#i've been meaning to try out advance wars too
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rimeiii · 4 months ago
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Huh. Isn't the first one basically base WHB, a tower defense game? Just without moving characters around...which by then you just have Arknights, unless you're LITERALLY doing PvZ...? Which, don't get me wrong, would still be an amazing concept (Arknights is one of the best tower defense games out in the market rn imo, and also included a cheeky PvZ pool level reference in DH-EX-4), but would love to see this concept fleshed out even more honestly.
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Actually wait OP sorry let me ramble-
Would the playable units be generic demons? What sort of roles would the demon generals play, if any? Or would we have a sort of Advance Wars situation, where each demon general grants a unique set of buffs to their units and perhaps even having a general-specific skill (like the CO skills in Advance Wars), so picking the proper general for each stage becomes necessary?
Would the units all do ranged damage or would there also be melee units? Base PvZ had mostly ranged attackers (the only exceptions being the close-ranged instant kills and Spikeweed/Spikerock), though PvZ2 added more traditional melee plants like Bonk Choy. Arknights makes the distinction between ranged and melee tiles clear, except for some stages that get rid of the restriction completely, and targeting priority AND ability differs between classes. Melee units prioritize enemies they block, but most of them normally can't target airborne enemies (except Lord Guards, Agent Vanguards, and Sentry Protector Defenders). On the other hand, ranged units can attack all enemies except for Flinger Snipers who can't target airborne enemies, but a lot of them have different targeting priorities. In specific cases, some unit skills and passives change targeting completely.
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Would there be a deployment cost? If you're going the PvZ or Arknights route, where you're going to be planting multiple of the same unit (PvZ)/deploying and redeploying units multiple times (Arknights), then you need to balance deployment cost and point generation. Part of this is deciding whether or not you'll have a class specifically geared towards generating these deployment points. PvZ has the Sun generator plants, Arknights has Vanguards to generate Deployment Points.
You'll also need to balance the natural gain of these deployment points - too fast and they'll render deployment point generators worthless, too slow and you'll be wholly reliant on these generators (which you'll likely have difficulty getting on the field in a timely fashion anyways). Then again, another way to balance it is to have some way to ensure natural deployment point generation is sufficient, either through using a system like The Battle Cats or Merc Storia (which allows you to increase your deployment point generation) or having sufficient natural regeneration so you won't need any units dedicated to deployment point generation (which is notable in Arknights players specializing in certain niches that do not have any Vanguards available, like using only a specific class or race).
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Why does this matter? Imagine sending out a strong yet squishy DPS and a tanker again and again and again without any cooldown AND cost as soon as they die. That'll break the game! It would be like having premier boss-killer Surtr ready to redeploy without any increased deployment cost after her forced retreat upon using her skill (insane Arts damage but with steadily increasing HP drain). More recently, Texas the Omertosa and Kirin R Yato are considered some of the best units in the game, having insane DPS paired with their low redeployment time and relatively low base cost as Executor Specialists (base 10 - the next lowest base cost 6* character with insane DPS would be Mlynar at 12, whose main thing as a Liberator Guard is that he won't attack and block unless you use his skill). There is a reason why they are often used in a lot of high-difficulty content.
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I could add more but hhh I'm just gonna shut up for now, I rambled too much-
What in Hell Is Bad: Fangames
Gehenna: Plants Vs Zombies except you're strategically placing devils while angels are coming to kill you.
Tartaros: Crime sim, like a cross between GTA and Venture Capitalist. Starts with summoning Mammon because you're a petty thief, desperate for money. He takes a liking to you and makes a deal to help you accumulate crazy wealth. You start with small petty crimes and work your way up to fraud and other blue collar crimes, unlocking Tartaros devils with helpful abilities as you go.
Hades: A spooky puzzle game, vibes like Amnesia: Dark Descent and We Were Here. You're lost in an extremely haunted castle with funky dimensional shenanigans. It doesn't seem like there's anyone there... but you can't shake the feeling of being watched... Could it be the paintings of the beautiful man you keep seeing? Was that a tentacle disappearing around a corner?! As you go through solving chains of puzzles and solving mysteries, you meet Hades devils and gain their favor. The ultimate goal, you find, is to free Leviathan... whether he immediately kills you (bad end), throws you out alive (good end), or something else (secret end), depends on your actions and progress throughout the game.
Avisos: Cooking game. Accidental Beel summoning results in having to cook dishes so he doesn't eat you. As your skills improve, he wanders in and out and so do the other Avisos devils looking for him.
Paradise Lost: Wacky hospital game.
Niflheim: Puzzle platformer. Belphegor is tired and yeets you into funky pocket dimensions so he can nap. You unlock Niflheim devils and special abilities as you go. Cartoony and goofy.
Abaddon: Doki doki dating sim. You think it's going to be crazy kinky, but everyone just wants to be loved.
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imsofreakingtired · 8 days ago
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After a brutal fight, you scream at Sevika, accusing her of caring more about Silco than she ever did about you, and she agrees and calls you a distraction.
when you leave she regrets it but she’s to late
my god i love that. thanks for the prompt!
the cut that always bleeds
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content warning(s): wives fighting 😔
"i don't love you anymore, a pretty line that i adore five words that i've heard before 'cause you keep me on a rope and tied a noose around my throat you're gone, then back at my door"
~~~
It had finally happened.
You’re sure of it, and it makes you go cold all over.
Your head is heavy from lack of sleep, but you can’t even stand the thought of lying down. Your heart’s pounding something awful in your chest, as if you’re waiting for the knock that would come any second, bringing the brutal news that you had lost your wife for good.
Sevika had promised you there was no external business tonight. She had promised that she would come directly home after the Chem-baron assembly, she had given her solemn word.
So either she was really dead, or—
The door swings open, hard, so that a thin rain of plaster and dust showers onto the floor. You see Sevika’s tall figure in the doorway.
You stand up.
“Shit,” Sevika mutters. “You spooked me. Why aren’t you asleep?”
Your voice is dangerously low. “Where have you been?”
Sighing heavily, Sevika takes off her cloak and throws it carelessly over the chair. “Silco needed me to take care of some loons trying to steal supplies near the harbor.” Without meeting your eye, she goes to the icebox and takes out a bottle of beer. “Then there was a misunderstanding with some fool merchant about a shipment for Topside—”
“Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?”
Sevika looks at you over the bottle. “What?”
“What,” you echo. “Very nice. What. Because you can run around all day, all night at Silco’s beck and call without a care in the world, and I can just sit here worrying myself sick, right?”
“Baby, don’t start. I’m not in the mood.”
“Don’t baby me.” You slam your fist against the table, causing the empty glasses to jump.
Sevika just looks at you. Her cool silence makes you angrier than any insult could have done.
“I must mean nothing to you, don’t I?” You yell. “Is it too much to fucking ask that you send a message in advance, telling me you’ll be late?”
Sevika tips the bottle back, draining the whole thing in one sip. Then she calmly set it down on the table.
“You think I like sitting up here alone until the fucking morning, not knowing whether you’re alive or dead? If I matter less to you than a fuckin’ object, what are you keeping me around for? You might as well save us both the trouble and stop off at Babette’s every night after work.”
“You’re right, maybe I should.”
A deathlike silence falls.
You stare at her, shaking slightly, as her words sink through the air between you like stones in deep water.
Sevika must have seen the way your face changed, the shock in your eyes, and she must have realized the weight of what she just said, because she tries to backtrack. But the damage is done.
“This isn’t a relationship,” you say quietly. “The relationship you’re in, the one you’re fucking devoted to, is with that man in the office above the Last Drop. Just say so.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Fuck you!” You scream.
Sevika stands quickly, her eyes stony with anger. “What did you expect, then?” she says harshly. “Tell me. What’d you expect—honeymooning around the riverside, flying off to Noxus, for Janna’s sake? We’re at the brink of war.”
“Is that what you think? What am I, your fucking toy bride?”
“You’re not a toy,” she snaps. “You’re a distraction.”
A moment passes before you repeat, “a distraction.”
She glares at you. “Silco was right,” she says. “This whole thing—you—it was all just holding me back.”
The slap rings through the empty room.
Sevika stands unmoving, like she’s carved from stone. You watch her, eyes burning, palm stinging, waiting for a reaction, waiting for her to hit you back, yell at you, curse you out—anything. Anything to show that she felt something.
But she doesn’t say a word.
You shake your head, slowly. “You’re a jackass.”
Still no answer.
You turn on your heel and storm into the bedroom you shared with Sevika. You rip your few spare pieces of clothing off the hooks on the walls and roll them violently into a bundle, then stride back into the front room and yank open the door. Sevika is still standing in the same place, staring at the floor as if holding a silent argument with the floorboards.
Before you leave, you turn and say, “Sevika.”
She looks at you.
“You’re the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
The door slams behind you.
~~~
Sevika listens to the dust settle. She stands in the dark room, feeling strange and vaguely angry. Suddenly she lets out a yell and grabs the empty beer bottle and hurls it against the wall. It shatters upon impact, the shards dancing across the floor.
Sevika stands, unsteady on her feet, swaying slightly. She grabs the back of a chair, ready to break it as well, then changes her mind and goes to take out another bottle of liquor.
Soon the world is comfortably fuzzy and nothing was ever real, your voice fades pleasantly into the back of her head like the thin buzz of electricity...
~~~
Sevika wakes up among glass shards and splintered wood. Her head throbs like it’s ready to split open. She sits up with a groan, blinking in the daylight seeping through the small window. What time was it? Why was she sleeping on the floor? Why hadn’t you woken her up?
There had been this strange, funny dream she had…this dream where you were real mad at her…she should tell you.
Then she sees the open door of the bedroom, and the empty bed beyond it. Then she remembers—the fight, your anger, the sharp sting of your hand against her cheek. “No,” she mumbles to herself. She gets to her feet clumsily, staggering. “No.”
Stupidly she goes into the bedroom, as if you might be hiding somewhere in the corner or beneath the bed. She sees the empty hooks on the wall. She walks back out and opens the front door, looking up and down the apartment hall. She calls out your name in a hoarse voice.
But you’re not there.
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cosmerelists · 3 months ago
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Favorite Video Game Genres of Cosmere Characters
As requested by @thesternest :)
1. Silence
Silence: Don't know why, really, but I like casual games, games that are just like real life. Silence: Something about doing your daily life, but in game form--very relaxing. William Anne: Uh, mama? I think "Silent Hill" is a survival-horror game. Silence: It is? How so?
2. Marasi
Marasi: [Looks around nervously] Marasi: I...well, I like first-person shooters. Marasi: I-I just like to pretend I'm in the Roughs, like Wax! Marasi: I don't want to be Wax in real life or anything, but...it can be fun in a game!
3. Dalinar
Dalinar: In real life, war is a terrible necessity. Dalinar: In games, war is fun. Dalinar: ... Dalinar: I like tactical RPGs.
4. Vin
Vin: Huge fan of platform games. Vin: Jumping from ledge to ledge, controlling my speed and trajectory, occasionally swinging from hooks or managing double jumps... Vin: It's just like moving through the city as a Mistborn! Elend: Your high-score is RIDICULOUS, Vin! Vin: I'm also REALLY good at it.
5. Yumi
Yumi: I wasn't allowed video games for a long time, but now that I can play them... Yumi: [eyes sparking] I've become a HUGE fan of visual novels! Yumi: It's like Seasons of Regret, only *I* can be the one making the choices!
6. Leshwi
Leshwi: Like many Fused and Singers, I find myself quite taken with Rhythm games. Leshwi: Now that it is no longer appropriate for me to fight the Windrunners, I do like to challenge them to Dance Dance Revolution instead. Kaladin: OH COME ON I DEFINITELY HAD THAT Leshwi: I always win.
7. Steris
Steris: I used to think games were a waste of time, but then Wax introduced me to these construction simulators. Steris: My city is a paradise with excellent infrastructure, logical layout, and plenty of greenspace. Wayne: You should try to mod that makes a tsunami hit your city! Steris: Oh please, I beat that mod yesterday on my first try.
8. Navani
Navani: Recently, I've gotten into Tower Defense games. Sibling: I can defend myself, thank you very much.
9. Vivenna
Vivenna: Love a good roguelike. Vivenna: It's something about trying it over and over again until you're perfect. Vivenna: The victory is sooo sweet when you've worked hard to achieve it, dying many times. Siri: Oh me too!! I especially like Hades--the art is AMAZING. Vivenna: (scoffs) You mean a rogue-lite? Siri: I'm telling you--you should try one! Getting powerups in between runs is pretty sweet. Vivenna: Hedging out a difficult victory after hours of blood, sweat and tears is also fun! Siri: If you say so...
10. Lightsong
Lightsong: Soooo addicted to Candy Crush. Lighsong: Can't even tell you why. Llarimar: Perhaps your divine eye is drawn to the bright colors. Lightsong: Whatever makes you feel better, Scoot.
11. Adolin
Adolin: Lately I've become completely engrossed with life simulators. Adolin: I make my character get up, make breakfast, go to work, go on dates, learn the piano... Adolin: WHY IS IT SO ADDICTING?? Shallan: This may be a sign that your actual life is incredibly stressful and the allure of a simple, daily life is drawing you in? Adolin: No, that doesn't sound right... Shallan: You want to date a bisexual vampire? Adolin: ...That could be it.
12. Rlain
Rlain: I'm quite taken with these cozy farming games. Rlain: You just build a nice farm, meet the villagers, explore around. Renarin: Rlain, please, it's been six hours! Rlain: Just one more day...
13. Tress
Tress: I've been enjoying survival games! Tress: It's fun to gather and cook and build a base! Tress: A little bit unrealistic, because the rain doesn't make anything explode, but I guess they wanted to make it easier than real life, not harder.
14. Shallan
Shallan: It has to be MMOs for me. Shallan: I like a game where I can do pretty much anything I want. Shallan: Advance the story, collect every type of mushroom, fill in the whole map... Shallan: Plus, I like leveling every class and giving each one their own outfit and personality. Veil: You named the rogue after me, I see. Shallan: It's a compliment.
15. Kelsier
Kelsier: There's only one type of game for me: and that's a game where the name of the, uh, game is survival. Kelsier: And I especially like it when you have to survive as a team. Kelsier: Especially against great odds--like lots and lots of real-life players. Kelsier: Yup, yup. Kelsier: It's all about Fornite for me.
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partycatty · 1 year ago
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we back with another request⁉️
can be old or young (mk11 or mk1) johnny your pick, but what if fem!reader and johnny are sparring (likely in private, but if they wanna be risky go ahead) and reader is losing.
sooo, she flashes him her titties as a distraction and ends up getting him pinned. you can turn it into smut or end it there, your pick
love your writing 💙💙
DEAR GOD YOURE SO FUCKING RIGHT ALL THE TIME ILY, i had a SLIIIIGHTLY different image for this so HEAR ME OUT
johnny cage > eyes on the prize
warnings: Oh, these? My boobies? My massive fucking titties? My super stuffed milkies? My honker bonker doinky boinkies? My fucking fabric stretching wind flapping gravity welling sex mounds? You mean these super duper ultra hyper god damn motherfucking tits?
[ part 2 ] [ masterlist ]
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after the time merger, your boss seems uneasy seeing his younger self parade around the compound like he owns the place. you're unfortunately put up to the task as babysitting him.
"private," the older counterpart summons you to the center of the room. "keep an eye on him for me, yeah? he's... well, he's me, and i don't trust him one bit." you both glance over to younger johnny, who is kicking his feet up and browsing IMDB - his own page, to be specific - with no regard for authority. you nod and walk off, approaching the younger star who doesn't notice you at first.
"mr. cage," you try to get his attention, leaning down to his level as he sits. johnny tears his eyes away from the screen to catch a good look at you in your uniform, pulling his sunglasses down his hooked nose. "captain cage requested i accompany you around the compound for safety as the time merge is figured out."
"oh, i'll follow you anywhere, beautiful," he replies smoothly, clicking and winking up at you. your face heats up, this is your... almost-boss. this version wasn't with sonya, doesn't have a kid. a part of you wonders if your present johnny also finds you attractive if this is how his younger version behaves. you'd always found him hot, but that was something you kept to yourself for the sake of his family and your career.
johnny snaps in your face with a twisted expression. "hey, since you're here, the future sucks! i've been here for an hour and i haven't seen one jetpack. not one!" he holds a finger in your face, and you can't help but stare down at him in bewilderment. how did this man become the captain of the special forces??
his complaints sprout an idea, as you try to divert his annoyance. "the special forces compound contains plenty of advanced technology. would you care for a tour?" you suggest politely, gesturing out of the room.
johnny seems intrigued by your offer, willing to follow you around like a dog if it meant getting a good view of your ass the whole way. it's your figure that intrigues him the most.
"older me was a dumbass for not tappin' this," johnny very loudly exclaims as you two walk down a hallway, making you pinch the bridge of your nose. "i might have to alter my destiny... there's no way you fight with a pretty body like that."
"the members of S.F. are put through extensive physical training and discipline. i can fight, mr. cage," you reply curtly, not all too impressed by his catcalling, though his boldness amuses you.
"yeah?" he asks playfully, jogging in front of you to walk backwards as he glares at you through his shades. "care to prove it? you lose, you give me your number."
"and if you lose?" you question, crossing your arms.
"then i give you my number." jesus, he was dumb. hot, but dumb. it was impossibly hard to remain professional in front of him. you entertain his bait and open a side door that led to the garage. it was spacious and full of various tools, vehicles and weapons. the crew often met there for mass debriefs and announcements, but served as a perfect sparring location.
"you're on, dollface," johnny sneers, readying himself with an overdramatic flourished war cry. "but first, no handicaps. take all that off." he waves at your vest and various equipment strapped to you. you shake your head and sigh, readying your own pose after shrugging the extremities off and kicking them to the side. it was johnny in his coat giving you a delicious view of his chest, and you in your skin-tight underclothes. you figured regardless you'd have an advantage against johnny considering you were familiar with his fighting style, but his strength outmatched you easily. he was twice your size in muscle, after all. didn't really matter just how much studying you put into his mannerisms in combat.
his powers proved to be a significant advantage as well, doubling his strikes when most humans could only land one in the time it took. each punch you threw was parried embarrassingly easily, and each kick was matched with an even swifter swing.
despite being military trained, you couldn't help but find the fight fun. johnny would grab hold of you and spin you around, as if you were dancing, or flash one of his signature smiles at you when he felt more in charge. he'd cackle when you made a fool of yourself, swinging at nothing.
one of his backflip kicks infused with his powers knocked you straight on your ass, and johnny towers over you with a devilish grin. his legs are spread, with you on the floor between them as you catch your breath.
"do you yield, sweet thing?" he asks, bending forward to hover his face over yours. you cringe, holding your side as you try to get up, but johnny just places his boot on your chest. "you were all bark and no bite, sweetheart."
as you regain your composure, thoroughly displeased with the outcome of the battle, you get an absolutely evil idea.
"how about you get a bite of these?" you ask, smirking. your fingers find the hem of your shirt and pull upward, revealing your bra and your breasts spilling from the fabric as you lay on your back. the chill of the room defines the shape of your nipples through the bra, and johnny's eyes fixate - hard. his sunglasses comically slide down his nose and clatter to the floor, his puppy eyes wide and wanting at the sight of your barely clothed chest.
when you know for a fact he's transfixed, you swat his foot off of your chest and curl your body before placing a hard upward kick into his balls, making him yell out and stumble backward.
you stand up and brush yourself off, beaming at the actor for besting him at his own shallow game.
"you - ngh -" johnny whines and clutches his crotch, pointing a finger at you accusingly. "i yield."
you shrug innocently, reaching a hand out to him considering your positions were now fully swapped. "gotta keep your eyes on the prize, cage."
you hoist him up with a grunt, patting his shoulder.
"oh, believe me," he breathlessly chuckles. "i was." he smiles crookedly.
...did you just flash your soon-to-be-boss? is this gonna alter the timeline...?
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cirilla-fiona-riannon · 21 days ago
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Mitsuhide Akechi Sequel
Translations may not always capture the exact nuances or tone of the original text. Expect grammatical errors and inaccuracies.
Spoilers ahead. Not a full chapter translation.
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With a pale face, Sasuke nodded.
Sasuke: "The fact that Mitsuhide's name is starting to disappear from the travel guide suggests that possibility."
Sasuke: "If Mitsuhide vanishes from the stage of history, the cause of divine punishment will be gone, and you'll surely return to normal."
The trembling of my body suddenly stopped.
My fingertips had gone so cold I could no longer feel anything.
Mai: "Thank you for answering honestly."
Sasuke: "Mai, what I just mentioned is just one solution. It's not the only definitive answer."
Mai: "Yeah, I know."
(But it is the most straightforward solution.)
Mai: "I'll try to forget about this and come up with other ways."
Sasuke: "Okay. I'll keep looking into it, too."
Sasuke: "So, Mai, please don't dwell on this alone."
Mai: "Thank you."
Unable to say yes, I simply expressed my gratitude.
Sasuke: "!?"
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Sasuke: "Mai!?"
A flash of distress crossed Sasuke's face.
(I'm disappearing again!)
I quickly pulled out the necklace and rang the bell.
Sasuke: "Mai!"
Mai: "I'm fine, really!"
I shouted at the top of my lungs, wishing my voice would reach him.
Mai: "You take care too, alright? Thank you, Sasuke."
Perhaps he barely heard me, but Sasuke nodded in response.
Sasuke: "Don't forget, you have so many people on your side."
Mai: "Yeah!"
As I watched him walk away, I could no longer stand and collapsed to the floor.
Mai: "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'll definitely be okay."
I kept telling myself that over and over again, trying to muster the strength to get up.
(I'm scared, but even so, I'm glad I was able to face it.)
(Because now, I know how to avoid the worst outcome.)
This world no longer has a place for me.
The ground beneath me has disappeared, and I'm falling endlessly into darkness.
Fear engulfed me from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. And yet, at the same time, a glimmer of hope emerged—a way to protect the person I love.
(It's strange.)
(Even though the thought of the future terrifies me to the point I can hardly breathe...)
At this moment, I feel the happiest I've ever been in my life.
(Loving someone is full of contradictions.)
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Ranmaru: "I've brought Lady Mai."
Nobunaga: "Well done, Ranmaru."
Nobunaga: "You're there, aren't you, Mai?"
Mai: "Yes."
As I replied, the soft chime of a bell echoed, and Nobunaga nodded in acknowledgment.
The warlords, fully prepared for battle, wore determined expressions.
Scanning the hall, I quickly noticed the absence of someone I wanted to see.
(Mitsuhide isn't back yet.)
Although he'd been visiting whenever he found the time since the strange events began, he remained as elusive as ever. I haven't seen him since yesterday.
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Hideyoshi: "Mai came all the way here, and yet, where's that guy?"
Mitsunari: "Lord Mitsuhide won't be participating in this campaign."
Mai: "I see."
(So, he's off somewhere, hatching another plan.)
I offered a quiet prayer in my heart.
(I hope Mitsuhide can accomplish whatever he's aiming for.)
(And also, happiness and peace.)
Nobunaga: "Keiji, what's the situation with Kicho and the others?"
Keiji: "They've left Sakai and are advancing toward Azuchi."
Keiji: "According to reports from the scouts, the enemy forces are twice our number."
(That big of a difference!?)
Hideyoshi: "We can't divert forces from suppressing the rebellion. We'll face them with a select elite group."
Masamune: "Perfect. My sword's itching for some action."
Masamune spoke with a fearless grin, but my heart pounded uncontrollably.
(I'll never get used to war.)
(I mean, how could I? So much blood will be spilled.)
At this very moment, thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands, must be on the verge of screaming, consumed by the fear of losing someone precious.
(I'm one of them.)
(This pain of loss transcends enemies and allies.)
Just imagining the heartache of losing someone made my chest feel like it was being crushed.
Ieyasu: "Mai, I bet you're making a sad face right now. I can tell, even though I can't see it."
Mai: "Ieyasu..."
Ieyasu: "You don't need to worry about unnecessary things."
Mitsunari: "Lady Mai, we'll return safely. Every single one of us."
Mitsunari: "Knowing that someone is waiting for us gives us strength."
Mitsunari's words were met with nods of agreement from everyone around us.
Mai: "Okay. I'll wait for you guys."
(I'm glad I decided not to run away.)
Even though I was almost like a ghost, there were still people who needed me.
(We're not needed because we're useful; we need each other simply because we want to be there for one another.)
Keiji: "Well then, let's go make some noise!"
Nobunaga: "Do not falter, any of you."
Everyone: "Yes!"
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[Mai's Room, a few days later]
Mai: "Kicho and Motonari aim to undermine Lord Nobunaga's power and keep the rebellions going."
Ranmaru: "Judging by how easily the enemy army retreated, that's likely their intention."
(They aim to disrupt the peace of this world itself.)
Mai: "But why? There's no benefit in that for Kicho or Motonari."
Ranmaru: "I have no idea."
Ranmaru: "Times like this make me wish we could consult an expert in scheming."
Ranmaru muttered this with a look of pure frustration on his face.
(Does Mitsuhide know about Kicho and Motonari's movements?)
Ranmaru: "Lady Mai, if Lord Mitsuhide comes here, will you let him know?"
Ranmaru: "Tell him Lord Nobunaga and everyone are waiting for him. He needs to show up."
Mai: "Alright, I will."
After Ranmaru left, the only sound that remained was the howling wind outside.
(It feels like a storm is coming.)
The room started growing darker, so I lit a candle, but the draft caused the flame to flicker wildly.
My shadow, dancing along with the candlelight, appeared faint and thin.
(I don't have much time left.)
(Mitsuhide hasn't returned to Azuchi yet, so tonight's my chance.)
(I need to do whatever I can to avoid the worst outcome.)
I gathered only the bare essentials and wrapped them in a cloth bundle.
As I was preparing to leave—
???: "I'm coming in, Mai."
Mai: "!"
Masamune stepped into the room, his eye fixed intently on me.
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Masamune: "What are you doing?"
(How could he show up at the exact moment I didn't want anyone to see me?)
I forced a smile, desperately trying to hide my panic, and turned to face him.
Mai: "Just tidying up. I had some free time, so I thought I'd organize a bit."
Masamune: "Liar."
Mai: "Huh?"
He strode toward me in large steps, leaning in to meet my eyes directly.
Masamune: "You're planning to disappear, aren't you?"
(How does he know?)
I clutched the small bundle I'd just packed tightly to my chest.
Masamune: "Thought so."
Before I could even think of an excuse, he spoke with absolute certainty.
Masamune: "I had a bad feeling, so I came to check on you. Looks like I was right."
Masamune: "Now that I've caught you, explain yourself."
Mai: "............"
Masamune: "Relax. I won't tell Mitsuhide."
He even guessed why I hesitated to speak.
Defeated, I gave in.
(There's no way I can deceive him.)
(I can't tell him everything, but if I don't speak honestly, he'll never forgive me.)
I lowered my gaze, searching for the right words.
Compared to Masamune's bold and vivid shadow, mine wavered like ink dissolving into water.
Mai: "Being near yet unable to connect is just too lonely."
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Masamune: "............"
Mai: "If I know I'm no longer by everyone's side, maybe the pain will someday fade away."
Mai: "The sadness of not being able to touch someone, the pain of not being able to help, I thought that if I could just keep the good memories, that would be enough."
Masamune: "............"
Mai: "If I can't change the fate of disappearing, then at least I want to put an end to it myself."
Masamune: "So, you're going to leave here alone and say nothing?"
Mai: "Yeah."
(What scares me the most isn't the thought of becoming a ghost.)
(It's the thought that Mitsuhide might realize that if he disappears, my strange condition will be cured.)
I've come to believe that he would throw his life away without hesitation to save me, having loved me with such unrestrained devotion.
(If he disappears from this world, that would be the worst possible outcome for me.)
Mai: "Even if I leave here, I think I can somehow survive. I've been given enough strength to do that."
Mai: "Once I leave Azuchi and settle down, I'll send a letter."
It felt like a gaping hole had opened up in the center of my heart, and a dry wind was blowing right through it.
Masamune: "I understand your resolve."
Masamune: "That being said, I'll ask you again."
The intensity in Masamune's eye grew even stronger.
Masamune: "Is there no way I can steal you?"
(Masamune...)
(Was he serious about this?)
Mai: "Thank you, Masamune. I'm really grateful that you're trying to help, but there's nothing that can be done."
Mai: "I can't even control my own heart freely."
(Even if it's just for show, I can't be with anyone other than Mitsuhide.)
(I can't lie to my feelings, not even for a second.)
In this world, I fell deeply in love.
Love has become my backbone.
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Masamune: "I see. In that case, don't back down, Mai."
Mai: "-----!"
Struck by his commanding voice, I quickly lifted my head.
Masamune: "Even if the bullets run out or the sword breaks, as long as you don't turn your back, there's still a chance of victory."
Masamune: "You stay where your heart belongs, even if it's by force."
(Where my heart belongs…)
The strength drained from my body and the small bundle I was holding dropped with a soft thud.
The gaze that pierced the depths of my soul pried open the feelings I'd buried deep inside.
(I...)
Mai: "The truth is..."
Masamune: "............"
Mai: "The truth is, I don't want to go anywhere!"
Masamune: "Mai..."
The scream I let out never pierced the air, and my wavering shadow finally disappeared.
Still, I couldn't keep it bottled up any longer.
Mai: "I want to be by Mitsuhide's side, not knowing anything about my fate. I want us to live together!"
(I won't give in to this fate. I won't lose.)
I let the tears flow freely.
I wasn't sad. I was just so angry.
Masamune: "Are you crying?"
Mai: "Yeah, sorry."
Even the sobs I couldn't control didn't reach him now.
Masamune: "Cry as much as you want."
Masamune: "Once you've cried it all out, you'll be able to fight again."
Masamune smiled and placed his hand gently on my head.
The motion of his palm as he stroked the air above me was incredibly kind.
(He's patting my head.)
Masamune: "If you try to leave again, this time, I'll take you from Mitsuhide by force."
Masamune: "And it won't just be me. Hideyoshi, Ieyasu, Mitsunari, Keiji, Ranmaru, and Lord Nobunaga—they'll all come for you."
Mai: "T-That's..."
Masamune: "If that bothers you, then stay here."
Masamune: "Understood?"
Mai: "Thank you."
(I hadn't considered the consequences.)
(If I leave Azuchi, there will be people I'll make sad.)
(I've been cherished far more than I realized.)
Fear and happiness crashed into me at the same time, leaving me frozen, unable to move.
No matter how much I pretended to be strong, my heart shattered, revealing my weakness.
(I guess it's okay to still be uncertain.)
I'm determined to avoid the worst possible outcome, and I won't hesitate to do whatever it takes to prevent it.
(Maybe I can stay here just a little longer.)
As I stood there, unable to move, Masamune quietly let me cry as much as I needed.
In the hallway, a shadow listened intently to the sound of muffled sobs.
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Mitsuhide: "..........."
Without saying a word, Mitsuhide quietly left the spot without meeting Mai's eyes and departed Azuchi.
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A few days later, thick clouds covered Azuchi at night.
As the rain gradually intensified, the brightly lit hall of Azuchi Castle was filled with the gathered Oda warlords.
Nobunaga: "You're back, Mitsuhide."
Mitsuhide: "Yes."
Surrounded by generals in full armor, Mitsuhide, wearing an immaculate kimono with no stains, stood out more than usual.
Mitsuhide: "I was a little late due to personal matters."
Hideyoshi: "You left the battle against Kicho and Motonari and still show up here as if nothing happened."
Mitsuhide: "It wasn't a problem without me, was it?"
Mitsuhide: "In fact, the Oda army won in less than a day."
Hideyoshi: "Don't start making excuses."
Hideyoshi stood up, veins bulging on his forehead, and angrily confronted Mitsuhide.
Hideyoshi: "What were you doing leaving Mai behind?"
Mitsuhide: "I said it was a personal matter."
Hideyoshi: "I'm asking what exactly that matter was."
Even as Hideyoshi grabbed him by the collar, Mitsuhide maintained a cold smile.
Nobunaga & Ranmaru: "............."
Masamune & Keiji: "............."
Ieyasu & Mitsunari: "............."
The gazes of everyone gathered pierced through Mitsuhide as the sound of rain from outside grew louder and more intense.
Hideyoshi: "Speak. What were you doing?"
A growl-like voice escaped Hideyoshi's throat.
No one in the room attempted to stop him.
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Mitsuhide: "Let go of me. I won't be able to speak if you choke me."
Hideyoshi: "............"
Once Hideyoshi released his grip, Mitsuhide straightened his collar.
He then walked past Hideyoshi and approached Nobunaga, bowing deeply.
Mitsuhide: "Lord Nobunaga, I wish to resign from my position as a general of the Oda army."
Nobunaga: "..........."
Hideyoshi: "Ha?"
Masamune: "What kind of evil scheme is this now?"
Mitsuhide: "That's something I cannot say."
Hideyoshi: "You..."
Masamune: "Can't even tell us, huh?"
Ieyasu: "A rather honest answer for someone like you."
Mitsuhide: "I won't deny that."
Mitsuhide: "I can't say more, but I do thank you all. I appreciate everything you've done for me."
Hideyoshi: "Cut the jokes. It's not the time for that."
Keiji: "I don't think it's a joke. You should know better than anyone that he's not joking, Hideyoshi."
Mitsunari: "He's not someone who will listen to persuasion."
Mitsunari: "Even if you try to reason with him, he's already got his rebuttals lined up."
Mitsuhide: "You're sharp, Mitsunari. With you here, the Oda army's plans are in good hands."
Ieyasu: "And what about Mai? Does she agree with you?"
Mitsuhide: "I'll tell her myself and make her understand."
Ranmaru: "Do you really think she'll just accept that?!"
Ranmaru: "What happens to Mai if you leave?!"
Mitsuhide: "Mai and I are separate people."
Ranmaru: "-----!"
Mitsuhide: "Mai will follow her own path."
The warlords fell silent, and Mitsuhide quietly looked around at each of them before standing up.
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Mitsuhide: "Well then, this is where we part ways."
Nobunaga: "Mitsuhide."
Mitsuhide: "Yes?"
Nobunaga: "Have I strayed from my path?"
Mitsuhide: "No, never."
Mitsuhide: "It's simply that our paths have diverged."
Without looking back, Mitsuhide opened the door and left the hall.
The incoming dark clouds unleashed a violent rainstorm upon the castle.
[Castle's Hallway]
Masamune: "Wait."
Mitsuhide: ".........."
At the voice calling after him, Mitsuhide paused.
The cold hallway was dark, and the night air seemed to cling to both of them.
Mitsuhide: "I thought our conversation was over?"
Masamune: "I still have something I want to ask."
The murderous intent in Masamune's voice made Mitsuhide turn around.
His gaze, sharp as a blade, met Mitsuhide's.
Masamune: "It's your choice to part ways with us for the sake of your ambition, for your own righteousness, but have you truly severed your ties with Mai as well?"
Mitsuhide: "That's exactly what has happened."
Mitsuhide: "If you intend to take her, now is the time."
Masamune: "........."
Masamune: "Eavesdropping again, I see. Always a fine hobby of yours."
Masamune: "Are you really serious about this?"
Mitsuhide: "Of course."
Masamune: "Then you're a fool."
Masamune: "If I could take her, I would have done it long ago."
Mitsuhide: "Don't get so down. It's so unlike you."
Masamune: "You, on the other hand, are acting so much like yourself that it's almost nauseating."
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Mitsuhide: "Take it however you want."
Mitsuhide: "Tonight, our connection will be cut."
Masamune: "Is that so? If you're so sure about it, then..."
With a smooth, fluid motion, Masamune placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Masamune: "I'll cut off your limbs to make sure you don't leave."
Mitsuhide: "I'd appreciate it if you refrained from that."
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47 notes · View notes
enaelyork · 9 months ago
Note
Can we get a Cooper Howard x female reader fic where reader is in an abusive marriage and he helps her leave (by any means necessary)? Need him to get violent and defensive over me -swoon- and of course they end up together?
Thank you in advance!!
Hi my dear !
That's a good idea, i try to make something =) Let's go.
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Pre-war/ Divorced Cooper/ Cooper x f!reader.
Warning : Abusive mariage/ violences/ injuries.
Ask for Cooper Howard is OPEN
- I'm divorced.
What luck.
She looked around, as if arguing with him was a crime punishable by death. There was nothing wrong with that, though: Cooper had been her friend throughout her adolescence and they had lost touch until this filming. What a strange coincidence that fate decided to put him on her path again.
Him, so charming and luminous while she had decided to join the darkness.
- I don't know if you can call that luck.
She jumps. Damn, had she said those words out loud? Red comes to her face as she completely drinks her glass of champagne, pouring out apologies.
- It's not. No. I didn't mean such a thing. Really, I'm sorry. And don't think I'm unhappy with my husband, it's just that.
- You are here.
His voice made his blood run cold. A bit like every time she emerged behind his back. He was a shadow always lurking behind her, even when she couldn't see him. A shadow that terrified her. Had he seen it? Had he seen the mask of terror settle on her face? Had he noticed everything she tried to hide behind her long-sleeved dress in the middle of summer? He understood, by discovering this man, what was going on in his life.
- Oh, you're good, Travis. She said, trying to hide the hint of panic that distorted her voice. I guess you remember Cooper. We went to high school together and I now work with him on set.
His silence was worse than a sentence. He looked at Cooper with an undisguised desire to drag you away from him. But as usual, Travis, your perfect little husband, knew how to play his role perfectly in public.
- Y/N told me so much about you. I've seen your films, you know? I find you brilliant.
He had grabbed her hand and she had guessed the grimace that her husband was trying to hide. Cooper, for his part, had a glint in his eyes that she didn't know existed, a glint resembling anger. - Likewise, Travis. She is full of praise for you. It was totally false.
He had just discovered her husband's identity and the only thing he could have seen during the early stages of filming was how important it was for her to finish on time. How important it was that we didn't see her smiling in any public photos, or even her own shadow. How important it was that she was invisible.
- I think Y/N and I are going home, right, darling? She nodded automatically: it was the only thing she was allowed to do when he gave her an order and her hand gripped his arm so tightly that a grimace of pain tied her mouth.
- We hadn't finished our discussion.
No one around them suspected what was going on, there, in the middle of the large gala hall in which the producer had decided to give a reception. It was going to turn into a fiasco, soon, if they continued to stare at each other like two animals ready to devour each other.
- It's finished. Darling. We're going back.
She wanted to protest. Telling him that she wanted to stay with Cooper and continue to be herself. Simply live. But she didn't have the strength, at no time had she had the courage to say no, to take her things and leave. Which made her, in his eyes, more worthless than she had ever been. Her eyes met Cooper's, and she hoped she wasn't too pathetic when her husband's impulse pulled her away from him. But his gaze, the one that looked at her at that precise moment, will probably haunt her for the rest of her life.
What a terrible irony.
--------------------------------
They never spoke about it again.
Cooper had tried, between two scenes, at every pause, to discuss the incident with her, but Y/N kept dodging the question. She knew that if she were to confess the horror to him, she would never be strong again. And then it was Cooper. How would he view her if he learned how ruined her life was? How would he look at her, compassion or, worse, pity?
No, that was out of the question. You were hitting on him, you little whore. The violence of his words and gestures still resonated within her several weeks before.
The suffering was so firmly anchored in her that she had done everything possible to avoid being found wanting: walking along the walls of the film set like a ghost, she did not linger after the day and returned directly to the House. But that wasn't enough anymore.
Travis became more demanding of her every day, more possessive too, going so far as to control his own appearance.
- I wish you would resign. He dropped this bombshell over breakfast, a few months after filming began.
- Sorry ?
Without looking up from his newspaper, his feet resting on the table and ignoring the pancakes she had just prepared for him, he continued his cruel sentence.
- You heard what I just said. I was nice to you by letting you work for my friend Jim, but you screwed it up again. You are not capable of doing what I ask you. You're not capable of anything, in fact.
- You can't ask me that, Travis, please. I like my job. I'm sorry, just tell me what to do.
Without her expecting it, the newspaper flew towards her, slapping her face violently. A cry of surprise, immediately muffled by the violence with which he grabbed her arm.
- You see, that’s the problem with you. You are so stupid that you don't even understand when you exceed the limits. If you had listened to my demands from the start you wouldn't be here. So tonight, you better quit that job. Did you understand ?
She had nodded, hoping that this way he would finally let go, that her blood would be able to circulate in her arm again. But he threw it back with such violence that her body hit the kitchen shelf, knocking down a few cups which shattered on the floor.
- And put it away! Always making a mess.
It wasn't long after he left that tears flooded her eyes.
---------------------------------------------------------
Nothing had gone as planned that day.
After tidying up the kitchen, cleaning the sores that dotted her skin, Y/N had arrived on set late. A delay that had not escaped Cooper and his suspicious gaze. He shouldn't have known anything. However, while she was trying to flee, he followed her in the corridor leading to her dressing room, trying to call her in vain.
Don't turn around. Don't turn around.
But when he blocked the door to her den, preventing her from taking refuge there, Cooper not only discovered her distress. He saw her eyes red with tears, her hands bruised and, worst of all, fear flooding her irises.
- It's him ?
Y/n's lips began to tremble like never before, not even her legs were still able to keep her upright. So, without her having time to understand what was happening to her, her body abandoned her. Her mind tried to live in denial but nothing else in her could reject the evidence.
It was destroyed. Yet her legs never touched the ground, her body did not shrivel against the wall. Because the warmth of Cooper's arms enveloped her in a feeling she hadn't known in a long time.
Sweetness.
So she forgot everything. The fear, anguish and guilt she felt at being in such a situation. She forgot the pain that ached her arm and shoulders and, instinctively, she hugged him, hoping that this way he would keep her alive.
- You have to leave, Y/N.
Filming had been suspended today and Jim had believed Cooper's lies about feeling unwell. However, she did not return home, remaining locked in this lodge as in a bastion.
Leave ? The idea had already crossed his mind. It would have been so simple if she didn't depend on Travis for a whole bunch of things. Being an actress was not an easy job and the income was irregular at such a stage of her career. So she rejected the idea, shaking her head vehemently.
-I can not do that.
- Of course yes. You can. Just gather your things and go.
- How ? Eh ? Do you think he won't stop me? Really, it's impossible.
Cooper had no intention of stopping there. She knew it. But what could he understand about her life? He who had a happy marriage and whose divorce had gone smoothly? She knew that he was on good terms with his ex-wife for the well-being of his daughter, that this divorce had gone smoothly because they had realized that they no longer aspired to same thing. Barb had been an exemplary wife, their marriage had been based on mutual trust and they had separated on good terms.
So what could he understand about her life? Why did he seem so heavily affected by his situation?
-I will help you.
She raised her head. Had she really heard what he had just suggested to her? A nervous laugh escaped her lips before she stared at his determined expression. Was he serious?
-You go pack your bags and I'll come pick you up.
- To go where ? I have nowhere to go, Coop! My friends don't talk to me anymore and you saw the way he reacted when we...
Her words died in her mouth, realizing that she had called him by his nickname for the first time and that she hadn't completely rejected the idea.
- I can talk to Barb about it. She has friends in the region who will certainly be delighted to host you. He paused, visibly hesitant to finish his sentence.
-There is room at my house.
- At your house ?
There was nothing in her stomach but butterflies trying to escape. Had he really just asked her to live with him? It took her breath away, so much so that she had to blink several times to make sure she was awake.
- You would have your privacy, obviously. But it’s a base not too far from work until you can find a place of your own.
She had grabbed his hands without realizing it, as if to hold on to a rampart before falling into the void. Cooper had just offered to live with him, and the idea brought a little warmth to her completely bruised heart.
- He's not going to like this idea at all.
- But it's the only option for you to get out of this, Y/N. I don't know how you feel about this man, but for your own well-being you need to leave.
She didn't know it. What she did know, however, was the effect Cooper had on her life. It wasn't just savior syndrome. Since seeing him again on that set, something inside her had cracked, a shell that she had tried to erect to prevent herself from loving anyone, including herself.
- It's OK. She finally gave in.
The smile Cooper gave her then would stay in her mind for a long time.
- Should I contact Barb?
- No. It's with you that I want to live.
Realizing too late the fervor of her words, she put her hands over her mouth to prevent her from saying something even worse.
- If you agree, of course...I...I don't want to impose myself. Oh, god, I'm so sorry.
- You no longer have to apologize for being yourself, Y/N. It's all over now.
His hands were still in hers and Y/N wondered why he didn’t take them out as soon as he had the chance. Sitting face to face, they looked at each other in a strange silence, charged with a gentle and soothing tension. A deep relief came over her at that precise moment.
She was going to leave. Leave with Cooper. And she could no longer hold back her tears.
------------------------------------
- Did you do what I asked you?
- Of course.
No.
She hadn't done any of that. She had neither resigned nor decided to cut ties with anyone. Instead, she came home in the afternoon to pack a suitcase and wait. Wait for the right moment. Travis had a charity event that night. A gala to which he had not invited her. Pretending that she had no place there. So much the better.
This was the perfect opportunity to put the plan into action. This evening, Travis showed no attention towards her. Yet that was what he did when he had obtained satisfaction: a tender gesture, a chaste kiss on her cheek.
He just brushed his fingertips against her shoulder, a movement that sent a jolt of terror through her.
-Don't wait for me to eat, I'll be back very late.
And silence returned almost immediately, freeing his heart from the vice that was compressing it. It didn't take long for her to contact Cooper, take down the suitcase she had hidden in the attic and come back down to the forecourt.
When she finally saw the car appear, a wind of relief chased away the fear that still held her back.
Then she froze.
Terrorized.
It wasn't Cooper's car.
He had come back. He had forgotten something and came back to get it.
- What are you doing here ? His voice was laced with a rage she had never seen before. A destructive, petrifying rage.
- I…Travis…
- What are you doing here with this damn suitcase?
The kick sent the latter flying to the other side of the sidewalk. Usually, Travis didn't show any aggression towards her in public, but this time, discovering her outside with a suitcase in her hand had got the better of his legendary self-control.
-Did you want to leave? Did you want to do this dirty trick to me, little whore?
She was screaming. She hoped that someone would come out of these nice little tidy houses to get her out of there. But nothing. Not a single neighbor wanted to get involved in this carnage and she was going to pay dearly for it.
He pushed her violently, causing her to fall onto the lawn in their garden. The pain pierced her back so violently that it took her breath away, but when his hand grabbed her hair, she screamed so loudly that her voice hoarse.
- Shut your mouth ! Shut your fucking mouth! Piece of…
Travis didn't have time to finish his sentence. Something had stopped him.
A violent shock that had just hit his jaw, forcing him to release his grip on her hair.
-Cooper!
- Get in the car. Hurry up.
She wanted to cry, to stand there and watch Travis wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. But the fear that still animated her gave her the impetus to flee without looking at what was happening before her eyes.
Cooper had arrived and he had just hit Travis with such force that he could barely keep his balance.
- I'm going to find you, bitch! he exclaimed towards her. But Cooper's hand grabbed him so tightly by the collar that he couldn't take another step.
- You're not going to do anything at all, because if you try to approach her again, I can't guarantee you that I'll settle for a punch.
He violently pushed Travis away, letting him fall to the ground before turning around. At that moment, Y/N became aware of her husband's weakness. He had been merciless with her because she was fragile, that was the only reason he had fun with her.
And it was over.
151 notes · View notes
endursent · 4 months ago
Text
- God Shattering Star
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【 content; morax | rex lapis x reader , slow burn , mutual pining , multi-chapter , archon war period , afab!reader 】
【 summary; You have always been sensitive to the foul miasma left behind by dead gods, the terrible energy that seeps into the earth and poisons any living creature that comes into prolonged contact with it. You've made a living of cleansing and purifying these energies from humans and fields in small villages in exchange for food, places to sleep and clothing, you had just settled in a particularly affected village when you are suddenly summoned to the palace of the gods of this land and have no choice but to accept.
Through corruption and war, Morax can only hope the stones of the earth are steadier than your fate, plagued by a sudden misfortune that threatens your balance on solid ground. 】
【 note; this is an ongoing fic i've been posting on ao3 and decided to post it here too. please keep in mind that this is a multi-chapter slow burn, this is the first chapter, and i'll be posting the others over the next days to not clog the tags. read it here on ao3 if you're impatient, it might also be a good idea to look at the tags while you're there. 】
【 word count; 5.322 | next chapter | masterlist 】
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- Chapter 1 - Left in the Woods
“Please… stay still,” you practically plead with the small boy, he’s barely a child and is currently wailing and pulling on your sleeve as you try to cure his ailment. His mother is on the other side of the bed, prying his small hands off of your clothes to let you work, but the loud crying makes it difficult to focus.
 “I’m sorry, he doesn’t usually cry like this, Si Leng is a polite boy,” his mother apologises, holding the boy’s hands gently, her greying hair is disheveled and sticks to her forehead as she tries to calm her son down with soothing strokes of her thumbs over his small hands.
 You shake your head but say nothing, you don’t have much time to extract the miasma from the boy’s skin before it seeps deeper. His mother had barged into your home holding him as he wailed and cried, a dead bird in his dirty hands–you had instantly sensed the foul energies clinging to the bird, and now seeped into Si Leng’s body. His skin is pale and the dark taint visibly wriggles under his skin, having wormed its way into a cut on his knee he got from playing this morning after having held the bird for so long. How the bird came to near seep with corruption was something you intended to find out after finishing your first task.
 The corruption is spreading from his knee, prodding at his skin, you judge the distance both by Si Leng’s increase in crying–it really isn’t helping your focus, but you can’t blame him–as well as the way his skin softens where the area is affected, like poking pudding. You reach for a small cart next to you and bring out an old bell, the bottom is rusted and chipped, but it works better than any newly crafted bell the village chief has gifted you. The chime causes the darkened slithers of the corruption to jolt back, then return their advance, and jolt back as it chimes again. Si Leng’s hands fly to his ears as it chimes, it sounds short and unimpressive to your and his mother’s ears, but the taint in his body increases his sensitivity fourfold, especially to blessed tools.
 As the darkness jolts and twitches, you dip your brush in the ink next to where the bell had been, and utter under your breath as you paint intricate lines over his thigh and calf, in the middle of an uncompleted circle around his leg, you drag the brush into a character that seals the circle. The corruption touches the ink, but doesn’t progress, it’s confined to the area of his knee, and just a bit above and below.
 Si Leng’s mother watches carefully, relief in her dark eyes as the spread halts. “Ah, thank you, it’s–”
 “It’s not done, please be quiet,” you don’t mean to sound harsh, but the extraction requires a lot of focus and having someone talk to you is probably the largest distraction you face when cleansing. “Hold him tightly, he will squirm and thrash,” you warn, setting your brush aside and taking a jar from the same cart. Holding your palm over his knee, you close your eyes and take a breath, searching the energy in his body, trailing the lines down to his knee–there, you fist your hand and Si Leng’s wail turns to a scream.
 “W-why!?” his mother cries, holding him into a sitting position so she can encircle his torso better, the little boy’s hands clutching at his mother once more and tighter than before. “Why is he screaming?”
 The extraction takes your utmost focus, so you don’t reply–or really listen, anticipating questions. You usually purify or extract such miasma from objects or fields of wheat, not people, thus there never been a mouth to scream with and the sound is difficult to adjust to… a scream as a result of your work makes every nerve in your body twitch and demand you stop, but you press on regardless, stopping in the middle of a cleansing would only make the spread worse. Dark tendrils akin to thick mist flow from the deep scratch on his knee and into the jar, it takes almost eight minutes of focus and careful extraction to pull the last of the taint from his leg and as soon as the last is out, you shut the jar and slap a paper talisman over it–it’s a temporary solution, dispersing it will come later.
 Si Leng doesn’t stop crying–he does stop screaming–but seems more aware of his surroundings, enough to cling to his mother like a lifeline. It’s not unsurprising the poor boy still cries, all he knows is that it hurt and the lady at the end of the street made it hurt more before it was finally gone. You wouldn’t be surprised if he bolts away after seeing you on the street for a few weeks.
 You let out a breath, feeling as if you had just run five laps around the village and took a dip in the cold springs down the hill… but it was done. You set the jar aside and stood to set your hands in a basket of water, rinsing them before drying as Si Ling’s mother calmed him down, he fell asleep in only a few minutes. “Thank you,” his mother lifted him up and held against her chest, his head pressed into her shoulder. “I’ll fetch payment straight away, I don’t know how this happened, he was just playing in the woods with his brother–they never go further than the stream.”
 You walk to the burning incense on the table, set up to cleanse the air and ensure the corruption couldn’t escape if anything went wrong before the extraction could begin, but now that it was over it only made the house feels stuffed, the thick smell of the incense made your nose tickle if it stayed for too long, you place the burning end in the small bowl of sand next to it and open a window, waving your hand slightly to usher it out. “Could you ask your oldest son where they went? I need to investigate what happened to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
 “Of course! I’ll be back momentarily!” she nodded and bowed thrice before hurrying out of your home, you stepped outside and meant to tell her the recovery process… but if she’s coming right back, there’s no need to rush after her.
 Closing the door behind you, your eye catches the deceased bird laying on your kitchen table–it was practically reeking darkness and foul energies, surely it didn’t gain all of this from around here? Your village is small and tucked against a tall mountain south inside the Guili Assembly, just a two day trek to the “disputed” border to the next territory. Every few weeks the Millelith Brigade would pass by either coming to or leaving the border, it was a line of tall mountains, and every so often either side would inch over the top and gain the higher ground, ensuring their position until the next storm drove them off and the other would regain it. They would occasionally come to your village for small things that the village could afford, they even brought two strange artifacts to you once that were steeped with corruption–the amount of mora plopped in your hands after cleansing them was enough to let you travel east and shop in the larger town closer to the ocean for produce that wasn’t readily available in your small village.
 Could the bird have flown from there? The situation wasn’t particularly perilous at the moment, or so you’ve heard in passing, so why would such dark energies gather there? Perhaps it came from somewhere else…
 As you consider where it must have come from and try to ignore the exhaustion that pulls your muscles downwards–as if it wants to pull you into the earth–you prod at it’s body and examine the flow of the corruption, you were about to reach for your bell when a knock comes from the door. Expecting it to be Si Leng’s mother–you never quite got her name, she lives alone with her two boys and primarily sews… she even has a small box you can put your clothing into with your name on a wooden slab wrapped inside and she’ll have her sons bring it back when she’s done–you don’t make a move to turn around, merely calling for them to enter.
 “I apologise for the intrusion… but is this the village exorcist’s home?” an unfamiliar voice says, you turn and see a man in your doorway. He has slicked back brown hair and wears common travel clothes, a bamboo box on his back and a hat of the same material on top of it, there also seems to be a faintly green streak in his hair on the left side.
 “Ah, yes, that would be me, can I help you?” you moved to stand in front of the bird… it would be quite strange that you just have a dead bird on your kitchen table–it clearly hadn’t been prepared enough to eat, you would usually at least pull the feathers outside.
 The man stepped further inside, it was difficult to read his expression… but he didn’t seem to be in a bad mood, your village doesn’t get many visitors so your introductory skills are lacking. “My name is Houzhang, I was trekking further south in search of a specific herb when I began to feel ill… I already saw a doctor at the Millelith camp by the border but they couldn’t find anything, I fear lingering miasma from the recent battle may be affecting me and they sent me here.”
 You put a hand on your chin, inclining your head to the side as you looked him up and down… he wasn’t particularly pale, there was a healthy tan to his skin and his face didn’t indicate any discomfort, it indicated very little in fact. “Okay, let’s have a look, come sit,” you gestured to the table where Si Leng had been before and moved to clean your hands again, you didn’t want to touch a potentially tainted person with hands that just prodded at a dead bird. Approaching the man as he sat down, you slowed your breath to focus, you had always had a keen affinity for sensing fouler energies, ones of corruption and death. The war between gods had reigned for many human generations now and every time a god perished, they released a terrible amount of miasma into the earth, dark energies that seep into the soil and poison the land and creatures around it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only circumstance this taint could appear under. Immense despair, pain or grief can breed it as well, though it requires either a powerful being or a large collective to do so.
 The man sat patiently under your scrutinising gaze. Surprisingly, you did sense a thick gathering of dark energies in his body–his left hip specifically. “Were you injured?” you asked. The miasma would only gather like this in one specific spot if there was a terrible injury there, if it was exposure by being close to lingering energies, the entire body would seem to have a heavy blanket of it over it.
 “No, but I was directly under the mountain for three days,” Houzhang said.
 “…” your eyebrows furrowed, no sign of sweating either… you counted his breaths and they had a normal frequency. “Hm, please lie down.” he did as you asked and you brought your little cart of tools over, less intimidating than that of a doctor’s though. You poked and prodded at his torso, asking if any specific place hurt or felt numb–he had probably already been asked this by an actual doctor, but you were doing it for a different reason and thus the answer would gain different results. He always said no and you began to doubt there was really anything wrong with this guy, if it weren’t for that condensed spot.
 You poked at the corrupt spot with two fingers… and it moved… you blinked.
 You poked again, and it seemed to fall down his side.
 “…”
 “…”
 He pulled out a small wooden doll from inside his robes, it was round and carved like a furry forest creature. “It was this,” he didn’t sound surprised at all, and he held it towards you. “Can you cleanse it?”
 Why didn’t he just lead with that? What was with making her examine him? Is he a weirdo of some sort? You sighed and took the doll. “Sure, please be patient.” You stood and brought it to a table next to the bed, you had already extracted the taint from a human today, so this would absolutely drain you, but you kind of wanted this guy out of your house because of the weird… display, and interaction. Doing the same as you always do, you lit the incense on the table and closed the windows, you lit the two candles on each end of the table and took out a talisman to lay on to the table. Houzhang watched you work in silence, eyes following every single move you made. Eventually, the doll was clear of the foul energies clinging to it and you handed it back to the man.
 You honestly felt as though every movement you made was akin to wading through stomach-high water.
 He examined the doll carefully and then nodded. “Very good.”
 Very good? Are you being graded?
 “This one apologises for deceiving you,” Houzhang said. “The doll being corrupted was intentional, one did not want to waste your time.” He stands up and hands you the doll back. You’re not entirely sure what to do with it, or why he handed it to you, so you just hold it. “Please come to the capital, we have need of a cleanser, if half-skilled.”
 The capital? Half-skilled ?
 You handed the doll back to him, and he took it to your surprise. “The capital? Who is ‘we’? The capital isn’t exactly close by, and this village is high-risk when it comes to taint and corruption due to its proximity to the southern mountains. Who is going to take care of things here?”
 Houzhang didn’t seem particularly pleased with your questions, it seemed that he expected you to simply say yes and trot along. “The nearby Millelith Brigade will protect it, if they have problems they can’t fix, they can travel to the capital.”
 “You make it sound like a day trip,” you said, slightly exasperated… after two cleansings, you really just want him to leave and let you sleep until midnight. “Do you ride on a cloud or something?”
 He blinked at your question. “No, this one travels normally.” How vague. “It is only a twelve hour journey.”
 Twelve hours? It took you four days every single time that you have gone there, what are this guy’s legs made of? Even by cart it would take two days at best. “You’re lying.”
 “This one doesn’t lie,” he insists, clearly offended that you would suggest such a thing.
 “Okay,” you waved your hand vaguely, why had he changed his speech a minute ago? “But do you expect me to come along with you just because you said so? I’d need some–” you were cut off by a scroll being thrust into your hands. You looked down at it with bewilderment.
 The outside had an intricate golden pattern over a deep brown cover that protected the paper, it was bound with a blue silk streaked with a pale grey pattern that was different to the golden one and a small white ore attached to the end of the silk. Oh… this is a scroll from the palace, where the two gods of this land reside. From them.
 You stared at Houzhang as if he had grown two heads, he simply folded his arms over his chest and waited.
 Opening the scroll, you carefully set it out on the table after moving some blank papers aside. ‘We ask that you travel to the capital of the Guili Assembly to provide cleansing services to the palace. Travel safely.’
 Who wrote this? It’s not exactly what you expected of a godly summon, you were expecting more… grandiose? Something like ‘By mandate of the heavens and the will of the gods, you are hereby summoned…’? Though, the calligraphy was absolutely beautiful… you write a lot for your talismans and seals, but whoever wrote this could write poems and have the characters convey it equally in writing and art.
 Houzhang seemed impatient with your dumb staring and spoke. “Well? Let us depart.”
 Snapped out of your thoughts, you nearly clapped the scroll shut. “How long will this take?”
 “There are a lot of people in need of cleansing,” was his only answer.
 You can only help two people in one day, tops, at your skill and energy level… you’ll need to work hard. It’s not like you can say no to the palace of the land’s gods, and you can safely assume this man works in the palace at the very least–honestly, this guy is so weird you would almost think he was one of the gods in the palace.
 Houzhang stood and waited as you tossed some clothes in a basket, he took the bamboo box from his back and set it down, telling you to use it as well… there were three corrupt dolls on the bottom of the basket, so you declined, you’d rather like your clothes to be clear of foul energies. After packing your tools at last, you looked around… there might be a while until you come back home. It hasn’t been your home for a very long time, only a few years… but it’s quiet and peaceful, it’s been nice and it feels a bit bad to leave, like there’s a small force trying to keep you tethered to it. You moved here only three years ago to assist the village with its frequent corruptions, you had set up barriers and cleansed the farms, but it always seemed to slip through the cracks, no matter how tightly you sealed it. You just hope they’ll be alright, they’re a hard-working bunch.
 As you and Houzhang leave, Si Lang’s mother was just about to knock on the door. “Oh…” she looks at the basket on your back. “Where are you going?”
 You give a small smile, it’s almost sheepish, like you were caught doing something you shouldn’t–and you probably shouldn’t leave without warning, but goodbyes are hard and you suspect Houzhang won’t wait patiently while some villagers ask you to stay, or try and bribe you with their rice dishes (you would cave). “Ah, I’ll be going to the capital for a while, but I’ll be back soon.” you decided not to delve into too many details, but you do hope you will return relatively soon.
 “Ah,” she seemed surprised, but then set a heavy robe in your hands. “Then, this might help! Yu Ming gave me this, saying she didn’t need it anymore, and… it was a bit torn, but I fixed it and it’s too small for me,” it was a heavy travel robe, perfect for colder months and coloured a deep blue with brown fur lining, though it’s freshly spring so it wouldn’t exactly come in handy at the moment. Either way, you knew better than to reject a payment, you gave her a smile and thanked her as she saw you off. You made sure to double-check the seal protecting the village and ensured it would hold for a good while… it should be fine for almost a year if nothing catastrophic happens.
 After walking for a while, the robe was getting very heavy in your hands, and your basket was stuffed… Houzhang took it from you and set it in the basket on his back wordlessly, as soon as he had convinced you to go, he seemed to have lost interest in talking, as if he only had done so to begin with because he had to.
 Despite that, he did speak about two and a half hours into the trip. “This one deceived you twice, one is not named Houzhang. Now that we are away from the village and you have agreed to come, you can call this one Moon Carver.”
 You stared at him.
 Why does he say that so casually? As if you have never heard that name before? “No way. You’re not. You’re deceiving me for the third time.”
 He immediately seemed both offended and annoyed at that. “Believe what you want, it won’t affect your surroundings.”
 “Prove it,” you insisted. “There’s no way, Moon Carver isn’t just some guy,” you looked him up and down, he was entirely normal, there was not a thing that stood out except perhaps for the green streak in his hair.
 “This one doesn’t need to prove anything,” he folded his arms, gaze forward… and thus, he began to ignore you. No matter what you said or did, he didn’t reply nor even look at you, it was entirely annoying as well as slightly amusing. If he really was Moon Carver, one of the adepti at Rex Lapis’ side that has saved countless people and villages, felled beasts and gods… it was rather funny how easily frustrated he got–but perhaps it was best not to intentionally get on his bad side… just in case he wasn’t lying. It would be a rather bold lie, if he was caught lying it surely wouldn’t be hidden for so long.
 After passing a stream, you stepped off the path causing ‘Moon Carver’ to halt, he watched as you took our a small jar, the one you had used earlier to contain the miasma extracted from Si Leng, and dissipated it into the wind gliding above the water, making sure it didn’t enter the water.
 Three hours later, you stepped off the path again, this time to dispose of the bird, pressing a more advanced seal to its body and burying it into the ground, it will slowly erode the miasma and the ground will claim the corpse. You don’t have the energy to cleanse another thing today, so this is the next best thing, though not an immediate solution.
 It’s almost a straight walk north towards the capital, it’s mostly hills and plains, flanked by high mountains that shield the cool winds from the eastern ocean. There is a brief period of woods on the last day of walking, but you would need to sleep under the open sky for two nights. Before the forest is a small village that makes most of its mora housing travelers and Millelith making the trek between the capital and the southern border.
 In silence, you and ‘Moon Carver’ continue walking towards the capital, as you had said, it was indeed not a twelve hour trip and the alleged Adeptus was very unhappy with the slow progress. You set a blanket on the ground as the two of you took a break for the first night–you had to almost plead to stop and rest, maybe this guy really is who he says he is, he wasn’t at all bothered with the trek… meanwhile you are dead on your feet from the events of the day and an eight hour walk. “You know, if you really are Moon Carver, why can’t I just ride on your back to the capital? Then it would only take a few hours.”
 He didn’t even consider it. “No, not just anyone can ride on this one’s back, one is not a form of transport,” he crossed his arms again, his robes would gain permanent wrinkles if he didn’t keep them uncrossed for more than five minutes at a time.
 The walk took four days, but you arrived earlier than usual on the fourth day, just before noon—you had always arrived at the capital after dark and seen the way the lights lit up the large city, after everyone had retired and the streets were relatively empty.
 Today, it was the opposite.
 The crowd was so large that you thought every single person in the Guili Assembly had just gathered here today, the gates were wide open and you could barely hear yourself or ‘Moon Carver’ (you still don’t entirely believe him, he certainly made it more difficult by refusing to prove it, it’s a game at this point) as you walked the streets. “What’s going on today?” you called to him, almost walking into three different people just to enter through the massive gates to the city. You don’t recall there being a specific holiday.
 ‘Moon Carver’ leaned closer so that you could hear him better. “When the oceans warm with the spring, the oceanic gods slumber for three weeks to adjust to the temperature, allowing fishing further from shore–the first batch of seafood has arrived and culminates in a festival of foods.”
 The village you left, as well as your birth village aren’t within appropriate distance for the villagers themselves to fish in the ocean and thus it wasn’t celebrated there, but you do recall that the fish bought from traveling merchants always seems larger halfway through spring.
 After a while of practically wading through the crowd like you would a swamp, ‘Moon Carver’ suddenly tells you that he must see to a task that will only take a short while, and that you should wait exactly where you are for him to return. Thankful for the breather–there are a lot of steps up to the palaces and the peak of the capital–you find a good rock to sit on that reaches about to your knees and decide to rest and observe the festival.
 The capital is huge, larger than any other village or town in the Guili Assembly, built over several human generations under the rule of the same two gods, two gods… that you kind of hope you won’t have to directly face, surely the scroll you were sent was penned by some civil official? Perhaps a doctor or some kind of supervisor in the palace? Though there are technically two palaces at the peak of the capital, one belonging to Rex Lapis, and the other to the Lord of Dust, there are several connecting buildings between them that make them appear as a single palace with two large buildings on opposite sides. The thought of standing before the gods of the land is nerve wracking, especially since they requested your specific help.
 You’re far from the only exorcist or cleanser in this land, but you like to think you’re alright at it… or ‘half-skilled’ as ‘Moon Carver’ so eloquently put it. Now that you’re in the capital, directly under the gods’ gazes… you’re starting to think he was probably not lying, which is a bit embarrassing–but can you be blamed for being doubtful? Who would believe you if you said an adeptus came to your house, played a trick on you and gave you a scroll that summoned you to the gods’ palace!?
 Now deep in thought as the festival continued around you, you barely noticed your rumbling stomach, it wasn’t until it stung that you realised how hungry you are. Considering this is a festival celebrating food, why not try it out? If you can get through the crowd, that is.
 Elbowing yourself through some people–and being elbowed thrice–just standing around in the middle of the street, you manage to observe some stalls. Most of the food was a type of seafood, predictably. Fish cooked in all possible ways from grilled to boiled, squids to prawns, crab to jellyfish. A lot of the options were both curious and enticing, there was a lot of foods cooked in ways you hadn’t tried before, but you were hungry and needed something filling that you knew you wouldn’t dislike, you’re sure the festival goes on for a few days, you can come back and try some new things later. You purchased three large steamed buns, two for eating and one for saving for later, they were stuffed with smoked salmon and vegetables and you hoped it would taste just as good as it smelled.
 Returning to your little rock, you saw that your spot had been stolen, you were certain it was a safe spot to use as respite as it was directly under the sun and had no cover, most people sitting around did so under some shade or next to trees lining the wide streets. You stuffed your buns into your sleeve and approached the rock… what kind of creature is this?
 It was small but long, it had brown scales that shimmered and reflected under the sun, giving it a strangely golden shine that didn’t take away from the earthly colour. It had a thick mane leading from it’s head and down slightly below it’s faintly glowing antlers, and after that did lighter fur take its place, lining the spine of the creature all the way down to the tuft at the end, twitching faintly as it stares at you without blinking once.
 You had never seen anything like it before, it was too skinny to be a cat, and cats don’t generally have antlers like this, or scales… but it was similar in size… you stared down at the creature for a while, unsure if just to give up your spot or try and scoop it away. You have no idea how long it will take Moon Carver to return, and you don’t want to sit on the ground, maybe this little thing will accept sharing? If you share first, you assume.
 So, you take forth one of the buns in your sleeve and crouch in front of the strange creature. “Hey… you,” you hold the bun to its small nose. Its nose twitches as the creature sniffs the bun and its two long whiskers sway. “You kind of took my spot, and I need to wait a while… will you scoot if I give you one of my buns?”
 The creature’s eyes are so… almost aggressively noticeable, the glowing amber burning holes in your own eyes before it turns its snout up and away… that’s a no, then. Your shoulders slump slightly. “Please? You can sit with me? I’ll pet you?”
 It’s head turned further up, so far you thought it might fall backwards and roll off the stone.
 “What are you doing?” you heard a voice behind you and looked over your shoulder, Moon Carver stood behind you, looking at you as if he wished he wasn’t there at the moment.
 You turned back to the rock to see the small creature gone, maybe Moon Carver’s presence scared it away, or it took the opportunity to leave before you could just simply pick it up and move it off the rock. Well, since Moon Carver is here there’s no need to sit on the rock anyway so you stand up and straighten your clothes. “Nothing, I just saw a little creature here, I’ve never seen one like it before.”
 “Creature? Bugs are hardly creatures,” he says simply.
 “No, it was a long creature, it had scales and antlers, it didn’t want my bun as a bargain,” you explained, making a gesture with your hands as to circa how long the creature had been. “Brown with sun-orange eyes?”
 Moon Carver only stares as you try to explain, to a point you thought you might have hallucinated the encounter. You gave up and lowered your hands, it doesn’t seem like he believed you. And why would he believe you? Is he supposed to believe that the esteemed Rex Lapis was lounging around on a rock on a random street as a miniature version of himself? Absolutely not.
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a-student-out-of-time · 13 days ago
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More Real Talk
Hey everyone. Mod Bubbles here.
I'm not gonna beat around the bush here: you all know what's going on, you've all heard about it, you don't need me to tell you about it. You've heard about it and you're gonna hear about it a lot these next four years.
I don't want to talk about that. Instead, I wanna address something else that, on a personal level, I believe is a lot more serious but a lot easier to grapple with.
You wanna know what I believe is the biggest problem we're dealing with these days? You can point to a lot of things, but at the core, they all have the same root to them.
Hopelessness.
Yeah, a DR blog talking about hope, how crazy is that?
But in all seriousness, it's at the core of every argument, every political discussion, every post I see made about not just the near future, but the long term as well. It's always the same points about neo-fascism, climate change, wars, cyberpunk dystopias, and global extinction. Very few people today seem to have any faith that the world can be better.
And I can't say I blame them. I was there too once, when I was a teenager. I lived in constant fear of the future, worried about what it means for me, and I'd get trapped in doomscrolling cycles. I'd lay awake at night and cry my eyes out. Yet I'm still here, on the cusp of turning 30, and I'm at a better point in my life than I've ever been.
Fear and desperation are ultimately useful, but they can be self-destructive. They can prevent you from seeing the truth and make you ironically vulnerable to the ones you should be most afraid of.
Why do people join cults or militias or vote for bad politicians? Are they all just stupid or evil? Sure, some may be, but most are just desperate, afraid and don't understand how the world really works. They need a helping hand with deprogramming what they were told.
Here's the facts:
We've already beaten climate change's worst predictions and the changes we've made can be reversed.
Plastic pollution in the oceans is being cleaned up.
Conservation success stories just keep coming.
More people are living better lives nowadays, with lower rates of child morality, starvation, crime, preventable diseases, even bullying rates have declined.
The Green Energy Revolution is here and nothing is going to stop it.
New advancements in materials science are on the way and will revolutionize everything from construction to manufacturing to space exploration.
I say all this because the ultimate source of hope is knowledge. Yes, you can open yourself up to a lot of dark avenues when you start learning about the world, but you'll also learn how much good there is out there being done.
This isn't a distraction, it's how I help people understand that the world can always be better and that just one person being in power will not change that.
Now, I know what you may say to that. I've seen posts about how the internet is going to be censored, that propaganda spread everywhere, that there'll be concentration camps, the constitution will be ripped up, etc.
And to that, I have to be honest: I've already heard it all before.
The things you're worried about today? I was worried about them in 2009 during the Great Recession. People worried about them in 2005 when Bush was re-elected, and the concerns there also included terrorism. Do we even still talk about Al-Qaeda? Not really!
And misinformation in this age has always been a problem, especially on the big sites. These are old problems brought to the forefront, and it's always been important to learn the skills to spot them.
More importantly, all this assumes the administration would actually be able to implement any of their promises. Every administration does that and few of the truly big ones about change have happened, especially because said promises ran counter to reality within the system.
I'm not trying to downplay any concerns about the situation, I promise. It's okay to be sad, scared, and concerned about peoples' safety. It's okay to cry if you need to. What you should not do is give up just because of all this.
I'm going to sound very harsh for a moment, but I need to say it: by being doomerist and defeatist, you're part of the problem. You not only stop helping, you run the risk of discouraging other people from trying because you believe it's pointless. When you succumb to pessimistic nihilism, you create a self-fulfilling prophecy that only rewards those who benefit from your inaction or your death.
Don't do that to people. Don't do that to yourself.
The world gets better when you first believe it can be better. How do you do that?
Well, I can't speak for everyone, but here's some suggestions that I'm sticking to:
Live daily life. Get up, eat, stay hydrated, take your medication, bathe, dress comfortably, listen to music, watch a movie, clean your home, play a game, hang out with friends, just do things that make you happy. As you should always do.
Stop looking at doomer posts. It literally does not help with anything and they are not credible sources of information just because they're cynical.
Do not let go of your ambitions. Always have a dream or a goal in mind, no matter what it is, and always aim for it. It's never stupid, it's never too late, it's something you aspire to and that's really awesome.
Stop looking for enemies. There are more important things to devote your time to than arguing over inane bullshit on the internet. That's been true since the start.
Be kind to people. Let go of whatever anger and resentment you may have for people, try to make new friends, and recognize when you can help someone else in need. Sometimes it's as simple as letting them know you care.
Be kind to yourself. You are not a failure, you're not a burden, you're not a lost cause, you can always improve as long as you're alive.
Remove toxicity from your life. Cut out bad influences and replace them with better things. If you have to leave a toxic environment, you can work on doing so.
Always learn new things. It's really fun to end the day with a new piece of knowledge you didn't have the day before.
Let yourself feel. Are you angry? Sad? Scared? Worried? Let yourself feel it, and then you can move on. Don't bury an emotion or let it stagnate.
Learn to recognize bad faith posts/misinformation. This is a critical skill to possess and one you need to always pass on to others. Not everyone who posts it is evil, sometimes all they need is a simple correction on a matter and the situation will be resolved.
Clown on Evil. Whenever people want you to fear them or take them seriously, you mock them, make memes about them, treat them as a joke and defuse whatever power they try to have.
Be true to yourself. Above all, don't let the next 4 years turn you into something you're not.
I say all this as someone who's been around longer than a lot of people who follow me: your future is not empty. I wished I'd done years ago everything I'm doing now, but I've decided I'd rather do them than spend the rest of my life lamenting and wondering what might've been.
You can spend years convincing yourself there is no future, and then the future arrives and you have no idea what to do anymore.
Change- actual change- starts from below and works its way up. And no matter how much life beats you down, no matter what's on TV or what the future may hold, you can always choose to do something about it.
You can always choose to be kind to yourself and to others. You can always choose to believe. And that's where you can start.
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tinderbox210 · 1 month ago
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I've been thinking a lot about ND-5’s restraining bolt - again - and have been wondering about its efficiency, especially in regards to whether or not ND would have really killed Kay in the end because of it.
SPOILER WARNING
I'm only talking about the intended story progress and not when you get caught because of your utter lack of gaming skills, like me 😅
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In the game ND claims the bolt is absolute, insisting that he can't fight it or Jaylen's orders several times.
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But at the same time there are several occasions in the game were he shows at least some level of resistance when he's supposed to hurt Kay. He hesitates to blast her and only does after Jaylen causes him physical pain (he doesn't hesitate to shoot Asara in comparison).
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And he keeps talking to Kay while chasing her with the obvious intention of giving her a chance to save herself, which Kay rightfully points out as ND fighting against the bolt.
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(He also seems to miss good shots, which storywise feels almost like on purpose, like he's messing with with his aim because he doesn't really want to shoot her)
So here comes my theory:
Not sure how much of it is backed up by other canon, but imo the efficiency of the restraining bolt is influenced by the degree of sentience and experience (personality/free will or what you want to call it) a droid has developed.
Lore established that most droids get frequently memory wiped to delete confidential data but also in order to prevent them from developing too much personality and independence. I imagine it's easier for the bolt to control a mostly "empty" vessel with less code instead of a droid with years of experiences, advance and growth beyond the original programming - too much complex data to suppress and overwrite if you will.
And that’s the crux with ND-5.
He seems to still remember much of his time in the Clone Wars and his mission for Sliro which hints at him having not been memory wiped in a long time (at least he never says otherwise in the game I think) and by that he's been able to develop such a strong personality and sense of self-awareness that he even wears clothes, setting him apart from pretty much every other droid.
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I don't think restraining bolts are built to face that much swagger, I mean it's probably not easy to deal with that load of complex data and the bolt has shown difficulties dealing with ND's old battle droid programming when he malfunctions as well, so there's clearly limitations to the working/mechanics of the bolt.
I think it's possible that ND's fear of turning back into being nothing but a battle droid without the bolt, gave the restraining bolt more power over him than the device necessarily had per se, and ND only believed in the bolt being absolute because he never had a reason to put it to the test before meeting Kay.
ND says in the game he likes to have a purpose and being Jaylen’s enforcer gave him such purpose, so that’s probably also a major reason why ND went along with it and didn’t try to fight the bolt before. He didn't know there's another way of living possible for him.
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I'm also sure Jaylen never missed a chance throughout his years of service to remind ND that he's nothing but a ruthless killing machine without the bolt, to keep him chained to his side and keep him depended.
But then Kay comes along to challenge everything he believed in with the way she's the first to see and treat him like a real person and not just a servant, tool or weapon and before he knows it she's stolen his poor little metal heart.
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So in conclusion, my headcanon is that he wouldn't have killed her. He's close, obviously when he holds her and says he's sorry, but would have managed to defy the restraining bolt last minute and is one step away from ripping that restraining bolt of his chest plating himself when Kay blasts it off.
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sexisbetteronthemoon · 26 days ago
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Is there any lore/world building in ur au that won’t be brought up in the the fic but is still a fun fact u can share?
thanks for asking, i'm delighted to answer!  i've been trying to incorporate as much as i can of the world through Keith's observations, but hmm well here's a few fun facts off the top of my head since i had too much coffee and am not getting any sleep anytime soon:
the planet is always trying to kill Keith in one form or another, and still, Keith loves it there.
there's mermaids!  they're not like the mermaid planet in vld.  to provide a comparison in human evolution terms, these are barely evolving from advanced australopithecus to homo erectus (they could still deviate into something else).  they're almost as smart as ravens and can use tools and mostly avoid surface waters bc there's often tidal waves that can sweep them out and strand them to dry out and die.  Keith has not yet discovered them.
the smartest animal on the planet is actually Kosmo's species!  they do not speak, but use body language and scent/chemo signals to communicate.  Kosmo is very confused as to why its adoptive parents do not understand it unless it's yelling at them (barking/growling/whining).  it'll get the gist eventually, it's still baby.  bonus:  the blink dogs can convert the radiation from the crystal fields into energy!  it's how they survive on such little food.  but like some animals, it needs more than one type of “food” to survive.
speaking of the crystal fields, there's more creatures there, including a few plants.
the desert is cold, yet dry/arid.  it's not uncommon for it to snow there in winter (just an inch or two), but the snow melts and evaporates pretty quickly.  Keith is actually a little afraid of this place because of the sandwalkers.  “the elephants of the desert”, they're simultaneously large and hard to see bc they're thin with four limbs and capable of flattening to burrow slightly in the sand to blend in.  they move silently and walk very slowly to conserve energy unless they've spotted prey, and everything that moves is prey.  they produce a kind of silk web they use to travel during wind storms bc they're very light.  they're also not very good eating, so most predator animals don't bother with them.  (if you're picturing a walking stick bug at around 11 ft long, you've got it!)
rock worms are based on the creatures in Tremors movies!  (which someone already figured out in the comments on that chapter, way to go!)  they differ from cave worms in that rock worms only eat rock and burrow into it.  cave worms eat excrement and apparently Lance's jumpsuit as well.
it was an earthquake that separated Kosmo from its family.  many died, but there were some survivors.  this will not become a problem until Kosmo is an adult, and thus beyond the story's end.  i may write a short one shot about it later on if anyone's interested.  in that same vein, i will likely ask before the last chapter, or after, if anyone has unresolved questions curiosities, etc. and i'll answer or make one shots about it once the main story is over.
the red light refraction is caused by a ginormous red crystal that lays in the path of the sun to cover the mountain range where Keith lives and hundreds of miles around it.  it can actually be seen from the ground level if you go up a tall tree (it is always visible from the mountain).  it's very big.  and yes, this does mean there there are places on Planet Red where redset doesn't occur and there's normal sunsets.  there's also places where there's redrises.
Allura met Lance's mother when she visited a beach on Earth (on a diplomatic mission to include Earth in the space council after the war) and she absolutely snuck away from her guards and party to hit on her while she was working, but ended up embarrassing herself and thought she'd ruined her chance.  but it made Lance's mother laugh and it completely won her over bc Lance's mom loves to laugh.
on the subject of the war, zarkon did not live thousands of years.  mofo died a regular ass death (as did honerva) and his descendants carried on the war for ages until an armistice was reached.
Planet Red used to be mostly covered in water until massive earthquakes and continental shifts brought land up and emptied the water out into oceans and seas.  this was hundreds upon thousands of years ago, however.  there is also a caldera beneath the jungle which keeps it warm.
the sun has a pair but it orbits too distantly to affect Planet Red.  it's a dwarf red and can be seen via telescope in the night sky.  Keith calls it “Little Red” (as in Riding Hood).
there's a mushroom forest with enormous mushrooms and tiny, humanoid fairies closer to the crystal fields, but they're basically wasps and very territorial.  if they sense something is a threat, they swarm, biting and scratching, until it leaves or they're killed.  they make hives in the gills of some mushrooms and are often targeted by birds and other creatures.  they need sodium and glucose and will enthusiastically feed upon blood to get it.  since it's so close to the radiation, Keith doesn't go there often.
once, Keith managed to convince Shiro (takashi as he's called in the fic bc they're blood brothers) that he's adopted bc Shiro doesn't look like either Heath or Krolia.  he does have Heath's chin, but that's it.  he mostly looks like Krolia's father, whom they've never met.  Shiro cried about it and Keith got grounded.  Shiro was just a preteen then.  (Keith was a whole menace and a half when he was kid.)  all three kids used to fight over the control of the big tv and Acxa always won bc she waited for Shiro and Keith to tire each other out before diving in and sitting on them until they surrendered.
“Kogane” isn't Keith's surname!  it doesn't come up at all, but since Shiro is the only one with a surname, i slapped that baby on the whole family.  only Shiro's friends call him as such.  (it felt weird to get rid of the “Shiro” nickname entirely for this fic, so i finagled it to still be possible, just not within his family unless Keith or Acxa is mocking him (as siblings do).
i hope you found these tidbits entertaining!  if you'd like more info, hit me up! ❤️💙
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nikethestatue · 4 months ago
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What if SJM is enjoying the ship war because the BC is a taste of what’s to come in the book? My biggest fear is that the next book will have too much Gwyn. I find her extremely annoying and my biggest fear is that, even if she’s a lightsinger and/or evil, the book will have too much of her. I understand that she serves no role in Elain’s journey, but since the book could also include Azriel’s pov, she could have a big role in his journey. I don’t know, if she serves a purpose only on Nesta’s journey, then why include her in the BC? Half of the BC is almost entirely about her and Azriel. If that’s what the book is going to be about, it’s a hard pass for me, and I’ll come to Tumblr and “read” the book through your posts. I don’t think I can read a 600 page book where half of it will make my blood boil.
one thing to remember is that SJM often 'preps' things WAY in advance. Like way, way, way in advance.
You heard about Dusk Court in ACOMAF for the first time. A throwaway line when Feysand went to the Prison. Then, in ACOWAR, there was some mention again. But this time, of Fionn and Theia. There was a mention of Gwydion.
The idea that mate bonds aren't perfect was first put out there in ACOMAF. Then in ACOWAR, you have more conversations about it. And we STILL haven't had a story about that.
In ACOMAF, Feyre mentions that Amren and Nesta would be friends.
What I mean to say is that books pass, sometimes MANY books, because certain people and storylines are picked up again. So I wouldn't worry about Gwyn in Elain's book. I don't think she will be featured much, tbh. If at all.
I think Gwyn might be slated for a totally different story. I think it's still a story around that Valkyries. And if the Valks will be the 'witches of TOG' in ACOTAR, that story will be about a female fighting force.
Yes, Gwyn was in the bonus. But so was Rhys. And Clotho, who plays a significant role in not just the bonus, but in the overall ACOTAR story. How do we know that the bonus wasn't more about Clotho, who oversees this enormous mysterious Library, who has the confidence of Rhys and who was horribly mutilated over some secret, not to mention who played a huge part in Nesta's recovery, AND might be a daemati.
Maybe we were conditioned to look at everything through the prism of the shipwar?
What if SJM was pointing HERE, but we are looking THERE.
What if Clotho is a surviving Valkyrie? One of the original ones? What if she is a witch?
That's what I've been doing lately--and been very conscious of it--not to look at the text the way we've been looking at it for 4 years. Because EVERYTHING's been colored by the shipwar, and it was not something SJM intended for. So, what is the text ACTUALLY telling us? Where should we be paying attention?
WHY was Clotho in the bonus at all? If SJM was really gunning for some romantic Gwynriel interlude, then why not structure the chapter very differently?
You have all signs of 'charming irreverence' disappearing from Gwyn the moment Azriel turns his back. Why? Why no longing looks? But instead, Gwyn looks at the ribbon like it's an opponent. Why note that the shadows didn't warn him about her presence?
Then, instead of giving the necklace directly to her--which is kind of normal, if it's a romantic coupling--he has this whole mysterious exchange with Clotho. Gives HER the necklace. And then suddenly feels better for a moment.
The question is--what was SJM REALLY trying to show in the bonus beyond just Elriel? Was it really the Gwynriel mate bond? OR, was it turning our attention to not one, but two people with strange powers, who live in the same place and have a mysterious background.
I think we need to start caring less about Gwyn and Gwynriel, because that's not what SJM was writing. Whatever her story will be, it wont be the one that GAs have been feeding the masses for the past 4 years.
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meluiloth · 9 months ago
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Tauriel Rewrite, pt 3
part 1 part 2
This project is very long!! I am reimagining Tauriel's story in The Hobbit movies, and so far I've outlined everything from the start of her story to when she and Legolas go to Gundabad. I don't know how many parts this will be, so let's get right into it!
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The ride to Gundabad takes a full day, and Legolas hardly says a word; Tauriel knows this place bothers him, and she asks if he really wants to do this. He nods resolutely and says that his mother's ghost needs to be put to rest. When they reach the fortress, her stomach turns in horror; it is an ugly, jagged structure in the midst of colorless crags - but it is not abandoned. She points to a flickering light in the distance, and Legolas says they will wait for nightfall to advance.
When the time comes, it turns out that infiltration is not necessary - Tauriel wakes Legolas, who had been resting, and they both stare up at a swarm of bats that are filling the sky. Those bats are bred for war - and shortly after their appearance, the gates of Gundabad swing open and out comes a massive army of Orcs. Tauriel's heart drops into her stomach, and she says that the Elves must be warned of this. They may already be too late.
When they return to Mirkwood, however, they find it nearly emptied - every able-bodied warrior has gone to Erebor; now that Smaug is dead, the Elvenking went to the aid of the homeless Laketown-dwellers, and also to try and bargain with Thorin, King-Under-The-Mountain, for some of the gold which once belonged to the Elves. Tauriel found herself disgusted by that notion - the Elves had hid in the shadows of the Wood for centuries, only to emerge for the greed of gold? Never before had her faith in her people faltered, but now it did.
Still, she has to warn them about the oncoming army of Orcs, and so she and Legolas set off toward the Mountain, hoping they aren't too late. When they arrive, however, they find it already besieged by Orcs and a whole host of Dwarves alike; the Elves and the Men of Laketown are fighting hard for their lives against two armies. Amidst the turmoil, Tauriel's keen eyes catch sight of Thranduil, leading his troops with unwavering authority; she rushes to his aid, and though he looks a bit surprised to see her, there is no place in this situation to talk about her little rebellion.
Though she fights hard, cutting through the enemy ranks with grace and ferocity, the Elves are losing ground; the flash of their golden armor is dwindling as more and more are cut down by Orcs. Thranduil sees this, and fear glimmers in his eyes. He orders the Elves to fall back towards Mirkwood, fighting all the way, but he has chosen the lives of his own people above the lives of the others. Tauriel is disgusted by this, and she loses her temper. She calls him a coward, in front of everyone, and condemns his selfishness and reclusiveness, accusing him of doing what is right for himself rather than his people. Thranduil's face becomes a mask of anger, and he tells her that she knows nothing of leadership, or what it means to lose someone - and they both stop dead. Tauriel is reeling; she lost both of her parents, and her entire life was dedicated to protecting the people of Mirkwood so no one else had to suffer like that. Thranduil, for his part, clearly regrets his words, but regains his composure and orders her to return with their people. Tauriel blinks away the tears of anger and instead turns away. If she cannot fight for Mirkwood, she will fight for all of Middle-Earth.
In the distance, she catches sight of Kili and his fellow Dwarves climbing up the slope of Ravenhill, following a band of Orcs. She breaks into a run, determined to reach them before anything can happen to them. Fighting her way to the top is no easy feat, but she accomplishes it - just in time to see the leader of the Orcs run Kili's brother through and drop him to the ground; the young Dwarf is dead before he can hit the ground. Kili falls to his knees, uttering a howl of pain, and does not see as an Orc comes up behind him and prepares to plunge its sword into his back. Tauriel leaps into action, cutting the Orc down before it can kill Kili, and he looks up in surprise at her. She yells at him to keep fighting, for his brother's memory, and he nods and stands to his feet.
The battle rages on, and Tauriel finds herself surrounded by a never-ebbing wave of Orcs. If she kills one, two more jump forth to take its place, and she begins to panic, knowing she cannot fight forever. She raises her sword to strike at an enemy, but a heavy blow from the side catches her unawares and throws her into the stone wall. White explodes in her vision and she tries to stagger to her feet as a huge Orc advances upon her, a malicious grin on his face. She reaches for her sword, but he kicks it aside and prepares to swing at her again - but before the blow reaches her, Kili jumps in front of the blade, taking it in the chest. As he slumps down beside her, the life already leaving his eyes, she screams out in horror and scrambles to her feet, hatred filling her. Forgetting her pain, she launches herself at the Orc, and they tumble down the slope, grappling with each other; after an intense struggle, she finally vanquishes the Orc, and she runs back up to where Kili is.
Kili is already dead, and tears fill Tauriel's eyes; she hadn't known him very well, but he was a good, hopeful person, and he had helped her realize that what she had been told about the world wasn't all true. She was his friend, and ... had the circumstances been different ... they might even have been something more, someday. But now that friendship has been brutally cut short.
The battle slowly dies down, the Orcs having been defeated by the combined forces of the Elves, Dwarves, and Men, but Tauriel remains by Kili's side, not knowing what to do with herself. She assumes she has been banished from Mirkwood, and she has no future. The Dwarves mourn the death of their King, Kili's brother, and Kili, and say they will bury them; Tauriel takes this as a gentle prompting to leave, and she reluctantly nods. They stop her for another moment and tell her she was a friend to them as well as Kili, and that, even though she is an Elf, she will be welcome in Erebor.
As Tauriel makes her way silently down the cliffside, she sees Thranduil climbing up towards her; they both stop, regarding each other with apprehension, before Thranduil looks down; Tauriel sees tears in his eyes. She opens her mouth to say something - a defense or an apology, she hasn't decided yet - but the King interrupts her. She was right, he says - he has let his bitterness overcome any desire to allow the rest of the world in. Tauriel blinks in shock; Thranduil is not the kind of person to admit his faults, especially to someone who has been so disloyal to him. He goes on to say that, while she has shown a great amount of disrespect to him as of late, it was perhaps not unfounded. Tauriel apologizes for her rebelliousness in her turn; tears are blurring in her eyes now. She pauses a moment before she says that, though she will always love Thranduil as a father and Legolas as a brother, her heart is not in Mirkwood anymore. She wants to expand her horizons and see what good she can do in the world around her. Thranduil looks grieved by this decision, but he nods and gives her his blessing. He says she will always have a place in Eryn Galen if she yearns for home, and he opens his arms to her. Tauriel embraces him and calls him Ada for the first time.
When she parts from him, she finds Legolas a short way away; his eyes are red-rimmed, but he grins at her and says he's proud of her for leaving the nest. He also says he will be terribly bored without her, and she tells him he'll find someone else to bother in time. He gives her a short embrace and goes to his father.
Tauriel leaves Mirkwood behind and becomes a lone warrior in Middle-Earth, always appearing where she is needed, never staying in one place for long, but doing as much good as she can while she is there. It is many years before she sees Mirkwood again.
Several years later, an ambassador from Eryn Galen arrives in Rivendell, escorting the Prince; she does not say much in the Council of Elrond, but she is recognized by many there as the Daughter of the Forest, the wandering hero.
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Well, that's the end of my rewrite of Tauriel! I had so much fun writing this, and I hope you had fun reading it!
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divineerdrick · 4 months ago
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The Warhammer Preview Show: Warhammer Day 2024
twitch
I'm once again liveblogging my reaction to a Warhammer preview, and I couldn't be happier!
Why?
Because the Preview was live again!
If you've followed my Warhammer Liveblogs you know how much I hated that they moved to prerecorded live shows. And I wasn't the only one! But once again the studio has listened to the community and it looks like we've got live shows back.
This is one thing I will constantly press about Games Workshop. Being less than a billion-dollar global company, in a niche hobby, means they still have to respond to us. If we make our displeasure known for long enough, and it impacts their sales, they have to act. If even 1% of Warhammer fans don't buy the latest and greatest product that GW releases, it hurts.
It also helps that they're under UK corporate law instead of American corporate law.
And I have a feeling from some of the things I've seen on discount retailer sites, that certain big releases have been under-performing. So hopefully this is the first in some course corrections.
Give San Guard their wings back!
I'm still wondering about what's going on with how few releases have been announced for Christmas. They do seem to be pushing War of the Rohirrim more than I was expecting, so maybe they really are trying to just let releases breathe instead of smothering them. I'm wondering how Necromunda Secondus and Mechanicum performed given how they released along side Age of Sigmar 4.0.
Honestly I think that most Warhammer fans hold GW products as being the best in the market. When they start taking a downturn, we start asking why we're paying so much for them. I think GW really should go back to a slower release cadence of higher quality products. Releasing both of their major game systems back to back in essentially a beta state should not happen. There's no excuse for 10th Edition Eldar to release one summer only for 4.0 Nighthaunt to release the next. And the less said about 4.0's Regiment system the better.
All and all, I'm still really excited for this Preview. I'm not expecting too much right now, but I'm willing to be surprised. For now, just having a live Preview is enough.
Enough rambling! Onto the Preview!
Preshow
Our hosts today are veterans of the Preview shows, Alex and Nick. This was one of the first things that got me excited when I checked in on the stream after discovering WarCom was down. After some of their traditional introduction, including asking for location shout outs, Alex tells us what we've got in store. The reveals today are for Underworlds, AoS, 40K, Kill Team, and Legions. Legions in the past hasn't gotten a lot of love in these Preview shows, so I'm hoping for a little better presentation this time around.
But then Nick slyly cuts in that those are just what was announced, and we should keep our eyes pealed. I've heard some rumors already, but let's see what they actually tease for us.
Underworlds
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We're starting with GW's original Skirmish game set in the Age of Sigmar. I'm still really hoping that Warcry gets some love again soon, but I'm betting Underworlds must be just slightly outperforming it.
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Oh wow! So with the new edition of AoS out and the story advancing with the Vermindoom, the team has decided to release a new edition of Underworlds. And this edition looks like it will also start with a Stormcast verses Skaven box.
They're once again pushing that accessibility factor with this new edition. I will say this much, other than a few sticking points I have I don't really feel this push to accessibility has resulted in any "dumbing down" of these editions. Probably the worst offender was Kill Team 2nd, and they've undone some of that. Admittedly they pushed the worst part even more . . . Still I feel that 40K 10th and AoS 4.0 are still very tactically deep games. And that, at the end of the day, is what really matters.
And unfortunately we're probably never going to see this push to expand the audience through accessibility ever go away. Businesses in the current corporate world live and die through growth. There's only so much money GW can wring out of their current audience. There has to come a point where GW expands their audience, or investors will leave and the company will decline.
Unfortunately that's tricky to do when you also keep raising the prices of starter products.
But Underworlds has always been relatively inexpensive compared to GW's other products. It's a perfect example of creating a stepping stone into the larger hobby. Buying a board game style starter box with only a few push-fit miniatures to assemble and paint is much easier than buying and painting something like Skaventide. And GW looks to be leaning into that.
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They're really throwing a lot of long looks into the miniatures and the board. Still, no matter how much time they spend here this is never as good as the bright, close-in pictures WarCom usually has later. One advantage of the Live previews is we often get to see some of those ahead of time. Hopefully Nick and Alex will focus in on some like they used to.
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Here's our box reveal.
And you're making me nervous Nick. This is very similar to a lot of those prerecorded shows. Now that the reveal trailer is done I don't want to be here having someone presenting a prerecorded message on why I should want to pick this up. I want to be back in the studio, with chat, getting live impressions and active responses to questions and feedback from you and Alex. You got me excited for a live show, Nick. Don't turn this around on me.
Uh oh! It's a reset! Normally, this would have me excited. But there are two things that make me nervous here.
The first is that this game incorporates cards and deck building. If they're completely updating the rules, does that mean previous cards won't work anymore? Will we have to get new decks for any warbands we play?
The second is Kill Team. In case you didn't know, Kill Team just introduced a Standard style rotation that means that eventually your Kill Teams won't be legal in competitive play. Many classic Kill Teams already don't have rules in the new edition. Now many of those Kill Teams are still perfectly fine for casual games . . . for as long as GW writes compatible rules for them. But eventually you won't be able to play a given Kill Team without going back to a prior edition of a game. That's fine for collectors who have lots of friends going back to previous editions. But for most LGS communities, that creates a problem.
I'm guessing Underworlds will work in a similar way. I don't know if any previous Warbands will get retired, but they'll probably introduce a cut off point and then rotate out older Warbands eventually. You'll probably have to go buy a new deck for any of the older Warbands to use them in the new rules. This is all just speculation, but it's speculation based off how GW has been running their other games.
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This may be a small point to some, but it's a legitimate up-sell to me. GW has gotten considerably better at creating and designing rule books. They've gotten much easier to read in recent editions of their games and much easier to use at the table. I'm hoping they continue to refine them. Also their apps have gotten better too for looking up the latest version of any given rule.
We're also going to single boards, war scrolls, and they're defining Warbands with stat systems to help you understand their play style. One thing I'm not sure of is the replacement of card art with miniature photos. I kind of liked the way the cards added some of that great GW art into the game. I'm not sure how well the various cards will depict the action if it's just still photos.
All and all the new edition looks good, but I've got questions that are going to need answered.
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Back in the studio we've got some great shots of the miniatures - not sure I'm liking the sculpt around the eyes for this one - but we're not getting any community interaction yet. There's no point in these being live shows if we don't have any response to the community feedback and questions!
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Hm . . . We've got them just talking over these repeating slideshows. I'd honestly prefer to just seem them sitting their and talking to each other to gauge their live reactions. And while I'll admit that this is a new edition, and there's a lot to talk about, they're kinda just going over what the presentation showed. Yes! I'm going to harp on this! I want community interaction, dammit!
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Okay, here's one point answered. The starter set is going to come with four decks in it, one based on each of the now named play-styles, Strike, Take and Hold, Flex, and Mastery. These decks will be playable with any Warband. So any of the old Warbands that receives rule updates can use these decks to start with.
It looks like with other recent new editions, we'll get our first chance to see this played at a GW event. In this case it's the Tampa Open, which is next weekend! So we'll probably learn a lot about the game in the coming days.
. . .
And now we're moving into the next part of the show. No questions taken, no feedback, not even a glance at chat. I'm not happy.
Age of Sigmar
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And it's just the Warhammer Day miniature. We've already seen this. It's a pretty cool looking miniature to be sure, but why are we covering it here?
My hype is draining away.
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Same thing with the Darkoath. Though this looks like it might be a box set, and that means it might have some new miniatures.
Oh! While they didn't show it, this is the announcement for the Slaves to Darkness Battletome. I did miss that this box set is the Darkoath Spearhead. So this will be our first big release for AoS 4.0 following Skaventide.
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We're getting a new release for a Sorcerer Lord outside of the Warhammer Day model. This one sounds like it will have a few options for it. Hopefully we'll see these on WarCom.
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And here's our Battletome reveal! It sounds like they're doubling down on how little changed between the Skaven Index and Battletomes. This is potentially bad as some of the AoS armies need some real changes.
We are getting a new Army of Renown, Be'lakor's Legion of the First Prince. So hopefully that will bring something interesting for AoS players to experiment with. It's my understanding though that Regiments of Renown aren't seeing much play right now. But we can wait and see.
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Speaking of! We've got a nice rules preview here of a new Regiment of Renown that can be included in any most of the god-aligned Chaos factions. The Daemon Prince gets to keep it's Gift of Chaos that it would have claimed in an S2D army and gets the relevant faction Keyword too. However, I can't imagine spending a drop on this the way AoS 4 currently plays, unless they change how drops work in the next rules update.
Battleforces
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They didn't mention any universe transition, just that big boxes are on the way soon. My guess is this is our first look at the holiday boxes, which will probably included both 40K and AoS, maybe Old World if we're lucky.
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These are all themed after detachments. The Tau box is obscured, but we saw it earlier in the preview, and is the Retaliation Cadre. This means that this is probably a sneaky reveal of one of the new Imperial Knight Detachments, the Valourstrike Lance. Though that sounds suspiciously like it might be a rename for the Noble Lance.
I'll note that none of these battleforces are Chaos themed. We've got three Imperial battleforces and two Xenos. But there looks like there's a lot of value in these kits. That Tau box has a Riptide in it, the Knights have a Paladin and four Armigers, the Sisters comes with two vehicles and a pair of Penitent Engines, the Necrons get the Void Dragon, and the Dark Angels get The Lion. I'm not gonna add everything up here, since I can't see exactly what everything is, but that's over $300 worth of Knights.
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And just as I suspected, we immediately go into AoS boxes.
We're only getting four here, Maggotkin, Cities, Iron Jaws, and Flesh-Eaters. One for each Grand Alliance. These don't appear to be based on any Regiments or Armies. And I'm not seeing anything popping out at me for high value items.
These are indeed our holiday boxes. As with recent years, these are designed to go along with the intro boxes. So if you get a Combat Patrol or Spearhead alongside one of these, you'll have a pretty decent collection. Whether they match well with previous Battleforce launch boxes, I'd have to check. But at the very least, I know the Dark Angels one didn't have The Lion in it.
They're saying they're supposed to match Regiments in AoS. I only checked Iron Jaws, but looking through the others they also don't match any current Regiments. So these might be renames or new Regiments coming in the Battletomes.
Hah! They even just mentioned that the Cities of Sigmar force can represent different Regiments! So maybe there wasn't any actual consideration made there at all.
They also just brought up that there's duplication with the Morbheg Knights. So not so good there for the AoS portions either.
Warhammer Armoury
They tease that no one knows about this reveal yet. But it's an Officially Licensed product, so outside of games I'm not sure how much interest there will be.
Warhammer Armory! Okay, you have my attention.
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Also, gee! I wonder what's about to be revealed?
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There it is! Ghal Maraz! (Subject to GW's approval.)
i haven't gotten my hands on any of these, but I really want to see if I can. I just love stuff like this. If my father's business could get them to sell, we would in a heart beat.
I still have my Slayer of Kings. It's sitting right next to me. I'd honestly love to collect more stuff like this.
Legions
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So we've already had Mechanicum for Legions revealed, so they're starting off by going into the lore. I guess that's one way to try to pay more respect to the specialist game. Still I'm hoping for more news for Legions.
"Now you're probably sat at home, thinking, "Games Workshop we've already seen these." It had crossed my mind, yes.
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Dark Mechanicum! While they haven't shown any traitor specific models yet, the new rules will allow you to field these models in both Loyalist and Traitor forces.
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But they're not keeping us waiting for long! This is the Serperos Heavy Stalker. Looks like it's a near Titanic scale model for the Dark Mechanicum. Like most of the new Mechanicum stuff, I'm totally here for this.
I'm also still hoping to see some even larger creations hitting Titanicus and Legions. Say a certain class of Titan that hasn't had an official model for a while . . .
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And book reveal! This book will apparently have the rule for playing both factions. So hopefully we'll see more force specific miniatures in the future.
A Special Surprise
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Something a bit more lighthearted. A feast in the field, huh? Blood Bowl? Don't they already have halflings?
40K! I know what this is! Apparently Death Korp isn't all the Guard is getting!
"Make a pie crust from compressed cardboard and fill it with a tin of Munitorum issued nutrient paste." Yummy.
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I'm so here for this!
These ratlings look fantastic and have so much life and character to them! This is a fantastic addition to the Guard range!
Oh! It's a commemorative model! Boo! I want this to be a part of the main range!
Oh well. Looks like I'm picking up at least one thing for myself this year.
Kill Team
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They teased more ratlings, but look at these Boyz! More proper Orky miniatures! Yes!
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And there's our new ratlings! Look at the bulldog!
So I guess the next Kill Team box is Orks verse Ratlings. So much for the idea that the next team would be Storm Boyz. Specifically this is Ratling Snipers verses Tankbustas.
All of these miniatures look pretty bespoke. The ratling kit is definitely new, but that doesn't look like an upgrade sprue on the Orks either. I'm wondering if all the Kill Teams will be new kits from now on?
This Kill Team set will include a bunker terrain piece and missions for trying to defend the bunker or storm it. Sounds like a fun time.
The holiday miniature will also have a mission for trying to steal the food for their provisions. So there's another fun detail.
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Hmm. New animation or game?
Bandai Namco? Guessing game.
Oh! I was wrong! It's an animated short! Looks like a free one too!
Our next preview will apparently be in November, for the Championships and Grand Narrative Campaign. I'm hoping they do a better job there.
But as the sign off, they hit us with one more teaser.
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Final Thoughts
I've apparently hit my image limit, so I'm not gonna go into more details on the miniatures. But on the whole they were fantastic. Not the biggest fan of the Stormcast models for Underworlds but the Skaven models were cool. All the other new models, especially our new Kill Team set and commemorative mini look fantastic! While this Preview was light on new models, what was shown was great!
And that's all the good I have to say.
So this did definitely need to be a Preview because they were revealing the new Underworlds. But honestly, they could have made the whole show about that and I think it would have been better. The Kill Team reveals were good, but the rest was stuff that would normally just be a WarCom article. So they may as well have just dedicated it all to an Underworlds deep dive and left the Kill Team stuff for later.
And while I think this was better than the prerecorded stuff we got before, this might as well have been prerecorded. In fact I'm sure there are gonna be people who accuse this stream of being prerecorded. There was zero interaction with chat. Yeah, they asked chat to call out where they were from like they used to, but then didn't acknowledge any responses. Chat might as well have not been there, and that means this might as well not be live.
This isn't okay! And while I appreciate the nod to the old format, this was honestly something where I wanted to see designers talking about what they were doing. I don't want to hear Nick and Alex talking about the new mechanics and design ideas of Underworlds, I want to here it from the people who made the game! While I didn't like the mock interviews, there's no reason not to have the designers on there talking about what they're excited about.
Between lack of meaningful reveals and the misuse of the live format, this is still a fail. If the last review was a student handing in a print-off from Wikipedia with his name on it, this one was two guys who threw together their paper at the last minute. This will probably be my last liveblog for these. I'm certainly not gonna do another one until I see meaningful changes in the format.
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leefi · 1 year ago
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The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere Read-through | Part 1: Chapters 1-14
Part 1: 1-14 | Part 2: 14-22 | Part 3: 22-34 | Part 4: 34-64 | Part 5: 64-80 | Part 6: 81-90 | Part 7: 90-100 | Part 8: 100-127 (caught up here)
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Hi!!!! I've been reading through this webnovel after seeing @ot3's pitch for it and started writing down some thoughts on the characters and worldbuilding and imminent murdering. This story is very, very long and I only reacted up to about chapter 33, so most of my thoughts will involve the worldbuilding and less the murder mystery aspect -- so if you're looking for theorizing you won't find much of that here. Since I'll be continuing eventually, I wanted to post what I did make note of to revisit later!
Most of these are not marked by chapter/section because I was lazy and I'm not sure how easy it will be to follow as a result, but everything is chronological.
everyone here is hijabi mashallah
The visual I'm getting of the solar system/local system/dimension they inhabit is kind of a blend of steampunk and fantasy and uhh some secret third thing. With the walls of their "universe" painted in that puella dollhouse witch lair style. Does the sun bounce around like a screensaver. Does it orbit their earth or is it on a fixed axis flung out into “space”? Does “space” even exist anymore? I’m assuming they’re in an enclosed area that they've created. Do they actively use arcane resources to keep objects (ie star and planets) sustaining themselves, or have they made them self sufficient?
everyone is so mean to Ptolema leave her alone what the fuckk let a bimbo live i want to kill you all you’re so annoying. Ptolema I WOULD be your friend and not ask all these weird ass questions. and we would hold hands and skip and giggle
Yes shes an airhead nepo baby but you guys could try doing anything other than snickering and rolling your eyes whenever she says stupid shit. If she starts arguing back about government war crimes during the Revolution or something then you have my blessing to beat her ass!
I HATE kamsurepa i HATE her i HAYE Her and her stupid ass name
Ran and Su have no chemistry its insane that theyre always hanging out every conversation is like uhhh (awkward silence) (rude comment from Ran) *Su voice* wow she gets me so well. every time they talk im like what the fuck just happened.
Su’s internal narration is too self aware for me. it’s like she talks like she knows she’s a character? or something. it's self-deprecating in a very bizarre way
im sorry i don’t know if i can continue with this. i know too many med students irl and these characters are literally pissing me off. compliments to the author for realism you knocked it out of the park
Oh, thank you very much!" Kam said, reverting back to her smiley-diplomatic form for a moment before stepping away from the counter and continuing as she handed us the cards. "...as far as it seems to me, the desire to reproduce is essentially an immature form of pursuing life-extension - this idea that you'll 'live on through your children' that's patently pseudo-mysticism justifying what is ultimately an animal instinct." ⬇️ I’m going to grab her ginger head and swing her around like bowser in mario 64. SHUT UPPPPP SHUT UP please tell me shes the one that dies
You know," I mused idly, my eyes wandering. "I think this is actually the fourth glass ceiling I've seen today." "Mm, it's true that you don't see a lot of women working in Aetheromancy," ⬇️ I know this is a small nitpick but aren’t we really far into the future why do they keep using terms like this 😭 gendered stuff like this still exists billions? trillions? of years into the future?
Why has the disco elysium skill tree randomly started talking to su. Is this her future self nagging her. Is she pulling a han sooyoung. when do we get to the various utsushikome ego deaths
"prosognostic overlap"…do ppl repeat faces? Are most people cloned at this point? What triggered the need for cloning surely medicine is advanced enough that childbirth or test tube babies are feasible? Can bodies be cloned and reinhabited to inhibit aging? Is there some disturbing psychological element to seeing someone with the same face as you? Does it make your brain short circuit? Kam mentioned having children earlier which I assume means people still give birth or have test tube babies, so i don’t know if it’s the result of cloning…but it does sound like a sameface sort of thing. What else would it be if not that though?
Actually, if they’ve figured out teleportation (whatever it was called when they went up the aetherbridge) - let's say they can atomize a body and reforming it elsewhere (though we don't know for sure yet, could also be a fold in spacetime) - transferring consciousness to an empty clone of yourself (and therefore effectively doing away with aging or death wholesale) sounds a lot more efficient and technologically practical than maintaining an organic system that naturally decays. Why keep on finding ways to push the human body past its limits when you could simply transfer a person to a new, identical vessel?
I feel like the key to immortality isn’t maintaining an organic body, which naturally tends towards systems of entropy (being a biological thing, entropy=decay), but rather delineating and separating human consciousness from its host and replicating its original environment perfectly. I’m not talking about making a copy of consciousness, which is just glorified cloning - I’m talking about *transferring* a consciousness.
You could almost call dementia itself the mind's tendency towards its own kind of entropy?
Though if you transfer a consciousness to a younger body, the dementia issue could still potentially remain. Depends on if it the author sees it as a solely physical phenomena (atrophy/buildup of inhibitors of the brain) or there's some metaphysical anomaly about amassing too many memories/"existing" too long in general
The way spellwork is described is really cool and feels super believable. Optimizing multiple concurrent spells into one “function” is intricate and sophisticated, and you have to dedicate a lot of brainpower to doing the math in your head. It’s like they’re coding the real world. I love the way lurina describes this it's awesome.
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tarisilmarwen · 2 years ago
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Rebels Rewatch: "The Last Battle"
Well TCW fans were happy lol.
It's weird to write these as someone who has very little emotional investment in TCW.
Okay, full disclaimer, I have seen quite a chunk of the show, the husband showed me several of the best arcs, I've seen scattered bits and pieces here and there so I know who a lot of the key players are, a lot of the important events and everything but... I dunno the whole Clone Wars era has just never been a big area of interest for me.
Happy for y'all tho?
Anyway.
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[Insert commentary about how this show has really gorgeous environments and y'all sleeping on this work and effort.]
Kanan lampshading the tendency for missions to go sideways ha ha.
Ooof this verbal stumble by Rex is painful, he doesn't know how to act in a scenario where a Jedi is not his commanding officer, ouch.
Oh wow, just like Ezra, Rex shields himself inside his helmet.
Ezra messing with the B1 head awww.
Side note: I LOVE how stocky the model for clones is in Rebels. TCW clones always felt too tall and thin to me, Rebels clones look way more like Temura Morrisan's actual physique.
Ezra accidentally being insensitive about the Clone Wars moment number 1.
Kanan's comment about "scars you can't see". Something the animated shows have always excelled at is showing the genuine aftereffects of PTSD.
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Ezra's been playing the Watson role for the past few episodes and it is adorable.
Rex's initial panic when he thinks he's back in the war. :(((
I understand that TCW fandom cried a lot about Rex calling Cody's name unconsciously here.
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*sobs* Ezra still looks so TINY compared to everyone else.
Kalani assumed the shutdown order was a Republic trick lol.
Lasats not being part of the Clone Wars is an interesting detail. Obviously, Doylistically speaking, they couldn't have been since they weren't created yet, but also I like the idea that Lasats were adamantly against participating in the conflict and the Separatists took one look at them and decided invading them anyway wasn't worth it.
Ezra maybe naively jumps into things feet first, to Rex and Kanan's consternation. They both already know that War Is Hell. But they also have the best chance of getting out of the situation if they relive their collective war experiences and face their past by fighting one last Clone Wars battle.
Oh hey! It's the shuttle they'd repurpose later as the Phantom II!
Hera and Sabine's small B-plot is very brief, but hilarious.
I think Pryce must have pulled a LOT of political favors in order to be granted occasional command of her own Star Destroyer. She's apparently allowed to lay a trap for the Spectres specifically and has the authority to deploy local Imperial outposts, too.
Not bad for a planetary governor. But then, Pryce was always ambitious beyond her station.
She attached herself to Thrawn primarily for the advancement opportunities, I think.
The sex was probably good too I mean what?
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The boys be looking good.
Lol Kanan can hear the cacophony of clanking droid footprints.
Poor Ezra is so lost with all these references.
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This is just a fun adventure for him, he doesn't have the frame of reference to know just how harrowing and dangerous this could be for the average Clone Wars Jedi commander and clone unit. So he doesn't know to keep tighter formation and wants to keep charging ahead instead of waiting to assess.
Rex casually calling his training and conditioning and genetic modulation his "programming", directly comparing himself to the droids. Ow. Ow ow ow ow. Hurting in "Central thesis of TCW, that the clones are not just identical mindless meat droids but individual and free-thinking men" feelings.
Kalani and Zeb's exchange here is hilarious.
Chopper jumpscaring Ezra lol.
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Just wholecloth grabs his wrist like an excited kid trying to show their parent something.
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He's come so far, I'm so proud. All he needs is the slightest gesture.
OH HEY IT'S MY FAVORITE SCENE.
Rex is... I think a little rattled by getting hit. Sure, the armor protected him, but you know it can't have been fun and he probably thought for a moment he had gone down for real. So yeah, Ezra's innocently flippant attitude about things upsets him.
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"A good soldier follows orders!" Ouch. Ow ow ow ow that phrase, Rex, please.
You know it's something that's gotta echo inside his head constantly, his programming won't let him forget it.
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Eternally a fan of the kicked-puppy flinch Ezra gives here.
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Kanan immediately reassuring Ezra that it's not him. <3
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The beginnings of a realization.
I slowed this sequence way down to check where Ezra got hit (for... reasons) and from what I can tell, it looks like Ezra didn't quite manage to block a shot and some of it fritzed past his blade and hit his right collar, right where his armor is.
Rex gets dinged in the helmet moments later, but as he said, "Gen 1 armor always holds up." Once again, Rebels showing off the importance of good armor. :)
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<333333
The group get up to the command center and Ezra starts to live up to his name as "bridger" between disparate groups, first pointing out that by all rights the droids should have won their skirmish, they were just too old to actually function correctly. Kalani agrees and claims victory, but Ezra also pushes against that, pointing out that none of them actually won the Clone Wars. It just... ended.
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The more techie side of Star Wars YouTube have analyzed both sides and concluded that, absent the obvious direction and self-sabotage by Palpatine, the Separatists would have eventually won the Clone Wars. But of course the sabotage and playing both sides was the point. No one was supposed to win the Clone Wars because it wasn't a real war, it wasn't naturally occurring or organic, it was a massive artificial power play by Palpatine, who instigated, incited, prolonged, and manipulated things so that whichever side "won", he would come out on top as the victor standing on the corpses of the Jedi.
Palpatine set both sides up to fail.
This is something Star Wars fandom repeatedly fails to understand, there was no winning in this whole situation. The trap was too carefully set, nothing the Jedi or the Senate or the Separatists did could have prevented the war from happening and nothing they did could have stopped its ultimate endgoal, which was the destruction of the Jedi Order and the consolidation of power under Palpatine as sole ruler of the galaxy. That's the whole tragedy, that they tried so hard, got so close, but ultimately could not prevent that awful fate from happening.
Barring Anakin sitting his ass down for just five more minutes or slashing through the correct party in Palpatine's office, there was no narrative escape. The choices were damned if you do, damned if you don't, and either way you're ending up dead.
Anyway, Ezra's armor-piercing questions absolutely stun Rex and Kalani into silence for a moment before Zeb points out the Empire won. Because they decided to conveniently show up just in time for a good Enemy Mine situation lol.
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Kalani resists the logic at first since he's not at war with the Empire but the Stormtroopers casually destroying his scout unit probably helped change his mind lol.
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Ezra Persuasion Checks both Kalani and Rex into accepting the team-up, like the budding little diplomat he is. :)
"Well this takes trust to a whole new level." Lol.
Nice to see the B1s retaining their status as hilariously abused butt monkeys.
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Rex praising Ezra for "ending the Clone Wars" ahhhhh.
Sabine's eyes lighting up when she sees the shuttle they're bringing awww.
And TCW-inspired credits as a nice little homage.
Predictably this is one of the husband's favorite episodes. It's a fun little romp, pays some love to TCW and develops Ezra's character a bit. It doesn't really affect the larger story outside of that so I guess it could be called filler, but it's a fun filler.
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unknown-lifeform · 10 months ago
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Ok but like. I've been thinking of technology in ff7 and parallels between the ff7 timeline and ours and honestly the differences just. They make sense. More than this first paragraph does for sure at least
So. Let's try to assume that the year 0000 in ff7 corresponds to our 2000. So the 90's in ff7 correspond to our 90's, the 80's to our 80's, and so on. Obviously there are some massive differences in technological advancement, especially with Remake/Rebirth giving people smartphones as opposed to the flip phones of the earlier games. If we go with the Remake/Rebirth version, that's more advanced than our early 2000's. Robotics and AI are obviously ages ahead in ff7 compared to us. Possibly bioengineering too, but that can be explained by ff7 having mako and monsters and Jenova when we obviously don't.
But when you think about it, it makes sense. It's about war. Shinra has been actively at war for decades before canon (Wutai in the 90's, and before that the Junon Republic). And it's also fundamentally a technological juggernaut with endless money to throw at research. Robotics and AI being advanced? Shinra uses mechas as weapons, sometimes Wutai never seems to have done. Of course that sector is way more developed, Shinra had an interest in making better, smarter weapons. Smartphones? Obviously developing communication technology is important if you want to take over the world. And once the war is over, Shinra can charmingly recycle their discoveries in things people will like
We can consider instead what the ff7 world doesn't have. There are no high speed trains, or long distance trains at all. Shinra doesn't have a use for it. Wutai was an island so trains wouldn't get Shinra there. Rebirth tells us the Republic of Junon had plenty of roads, but Shinra let them fall apart after taking over, because no use for roads when you can fly your operatives around, and everyone else can suck it up. Why would they even think about things like trains? There are also no power plants outside of mako reactors, obviously, and the only traces that energy sources other than mako were ever used are Corel's abandoned coal mines and as for Rebirth some abandoned Junon era windmills. Oh, and the abandoned oil fields On the Way to a Smile mentions. None are exactly the latest technology when it comes to energy production. Because Shinra would have to be insane to invest a single cent in any kind of energy research that isn't mako
And of course, space technology. In our world, Yuri Gagarin was in space in 1961, and we had people on the moon before the end of the 60's. And why was that? Because of the space race, because we had the Cold War, and sending someone into space was an amazing way to show off your country was the best country, and so both the US and the USSR funneled money into space research. In ff7? There was no Cold War. No rush to develop space technology by the 60's. Maybe the Republic of Junon or whoever would have worked it out at a slower pace, but then Shinra started its very much not cold wars, and there was no reason to invest into a space program then. Not when money and resources could make weapons, instead of rockets. Only after the end of the Wutai War was Cid sent to go into space - as a publicity stunt from Shinra, of course. And when his launch failed (for safety issues, may I add), Shinra didn't bother to make another. No point in it. No need to show how great your technology is when no one else on the Planet is making technology
I mean I'm sure Shinra has satellites because they gotta make those smartphones work somehow. But as of the early 2000's, no one was into space. Shinra's space program is scrapped, and has Palmer of all people in charge. It seems the only people who actually care to study the universe are the planetologists in Cosmo Canyon. So is astrophysics just considered some useless hippy science in the ff7 world? You can't squeeze mako out of space, so let's just not bother with it ever?
I'm just having a massive moment about technological advancement and scientific research being subservient to whatever the latest global imperialist superpower and what its practical wants and needs are. And also how in ff7 the only scientists we see are either on the Shinra payroll, all on varying levels of unethical experimentation, or in Cosmo Canyon, which I don't think gets a lot of research grants on average, or the engineers left jobless around in Rocket Town after the failed lunch. Want a career in science, either get consumed by the evil megacorporation and lose whatever morals you might have had, or get fucked
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