#i started this as soon as arcane staff was announced

[minimutty]

Arcane Axe ❤️ Arcane Staff

The staff doesn't go that well with muspell's theme but it's still super cute. I'm so happy they get to match now~ 😊

[merulanoir]

Ok but imagine an au where Daud becomes the Royal Spymaster. Corvo sees the ways he could prove useful, and because Emily is a child she will believe her father. Even though it hurts to see the man who killed her mother, she braces herself and endures.

And maybe Corvo is not so void-bent on handling things alone. Maybe he finds someone to help both him and Emily with their trauma; someone to talk them through the interregnum events, help when insomnia or anxiety get very bad. Maybe both of them gradually heal.

And as a year and then three roll by, Corvo starts to truly see that Daud is sorry. The Knife never says it, actually, but he doesn't have to; it there in the way he always announces himself when he enters a room, how he never, ever sneaks up on either of them; it plain to see Daud regrets, because he works himself to the bone, shows his work as the Spymaster every bit the same focus as he did to his work as an assassin.

And Corvo and Emily heal, and they begin to see that even though what Daud did was awful, he has been making amends. He never behaves like he expects to be forgiven, and Emily tells Corvo she's not sure she will ever be able to do that. Corvo agrees, but when he goes quiet Emily asks what he is thinking.

"I just don't know if I want him to live out his days thinking the only thing that defines him is his crime. It will always be there, yes, but there's so much more to him than I thought."

Emily doesn't want to acknowledge that, but she is sixteen; she's grown up from the terrified child, and she's seen Daud every day during those six years. At first it was horrible, but little by little, day by day, her fear eroded, until it crumbled away. She no longer fears Daud, and after that conversation she starts to look at him more closely.

And what she sees makes her sad.

It's so evident Daud is crushingly lonely in the Tower. He lives alone, and Emily knows he must miss the Whalers. She knows the arcane bond is no more, but she can't help wondering what happened to the men and women with whom Daud shared his space and powers for so many years. Some careful snooping reveals correspondence, people with names and lives.

There's someone called Thomas. He became a smuggler, it seems. He often mentions someone named Billie in his letters. No word of Billie.

A man called Rulfio calls Daud an idiot quite often. He keeps inquiring after Daud's personal life. Those letters are usually crumpled, like someone has been angry while reading them.

Then there's a book about the harbors all around the Isles. Emily finds it tucked away behind a false panel. There's a note slipped between the pages. Some of the words are smudged, like water fell on them years and years ago. You've got some kind of plan, some hope for a new life.

It takes some convincing, but Corvo takes up sparring with Daud. The first time is stiff, both of them skirting around the yard and each other like waiting for something to explode. Emily makes Corvo promise to keep doing it, and in a few weeks the worst of the anxiety slips away. After two months, the spars are a regular thing in their life, and Emily sees Daud smile for the first time.

She begins to seek Daud out to talk about espionage and the work his spies do for her. She knows Corvo will never stop hovering, but she is getting old enough to have secrets of her own. Again, it takes a long while for Daud to stop walking on eggshells around her, but one day he looks around himself like he just then realized he is having coffee with the empress, and that the empress is rolling her eyes at him while stifling a laugh.

Corvo sees Daud thaw. It's slow, and sometimes the former assassin catches himself and closes off, but gradually they reach a place of understanding. Daud sees Corvo no longer thinks he can go sour at any given moment. Corvo lets himself enjoy Daud's company, and furthermore lets himself show it; sometimes they escape the Tower and spar with their powers, and it is like a breath of fresh air.

Daud teaches him more about the runes and bonecharms. Every now and then he forgets himself, and then Corvo can see how much Daud enjoys being able to share his skills. They go looking for shrines, and sometimes those turn into jaunts across Dunwall. Corvo begins to look forward to their night patrols, because Daud understands how the Mark feels; Daud understands the stress of hiding it, and how the Void sometimes whispers so loudly it's hard to focus on anything else.

And slowly, oh so slowly, other people start to treat Daud more like a human and less like a caged beast. The staff and the guards notice how much more at ease the empress is with the former Knife of Dunwall. They see Lord Corvo spar with Daud, only to laugh at something he said. And gradually they conclude that maybe, just maybe, people can change.

It could go on like this indefinitely. Corvo almost hopes it would, because he is growing to appreciate Daud's dry wit and sharp sense of humor; entertaining the nebulous thoughts that sometimes crop up doesn't seem wise. He could be happy with the way life is, simultaneously hectic and monotonous, because both he and Emily are doing much better, and somehow his daughter was wise enough to see that you don't have to fully forgive someone to understand they might deserve a second chance; that sometimes your own healing will lurch onwards when you acknowledge that making amends doesn't have to mutually painful.

But Daud will not let it be. Corvo has gotten to know him so well, and he sees the Knife is struggling to allow himself to enjoy anything. And Corvo aches when he sees Daud force himself not to laugh, to excuse himself from the informal dinners the three of them sometimes have, and fight to keep his walls up. Corvo wants to tell Daud that...what?

Corvo knows he can't fully forgive. But he has moved on, as has Emily, and it just seems so unfair for Daud to keep suffering year after year when nowadays most weeks go by without Corvo even thinking about how they first met each other. Corvo never expected it to happen, but he can't say he is sorry.

So when Daud's patience finally snaps (two weeks after the anniversary of Jessamine's death; Daud was conspicuously absent that day) he corners Corvo at the end of their patrol. His voice breaks a little as he tries to find words for what sounds like half an apology and half an accusation, and Corvo just stands, rooted to the spot, because he knows there will always be this shadow between them, but now he knows Daud; Corvo knows his regret is genuine and so all-encompassing is keeps hurting him to this day; he also knows Daud takes his coffee black, that he dislikes sleeping in, that his favorite knife was gifted to him by Thomas, and that every time Daud thinks Corvo doesn't notice his eyes grow soft and longing.

So Corvo steps closer, crowds Daud against the Tower banister, and kisses him. He has been fighting the urge for months, but in that moment he just can't hold out anymore. He wants Daud to see that his presence, though initially unexpected, is now wanted and welcome.

It takes a long while, but finally Daud kisses him back. He does it carefully and his hands shake when they bury into Corvo's hair, but he doesn't run away, and Corvo smiles into the kiss. It's over too soon, and when they part Daud looks like someone stole all his well-trained words. Corvo doesn’t remember which of them leans back in.

It starts to become easier after that. Daud is still cautious and gruff, but sometimes he laughs, and Emily manages to fish out stories about the old days; they both learn who the people behind the industrial masks were. Who they are, when Corvo finally convinces Daud to invite the few trusted ones to the Tower. Three of them come, and hearing the apology shouldn't do much, but Corvo sees Emily's smile wobble. Rinaldo and Rulfio leave soon afterwards, but Thomas stays late. Daud's shoulders are looser the following morning.

And life goes on. The past never goes away, but each of them makes peace with it, in their unique ways. Corvo begins to wake up to slow and steady breathing against his back, and no matter how early he wakes up, Daud is always awake when he rolls over. His sleepy smiles have long since lost the nervous edge.

Emily learns swordfighting and learns to shoot; Corvo isn't exactly happy to learn Daud took her to the black market for her eighteenth birthday, but her joy as she shoots her very own crossbow is contagious. Corvo and Daud watch her take aim with her head cocked thoughtfully and hair escaping the updo. Corvo knows he is smiling, and when Daud glances at him his stomach lurches. Happiness is fleeting, but he knows where to find it, and how to hold on to it.

Life goes on.

[galaxa-13]

I can’t stop thinking about Sia even with her campaign over, so here’s another story.

40 years. It had been 40 years since she ran away from home. As much as she had decided to forget about her life before Sia hadn’t. She still thought about her father more than she liked to admit. He’d be an old man at this point.

After 40 years of study she had become quite an accomplished sorceress. Not to the same level of magic as her master, of course, but enough that she could easily impress a human lord. She had run away all those years ago with the single desire to return to her father as a master of the arcane arts. While she no longer longed for his approval she still wanted to impress him. Just see him one last time and show him how wrong he had been to ignore her all those years. Make him realize what he had lost.

“Erol,” she said one day as she picked up a cup of tea her butler had just poured for her, “I want to visit my father.”

Erol paused his movements and looked at her. She had told him stories of her childhood and his hackles raised at the thought of the man who had made his mistress feel so isolated.

“Why now?” he asked. He thought she wanted nothing to do with him.

Sia stared down at her cup and her eyes narrowed.

“He’ll probably be dead soon. I want to see him before that happens.” she said.

So preparations were made. Sia decided not to send a letter announcing her incoming visit. She wanted to surprise him. She was wiser than she was when she had left. She understood others better. She didn’t want him to be comfortable.

A mess of emotions tied themselves into knots in her stomach on the carriage ride to the Ho estate. She was confident in herself, but doubt still had its claws in her. That old desire to do anything to gain her father’s approval flickering inside her, the fear of not receiving it. Her perfectly manicured nails were digging into her palms as her fists rested on her lap. 

Erol reached over and placed a hand on one of her fists and she relaxed. Smiling at him she placed her other hand on top. Yes, as long as Erol with her she would be fine. No matter how things went she would be fine. At the end of the day she would return back to her home and her happy life where she had everything she wanted.

At the gate they were stopped by guards. She didn’t pay them any attention as she stared at the lawn and the house. She had never actually seen this place before, having been raised in the summer home. Her childhood home had been a lovely place, but this was larger. More emotions twisted in her gut at the sight of the place.

The guards were really quite annoying. Telling her she needed proof of an invite to go any further. Erol opened his mouth to say something, but Sia cut him off.

“Is Lord Takahiro home?” she asked.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“I don’t need an appointment. Is he home or not?”

“If you don’t have an appointment then we can’t-”

“As his daughter I think it is my right to come and go as I please.”

The guards froze as she glared at them. They each looked her up and down and then glanced at each other. Clearly they did not believe this unknown drow woman was related to their human lord.

“My name is Sia Ho. You will tell me if he is home and if he is I am going inside. You will not stop me.” she said as her grip on her staff tightened.

“I’ll... bring this inside. You can stay here until I get back.” one guard said before nodding to his partner and walking up to the house. Sia sighed as the other guard glared at her. She flicked her hand towards him and sent him floating in the air.

With a yelp the guard struggled 20ft in the air as she calmly walked under him and followed the other guard’s path. She had told them they wouldn’t stop her. At the door Erol opened it for her and two figures froze as they turned to look at her in the doorway. One was the guard and the other looked like a steward.

“What are you doing here?” the guard asked, angry.

“Where is Takahiro Ho? I demand to speak with him.” Sia said, ignoring him.

“You can’t just waltz in demanding things-” the steward started, but Sia stepped to the side and pointed to the floating guard.

“Do you wish to join him? If not tell the lord that his daughter, Sia, is here.” she said.

“Why you...” the guard was reaching for his sword.

Sia summoned a Mage Hand and quickly pulled the sword from his grip. He gaped at it.

“I would really rather avoid fighting. I wore a nice dress today,” Sia said as she stared at them coldly. “All I want is to speak to my father. Bring me to him. Or are those simple directions too much for you to understand?”

“I’ll... I’ll get go get him.” the steward said before trotting off.

“Good,” Sia said before turning her eyes back to the guard. “If you promise to play nice I’ll let your friend down and give you back your sword.”

He nodded and Sia gently let the other guard down, who quickly ran up to them. He looked quite angry, but his friend held an arm out in front of him and shook his head. Sia returned the weapon and then found a chair for herself to sit in, Erol standing guard at her side as he eyed the two humans. They eyed him back.

Eventually the steward came back and said, “Lord Takahiro will see you now, but your attendant must wait here.”

“No,” Sia said as she rose to her feet. “He will come with me. Lead the way.”

“I really must insi-”

Sia cut him off with a cold glare and he shut his mouth. He lead them up the stairs and down a hall before stopping and opening a door.

“Here is the guest, sir.” he said as he stepped aside for Sia.

When the old man looked at her she was surprised. She felt... nothing. A stranger stood before her. She had only hazy memories of what her father looked like, and the wrinkled, white-haired man with a cane before her did not match them.

“You may go.” the old man said to his steward. The steward bowed and left. Lord Takahiro Ho stared at Sia, and then at Ero, then he said, “Did Narcelia send you?"

“Narcelia?” Sia blinked.

“You look like her and know the name of our daughter. I can only assume you were sent by her for some purpose.”

A spark of anger came to life inside her. She gripped her staff tightly and calmly said, “So Narcelia is my mother’s name? It’s nice to finally know that much. Hello, father, it’s been some time.”

His eyes narrowed.

“I don’t know what game you’re playing at, but you are a poor actor. Sia was a half-elf. Clearly, if she were my daughter.” he said.

“I can assure you I am your daughter, Sia. I went through quite a lot of changes since you last saw me. By the grace of a god I was given this elven body. I was happy to be rid of anything that would tie me to you.” Sia said.

Her father was quiet for some time as he looked at her. She stared back. 

“What is it you want?” he finally said.

She wanted him to acknowledge her. Even after all this time that’s all she wanted. As a child she wanted him to care about her and be proud of her. Now she wanted him to feel guilt over having lost her. After everything she still only ever wanted him to admit she existed.

“Did you ever wonder what had happened to me?” she asked. She couldn’t answer him, not yet. She needed to know this before she could.

“I had heard Sia had disappeared. Nothing else.” he said.

“That’s not what I asked,” she said sharply. “I asked you if you had ever wondered what happened to me. Obviously I disappeared, but did you ever try to find me? Did you worry about my safety? What did you do when you had learned I was gone?”

“... I sent out a small investigation and eventually learned she mostly likely fled to Waterdeep.”

“I did go to Waterdeep. Did you do nothing else?”

“I decided to wait until I heard more news. Nothing else ever came up so the matter was dropped.”

Sia slammed her staff into the floor and yelled out, “Did you not care I was gone?”

He said nothing and the spark of anger grew to a flame.

“I ran off to study magic! I thought if I could control my abilities you would be happy! I did learn magic. I’ve learned so much magic I could level this entire place and rebuild it all in a day!”

As she yelled colored lights began to pop into existence around her. They bobbed and twinkled as small flames broke out across her exposed arms. They danced across her skin and flickered as she glared at the man before her.

“But do you know the most important thing I learned was? I learned I didn’t need to do anything for you. You, who had shunted me away and forbade me from ever exploring the outside world. I had spent my childhood doing everything I could to please you.”

She took a step towards him and he took a step back.

“I was so ready to put my powers to your service. I wanted to show them off to you and then do whatever you asked of me. Had you treated me right I would have, but then I met others on my journey. People who did treat me right. Why would I go back to you when they had given me more than you ever had?”

He was staring at her, wide-eyed. She took a deep breath and her magic dissipated. Then she turned around and started walking back towards the door before she stopped.

“I died on my journey,” she said, not turning around. “I died at 15 still wanting to return to you. I’m glad Hanali Celanil brought me back and took away my human half.” she said. She looked at Erol and he moved to open the door.

“Wait!” her father called out. Sia didn’t move as Erol opened the door. “If you really are Sia then... I’m sorry.”

“Good. Feel sorry.” she said without looking back at him and walked through the door.

As she strode through the halls she passed servants frozen in place. They stared at her with wide eyes as she passed them. She wondered how far her voice had carried as she had yelled at her father. The steward eventually ran up to her and was saying something, but she tuned him out.

“I’m leaving. Thank you for your hospitality.” she said as she marched back to the door.

She paid no mind to the guards when she made her way back to the carriage. Erol helped her inside and she stared straight ahead as they finally pulled away from the Ho estate.

“Are you alright?” Erol asked her.

“No,” she said simply. “but I feel better.” She turned to look at him, giving her butler a sad smile. “I know that doesn’t make sense, but... I don’t know. I don’t feel like talking about it.”

She laid her head on his shoulder and grabbed his hand.

“Play me a song when we get back.” she said softly.

“Of course.” he said as he squeezed her hand.

[askdragonbladetalon]

rises from the abyss to send this in: JAEGER

[This got long! EzLux, TaLuz, TalEz, EzTaLux.]Against the white sheets, Ezreal’s skin looks more golden than ever but he’s still too pale. He’s paler than the last time Lux saw him and it’s not only his condition that accounts for the pallor. He’s been spending too much time indoors, working on the neural link with Talon and practicing simulations instead of exploring.She listens to the beeping of the machines and watches the steady rise-fall of his chest. The charts before her tell her more than Talon could so she tunes out his awkward words and focuses on the information she is not supposed to have.When Talon’s voice trails off, she looks up. He’s paler too, shadows circling darkly under his eyes, and his hair is in a limp ponytail pulled back at the base of his neck. The cast on his arm is glaringly white against his light brown skin. The thin hospital gown looks comical on him and he carries the IV stand with him as if it’s an impromptu weapon instead of the only thing keeping him from screaming in pain.“Go back to bed,” she says, sliding the charts back into the pocket at the foot of the bed. “It’ll be months before he wakes.”There are people who would think her cold for not feigning optimism, who would demand she deliver her news with a smile and a cheery attitude. There are expectations of Crownguards, now more than ever with the Kaiju overturning so much of the world.Talon simply nods and folds his arms over the side of Ezreal’s bed, resting his forehead against the mattress.“Too tired to walk back right now,” he says, voice muffled. “I’ll wait here until I can move.”“The nurses threatened to handcuff you to your bed if you kept leaving,” Lux reminds him as she sits down in the other chair. “Like I can’t pick locks,” Talon huffs. She regards the top of his head silently and Ezreal, unsmiling and still, lies between them.

“When Talon’s healed, I’ll be his new co-pilot,” Lux tells Viktor. Viktor doesn’t look up from his display, metal fingers plugged directly into the computer’s interface. “There are tests for compatibility. Ezreal was his top match - and you aren’t his second match.”“I know,” Lux says, hands flat on his desk. “And I’ll pass them. But I want you to start getting the Jaeger ready for us now.” She codeswitches effortlessly, speaking his language instead. “Talon is a known unit and proven pilot. Arcane Shadow is half his creation, half Ezreal’s. You will need to adjust the half that is Ezreal’s for his new pilot and if you know in advance who that will be, you will have a headstart on the changes to the Jaeger which will allow it to be operational sooner. Can you afford the delay?”“And if you two aren’t drift-compatible?” Viktor’s lit-up eyes glow in her direction, mask expressionless.“We will be,” Lux says, words clipped.“And I’m supposed to take that on faith?” He sneers the word ‘faith’ as if it’s the most obscene of concepts, a violation so vile that he can hardly bear to speak of it, and Lux smiles. He’s walked right into her trap.“No. You’re supposed to trust my calculations. Talon has been drifting with Ezreal for months now. Ezreal was in Talon’s mind, screaming and hurt, during the long trip back to shore when Arcane Shadow went down. Your initial data is flawed – whomever Talon was compatible with before he had Ezreal in his mind is no longer whom he is compatible with. Anyone drifting with Talon now will have to drift with Ezreal’s ghost as well.” She leans forwards just a little, blond hair swinging over her shoulders and framing her face with gold. “Don’t look at Talon’s top matches. Cross-compare his top matches with Ezreal’s and look at the matches they have in common. Look who is at the top of that list.”The display flashes, dividing into two columns of bronze, and names scroll quickly past. When a name lit up in red shows in both columns, Viktor looks back up at her. He doesn’t argue any further, just gives a brisk nod; his own pride has never mattered as much as being right.“What changes do you have in mind for Arcane Shadow?” Viktor asks and Lux makes herself smile again as she pulls out a sheet of paper from her backpack.“Here. And her name is now Shadow Spark.” Arcane was gone and Shadow was moved into first place because Talon had been here before Lux had. She planned the name out as meticulously as everything else.

When they drift, Talon’s mind slides against hers like metal against a sharpening stone. It’s not the easy fluidity that comes when siblings drift, the drift she is used to from her practice drifts with Garen. It’s a hard pressure, two sets of memories in Talon’s minds threading into their shared consciousness.{through Ezreal’s eyes, she is beautiful, she is blinding, she is the sun and she is summer and she is a perfect peerless cloudless sky. he sees her and he loves her and he doesn’t see her at all because  goddesses have no flaws and he----looks at her with suspicion, this Demacian girl with the bright smile and even brighter eyes, this woman who wields her smile like a scythe, who cuts people down with words and sparks magic from nails bitten down to the quick, Talon knows better than to believe beauty is goodness and----she sees a genius boy who grew up all alone, she sees an adventurer who takes himself to the spaces that other humans vacated so long ago, she sees someone who is so much more vulnerable than he will ever understand, someone who----looks at her and sees the siren skinned, sees the danger that Demacia made her into, a man with blood eyes and bloodied hands, someone who will not be swayed by her smile and who will always see the worst of her, the----killer, assassin, someone who loves blades better than people, the epitome of Noxus, some boy who slaughtered his way out of the gutters, his co-pilot, his drift-compatible partner, a man with memories of torture and trauma----looks at this golden boy, this summer child who thinks he can think his way out of everything, who thinks he’s so much better than everyone else, steel through the heart ends everyone, looks at his smile and wonders if he has ever been able to smile so freely--}“When Ezreal sees inside your head,” Talon says above the sound of the scientist announcing ‘neural handshake completed’, “He’s going to be so disappointed to know what you thought of him at first.”“Were you disappointed by his thoughts about you?” Lux asks and doesn’t touch the first part of Talon’s sentence. “Only that he wasn’t scared,” Talon says, quirking a half-smile at her as he stretches out his left arm. Her left arm stretches as well, automatic and unthinking, and Lux exhales. They’re halfway there.

Shadow Spark performs well. Ezreal’s heavy gauntlet is gone, leaving the left arm lighter than the right; Lux uses it to shoot lasers, arms it with a plasma cannon and gives it an unfolding staff that she can use if it runs out of power for the cannons.Lux performs well but she knows everyone is comparing Shadow Spark to Arcane Shadow; she knows everyone is whispering about how she swooped down on Arcane Shadow and had her gutted, had her changed, while Talon was still in hospital so she could present him with a fait accompli.As if Talon hadn’t been part of it. As if he hadn’t plotted with her. It’s a little harder to play the ingenue now, but she needs to keep Talon’s reputation spotless. Nobody will dare raise a hand to a Crownguard, especially with Garen drifting with Prince Jarvan, but Talon has never collected allies like Lux has. The Jaeger pilots are still human and if they should circle on Talon, if they should take him to task for being so disloyal as to drift with Lux while Ezreal still lies sleeping in the hospital…Someone will die, and the Jaeger corps cannot have a pilot who has murdered another pilot. Talon will be expelled from the program.She doesn’t bother explaining this to Talon; he saw her plan in her mind the first time they drifted and he knows she’s not done yet.

Ezreal wakes. Talon sees him first, then Lux.When she enters, he’s still lying down, still pale, but his eyes are open and have lost none of their intensity. “Tal told me the plan,” he says before she can even greet him. “I’m in. What do you need me to do?”She smiles without meaning to and feels her eyes sting with tears.“Get better,” she says, voice a little shaky. “Get better as fast as you can. The only part of my plan that I couldn’t control was you.”The only thing she couldn’t guarantee was that Ezreal would wake.

Viktor’s fingers still over the blueprints he’s examining when he sees Lux enter. “Something wrong with Shadow Spark?” He asks, mechanical voice rasping lower than usual.“Yes. I need you to outfit her like you did Kinkou Balance.” “So Ezreal’s awoken at last,” Viktor says with something akin to smugness in his tone. He pulls out a drawer and tosses her a small USB; Lux catches it reflexively, cupped hands flying up. “I knew you would ask for that. The three of you can look at that and see what changes you need made.”“…Thank you.” Lux snaps him a sharp salute, just for the fun of it, then turns and leaves. The steady clack of her heels against the tiled floor soon turns into a rapider rhythm as she runs down the tunnels. Viktor knew what she wanted and he’s giving her permission. She��d anticipated more of an argument, protests that she’d be better off looking for a different partner so they could have two Jaegers instead of one, but she’s not going to complain about something coming easily for once. For once!Shen, Akali and Kennen might be the first three-person team to pilot a Jaeger but Golden Blade will leave them in the dust.This, too, is part of her plan.

[shardclan]

In the plaza of House Betelgeuse, what had once been a mere sprig of the Great Staroak had grown into a mighty new tree. Like Clover's bees, it had been hybridized with local species. It had a stunning mix of branches that sprouted leaves of gold or silver, each color shining correspondingly to whether it was day or night. It had long since outgrown the small arcane biome constructed to help it survive the early process, and lived on a healthy swath of wild grass that the fountain had been expanded to accommodate.

Rebis sat under the boughs alone, her nose deep in a book to avoid meeting any of the pitiful, apologetic looks she had been getting since case with Hihi'o had been resolved. She had insisted Prophecy had nothing to do with it, had waited patiently for her teacher to return so she could share the great news of her blessing from the Lightweaver. And that loyalty had all been for nothing. It was mortifying, but worse still it was terribly lonely. So when Apokathisto crossed the ornate stepping stones in the fountain to join her, she didn't immediately turn him away. 

"It's the last day of the jubilee," he said quietly. "Shouldn't you be celebrating?"

She shot him an irritable glare. "I can't believe you of all people are coming to me with small talk. Am I that pitiful?"

"It isn't about pity. It's about norms." he sat next to her, gently turning his thumbs one over the other. "Brightshine is the exact kind of celebration I'd expect you to be enjoying with all the people who love you."

"Well they're all gone!" she exploded. "Azricai and Equinox and all of Kea's family are dealing with the aftermath of that case! Penitence and Copernicus are in Feldspar! Dantalion and Camellia haven't been in the mood for company since Heaven ran off, Stellaria is busy organizing that surprise thing for Telos and when she isn't she hangs out at Bramble Step now! And Telos isn't even here! The list goes on!"

Apokathisto quietly let her have her moment. She sniffed, and shut her book. "Nobody has any room for me right now," she said tersely. "Happy?"

"No." He threw a comforting arm around her, momentarily making them both uncomfortable. He aspired to be more honest with his feelings, but casual physical affection wasn't normal for them. he settled for holding her hand instead, which had always been their way.

While it was weird, Rebis immediately missed the comfort of the hug as soon as he took it back. She sagged into him, her eyes stinging with angry tears. "She didn't even think about me, did she? Before she decided to just run off with Hihi'o."

"I don't know," he admitted. "I don't fully understand the feeling of having a charge. I haven't found mine."

"Good." She turned her face into his side, and from under his robes he felt both her hitching breaths and the wetness of her tears. "You're better off that way."

Apokathisto pressed him lips together and let her cry. He sympathized with Telos a little--how was he supposed to tell her? Especially when she was already in such a bad place? He wished he had more time, but when Telos returned she would almost certainly make her announcement. He wished Rebis were a little older, but she had always hated being small and spent much more of her time in glamour than he had. Though they were the same age, she hadn't matured as far as he had. And there was no time to wait for her to be older. He had looked out for her since they were young. She trusted him. And he couldn't betray that by not telling her.

"I'm sorry," he began. "I know it hurts. And I hope you know it isn't your fault. Is there anything I can do to help you enjoy the last of this celebration?"

"Why do you care?" she sniveled. "What's so important about this festival. There'll be more. There'll be Thundercrack."

"...Things might be different by then."

She pulled back and searched his eyes fearfully. "Different how?"

He took a deep breath and squeezed her hand. There was no point in dodging the truth when she was asking him so directly. He had come there to tell her after all. He just wished things were different. He wished he wasn't explaining while she was already hurt. "Telos is going to leave, Rebis. She's going to pass the crown. To us. She was always going to."

For several tense moments, he watched her try to digest this information. He remembered how it had felt when he learned it. But he had asked--demanded-- to learn it. Rebis was having it dropped on her when she hadn't asked for it and probably wouldn't have wanted to know if he had given her the choice.

The strain proved too much. Throwing her book aside, she ran. Apokathisto scurried to give chase, following her into the deeper parts of the ground level. "Rebis!" He shed his glamour and got ahead of her. "Rebis stop!"

She shed her glamour just as readily, abusing her tiny size and a flash of light magic to pass him by and disappear into the shadow under the Obsidian Disc. Blinking the spots from his eyes, he followed after her, his massive size working against him as he tried to figure out where Rebis was. He circled the Chalcedony Seat in a panic, his hackles raised by either the possibility that she might be there or by the thick, barely restrained energy that made him feel he was being watched by something from within the Celestial Vault.

A pop of light from the Starwood Portal got his attention and he sped toward it, only to find Rebis working some sort of spell before the writhing wood. The remains of a barrier were dissipating at her back, and without it there was no one there to stop her. "Rebis, please calm down," he tried. "We can say no. We don't have to take the responsibility. I've already told her I won't and you can too!"

"I'm sure that's what she said," Rebis said with surprising sobriety. "But I'm also sure that all it will take for you to change your mind is for to find out your charge is related to this."

The words hurt, even though he knew she was merely lashing out. Before he could think of a rebuttal, she had completed her magic. The wood that bound the portal was sparse--the dryad had taken a substantial chunk of it. There were plenty of holes big enough to fit a fae, so all Rebis had to do was mask her own magic, rendering her effectively invisible, and fly through.

Apokathisto's fear shot through into panic. He rushed after her, but the irritable wood of the Archmage's former staff was not blind to him. His massive form was easily too much for it to fully snare, but the magic it lashed him with seared his scales, near paralyzing him with pain. Desperately, he abandoned his form for the smaller target of his glamour. He slipped through the grip of the wood, and tumbled through to the other side.

Almost instantly, the pain vanished. He breathed in deep and felt the steam of his breath on condensing on his skin. The chill was as refreshing as it was biting, and the ambient arcane energy was nearly overpowering. Overhead, bright pink bursts of magic popped in a sky the color of pink chalcedony, while below stray formations of natural celestine glittered in the earth as brightly as starts in the night sky, punctuated by the odd short pillar towering above his head. Far, far above, the Eye of many Lenses was a bronze crescent of reflected light.

"The Isles..." he whispered reverently.

The awe was short lived as the memory of just where the portal naturally led came back to him. The density of scattered celestine chunks were an indicator he hadn't quite caught. They were in the former site of the Seat. The Chalcedony Circle remained, 36 stones perfectly aligned to the stars and to the distant Observatory. A sense of deep unease came over him as he looked at them.

"Rebis?!" he called desperately. "Where are you?!"

He found her taking refuge in the shadow of a celestine pillar. The density of Arcane magic had clearly taken a toll on her, as it would have for any acolight. He grabbed her, but she forcefully swatted him away.

"What are you doing?" he cried. "Why did you come here?"

Truthfully, she didn't know. She didn't know if she cared about the crown one way or the other. Being granted responsibility for Telos' legacy was daunting, but it certainly felt like the greatest acknowledgement she could get from the queen she was so attached to. But she knew Telos. She knew if Telos stepped down, she would leave. She would go to where everyone she loved was, and leave this realm behind. And she felt a stab of childish guilt that she had somehow caused it during those fleeting moments she would wish Telos gone so Arcanus and Gethsemene and herself could be free. There was too much to unpack. Too much to make sense of. So she didn't.

"Before all this happened, I met with the Lightweaver, and she blessed me with a Truth related to my thesis." She assumed the position of the Arcanist’s Meditations. It felt simple in her draconic form. It felt natural. "I'm going to try and prove it."

"Rebis," Apokathisto said carefully, still glancing nervously at the Circle. "What does that have to do with the crown?"

"I don't know," she answered blithely. "I don't know what to do. So maybe I'll just leave it up to fate. If I prove my thesis and earn the right to be an Archmage, I'll take the crown. If I don't, I'll refuse."  Tears dripped freely from her eyes as she tried to laugh casually. "An Archmage queen sounds cool, right?"

Apokathisto was at a loss. He had expected many things, but this was beyond even his wildest imagining. He had pushed her over some threshold he didn't know she had, and when he opened his mouth, he found he didn't have words for her. She wasn't going to be swayed, so all he could do was watch her sink herself into a meditative state. But when her repeated monotone whisper reached his ears, it sent chills of fear through him.

“The sun is a star. The stars are the light. Light is reality. Arcane and Light are one.”

Rebis quickly forgot he was even there. The more she chanted and channeled the ambient energy carefully through her own body, the less she had room to think about anything else. Just as she had hoped. Her fae heritage seemed to be doing her a significant favor. The energies were rough on induction, but there was no immediate rejection. The energies danced within her, intertwining harmoniously even though bearing such a merge left Rebis drenched in sweat. She turned her mind to the Observatory, pleading for the acknowledgement of the stars--challenging them to tell her she was wrong before she crafted the spell that would cement her magical prowess and assure her the title of Archmage.

She hadn't expected such a clear answer.

DO YOU WISH FOR MORE THAN MY SISTER’S HALF-TRUTHS?

She had scarcely realized who was answering before He snatched her mind from her body and showed it the true scale of the Truth--and her place in it. Light was not reality. Light was time--a mere dimension and one eternally soiled by the perceptions of living creatures. And it was a byproduct among so many others of the chaos that saw stars born and galaxies merged. The Lightweaver may have been born first, but the Light was merely a finite aspect of Arcane infinity. An aspect that shed its truth only on the denizens of the present plane and could never seek truths beyond itself. When it tried to...

Rebis returned to herself with a sharp image of the Hewn City, and a cold and terrifying but unspeakable understanding of the things that lived under the eternal moonlight there. Her magic went haywire at that moment. The magic she had been working inverted, her Light magic losing itself and scattering across other points in light; in time. Her consciousness spread thin across the ages, delicate as a thread of spidersilk threatening to snap at the slightest disturbance. Faintly, she sensed beings outside of light, outside of time, watching her dissipation with cool interest, as if seeing a strange bug passing through their midst. Her light, sublimating across the enter timeline of Sornieth, didn't interest them.

...rebis...! ....re......biiiis!

That voice, she knew, was somewhere she was supposed to be. It was the when she was supposed to be. She clung to it with what little sense of herself she had, and called back.

Back inside the circle, Apokathisto was pacing, his chest hammering with panic. From his perspective, he had seen her fins raise, as if hearing something he couldn't, and the next thing he knew, she blurred out of existence right in front of his eyes with a look of pain. The Circle around him had begun to hum and flow with faint throbs of light. He had screamed for her out to her several times, and each time her voice seemed to call back to him from somewhere else. She was still right in front of him, in a way he didn't fully understand, and the stones were reacting to her.

He reached back out to where she was, and shouted for her to take his hands. There was a faint tingle in his fingertips, but nothing else happened.

He turned to the Observatory, and begged the Arcanist to bring her back. Nothing happened.

Finally, feeling his heart hammering in his chest, he gazed frantically down to the stones. Without thinking he ran to the nearest one. He was no mage, but he understood his way around Arcane element. He called the magic from within the stone into himself, and it leaped with predatory eagerness into him. The surge was enough to distort his horns and blacken his wings, charring patterns into them as he screamed. He tried to take his hands away, but found he couldn't. The energy poured into him, and he wasn't released until it was done.

He looked at his magic-burned fingers. They were massive. Clawed. His jaw was elongated. His body felt strange. The energy had partially peeled his glamour away. Numbly, he noted he could not feel his magic. But there was no time. He went back to where Rebis had been, hobbling and clumsy in this form that he had never been taught to use. He reached out with the magic of the Circle, and he could feel that Arcane energy that had bound itself to her. When he called out to her this time, he felt her small fingers touch his. She came back with an shuddering rumble of thunder.

And she wasn't alone. Something came back with her, and he felt a flush of adrenaline as he watched their indescribable shapes disperse. But he remained with Rebis, clutching her protectively. She hadn't come back quite right either. Her whole body was studded with pale stars and twinkling galaxies that could not possibly have been there. And her eyes were...

She gasped in his arms, and reached weakly and wretchedly for the celestine pillar. He held her close to it, and only when she touched it did she seem to relax, passing peacefully into an exhausted sleep.

"Rebis..."

There was a sharp pain at the back of his neck, and he too passed into darkness.

Lutia's temper was foul as she stood before her portal. First the dryad, then that over-curious fool Crucis dabbling with things he shouldn't have. Whoever had passed through her portal had certainly spared him, but they were going to take the full consequences of her anger two-fold on his behalf.

So she immediately cursed when it was Arcanus that she blasted after passing through the portal. He had been quick enough for a barrier, but her magic had gone through it like it was mere paper. He was only a magic knight, while she was an Archmage who was having a very bad day. 

"Gods, Arcanus what are you doing?!" she shouted, coming fretfully to his side. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?!”

He groaned, and carefully sat up, revealing Apokathisto and Rebis clutched gently and carefully to his chest. "No time to worry about me. I found them here. They need immediate medical attention--the kind where you or Ashes need to be with them the whole way."

She bristled. That meant a serious magical problem. Something that wasn't as simple as inundation, but potentially just as deadly. Still she sputtered when he pushed them into her and turned to go. "Wait, help me!"

"I can't. I am not meant to be here." He looked sincerely into her eyes. "As my old friend, please care for them. I trust you with this."

Lutia was left alone with the two children who stank fiercely of Arcane element, and a peculiar dread. As she realized it was because she could not feel the familiar thrum of the Circle's energy, she glanced at the children, and quickly returned through the portal to rush them Noon Point Medical.

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week! Sept 24-Sept30

Please take the time to thank all of these awesome content creators. We keep our fandom alive through our continued support.

-Mod Clara

Fanfiction:

Just as a quick side note, be sure to read the warnings listed on AO3 before reading just in case I missed them!

@anaranesindanarie

Happy Anniversary

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12191670

This is for 2x5 appreciation day!

Pairings: 2x5

Warnings: fluff

@chronicwhimsy

Saudade

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11352189/chapters/25407183

The summer following the Barton Uprising, Duo joins Trowa to tour with the circus around Europe. It's an attempt to run away from issues, instead of dealing with them, and Trowa finds that in helping Duo face up to his problems, he works through a few of his own. Things are muddling along nicely, until Duo decides to help with Trowa's love life.Saudade: a Portuguese word for a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves.PREQUEL TO SALVAGE.

Pairings: 3x4

Warnings: underage sex, underage drinking

@claraxbarton

Weathervane

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12226002

Heero Yuy has been working in Oman for almost a year, tracking terrorist cells and working to eliminate potential threats, when he's given a new assignment - an asset. Tasked with cultivating Duo Maxwell, Heero finds the situation both easier and far more complicated than his usual ops.

Pairings: 1x2

Warnings: smut, language

Chosen

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12219744/chapters/27756849

In a frozen land, magic is difficult to find, and those blessed with the ability are often cursed.

Pairings: 6x3, 6x2, 5x2, 4x2, 5x4x2, 1xR, 9xM, RxD

Warnings: smut, language, violence, magic

Cypress

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11110803/chapters/24795225

Zechs finally takes a much needed vacation and has an interesting first night in Key West.

Pairings: 6x3, 4x5

Warnings: smut, language

Anything

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12195561

Trowa has something special planned for Zechs.This is ACTUALLY smut with no plot. I think I finally managed it.

Pairings: 6x3

Warnings: smut, language, lingerie, PWP?

High Dive

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12190773

While out walking his ex's dog, Duo discovers something quite unexpected about his attractive and aloof neighbor.

Pairings: 2x5

Warnings: smut, language, D/s

Better Be

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12177648

Duo returns to his dorm after Thanksgiving Break.

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: smut, language, angst

DarkBluePhoenix

Neon Genesis Evangelion Legacy - Gundam Invasion

http://archiveofourown.org/works/10464375/chapters/24707484

A Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and Mobile Fighter G Gundam Crossover.  IT’S A GUNDAM!!! *RANDOM EXPLOSION!* The cast of Gundam Wing meet our young heroes and befriend them in this tale of how those who understand, those who fight, those who doubt, and those who pass by, can claim victory against the forces of evil reborn. Mission Accepted. All systems go! Gundams… Evangelions… Launching!

Executive Shrimp

Dirty Job

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9980589/1/Dirty-Job

AU, 1x2/2x1: When Duo's best friend owes the wrong people a lot of money, the pickpocket and small-time conman gets pulled into a high-stakes plot to rob thirty-something billionaire Heero Yuy. To succeed and save his friend Duo has to get too close for comfort. (Rated M for violence in later chapters).

Pairings: 1x2

Warnings: Violence

@fadedsepiascribbles

Brace

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12104595/chapters/27444231

Trowa Barton is pulled out of his comfortable existence and pushed into the world dating by well-meaning friends and family. (I promise to get a better description going at some point!)Warnings are subject to change.

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: fluff

ForgottenStorm87

Shadow of a Dream

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11693734/1/Shadow-of-a-Dream

one-shot: A midnight visitor's appearance might only be a dream, but why does it feel so real? 1xR...lemon...

Pairings: 1xR

Warnings: sex

@helmistress

Dinner’s On You

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12189366

Duo is tired when he is finally able to drag himself home after a long day at work. But his husband knows just how to wake him up.

Pairings: 2x5

Warnings: n/a

@lifeaftermeteor

LAM Updates

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/165668301831/staff-suite-disarmament-and

https://lifeaftermeteor.tumblr.com/post/165914492226/winner-family-compound-outskirts-of-douz-tunisia

Post-Canon Epic

Pairings: 

Warnings: n/a

Lord Raa

Heero Sandwich

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12594063/1/Heero-Sandwich

Nobody asked for this, especially not Heero Yuy, but here we are all the same. Prepare for a "comedy" with some adult content. If the chapters feel truncated, then you might want to look for a certain Fanfiction Forum on the (dot) net for a more complete experience.

Pairings: 

Warnings: 

Luvsanime02

Turbulence

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11927283/chapters/26957496

The story about what Agent Frank Parks has been up to between Evasion and now.This is the seventh story in Navigation, a fem!Heero series.

Pairings: Gen

Warnings: language, slurs

Maldoror_Chant (THE Maldoror)

The Arrangement

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12131427/chapters/27517791

Wufei, struggling with his demons, agrees to a wartime fling with Heero, no affection needed or wanted. But the 'arrangement' lasts and grows as they join the preventers. It could become a source of strength for both. If they let it.

Pairings: 1x5

Warnings: Violence, sex, non-consensual drug use, mentions of torture

The Source of All Things

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12121344/chapters/27490158

Center, a planet where magic and technology blend. Or more accurately, fight tooth and nail. A planet of Sources, holes in our boring dimension letting through arcane power, chaos and pseudo-deities. In this hot-house of myths and very real dangers, Trowa and Quatre find a mysterious man at the end of a shamanic voyage. Portents suggest this Heero Yuy is crucial to Center’s survival. He’s important enough to have some interesting enemies after him, at any rate: a devious killer and thief called ‘Shinigami’, and a very irate Dragon. Beyond them looms an even greater threat. Indeed, the greatest of them all.(Alternative Universe, far-flung future sci-fi/fantasy. There are elements from the anime that exist here, albeit in very different forms; Gundam mechas, Zero, and lovely G-boys for instance. They are perhaps a universal constant we are not yet aware of. This fic was original started over a decade ago. It has been heavily rewritten and should now be eventually finished)

Pairings: 3x4, 5x2, 1x5x2

Warnings: sex, self-harm, magic, technology

Mistaken-Miracles

When The Tides Change

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12432602/1/When-The-Tides-Change

Preventers learn of a new underground rebellion group, along with the arrival of a new ally. Can Heero put his feelings aside to trust this ally or will new discoveries create tension between the Gundam Pilots? Can they work together to keep the peace? Or are there too many complications to control?

Pairings: 

Warnings: 

@remsyk-blog

Blooming For You

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11981688/chapters/27101835

"You made flowers grow in my lungs, and though they are beautiful, I can't fucking breathe."Duo has silently loved for them for years. He watched them find each other, yet the feelings still remained. But now the love he's carried for so long may become the thing that ends him.

Pairings: 1x3, 1x2x3

Warnings: angst, smut

Scarlet Eve

Last Resistance to Peace

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12270582/1/Last-Resistance-to-Peace

[Alternate Timeline] The Romefeller Foundation was once a quiet group of charitable aristocrats. After the announcement of their military branch, OZ, and the Gundams, Queen Relena Peacecraft's fears have been confirmed. Romefeller will stop at nothing to rule the planet under one government. But Relena and the Gundam pilots won't allow their fate to be chosen for them.

Pairings: 

Warnings: 

Shadow-Hawk2

Imperial Guard

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12559874/1/Imperial-Guard

Duo Maxwell is trapped in another part of the galaxy far from all that he knows and the woman he loves. He must learn to survive among primitive violent people and accept that he may never be able to return to Earth.

Pairings:

Warnings:

ShenLong

Bound, Bonded and Betrayed

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7188593/chapters/16314689

Heero is the eldest son of the King of Colonia. His 21st birthday is approaching and as tradition dictates his betrothed is soon to arrive. However he is also bound by tradition to select his own personal slave. The events that unfold lead him down a path that not only tests his sanity but his humanity and love as well.

Pairings: 2x1, Rx1, 2xR, 3x4, 13x11

Warnings: Violence, slavery, bondage, angst

Sylvieforaday

They Say It Was a Concussion

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12658089/1/They-Say-It-Was-a-Concussion

AU 2x6. Duo has a spill and it turns out to be just what the doctor ordered.

Pairings: 2x6

Warnings: AU

Thehiddenbaroness

Resurrecting the Viper

http://archiveofourown.org/works/10938852/chapters/24338433

Following a routine visit to Vingolf, Orga, Mikazuki and Merribit are surprised by the sudden appearance of a practically naked, injured woman. Although Artima seems to have full recollection of who she is, she does not seem to understand the outside world. Against Orga's better judgment, the Isaribi is soon entangled in Artima's quest to find and destroy her old mobile suit - and discover both she and it are relics from over three hundred years ago that could hold the key to Tekkadan's future.

Pairings: gen

Warnings: crossover

The Manwell

May Demons Rest: Shinigami Sleeps 2017

http://archiveofourown.org/works/10944786/chapters/24354720

A re-write of my 2004 fanfic "Shinigami Sleeps"To find and free Duo from his demons, Trowa leaves his uneventful life at the circus for the mean streets of an obscure colony in L2.

Pairings: 2x3

Warnings: sex

Zennelia

Discarded Swords

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12614740/1/Discarded-Swords

In the end, the world cannot stay out of disputes and the consequences fall to the fallen soldiers - who, once again, are forced to wield their discarded swords. But the sudden appearance of a figure from the past stir the conflict even more...

Pairings: 1xR

Warnings: 

Snippets:

@gwepisode50

Future Snapshot of Heero and Relena

http://gwepisode50.tumblr.com/post/165906302745/gw-short-fanfiction-future-snapshot-of-heero-and

Headcanons / Meta:

@amyole

Cardinal Directions on a Space Colony

https://amyole.tumblr.com/post/165662329513/cardinal-directions-on-a-space-colony

@givemeunicorns

Treize

http://givemeunicorns.tumblr.com/post/165786221263/one-of-the-things-that-stands-out-to-me-as-i-watch

Relena

http://givemeunicorns.tumblr.com/post/165765374578/listen-relena-just-wanted-to-go-shopping-she-was

Noin and Wufei

http://givemeunicorns.tumblr.com/post/165764179048/now-i-remember-why-noin-was-one-of-my-favs-and

@peachandbetty

Nudist Colonies

http://peachandbetty.tumblr.com/post/165822659078/ive-decided-gw-verse-legitimately-has-actual

Fanart:

@drkstars-art

Quatre

https://drkstars-art.tumblr.com/post/165869269772/space-heart-i-feel-a-lot-better-about-this

@hainekoken

Duo

http://hainekoken.tumblr.com/post/165689775680

@lbro009

Trowa and Noin for @gw-ficrecfriday

https://lbro009.tumblr.com/post/165733717325/wip-with-some-shading-not-actually-how-i-will-be

@oldnewtype

Gundpla: Gundam Sandrock

https://oldnewtype.tumblr.com/post/165725386825/in-my-honest-opinion-the-master-grade-ver-ew-are

@thedogsled

Trowa

https://thedogsled.tumblr.com/post/165743180611/a-very-old-sketch-maybe-199899

@yuugiohs

Duo

http://yuugiohs.tumblr.com/post/165777702563/someone-say-my-beautiful-son-i-love-duo-used-to

@vegalume

Duo, Trowa, Heero, Quatre and Wufei

http://vegalume.tumblr.com/post/165862494175/more-art-each-6-inch-by-12-inch-painting-was-hand

Starbound: Treize and Zechs

http://vegalume.tumblr.com/post/165912195600

Calendar Events:

Unnatural November by @gwblockparty

Posting the entire month of November.

A fanworks celebration of all weird and supernatural.

Participation information here!

Eve War Event by @gw-evewar

Posting December 23rd - December 24th.

A fanworks Science Fiction event.

Participation information here!

OC October by @gwoc-october

Posting the entire month of October.

A fanworks celebration of Original Characters.

Participation information here!

 Archives and Links:

A new thing, but check out these links:

Gundam Wing fanfiction Archive List by @vegalume

https://gundamwingarchive.wixsite.com/fanfiction

Talliya’s Domain by@helmistress

https://ayeeshadragon.wixsite.com/talliya/links

Gundam Wing Diaries Fanfiction Archive by ShenLong

http://www.gundam-wing-diaries.foreverfandom.net/gw/main_Updates.htm

And thank you ALL for a wonderful week!

[bigyack-com]

Where Are the Tech Zillionaires? San Francisco Faces the I.P.O. Fizzle

SAN FRANCISCO — Seven months ago, the Four Seasons in San Francisco sent out a news release announcing the glad tidings that would come soon: New residences for the new money. Builders were hoisting glass and steel into a 43-story tower where residents would have their own on-staff wine concierge, plus Blue de Savoie French marble, German milled Poggenpohl cabinetry and Dornbracht fixtures. The building’s $49 million penthouse would be the most expensive in San Francisco. “Just in time for the coming wave of I.P.O. millionaires in San Francisco,” the Four Seasons said, promising “an elevated sales experience” to cater to “this new class of buyers.” But then the wave of tech initial public offerings — the one that was supposed to mint San Francisco’s new ultra rich — fizzled. The stock of Uber, the ride-hailing giant, has dropped nearly 30 percent since the company went public in May. Lyft shares are down nearly 40 percent. Pinterest and Slack have declined, too. San Francisco has been left as a slightly more normal town of tech workers who got rich-ish, maybe making a few hundred thousand dollars. But that doesn’t go far in a city where the median cost of a single family home is about $1.6 million. “Everyone that came back post-I.P.O. seemed to be the same person. I didn’t see any Louis Vuitton MacBook case covers or champagne in their Yeti thermos,” said J.T. Forbus, a tax manager at Bogdan & Frasco in San Francisco.Private wealth managers are now meeting with a chastened clientele. Developers are having to cut home prices — unheard-of a year ago. Party planners are signing nondisclosure agreements to stage secret parties where hosts can privately enjoy their wealth. Union organizers are finding an opportunity. Everyone had gotten too excited, and who could blame them? The money was once so close: A start-up that coordinated dog walkers raised $300 million. The valuations of the already giant ride-hailing behemoths had nearly doubled again. WeWork, a commercial real estate management start-up that owned very little of its own real estate, was valued at $47 billion. Towers rose across San Francisco to house the money. The marble was polished. The bathroom floors were warm. The private pools were being filled.“The world has changed in a year,” said Herman Chan, a real estate broker with Sotheby’s International. “We expected an upward trajectory at least, and it really kind of deflated. These companies aren’t dying but the cultural zeitgeist, that momentum of I.P.O.s, is gone. You don’t even hear anyone talking about it anymore.”The developers who had fought the odds of regulation and zoning to build their glass residences in the sky had timed their units to the I.P.O.s. But on a recent visit with the Four Seasons sales team, they acknowledged that techie wealth was not what they were seeing. Interest was mostly coming from overseas buyers, young heirs to foreign fortunes and older executives looking for city pieds-à-terre, they said. Also in time for the wave that was not a wave are more luxury towers: The Avery, The Harrison, 181 Fremont, The Mira. “The definition of luxury is scarcity, and there’s so many now,” Mr. Chan said. “Nowadays, my buyers are getting a contingency period and inspectors. Things you would never ask for before. There’s not 10 offers on a house anymore.”Case in point: A full-floor apartment in San Francisco’s poshest neighborhood of Pacific Heights was listed at $21.6 million and advertised that “a sommelier-worthy wine cellar awaits 1,500 of your most prized bottles.” But more than a year later and after a $5 million price cut, it is still on the market. Prices for the top 5 percent of San Francisco area real estate listings — the cream of the crop — rose 7 percent between 2017 and 2018. This year, they have fallen more than 1 percent, according to data prepared for The New York Times by the real estate listing service Zillow. The malaise has spread south into Silicon Valley. A $10.8 million home listing in the town of Portola Valley, Calif., was slashed to $5.7 million. The median sale price for a nearby home in San Jose, Calif., has dropped 10 percent in a year to just under $1 million, according to data from the real-estate listing site Zillow. Before the tech I.P.O.s, Deniz Kahramaner, then a real estate data analyst with the property brokerage Compass, had rallied packed rooms of real estate agents and investors about the bonanza that lay ahead. He had charts and estimates of thousands of new millionaires raising the average price of single family homes in San Francisco above $5 million.Now, he is more muted. “The I.P.O. cash-out hasn’t played out as I mentioned in my original presentation,” he said. Mr. Kahramaner added, hopefully, that it was still early. “People need more time,” he said.

Wealth and Unions

Instead of yachts, tech workers are funding more mundane ventures like college savings plans. “This year brought a lot of people back to reality,” said Ryan S. Cole, a private wealth adviser at Citrine Capital, a wealth management firm in San Francisco. “We’ve had a lot of people fund 529 plans for their kids. Pretty boring stuff.”Some private wealth managers said they were actually somewhat relieved. “At the end of the day, it’s funny money until it’s realized," said Jonathan DeYoe, another private wealth adviser. “I’ve got Uber and Lyft clients that are disappointed. It’s a different house now. It’s a different school situation for the kids. But they’re still by and large in good places. No one’s impoverished.”And so workers who thought they would upgrade from Allbirds to Berluti shoes are remaining, after all, in the Allbirds.As some rank-and-file tech workers realize they might not get rich from company stock, the allure of working long hours without comparable real money pay is also wearing thin, said labor organizers. They have found traction this year in an industry long resistant to unions. “The incentives to take the licks that you do are in the hope of some sort of big payoff down the road,” said Paul Thurston, who focuses on unionizing San Francisco tech workers and is the organizing director at the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. Now, “the engineers and the app designer and the developers are going to be treated a lot more like the employees that they are rather than like partners, which is what they’re told pre-I. P. O.,” he said.Jonathan Wright, the organizing director of Engineers and Scientists of California, said he was in talks to unionize the workers of several big tech companies. “There’s a promise: you work 100 hours a week, you sleep under your desk, and then you’ll be rewarded with the wealth of Bezos,” Mr. Wright said. “That mythology has been fading for years. The day of the unicorn is over.”Where there is new wealth, it’s coming from the older tech companies like Apple and Alphabet, whose stocks this year have soared. And some fortunes are still being made from the I.P.O.s. While Uber’s shares have fallen, the company’s co-founder, Travis Kalanick, has sold off more than $2 billion in stock, according to securities filings. “Especially with things like Uber, almost all the I.P.O. wealth was going to a couple of people,” said Kalena Masching, a Redfin agent in San Jose. “They are not looking to buy a standard house here.”Another bright spot: female-led companies, with more becoming unicorns in 2019 than any other year, according to Aileen Lee, the venture capitalist who coined the phrase “unicorn” to refer to a private company valued at $1 billion or more.And post-I.P.O. parties are happening. They are just secret — and phone-free. “We’re signing a lot more nondisclosures,” said Jay Siegan, who curates party entertainment for corporate tech clients. “A year ago, people would set up social media stations at the party, signs with the hashtag for Instagram. Now we have clients asking guests to check their phones at the door or using those Yondr bags.”These are pouches used to lock phones en masse at concerts and events where someone might be tempted to record.

Self Reflection

However, in public, the tech world is all about reflection and self-critiquing after the year that was. The I.P.O. disappointment has gotten so extreme that two Silicon Valley techies are setting out to do what few have done before: Make fun of themselves. David Cowan, a venture capitalist with Bessemer Venture Partners, which invested in Lyft, and Michael Fertik, the founder of Reputation.com, are launching an online talk show called “The Bubble Report.” It will feature interviews with other tech executives. The point, they hope, is to poke fun at Silicon Valley from within Silicon Valley.Mr. Cowan, either in character or just being very honest, decried the falling stock prices of newly public tech companies as victims of cruel Wall Street analysts.“It should be against the law for unscrupulous analysts to assess stocks based on cash flow and profit, to impugn a company based on eight lines of a financial report,” he joked. “Imagine how much more value we’d have in the stock market if we got rid of that arcane thinking.” Mr. Fertik said his inspiration to mock his industry came in part from realizing how far from reality it had all gotten. “I want people to understand that Silicon Valley is a deeply religious place that thinks of itself as agnostic,” he said. “It has some of the strengths and many of the frailties of organized religion.”For now, most people are waking up to find they are still on Earth. This is good news for those in San Francisco who mostly viewed the tech exuberance as bad news: housing rights activists, first-time home buyers, and renters. “We are excited by any resetting of Bay Area rents that bring them down from their artificially inflated high,” said Fred Sherburn-Zimmer, the executive director of Housing Rights Committee, which fights against evictions. “Eventually all bubbles burst.” Read the full article

[mechagalaxy]

Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat #1092

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)

Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat #1092

Brought to you by ANN

Highlighting the November 3351 Nifty Chrono

Just after the end of the Selfsame event, the Gaming authorities announced the upcoming competition:

-A Nifty Chrono.

As usual when we have a Mech specific event, the lower tops had different rules than the rest of us.

On the two lowest tops there were no restrictions whatsoever, if you could get a Mech into the formation it was accepted.

On the nine highest tops however, only the 40 ton Nifthel would be legal, not even a sidekick or two was allowed.

For me that was no problem at all. My first really succesfull formation, the 40 ton Snoozers had once upon a time consisted of only Nifthels, and I still have four dozens of them.

So I signed up immediately, and returned to the compound to give my Nifthel pilots the good news that their services would once again be needed.

That was when events started to go horribly wrong.

When one of the Star Leaguers return after winning one of the KotM events, there is usually a crowd waiting.

Champagne is popped and the winner sprayed, and a big party (paid for by the winner) is held.

As my forces had been unable to secure the win, no such ceremony was expected, but upon arrival at my quarters a crowd had gathered.

In place of the champagne shower, I was hit by bucketfulls of salt, icy water. Shockingly enough by itself, but the live wire nearby made it a hair-raising experience.

As I stood stunned in place, the group of officers who had recently been convinced to help battle the paperworkmonster appeared.

As to avoid unpleasant discharges and damage to equipment, they quickly relieved me of my sidearm, locator, tools and comunicator. Then they frogmarched me to ammobunker 32.

It had been emptied of all ordenance a week ago in preparation for installment of some advanced firefighting equipment, and was supposed to be empty.

But there was a desk and a chair there, as well as hundreds of crates of paperwork. I was unceremonelly dropped in the chair, and was told they would let me out, maybe, when this batch was done.

After they had left, there was not much to do except dig in at the work. Those bunkers are almost unbreachable even by Advanced mecha weaponry, and the comunication devices had been removed as well.

All that was left was a camera, no doubt recently installed by the cabal who had brought me here to keep track of my progress.

Those Bunkers are as mentioned pretty secure. they are also made for maintaining ammunition in peak condition. In other Words, regular temperature (12 degrees Celsius) and 40% humidity.

I quickly stripped, and wrung most of the water out of my clothing, then put it back on. Sitting naked at the desk would surely lead to hypothermia, but if my body heat was trapped inside the coveralls I might stay warm enough to be functional.

After four hours or so, as the still wet clothing had stolen enough body heat, my fingers grew to numb to hold the stylus any longer. I got up and did some PT, but my strenght were flagging. I managed to work up a decent sweat before exhaustion forced me back to the chair, but that sweat soon cooled and helped drain my bodyheat away

Unable to keep awake, I drifted off into unconsciousness.

And woke up shivering and sweating as rough hands swayed me back and forth, slapped my cheeks and pinched me everywhere.

Rescue had arrived in the persons of my Nifthel pilots.

As they had heard of the event being held, and not been called up, they had launched a base wide search for me. If I was trying to refuse them their shot at glory, they would find me and force me to the mountain.

Semiconcious, I was dragged to the hangar, and one of the pilots entered the Cockpit along with me to make sure we went to the arena.

As we arrived, the force that had been left to hold a spot had been pushed to the foothills, but a couple quick strikes saw us on the top.

Art which point the A.I. measuring my Health (among other things) sent a distress signal.

Normally such a distress signal is sent to the units C.O. but as this was the C.O. it got routed to the nearest friendly Commander, in this case our chief medico; Jorge.

He rushed to my side, and over the protests of my crew had me shipped back to the infirmary immediately to battle the developing pnumonia.

Our top boss, Tony, came to see how I fared, and wondered how I had come to such a state.

I truthfully told him (not the whole truth) it was working on the paperwork, and getting all sweaty doing it.

As to his concern about how it was to be done now, I told him of those officers who recently had pitched in, and how well they had done. (Some merit badges were even suggested)

He brightened up, and said such officers surely belonged to staff, and went to tell them of their promotion and new duties.

The treatment worked, and soon the need to do somthing got me out of bed. A trip to the Circuits soon had me calling up my top formation to kick butts and secure Crystals. Unfortunately, the sickness had made me to woozy to remeber to switch back to my Nifthels, which caused my crew on the mountain to be thrown off the top and down into the foothills.

It took hours before a delegation of them managed to find me and get force me to get their Nifthels back to the top.

To make matters worse, that happened yet another time, and when the Nifthels were back on the top that time, the score situation was looking bleak.

Both Colin Toenjes of the Heroes and the Brotherhood of Arcane Dragon`s Darryl Proctor had kept active on the top, and as a result their totals was now thousands higher than mine. There were still over two dozen scorerounds left, but unless someone else sent them to the foothills and kept them there, both would outscore my forces.

Well, that did not happen, and my crew were not happy about the final placement.

Nothing to it. Write it up as SOP; In a Chrono, ALWAYS get back in formation immediately after doing whatever task had you out of it.

At least my monitoring equipment had kept working, and as the event closed I knew the highest scorers had been:

Div 1 342+ (22 Commanders): Bernard Johnson, Warlock (+8570)

2: Jeff Haas

3: Shawn Wretham

4: Ben Rail

5: Sal Vezzosi Jr

6: Claude Poirier

7: Sherriff Leary Wretham

8: Robert C Goetz Sr

9: Daniel Scott

10: Gary Muenzel

Div 2 -341 (18 Commanders): Were Wolf, M&L Blood Wolves (+15010)

Div 3 -218 (15 Commanders): Colin Toenjes, Heroes (+2520

Div 4 -175 (14 Commanders): Larry Tsang, HF Dragoons (+19520)

Div 5 -143 (20 Commanders): Eman Eliforp, Mad Scientist.7 (+14290)

Div 6 -102 (21 Commanders): Spartia Mechapoulos, Ronins (+21670)

Div 7 -76 (22 Commanders): Ann Kristin Hiller, Sacrificial Lambs (+14350)

Div 8 -56 (14 Commanders): Alan Lau, MurderMechs (+22860)

Div 9 -38 (13 Commanders): NameOfProfile, Mad Scientist 1 (+13260)

Div 10 -23 (31 Commanders): Iain Bryce, **R.V.** (+8370)

Div 11 -13 (18 Commanders): Karen_H, Cold Dead Hands (+21980)

On the nine tops where only Nifthels were to compete

4(3S)+1S+5(G,3S)+3(2S)+3(G)+2(G,1S)+4(G,2S)+1S+1(G)= Five Golds, thirteen Silvers and six Bronzes were awarded to Commanders who, as the event ended, had formations looking to be legal.

The remaining winners obviously had one or more non-Nifthels in their formations.

Total Contestants: 208

Total medals claimed: 161 (of 165 possible)

Compared to the Selfsame we just had, participation rose by fifty-eight Commanders. It seem the combination of long sign-up times and Chrono is what Commanders like.

But, even though the total number rose, on some of the tops there were to few Commanders to claim all the prizes.

A total of four Bronzes from a trio of tops had to be returned for resmelting after the award ceremony.

The highest score achieved in this event was on K7 where Sacrificial Lambs` Ann Kristin Hiller stayed on the top for sventy-nine scorerounds and collected 97 850 points.

Highest gap to the runner-up was on K8 where Alan Lau of the MurderMechs had an advantage of 22 860.

Lowest score needed for a medal was on K8 where 1320 was enough to get a Bronze.

Eight Golds were secured by margins in excess of 12 000, while only one was decided by less than 3000.

This indicates pretty strong winners, but how claose was the struggle for the lesser prizes? To find out, we take a look at the differences between the medal tiers in this event:

..Silver to Bronze....Bronze to nothing

Div 1 ......6460......………..3740

Div 2 ......4050...…............2900

Div 3 ......2420...….........…..N/A

Div 4 ......6380...….........…..N/A

Div 5 ......4830...….........…..240

Div 6 ......5460...…............4420

Div 7 ......6620...….........…..420

Div 8 ....22200...….........…..N/A

Div 9 ......1930...….........…..N/A

Div 10 ….5440...…............1500

Div 11 ….8880...…............2640

Overall, solid walls. But two of the seven contested Bronzes were decided by less than 500. A difference easily achieved by signing up early.

This was one of the non-events.

None of the clans got more than one win. None of the unaligned Commanders got a win. None of the last events winners got a follow-up win.

Upcoming event: Quadruple Rainbow

This is the most inclusive of the Rainbow events.

A Commander is allowed to use up to four Mechs of each model.

Event ends October 4 between 0000 and 0030 New York Time

[unboundedbeauty]

Yukari’s Youkai Academy 0.1

          Series of roads, cobblestone, are reportedly being found all around Gensokyo, by Youkai, and only Youkai. At the furthest edges, they seem to taper off into nothing, but if followed inward, surprisingly, towards the Forest of Magic, one finds they lead to something strange...

A door. A majestic looking door, standing in the middle of a small clearing, where the cobblestone roads form a circle around it. This door is massive, nearly as tall as a tree, its frame marked with arcane symbols which, if deciphered, make mention of an Academy.

An academy, for Youkai, and as it turns out, this door and the roads leading to it... can only be seen BY Youkai. Making it certainly peculiar. Of course, this extends to beyond just pure Youkai, accepting Gods and well versed magicians, but it’s a bit harder to see for them... Perhaps most telling, is the Yakumo Family crest, on the door itself. Yukari is up to something. Yet, in truth, she means well. Now, who will enter...?

Those that do dare to pass through the hallowed door of Yakumo are greeted by a staff of Demons, summoned for the sole purpose of staffing... a school. A school for Youkai. And the schools Headmistress, of course, is waiting at the gates in a chair, with a clipboard in hand. A podium is nearby, which she soon stands to take. Refreshments are provided and seats are set outside the gate, for a large number of Youkai to sit and listen

The Youkai Academy is a massive thing, extending in every direction for miles, with facilities for... well, almost anything and everything. But this is a product of Yukari’s design. Distances seem shorter than they look, and the fact that most Youkai can fly, make these distances trivial. Yukari welcomes those that come, explaining the situation. She’d waited until a large crowd had gathered, and stood, smiling wide and waving to everyone

“Most Youkai, as they are now, have been without guidance most of their lives, and thus, do not understand or know what they are capable of. They do not recognize their own strength, and they have no way of nurturing or growing their strength. I have decided, to do something about this. Here, an education will be provided to them, and training will be applied to the skills they can most excel at, to bring out the best from them.  Discipline will be severe, of course, to maintain order on the Academy grounds, but I do not plan to dull the teeth of the Youkai here. Instructions on how to hunt, and how to kill prey, will be a part of the curriculum. Not mandatory, of course, but the choice is for those who wish to take it. No shame in it. We are Youkai. And of course, housing and all the supplies necessary, will be given to all who wish to join. This is a free education, and I am not stopping any from taking it.”

She pauses, and then adds.

“Of course, the magicians and such who are still somewhat human may join, but I warn now, they will not be human by the end of their education. I guarantee this... You have been warned~ Finally, i’d like to say thank you for showing interest! Our education year will be starting the first business day of next month, and will last til the same of next year. Breaks will be had for weekends, summer, and winter. Please gather any belongings you need by then and come and join us. The week before, feel free to come back to get your dorm settled and organized, and chat with me about anything of curiosity for you. I’d be happy to answer all your questions~ And... if any are intersted in acting as a lesson provider, please come talk to me in private later today and any time for the next week. Otherwise, I will have the staff handled by those i’ve summoned and copies of myself.”

With this, she dismissed the gathering, bowing deeply. Any that approached her, of course, could ask questions if they’d like. Today was just the announcement, of course.

[therevaliir-blog]

Announcements: 03-26-2017

Site Changes:

- The Wand (found in Ye Old Sword) has had its description updated.

- Lots up updates to items and their pricings, visit here for the full list and refunds!

- Brittlez has been working tirelessly on a new welcome page that new users will be able to go to as soon as they sign up. This will be separate from the  Starter Kit. She’ll be adding a button to go to the starter kit page from this page as soon as she gets done with this. (She’s  coded most of this herself besides Telly turning it into an html/css page for her) So be gentle! The New Welcome Page This is for new users so they aren't completely lost when they start the site :)

- We discontinued these items:

Goddess Locket- 250 silver. If the owner doesn't own Cure + Heal we will gift them it.

Changling Brooch- 200 + Incognito

Magician's Hat- 300 + Summon Item

Revealing Monocle- 500 + Reveal

Ring of Purity- 150 + Dispel

Heart-Shaped Amulet- 300 + Lucina's Lantern from the Abed Summer Event

Final Breath- 400, was combined with Resurrection there wasn't really a need to have both.

Poison Field- 80, you can literally just cast poison a bunch of times.

Lightning Field- 80, same principal as above.

Dice- 15 

Text Editor:

- The Administration of Revaliir is very, very sorry about the problems with our text editor. Currently, Darros (Telly) is annoyed at all text editors available on the net and he is building his own from the ground up for Rev to use. SO - until that's done we're gonna have to endure the problems this one is giving us. Thank you so much for enduring this terrible problem and we assure you that… THAT IS NOT SCREAMS OF BLOODY MURDER!!!! that you hear in the backend of Rev. (ok it is we're murdering the text editor). But we're trying to get this fixed as soon as possible. Code just takes a long time to write and make sure it works with our current set up. <3

-   Anyone who has problems with their posts get ahold of me. Everyone pasting from ANYWHERE even here highlight your post hit the remove format button. Then bit the bbcode button to see your paragraphs disappear. THEN reinsert all of your paragraphs and put in your bbcode. I understand this is a pain but this is a temporary solution until we roll back the old text editor. I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out why some browsers are having it worse than others.

Firefox + Google Docs = Blank space

Firefox + Word Doc/Libre = Aligning left for some weird reason

Chrome + both = removal of all paragraphs (this is the least worrisome out of all of it)

I don't know about edge though because I refuse to touch it :V

-  Darros edited the code on the text editor.  It should strip the formatting on paste now.

Two New Gods Announced!:

We debated for a good hour or more and only two choices remained when we were done. Before we go on to announce the chosen for these spots we decided to go into a bit about choosing them. First: We didn’t choose them out of favoritism. Each has the skills we look for. One of them we shot down multiple times and told them to keep applying and how they could improve. Second: We wanted you to make sure that you knew that *I* wasn’t biased in this. You’ll understand when I get to the results. I was most critical of both of our choices and tore them apart worse than the other two Triune members. If anything these choices had it worse than the other applicants making the scales tip in the other applicants' favors. Now we get on to the god selection: Our new gods are: Porthyrius, the Keeper of the Keys and Secrets of Knowledge and the Arcane, The One with the Silvered Tongue.   Xunatar,  the Chaosweaver and the Lord of Lies. Gypsy(Porthyrius), does an enormous amount of things for Revaliir behind the scenes. She not only draws for us but she has come up with many ideas for the site that we’ve implemented. Every project we’ve ever started she’s joined. Her activity level is second to none (Well maybe myself). She is friendly and helpful to all who come to her. We were worried about announcing Gypsy as well but we believe that her activity and devotion to the site speaks for itself. Brandon(Xunatar), is a moderator on our site. He has been with Revaliir since the June before we opened our doors. He was/is some of the driving force for things we do. He helps all and will rp with anyone. He is the ideal Moderator but we weren’t looking for a moderator when we chose him for this spot. His lore weaving is some of the best I’ve seen(That we have seen). He also have a high activity count, which we count. He can also rp with anyone easily. This is not the first time he’s applied but he has worked on the things we told him too. We’re glad to have him not only as our moderator but as what we hope to be a long standing deity. When selecting him I sat in a different room and he didn’t know a thing about what I was doing. He didn’t know and still doesn’t know that we picked him. This will be the first he’s heard of it despite us living together. Brandon’s selection is the hardest because we worried people would think I was being biased. However, I am only one person out of three and easily out voted. The others saw what I did. An evolving roleplayer who has earned his right to become a deity ontop of his job as moderator. He has an even harder job as I’ll be over him making sure that he gets his stuff done. By no means does he have this easy, if anything he has it harder. I don’t like our deities slacking no matter who they are. Revaliir is our baby and we wouldn’t put any ol person as a deity just because we like them as a person. Overall I owed this explanation to no one. As I hoped that you all would trust in my judgment and trust me to be fair. I’m doing this because I want to be transparent with everyone. Cello and Whitney agreed with that line of thought and we thought this was best. That being said anyone who gets caught ranting to members in the discord or on skype (anywhere it gets reported from) will be issued a warning. We’ve had problems in the past with people thinking we promote favoritism. We don’t. I certainly do not. As I said before those I choose are what I believe to be the ideal person for roleplaying and being an active leader in our community. That’s all I want for this site. However, their applications have to make sense and I won’t sit with rose-colored glasses. I’ve ripped apart their applications down to the single most elusive detail. All in all these two have earned their spots and I’ll be happy to talk to whoever didn’t get the spots and help them with their applications if they want for the future (keep in mind the applications might change for the next round whenever we have them). Brandon’s moderator position will be moved to Xunatar following this announcement. This rounds out the conclave to 6. Unless we see a higher number of people on the site or someone falls this will be the last god selection for a while. Also this interestingly enough rounds out the conclave: 2 good, 2 neutral, and 2 evil.

Just a Reminder:

Rev is getting a whole bunch of new people! We understand everyone is excited but we would like to remind people that they need to read the rules. Revaliir is a high fantasy medieval site with its own lore. We don't go by the real world here nor do we necessarily go by the written lore of others. 1. Only Gods can be Immortal: Lemme explain. There is no rule on age here in Revaliir. We're not talking about THAT kind of immortal. We're talking about being able to take hellfire from another God and living. We're talking about taking so much damage that your body is barely being held together. THAT kind of immortal. That is why Immortal is only reserved for the gods. No mortal(aka not gods) should be able to take that kind of damage and live without an outside source.(say a God healing you) Not dying from illness? Have cure on you. It's a cheap spell. Don't die from poisons (not godly poisons looking at you Dal) but regular poisons? Get cure again. Heck you can't even be killed unless you give permission so your character is practically immortal anyways as long as you don't powerplay. 2. You have to rp with the items in your inventory. We have shops and silver for a reason. This puts everyone on equal footing. Everyone starts off the same. Even the original staff members of the site started out with nothing but their starter packs. That being said your stories don't have to be the same. 3.We are not restricting you. I've been to plenty of rp sites where you can't play whatever you want. We're literally restricting you on one thing, Immortality. The items thing? That isn't a big deal. If you rp a lot and advertise (you get the x3 silver boost for that) you'll have the items you need in no time at all. 4. No one is allowed to have demi-god characters. Don't even Gods can spawn Demi-gods. This makes all characters not gods equal. 5. Even the Triune is equal to the Gods. We get no extra power but the ability to call mandatory conclaves. 6. We restricted our Gods outside of temples to make it more fair for everyone.  Hense the 3 god rules. Past those 3 rules we can't do anything to you without your permission. We can't even kill your characters even in our temples. (because that is fair) You guys have free reign to do whatever you want on Rev as long as it's within the rules. You can have your own kingdom. You can have your own guild. You can do whatever your heart desires within the rules. We don't even have that many restrictions on things like that. We aren't being cruel or unfair by setting rules and guidelines. If you have a problem with it talk to an administrator or try and understand why we have it the way we do. Revaliir is one of the most free-form rp sites out there with its own lore. We truly can't help you if you think Rev isn't for you and we also hope you don't expect us to change Revaliir for you. Do not under ANY circumstances insult Rev staff or userbase because you don't get your way. We're all mature adults/blossoming young adults. If you have problems with stuff get ahold of staff. If you think you need something for character building so you can start get ahold of me. I have 10,000 silver I will gladly help you. There is no excuse for not following the rules, being rude to staff members who are doing their jobs, or screaming we're unfair. You being that way makes it unfair to everyone who are following the guidelines and rules. We will do whatever it takes so that our regular everyday users have peace of mind. This is by no means calling ANYONE out. It has happened one too many times and I will start being the one who handles it if this keeps up. You don't want that and I don't either. I quite like being the bubbly lead administration besides the other two who are regularly in charge of being the mean ones(sorry gals I love you). However, I won't watch our staff or userbase be treated like that. I assure you that I am 10x as worse as the others when warranted so please don't make me be that way because I don't want to be. I want to see Rev grow and become better and also not have a toxic community. Now please everyone get along and be understanding to each other! (Also read up the rules. I posted the Welcome page up that would be a good place to start) Also please remember that most of us do this after a long day's work or in between children needing their parents. This is our fun time too. Sorry for being mean, Brittlez One of the Lead Site Administrators One of the Lead Site Administrators

Staff Breakdown:

In order to better serve the user base of the site, here is the actual breakdown of personnel to seek out when a problem arrives. Please make sure that you seek out the appropriate staff members; if not then the problem will be forwarded to the correct parties. Moderators (Green Usernames): For post related problems, issues with harassment from another non staff member, general questions about the site. Administrators (Blue Usernames): For moving actual threads to their proper locations, activating accounts, moving items, issues with the shop, resetting passwords, distributing silver, having issues with warnings and strikes, having issues with moderators. Triune(Golden Usernames): Custom item creation (Angela Rose), issues with another Triune member, issues with an Administrator, event related problems, issues with Deity members, general questions about Deities and lore. *Angela Rose and Dalenesca may be contacted if no Admin is currently online at the time of needed assistance and either of them are.*

News, Updates, and Revivals:

We've added some new stuff to the site to help people out… and we've updated some old stuff/revived it to check to see if there is any interest. 1. Synth Recommendations + Other Info : This has a list of pricing for trades. Info on a bunch of other stuff like custom items, event items, etc, etc. For more info go read it real quick :) 2. Wish Upon a Star : A weekly Synth Ingredient Lottery that will roll every Saturday has been started. Zanetimm92 is my faithful helper. Read up on the rules about it to get started. 3. The Wishing Well : Rules have been updated to include synth ingredients and synth items. 4. Roleplay Roulette : Has been restarted and I am gauging interest on whether or not to keep it stickied. It was previously left alone due to not only activity but Revaliir getting busy. This is a fun way to get a new/old roleplay partner. Read up on the rules!

[recentanimenews]

Romance is in the Cards: A Look at La storia della Arcana Famiglia

An Offer You Can't Refuse

  Anime can be a tricky business. Sometimes when looking for something new to watch, you find a diamond in the rough, and sometimes you find a fugazi. Wouldn't it be nice to have a benevolent benefactor in such trying times?

  Let “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog” be your godfather. Each week we provide additional info and cultural context for a title in Crunchyroll's online library, in order to help anime fans decide whether they want to promote an unknown show into being a made man, or whether they'd prefer to send it to sleep with the fishes.

    What's La storia della Arcana Famiglia?

  La storia della Arcana Famiglia (Italian for “The Story of the Arcane Family”) is a 2012 TV anime with direction by Chiaki Kon (Junjo Romantica) and animation production by J.C. Staff (Taboo Tattoo). The series is based on the 2011 otome game visual novel developed by HuneX and published by Comfort for the PlayStation Portable system. Crunchyroll describes the story of Arcana Famiglia as follows:

    "I will decide my own path!" The prosperous island of Regalo in the Mediterranean Sea is protected by a vigilante group called "Arcana Famiglia." The group's members are granted special powers through contracts with the "Toracco." Felicitá, the only daughter of the Papa and head of the family, has her mother's beauty as well as superior skill with knives. Though she was raised deep in the island, at age 16 she takes her first steps into the spotlight as a member of the family. Then, at her birthday party, her father, Mondo, announces that he is retiring. He declares a competition to determine his successor - and Felicitá must marry the winner. Felicitá enters the competition herself, determined to win so that she can decide her own path. The curtain will soon rise on the battle that will determine her fate!

    If you're expecting (as I was) from that description to see an entire anime revolving around an elimination-style tournament involving gangsters with superhuman powers, that's not exactly what you'll get. Instead, the Arcano Duello is reserved for the final episode of the series, and the bulk of the story involves the main characters solving problems, unraveling the mysteries of their pasts, and quietly falling in love as they try to grow strong enough to win the contest and to rescue Felicitá from her fate.

    Stand By Me

  Aside from the Italian-influenced setting, one of the most prominent elements of La storia della Arcana Famiglia is the fantastical influence of the Toracco, magical beings in the shape of the 22 Major Arcana from a deck of Tarot cards. As the series progresses, it plumbs the mysteries of these enigmatic entities, revealing surprising details about their motivations, the nature of the powers that they grant, and the hidden drawbacks of the contracts that they form with human hosts.

In order to win the tournmaent, Felicitá and her friends must understand the Toracco, but will they be able to muster the courage and the strength of will required to do so?

    House of Cards

  Although La storia della Arcana Famiglia gets off to a (literally) explosive start, it is not primarily an action anime. Likewise, the story has its comedic moments, but the majority of the show concentrates on the burgeoning romance as most of the male cast falls for Felicitá and she grapples with both her own feelings and her sense of familial love and filial obligation.

Similarly, family drama plays a major role in the plot. Not everyone in the Arcana family shares the same blood-bonds, but they all must band together despite their differences in order to protect the peace of Regalo, and the series spends a lot of time exploring these relationships as the characters grow and their desires and motivations change.

    Family Matters

  Despite its larger-than-life elements – pirates, gangsters, magic, alchemy, etc. – La storia della Arcana Family is ultimately about the many different shapes and textures of love, such as the love between parents and their children, between siblings, between friends, and between romantic partners. It explores how families pull together when faced with adversity, and it concludes on a surprisingly upbeat and life-affirming note.

    On the Day My Daughter is to be Married

  Crunchyroll currently streams La storia della Arcana Famiglia in 28 territories, including the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The series is available in the original Japanese language with English subtitles. The series is also published on DVD and Bluray in North America by Sentai Filmworks, and this home video version also includes an English language dub.

    Perhaps because of its origins as a visual novel, La storia della Arcana Famiglia has an atypical narrative structure and it occupies an unusual place within the genres that it explores. While definitely an acquired taste, if you're in the mood for mystery, magic, and romance, and if the series is available in your area, then you should consider giving La storia della Arcana Famiglia a try.

    Is there a series in Crunchyroll's catalog that you think needs some more love and attention? Please send in your suggestions via e-mail to cruisingcrunchy@gmail.com or post a Tweet to @gooberzilla. Your pick could inspire the next installment of “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog”! 

-----

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[musiccosmosru]

ET ‘Face’ Appears on Previous Abduction MarkAlabama – 2018-02-28 – 18:00: During childhood, I experienced an otherworldly encounter which literally left a mark. This mark is oval in shape and purplish in color – located on my left leg, above my ankle. On February 28 of this year, a hologram-like image of an extraterrestrial face was photographed emanating from the mark, onto my leg (directly above the mark). I have included the photos below (removed by MUFON). The mark can be seen at the bottom of the picture, with the entity’s face above it. If the mark doesn’t appear exactly oval in the picture, it’s because it changes shape (which can only be seen when light is focused on it). Otherwise, it appears oval. The entity has both human and animal-like features, appears to be smiling or grinning, and is looking off to the side. I appreciate the weirdness of this report, but I feel that I should report the experience. Do with it what you will. – MUFON

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Tick-Borne Disease Soaring

As pests go, ticks score bonus points on the fear chart for being bloodsuckers, tucking themselves behind ears or ducking under armpits.

But unlike most spiders and other crawlies in the woods, these eight-legged parasites pose real danger, even death in rare cases.

In 2013, 6-year-old Emilee Russell from Black Mountain died of Rocky Mountain spotted fever — the result of a tick bite.

North Carolina often leads the nation in Rocky Mountain spotted fever cases, with 674 reported in 2017 — a 5 percent increase over 2016, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

But bites from ticks in North Carolina can also lead to ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease and STARI, which stands for Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness. Lyme disease reports also ramped up to 363 in 2017, rising 10 percent, DHHS reports. Read more at Tick-borne disease is soaring

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Strange Darkness Blankets Siberia

Locals in north of Yakutia said daylight was completely gone for several hours.

People from remote Eveno-Bytantaisky and Zhigansky districts turned to newspapers, begging local media to explain ‘the devilry’ of what happened.

Their remote communities were plunged into darkness – even though they should have 24 hour light at this time of year.

‘The sun went out around 11am, and didn’t come back until about 2pm. I couldn’t see a thing without switching lights on. We took torches to walk outside, but actually no-one wanted to be on the street because the feeling was as if something heavy in the air was pressing on your chest’, said one resident.

After the sun returned, locals found thick layer of dust covering everything outside. Read more at Sun blanked out in Arctic Siberia

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Earhart’s Final Cries For Help

Amelia Earhart waded into the Pacific Ocean and climbed into her downed and disabled Lockheed Electra.

She started the engine, turned on the two-way radio and sent out a plea for help, one more desperate than previous messages.

The high tide was getting higher, she had realized. Soon it would suck the plane into deeper water, cutting Earhart off from civilization — and any chance of rescue.

Across the world, a 15-year-old girl listening to the radio in St. Petersburg, Fla., transcribed some of the desperate phrases she heard: “waters high,” “water’s knee deep — let me out” and “help us quick.”

A housewife in Toronto heard a shorter message, but it was no less dire: “We have taken in water . . . we can’t hold on much longer.” Read more at Dozens heard Amelia Earhart’s final, chilling pleas for help, researchers say

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ARCANE RADIO IS BACK! on the Paranormal King Radio NetworkFacebook event announcement: Arcane Radio – Nicole Strickland – Paranormal Researcher / Author

Join me as I welcome paranormal researcher / author Nicole Strickland to Arcane Radio. Nicole Strickland currently resides in San Diego, California, and has been innately intrigued with the paranormal since childhood and has studied the field for many years. She has been actively investigating historical landmarks and private residences for paranormal activity since the early 2000s, after a profound experience with the spirit of her beloved grandmother. She is the Founder and Director of the San Diego Paranormal Research Society (SDPRS); and serves as the team’s EVP Specialist and historical locations case manager. Nicole has worked with various Southern California paranormal research teams prior to developing SDPRS in 2009. She was also a core member of the Ghost Research Society holding the GRS Southern California Area Research Director position from 2009 – 2017. Nicole also serves as a consultant to World Paranormal Investigations as well as a California Representative for the American Spectral Society. Nicole has written 5 books, including her most recent title ‘San Diego’s Most Haunted: The Historical Legacy and Paranormal Marvels.’ http://www.authornicolestrickland.com/ – You won’t want to miss this interesting show! Join us this Friday, July 27th at 9PM ET / 6PM PT on ParanormalKing.com ———- Big thanks to my newest Arcane Radio Patron…rhpatton1Become a ‘Arcane Radio’ Patron for only $1 per month! https://patron.podbean.com/ArcaneRadio

Each $1+ donation gives that Patron:

– a ‘thank you’ mention on Arcane Radio, and a ‘thank you’ post on the ‘Phantoms & Monsters’ blog and on all of our social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Google+)

– a digital copy of ‘Mothman Dynasty: Chicago’s Winged Humanoid.’ When you become a patron, forward your email address to me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com and I will email a copy to you.

– an entry into the monthly drawing to receive a free signed copy of my most recent paperback title. The winner’s Podbean ID will be announced on this site, the blog and on my social media. Simply forward your mailing address to me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com and I will send a copy to you.

Thanks! Lon

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TODAY’S TOP LINKS

Powerful Mystery Boom Rocks Canada’s Vancouver Island

Second ‘Mystery Sound’ Stumps Upstate NY Community

Mysterious Buzzing Noise Keeping Residents Awake in English Town

Mysterious and Fatal Books of Death Found in Denmark

Paranormal Books and High Strangeness

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Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster

Strange Intruders and Leprechan Press

Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah

The Zozo Phenomenon

The Djinn Connection: The Hidden Links Between Djinn, Shadow People, ETs, Nephilim, Archons, Reptilians and Other Entities

UPDATED WEEKLY: Lon’s Suggested Reading List – Books & Films / DVDs

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ARCANE RADIO PODCASTS: PodBean – iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Spotify– Google Play – blubrry – Player FM

This newsletter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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On this day, November 27, 2014, in accord with 15 U.S. Code Chapter 107 – Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, I declare that my rights are attached to all personal data, voice recordings, photos, art, text, titles, etc. published or reproduced at any media source. For commercial and/or recreational use of the foregoing my written consent is required at all times. By this release, I tell all unauthorized person and/or parties that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, broadcast, or to take any other action against me on the basis of its contents. The actions mentioned above apply equally to employees, students, agents and/or other staff under the direction of the offending parties. The contents of my profile include private information. The violation of my privacy is punished by the law (UCC 1 1-308 – 308 1 -103 and the Rome Statute) NOTE: Any use of witness information, which includes any attempt to contact a witness or persons involved in an event, is strictly prohibited without the written consent of Phantoms & Monsters.

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The post Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal appeared first on MusicCosmoS.

[michaelbartram]

Illusion (For previous chapters read below in reverse order starting with Prologue)

Chapter 5

 ‘Where am I?’

He opened his eyes. For a second... These walls, the shutter… Where? Of course. Slowly he breathed out. Morning. Linen lavender-fresh, heaven-smooth against the skin. Silence. Peace. A noise from outside. Tsk,tsk,tsk. Prodding, pushing. Tsk,tsk,tsk.

‘A garden hoe,’ he murmured. Brisk, workman-like intrusions into Mother Earth from just beneath his window.

Peace indeed.

He glanced at Felicia, asleep on her front. Hair falling wantonly across her cheek. Lips open. The restless sleeper had wrenched the sheet all night and in the last throes bared her buttocks.

He considered Felicia’s gorgeous culo. If he touched it now – could he without her muttering ‘Get off, pendejo’? – his fingertips would feel… Ah, the perfect curve and smoothness of it.

He advanced his outstretched hand.

From outside, a call, questioning, sharp. His homing hand stopped.  Playfully slapping it with the other hand, he fell back.

‘Peacocks.’

He smiled to himself, remembering a conversation with an elderly literary friend. They had been discussing Sanskrit love poems. The old man had said, ‘That showy bird, who when marooned in Europe, wanders the lawns of country houses without purpose, was in the East born to a task.’

‘Which was?’

‘He was the mount of the Hindu god of love. In arcane lore the peacock stood for impatient desire.’ The man of letters smiled mischievously. ‘Like yours, Claudio.’

‘Mine?’

‘Book-lover though you are, my friend, I believe you’re more interested in women than literature.’

‘Does one or the other have to come first?’

‘Assuredly.’

The friend’s stare conveyed a blend of guile and innocence. ‘All in all,’ he added, ‘women are probably a safer choice.’

Delightfully paradoxical, but how wrong. Women were far more dangerous to Claudio than any book.

Impatient desire. He glanced back at Felicia’s bare rump and was stabbed with both lust and annoyance that she, not he, would determine when he might next satisfy it.

The cry, sounding again, mocked him.

Best to get up. He reached for his dressing-gown, opened the shutters and with a flourish stepped out onto the balcony. His jaw fell. ‘Buenos cielos! Now that is something.’

The sun was rising over snowy peaks. Distant crags fell away to a wide patchwork of field and forest. In the middle distance, off-centre, was the lake. And just as Lazar had promised, there too was the summerhouse. The exquisite structure acted as the focal point of the panorama.

The view was dramatic, yet superbly balanced: ‘classical’ in fact. To complete the effect, the foreground was peopled, as if painted by Claude or Poussin. Gardeners were hard at work with pitchforks and barrows amidst clusters of shrubs and colourful borders. Animating the pattern of paths, lawns and ponds, these early risers scythed and swept, watered and clipped.

Claudio’s eye was drawn back again to the summerhouse, its chinoiserie reflected in the placid waters.

Leaning on the balcony rail, he daydreamed.

‘I am a Chinese poet. The lake waters lap. The morning sun pierces the traceries. Under the pagoda roof I am penning verses. I write of the joys of wine, my mistress’s culo, the passing of all things.’

He lifted his hand to his neck. That scratch. Still it hurt to the touch.

He sensed Felicia stirring behind him. ‘Are you awake?’ he called. ‘Felicia, you must see this.’

Her grunting response hinted at a certain readiness. He moved swiftly through and perched on the bed. ‘Felicia. It’s incredible.’

She levered herself up. She seemed to force a smile. ‘You’re a happy boy then, Claudio.’

‘The v… view. Th… this… silence,’ he stuttered, ‘this… is how it must have been once. They did everything in this silence. Someone hoed and peacocks called across a lawn and nothing, nothing ever ruptured the pre-mechanical quiet.’

‘Mm...’ she said, knitting her brows.

‘You don’t like the idea, maybe, but don’t you see, there was still noise. They got drunk, shouted, brawled. People slammed doors. Then there was the tumult of war, cannons going off, muskets. Just no machines.’

‘Exactly what Lazar said, Claudio. Machines are shit. Oh well, we’ll soon see. I’ll miss my electric toothbrush.’

He reached for her hand. ‘Come outside and see the view. You’ve got to do that.’

She sighed. ‘Ok, but don’t rush me. I’ll be sick of the view by the end.’

He went back outside and gazed, again awestruck. ‘Young people, impressed by trash, utterly unable to recognise the stupendous. What a waste.’

When finally he went back in, he found Felicia, at last vertical, examining their en suite. She opened the chest of drawers releasing aromas of sandalwood and perfume. She ambled through to the bathroom, turned on the gleaming brass taps and watched the water gurgle away.

‘Claudio,’ she called, retrieving two pairs of shining shoes from the corridor. ‘Look.’

‘Just as I hoped,’ he said. ‘I can see my face in the toe caps. Superb service to add to the blissful surroundings.’

‘I thought that would please you.’

There was a knock at the door. A smiling woman in a starched pinafore came in.

‘Where will you be taking your breakfast? I can suggest the veranda. It’s nice and quiet. No cars, no motorbikes, juggernauts. No electric mowers or concrete mixers. No drills, no hedge-cutters, electric mowers, no motorboats.’

‘Just what I was saying,’ said Claudio ‘The silence out there is beyond belief. And indoors, I don’t doubt, a superb absence of radios, TVs, piped music.’

‘You may be sure of that. It’s heaven on earth here, but not,’ she went on, glancing at Felicia, ‘if you want to party. I’ll put the tray out.’

‘Bitch,’ muttered Felicia, as she closed the door. ‘She thinks I’m an airhead.’

Over breakfast, savouring the coffee and rolls, Claudio watched the gardeners come and go and the birds winging over the lake. Felicia had merely humphed when she saw the view but now she allowed her eye to wander and appeared appreciative.

‘Well, that cow brought us nice warm rolls, I’ll say that,’

Claudio touched her leg with his slippered foot. ‘You’re enjoying yourself, eh?’

‘I’m not complaining. I just don’t want to be patronised by a lot of snobs. I get enough of that from you.’

Claudio sighed. ‘Felicia… please… let’s not bicker… Let’s just allow the peaceful spirit of this place to spread balm.’

‘That’s up to you,’ she said, looking away.

‘Anyway,’ said Claudio, ‘that bitch, as you call her, has stepped right out of the Paris Ritz of the 1930s. She has pageboy hair like Garbo’s in certain studio shots. I would like to photograph her in black and white. For a moment I can regret we were not allowed cameras.’

Felicia shrugged. ‘I don’t know why you’d want to photo a snotty cow like that.’

Without rush they finished breakfast. Once dressed, they headed out. The staff were everywhere, tidying and polishing, gliding through with trays, easing trivial anxieties, answering queries.

‘It’s going to be lovely today, we can be sure of that.’

‘Did you have a good night?’

‘We can recommend…’

Claudio saw people he recognised from the journey. Paulus fixed them both with a graveyard stare. Claudio pulled Felicia quickly past. He had no wish to expose her to that lecher all the more since he believed the attraction was mutual.

Next, they came across Elena reading in an alcove. She wore a gown of crushed green velvet. The sunlight played on her long golden hair. As they walked on he murmured to Felicia, ‘A bit posed don’t you think? Look at me, the reader.’

‘She’s a phony,’ Felicia agreed.

Sabatini was in full flood on the front steps.

‘Let’s steer clear of him,’ said Claudio.

Hand in hand, they stepped out. The air was deliciously moist and scent-laden. Tangy smells drew Claudio to the herb garden secluded behind an old brick wall. Felicia picked some aromatic eaves and crushed them between her fingers, which she held up to Claudio’s nostrils.

‘There you are, Claudio, try that.’

He sniffed, then reeled back. ‘It’s disgusting!’

‘Valerian. It smells of tomcats. I grew up with it in our garden at home. That’ll teach you to be such a romantic.’

He eyed her breasts, full under her pale cotton shirt. Beads of sweat glistened in her cleavage.

‘Kiss me, Felicia.’

‘If you promise to stop ogling my tits.’

‘You like it.’

‘Do I?’

He moved towards her. She closed her eyes. She seemed ready after all.

Footsteps sounded on the gravel. Claudio cursed. They moved apart. It was Paulus, still wearing his dark suit, carrying two wicker baskets.

‘Good morning,’ he said, without smiling. ‘You missed the announcement. We are to wander at will through the orchards. Mulberry, pear, peach, apple and cherry. The real taste of uncontaminated fruit. It’s all here for us to enjoy. We are to pick what we want. They even handed out these baskets.’ He handed one to Felicia.

Paulus began picking and placing fruit in his basket. Felicia did likewise, too obediently, it seemed to Claudio, who hovered grumpily.

They moved on in this fashion, Claudio semi-detached, strolling a few paces then stopping and admiring the view, the other two stooping or reaching up to pick from overhanging branches. Paulus would say, ‘That’s a nice one, Felicia.’ Felicia would ask, ‘Can you reach that one for me, Paulus.’

Further up the hill, Felicia, mouth full of ripe peach suddenly cried, ‘Look, windmills.’

Vast white sails joined to clapboard circled grandly against the blue sky, about a dozen in all.

Paulus put his basket down. ‘That’s how windmills used to be. I hear they got a Dutchman here, not an engineer but a historian of science. He knew how it used to be done in old Holland.’

Claudio was damned if he was going to express any interest though in point of fact the windmills intrigued him. Not only did they remind him of Dutch landscape painting, but with his poet’s eye he saw the windmills taking off into the sky, sails cracking, pennants flying, riding the clouds like magical airships.

‘There’s hardly any wind today,’ Paulus continued, ‘but still they turn. It’s like navigation. Adapting the windmills to make electricity, they have to make the most of every breath out here. And store what they get.’

‘Like the Egyptians,’ said Claudio testily.

Paulus turned to him. ‘Eh?’

‘Like the Egyptians in the Seven Years of Plenty, they have to hoard for the lean years. Sometimes, I daresay, there is no wind. They’ve hoarded. They survive.’

‘I’m going down now,’ Paulus said suddenly. ‘I guess our paths will cross again.’

They watched him retreat down the slope, ever incongruous with his suit and fruit basket.

Claudio removed Felicia’s basket from her hand and pulled her to him. Running his hand up between her thighs and breathing heavily he managed at the same time to edge her towards a clump of bushes which in his impatience with Paulus he had already identified as a possible site for outdoor sex. How fortunate that that creepy predator had left them.

‘Hey Claudio, steady on.’

‘Felicia… I want you…’

‘No… Claudio…’

‘Yes, yes…’

She began to remove his hands. He clung on. ‘Dear girl… You don’t know what you do to me…’

‘No, Claudio.’

‘Yes.’

‘No.’  

Finally he pulled away and turned a sharp eye on her.

‘It’s him, isn’t it?’

‘What?’

‘Paulus.’

‘What about Paulus?’

‘You can’t get him out of your mind.’

‘What?’

‘There is attraction between you,’ said Claudio, ‘unlikely though it seems. He has this sexual allure to do with his seediness. He probably lives for the next polvo. Some women sense that in a man and it turns them on even when he’s not good-looking. All they want is a polvo with that man who thinks about a polvo so much.’

She shook her head, a picture of disbelief and scorn.

He went on. ‘I’ve met it before. It’s sick but true. You lie in bed dreaming of a polvo with that gangster. You might as well admit it, Felicia.’ He took her hand. ‘I will forgive you. If you confess, it might even turn me on in. We can incorporate it.’

She rounded on him. ‘Jesus, Claudio you’re crazy. I don’t know if I can deal with this. I’m serious. The deal might have to be off.’

‘Deal? What deal?’

‘Oh hell, Claudio. Just stop questioning me. Questions, questions. What deal? What this? What that? Who are you on the phone to? Who did you see? Do you fancy him? How much did you drink? What drugs did you take? You are not my father. If this holiday is to have any chance of success, just lay off me, do you understand?’

Her lips quivered. She was trembling. Her eye went to the windmill sails, turning and creaking. She seemed to be weighing things up. Grasshoppers and birds made merry.

He was contrite. ‘Felicia, you’re right.’

‘I am right. You’re an idiot.’

‘All will be well, my dear, I promise.’

She looked past Claudio, down at Arcadia, then beyond to the snow-capped mountain peaks.

‘Ok,’ she said, ‘I forgive you. Just don’t ruin it.’

[therevaliir-blog]

Announcements: 06-29-2017

The Living World:

SOMETHING IS HAPPENING A strange new apothecary has taken up shop in the streets of Adeluna. He offers the regular tinctures and cures one would expect, but among them, something new has been included. A thick, dark substance, administered via injection, seems to be the most popular item the apothecary offers. Demand is high for the substance, and people seem to be thoroughly enjoying its medicinal properties.

Site Changes:

Wiki Changes: Keywords - Weapons Weapon Basic / Exotic explanation —I'm adding it to the wiki after we get it set up— Removed the following: Magic Shirt- Was 100 Magic Leggings- was 100 Magic Cloak- was 100 Winter Fur Coat- was 150 The reasoning behind removal: We felt like they were redundant after the adding of enchantments and you can sub the winter fur coat for a noble cloak or a heavier common cloak. No need to have so many different items. We’ll offset something for better cold resistance in synth at a later date. Adding in an Ice Enhancement armlet into the Forge soon. This was the only element missing for all of our enchantments. The icon is done just need to hammer out the price + ingredients to make it :) Changed the following Spells' 'school' Spells changed to Druid: Chain Lightning Concussive Blast Fire Ball Fire Breath Flamestrike Frost Ball Ice Breath Ice Strike Lightning Ball Lightning Strike Mud Ball Stone Skin Stone Wall Changed the following spells to Arcane: Commune with Beast Commune with Plant Lesser Banish Mass Dispel Dispel Changed the following Spells to Psionic: Aura Sight Reveal Misc. changes to spells: Taint Weapon –> Necromancy Conjure Magic Weapon –> Conjuring These changes were done so that God rules were clearly defined/for the spellbooks in the magic store Ankou's Playbox. Light and Dark element spells will remain in the Holy and Necromancy schools for obvious reasons. The weave spells are spells officially controlled using Psionic Magic so they will stay. However, unofficially you can say they are druidic, holy, or necromancy when your character uses them. If you would like to do that a simple note in your signature or your profile at the top will suffice. Will add a wiki to explain schools + what epic spells are vs regular. Also, will add a wiki page for explaining combining spells and how far you can take it. So we can clarify it. Codeani and I rebalanced the shields to make more sense: 1. Adeluna Shield is basically a tower shield with an unclear name, so we changed it to the following: New Name: Adeluna Tower Shield New Description: The favored shield type of Adeluna's legionnaires, these tower shields are tall enough for a person to hide behind. They are constructed from wood, leather and varying kinds of metals. You can often find them in use for shield walls and sieges, but infrequently for one on one combat because of their weight. 2. A buckler was the same price as a round shield, even though it provides less protection and is cheaper to make; so we changed it to: Reduced price to 25 silver for buckler. -Added a hunting bow to the warrior package to offset the reduced cost. Revised prices with the above two reasons: Adeluna Tower Shield: 150 Buckler: 25 Prices for the ones affected were: Adeluna: 300 Buckler: 50 This makes it so like the armor the shields also scale with how well made/effective they are. This doesn’t mean you can’t sub what type of material yours is made from just be reasonable about it and if you are not sure you can contact staff Changed Items: Bloodstone Bracelet in Seasonal - Got a rework from healing you to its new thing better fitting for the earthly materials it is made out of: "Made by members of the Bear bloodline among the Haza people, these pieces of jewelry are meant to honor the Earth spirits that guide and protect all of Haza. When mixed with a small drop of blood from the wearer, the magic within them commands that wearer to be more like a bear. Their strength and stature grow significantly for a limited time, but their temper is also cooled." Feature Added: Staff Monthly Wages We have decided on the amount to be made by each staff member per month of services. To reward all of us for our dedicated work each position will receive silver as compensation. I will be heading the payments and will message each staff member when I have added the silver to their account. Feel Free to message me if I have forgotten anyone or anything.Thank you so much for your hard work and dedication to the site! Mods- 200 silver Deities- 200 silver Admins- 300 silver If you hold multiple positions you will receive both amounts. On 6/2/2017 : I rotated the Seasonal Shop with 10 new items since we moved the other 10 to the synth store. We'll be removing the Outlands in the wiki and relocating all the things in it to there + all the other stuff we relocated/renamed. It will be a chore but we will get it done. Rosenite Lore is changing Willow from Queen to Empress so people understand the Rosenite hierarchy better. We'll be adding a section to RP Tavern for Gods to post updates to their temples so people know when things change. This way people don't get flooded announcements and it fits better there. It will look more like this: Angela Rose posts: Today I've updated the Clery and Rules Notes in my Temple please make sure to read the updates. – Clear to the point and lets others know when things change. I've added a page where you can see the Events Calendar. It's not pretty right now and it sucks just a bit but it will let you know when Events are coming up. Not by who or necessarily when but it's a lot better than blindsiding you —> Events Page When I get time I will edit it. The Welcome page is still being worked on and I would love it if people would give me more feedback. We fixed the links on the Newcomer thread as well from .com to .net so the links work again. If you find another page where links don't work please contact staff or post in help! We're also starting to work on putting together a new feature to recognize the hardworking icon artists of Rev. We'll be working on that and hopefully launching it after coding for more serious things are done! Icons are almost done for Revaliir to go into CSS format, good job everyone!\ Rules Change: Follow all directions, descriptions, and rules given by deities when roleplaying in their temples. These are special areas subject to additional constraints over the regular roleplay areas and may have trials. If you wish to do something special in them, you must contact the deity directly for permission. –Simply put don't be a jerk and respect the area you are rping in. We didn't want to make a rule for this but too many have been avoiding it and it makes us deities feel crappy because our hard work is being overlooked. Changed the Starter pack for the Swashbuckler- Got rid of things from the old pack so I could add the Skiff in after being begged to by several people. You have enough silver to get the things that are missing from the pack like basic clothes but now you at least get a skiff! Congrats! Items removed for Skiff were as followed: Bandana Common Tunic Canteen Grappling Hook Lesser Agility Sash Map Eyepatch Boots Adding Starter packs: The following starter packs will be put in after I make the icons for them: Necromancy Artisan Noble Merchant Rogue Keep in mind each starter pack gets 300 silver worth of items + 100 silver to start so some packs have more items than others. Edited the following on the wiki: Lunar Calendar got its own wiki, mind you this is just for Adeluna other kingdoms/areas have their own but this is the most commonly used one. Edited Revaliir's Seasons and Moons Edited The Suns and his daughters Added Celestials and Revaliir Added Revaliir's Creation Added a page for Dimensional Portals Edited Arriese Creatures Edited Rosenite Courts The Design our World is still going on I'm going to work on selecting the areas as we get them. This will go on until I feel like we have enough to go on. Make sure to reference the announcement on it. Thank you! -Brittlez (also thank you for reading :) )