like the butterfly, Jesus was born from humble beginnings, bringing the promise of new life for all. (The egg stage) As Jesus grew older, He grew “bigger” becoming a teacher to many as He fed them the will of God. (The caterpillar stage) Then came the fulfillment of His purpose; to die on the cross. Washing away our sins, overcoming death and bringing new life. (The pupa stage – researchers have found the pupa stage to be excruciating painful as the caterpillar’s body hardens forming a chrysalis. The old body is broken down into imaginal cells which grow and form a new body.) For a period of time, the disciples were alone, scared, waiting. (Just like we wait for the caterpillar to become a butterfly.) On the 3rd day, Jesus rose triumphant over death and sin. (The metamorphosis is complete, the chrysalis is empty. The caterpillar has become a butterfly. A new life has been granted and the butterfly can fly freely spreading sweet nectar – the gospel of Jesus.) Now for some Easter fun! We can’t hide our girls from the world, so instead of banning anything we rather embrace all of Easter, trying to find God in every detail. This year we have a week’s worth of crafts, baking, scripture reading and other activities planned around the butterfly’s life cycle, also including the Easter Bunny. Download our Holy Week 7 Easter Activities t do with the kids HERE Celebrating Palm Sunday by decorating our home Palm leaves straight out of our garden always excite the girls but you can also make a pretty paper palm leave garland using this template I found on the DLTK Growing Together website.

Download this DIY paper palm leaf template HERE

Using Monday to make a “Tree of life” a.k.a an Easter tree (The egg stage of our butterfly’s life) A tree of life symbolises of a fresh start, new beginnings, good health and a bright future. The branch represents the immortality, growth and strength of trees and the eggs, new life. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus gives us all? What a beautiful reminder to look upon daily. I have included 3 ways to colour hard-boiled or blown-out eggs using natural homemade dyes, food colouring and also a cool Volcano Egg experiment the kids are sure to enjoy.

Click HERE to download the DIY Colouring and dyeing Easter Eggs recipes Use a glue gun and twine to make your coloured eggs into an ornament and hang from a branch found in the garden or leave them as is in a pretty basket or bowl.

Tuesday and Wednesday – Feeding our souls and our tummies (The caterpillar stage of our butterfly’s life) Much like a hungry caterpillar, we want our girls to thirst for God’s word. We will be making a simple paper chain caterpillar, “feeding” our caterpillars with Jesus’s teaching. Adding pieces of scripture as we link each chain of its body.

I’ve also included a blank page for more scripture you love. Remember to as the kids which story of Jesus (or throughout the Bible) they enjoy the most. Have fun seeing you can make the longest caterpillar. Click HERE to download and make your own scripture caterpillar

And for our tummies… We can’t forget about the Easter bunny!

Download The real Easter bunny HERE So, how about some delicious Easter Bunny Meringues? These are so cute, I just know the girls are going to go wild for them.

HOP ON OVER TO Miss Lucky Pony’s blog for the recipe.

Maundy Thursday -Illustrating Jesus’s teachings and presence in a tangible way Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter. It is a day set aside to commemorate The Last Supper. The word “maundy” comes from the Latin word  “command,” and refers to Jesus’s teaching to the disciples – “To love one another as I have loved you.” Use John 13:1-17 as reference. Jesus was celebrating Passover with his disciples. They were getting ready to share a Seder meal as a reminder of what God had done for his people when he rescued them from slavery in Egypt. But before the meal began, Jesus took off his outer clothing and wrapped a towel around his waist. He poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of his disciples. This was a dirty job… degrading even. Only servants ever washed feet. But when Jesus said: “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.  “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. John 13:12-17, NIV Jesus gave His last teaching, setting the example of how his people were to treat others. He stripped away all hierarchy showing us how to humbly serve and love each other. Bringing trust and healing in relationships. Take turns washing each other’s feet. You can make it as “fancy” or as simple as you prefer. Good Friday (The pupa stage of our butterfly’s life) For now, we simply tell our girls Jesus died on a cross. We leave out all graphic details answering only what they ask. As they start longing for more specific, we will share. For now, we focus on the brief sorrow the disciples felt but how Jesus wasn’t gone forever, he was simply “inside a chrysalis” – just like our caterpillar. Dying to become alive again. There are so many ways to make a cross and you can really use whatever is available. This year we are weaving paper plates.

Use a utility knife to cut out a cross in the middle of your paper plate. Take a large knitting needle and punch holes around the edge of your cross. Use any twine or thin rope to thread your cross following the holes punched. Saturday – Learning to be silent We may have never seen Jesus in the flesh but He is never far. We can speak to Him at any given moment and should do so regularly through prayer. Knowing how to pray (even though there isn’t a wrong way), figuring out what to pray for and feeling comfortable to pray isn’t always easy for little ones. That’s why we can teach our children to pray. Making it fun, using what they know and can see. It’s fun talking to God so, this year we are teaching our girl’s the “Jelly Bean prayer”.

Download and print The Jelly bean Prayer HERE Finally Easter SUNDAY (The chrysalis is empty, our butterfly has “risen”) Time to celebrate! Dress up in your Sunday bests, put on those bunny ears or superman suits… Jesus has risen. Our sins are forgiven. We all have the promise of new life through Christ. WE SHOULD CELEBRATE! Prepare a beautiful Easter egg hunt using LOVILEE BLOG’s pretty FREE printables!

Let the kids look for eggs, jelly beans. pieces of scripture. Rejoice and be thankful together! May you feel the presence of God more than ever during this time and remember His immeasurable love for you!

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