#i'll do a writing day after

[abyssal-ilk]

no more romance. romance is canceled. tell me about your warden/hawke/inquisitor's best friend and any info you want to add about their dynamic 🖐

[14dayswithyou]

Hi, Howdy! Hey! I really love your novel!! I got a little confused by the 4 day, may maybe you help me please? who is it? why we got the bad end staying the night in Ren’s apartment and he disappear of the home screen? I can’t understand “unset memory” game, sorry if I wrote smth wrong or smth sounds rude, I swear that I didn’t mean it if happened, I’m really a fan of the novel, I’ve been playing the game since day 1 or 2 I guess, probably day 1, english isn’t my first language, but I tried lol

⌞♥⌝ I hope you don't mind me answering these as bullet points!! ^^

"It" will be revealed later in the game! So I won't reveal too much right now.

You can only get the Dead End in Day 4 by staying at Ren's apartment — the rest of your choices before that don't matter. I'd also pay closer attention to the black smoke and Ren's reaction towards it!

Ren disappears from the home screen because he promised to help the player out (and stop them from getting the Dead End again). Try replaying the game again from the beginning for a surprise!

"Unsent Memories" was another visual novel (initially being written by @10chimes / @unsentmemory, though the project has since been dropped and handed back to me /pos) and is set in the same universe as 14 Days With You. Its storyline and characters are completely separate from 14DWY, so you don't have to worry about them while playing 14DWY.

[fatedroses]

Two former military elites taking merc jobs perform absolutely hellish battle tactics together.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Smell Check [Easy: Failure]

MDZS Disco Elysium AU part 1 (part 2 - part 3)

[eikichi-supremacy]

If nothing else Koenma is a Kuwabara stan and I'm right there with him o7 (I need to write the kuwameshi fic that goes with this fr)

[disposal-blueeee]

VARGASTOBER - day 28 : fantasy

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

The fans: Ugh Sonic was just so preachy. I mean obviously he's supposed to be the good guy, so any uncomfortableness I feel here and any way I feel like Sonic's choices are framed as being why some other people have shitty lives is just bad writing because he is obviously supposed to be right always, but this characterization makes no sense. Isn't he right for the things he did?

Ian Flynn, using Kitsunami to say the (barely even at this point) quiet part even louder: Hey it's almost like ever since the Mr. Tinker event we've been purposely running with the critique of Sonic as being more selfish than he appears. Sonic is upholding a system of Eggman v Sonic that currently benefits him and shuts down talk of how to improve the current system because he likes his own personal enjoyment and he's attached enough to Eggman that he'd rather Eggman pretend to be a good person than be stuck in prison for life. He doesn't even quite practice what he preaches. We are trying to show that the current hero v villain system and Sonic's recklessness currently affects some people poorly and that Sonic isn't a perfect hero.

[butchvamp]

i finished the game last night, here are my unpolished thoughts about the final act and what i liked & didn't like. this is very long and probably incoherent lol

what i liked:

the whole final battle was awesome, i loved the combat, and i really enjoyed the huge cutscenes of everyone fighting together. i had been really disappointed earlier about the lack of a battle scene at weisshaupt a la ostagar in origins, and this definitely made up for it

i liked the suicide mission and actually getting to assign people their roles in the battle

i LOVED Solas's betrayal, that whole section in the fade prison with the statues was one of the strongest scenes in the game, i think the entire relationship between Rook and Solas is really well developed. as the player, we know Solas is manipulating them, but i think they did a good job making it so it's still believable for Rook to fall for his tricks, especially with the Blood of Arlathan quest before this. (also it's very obvious Solas is Weekes' favorite, wish they would have just stuck to him and not all that other dogshit...lol)

i liked the idea of Varric's role here, but not the execution. i'll come back to this lmao

the giant dread wolf and archdemon fight was cool as fuck. no notes. that's just classic rule of cool, baby

also i had Davrin in my party while fighting alongside Solas and i really enjoyed his banter with him and how hard he laid into Solas's ass. it was very satisfying. yippee go Davrin!

okay. now. what i didn't like (sorry not going to bother with bullet points, it's going to be longer down here lol):

while i liked the suicide mission structure, i hated how the game all but told you who to assign where. there were no stakes at all, there was no way to get it wrong unless you did so intentionally.

this also brings me to. The Choice. between Davrin and Harding. i understand the need for a "fallen hero" here, it ties into the entire theme of regret with Solas as we see in the fade prison, it was necessary for Rook to be the person "at fault" (aka directly make the choice that ends with someone getting killed) but this choice was dogshit. it also was really fucking stupid to see Harding climb up and stand atop a giant stone pillar, and then NOT use her stone magic!!! i don't hate the idea of someone dying here, but this was just a series of failed choices over and over again. we should not have pitted returning fan fave Harding against the single Black companion (who comes in late and barely even gets his own story outside of his damn pet)-- it should have been Harding (narratively satisfying, she's been here since the beginning and dies for the fight) or Lucanis (he is literally the guy taking the shot), we also shouldn't have tied all the dwarf lore revelations to a character that can just fucking die at the end, and we shouldn't have had her stand on a giant stone pillar when she has STONE MAGIC!! i knew this choice was coming but her death still caught me off guard cus i was fully expecting her to collapse that stone pillar on her, not use her stupid puny bow 😭

i think this choice is also weakened by the fact that it's THEE only choice. it's obviously an echo of the earlier Treviso and Minrathous choice, which also didn't really seem to affect much outside of potentially losing the corresponding factions (and i think Lucanis's romance gets locked out?) i saved Treviso, so i got the Treviso questline later, and i assume that you get a Minrathous specific questline with the Shadow Dragons if you save the other instead (haven't seen myself tho so i'm not sure, just guessing). but it's very easy to recover the Shadow Dragon's reputation, and the final battle takes place in Minrathous no matter what. the only way for companions to die or the battle to fail is to just straight up ignore quests. you can't lose a faction's support at all unless you intentionally try to do so. i don't even think you can lose companions at all unless you intentionally ignore their quests and place them in the wrong spot. though the game still holds your hand through the battle and basically Tells You who to put where so they survive.

and to be fair. this is true for the suicide mission in mass effect 2, but the thing is, there is so much more dialogue and variations with how you can play your character and interact with the companions and the world than there is in veilguard, it makes it feel like you do have more control over your character and the narrative, even if it's just the illusion of choice.

and then with Solas, it doesn't matter, he always ends up trapped/linked to the Fade, it just changes how he feels. (they also do this with the First Warden. i was excited for a potential variation between punching/not punching, but all it changes is his attitude when you find him later in Davrin's quest) okay.... well. is he going to return again after that post credit scene? and are they really going to write 3 (or 4, with lavellan i guess) different branching personality variations?

i think the powers that be just wanted to get rid of him in a way that would still leave the dragon age setting ultimately unaltered and open for more games in the future. especially given the secret post credits scene. which i also have an issue with. we're going to go from "it was all the Evanuris fault" to Actually, it was this secret third thing and everything we did was for nothing! AGAIN! if they want to make more dragon age games, they can just... start a new story. do they know that. (the fact they're implying Loghain was influenced by some outside force to do what he did at ostagar actually has me livid lol. leave origins alone!!!!)

anyways. now the fade prison. i have two issues, my main one being Varric. i actually started to suspect early on something was up with him, because he just sits in that damn infirmary the entire game, no interactions, barely any dialogue. i think Varric was horribly underutilized in this game, and it results in all of the emotional beats around him falling flat for me. of course, it's emotional for ME, the player, because Varric is a fan fave returning character and one of my own personal favorites. as far as i've seen in game, though... Rook has no relationship with him at all. i think this game would have been vastly improved with short playable origins that showed the two meeting and developing a relationship, and also he really really needed to have more scenes and dialogue in general. he's barely in the second half of the game, literally just sitting all by himself in that damn room, and even when he is in the cutscenes he has one single line that everyone obviously just ignores. it sucked. very disappointing finale for a really beloved character... it could have been so good if it was good....

because i DO love the idea of Solas using him to manipulate Rook (and i really like Varric and Solas's relationship & the way they contrast against each other), and also the idea of how being tricked in that way would actually affect Rook-- what's real, what's not, can they even trust what they're seeing at all anymore? especially when Solas "glitches" between Varric and Lucanis (idk if it's always him or your LI? would be cool if it's your LI, that's what i assumed) after slaying Ghilan'nain-- this could have tied in with the final romance scene. but of course the game doesn't get into any of that at all.

and now issue 2. how the fuck did Solas do that LOL. how did he switch places, how did he get out, how did it take Rook in his place when it was designed for elven gods? where are the other elven gods (did i just miss this explanation? did the other two just kill them in there)? 🤷 when did this place suddenly turn into a prison of regrets? was that Solas's presence influencing it, or did he do that intentionally for Rook? dont know! who cares. moving on...

i romanced Lucanis, and i was really disappointed with his romance. the final scene was sweet, but.... i think particularly with Lucanis you can tell so much of his story and arc ended up on the cutting room floor, it feels disjointed and as if we're missing pieces, and you can feel it in his romance, too. i also really didnt understand the "keep flirting (not a lock in) or end it now" choices that didnt feel like they did anything at all. why was i given like 3 different times to break up with him when we weren't even dating yet lmao. the romance was a bummer, of course i love the setting and the story but i go into these games expecting strong romance along with it and i was really banking on that being the highlight in this mess of a game but. alas

this also segues me back into the whole "trapped in the Fade prison" section. why was there no reunion with both your LI and everyone else? apparently Rook was in there for WEEKS!!! they hardly communicate this and Rook just reappears and jumps straight back into leading the team, no tears or questions asked about how they found them, how they got out, what everyone was thinking while they were gone... we also get a deus ex machina knife, how convenient that they did all that while i was gone and no explanation is given as to how it could possibly fool Solas, just trust us bro! 💆 i feel like trying to craft our own copy of the knife should have been something actively happening in the background throughout the entire game, and it gets finished while Rook is in the Fade. but this truly came out of nowhere lol

again i think it's obvious things were cut and rewritten and maybe this was the result of a frantic scramble to come up with something that would work, and i'll be generous and blame it on that, i guess...

when we finally get to the final confrontation with Solas, i was very excited, because again i feel like Rook and Solas's relationship is the best in the game, Solas's writing is consistent and strong, i knew this scene had to be good.... and i guess it was? but it felt so unsatisfying. i chose to fight him (my Rook would do anything to get him to shut up) and i was hoping for. an actual fight. you can do it with Mythal earlier in the game, and we already saw his giant wolf form, i was so excited. and then. no<3

okay! sure. we beat him with the power of friendship (not surprised and not even making fun of it here, it makes sense narratively, i knew some version of this was coming after the whole comparing Rook versus Solas bit in the Fade) but come onnnnn i wanted to fight the giant wolf.... sigh. i did check out the other endings as well, and it's clear the redemption ending is the "true" ending and also the best written one imo.

overall. this was a bad dragon age game. i had a lot of fun playing it though, so it's not a bad game game. the gameplay loop never got boring, i never got tired exploring or doubling back, i loved the maps, i loved the combat, and i did love the companions. but the writing is atrocious and racist. this is a horrible dragon age game. i don't know where i fall on recommending this. again, i've had a lot of fun playing and dissecting it, but i dont know that i could recommend this to dragon age fans. this would have been way more successful as a completely different fantasy game. the changes to the lore, disregarding the majority of the games that came before it, the horrible depictions of returning characters (the inquisitor and isabela were the worst offenders for me) the setting and characters feeling watered down and incomplete, the complete lack of the classic "grey morality" shtick (even if it's not always been implemented well)... idk man. bummer! it's obvious there was a cohesive vision at one point, i do think this game is a casualty of the current state of the gaming industry (i was honestly surprised it was functional on launch. not shade at bioware just in general that is rare to see now) we know EA thrashed bioware throughout development, and bioware made a lot of really bad choices, too (the racism is absolutely their doing, they made that choice back in inquisition). but we can see, particularly in the artbook, that there were good ideas & an intention to actually tie everything together and give this story the finale it deserved... but it all got lost along the way in a very ugly, chaotic development. and the game really suffers for it.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

my greatest achievement in DA2 is maxing out Carver's friendship

and all it took was begrudgingly kissing a little templar ass in act 1 because Carver didn't want to plan a prison break if my Hawke got his ass arrested for being stupid.

[blueskittlesart]

cold fruit in a hot kitchen (so i had this great watermelon last weekend)

[triglycercule]

horror is so BLESSED he's the only one out of the murder time trio that has actual good people trying to influence his story 💔💔 dust and killer were both driven to INSANITY because of the choices of their respective humans but horror??? every time without FAIL the polls for horrortale's plotline have always ended in a good place for aliza (either by bettering her relationships/reputation or for her to just. not DIE)

horrortale's potential alternate timelines my beLOVEd🙏🙏 they're SO lucky that we're being kind and benevolent hehe (≧ω≦) now where are the aus based off the possible different outcomes that could've happened in horrortale HUH???? (like how aliza couldve killed toriel or chosen horror's puzzle or gone with undyne to the core........)

[fairydrowning]

In my "can't continue under this circumstances" era.

[jeyne-stark]

every time I think about Reek I think about how incredibly powerful Theon's immune system must be

[necrotic-nephilim]

in lieu of having posted any writing/headcanons/asks in the past few days because i have been *so* busy and unable to do anything fandom-related which is terrible and evil, i have a poll out of morbid curiosity and self-indulgence. i've been meaning to ramble here about how i feel about DC's lack fo Deaf representation and which Batfam members i would personally make Deaf, but i am mildly curious about the larger opinion and now i will subject you all to the question, i would love to hear thoughts/opinions/headcanons on any specific choices. (would love d/Deaf/HoH opinions esp but i'm mostly expecting this to reach the hearing crowd, so opinions from hearing ppl are ones i'm very curious about. if you've never given it thought before you are going to now or else /lh)

[spinnysocks]

hey *throws toxic tragic kiburi x ushari au at you*

kiburi wants to become the leader of his float. a snake has some bigger ideas for him. ushari says that kiburi can become leader of the pridelands too, then crocodiles will finally be respected to his standards. ushari wants respect for all reptiles. kiburi doesn't mind that. he believes him.

the plan fails, and he has nothing but his friends now. kiburi finds ushari, who offers him something in return for keeping his life. kiburi should kill him, but he doesn't.

kiburi meets scar, who ushari has complete trust in. if he follows scar, he could rule someday. with ushari by his side, reptiles could finally be respected. trusting him is working in his favour.

the army never wins. kiburi can feel every bruise, cut and scrape that doesn't have a chance to heal. he can see the weariness in his float from fighting every day. the pressure is destroying them all. ushari never gains a single tear in his perfect scales. scar rants and rages about how the army isn't good enough. ushari never has to face scar's wrath. maybe he was wrong to trust him, but there's no turning back now, there is nothing else. and traitors are no better than dead.

janja turns against them. he survives their attempt to kill him and finds happiness somehow. there is no peace for the army, so they're sure he was never really one of them. kiburi doesn't feel any guilt. scar promises this is the last battle to win the pridelands. ushari is sure of it, so kiburi is too.

and he was right. the army wins the very moment that ushari's venom infects kion's mind. there is nothing that the pridelanders can do. for once, there is victory for the army. for once, there is peace.

fire quickly takes over every patch of land in sight. all of it is theirs. kiburi's float will never have to get another wound again. they will never have to go hungry again. they will never have to share again. they will never be unhappy again. kiburi is glad he trusted ushari.

until all the lands had nothing left. there isn't enough water. his float are gone. kiburi barely manages to get by. this is all ushari's fault. such a smart snake should have known better.

ushari tricked him. those comforting words of ruling the lands were all false promises. everything was a lie, it must have been. scar's reign meant nothing could survive. such a smart snake should have known that.

ushari betrayed him, so kiburi makes sure he brings justice.

[jtl-fics]

Fluent Freshman - Part 37

PREV

Laughs might be an understatement.

Falls into hysterics might be the better way to phrase it.

It’s all so ridiculous.

He’d been scared to lose them and yet here they all were. Running around in Abby’s backyard, making a huge fuss about something stupid, talking about killing Daniel, arguing about his diet, and watching him with growing concern as he continues to laugh.

“See! This is because you gave him the damn milkshake!” Kevin exclaims turning to Aaron throwing a hand off.

FF laughs harder.

“How the fuck is Smiths having a mental breakdown about a milkshake?! He’s probably freaking out about that asshole and the fact that you want to let him make it to try-outs!” Aaron shouts back.

“He could be great!” Kevin defends.

“Man, is it worth him being great if Smithster is like this?” Matt asks.

“Well, we just keep him away from Smiths.” Kevin crosses his arms defensively. “Andrew can do it like how he kept Riko away from me.” Kevin points at Andrew.

“Riko was on a different team.” Captain Neil reminds coming up to look at FF in concern as he continued to laugh.

“He was prepared to keep you away from me and we were on the same team.” Kevin argues again.

“I don’t think Andrew is going to make out on the roof with Daniel.” Nicky says with an awkward laugh apparently recovering from Gran’s stated new favorite. Andrew and Captain Neil made faces, “Yeah, he’s not as cute as Neil.” Nicky agrees before settling at FF’s side, “Hey buddy, what’s going on? Do you wanna lay down?” he asks like FF is a toddler who is over tired.

He is pretty tired.

“Nicky he’s having a mental breakdown he’s not a toddler who needs a nap.” Aaron says.

“Well, what do you want to do Mr. Future Doctor?!” Nicky asks panicked.

FF really should stop laughing.

“I don’t study…” Aaron makes a face, “psychology.”

“Literally your only redeeming quality.” Captain Neil interjects but looks chagrined as FF wheezes.

“Shut up.” Aaron spits at him before turning to Andrew, “You’re the one who spends all that time with Dobson. Do you have any idea on how to fix him?” Aaron asks.

Andrew looks at him and FF is a little worried that he might split something in his stomach if he can’t stop laughing soon but he feels like his muscles are stuck in an almost loop that he can’t get his diaphragm out of.

Andrew walks over, “Percussive therapy.” He says and smacks FF hard on the back twice.

“Andrew!” came four different shouts.

FF coughs and it releases him from his hysterical laughing hell.

“Thanks.” He says and his stomach hurts the way it would after an especially hard work out.

“Anytime.” Andrew shrugs and moves back to stand by Captain Neil.

“Smithy? You with us buddy?” Nicky asks concerned and when FF looks around, he realizes it is well and truly the next day and well into the next day at that he must have been on auto-pilot for a while.

“Yeah,” he says and his face aches as bad as his stomach from the strain of using muscles he doesn’t normally. He coughs again, “Sorry about that.” He apologizes.

“Nah man, it’s cool.” Matt assures, “Are you okay? That was uh…a concerning amount of laughter.” He says gently.

“Yeah.” FF says, “I’m fine.” He looks at them and still doesn’t get why they all look at Captain Neil whenever he says it and why Captain Neil always looks especially pained. He decides to move along, “So, Daniel is going to try out.” FF says.

“Yes.” Kevin says at the same time the rest of his friends say “No.”

“Kevin, seriously?” Captain Neil asks.

“We need options.” Kevin shrugs before turning to FF, “Is he any good?” he asks.

“He’s obviously not as good as Smithy!” Nicky exclaims arms around FF in an instant. “Smithy got the offer, and he didn’t.” Nicky adds.

“I didn’t ask if he was better than Smiths, I asked if he was any good!” Kevin bristles.

FF shrugs, “Daniel has always been athletic.” He says thinking about the trophies that lined the halls of their home in Washington.

“The University didn’t listen to Neil and he’s Athletic. He’s going to try-out.” Kevin says.

“Not if I can help it.” Captain Neil grumbles under his breath.

“Neil, bud, you’re scaring me.” Matt says.

“I don’t need a car to kneecap him.” Andrew says with a shrug, “Smith if you don’t want him on the team then-“

“I don’t really care.” FF interrupts Andrew and the goalkeeper blinks in surprise.

“You don’t…care?” Aaron asks.

“Not anymore. Not really.” He says.

Nicky and Aaron were so worried that Andrew would murder Daniel for him that they hid the terrifying goalkeeper’s Maserati. Kevin and Matt spent the afternoon trying to make Kevin’s smoothies taste a little less terrible. Andrew is thinking about kneecapping Daniel and Captain Neil argued in front of people for his sake.

He has friends and they’re some of the most stubborn people on the planet. Once they make up their mind about someone it’s hard for them to change. They don’t care that he’s a mess of anxiety or that he’s got things he doesn’t want to talk about.

He’s got people on his contact list who would text and call him if he disappeared. More than just his grandma.

What does he really have to worry about?

The night and day of processing everything starts to catch up with him. “I’m kind of tired. I think I’m going to go to bed.” He says feeling like the weight from the night before was truly off of his chest and eager to catch some sleep.

“Drink this first.” Kevin says and FF can hear a slight concern for him but he’s not sure why.

He takes the drink.

“The flavors a little better.” Matt says and FF slams the entire drink as he’s learned to do with Kevin’s smoothies, and it really does taste better.

“Thank you.” He says.

“I’ll take that.” Nicky takes the glass from his hand. “How about we cuddle again tonight?” Nicky asks.

FF thinks that’d be nice but also thinks that Nicky moved a bit too much in his sleep.

“I’ll be okay tonight. Thanks.” he looks back at his friends, “Night guys.” He says and heads inside where Gran and Abby were enjoying some tea.

His Gran kisses his cheek, she’ll be leaving after Monday and FF will miss her like he would miss an arm but she has a bowling league to get back to, a knitting club to run, and she misses the Pacific North West. “I’m going to take you somewhere tomorrow.” She says to him in Polish.

“Ok Gran.” He says back in the same language before kissing her cheek right back. He hears Abby make a touched sound and then a commotion outside and his lips twitch in an attempt to smile, “I’m glad I came here.” He says.

She smiles back, “Me too.” She agrees.

***

“Great, Smithy is depressed.” Nicky hisses looking at Kevin, “Why the fuck would you give him one of your god awful smoothies when he’s already depressed?!” he demands.

“Physical health and mental health are heavily correlated. If his physical health improves-“

“Shut up.” Five voices chorus together as one.

“I’m not wrong.” Kevin grumbles.

Neil looks at Andrew, “We’ll watch his back.”

Andrew nods and when he looks to the rest of their group.

They will.

“Now tell me where the fuck you hid my car.” Andrew turns to Nicky.

“I have zero faith that you won’t run him over.” Nicky returns, “Can’t watch Smithy’s back in jail.” He points out.

“To be fair, his back wouldn’t need to be watched if Andrew ran Daniel over.” Neil argues.

“Neil.”

“I’m just saying.”

***

There had been late night dorm discussions about shifts, what to do if they saw Daniel, and Andrew threatening a few more times that he’d call the cops until Aaron called his bluff.

“You would never call a cop to help you.” Aaron argues.

“Bee said it’s the sign of a narcissist if they use what they learn in group therapy against you.” Andrew crossed his arms and looked away.

So they walked back to Abby’s house that morning but… maybe they should have made it clear to FF that they were planning on watching out for him that weekend.

"He left?" Neil asks.

"With his grandma. She was writing to me last night. She got in contact with an old family friend, Smith's godfather. She wanted to cheer him up." Abby says leaning against her door frame with her coffee mug in her hand.

"She's good." Matt says appreciatively.

"Any word on when they'll get back?" Nicky asks.

"More than likely before the end of the day but otherwise? They didn't say. Smith's face did that thing it does when he's happy though so I don't think you have to worry. He's in good hands." she says.

In the end they have different people loitering around Abby's but FF doesn't get back until after they are all back in the dorm.

So none of them quite knew what to expect when they came to Abby's house and found a motorcycle in her driveway. "Wow, that's a nicely maintained bike." Matt comments looking the bike over with an appreciative eye.

"Thanks." came from the door and when they looked up they see FF standing with a leather jacket on and a helmet in hand. "My uh..." he hesitates, "uncle Theo," he says the title likes it's unfamiliar to him, "kept it. It was my dad's and yesterday he signed it over to me." he explains.

"Do you know how danger-" Kevin starts but Nicky's hand slaps over his mouth before he can finish any reprimand.

"Smithy that's so cool! Are you going to get your license?" Nicky asks.

"Oh, I already have my motorcycle license." he explains, "Since I don't like cars." he adds and his face does that thing again that means he's happy, as if talking about his phobia makes him feel better. "I would ride Gran's motorcycle to school a lot." he explains.

The conversation continues as Aaron, Matt, and even Andrew inspected the Motocycle approvingly. Neil was the only one who had ever ridden one aside from FF and he'd always been more interested in ones that were easy to steal than good ones like the one FF had gotten.

FF goes on a solo drive on his new motorcycle and they keep an eye on him when he's back safe.

Eventually, it's try-outs.

***

"You're sure you want to watch?" Captain Neil asks for the 3rd time since FF had stated the night before over dinner that he intended to come to practice to watch the try-out.

"Yeah Captain Neil." FF answers dutifully.

"You really don't have to come." Captain Neil implores again as they continue towards the Court.

"I want to." FF offers a half smile to Captain Neil. It'd be better to know what he's dealing with. He may have decided that he doesn't really care about the fact that Daniel is here since he has faith in his friends but he also would probably die if he sat around waiting for the news.

So he gets to the Court and Kevin hands him a new shake. "This one actually tastes almost good." Matt says with a smile. He takes the same seat next to Coach Wymack he'd taken over the last couple weeks as the team changed out.

Daniel was there bright and early already kitted out. He sees Daniel see him but Coach Wymack stepped between them when Daniel starts to move towards them, "Keep going with your warm-up Stanton." Coach Wymack orders.

Daniel gives Coach Wymack a pleading look but he must not see what he wants on Wymack's face because he scowls at Wymack and FF before he returns to stretching.

FF takes a sip of his smoothie.

He doesn't know if the smoothie is actually good, if his mouth tastes like ash, or his tastebuds are so obliterated from having drank all the previous smoothies that he can no longer understand what tastes good or bad anymore.

There's someone in the stands. "University sent someone to make sure the try-out is fair." Coach Wymack explains as he settles on the bench next to FF.

Eventually the rest of the Foxes are out, "We have a potential new recruit with us this morning. He will be trying out for the position that Lisa left open." Wymack explains and FF is shocked to see almost the entire team glowering at Daniel. (His upperclassmen friends he had expected, but Jack, Sheena, and his old roommates seem unamused by Daniel's presence).

Wymack gives the practice to Captain Neil to run.

FF sits back and watches the practice unfold.

He sips his drink.

Huh.

"Christ," he hears Coach Wymack mutter under his breath. "What kind of confidence did that kid have to argue for this try-out playing like that?" Coach Wymack asks in stunned awe as he turned to him, "Did he even ever play Exy before?" he asks.

FF sips his drink.

"I said he was athletic." he says and had figured that would have carried Daniel through. He figured if he didn't know the rules and could play at a Division 1 Collegiate level well then it's not like Daniel had zero chance.

Coach Wymack groans, "Kevin is going to kill that kid." he says and it is amazing how poorly Daniel is doing at the precision passing drill.

FF blinks in surprise before he turns his attention to the player standing still watching over the drill.

FF can feel the fury radiating off of Kevin Day.

Huh.

MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU

NEXT