#instead of just sending me back to the dialogue options. so i have to hear aD aStRa AbYsSoSqUe every 5 seconds

[gender-euphowrya]

i'm ngl it's incredible how unpolished genshin is despite how much money it racks in

[rainbowmoonstonestories]

Let Your Dreams Be Your Wings | Chapter 7

Chapters: 7/? Fandom: The Sandman (Netflix 2022, minor content from the Comics) Rating: Explicit Relationships Dream of the Endless/Morpheus x F!Reader Characters: Dream of the Endless/Morpheus, Lucienne, Matthew the Raven, Mervyn Pumpkinhead, Hob Gadling, Death, Rose Walker, The Corinthian, other minor Sandman characters, Original Characters. Warnings: 18+ content (minors DNI), explicit sexual content, POV switching, very long chapters to read. Summary: You always dreamed of becoming a successful Fashion Designer, sharing your creations with the world and making your father proud. But with him being very ill and so many costs solely weighting on your shoulders, things didn’t go as planned and you had to take a different path instead. An interesting offer led you to the elder Alex Burgess and you were hired as a new housemaid for a very good pay. However, your kindness and outstanding empathy convinced the man to give you an additional task for a doubled compensation; gaining the trust of Dream Of the Endless, held captive into the basement for over a century. Despite the shock of finding such an ethereal entity stripped of all his clothes and contained into a confined space, you had to accept for the sake of your father. But the more you got to speak to the mysterious anthropomorphic personification who didn't utter a single word, the more you were lost into his eyes that, conversely, seemed to contain the entire universe. A deep connection formed between the two of you, separated only by a thick layer of glass.

Little did you know, what started like a simple housemaid job was about to change your life forever.

Credits: The moon dividers were made by firefly-graphics

Note: I included a couple of sentences from the show in a dialogue to better explain what the Dreaming is about and how i tworks.

It was finally time for you to learn more about Morpheus. He allowed you to walk beside him into the Dreaming and learn about his family.

Chapter 7

You sit there in complete shock, staring at the bird in front of you with an unblinking expression. For a moment, you felt like a female version of Doctor Dolittle, understanding the language of animals that nobody else could hear beyond the noises they originally produced.

You had met the God-like entity that you had admired as a child, someone you thought only belonged to a bedtime fairytale. Encountering a talking bird was just as unexpected, and yet there it was, staring at you with its black eyes while its shiny feathers reflected the colors of the sunset.

All the things you thought never existed were manifesting before your very eyes.

And so you asked, "Who are you?"

The raven opened its wings in reverance. "I am Matthew. At your service."

After a moment of disorientation, and with your chest still burning from the coughing fit, you smiled wholeheartedly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Matthew. Though I don't understand what is even going on here.”

Matthew nodded. "I mean, a talking bird like me is not something you see happening every day, is it?”

“No,” you chuckled. “Not at all.”

"Sorry for the jumpscare. Are you feeling better now?”

Not only did he sound human, he was even considerate with you.

"Apart from my throat on fire, it's all good.”

He sighed. "I should have considered the consequences when the boss sent me here.”

You immediately sit up straight, fully attentive. “Your boss? Are you talking about Morpheus, by any chance?”

"Well, that didn't take long to figure out.”

Knowing that Morpheus didn't actually disappear immediately put you at ease. "It’s not like I have other options to pick,” you said with a wide grin. “I don't know anyone else who would send me a raven, of all things.”

“Fair point.”

You looked at Matthew, and the memories of the other bird lying motionless in a pool of blood on the basement floor came back to you like a stab. In your book, there was a phrase that evidently justified his presence by Morpheus's side:

"Observe, child: Dream of The Endless has a longtime ally and trusted companion, a raven that travels between realms as The Sandman's faithful messenger.”

You asked yourself if a new raven automatically took over once the previous one was gone.

Matthew tilted his head to the side and asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

You snapped out of your pensive state. "I am, sorry. I was lost in thought."

"I suppose this is quite confusing for you.”

"It is. Not in a bad way, I promise. May I ask why he sent you here, Matthew?”

The raven took a step closer, looking up at you. "Actually, I don't know much about it myself. The boss told me to look out for you and report back that nothing is out of the ordinary." He clicked his tongue. "Sometimes I can feel him on the back of my head, you know, watching through me.”

You raised an eyebrow. "Is he watching right now?”

A part of you wished he was.

"Not at this time."

Oh, well.

The thought of him checking on you during his absence made your heart flutter once again. As time went on, you began to realize that your idealized vision of the perfect relationship was not a realistic expectation. You accepted that a man could go radio silent for days or weeks, shamefully cheat on you with a random woman, or simply show interest only when his testosterone was driving him crazy.

Despite that awful acceptance, you found yourself in a new situation with Morpheus - not even a mortal man, someone you barely knew and couldn't yet define. He sent a raven all the way to the human world so that he could observe you, leaving you with a mixture of emotions: happiness and wholeness, but also uncertainty and confusion.

You were left wondering how to categorize Morpheus in your life. Was he your boyfriend now? Would you get the chance to be intimate with him again, or was it a one-time occurrence that he had no intention of repeating? The way he made you feel the previous night was indescribable. You still shook in excitement whenever you remembered how his lips felt against yours, the way he touched your skin and pleasured your senses, making you drawing out your deepest desires. Your body was still tingling and your mind was consumed with thoughts of him all day. If you closed your eyes, you could breathe in his lingering scent of sand, of the sea, of a forest in winter, of a sweet incense.

Morpheus was literally a dream come to life.

You smiled at Matthew as you laid comfortably against the soft pillow of the chair. “I haven’t introduced myself to you, have I?”

You could see the top of his folded wings raise and lower, almost as if he were shrugging. “I already know who you are, Y/N.”

The question that popped into your head immediately escaped your lips. "Did he say anything about me?”

"It seemed like he preferred to keep it all to himself. So, no, not really. Just… uhhh…. bits, here and there.” he replied.

“But why send you here? What is it that shouldn’t look out of the ordinary?”

“He didn’t say. Something was clearly on his mind though. He seemed... worried.”

Although you couldn't discern what was troubling him so deeply, his care and concern were more than welcome. The fact that he still cared for you, even from afar, and offered some form of companionship while being away was enough to make you feel gratified.

And so, you decided to satisfy some of your growing curiosity. "How long have you been with him?”

"Only for a few days. Lucienne sort of 'hired' me for the job," he explained.

"Lucienne..." you trailed off, thinking about the woman you had spoken to in your dream.

“You know her?”

You pondered over what answer to give before saying, "Vaguely. I met her once, but my memories of the Dreaming are still a little fuzzy.”

Matthew hummed in thought, turning his little head to the setting sun. "You know, I used to like this time of day when I was human," he said, reminiscing.

"You were human?!" you asked, seeking clarification.

"Oh, I was. Just maybe not the best one," he replied with a hint of sadness.

“How did you-”

“-End up becoming a raven? That’s a good question, which I unfortunately can’t answer. Magic? All I know is that I was in my bed, then all of a sudden, poof! I had wings and feathers and a sharp beak in place of a mouth,” he explained with humor in his voice.

"In other words, you died?”

“Seems like it.”

“That's quite mind-blowing."

"Tell me about it. So now I am a messenger working for Dream of The Endless, whether he likes it or not."

You took hold of your mug again, despite the tea having gone completely cold. You drank the last drops of it in order to not let it go to waste. "Why, is he against the idea of having you by his side?”

"Let's just say he's not over Jessamy yet.”

“Who’s Jessamy?”

“Oh… she was the other raven. You know, the one before me.”

‘So her name was Jessamy…’

"But he sent you here," you pointed out, "You must be rather important if he asked you to find me.”

"That's the perk of being a raven, I guess," he said. "I can easily travel between realms without using any sand or crossing portals. But enough about me. How are you doing? Is your human life proceeding well? Anything weird or scary to report?”

"Not really. I'm doing quite well over here, better than ever, in fact."

You were pretty sure that you saw Matthew smile.

"You know, I don’t think I have any food suitable for a bird, but... would you like to come in?"

"No worries, I don't need to eat. But I accept your invitation. I've got nothing else to do right now, anyway,”

You stood from the chair, keeping the empty mug in one hand and opening the window to let him in. Matthew jumped off the table, walked in front of you and took a look inside.

"Nice house," he remarked.

You laughed to yourself. The scene could definitely look comical with you warmly welcoming a bird into your home and gesturing to it like it was a human guest.

Watching Matthew fly over the couch to test its comfortable cushions was odd, but his company was already bringing you joy. Maybe it was the fact that he sounded like a comedian, providing comfort with his reassuring voice.

Or maybe it was due to Morpheus's hidden presence within him, which you could somehow feel all around you as you walked into the kitchen.

When Morpheus decided to find you in the Waking World, he didn't plan to get carried away in such a manner. He had finally retrieved the tools that were stolen after his capture, but the quest had turned out to be slightly more complicated than he had foreseen. He felt satisfied and more powerful than ever before now that the Dreaming was almost fully restored, but the Endless was also left with a sense of emptiness. After a century of holding a grudge and wanting nothing more than freedom and revenge, he found himself with nothing else to strive for.

However, there was just one thing he still needed to do: establish a proper conversation with you without holding back anymore. Morpheus was prideful, but the affection he felt for you was incredibly genuine. It started as a curiosity he wanted to satisfy, and he didn't think too much of it until he noticed how persistent you were in wanting to see him. The way you spoke and gestured conveyed all your kindness and sincerity, a rarity among humans that he wasn't accustomed to.

The connection that developed between the two of you didn't go unnoticed. Morpheus could feel it to the bone in a way that even he, as an Endless, found difficult to describe. He couldn't stop thinking about your smile, the sound of your voice, the light that sparked in your eyes whenever you visited him. At that point, he knew he should have pushed you away for your sake and his own, pretended that you were nothing more than a mere burden, allowing you to follow your own path without giving his fate too much thought. But the more he saw you in the basement, the more his need for you thrived. The moments he listened to you in silence were the only times he could forget about being sealed away from his realm and contained in a cage like a miserable insect.

He wished he could talk to you, touch you. The indirect connections he established with you through the glass were potent enough to make him explore your depth and feel you in his core, but it only resulted in a devastating eagerness he didn't know how to control or fulfill.

Morpheus knew the rules. A relationship between a human and an Endless was strictly forbidden, and he had witnessed the terrible consequences of such a mistake firsthand. His love and obsession for the girl he once fell for had mattered more to him than the tragedies she was forced to endure because of their choices. His selfishness had led to her complete downfall and his inevitable heartbreak.

For this reason alone, he had no intention of crossing that line again and causing you the same harm.

Morpheus found you through your dream, smelling the salt in the air and hearing the sound of the ocean moving peacefully back and forth with gentle waves. You were as beautiful as an angel, with the breeze blowing through your hair and your dress flowing around your body. He wanted to call your name, to let you know that he was free and right by your side, but he was so mesmerized by the way you walked to the shore that he wanted to imprint such a piece of art into his memory for eternity.

When your eyes met, Morpheus realized that even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to escape from your grasp. He had been in love so many times he lost count, but none of those feelings could compare to the spiritual link he had formed with you. It was different, it was new, it was unique.

He wondered why you were so special, how a simple human could be as gentle and compassionate as a Goddess. Morpheus asked himself over and over again why he couldn't let you be, forgetting about ever meeting you, as his realm needed to be rebuilt in the process.

No, he had absolutely no intention of touching you the way he did, kissing you, caressing you, and pleasuring your body over and over again through the night. However, his resistance crumbled when he felt the warmth of your body pressing against him, inebriated by the sweetness of your loving strokes along his face. He needed to reward you and a simple kiss would be enough for him. Just a quick, small, innocent kiss before taking his leave of you.

But then he wanted more. More than he could ever offer anyone else, more than he could ever ask to receive. Your boldness caught him off guard as you crashed your lips against his the moment he reluctantly released you, invading his mouth in search of his tongue and desperately seeking his closeness. Morpheus always wanted to be in control, but with you, he felt like he could let you do anything you wanted, and he would be the happiest living creature in the entire universe.

Morpheus wasn't one to have sex without being emotionally involved, so the physical intimacy he shared with you left a permanent mark on his heart. The fact that you wanted to see him again, not only in your dreams but also in the Waking World, was a big red flag he knew he couldn't just avoid. He needed to keep you safe, and the only way to grant you a good life would be to get out of it.

Unfortunately, just like in the past, he failed to find the will to do so.

As soon as he sent Matthew your way, Morpheus almost expected to find your dead body lying on the ground. He could barely contain the relief that washed over him when he saw you sitting on that bench, more radiant than ever, with the most beautiful smile he could witness. He stared at your image carved perfectly by the galactic spiral onto the starry ceiling above him, every curve of your body beautifully shaped.

You were a dream, his dream, one he didn't want to ever lose. So he had instructed Matthew to follow you in the Waking World, to observe everything around you and keep him informed of the slightest change when he couldn't take a look himself. Maybe it was too soon for the consequences of his mistake to befall on you, or maybe, after 10,000 years, the universe had finally decided to put that clause aside.

Didn't he deserve to be happy at least for once in his eternal existence? Couldn't he be free to fall in love without bringing death and sorrow to the one he cared about?

Something told him that things with you were about to take a different turn, one he had never seen before. Was he brave enough to risk it again, when the solution to the problem would be just so easy? All it took was an action, one that he didn't really want to take, and that would shatter two hearts at the same time.

Morpheus walked back to the throne room with that thought in mind as the images from your night together continuously played before his eyes. The King of Dreams and Nightmares was literally daydreaming about the human he had fallen in love with, fighting the rising urge to bring you to his castle and ravage your delicious body again without any inhibition left.

He watched you from afar as you moved about the kitchen, gathering the mugs and dishes together from the table. Your voice echoed in the room, distant but clear, and your melodic laugh brought a tiny smile to his pouty expression. The nebula followed your movements, highlighting your contours whenever you stopped and occasionally turned towards him - Matthew - to let him catch a glimpse of the mundane yet stunning display.

Morpheus couldn't help but feel a sense of longing as he watched you, and for a moment, he forgot about the responsibilities that came with his position. He wanted nothing more than to be by your side, to see your smile up close and to hear your laughter fill the air.

"My Lord," Lucienne called for Morpheus' attention as she entered the room.

"What is it, Lucienne?" He asked, turning to the librarian.

"It is about the woman, sir. The human you are watching."

"What about her?"

He could spot the hesitation in her eyes. "There is something you should know. Something I haven't told you before."

Morpheus felt the uneasiness forming in his stomach. "Go on,” he urged her.

Lucienne raised her hands and gestured as she spoke. "She was here. I found her in this room not long ago, when you were still imprisoned."

"What?" Morpheus exclaimed in shock. "How is that possible?”

"I do not know, my Lord," Lucienne replied, looking troubled. "But I saw her with my own eyes. She was standing right where you are now.”

Morpheus felt a chill run down his spine. He already knew that you had established a sudden connection with his realm as you struggled to remember the things you had witnessed in your newly discovered dreams. But how could you even reach his castle uninvited, with the Dreaming completely torn apart without his lead?

"I must warn you. There is something about her that seems... different.”

"Different?" Morpheus repeated, his curiosity piqued. "How?"

"I am not sure, sir," Lucienne admitted. "But her presence here felt almost otherworldly. Not dangerously so, just unlike any other human I have ever seen in this realm."

Morpheus fell silent, lost in thought. He shifted his gaze back to your image in the galaxy and couldn't shake the feeling that there was indeed more to you than met the eye.

It seemed like he had found something out of the ordinary in the end, and that something was you; an intricate mystery that he intended to investigate.

You didn't even realize how quickly time was passing. The hours flew by as you laughed, talked, and enjoyed yourself without a care in the world. Matthew left at night, fluttering his wings before leaping from the dining table to the open window. You watched him fly into the clouds until he was nothing more than a distant dot fading away.

As your eyes started to droop, you suppressed a yawn and began to clean out the kitchen, stretching your legs to get some blood flowing. Finally, when your back hit the mattress of your bed, exhaustion made its way through your body. That day you had walked for so long that the soft, welcoming covers felt amazing under your feet.

You rubbed your wrist with slow circles, pressing your thumb over the nerves that no longer hurt as much as before, but still made you flinch after a wrong movement. When you massaged your upper arms in a soothing manner, you could feel the skin around the healed cuts lightly scraping your palms. The three months you had spent working at Fawney Rig now felt like a distant memory, as if it had happened in another life.

You breathed in and out slowly, relaxing your senses and listening to the chatterings outside, the cars moving, the doors in your building opening and closing with people coming and going.

And then, those common, urban noises molded into something else, as the familiar sound of waves hitting the shore started to fill your ears.

When you opened your eyes, you were standing on the same beach you had dreamed about the previous night, looking exactly as you remembered it. You could even spot the crystallized shell a few feet away, sparkling and calling out to you, umoved.

And so you reached it again, brushing your fingers over the hard surface, sliding over each little crystal and strong ridge. A part of you wished you could keep it, placing it on your bedside table to admire it before going to sleep and waking up in the morning. At that moment, the colors transitioned in a gradient loop from pink to purple to light blue, resembling the color scheme of an LED lamp, except that the natural masterpiece in your hands held no artificiality.

You admired it one last time and placed it back into the sand. Your gaze then shifted to the calm ocean and the sky above, which blended into a carpet of stars and nebulas. It was as if the sun was setting behind the sea line, yet the time of day remained frozen in a permanent spectacle, combining day and night into one.

(Image generated with leonardo.ai)

As you stood up, you sensed someone approaching, and a pair of black shoes advanced into the golden grains. Your own boots partially sank into the ground with every step, and the new gown you were wearing danced around your legs with the wind blowing through the fabric.

The beach seemed to come alive at his arrival, the sand parting and forming a path for him to walk on. You watched in awe as Morpheus stopped in front of you, confident and proud, his eyes never leaving yours. He had a little smile on his lips, his presence commanding and powerful.

You looked up at him, feeling small and insignificant in his shadow, but at the same time, you felt a sense of comfort and familiarity.

"Hey stranger," you said fondly, bringing a hand over his chest and curling your fingers around the soft material of his coat. It was a repeated gesture that made you feel even more connected to his heart.

As he leaned close to you, his eyes sparkled in the starlight. "Hello," he answered, his voice shaking you in excitement like the first time you heard him speak.

"This place is so beautiful. There's still so much I don't know about the Dreaming or dreams themselves.”

Morpheus looked around, taking in the sights and sounds of the land. "Sleep brings you here to find freedom and adventure. My kingdom is a world of imagination, with dreams and nightmares that I create.”

“It all feels so real.”

"It is. There is another life which awaits you when you close your eyes and enter my realm.”

"I want to see more," you declared. "I've been wondering what dreaming felt like my entire life, now I don't want to miss any of it.”

You yearned to explore, experience and be inspired, to discover what laid beyond the corner of paradise you had found for yourself - a quiet place that seemed to be reserved just for you.

Morpheus interlaced his fingers with your hand, while it still clung onto his coat. He looked into your eyes, observing the anticipation growing on your face.

You waited for him to lead you, to guide you through his realm. The King of Dreams and Nightmares removed your hand from his chest, firmly enclosing it within his grasp.

"Follow me," he said.

"Where to?"

“Anywhere you wish to go."

In that moment, you realized that Morpheus was granting you the freedom to choose, allowing your imagination and desires to run wild.

You had barely begun to test the limits of your subconscious mind when the wind picked up and the world around you started to shift, reshaping your surroundings into something else.

What you saw was even better than the image that had crossed your mind. You were standing in a forest with the tallest trees you had ever seen in the Waking World, the green color of the leaves and bushes was incredibly beautiful, creating a vivid tone that went from dark to light. Sun rays passed through them and touched your faces gently, highlighting the contours of Morpheus’s jaw and giving his eyes an ethereal glow.

As you beheld the Endless being in front of you, you were struck silent, completely lost in his perfection. Hesitating momentarily, Morpheus gently brushed his fingers over the strand of hair that had fallen on your cheek, moving it out of the way to have a clear view of your features.

It felt like a scene straight out of a movie, and the urge to kiss him was building up inside you. Although you knew you were asleep, the dream felt way more realistic than any other fantasy you could remember. Despite a distant sense of confusion that threatened to cloud your mind, you managed to stay focused on the man you loved and chased it away, maintaining full control over a dream that would otherwise spiral into strange and confusing events.

You wanted to embrace him, to press your lips against his and relax in his arms, but the fear of being too clingy prevented you from taking the initiative. Since your relationship with Morpheus was yet to be defined, you didn't want to complicate things and ruin the moment with awkwardness. Instead, you held his hand tightly, savoring the warmth and comfort it brought you.

For a moment, you had the impression that the flowers at your feet were talking, whispering and giggling at the romantic display they were spectating, like an echo in the wind.

Reluctantly, you released his hand and took a step back, inspecting your new surroundings with curiosity. A massive, shiny rock was emerging from the ground next to you, with a few ivory white Moonstone crystals mounted on its surface. Each gemstone was a different size, with a magical blue flash of light that was twirling around in harmony. As you moved your fingers over the rock and followed the edges of the Moonstones, like you did with the shell, you felt their coldness beneath your touch.The energy they contained was so strong that you could feel the tingles on the back of your neck just by grazing their rough material. It was as if they held a secret, a powerful force that could unlock something from deep within you.

And so, you found yourself thinking out loud, "If someone had told me this was possible just a few months ago, I would have found it hard to believe.”

Morpheus came to your side, and as he did, the magical glow of the Moonstones immediately intensified, illuminating the surrounding area with a soft blue light.

"You were always connected to this place," he stated. "But without my guidance, the Dreaming stopped flourishing a century ago.”

His words hit you like a ton of bricks, and you looked at him with guilt for what he had to endure.

"That's horrible. To think that something so beautiful has been shattered to pieces by humanity’s greed. History never taught us a damn thing," you blurted out in frustration.

Morpheus looked down, concealing the affliction of his captivity. “Mortals need this realm to face their fears and fantasies,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

“I agree, but that doesn’t excuse their actions. Roderick Burgess was a terrible person even before your imprisonment. He showed no mercy or compassion, not even to his own son. He only brought more corruption to a world that has been stained with arrogance and ignorance for as long as I can remember.”

Despite all the advancements that humans had made, there was still so much cruelty and injustice. Morpheus's misadventure with them was a reminder of that, and it made you question whether progress was even possible when the same mistakes were made time and time again.

Maybe humans truly needed a place to confront their deepest fears and desires, a space where they could learn from their blunders and strive towards a better future. Unfortunately, history books may have taught you otherwise, portraying the world as an unforgiving place with people that were inherently flawed.

"Perhaps," he replied. "But not all of you are Roderick Burgess.”

You let out a sigh. "There are still far too many like him out there, though. I do wonder what their dreams even look like.”

“They are haunted by their sins, trapped by their fear, and tormented by the nightmares that dwell within the blackest reaches of their hearts. Their dreams are filled with torment, with the twisted imaginings of twisted minds.”

Despite the somber subject matter, his eloquent explanation brought an unexpected smile to your face. As you gazed at him, you couldn't help but think that there was something undeniably attractive about the way he spoke. His voice was deep and resonant, with a hint of gravel that shook you from head to toe. It was a voice that commanded attention, that drew you in and held you captive.

"It was a rhetorical question, but I like the way you tell things.”

Morpheus smiled slightly, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “It is rare for mortals to come to me seeking knowledge, rather than mere amusement. And it is indeed a most welcome change.”

“It’s not only knowledge that I am seeking. Like I said last night, I genuinely want to know more about you.”

Morpheus regarded you for a moment, his expression inscrutable. "There is much that I could tell you," he said at last. "But I fear that some of it might be beyond mortal comprehension.”

“I don't expect to understand all of it, but I want to at least learn what I can.”

Morpheus smiled again, this time with a hint of warmth. "Very well," he said. "Ask your first question.”

Your mind was brimming with questions, forming more and more the closer you got to him and farther into his realm. You wanted to choose them carefully because, no matter how intimate you might have grown, he remained a powerful being deserving of respect.

When you finally did, you formulated one. “I want to know what makes you who you are and what drives you forward.”

"What makes me who I am is a question that has troubled even the wisest of mortals. I am a being of many faces, many forms, and as you know, many names.” He paused, his gaze turning inward. "As for what drives me forward, it is my duty as the King of Dreams and Nightmares. The responsibility to maintain the delicate balance between the Waking World and the realm of dreams.”

"That sounds like a heavy burden."

Morpheus nodded, his expression somber. "It is one that I have carried for eons, and I will continue to bear it for as long as I am needed,” he replied.

"Have you been around for that long?"

"Yes. I have existed since the dawn of time, since the first stars shone in the night sky. I was there at the beginning of all things, and I shall be there at the end. I am a timeless force, a manifestation of the universe's infinite mysteries, a guardian of all that is, and all that may be."

It was indeed hard to comprehend the vastness of his existence and the scope of his power.

"I have seen the rise and fall of countless civilizations, the ebb and flow of time itself. And yet, there is always more to learn, more to discover,” Morpheus said.

You leaned forward. "Can you give me an example?”

"The mysteries of the human mind. But beyond that, I have also learned that even the most powerful beings are not immune to pain and suffering. As guardians of the universe, it is our duty to ease that suffering wherever we can.”

In that poignant moment, the tidal wave of understanding washed over you. The torment he went through for an entire century was something he had never experienced before, something that had left him completely destroyed, empty, and drained of all he was.

The memory of the desperation you had seen etched on his face that first night at Fawney Rig was still fresh in your mind. You would never forget it.

"You deserved better than that," you said softly, your heart breaking at the memory. You reached out to take his hand again, offering what little comfort you could give him. Your touch was gentle, like that of a butterfly's wings, but it carried with it a weight of empathy that only comes from knowing the depths of another's suffering. “You deserve everything.”

Morpheus swallowed heavily, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he tried to find the words to respond. His eyes glistened in the blue glow that pulsed from the Moonstones.

He moved another stray hair away from your eyes, lowering his forehead over yours with disarming tenderness. "I am Dream of The Endless, Y/N. I already have the universe."

You chuckled, feeling his breath on your skin. "Then you deserve something even greater, how about that," you said, your voice filled with conviction.

Morpheus smiled at your exclamation. "Your words honor and humble me.”

“I mean it.”

Morpheus bent his head down, and his lips gently brushed against yours in a kiss that neither of you could resist sharing. As soon as your mouths touched, the Moonstones reacted with an explosion of light, illuminating the space around you in a dazzling array of colors. Another rush of wind pushed you even closer to his chest, as if the Dreaming was trying to keep you united, granting you its blessing.

Time seemed to stand still. The only thing that mattered was the feel of his soft lips on yours, the warmth of his embrace and the beat of your hearts.

When the kiss ended, you struggled to restrain yourself from moving things forward a second time, wanting to stay lost in the moment with Morpheus forever. You allowed him to detach from you without trying to stop him, and with your hand still linked to his, he resumed the previous conversation naturally. "Ask your second question," his voice calm and steady.

You took a deep breath, trying to focus your mind on something other than the intensity of your connection with the Endless. “‘It is our duty as guardians’, you said. You’re not the only Endless being, are you?”

"No,” he confirmed. “I have siblings, each of them with a kingdom of their own and a role to fulfill.”

“Can you tell me more?”

He nodded. "There is Death, my sister. She is the one who greets the souls of the departed and guides them on their journey to The Sunless Lands. There is Desire, who shapes the passions and deepest needs of mortals. There is Delirium, who embodies the wild, unpredictable nature of madness. There is Destiny, who holds the Book of Fate and knows the path that every living being will take. There is Despair, who feeds on the pain and suffering of others. And then there is me, Dream of the Endless, ruler of the Dreaming.”

You listened with lit up interest as Morpheus spoke of his family, a group of eternal and immortal beings with immense power and influence. Each one was unique, with their own personalities and domains to control.

But there was something off about such family story that made you feel unsure and extremely bewildered.

"Wait. Why didn't any of your siblings ever come to your rescue, then?" you asked.

As Morpheus pondered your question, you could see a flicker of disappointment in his eyes. "We do not leave our kingdoms unattended unless it is strictly necessary," he explained.

“You were imprisoned. That is strictly necessary to me.”

His discomfort became more apparent. Nevertheless, he continued to speak. "It was not their burden to take. It was mine alone.”

Although the family of the Endless was not as typical as a human group, it was difficult to understand how a sibling could abandon any of them like they did with Morpheus. Despite knowing very little about the Endless, it was clear that their lack of intervention had left him feeling lonely and afflicted.

You were not looking forward to seeing him upset. You wanted him to smile, to feel loved, supported and appreciated for what he did. You had no intention of rubbing salt into a fresh wound.

And so, you felt the need to express your utmost apology. "I'm really sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Please, do not apologize. Your concern flatters me,” he replied. “My siblings and I… we have not always seen eye to eye. But I have learned to accept their ways, as I do have mine.”

You pressed your lips together, savoring his taste that lingered on your mouth. Your hand slipped away, sweetly closing around two of his cold fingers.

"Okay. I might have a third question. Will you answer it?"

He responded without any hesitation. "Yes.”

"How does it work when I dream? Do I just come up with a visualization, and it automatically materializes itself?"

"Dreams are a complex creation of the subconscious mind, and they can take on various forms and meanings. While some humans may have the capability of shaping their dreams as they please, maintaining this level of control requires a certain power that only I possess.”

You grinned. "So if I think about something, can you create it for me?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Creating dreams and nightmares is my calling. What is it that you wish to receive?”

Although you were an adult now, the inner child within you still sparkled, perpetually tied to a creative imagination that had kept you safe during the hardest times of your life.

You thought that what you were about to say might be seen as ridiculous, something that even he could consider futile and nonsensical. But the moment that thought formed perfectly in your head, Morpheus smiled proudly and lifted his gaze to the sky, without needing your verbal explanation.

A gust of wind burst around you, and you turned on your heels to check the source of such a brutal force. You were left speechless as you stared at the giant figure landing on the ground, spreading its wide wings and almost darkening the sky above. The scales were a mix of green and gold, refracting the sunlight and shimmering like precious jewels. The neck was long, and the head looked as big as half of your body.

You were in shock, slowly walking towards the dragon, carefully placing one foot in front of the other to test its reaction. The creature didn't seem to have bad intentions. If anything, it bowed its head as if it was kneeling in your presence.

You continued to advance until you got close enough to feel its hot breath against you, carefully lifting one hand to touch its muzzle. The skin felt incredibly warm and much softer than you had anticipated. The dragon closed its golden eyes at the contact, which gave you a very content smile.

You looked at Morpheus, who was standing with his hands crossed in front of him a few steps away. The little curve of his lips betrayed satisfaction for a job well done.

"Now you're flexing," you stated with a smirk. He only responded with a chuckle through his nose.

As you kept moving your hand on the dragon’s head, you could feel your heart beating ever faster from the amount of wonder shaking your entire form. It was something that exceeded the simple fantasy of a child coming true, an old dream that you once had with open eyes.

No, it was far more than that. It was the realization of Dream's power, the things he did for humanity despite how unkind your race had been in his presence.

Waking up feeling like something was amiss, facing darkness whenever you closed your eyes at night, a world without dreams was a condemnation you had gone through first-hand. You never lost your sense of justice and the kindness your father had taught you, but it still plagued the unlucky ones and continued to spread through generations for over 100 years.

Standing there before a dragon that you could touch and physically perceive, you let your emotions flow all at once: happiness, relief and completion.

Morpheus came to your side, and as soon as you moved away from the creature, the majestic animal took flight again, lifting up into the vastness of the dream world with a booming roar.

When you faced the Endless once more, you were overcome by that familiar, strong impulse that forced you onto your toes. You planted a kiss on his cheek and curled into him, wrapping your arms strongly around his neck, as if you were afraid to see him disappear.

“Thank you,” you whispered in his ear. “Thank you for existing, Morpheus.”

Those moments with him were fleeting, and soon you would be back in the Waking World all by yourself. You didn't want to let him go.

Morpheus didn't speak, but after a moment of surprise and indecision, he brought his hands to your waist and held you gently.

The words 'I love you' were on the tip of your tongue and you wanted him to hear them. "What am I to you?" you wished you could ask. "What are we?”

In the end, you chose not to reveal your true feelings just yet. Although he may have already known, you needed it to unfold without turning the gears in a way that could simply backfire.

His touch on you was shy, fingers drawing little patterns on the fabric of your dress without even moving from their position. The subtle movement of his fingertips against your covered skin was enough to send new electric shocks along your form.

And then you let your arms fall down as your hands followed the line of his shoulders and traveled along his biceps. There was something incredibly soothing in the way he seemed to relax as you touched him.

However, that didn’t last.

"Y/N."

"Mh?"

"Lucienne informed me about your visit to my castle.”

The way his voice sounded was so suddenly serious that for a moment, you thought he wasn't happy about it. Did he feel like you invaded his space, which was even reduced to a pile of crumbles at the time? The magical sparks between you started to dissipate, and the mere idea of him being resentful with you had your stomach twisting into a tight knot.

"About that. I still don't know how I did it.”

Morpheus considered your answer, but when he said nothing, the need to justify yourself painfully nagged at you. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to intrude. I couldn’t even tell where I was until she told me.”

“You misunderstand me. I am not accusing you of such a thing.”

Morpheus's statement was like a soothing balm, relieving your worries and easing your nervousness. You released a deep sigh, and in response, you managed a timid "Oh.”

“I suspect that our… indisputable connection might have granted you access to places that are normally out of reach for most mortals.”

Your mind went back to the basement when your hands indirectly touched through the glass for the first time. Your dreams had started after that specific moment, leaving you with distant fragments that could barely be remembered upon waking up, until he was finally released.

“I suppose that makes sense,” you replied.

“Yes. And I believe that Lucienne is not the only subject you have encountered.”

You nodded in agreement. “Able and Cain.”

“Correct.”

“Does it bother you? That I have explored parts of your realm when I was not supposed to?”

You tried to decipher Morpheus's expression, but after a moment of consideration, he shook his head slightly. "It is not ideal for mortals to roam the Dreaming in my absence. But, I do not hold it against you.”

"I would never want to disrespect you," you said softly, offering him a small smile.

(Gif from Tumblr, found via Pinterest. If you happen to be the owner, or you know who made it, please notify me.)

Morpheus returned it, his eyes warm and reassuring. "It is my duty to guide and protect you in the Dreaming, and I will continue to do so to the best of my abilities."

While you knew that others could also enter Morpheus's realm and see him appear in a dream, you couldn't help but feel possessive when he spoke to you with such a glint in his eyes. You also understood that you could not keep him all to yourself, as all of humanity was under his care from the beginning of time. His touch made you feel special and grounded, but you were aware that Morpheus had influenced countless minds throughout the ages, and you certainly wouldn't be his last conquest.

Even though it may sound selfish and immature, you found it a little difficult to accept.

You gently took one of his hands from your waist, bringing it up to your lips to kiss his cool knuckles. As you released him from your grasp and resisted the urge to cling to him, you lifted your dress from the ground to walk more easily. "Would you care to take a stroll with me, Your Majesty?"

Morpheus’s smile grew wider than ever before. "It would be my pleasure," he answered, extending his arm out for you to take.

As you accepted his offer, he led you through the wonders of the dreamworld, passing through the vastness and magic of its many pathways. You saw the most unique flowers and creatures you could ever imagine in your waking life, as well as trees with all kinds of shapes and shades. You walked for so long that you couldn't tell how much time had passed since you fell asleep in your bed, but the longer you stayed in the Dreaming, the more you felt like you belonged.

Morpheus had told you different stories about his adventures, and you couldn't hide your surprise when you found out that William Shakespeare himself became the greatest playwright in history solely because of the inspiration he received from the King of Dreams. You were passionate about his tales and eager for more, wondering how many important individuals he had come across before you were even born.

Eventually, you asked him about Matthew, specifically avoiding mentioning Jessamy for the sake of his mood. He appeared to be quite reluctant to tell you the reason behind the raven’s appearance in the Waking World, only mentioning that it would be a story for another night. His reaction seemed strange to you, but you decided not to pry and dropped the subject altogether. You were learning to know him just as you wanted, and it was easy for you to declare that Morpheus was the most enigmatic man (well, creature) you had ever set your eyes upon.

It didn't really bother you. In fact, his mysterious demeanor only served to add to his allure and attracted you more and more with each passing moment. In the presence of Morpheus, you didn't feel unsure or doubtful about what was to come, but the battle between your gut instincts and your restless heart was keeping you on edge.

You couldn't help but wonder what secrets Morpheus was keeping from you, but for the time being, you were content to bask in the thrill of the unknown and his presence by your side.

The sky began to shift to a darker color until the light of the sun gave way to a sea of stars and northern lights. You walked along a bridge large enough for the two of you to walk side by side, while the surrounding waters enchanted you with the sound of calm waves rolling back and forth.

The stars above shone like diamonds in the night sky, while the lights roiled around in a mesmerizing display of colors. But despite the enchanting scenery you were stepping in, your attention was still drawn to Morpheus and the way he moved with otherworldly grace. You studied him closely, taking note of every detail - the way his hair caught the light, how his eyes sparkled with an inner fire, and how his voice carried a hint of magic.

As the bridge came to an end, Morpheus paused, gazing out at the infinite expanse of water before you. You unlinked your arm from his, taking a few steps forward to watch the distance. A thick layer of fog obscured whatever was lying ahead, leaving you feeling excited and apprehensive.

"Where are we?" you asked him, kneeling on the wooden planks and carefully touching the water surface with your fingertips. To your surprise, you felt the water respond, moving around your hand and seeming to enjoy the contact.

"This place is yet another aspect of the Dreaming," he replied cryptically. "It exists between your world and mine, where the boundaries of dreams and reality are blurred.”

As you looked into the waters, you could see a few distant images playing in sequence, like another world set in motion at the other side of a mirror. It was both beautiful and eerie.

"Those are dreams of other mortals," Morpheus explained. "We are at a crossroad.”

Suddenly, a fuzzy feeling began to creep into your mind, intensifying as you tried to shake it off. You knew very well what it was, and you didn’t like it one bit.

"You are waking up," Morpheus stated matter-of-factly.

You stood back on your feet, your hand instantly drying. "I don't want to leave just yet.”

"Do not resist, Y/N. I will see you again.”

“When?”

“Soon.”

As he lightly pushed you to the front of the bridge, the waters in front of it parted like the Red Sea with Moses, forming a flight of stairs that he started to descend. Seeing your uncertainty, Morpheus reassured you with a light squeeze around your shoulder. "Fear not, you are safe with me.”

After a moment of disorientation, you nodded your head and followed him down the dark road that had formed. The freshness of the water around you sent chills down your back, but at the same time, it felt invigorating against your skin. As you reached the bottom, Morpheus stopped next to you, turning you around to meet your eyes one last time. You had so much you wanted to tell him, but you felt yourself fading away the more you tried to talk, and the waters started to close around you. You could barely register his lips brushing against your cheek before he moved his hand in front of you, waving it slowly from your right to your left.

"This dream is over.”

The morning sun hit your face with its warmth and brightness. You squinted and covered your face with the back of your arm, breathing in and out a few times to steady yourself and fully recover from your sleepiness. A deep yawn escaped you, and you shifted around a few times, enjoying the softness of the mattress and pillows beneath you.

You let your mind wander back to the dream world, to every single detail of what you had experienced with Morpheus, the things he showed you, and what you had learned about him and his family. To you, it seemed like you had been away for a long time, and returning to your regular life was almost unnatural. Dreams were complex and ever-changing things, offering a window into the subconscious and a gateway to escape. The Dreaming was a place where time had no meaning, and in which those lost in sleep could find peace and salvation from their waking nightmares through infinite possibilities.

You stretched your limbs and pushed up into a sitting position. You massaged your neck, eyelids, temples, and lower back to soothe the aching of stiff muscles, your eyes finally adjusting to the light.

You noticed something unusual on your nightstand — a big, sparkling object that surely wasn't there before. When you turned to take a better look at it, your breath caught in your throat at what you saw. You blinked a few times, and in disbelief, you pinched yourself to ensure that you weren't still asleep.

The shell from your dream was right there, glittering under the sun's rays, as if it had always been a part of your home decor. For a closer inspection, you took it between your hands and felt its weight, the coldness of the surface as real as ever against your palms.

You turned it around, just like you did on the dream seashore, outlining each detail with fascination and astonishment. You had believed that everything encountered in a dream would remain just that, unable to cross between the worlds. But now that Morpheus was becoming less of a mystery and more of a certainty, you could tell that with the ruler of the Dreaming, anything impossible could become possible.

You laughed to yourself in utter delight, placing the shell back onto the nightstand and staring at it for a long time before getting out of bed. As you prepared a quick breakfast, turned on the radio, and resumed your morning routine, you didn't realize that something equally remarkable had happened the moment you woke up. It took you about an hour to notice that something about you had changed, and the moment you looked at your own image in the bathroom mirror, your eyes widened in shock at what it was reflecting back at you.

The scars on your arms had completely disappeared.

You had to look down at your skin, touching it a few times, to understand that it wasn't just your mind playing tricks on you. You reached for your upper back and moved your fingers where the glass piece had previously pierced you, but even there, your body was immaculate.

And then you rotated your wrist, once, twice, over and over again, bending and pulling it to test its resistance. Nothing. No pain, no tingling sensation, no funny feeling. Just a completely healed, perfectly healthy wrist.

A part of you wanted to cry for how absolutely incredible you felt about it all. Morpheus had given you so many gifts that you didn't know how you could even repay him. As a human, you didn't really have much to offer him. An endless being who owned the entire universe could never ask for anything, but there was still a hint of loneliness in him that you desperately wanted to alleviate.

You loved him, but you weren't sure if he felt the same way about you. He was an eternal being with countless ages ahead, and the time spent with you would just be a tiny fragment in the vast expanse of his infinite existence.

And yet, a voice in your head kept telling you to persist, to be there for him because he needed you more than anything else. Relationships had never worked out in your favor, but maybe that was for a reason. Perhaps you were meant for something greater, for someone better. A man who could offer you more than an entire world and treat you like a queen in two different dimensions.

You felt a little ashamed thinking about it. How could you expect a literal God, the King of Dreams, to choose a mere mortal from the Waking World, when he could easily pick any Goddess of equal power?

You told that to yourself as your heart betrayed you, whispering from the depths of your soul and pleading for you to stop. Coincidentally, the next song that played on the radio as you put on your makeup and prepared for the day was "Que Sera, Sera" by Doris Day. They say that the universe may speak to you through subliminal messages or hints that you need to interpret. Whatever it was trying to tell you in that moment, you decided to accept the advice and put your overthinking aside, allowing the natural course of things to continue without any interference.

You smiled at your reflection with that thought in mind, grabbed your bag, and turned the key into the door's lock.

Visiting the Dreaming served to raise the bar of your inspiration even higher. It was hard to tell whether it was Morpheus's influence or the dreamworld alone that was responsible. But as you sat at the New Inn, you let your hand move uninterrupted on your sketchbook.

You had invited Hob out for brunch, but he was completely swamped with work and had to politely decline. At that point, the owner knew you so well that nobody paid any mind to you occupying a table indefinitely. As a regular customer, you always made sure to order something every now and then during your stay, and the workers there had started showing interest in your drawings, which only served to boost your confidence. You had been building your portfolio like a madwoman, always using every bit of free time to complete new projects and bring your ideas to life, no matter if it meant breaking away from the original consistency. You had decided to overcome your boundaries and allowed your creativity to spring free.

In the afternoon, you left the inn to visit your father a few blocks away, relieved to be able to walk there instead of taking a cab and traveling for miles.

Your pace increased as you stared at your wristwatch and crossed the various sidewalks. The streets were particularly lively with the sunny weather, so you had to carefully avoid bumping into the many passersby along the way.

Unfortunately, you didn’t notice the man that was pacing in your direction and appeared in front of you, crashing against his chest and stumbling backward as your bag flew to the ground. The closed zipper prevented it from spilling out all the contents inside, but you had to pray that the screen of your phone didn't crack.

A hand pressed on your lower back, steadying you the moment you faltered on your feet. When you looked up, you noticed a pair of round and black eyeglasses covering the man’s eyes, with the thickest lenses you had ever seen anyone carrying around. His hair was blond, much shorter on the sides and perfectly combed to the back on top. He wore a light grey jacket, a white button-up shirt with a high collar, and a pair of black trousers matched with dark polished shoes.

His expression was blank, difficult to decipher. But then his lips curved into a mischievous smile, one that paralyzed you on the spot.

"I'm sorry," you said nervously. "I should pay more attention to where I’m walking.”

One could say that a man like him was the apotheosis of sexiness, with such a striking elegance and a smile to die for. But to you, things felt suddenly out of place, and you could sense that there was an uncommon aura emanating from him.

"It's alright," he answered, helping you to your feet and removing his hand so slowly that you had the impression he was trying to feel you. "The important thing is that you are okay. You didn't get hurt, did you?”

His voice was coarse and slightly deep with a note of allure. At the same time, it served to make you even more anxious in his presence.

“I’m fine,” you replied. “Are you?”

The corners of his lips raised up even more, and you could see his perfectly white teeth gleaming under the sunlight.

“I am,” he nodded. “But please, let me help you.”

The man bent down to grab your bag from the asphalt, blowing some dirt off of it and carefully brushing the leather with the back of his hand. There was a strange sense of familiarity, as the same energy that generally came from Morpheus was spreading in the air around you. But it was a lot darker and way more negative, making you feel extremely cold inside.

When he was done, he gave you the bag back, scrutinizing your face from behind his glasses.

"Thank you," you said, taking your bag and hastily securing it over your shoulder. "And again, I'm really sorry for bumping into you, sir."

Casting your eyes to the ground, you stepped forward and past him without waiting for his reply. However, to your dismay, his strong hand stopped you before you could cross the street. He kept you in place by the arm, his breath on your hair.

Was he actually smelling you, or were you imagining things…?

"No need to rush away," he told you, his grip on your arm loosening. "After all, I am the one who should apologize. Allow me to make up for it with a drink. Do you like Whisky?”

There was definitely something off about that man, but you were unsure if he was being nastily flirty or if there was something much worse going on that couldn't be spotted by the naked eye.

You forced a smile, trying to get out of that awkward situation in the most peaceful and polite way possible.

“I appreciate the gesture, but I’m really in a rush right now,” you said.

You hoped that would be enough to convince him, but instead, he brought his face even closer to yours. “I insist,” he murmured in your ear.

Irritation and impatience started to build up inside of you. "Look, I don't want to be rude, but I am expected in a few minutes. So, if you'll excuse me.”

While you couldn't see his eyes, which somehow you were afraid to look at, you held the stare as he processed your rejection. You could see that he wasn't pleased, breathing in through his nose and pressing his lips together. Finally, he let go of your arm completely, took a step back, and raised his hands in surrender. "Don't let me keep you, then. Maybe another time.”

The man stayed there, but you didn't want to wait for his next move. With a final, very tight smile, you turned on your heels and went down your path, crossing the street as fast as you could and disappearing into the crowd on the other side.

You didn't see the Nightmare biting his lower lip, smirking in satisfaction, and nodding his head in silence.

Author's notes:

• I generally do not stand for AI generators, as they take away the work from real artists (either with the generations themselves that take bits from existing artworks, or people selling AI art without any efforts). However, I think it can be useful for personal purposes and I like to play around with it to make quick concepts that might help me better showcase what I'm writing about.

• The importance of the phrase "You are not all Roderick Burgess" is there to capture the development that Morpheus is already going through in this initial phase. As we all know, in episode 3 he was about to leave Rachel to her consumption, to a slow suffering and upcoming death. He decided to help her because Johanna reminded him of his intention to save humanity, and that means he should also be a little more compassionate since his own sand put the girl into that state. When Morpheus told Johanna "You are not Roderick Burgess", he clearly wanted to let her know that he learned the lesson and that he shouldn't consider all humans the same. For this reason, I wanted Morpheus to tell this to the Reader as well, also as a reminder to himself.

• Morpheus has a lot of secrets, and right now Reader doesn't know half of the things he's done and went through. In the next chapter she will definitely learn about Nada, but most likely, he will also confess what happened with Calliope and Orpheus. One way or another, every single lover has left him, so let's see if Reader will be an exception... 👀

• In the comics, the Corinthian is 100% homosexual. In the TV show, Gaiman apparently stated that the character is pansexual, although it is clear that he still has a preference for men. At the end of this chapter, he wasn't really trying to get laid with the Reader, but he is known to use his charm and sex appeal to draw his victims in to get what he wants (he just seems rather flirty by nature; even with The Good Doctor, he always had that charming attitude and he tried to use the same tricks with Miss Rubio to locate Jed). Also, I see him smelling Reader's hair as a way to taste her fear. He's a nightmare after all, one that likes to toy with his victims. However, he may have found quite a challenging human this time around. Oops, sorry Cory.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 (currently reading) Go to Chapter 8 ->

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Ko-Fi

[phoenixkaptain]

I wanna talk about Star Wars comics and how fucking funny they are??? And how with the power of hindsight, they can make Luke and Leia so obviously twins??? (The finish each others sentences!! They both think about stealing an Imperial fucking Star Destroyer at the exact same time!! Luke says “Han is gonna hate this idea” and Leia replies “All the more reason to do it” !! They are TWINS babey!!)

Darth Vader knowing Luke is his son before Empire Strikes Back is the best move ever. Like, you can read Empire Strikes Back as him knowing (he calls Luke “Skywalker” on Hoth, after all) but making it obvious? Chef’s kiss. Darth Vader sending multiple bounty hunters and Stormtroopers and Aphra all after Luke, but specifically requesting him alive? Every single person who confronts Luke being like “Why the FUCK does Vader want you alive?? Has he even met you??? I met you five seconds ago and I want you dead, Vader is so powerful????” Vader purposefully ruining other Imperial plans to catch Luke because he’s the only Imperial who gets to have Luke? Him calling him exclusively “my son” in his inner dialogue? Him being like “The world and the galaxy and the Empire and everyone I know could literally die right in front of me in a fiery death but that is secondary, can I have my boy or what?”

(Luke over there like “Hmm. For some reason, I feel like I should meet Vader.”

Leia: “Ignore it.”

Luke: “Yeah, okay.”

Vader: “…hello darkness my old friend-“)

I love Sana but I specifically love her relationship with Luke. If you were to tell someone that a smuggler and a princess were friends, you’d be describing Sana and Luke’s relationship instead of Han and Leia’s. What do I mean i’m so glad you asked-

Luke, very excited: “I got to drive the Falcon :D”

Sana, very tired because this is right after the prison break arc and Luke was unconscious and threatened with death five seconds ago: “This child is too young to speak to me.”

Luke: “What do you mean about Han and Leia?”

Sana: “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

Like!!! Sana!!! Leia is the SAME age as him!!! But no, Luke is the babie one, it matters little that he blew up the Death Star, he is the sheltered princess of the relationship while Sana is the world-weary smuggler who feels dirty just standing next to him. Their dynamic is fucking gold and I will not hear a single thing against it.

Okay but can we talk about Vader Down? The story arc in which Aphra says “Skywalker is on Vrogas Vas” and Vader comes out of hyperspace in the exact area the x-wings are doing drills? The story where Luke is like “hm, how best to deal with Darth Vader… I think I’ll crash my ship directly into his, sending us both plummeting to what might be our deaths, that might work.” (Vader: “Finally, a pilot who is worth facing off against wait a second that feels like-“) The story where Leia is like “Everyone around me is dead except for me, but Vader obviously left me alive in hopes I’d lead him back to the base, but I’m going to do the opposite, actually, and I’m going to stand here and wait for him and then tell the Rebels to blow us both up. Yes, I’ll die, but so will Vader, and that’s worth it.” (Vader is not actually thinking she’ll lead him to the rebel base. He (correctly) assumes that either Leia will find Luke or Luke will come to Leia) Dr. Aphra come over to try and help capture Luke because her options are 1. Capture Skywalker boy and bring him to Vader and Vader maybe won’t torture her to death, or B. Vader definitely tortures her to death.

The actual reason I love Vader Down is actually a combo of two reasons. First and foremost, Luke gets captured or knocked out or otherwise incapacitated (or just passed from one group’s hands to another) like ten times. It’s a running trend in the comcis, actually, Luke’s slipperiness that resembles how impossible it is to catch him in the Thrawn trilogy (Luke should be impossible to capture, it’s really what he deserves). The second reason is because Darth Vader finally commits murder of the person I want to see him murder, “General Grievous 2.0, this time he’s a cephalopod.” Or, Karbin for short. The way he gets him?

1. Big rock bridge

2. Vader pushed Karbin back a bit with the Force

3. Vader walks off of the bridge

4. Aphra rams into the bridge with her ship

5. Murder

It’s a foolproof plan and really, just, very well executed, 10/10 all around, I can’t get over Vader casually just walking off of the bridge

(The comic ends with Luke being like: “I feel like there was something I was supposed to learn in that big ol’ Jedi temple down on Vrogas Vas. Like the Force or something wanted me to know something. Or learn something. Hmm. Guess I’ll never know what it was. ¯\ _(ツ)_/¯ “

Vader: “…all around me are familiar faces-“)

Luke and Darth Vader and Vader being like “pleASE just GIVE ME my BOY” and the Force going “haha nope” while Luke accidentally gets lost on his way to literally everywhere is so good. Luke and Obi-Wan, who left Luke his journal that Luke pulls out every once in a while to read is also, I must say, just wonderful.

Obi-Wan is the oldest 40yo ever, give him and his joints a break please and just let him pat the small child’s head once or twice, Owen, please, it might keep him sane, it’s for the good of the galaxy-

No what I actually like are the rock people. The Force rock people. The glowing blue Force rock giant people who were worn down by tiny humans until they became mountain ranges and who Yoda revives. The tiny blue rock baby children who Luke meets for the literal first time in his entire life and is immediately like “I would literally doe to protect these babies. Get behind me children, I am very willing to be stabbed multiple times if it means that baby rock people remain unharmed.”

Luke gets stabbed like eight times, honestly, are the baby rock people worth it? Yes. They are. Thank you for asking-

But, this is all 2015 run stuff, and that’s a bit hnfair since I also love the earlier comics! I promise, I really do!

2004 run had Skippy the Jedi droid, which automatically makes it the best comic ever written, even if Luke does look like he has a haybale on his head. And it had Qui-Gon “I do what the Force tells me to do. Why did it tell me to do this? I don’t know, I did it because it asked and now it’s done. Bang up job, Obi-Wan, let’s go home” Jinn. Space Jesus Darth Vader, anyone? Strangely sexualized female characters? Fucking skirt slits up to everyone’s waist, because the artists have never tried to wear a skirt before? It even has Mara Jade! Truly, this comic has everything.

1977 comic run? Well. I have one thing to prove that this is worth your time. The comic isn’t great, the art is very strange, none of the characters look like their actors (it’s pretty cool that He-Man got his acting start playing Luke Skywalker-), and everything is a little bit off. Not to mention Leia’s strangely prominent breasts. Why are they like that? I’m confused.

Why should you read it?

Darth Vader floaty a cup.

[rex101111]

Okay I'll admit I sort of gave up because if you held me at gunpoint and made me have to whittle this down into one option I'd just tell you to shoot me. So, uh, I made a list instead. Admittedly I think most of them fall into two categories, really good dialogue or really interesting descriptors because those are two things I notice you tend to do really well.

-

Ghosts flaked off him like dandruff, floating in the air as he breathed them back in.

“But I didn’t call you out here so we can have a pissing contest over who gets to be the overprotective monster hiding in the closet.”

Her voice carried the universal annoyance of knowing someone from the day you were born and having no say on whether or not you wanted to know them. She made it sound warm.

A bisected corpse of a Gear was floating in the pond, staining the water a sickly red. Dead fish and birds littered the waters along with it, a few bigger fish found themselves tangled in the hanging guts of the monster.

Baiken kicked open the doors to the bar with all the grace of a sleep-deprived rhino, one of them ripped clean off its hinges and landing on the street with a crash

"I said I wanted to be your knight on a white steed, though I suppose this is a good conciliation prize!"

a black hat held tightly in the death grip of a hideously young corpse dressed in cheerful orange.

Kings, Queens, Dukes and Lords and Princes and every gilded wretch in between would prove to be undeserving of the power they wielded.

He yells at this rock, this stone of his people that glowed with power he could never hope to fathom (because anyone who could have explained it to him was dead), not because he hoped for an answer, but because the question needed to be asked.

It is not a friend. It is too old for that.

So his directions were half baked, unsure. And so Garummon followed, uncaring that it crashed into trees and rocks, because light’s only purpose was forward velocity. It only asked him for direction, any direction. And then everything in that direction became very, very dead.

She made exactly one step before she felt his hand on her shoulder, the one bearing the weight of weapons and scars

Mito did scold her this time, albeit gently, “don’t be ridiculous, you of all people should know how much a girl needs her big sister.”

Her shoulders jumped in a hiccup that came without permission.

She only allowed sleep to have a hold on her when Eri reached out for Delilah’s hand from within her sleep, able to have some measure of confidence that she’d be able to stop her from going too far.

He had to repeatedly stamp down his frustration with her lack of knowledge, if she hadn’t made a habit of deliberately skipping physical checks, she would know nothing in this office could hurt a fly…well, unless it fell on the fly but that would be hardly fair to blame him on.

Such precision was born of either practice, or innate talent, and he wasn’t sure which option made him more sick to his stomach.

Eddie lashes out, grabs Millia’s knife, and crushes it like a piece of scrap metal. Zato, feeling nothing, places a hand on his head, and Eddie calms, his own anger falling into Zato’s void and utterly failing to fill even an inch of it.

"So, I'm going to ask you a very simple question, child, do you want to live?"

She almost doesn't hear him, and then she feels a snag. The saw catches on something, and she knows what it is. The sounds of metal cutting into bone overpower her senses, the shock of the saw vibrates through her entire body, the pain slicing into the marrow and ever louder screams burst from her.

Fredrick (bigger and older and sadder and hurt and scared and different but still) watching her as she explains all she can, Asuka (thinner and sorry and wiser and quiet but still) sending her off with a promise and a hope.

She remembers accepting death, readying herself for it, bracing herself by holding on to Fredrick's hand as the world grew cold. But, now, here she is, alive and fine and with a sore throat and a splitting headache.

"Sol Badguy?" She managed to get out between a chuckle or two, "seriously? You couldn't think of a better alias then Sol Fucking Badguy?"

"Nun habit and Yo-yo Anji." She emphasized emphatically, raising her gaze for a moment to meet his before going back to the present. "Plus, he's a rich white kid." She poked the package a few times. "Buddha only knows what goes on in his head."

She wonders, wonders what song The Men On The Ground will send her tomorrow when she needs to wake up. She hopes its a song about the sun. (YES I STILL REREAD THIS ONE AND IT STILL MAKES ME CRY)

i just stared a this for a while because it reminded that, yeah, im pretty fucking good at this writing stuff ain't I? Izzy honestly just thank you for bringing up this huge collection XD And also some of my older stuff too.

Also yeah I read my Opportunity fic sometimes too when i need a good cry

[summerlycoris]

Actually yeah i wanna talk more about this.

So if Chica reported to Vanessa after Gregory gets banned from daycare that 1. She saw Gregory hop into Freddy's stomach hatch and 2. That they seem to be working togerher, it could fix tne whole showtime sequence from 2-4am.

Let me explain.

This actually starts at 1am, but 1am-2am doesnt need to change much. Regardless of which route you take, Gregory ends up seperated from Freddy. During this time, Vanessa takes Freddy down to the maintenance area downstairs, and locks him into the tube, just like she does later on in the regular story.

How does Vanessa do this? She could lie to him that she has a battery upgrade to install. Freddy doesnt have much of a reason not to trust her at this point- except Gregory's word. And while he's willing to help Gregory, he does try to convince him that Vanessa could help him earlier.

Or she could just wait for the 2am recharge cycle and send Moon to drag him away, while shes dealing with Gregory.

Heck, she could even send an alert out to any animatronics that arent currently on Gregory's tail to come help her capture Freddy. That would be dramatic, and could lead to some interesting character developement from Freddy, seeing his friends take him down earlier in the story.

Gregory probably realises halfway through El Chips or Loading Dock that somethings happened to Freddy. He hears it happen over the fazwatch, or just realizes Freddy isn't answering anymore. FORESHADOWING!

Anyway, White Woman Jumpscare happens as normal. Gregory manages to get in contact with Freddy again in the elevator, miraculously. And Freddy explains- he's stuck in the maintenance tube, and can't help Gregory. Unless Gregory can help him, first.

Backstage can mostly continue as normal, except Freddy doesnt stack some boxes on top of a bridge, before somehow collapsing under it lol. The boxes are just left there by staff or something. The only thing that really needs to change is the E Room (backstage office) because, well, Freddy isn't there to save Gregory.

Instead, Vanessa shows up. Not to save Gregory, but to catch him again. (At least, if he succeeds. If he runs out of time to clear the shutdown or whatever the hell hes doing in there instead of opening doors, Vanny kills him.) And Gregory has to escape Vanessa in a chase sequence. The chase sequence would lead him through to the Atrium, where he gets more advice from Freddy.

OR- Vanny does show up, regardless of whether he wins or looses. But heres the kicker!

She breaks through the fucking window. Like it's implied was cut from the backstage office. Coolest shit ever, and now Gregory has to escape through the window she broke, scale the sides of the backstage office until he can get down into the cut backstage area and find a way to the atrium. Meanwhile, Vanny is hunting him down.

Regardless of options, he finds a way to hide and disorientate Vanessa/Vanny, who lose track of him. And he ends up in the Atrium. Apologizing to Freddy for not getting the elevator working, so that he could get downstairs to free him. But he did get the showtime disk...

Showtime continues as usual. Except Freddy isnt there for the moon segment. Gregory just hunkers down in a recharge station. Could include an interesting cutscene, where he looks up to see Moon trying to pry open the recharge station and nearly getting inside, before the lights come back on.

Endos are as usual. Though Sun/Moon could report theyd seen Gregory downstairs in the maintence hallways, leading to Vanessa becoming a problem during endos, if you want to switch up the endos gameplay.

Heck, if you believe Notarealname Notatall (and I do.) This could lead into a Moon section, where it's his boss battle- defeat Moon, and you get the battery upgrade that Vanessa tricked Freddy into thinking she had earlier.

Vanessas dialogue to Freddy after endos would need to change. She's had like 2 hours to figure out that Gregory is... Gregory. Its not new info to her anymore. Shed probably just be venting to him about her failing to catch him, and blaming his interference, wondering out loud how this kid always knows exactly where to go... 'Freddy you dont happen to have anything to do with that, do you?' Leading into threats to dismantle him, once she finds that kid.

Anyway now i've exorcised those particular brainworms. This would, in my mind at least, make more sense than showtime and backstage currently make.

It means we lose the sweet section of Freddy ssving Gregory from the backstage office. But there could be a scene like that later in the game- maybe after Chica or Monty's shattering, he shows up to help Gregory get away (by opening the gate from the silo, or breaking the fence keeping Gregory from Monty Golf, as examples. Someone who has more beain can probably figure out something cool for these segments.)

But it also means we get to see Vanessa and Vanny take a more proactive role in apprehending Gregory- they're explicitly trying to prevent Gregory from having an ally who can help him! And they're chasing him down a lot more than in regular showtime.

It also shows the lengths Gregory will go to help Freddy. He still doesnt know Freddy very well at the start of the sequence- and might justify doing this as self interest- without Freddy, he's toast! But over time he's doing this not just for his own sake, but for Freddy's sake. He could feel guilty over Freddy being taken away, because it was only through Chica's report that it happened. He could just like Freddy and not want him to get hurt by Vanessa or his friends anymore.

Anyway, I'm done. Bye!

[neon-moon-beam]

There’s More Evidence That Ingo’s Going Home Than Not

 This is what I think, backed up by in-game evidence.

Also, let me preface this by saying that this is for those of us who want reassurance. I ask that you do not reblog this and add your theories that he won’t go home, and absolutely do not DM me your theories or headcanons as to why he won’t. I’m not interested in them, especially not from people I don’t know, and I will block you if you do this.  I’m serious about this because my friend and roommate, 1863-project, made a post seeking reassurance and asking for spoilers confirming he went home, if they existed, when it leaked a few weeks ago that Ingo would be in Legends: Arceus the way he is. Instead she had strangers DMing her their theories without asking, which was rude and the exact opposite of what she’d asked for. Submas has helped both of us in different ways; neither of us wants to see Ingo trapped in Hisui. Spoilers start here.

First and foremost, this is a children’s game. Yes, it’s made so anyone of any age can enjoy it, but the lowest common denominator is kids whose age is a single digit. While there have been some darker moments, or even possible or actual character deaths, these happen off-screen, and almost always to the villain, or it happens to someone in the past we hadn’t met (think of the girl in B2W2 in the Strange House, or Cubone’s mom in Gen 1). The likelihood of them deciding to inflict permanent tragedy on Ingo, who is someone many players have met before and doesn’t deserve it, is low.

Factor in that Submas is incredibly popular, especially in Japan. 1863-project has covered this topic if you aren’t aware. They’ve gotten a decent amount of merch compared to a lot of other characters and certainly the other battle facilities, and the Battle Subway has been referenced in later games. Permanently splitting them up would be bad for the series.

A recent 2022 poll for the top BGM in PokeMas has had the Subway Boss/Gear Station theme leading. As of the time of this post, polling is still open, but given Submas’ original popularity in Japan and newfound popularity post-PLA, you pretty much know how this is going to go the Subway Boss/Gear Station theme won! Leaving Ingo in Hisui would clearly upset a large group within Pokemon’s fanbase.

Unova is next up for revisiting, whether that’s remakes, sequels, or a sequel/prequel like Legends: Arceus turned out to be. Ingo’s appearance in Hisui may simply be a hint at what is next to come (definitely Unova, maybe…a Submas-centric Legends? We can hope.) Given their popularity, it would be detrimental to have a game that revisits Unova only for fans to find out Ingo was left in the past and Emmet is devastated, or to just leave Submas out entirely.

Design-wise, Ingo and Emmet are a set. Of course they’re identical twins, but they have opposite facial expressions, opposite dominant hands, their names are derived from opposite directions (in English; in Japanese they are literally named “inbound” and “outbound”), opposite color clothes playing into the titles of the games they debuted in…It’s not entirely clear why they decided to send only Ingo to Hisui, but permanently splitting them up is bad from a design point as well.

Going along with this, Ingo and Emmet’s opposite visual designs play right into Gen 5′s themes of opposites, yin and yang, etc. Not returning Ingo to Unova, or having him be drastically altered from his Gen 5 design would destroy what are arguably the biggest visual representation of these themes outside of the box Legendaries (Reshiram and Zekrom), especially when they revisit Unova.

The amount of time and focus on Ingo in Legends: Arceus is HUGE. We don’t get to spend nearly as much time with the other wardens, and in Wayward Cave, the player doesn’t have the option of speeding through Ingo’s dialogue, or doing anything other than following him and hearing what he has to say. It’s essentially a playable cutscene. They wanted the player to know that Ingo remembers Chandelure and Emmet, even if he can’t remember the details. He’s also aware that he’s not from Hisui, but rather “another world”. Later he also remembers Pokemon trainers and battling, both concepts foreign to Hisui, where people are just learning how to be friends with Pokemon. The Gear Station theme even plays at the moment he talks about remembering this, a huge signal that he’s…starting to get…back on track (I am not sorry). He also never forgot the train stuff, despite Hisui not having trains yet, and he kept most of his subway uniform, likely due to the familiarity. Other characters that have experienced amnesia and/or removal from their original situation typically don’t remember anything and become someone else. Ingo is still there, even if he’s struggling to remember.

He’s also making no attempt to assimilate into the Pearl Clan or Hisui as a whole. The Pearl Clan took him in, was impressed by his abilities and trusted him enough to make him Sneasler’s warden, but that doesn’t go both ways. Again, he kept most of his original clothes rather than commit to the whole Pearl Clan look. We never hear him talk about “Almighty Sinnoh”, or even refer to Sneasler as “my Lady”. He does refer to her as “Lady Sneasler”, despite the fact that the Ride Nobles do not get the titles that the others do; this is likely just a mistranslation/general error. But it could also be a hint that he hasn’t assimilated, that despite being made a Warden, he hasn’t learned the finer details. He may also be giving Sneasler a title out of respect, but still, she’s never “his” Lady. How much does he truly serve her? How serious does he take the position when compared to, say, Lian, who not only will infodump on how great Kleavor is, but refers to Kleavor as “my Lord” often? Ingo could also be using a title as he has a very formal way of speaking, but he always has (this is especially evident in Japanese); he’s not picking up on local language here or in general. We meet him while going up Mt. Coronet, but the only other place we see him is Jubilife Village, which is interesting not only because most of the other wardens just disappear when they’re not relevant to the plot, being rematched, in the photo studio (or cutting your hair), but it seems to suggest Ingo is staying somewhere he’s comfortable—a city! Even though Jubilife is a village, it’s rapidly growing, and is the most densely populated area in Hisui. And whereas Arezu was concerned about running the hair salon conflicting with her warden duties to Liligant, Ingo never mentions Sneasler again. He starts running a battle facility at the training grounds and apparently never looks back.

Did Ingo even ever go to the Pearl Clan Settlement in the Alabaster Icelands? One NPC there mentions how good he is with Pokemon and the same NPC wonders where he came from during the postgame, but this could likely be to keep him on the player’s mind if they plan on doing more with Ingo/Submas in a future game. It would be interesting to find out that he never went there, or that he did and didn’t want to stay due to it being frozen and empty—Ingo’s team’s weaknesses lean heavily towards Ice (and Water) in 5th Gen. You can’t tell me he wasn’t sick of everyone who ever made it to him freezing the entire car with their Beartics and Vanilluxes. He also seems to be, at most, acquaintances with the rest of the Pearl Clan, suggesting he did not spent much time with them. Even Irida doesn’t seem too familiar with him; all she knows is that he showed up one day, has no memory of where he came from, and is good with Pokemon. That’s all anyone seems to know about him. He doesn’t seem to be making close friendships with people in Hisui.

Which leads to…Ingo is clearly unhappy. Visibly, he’s slouching, has bags under his eyes, and always looks zoned out. Despite his dialogue being very positive, it’s clear not knowing where he is, why he’s here, and not remembering his past are keeping him up at night and taking a toll. Contrast Anabel from Emerald, who reappears in SM/USUM, having lost her memories; she has her Pokemon with her and though she can’t recall her past, seems happier. Ingo doesn’t have his original team, and seems very unhappy. Personally I think if they wanted to leave him in Hisui, they would have showed him happier and assimilating into life there, heck, they probably would have thrown in Emmet and their Pokemon too! It just seems cruel to leave him alone and unhappy, and looking at Pokemon as a series overall, I can’t imagine this is the story they want to tell.

The moments he really seems himself are when battling the player, and he seems happiest when defeated, even saying his exact lines from 5th Gen and smiling. He also recites Emmet’s lines at times, further showing that he hasn’t truly forgotten Emmet nor his past.

Interestingly, NPCs will turn to look at the player, as well as turn and acknowledge any Pokemon you send out at them (specifically at them; you’ll know this happens when your Pokemon comes out, makes a noise and gesture at the NPC, then goes right back into the ball). But after Mt. Coronet, Ingo only acknowledges Pokemon, unless you actually talk to him. It almost seems like he’s zoned out or being detached, like he expects to go back any time and doesn’t want to get too invested in Hisui. This has been fixed as of the content update for Pokemon Day, but it’s still a little odd because he was the only character that did this, making me wonder if it was intentional, or just somehow Ingo was the only NPC that the developers didn’t catch. In any case they must have listened to all the people pointing it out, so here’s hoping they’re listening that people want to see Ingo and Dawn/Lucas go back to their proper time and place intact!

He also mentions not knowing what his purpose in Hisui is. It’s a little odd considering Arceus likely hand-picked him for something the way it picked Dawn/Lucas, yet Dawn/Lucas is directly given a mission with the info stored in their phone. I’m not sure why Ingo would not be directly told what to do. Maybe he didn’t have the latest phone and Arceus didn’t think his old one was cool enough? Who knows. Arceus works in mysterious ways. However, while Dawn/Lucas is told to complete a full PokeDex, in the process they’re teaching the people of Hisui how to befriend and live alongside Pokemon. Ingo is part of that too, but Arceus could have pulled nearly anyone to do that. Dawn/Lucas was likely sent back due to having completed Sinnoh’s PokeDex before and having dealt with a crisis involving Sinnoh’s legendaries. Ingo is one of the best trainers of his time, and possibly of all time if Arceus sent him to Hisui. He’s most likely there to teach the people of Hisui how to battle. A few NPCs mention battling happening in other regions, but it isn’t happening in Hisui yet. Very few people have Pokemon, and even less use them for battles. The few people you do battle often send out two or three Pokemon at a time, which take multiple turns, while the player can only send out one and is usually waiting unless they can outspeed multiple Pokemon. Rules for battles don’t seem to exist yet; someone had to go back and help Hisui out. (Not sure why doubles wasn’t deemed necessary yet—from a developer standpoint, it might have been too much to implement in a game trying out a completely different format for the series. It also seems like they haven’t made doubles as serious as it used to be in battle facilities for a few Gens.)

The “Thanks for Adventuring” picture includes nearly every major character, and every warden except Ingo. It’s a bit odd considering how much time was spent with him, and the sort of kinship between him and the player due to both not being from this world and having little to no memory, and the fact that he hangs around the training grounds after the Coronet Highlands missions. It seems to suggest that he fulfilled his purpose in Hisui in teaching people how to battle and was sent home. He may have done this before Dawn/Lucas finished the entire Dex, or maybe Dawn/Lucas is there because besides not wanting to omit the player from their own ending, by catching Arceus, they can go home whenever they’re ready to.

During the Daybreak Mission, Ingo does not get a callback as a warden. All of the other wardens show up at some point during the mission itself. Ingo is only seen after, when Kamado tells the player about new battle styles he wants them to try (that he had Ingo create). It seems the focus of the game is off Ingo as a warden, and while he still might have Sneasler’s bracelet, he’s basically gone from warden to running a battle facility. Considering that’s what he normally does in 5th Gen, and his character arc has taken this direction, it could be a sign that he’s going to go back.

Ingo’s current jobs in Hisui are becoming unnecessary, as well as not necessary for him specifically to do. A Diamond Clan member in the Diamond Clan Settlement mentions postgame that once people start living with Pokemon, they won’t have need for the Nobles’ protection, and we know from D/P/Pt/BDSP that Ride Pokemon are unnecessary in Sinnoh due to the HMs...or friendly Pokemon assisting (BDSP). Ingo seems to have left the Coronet Highlands and never looked back, but it seems that soon Sneasler’s services can be provided by other Pokemon. The Clans are coming together, people are starting to live alongside Pokemon, Hisui is rapidly changing, and the time of Wardens and honoring the Nobles as Pokemon who uniquely aid humans is coming to a close. Ingo may also be teaching people how to battle at the Training Grounds, but it’s a bit odd to think he needs to spend the rest of his life there doing so. After all, it’s Zisu who truly runs the Training Grounds and is the one who wants to start a school there (I have a post about that here). Ingo can teach someone all that he knows and have them take over. Interest in battling is rapidly growing and Kamado, Beni, Zisu, and most, if not all of the Security Corps already knew the basics. Ingo also began to remember a bit more once he started battling there, seeming to be leading up to him returning to present-day Unova. Should he go home, someone else should be able to step in where he left off.

Cogita refers to the player as “lost one”. Presumably this is due to the player character being sort of “lost” in time and space; they’re from present-day Sinnoh but have been sent to the past, and have amnesia (level of which is debatable and they seem to remember more as the game progresses). This is nearly identical to Ingo. So far we have not seen Cogita and Ingo interact, nor Cogita mention Ingo at all. But calling the player character “lost one” seems to imply that sometime later they will not be “lost” (sent home). And if the player character can go home, why can’t another character who is lost in the same way?

Regarding him still being around postgame, and, this is my opinion; I feel that the postgame isn’t really canon. Catching Arceus is the last thing you have to do, and can only happen with a complete PokeDex. People really wouldn’t like if they caught Arceus and the game stopped being playable. Postgame is likely a kind of limbo where you can complete any sidequests still unfinished, have rematches at the training ground, hunt for shinies, etc. This is fairly common with games as a whole (my other favorite series, Legend of Zelda does it by never saving after Ganon, or whichever other villain is defeated, perpetually leaving the player at the moment before, but free to finish anything else or mess around).

The Pokemon timeline is a little weird, with a few games being considered non-canon/AUs, but if Dawn/Lucas were around 12 during the events of D/P/Pt/BDSP, and they’re 15 in Legends: Arceus (as stated by Cyllene), and there’s several years between events in 4th Gen and 5th Gen, this could mean that Ingo was sent back to Hisui before the events of 5th Gen, in turn meaning he would have to be sent back. This is further suggested by Caitlin, who was 14 in Platinum, and is an adult as an Elite Four member in Unova. There’s easily at least four years, probably more, between 4th and 5th Gen; plenty of time for Legends: Arceus to take place between them.

Edit November 12th, 2023:

The Teal Mask DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet features Perrin, a descendant of Adaman who has the player track down and capture a unique Ursaluna known as the Bloodmoon Ursaluna. When the sidequest is complete, she gives the player a Hisuian Growlithe, separating him from his older brother. Her dialog is a bit interesting: “But you know, Growlithe like these are known for living and working together in pairs. Even if they are separated for a while, I bet their paths might just cross again someday...so you raise that one with care in the meantime!” Now who does that sound like? Brothers working in pairs, being separated, but meeting again? It could just be a hint that Ingo and Emmet will be reunited, if they haven’t been already at the point in the timeline in which Scarlet and Violet take place.The devs have to be well-aware that many fans did not enjoy Ingo’s inclusion in PLA; if you check the official Pokemon...Twitter? account, most, if not all tweets related to PLA had many subtweets of people asking if Ingo would go home. Everyone is also likely aware that there have been issues behind the scenes which probably factored in to why PLA felt incomplete and never got a DLC; it’s likely if things had been kinder to the devs, we would have seen him (and Dawn/Lucas) go home, and this may be a hint that we can expect him to be perfectly fine in a future game set in Unova, or a hint at something to come.

I hope this provides some reassurance.

~Moonbeam

[daitranscripts]

Here Lies the Abyss Pt. 14

Memories Restored

Here Lies The Abyss Masterpost First: The Champion of Kirkwall Previous: Nightmares

The party finds Justinia again.

Justinia: The Nightmare is closer now. It knows you seek escape. With each moment, it grows stronger.

The PC has to fight wraiths for more memory fragments.

Justinia: The demons! PC: Keep running! Justinia: (Screams.) Justinia: Go.

The scene changes with the last fragment gathered.

PC (narrating): This is the Breach back in Haven. That’s how we…how I escaped.

The PC is being chased by demons.

Justinia: The demons!

PC: Keep running!

Justinia: (Screams.)

Justinia: Go.

Justinia is pulled deeper into the Fade. The memory ends.

PC: It was you. They thought it was Andraste sending me from the Fade, but it was the Divine behind me. And then you…she died.

Justinia: Yes.

Alistair: So this can’t be the Divine. Loghain: We’ve been following a demon, then. Stroud: So this creature is simply a spirit.

Diplomatic Hawke: I think we all knew that was the case, Warden. Justinia: I am sorry if I disappoint you.

Humorous Hawke: You don’t say. Justinia: I am sorry if I disappoint you.

Aggressive Hawke: For all we know, it’s working with Corypheus. Justinia: If you believe that, strike me down.

The form of Justinia rises and reveals itself as a spirit.

Dialogue options:

General: Are you her memory? [1]

General: Are you her soul? [2]

General: You’re our ally, regardless. [3]

General: Did you watch her? [4]

1 - General: Are you her memory? PC: Are you a memory of the Divine? A reflection? Justinia: If that is the story you wish to tell, it is not a bad one. [5]

2 - General: Are you her soul? PC: Are you…her? Did you linger here to help me, instead of passing on? Justinia: If that is the story you wish to tell, it is not a bad one. [5]

3 - General: You’re our ally, regardless. PC: The only thing that’s important right now is getting out of the Fade. Whatever you are, you’ve helped us so far. [5]

4 - General: Did you watch her? PC: The Nightmare watched Corypheus and grew powerful off the fear. Were you like that for the Divine? A spirit watching her from the Fade, inspired by her faith? Justinia: If that is the story you wish to tell, it is not a bad one. [5]

5 - Scene continues.

Hawke: What we do know is that the mortal Divine perished at the temple, thanks to the Grey Wardens.

Alistair: What, again? It wasn’t their fault! We can debate the depressing details when we get back to Adamant. Loghain: Corypheus controlled them. We have discussed this already. If this spirit has no further revelations, we should work on getting back to Adamant alive. Stroud: As I said, the Grey Wardens responsible for that crime were under the control of Corypheus. We can discuss this further once we return to Adamant.

Diplomatic Hawke: Yes, Adamant, where the Inquisition faces an army of demons raised by the Wardens. Humorous Hawke: Assuming that the Wardens and their demon army didn’t destroy the Inquisition while we were gone. Aggressive Hawke: Which is filled with Wardens who made blood sacrifices to raise a demon army.

Hawke sided templars: Warden: You killed almost every mage in Kirkwall! Hawke: Yes! Because too many of them were practicing blood magic, just like your Wardens!

Hawke sided mages: Warden: You tore Kirkwall apart and started the mage rebellion! Hawke: To protect innocent mages, not madmen drunk on blood magic!

Diplomatic Hawke: Even without the influence of Corypheus, the Wardens go too far. They need to be checked. Humorous Hawke: But you’d ignore that, because you can’t imagine a world without the Wardens… even if that’s what we need! Aggressive Hawke: The Wardens have gone mad. Or maybe they always were. Someone has to stop them.

Party comments:

Solas: Agreed. The Wardens may once have served a greater good, but they are far too dangerous now.

Cole: The blood sings softly. It never stops, and then it’s all they hear. We can’t let them hurt more people.

Vivienne: They’re a relic. The days of their usefulness have long since passed.

Cassandra: The Wardens are a risk. Send them away before they cause even more trouble.

Blackwall: What are you saying? You want to get rid of the Wardens? Everyone makes mistakes. They would’ve died to save us!

Sera: It isn’t like you can just get rid of them. I mean, it’s never good when they show, but they’re supposed to be heroes.

Iron Bull: Don’t know that we can pass judgment on the only folks who know how to stop Blights.

Dorian: They might still be useful. What if Corypheus conjures another Blight? You never know.

Varric: I don’t know what to tell you. There are a few good ones, but an awful lot of the Wardens I’ve known went crazy.

The PC moves closer to interrupt the argument.

Dialogue options:

General: [Alistair/Loghain/Stroud] is right. + Blackwall slightly approves PC: Stroud isn’t defending blood magic or demons. You know the cost of a Blight as well as any of us, Hawke. The Grey Wardens are the only force that can stop that.

General: Hawke is right. - Blackwall disapproves PC: The Wardens carry out a vital duty, but they also go too far. They need to be controlled.

General: Now is not the time. + Sera approves PC: This debate can wait until we’re out of danger.

General (faithful PC): Maker, stop, both of you. + Sera approves PC: Sweet Maker, could both of you please shut up? We can argue once we’ve escaped from the giant fear demon.

Hawke/Stroud/Alistair/Loghain: Inquisitor…

Demons start appearing around them.

Justinia: The Nightmare has found us.

Alistair: All together! Loghain: Form up! Stroud: Form up!

Hawke: I’m with you!

They move on, fighting more demons.

Party comments:

Solas: Come. Real or not, the Divine is the key to escaping from the Fade.

Dorian: I suppose we should follow the Divine. Whatever she is, she is our way out of here.

Vivienne: We must follow the spirit imitating the Divine. At least for now, she is our only means to escape the Fade.

Next: Sacrifice

[dat-silvers-girl]

Hello! Imagine there was an option where Rakepick could have left with us? What do you think could possibly happen? Want ot hear some of your thoughts <33

Oh my dear anon, the can of worms that you have just opened...

So let's say Rakepick agrees... What would we do then?

I have a lot of dialogue excerpts that I have shared with my friend, @weasley-adoptee. I'm very happy to share them with you. Honestly I have so many random ideas on this topic, that I'm keeping it all under a "Read More".

XXX

I didn't send Rakepick to Azkaban to begin with in my own canon. In my version of events, she is broken out on before she even gets there. HOWEVER, in the event of Rakepick being in Azkaban, Sarahi wouldn't stop trying to bring her along. She had missed Rakepick and given that she just saved the both of them from Dementors, she would not be left in such a condition especially because she had expressed her terror of R. Peregrine is a complete fuckin liar when he says Rakepick killed Rowan on her own accord cuz that's bullshit

Sarahi: "Who are you to decide whether it's right for me to leave you here or not!? You've already taken Rowan from me! The least you can do is not make me go though the pain of losing you too!"

I also imagine Sarahi leading Rakepick out like Mei and her mother from Turning Red (2022).

Sadly, I have no drawings of this yet, but I'll make them eventually.

Note that deal offered by Rakepick would be similar to the one offered by Shiratori; that she would help against R for as long as she can keep away from Azkaban. Moody is not likely to agree. Prisoners also don't get free from Azkaban for no reason. But since this is an AU to have fun, let's say Moody does agree. Rakepick would be removed from Azkaban and kept in custody at the Ministry, under the threat that a single misstep would land her back to Azkaban. She's to behave until she's helpful.

Sarahi isn't exactly fond of the idea of Rakepick being in confinement either. She wants to visit, she wants to ask questions. But the Aurors wouldn't let Sarahi go anywhere near Rakepick.

So Sarahi does what she does best- sneak around. It's basically the embodiment of:

Rakepick: "The Aurors won't let her near me. But then again, when has Miss Silvers listened to anyone? No one has been able to stop her from sneaking in."

Sometimes, Sarahi sneaks in as a bird :) she's an unregistered animagus Oh have another funny excerpt-

Rakepick: "What do you want?"

The bird: "Tweet!"

Rakepick: "Stop chirping so loud."

Bird: "TWEET TWEET!"

Rakepick: *mumbling* Stupid bird...

Bird is comically offended and proceeds to jump in.

Rakepick: "Merlin's pants what do you want you ugly little-"

Comically offended bird turns into Sarahi.

Rakepick: "...bird. Oh."

Sarahi: "Oh come now, my bird form isn't that bad. Are you hungry?"

Rakepick: "You worry as though the Ministry is starving me."

Sarahi: "I wouldn't put it past them. I got you out to make you better, not worse."

I suppose the gist of the entire situation is to rehabilitate Rakepick to some extent. I know JC!Rakepick doesn't really deserve a lot of slack, but she'd have been infintely more useful and interesting if the deal we made with Shiratori was made with Rakepick instead. And in game, how she chooses to help you would depend upon how you treat her. She'll be reluctant and snarky if you are as well, but if you treated her kindly regardless of her past crimes, she could be surprisingly grateful and help you more openly.

And let's be real, it would be pretty funny to see her kick Peregrine's ass for making her into his scapegoat.

I suppose my thoughts are that Rakepick should have actually come with us if we chose "Come with me." We could help her rehabilitate a bit and in return she helps against R.

Not sending Rakepick to Azkaban is easier to deal with, again because of the fact that prisoners can't just leave Azkaban unless their sentence is limited. And with Rakepick having the use of unforgivable curses and child murder under her belt, there's no way she getting a reduced sentence. It would have been easier to reintroduce her as part of the story and for her to help us if she never made it to Azkaban and was in hiding or something. After all-

(Screenshot belongs to @missnight0wl)

[freddie-weaselbee]

Real//F.W.

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Language, mentions of sex, I think that’s it ?

Summary: One small favor. A trade. That was all it was. Mutually beneficial! Until things between Fred and Y/N and their new relationship get a little more complicated and cause too many prying eyes. 

Prompts: Fake Dating with dialogue prompts “we could have prevented this!” and “did you know you talk in your sleep?”

Word Count: 4.7k

A/N: Day 3 of @theweasleyslut‘s 2k writing challenge

 “I’ve made my list of rules which you will abide by and under no circumstances will be broken. Number 1: this ruse does not leave the shop. I don’t want random people on the street questioning me because you couldn’t keep your huge mouth shut. Number 2: I will allow you to kiss me on the cheek and forehead as  often as you like, within reason of course, and you can give me a peck on the lips 3 times in total. I will keep track. And Number 3: Don’t take up the entire bed any more or I will be forced to push you onto the floor. Sound good?”

“Bloody hell, you are crazy aren’t you?”

“Just a little bit.”

Fred was starting to regret his previous decision of making this arrangement with you, but a jingle of his shop bell and glance at who was walking in quickly made those feelings disappear. 

“Deal,” he said, eyes not leaving the woman who had just entered. “But we start right now and I want one of those kisses.”

You looked up at your friend, confused at his sudden nerves before you followed his line of sight and understood immediately. You sighed and ruffled your hair a bit, looking for a mirror to fix your makeup. “I’m on it, give me a few minutes.”

Fred nodded, still watching his target walk slowly through the aisles of his store. As she turned a corner you ducked into the back office, waiting for a good time to reemerge. 

“Freddie!” A high pitched voice pierced through the ear, equal parts flirtatious and absolutely unbearable. Fred glanced up, pretending not to have noticed the girl before. Putting on a fake smile, he set down the product he was pretending to tinker with and placed his hands on the counter table. 

“Brooklyn, hi! How are you?” he asked, hoping his fake politeness would pass as genuine. 

“Ugh I am so good. So SO good actually,” she said, twisting a finger through her hair. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen you! I’m so glad you received my letter, I was hoping we could catch up, maybe over dinner sometime? I’ve had so many fine young men ask me out over the last few months, but none of them seemed to compare to you, my little Freddie Bear.”

He winced at the nickname, it bringing an onslaught of unwanted memories that he had desperately tried to forget. Brooklyn bit her lip and placed a hand on top of Fred’s, leaning in to accentuate her breasts and make sure Fred got a good whiff of her new perfume. 

Very calmly, Fred placed his other hand on top of hers, now sandwiched in between his strong grip. “Brooklyn,” he said, faking sympathy, “you’re a lovely girl, and I’m sure any guy would be lucky to have you, but--”

“Hey, love!” 

A voice interrupted Fred’s rejection, making a very surprised Brooklyn become absolutely enraged as she witnessed you come up and place a chaste kiss on Fred’s lips, smiling into him. Fred pulled his hands from Brooklyn’s grip and placed it instead on your hip, pulling you into him and placing another peck on your forehead. You both stared lovingly into each other’s eyes before a harsh cough stole your attention. 

“And who is this?” Brooklyn asked, arms crossed angrily. She was glaring daggers at you, not even trying to fake sweetness for Fred’s sake. 

Keeping his hand on your waist, Fred turned back to the girl who seemed as though she was about to explode. “That’s what I was trying to tell you Brooklyn,” he said, trying to keep his smile as pitiful as he could without it drawing suspicion. “This is Y/N, we’ve been seeing each other for a while now.”

You nuzzled into Fred’s chest for half a second before reaching a hand out to Brooklyn. “It’s so nice to meet you! Brooklyn, was it? I don’t think Fred’s ever mentioned you before, are you one of his childhood friends. Cousin, maybe?”

That had done it and you and Fred both knew it. He subtly fist bumped you under the counter as you watched the girl’s face become redder than Fred’s hair. 

She opened her mouth before taking a huge breath and stepping back. “No, actually,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m his ex-girlfriend. I left him to move on to much better things. Speaking of which--” she flipped her hair and smoothed out her skirt, straightening her posture to try to keep what little dignity she had left, “--I actually have a date. With a dragon trainer no less, and a very renowned one.”

“Oh really?” Fred asked. “That’s amazing. My brother, Charlie, is a dragon trainer as well, and he’s very well known in the community. May I ask the name of the lucky young man? Maybe Charlie knows him.”

Caught very off guard, Brooklyn rolled her eyes and turned to face the door. “That’s none of your business. I better be going, before we’re late to dinner at a very nice place, somewhere the likes of you most likely couldn’t afford.”

You felt Fred stiffen next to you and you squeezed his hand gently. “Have a nice time! It was lovely to meet you Bridget.”

“It’s Brooklyn,” she seethed. 

“Oh right, silly me,” you said, shaking your head. “Bye!”

As Brooklyn sauntered out of the store, you turned to Fred and whispered seductively, just loud enough for the exiting girl to hear. “How about we have a nice night in tonight? I got something the other day that I’d love for you to see. Maybe after seeing it you’ll make me scream even louder than last night.” Fred’s face began to grow red and he had to discreetly adjust his pants, hoping you didn’t notice exactly what your words were doing to him. 

Brooklyn slammed the door and practically ran down the cobbled streets, only screaming when she thought she was far enough away to not be heard. You and Fred both waited a few seconds before cheering and hugging each other, him patting you on the back for a great performance. 

“Y/N! That was incredible! I knew I could count on you.”

“Yeah yeah,” you said, “I’m amazing, I know.” You smiled up at him completing the high five he was waiting on. “When you told me you needed help with a crazy ex I didn’t know you  meant like actually crazy. She’s insane! How did you put up with her for so long?”

Fred shrugged, jumping up onto the counter. “She was hot and I was horny. Not much else to it.”

You rolled your eyes, jumping up to join him. A few days ago you wouldn’t have been nearly comfortable enough to lounge out on the shop’s counters like you were now, but that was before you were a permanent resident of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. Before you and Fred had made the deal. 

“You want me to do what?”

“Please, Y/N, it would only be for a little while until this all dies down, I swear!”

You groaned and rubbed your temple, wondering how in the world a friendly visit to your friend’s shop would turn into something with much more commitment. 

“You’re telling me that you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend? Why on earth would you need that?”

You were pacing around the shop, trying to avoid customers as to not involve them in this very personal conversation. Fred followed you, pleading for you to help him like the great friend you were. 

“I told you,” he said, “after The Daily Prophet did that expo on the shop and made me and George out to be rich sexy businessmen, and I mean where’s the lie, all of my crazy exes have been sending me letters and trying to get back with me. I can’t stand it, there’s so many!”

“Yeah, you were never one for long-term relationships, were you?”

Fred hmphed but quickly picked up with his pleading once again. “You don’t understand, Y/N, it’s absolutely unbearable. It’s common knowledge that George and Angie have been going steady for years now, so he’s got pretty much no one after him. But me? I can’t handle it.”

He dramatically threw himself on one of the empty product tables, causing a couple kids to glance in your direction before quickly becoming distracted by one of the exploding jokes across the shop. 

“Oh, woe is me, I have too many beautiful women throwing themselves at me, whatever am I to do?” you mocked, earning a nasty glare from your friend. 

“I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t of upmost importance,” he said, straightening his tie and assuming a more business-like manner. “Those girls are crazy. Hot, yes, but crazy. And all you have to do is pretend to be dating me for a few weeks, a month at best! What do you say?”

“And what do I get out of this?” you asked. Usually, you’d never say no to helping a friend, especially Fred, but pretending to date him and having him practically use you to make other girls mad? You didn’t like the idea in the slightest. Well, maybe seeing the mad girls would be a bonus. You never cared much for most of the girls Fred went out with. 

Fred’s face turned into an upward grin as he rolled his sleeves up and leaned forward. “I was hoping you’d say that. I hear that you’re looking for a place to stay, is that right?”

You nodded hesitantly, having an idea of where he was going. 

“Well,” he said, pacing back and forth, “to keep up this charade we’ll need to convince everyone, including George and Angelina. You see, Angie’s friends with Alicia, one of the girls who’s been constantly OWLing me, and if she knew this was fake then she’d blow our cover for sure. Which means…”

You gulped. 

“You’d have the pleasure of sharing the loft with me. You’d get a room, shared with me, and a nice living space all rent-free, and all you have to do is act all lovey-dovey and occasionally snog me. That sounds like an offer you can’t refuse.”

Unfortunately, he was right. You were tight on money at the moment and really had no other options. It was a deal you had to make if you wanted to stay afloat, no matter how much annoyance and embarrassment it would cost you. 

Sighing, you let your shoulders slump, a sign of defeat. “You do know how to negotiate, don’t you?”

“Well I am a businessman.” Fred stuck out his hand, and with a slow, drawn out motion, you shook it. 

It was the 4th night of living with the Weasley twins, or maybe 5th? The nights all seemed to blend together as you’d been having more fun than you had since Hogwarts. George and Angelina didn’t seem surprised at all when you and Fred told them your made up story about how you and Fred started seeing each other. In fact, they both said they always knew it would happen. You and Fred shared a laugh about that in bed that night, before he decided to take up all of the space on the small piece of furniture, prompting you to write your third rule. 

Overall, it had been a great experience. Couples game night, movie marathons, gossip sessions with Angelina about you and Fred’s sex life (which you didn’t have to fabricate too much, you already knew too much from the incredible amounts of detail he used to provide about his dates with other girls). It was like being thrown back into a dorm room, and your old teenage self was starting to shine through again. 

You stared at yourself in Fred’s bathroom mirror, very proud of how you handled Brooklyn earlier that day. She was one of the few girlfriends of Fred’s you never got to meet, probably because they only dated for a short period of time before she left him for the first rich snob to bat an eye at her. Out of everyone you could think of that he dated, she was by far the worst, which meant the next few days would probably be more difficult. It was easy making that bitch angry with smoke coming from her ears, but you didn’t know how good you’d feel about lying to someone a lot nicer than she was. 

After brushing your teeth and donning your pajamas, your Hogwarts house colors of course, you crawled into bed and joined Fred, who was reading one of the novels you had recommended to him. “You like it so far?” you asked. 

Fred took off his reading glasses and nodded, setting a bookmark in the book before placing it on his nightstand. “Surprisingly, yes. I didn’t think it would be my thing, but so far it’s actually really good.”

“Told ya,” you said as you laid down beside him. You and Fred were comfortable enough to share a bed with few problems except for his stupid long legs. You’d been friends for years and had grown way too comfortable with each other, so squeezing together each night wasn’t too out of the ordinary. 

As you snuggled into the covers, Fred following suit, you mentally went over the schedule for the week. 

“How many girls are there again?” 

Fred paused for a moment, trying to remember what he had sent to each girl. “A few I was able to ward off via letter, the more sane ones, but there are still two more girls who insisted they pay me a visit. Addison’s coming tomorrow and Alicia the day after that.”

You nodded, although you ducted Fred could see it from his position. “Got it. Addison’s sweet, I liked her.”

Fred scoffed, wrapping an arm around your waist as he had started doing while you two slept. It was nothing more than platonic, Fred was just a touchy person. You told yourself he would do this with any semi-attractive girl laying in his bed. 

“Yeah, sweet girl all right, until you come home to your entire apartment torn apart cuz she thought you were cheating on her because apparently you ‘took an extra 12 minutes of lunch break and it seemed awfully suspicious.’”

Your body reverberated with a small giggle, remembering how Fred had to crash with you at your old place while he was trying to replace all the furniture she had literally torn up. “That’s right, she’s almost as crazy as I am.”

“Almost.”

You wouldn’t have a hard time lying to Addison, you decided. It was actually kind of fun when you did it with Brooklyn. You could get really creative with this one. 

You released a deep breath and closed your eyes, nestling back into Fred as he spooned you, claiming it was the only way he wouldn’t sprawl out and kick you in your sleep, which you knew was a lie. He’d find a way to kick you somehow. The git always did. 

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

“That was surprisingly better than expected!”

You nodded gleefully, handing Fred a scone and coffee that you had picked up from a nearby bakery. Scaring off Addison had been even more fun than Brooklyn, you and Fred really getting into character and being as lovey dovey as possible. She seemed to take it well, but you wouldn’t be surprised if she triggered the security system tonight trying to break in and destroy the shop. 

“And if I’m being honest it was actually kind of fun,” you told him, settling in behind the counter. 

You raised your muffin to your mouth to take a bite but Fred’s huge mouth snagged a taste before you could, bending down and taking a chunk out before you could have any. “That’s disgusting,” but you had no disgust lingering in your tone. 

“I agree,” he said through mouthfuls of muffin. “It was an excellent way to spend the morning. Bloody hell she would not leave!”

“At least she was nice about it.”

Fred reluctantly agreed before making another move to your muffin, one that this time you anticipated and you swatted his nose with a nearby newspaper. “You have your own, you greedy pig.”

He yanked the paper from your hand, using it as a napkin before the front page caught his eye. He quickly crumpled up the paper and tossed it into a nearby waste bin, something you wouldn’t have been suspicious of had he not done it so nervously. 

“Fred, what’s in the paper today?”

He shifted to put himself in between you and the wastebin, his tall figure looming over you. “Not important, just more junk that no one cares about.”

You didn’t believe him for a second. “Frederick Weasley you move this instant.” You tried pushing him out of the way but it was like moving an annoying ginger stone wall. Trying another approach, you darted to the left before doubling back and running right, but before you made it two steps he picked you up and threw you over his shoulder. “Fred!”

You wiggled with all your might and finally made it out of his grasp, snatching the paper and unfolding it to read the headline. 

Diagon Alley Playboy Finally Settling Down? Or Is Y/N L/N Just Another of Fred Weasley’s One Night Stands?

The color drained from your face and you slowly lowered the paper, reading the front page again and again. Attached was a blurry picture of you and Fred from the day before with you tucked into the side. The buggers at The Daily Prophet must’ve caught it through the store window. 

“I’m sorry,” Fred said softly, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder. “I tried to keep things quiet, but I guess the press always finds a way in.”

You rubbed your temple slowly, trying to ignore the dread in your stomach. After seeing Harry Potter be brutally torn apart by the press for years, the last thing you wanted was rumors about you going around. 

"We could have prevented this!” you exclaimed, slamming the paper onto the desk. “This is complete bullshit. We’re not even dating! I swear I’m going to march straight to their office and--”

“Don’t bother,” Fred said, completely exasperated by the constant coverage of his family. “It does absolutely nothing, trust me. As a close relative to a professional Quidditch player, The Chosen One himself, and his two best friends who literally saved the world, we’ve learned that nothing will keep them away. Especially since they pinned me as the player of the Weasley family.”

“But you’re not!” you said, getting angrier by the second. “So your relationships don’t last long, so what? You’re not some womanizing piece of shit that the papers say you are!”

Chuckling, Fred replied. “I know that, and you know that. But the rest of the world wants drama, so if they want to think I have a new girl in my bed every night I’ll let them.” He shrugged. “You get used to it after a while.”

“Well you shouldn’t have to,” you grumbled. “You’re one of the best people I know, and the world should know it too.”

Catching you off guard, you felt a pair of arms wrap around your torso and a head lay on your shoulder. “It’s ok, love, just one more day and then you can stay out of the papers forever, I promise.”

Sighing, you turned to face him and let a small smile shine through. “Thanks. But I still think it’s absolute rubbish what they’re doing to your character.”

“Me too, but at least you know what a charming and caring gentleman I am and that’s all that matters to me.”

“Aww,” you coed, “you love me don’t you?”

“Shh, don’t let the press hear! It’ll ruin the image they worked so hard to create.”

You hit your head against Fred’s chest. “Only one more day of this. One more to go.”

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

“Do you know you talk in your sleep?”

“What?” You were so busy trying to find something to wear that you had barely heard what Fred said. 

“Last night, when you fell asleep. You said something funny.” He was sitting on the bed, adjusting his work tie and pulling on his socks and shoes. He looked...confused. Like he was trying to solve a complicated problem and he just couldn’t git the pieces together. 

“Oh?” you said, growing nervous. Had you dreamt last night? You were racking your brain, hoping you hadn’t said something embarrassing. 

You definitely had a dream, and Fred was there. You were at the shop...and Alicia came in! And…

“You were saying ‘Alicia, no, Fred’s mine not yours, I love Fred,” and umm, other stuff like that.” His face was heating up by the second, as was yours. 

“Really?” you said through awkward laughs. “Must’ve been preparing for today, huh?”

Fred said nothing, instead choosing to focus on retying his shoes. 

“Well,” you said, finally picking out your outfit, “I’m going to change, I’ll meet you down there later, ok?”

He nodded, still confused, and you rushed to use his bathroom before things could get more awkward. 

You decided to take a nice, long shower to cool down, hoping that you could somehow wash away the embarrassment. So maybe you had a slight crush on Fred. Who could blame you? You’d been spending the last week cuddled up with him and spending so much time at the shop, not to mention acting like a couple in front of everyone. Who wouldn’t develop feelings?

But for some weird reason you had a feeling that this wasn’t a recent crush, rather something that’s been lurking right beneath the surface for a while. You groaned, hitting your head against the shower wall. This was not the time for this. You had a job to do, and Alicia would be here in 30 minutes so you had to hurry up. 

Scampering down the steps 15 minutes later after using a drying spell and getting dressed, you stopped in your tracks when you saw what was happening across the shop. Alicia was here early. 

From the looks of it, she had already made herself comfortable, leaning in to talk to Fred, who wasn’t doing anything to discourage the behavior. Instead, he was leaning in as well, laughing at a joke she just made. 

Fury burned inside you as you watched the scene unfold. You knew from the beginning that Alicia would be the hardest ex to deal with. Not only had she been Fred’s longest and most intimate relationship to date, but she was also a really nice person, meaning you had no reason to hate her. But at this moment you did. 

Alicia leaned closer, her nose almost touching Fred. What should you do? Did he want your help getting rid of her? Was he still harboring feelings and actually looking to reconnect? You saw him slowly lean in toward her, which you took as a sign to continue with your plan. 

You were almost running when you reached Fred, who turned and seemed happy to see you. “Just in time,” he said the Alicia, “Alicia, you remember--”

You cut him off with a kiss, the third kiss you’d promised him. Except this one wasn’t one of the pecks you described on your terms and conditions. You pulled Fred down into one of if not the most passionate kiss you’d ever had, wrapping your arms around his neck and drawing him closer to you. 

Almost immediately he pulled off of you, looking more bewildered than you had ever seen him. “I…”

“Well that was quite the spectacle.”

You looked over to where Alicia was standing, smirking at the two of you. Contrary to what you had expected, she actually seemed rather calm and actually amused at what she had just seen. 

“S-sorry,” you said. Fred tried to say something but he was too dumbstruck to even get a word out. He just stood there, eyes wide and mouth twitching. 

“Is this a bad time?” she asked. “I’m supposed to be meeting my fiancé for breakfast later so I can just come back another time if that works for you.”

“Your...fiancé?”

“Yeah!” Alicia beamed as she showed you her left hand, her ring finger adorned with the most beautiful engagement ring you’d ever seen. “Actually, the reason I’m here is because I just asked Fred if he wanted to be in the wedding as a groomsman. Or bridesmaid. Whatever works for him. Thankfully the big oaf said yes before you laid that on him, or else I think I’d be waiting a lot longer for an answer.”

Fred was still as frozen as ever, making you and Alicia chuckle. “Hey, it’s been forever since we’ve caught up, how about you and Fred go on a double date with me and Lee sometime?”

It took you a second to understand why Lee would be there, until it dawned on you. “You’re marrying Lee Jordan?!”

She couldn’t hold back her laughter at this, loving to see your reaction. “That I am! You’re obviously invited, I’m sending invitations out soon. I’ll hope to see you there, and don’t be afraid to reach out, alright?”

“Y-yeah, will do,” you said. Alicia looked up at Fred and then to you and winked, before waving goodbye and leaving the shop. 

You refused to make eye contact with Fred, too embarrassed to even begin to talk to him. Maybe you’d just take 5 and take a walk down the street? That would help distract your brain from whatever just happened. 

“Real?”

You turned around to the source of the voice, a now more interactive Fred. “What?”

“Real,” he repeated. He shook his head a few times, blinking rapidly. “Sorry, I just mean, that kiss was umm, it was real.”

Your breath hitched in your throat. The fact that you had kissed Fred, and an actual kiss at that, was finally hitting you. “Yeah, it was real, I guess.”

He took a step closer, his face assuming the puzzled look from the bedroom earlier. “Was...was what you said real too? From the dream, I mean?”

Now it was you who was frozen, feet stuck to the ground with no way out. What should you say? Confess your feelings and hope for the best? Or deny everything and try to work your way around this mess? You didn’t have time to think nor ration. Just act. 

“Yeah. It was real.”

Fred nodded, pursing his lips and shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Cool.” He hesitated. “Would it be super crazy out of the blue if I asked you to maybe go out with me sometime. For real?”

A smile rose to your face, hoping that this wasn’t a joke. Slowly, almost shyly, you nodded. “Yeah, it would be a little crazy. But I’d say yes.”

Fred smiled too, a big toothy grin that only made you smile wider, before pulling you into a side hug. “Good, because you’re a little crazy too, so we’ll match on our date.”

“You’re a big dork,” you said, returning the hug. “What will the paper say when they see you with the same girl? They’ll probably explode!”

“I hope so,” he replied as he gave you a loving squeeze. “What I’m worried about is how we’re supposed to explain to George and Angelina that we’ve been faking this whole time and it’s only now getting real.”

“Eh, that’s a problem for another time. Right now, we’ve got some more pressing matters.” You gestured to the front window where a reporter was holding a huge camera, trying to snap a good picture of the two of you. 

“I’ll handle it, grab me the dungbombs.”

“Yes, sir!”

You ran to assist Fred, head rushing with thoughts of first dates and future ones down the road. Of attending Lee and Alicia’s wedding together and getting completely wasted with each other. Of sleeping together each night, holding each other in an embrace that was now true and deep and caring. In a relationship that was now real. 

Tag List:

@famdomhideout @amourtentiaa

[mochegato]

I Can’t Fight This Feeling

Inspired by this

Chapter 1 

 Ladybug only paused momentarily as she ran.  If you weren’t watching carefully, you would miss it entirely.  And nobody in Paris was, their attention too focused on the ongoing akuma battle and avoiding becoming collateral damage to pay attention to Ladybug swinging away from the battle.  Or rather, nobody but one persistent prowler, whose focus was and had been entirely on Ladybug.  

She threw out her yoyo, attempting to get as much distance as she could in her swing.  “Our shadow is back.  And they’re fast and good.  They’re keeping up with me.  Not sure I’m going to be able to outrun them,” she commented quietly, trusting her com to pick it up.  She paused for a second before giving an affirmative hum.  “Just you, Rena.  Chat, you stay with the akuma.  We don’t know what this thing is.  I don’t want to pull both of you off the akuma if we don’t have to.  It’s causing too much damage to leave unattended.  But, I’m almost out of time, so there’s a timer on this.”

She swung, ran, and jumped at top speed for another minute before she ducked behind a chimney and hid in an alcove.  The shadow would have to be extremely good to be able to trail her, or have magic of their own, both of which were definitely options.  They had been able to keep up with her for the most part and observe them in fights mostly unobserved, which no matter how well the general public and reporters thought they were, they weren’t.  

But this person, whoever they were, was that good. The only reason she knew about them was because Sabrina had joined them using Barkk for only the second time, the first time being seen by the public, so she’d been able to detect them observing from the shadows.  What Sabrina hadn’t been sure of was how dangerous they were.  Thus far they had only observed the miraculous team, they hadn’t made any moves.

But, it appeared they were tired of waiting and she was about to find out how good they were first hand, because he was, in fact, extremely good or magic.  She could hear him land on the other side of the roof.  His landing may have been almost soundless, but he clearly wasn’t magic, because she could still hear it.  She gripped her yoyo and tensed in preparation.  She crouched down and waited until he came into view before striking. Luckily, he had expected her to try to attack from above so he had been looking above and missed her, giving her the fraction of a second she needed to get her yoyo out and wrapped around him.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be able to react quicker than a normal human and was able to avoid the brunt of the string.  It wrapped around his arm instead of his body. Ladybug hesitated a fraction of a second.  She didn’t want to pull too hard.  If he was human, which despite the quick reaction time, he appeared to be, pulling too hard could cause irreparable damage.  Damage she wasn’t sure if the miraculous ladybugs would repair since it wasn’t really akuma related.  

He reacted immediately.  He wrapped his arm around the string again and pulled.  Ladybug fell off balance and sprawled forward. He reached out to grab her, but she twisted out of his reach.  The advantage of being so clumsy all her life, she knew how to direct her falls. She pulled her string back as she fell. It instantly detached from his arm and curled back to her.  Ladybug rolled out of the way of the boot that descended with a resounding thud where her head had been a few seconds earlier, leaving a slight dent in the roof where it landed.

Ladybug jumped up and backed away from him, twirling her yoyo by her waist as she scrutinized her opponent.  He was large.  He would give her dad a run for his money, but she seriously doubted he was as soft and gooey as her father.  His outfit flowed around him, but clung enough for her to tell that he had more muscle strength in one leg than she did in her whole unsuited body. He moved with grace and confidence that spoke of elite training and skills.  One thing was for certain.  He was definitely a threat.

“No words?” Ladybug taunted as she jumped up.  “I mean, I can tell you’re not an akuma or you would have demanded my miraculous already.  But not even a villain’s dialogue explaining why you’re doing it and your justification?”  The Shadow stared back at her, easing into an attack position.  “That’s fine.  I can work with that.”  She ran at him straight on.  He swung at her, but she veered at the last second and dropped to her knees, sliding past him.  She twisted as she slid.  Now facing him, she threw out her yoyo, binding his feet, and pulled.  He fell to the ground with a resounding thud.

She was running out of time.  She had maybe a minute left.  Not nearly enough time to immobilize someone with his level of skills. Her eyes darted around, searching for anything that could help her formalize a plan.  He took that moment to launch at her.  He dived at her midsection, which was insulting quite frankly, that he thought she could be captured so easily and with his feet still bound.  She realized too late, she wasn’t his target.  He held up her yoyo, shaking it slightly for her to see and releasing his feet. He tossed it over the side of the building and launched at her again in the same movement.

She flipped over him, pulling his hood off as she did. She landed immediately behind him and kicked her leg out to sweep his legs out from under him.  He jumped to miss her leg, but with his balance already off due to his earlier move he stumbled and crashed into the ground.  He turned to glare at her.  Ladybug gasped.  He couldn’t be much older than her, if at all.  He took advantage of her momentary pause to launch a volley of hits at her. She blocked them, but was having a hard time keeping up with the attack.  She was trying not to hurt him, but he was showing no such compunction. She just had to hold out until Rena could get to her.

She backed away from him, creating necessary distance between them.  She needed to distract him.  She wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long.  “Strong silent type, huh?”  She arched an eyebrow at him and channeled her best Thor with a cocky grin.  “I’ve fought stronger.”

“Not without your magic,” he answered calmly.  It was the first time she’d heard his voice.  It was deep and gravely, it didn’t match the young features, but it did match the harsh eyes.

And now she knew his plan.  He knew he wouldn’t be able to take her on while she was transformed and he knew she was running out of time.  He was running her out of time.  He was banking on his skill to overwhelm her civilian self, and with the training he had, he was right.  “Are you sure,” she asked as confidently as she could, plastering on a confident smirk.

He studied her for a few seconds before responding. “I’ll take my chances.”

She flicked her eyes to the horizon, diverting her attention.  It was a stupid mistake, one she knew better than to make, but she was getting desperate for backup.  The shadow grabbed her and pulled her closer to knee her in the ribs.  She managed to block the hit with her own knee, lessening the impact, which was still enough that if she hadn’t been wearing a suit, her femur would have shattered.  With the same momentum, she leaned forward and kicked over her head, catching him in the face.

He loosened his grip just enough for her to break his grip and jump away, but he jumped forward as well and sent another volley of attacks at her.  She gasped as she felt the familiar sensation of her suit melting away as she detransformed. She braced for the pain of impact his fist would have with her face from the punch he just threw.  After a second, she opened one eye to see what he was doing. His fist hovered less than an inch from her face, his eyes scanned her incredulously.  “You’re a kid.”

She looked from his fist to his eyes.  She took a beat to assess the situation and try to slow her wildly beating heart.  “You look like you’re the same age as me,” she said pointedly.  Was it her smartest move, sass instead of caution?  No, but it was the one that felt right.  And until she had a better idea what was going on, it was the one she was going with.

He stared at her unmoving for a few beats.  “You’ve been doing this for years.  It’s been you since the beginning, right?”  Her narrowed eyes and pursed lips were answer enough.  He lowered his fist and backed away a few steps.  Still close enough to react, but giving some distance.  “Fuck.  You were a baby when you started.  I’ve seen video of you dying.  Why would you choose that?  Who made you think you had to?  You should have gotten to have a childhood.”  

His voice was harsh and accusatory and it grated on her. He was attacking her and he was mad at her for… being attacked?  She scowled at him.  “I’m sorry, were you going to fight the akumas?  Because it seems like your priorities might be incompatible and somebody had to protect the people of Paris, try to defend the children of Paris.  And you’re awfully the same age as me for someone so judgmental of my age.”

“How about an adult instead of a kid?” he yelled back at her.  He let out a long, angry breath.  “And where is your mentor?  There’s a Guardian, right?  I’ve studied your fights and never saw an adult.  Why isn’t your mentor out here fighting with you?  What kind of depraved asshole just gives a few self-defense classes then sends them out on their own?”

Marinette scoffed before she realized what she was doing. She slapped a hand over her mouth and looked back up at him wide-eyed.  “You have a mentor, right?” he growled as he stalked closer to her with each word. “One that taught you how to fight? One watching out for you?”

“You’ve spent the last few weeks stalking me so you could attack, and I’m guessing, put me in the grave.  Why do you care?” she growled at him.

“Who is protecting you?” he yelled at her.  Her continued silence seemed to confirm something for him.  She was pretty sure now that the fury in his eyes was not directed toward her, which was… odd.  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  Marinette backed away from him slowly and nodded to Tikki to grab a cookie from her bag.  

Her eyes searched the skyline for any sign of Rena. She was sure Rena would be here any second.  She just needed to last another few seconds.  If Rena couldn’t make it, maybe she could transform in time to save herself.  And then deal with a hostile knowing her identity. But that was a problem for later. The problem for now was surviving the Shadow, recharge Tikki, and defeat the akuma.

His head whipped to the side as a movement caught his attention.  A figure in orange was making their way over to them rapidly.  They only had a few seconds before the figure would join them. He hissed out a breath and backed away from her.  He gave her one last glare and jumped off the side of the building.

Chapter 2

@jasonette-july-event

[justal0wk3yg4mer]

Things I've Said: Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Spoilers)

Guess what I finally finished!!! Well actually I finished this game a few months ago but I kind of procrastinated because I'm trying to keep this post mainly storyline stuff and it was gonna take me a minute to go over everything. So...yeah...this post is going to be another long one. But still, I LOVED this game! It was so much fun and there was so much to do that I never got bored. However, this meant that I would get distracted easily and run off to do some random thing instead of the story. Still, no regrets. Now, on with the post! Me:*Player/My actions* Character Dialogue

This looks so cool. End of story, no more comments...holy shit the sounds!

I fucking love that loading symbol.

This is wholesome, like the beginning of Assassin's Creed 2 wholesome...fuck.

Where the fuck is the title screen? *Literally a hour later after exploring* There it is, now I know exactly how I'm going to be doing in this game.

I promised myself I wouldn't do this but here I am, literally doing everything else BUT the story.

Hytham: Will you follow me? Eivor: Lead on. I'll follow that sweet baby cinnamon roll anywhere!

*Reaches an anomaly* Oh, I'm getting so many AC2 flashbacks.

If I could romance Valka I would. *Couple of minutes later* IF I COULD ROMANCE HYTHAM I WOULD.

I legit met this bear 5 minutes ago and I am devastated by her death.

Bigfoot! No wait this is England.

Is that? OMG it is, the saxons are playing D'n'D.

Step on me? Glad to know that was a kink back in the day.

Bad bitch, Soma's a bad bitch.

Part of me is intrigued to go find clues and hunt for Order members. At the same time, I didn't ask to play hide and seek with these MFs.

Annnnd I need an adult.

*Gets stabbed* You're askin' for it old man.

Do I sense betrayal?

HAVE YOU SEEN MY SON??!?!

There is a reason I don't fuck with zealots, don't give them my fucking name.

You tryin' to raid the raven clan? Not today son, not today.

Fight me Dag 😡

*Goes to see Hytham and sees options* Can I please have a conversation with this man?

This guy is a keeper and Valdis knows it. So you two can fuck off.

He's fine, it's just a cliff. I've seen assassins go higher.

Finnr:...and a nap. Same my dude.

Can we discuss the Dag situation? Cause if he keeps being a bitch, Imma send his ass to Valhalla sooner.

The Ratae Bureau? Oh shit I forgot these were a thing. *Cue another hour of NOT DOING THE STORY*

Wow, everyone got the message and just dipped? Were they being hunted after Imperator Honorius died or was just like 'nope, Britannia got too weird for us.'

This 'Lady' that they keep mentioning...is it Aya? *Few minutes later* It is My Queen!

BAYAK!! 😭😭

May the father--...oh that's rich.

Ubisoft, why can't I romance Hytham?

Vinland? Either it's Hytham's accent or that's just what they use to call Finland back in the day. *Checks* Oh I'm fucking stupid. It's America.

Basim, you rub me the wrong way.

Sigurd WTF

*Hears Juno's voice* Fucking bitch.

How did you get an Apple?!? Yeet it. Yeet that bitch to the farthest depths of the ocean.

That's the wall. That's the wall from AC3. *Eivor gives the apple to the tribe* That's the apple from AC--THIS IS CONNOR'S TRIBE!

Hey uh, Bishop Deorlof...that's an interesting cross you got on.

What if the woman was the mastermind? I would fucking salute her.

NO CEOBERT MY BABY BOY!!

King getting his ass whooped with a fucking stool.

...here is an idea, what if the bishop did it? I mean, that is an interesting necklace.

That's why he kept saying Ivarr's name! My bad Bishop and Ivarr WTF?!

Basim is doing what I would be doing if I could travel back to puritan times. Mad respect. But still, fuck you Basim.

Is that a Da Vinci Code reference?

Lady Estrid be like (¬‿¬) *Few minutes later* Estrid: Is my virtue safe with you? I fucking knew it.

Why am I getting Witcher vibes? Nevermind, no disrespect Jeskier.

That's called arson...you are arsonist.

Reda, my guy, you are LITERALLY talking about Bayak and Aya and I am deeply hurt.

It almost pains me how badly I am disrespecting these fuckers in their own house.

Goodwin, you tryin' to smash?

Yes man is mortal but, if his work is passed on, is immortal. *My friend: That was deep...and you need a break.*

RAVEN GANG FOR LIFE BITCH!

Why is your titty out like that bro?

*Recieved the 'We're in the end game now' trophy*...is the game trying to rush me?

Fuck Goodwin, hello Vili.

Guy is like the pervy purge trooper all over again, but I'll allow it.

You know, I've always hated Juno in the series, however you *Fulke* have taken the cake.

Sigurd you are borderline Stockholm Syndrome my guy.

Oh you're up to something...and the result sounds like your death.

This is moldy cheese...is the cake a lie?!

Not gonna lie; this is probably the most fucked up death in the game and y'all called me a murder.

Um, Sigurd. You okay bud? A little depressed?

*Watches the last anomaly* There is so much to digest here but I will ask...does Basim know?

Sigurd is 100% that dumb white friend in horror movies.

Oh no, not this Groundhog's Day BS.

Okay so Sigurd remembers. Eivor doesn't or does and just doesn't care. Basim has to know, there are too many redflags. *Few minutes later* I fucking knew it, come here bitch.

Finally giving my man Desmond some credit 😤

I'm not surprised. Should have duct taped the staff to her hand.

Desmond? 😩

Why are y'all talking to this man? I'd slit his throat, bury the body and call it a day.

You?!? That's awesome! Such a slap to the face, even bigger than Shay's betrayal.

And finally, we are at the end. There was so much to go through and sort. Too be honest, I know I said that I wanted to make this strictly about the storyline but, I was trying to remember what was story and what led into the story but I had fun so I can't complain. Thank you for stickin' it til the end!

[felassan]

Mass Effect development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

This is the Mass Effect version of this post.

[In case you can’t read it the subtitle in the bottom left logo above is “Guardians of the Citadel”]

Note: Drug use is mentioned.

Cut for length.

Mass Effect 1

ME began its life in a vision document in fall 2003

Codenamed “SFX”

Conceived of by Casey Hudson and a core team from KotOR. Its genesis was the intention to create an epic sci-fi RPG in an original setting that BioWare owned (so they could have full creative control), and in a setting that was conceived of first and foremost as a video game

Initially players could control any squadmate, but they wanted it to be about Shep and for players to be focused on Shep being a battlefield commander, rather than on switching bodies

By the start of 2004 its story was shaping up. Initially humans landed on Mars in 2250 and discovered evidence of an ancient alien race and a powerful substance, Black Sand, which rapidly advanced tech to the point that FTL travel was possible. (My note: obviously now the Prothean artifacts on Mars & associated mass effect force tech enabled this in the final canon, but I wonder if aspects of the ‘Black Sand’ naming-type & powerful substance stuff was rolled into red sand from final canon) Humans were suddenly capable of travel to multiple star systems and made contact with a multitude of other species. At the start of the first game, these species together with humans had a fragile peace, with focus placed on the political center of the galaxy, a hub known as Star City, later renamed the Citadel

Multiplayer was a vision for the series as far back as 2003. The plan was for ME1, an Xbox exclusive at launch, to take advantage of the platform’s online components. Early designs saw players meeting in one of the central hubs to interact and trade items in their otherwise SP adventures

By 2006 it had the name ME and the story was more specific, with the theme of conflict between organic and synthetic lifeforms. The story’s scope now stretched across 3 games and included scope for full co-op MP

They tried to do MP in every game, discussing it from the get-go, but it always just fell by the wayside. “When you’re trying to build something that is a new IP, on a new platform, with a new engine, you’ve got to really focus on the core elements of the game.” 

The conversation system prototype was made in Jade Empire, and some of ME’s earliest writing was done in an old JE build. At first there was no conversation wheel. Paragon was “Friendly” and Renegade “Hostile”. In the prototype Shep was a silent unnamed Spectre. Many conversations in the prototype about the player’s choice in smuggling a weapon through Noveria made it into the game

In said prototype a merchant referred to themselves as “this one”, though the word hanar never appeared. The PC in it also had the option to end a conversation with “I should go”. In the prototype also, Harkin was voiced by Mark Meer

An early version of the Mako got used as the krogan truck in ME2

Early concepts of the Citadel were drawn in pencil by CH. A piece of concept art of its final design was painted based on a photo of a sculpture near Aswan, Egypt

As with any new IP naming it was a struggle. They put out a call to all staff for ideas, did polls, made a name generator that combined words that they liked in random ways and made pretend logos of ones they liked in Photoshop to see if they could make themselves love the name or find visual potential in it. (Some of these names are in the pic at the top of this post.) CH liked “Unearthed” as it was a reference to Prothean ruins dug up on Mars and humanity’s ascendance going away from Earth. They knew the game would have a central space station featuring prominently so some of the ideas were based on that - “The Citadel”, “The Optigon”, “The Oculon”. “Element” was another one they had in mind due to the rare substance in the game 

CH: “I was a big fan of John Harris’ book Mass, which had epic-scaled sci-fi ideas, so that was a word that came up often. Many of the names came from the idea that the IP featured a fifth fundamental physical force (in addition to the known four of gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear) so the word ‘effect’ came up pretty often.” Ultimately none of the ideas really felt right. One Monday morning they were going over the names and Greg Zeschuk said he had an idea on the weekend: “Mass Effect!” CH: “I said, ‘I don’t hate it’, which in the naming process is a high compliment. And it stuck!”

CH on Shep’s Prothean vision from the beacon: “It was hard to imagine how we would do this. CG was - and is - really expensive. Instead I wanted to try doing it through photography and video editing. So I went to a local grocery store and bought a few packages of the weirdest looking meat that I could find. Then I set up a little photoshoot in my basement, complete with some electronics parts and some red wine for juicyness.” He used these props to create a video sequence where the photos were rapidly cycled and blurred, along with production paintings, to create the scary vision an organic/machine experiment on the Protheans. These mashups were also used as inspiration for concept artists and level designers who were working on these themes

Tali used to be called Talsi

On the licensing side they often joke that they’re licensing N7 not “Mass Effect” due to N7′s popularity

There was a confidential internal guide to the IP in 2007 to help devs along and summarize/synthesize the vision etc. Some excerpts from it are shown in the book and this is the first time the public have ever seen them

Early versions of Asari had hair

Asari were designed as a nod to classic TV sci-fi (with human actors wearing obvious makeup and prosthetics to play aliens)

The turian design guideline was “we want them to be birds of prey”. They also wanted a range of alien types, some close to human like Asari, while others were to be a lot further away, like turians

BioWare patented the conversation wheel, which was a first for them. CH had been frustrated with reviews of Jade Empire that said that the actioncentric game was too wordy [with its list dialogue]. “I’m like, story is words. [...] What is it about our games that is making people feel like they’re wordy?” Then he thought “In a game you kind of need to feel like you’re continuing to play it. Maybe you should continue feeling like you’re playing it actively into the dialogue.” “[The wheel] kind of gave a new experience with dialogue when you did start to react based on emotion, and that’s ultimately what we’re trying to bring out in our games”

The original krogan concept was based on a bat “with a really wide squidgy face. We just used its face on top of this weird body and it kinda worked”

Geth musculature was based on fiber-optic cables, with flexible plates of armor attached

The vision for the IP was 80s sci-fi inspired space opera

The concept art of Saren lifting Shep by the throat inspired a similar scene in-game. The staging wasn’t planned til designers saw that art

A squadmate with Shepard on the way to meet Ash in an old storyboard was called Carter. Early name of Kaidan or Jenkins?

Bono from U2 was kinda instrumental in bringing us ME lol

Finding the right cover art for ME1 was notably tricky

Matt Rhodes got his start drawing helmets for ME1, including one which would become Shep’s “second face”. He estimates he drew between 250-270 different ones

Some of the sounds in-game were people smashing watermelons with sledgehammers and sticking fists into various goos

The audio team had fun trying to slip the iconic main theme into unexpected places throughout the MET. “We were very aware of how powerful that track was for the fans and it was tempting to overuse it for any moment we wanted to make really emotional”.

The theme was creatively repurposed in ME3: slowed down and reworked as the ambient sound for the SR-2. “If you listen to it for a really long time, just stand in the Normandy and listen, you’ll actually hear the notes change slowly. It doesn’t sound like music, it sounds like a background ambiance, but it’s there.” (My note: Well no wonder the Normandy feels so much like home?? 😭 sneaky..)

Bug report: “Mako Tornado”. There wasn’t enough friction between the tires and the ground, causing testers to lose control of the vehicle and send it spinning into the air like a tornado. “As it turns, the front end comes up, and then it starts spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning faster and faster and faster until it just flies up in the sky” (My note: Sounds like a regular day in the Mako to me)

Cerberus originally had a bigger role in this game. It was cut but they had a whole explorable outpost. “I called it Misery,” says Mac Walters, “It was this planet with a little outpost that said ‘Welcome to Misery’”. Everything on the outpost was shit - dirty worn stuff, no windows, no kitchen, the vehicle bay was open to the elements etc

The Reaper sound is literal garbage. Some audio designers went on a recording trip to a national park. One of them got fixated on a garbage can, “a metal bear-proof receptacle with a heavy lid that creaked horribly when opened”. “It was like, ominous, spooky, tonal and almost musical. I decided to throw a mic into the garbage and record it moving. I didn’t know what it was going to be until later”

They were making lots of noises to record like throwing logs and rocks around. An old couple peered at them through the window of their camper van in the woods and must have called the cops because then the cops showed up, pulled them over and told them to stop. The cops towed their car (the driver’s plates were Cali plates and expired), drove them to Edmonton outskirts and then the audio producer Shauna got a call and had to go pick them up “like three little boys”. “We got a stern talking to”. Once back they were playing around with the garbage sound, editing it etc. Casey heard it and proclaimed “That’s the sound of the Reapers”

Preston Watamaniuk: “There are things I could have done to Mass 1 to make it an infinitely better game with better UIs” and some simple cuts and changes. “But when you’re living with it, it’s very hard to see those things”

BioWare Labs

As social media and smartphone games exploded, BioWare dedicated a small team dedicated to exploring opportunities here - BioWare Labs

Mass Effect: Galaxy used a unique graphic art style and static visual presentation common in visual novels. It has the distinction of being the only iOS game BW have made during their first 25 years

Scrapped ideas were a 3rd person space shooter called Mass Effect: Corsair and 2 DA titles - a strategy game and a top-down dungeon crawler starring young Wynne. (My note: Maybe the corsairs stuff was rolled into Jacob’s backstory in 2, the Alliance Corsairs)

Corsair was a very short-lived project that never got its feet under it. It was a spin-off on Nintendo DS featuring a behind-the-ship perspective and branching dialogue. At one point it had MP. The idea behind it was basically “ME: Freelancer” - fly your ship around, do missions, get credits. It had a limited branching story but was a gameplay-centered experience intended to fill the gap between ME1 and 2. That gap ended up being filled by Galaxy

Galaxy and Corsair’s smaller screen allowed concept artists to use bold colors and a simplistic character design style to help those games stand out from Shep’s story

Nick Thornborrow did some art for Corsair but was worried his art style didn’t fit ME. He moved to DA where he feels his art style fits better

Lots of BioWare VAs and even a lead writer and the VO director are drawn from Edmonton’s local community theater scene, which is vibrant. Think this is how Mark Meer got involved

Mass Effect 2

Player choices carrying over was a first for BW

Dirty Dozen-inspired plot

Its plot is a web of conditionals (see Suicide Mission)

Was more of a shooter than anything BW had made since Shattered Steel

There was 2 camps on the team, those who wanted to push combat and systems forward and redefine the ME experience and those who wanted to make a true sequel, with the same gameplay and systems but a new story. Karin Weekes: “I think it ended up being a good push-pull. It felt like a pretty healthy creative conflict”

“ME2 was a game you could hold up to someone who argues that games aren’t a serious medium and go ‘Oh yeah, then why is Martin Sheen in this?’” Sheen was their first pick for TIM

The idea for TIM came from a mash-up of concepts CH had collected over the years. The name “Illusive” originally came from his pitch for naming DAO’s Eclipse engine, a word inspired by Obi-Wan’s line “It’s not about the mission, Master. It’s something... elsewhere. Elusive”. “I thought, what if we called our next engine 'Elusive', but used an ‘I’, and then it’s like ‘Illusion’. [...] I still really like the word with an ‘I’ and what it conjures”

When ME1 DLC was in production, CH had been watching a lot of CNN, specifically Anderson Cooper. “How is one guy travelling to all these places and never looking tired and always being able to speak with clarity?” CH says it seemed almost superhuman. “What if there was someone who is the absolute maximum of the things you would aspire to be, but also the worst of humanity?” Cooper, though not evil, became an inspiration for TIM down to the gray hair and piercing blue eyes

Inspiration for TIM’s behind-the-scenes role pulling political strings came from Jack Bauer’s brother Graem in 24. Graem “can call up the president and tell him what to do and hang up, because he’s so connected and so influential”. Sheen had played a president and his performance brought gravitas and wisdom to the role. He had quit smoking, but the character smokes. He didn’t want to fake it, but he also didn’t want to smoke, “so he actually asked for a cigarette” to hold so he could stop his words to take drags with natural cadence

Writing was still pushing to write and revise lines hours before VO started. A series of problems like injury and some writers leaving for other opportunities left it so that Karin, Lukas Kristjanson and editor Cookie Everman hand to land the story safely, with PW helping where they could. Lukas: “We took over the writing bug and task list, and I can’t stress enough how much [Karin and Cookie] did to get ME2 out the door. There’s no part of that thing we didn’t touch”. Karin: “That was the most dramatic 2 weeks of my life”

Initial fan reaction when they started promo-ing ME2 was very negative because people didn’t want to know about new chars like Jack and Mordin. “[fans were like] ‘Get them out of here. We want our characters from the first game’. But then when they played them, those became some of the most popular chars [of the series]”

Concept art of Thane has an idea annotation saying “Face can shapeshift?”

At one point when designing Thane concept artists sent multiple variations of him to the team asking them to vote on which was the most attractive

Most of the Normandy crew was written by lead level designer Dusty Everman. Lukas gave him advice in the evenings between bugs

BioWare Montreal made ME2 and 3 cinematics

CC for Shep was based on tools used by char designers to create in-game chars. Under the hood similar tools existed to create aliens

Aliens were much easier to animate than humans. When something is human it’s very difficult to make it look realistic and you can see all the mistakes and everything

Over the holiday period in 2007 CH worked out a diagram on a single piece of paper that would define the entire scope and structure of the game. The diagram is included in the book

Bug report: “I shot a krogan so hard that his textures fell off”. At one point shotgun blast damage was applied to each of the pellets fired, and shot enemies ended up with just the default checkerboard Unreal texture on them after their textures got blown off

Blasto was meant to be 1 step above an Easter egg but his fan popularity prompted them to bring him back in ME3

They rewrote chunks of Jack 2 days before she went to VO. She was the only one they could change because all the other NPCs were recorded. They redesigned her mission by juggling locked NPC lines and changing Shep’s reactions by rewriting text paraphrases to change the context of the already-recorded VO

Lukas snuck obscure nods ito ME2′s distress calls. In the general distress call for the Hugo Gernsback, there’s BW’s initial’s and Edmonton’s phone number backwards. In a fault in a beacon protocol there’s the initials and backward phone number from Tommy Tutone’s “Jenny”. In 2 other general distress calls there’s initials and numbers from Glenn Miller Orchestra’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000″ and initials and numbers from Geddy Lee and Rush’s “2112″ respectively 

Mass Effect 3

“The end of an era marks the beginning of another”

ME3 “marked the end of Shep’s story”

Saying bye to Shep was as difficult for devs as it was for players

JHale’s final VO session included Anderson’s death and romanced Garrus’ goodbye. “We were in the session and we both just started crying”, Caroline says. “I couldn’t come on the line to give her notes because I was crying, and she was crying. And so there was just this minute-long pause of like, nothing, nothing, nothing - just silence through the airwaves. And then I came on and just told her that I was crying and she said ‘I’m crying!’” They talked about these anecdotes also here on the N7 Day reunion panel

The Microsoft Kinect voice support required devs to teach Kinect hundreds of commands in a variety of accents across multiple languages. The result was useful but made for some awkward moments. Numerous players accidentally said “geth” or “quarian” while making a particular decision and accidentally killed Tali

MP chars were voiced by cops and military people

The helmet on one of the MP chars was originally designed for cancelled project Revolver

The payload device at the end needed to attach to the Citadel while essentially serving as a giant trigger. “It ended up becoming quite the engineering feet just to visualize how this thing would move and connect to the Citadel”

Concept artists explored creating an anti-team, where Kai Leng was almost an anti-Shepard essentially, with an elite squad to counteract your team. This idea never went beyond concept phase

ME3 Special Edition was released on Nintendo Wii U exclusively. This exclusive version of the game includes Genesis 2 (a sequel to the original Genesis comic) and unique gameplay features that took advantage of the touchscreen GamePad. For years Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood had had the honor of being BW’s only game made for a Nintendo console

FemShep regrettably didn’t feature in major ME marketing til ME3. Later releases like DAI, MEA and Anthem have taken increasing care not to gender their protagonists in cover art

To capture combat sounds they took a trip to CFB Wainwright, a military base southeast of Edmonton. They got a big tour of it and were allowed to record anything they could find. The tour ended with them getting to drive and shoot tanks (real shells). The force of doing that sent waves through Joel Green, he felt his whole chest compress when it went off; the perfect sound for the Black Widow! After the trip the soldiers let him keep the shell he fired and it’s been passed on like a torch to various devs since

Kakliosaurs began life as a joke in the writers’ room after John Dombrow placed a Grunt figure on a t-rex toy he had on his desk. Lore was brainstormed to justify the mash-up before someone asked, “Why don’t we put this in the game?” They loved it so much Karin had custom coffee mugs made

Bug report: For a while Tali’s final romance scene would fire when she was supposed to be dead

“Balancing combat: how designers in ME3 entered an ‘arms race’” - the solution to players feeling OP vs players feeling frustrated by really strong enemies is to find a good middle ground, but for designers Corey Gaspur and Brenon Holmes, it was war. Brenon designed enemies, Corey designed guns. Corey “was obsessed with bigger, heavier guns. We had this sort of informal competition where he’d make this crazy overturned gun that would just murder all the enemies, and then I tuned some stuff up to compensate”

Brenon had to invent new ways to “stop Corey” and this led to the Phantoms. Corey had in turn designed consumable rockets that could wipe out entire waves of enemies. He must’ve figured this would make short work of Brenon’s space ninjas, but Brenon had other plans: “I had just added the ability for her to cut rockets [when Corey was playing MP and he was watching]. She cut the rocket in half... Corey just turns and looks at me and is like: ‘Really dude? I just shot a rocket at this Phantom and she’s fine? Not even damaged? Zero damage?’” 

This friendly rivalry helped elevate ME3′s gameplay. Corey had a knack for making a gun feel so good to fire it had his fellow designers scrambling to keep up. It was his version of balancing. Before Corey sadly passed away he mentored Boldwin Li in all things weapon design and the arms race continued

Corey designed the Arc Pistol. It was causing problems for enemies because it was too powerful. It seemed hell bent on staying that way, Boldwin would tune down all its stats and it was still doing 3x the damage it should have been doing. “I was like ‘What the hell?’, and then I looked closer. It secretly fired 3 bullets for every pull of the trigger! Corey, you sneaky jerk”

The day it launched there were midnight launch parties across North America including one near the BW building. Numerous devs sat at long tables greeting fans and signing autographs as the fans picked up preorders. When midnight struck the line was long enough that it took several hours for some fans to get their game. One particular fan is remembered: “It was 3am. Some guy drove up from Calgary with his friends. He was like one of the last people in line. I think he was sort of tired-drunk. He threw himself across the tables, pulled up his shirt and shouted ‘Guys, sign my abs!’ And like I did, because he waited so long. It felt impolite not to. So I hope he enjoyed his copy of ME3″

For designing Protheans concept artists had free reign to design something that read as ancient

Before the concept art team had the story of the game to work toward, they explored wild ideas of their own including an image of the crew stealing back the Normandy to go after the Reapers

Jen Cheverie was testing scenes and was initially excited to be testing Mordin scenes, til she saw she was testing the Renegade version of his death. “This is even before like all of the audio and everything was in, so you didn’t even have the sad music. I remember sitting at my desk and my hands just went to my face when I saw that the gun Shep pulls on Mordin is the gun he gives Shep in ME2. I burst into tears and was crying for the rest of the day. People are waving to me as they walk by and I’m like, ‘It’s ok, I’m just killing my best friend’” 

There’s a segment called “Shepard’s story ends”. Casey on the ending: “There’s a whole bunch of things that come together to make it incredibly tense and emotional for players. I think the biggest one was the sense of finality, that whatever it was that happened in that very last moment... was it.” 

Wrapping up the story was a massive feat. In a way all of ME3 is an ending. Its final moments were the players’ last with a char they’d been with all the way from Eden Prime

“And while the critical reception of the game was extremely positive, many fans were unsatisfied with the ending, which became one of the most controversial in the history of games.” CH: “We were, on one hand, at the end of a marathon trying to finish the game and the series. But as devs we also knew that there would be more. We knew that we would continue to tell the story. In retrospect, we didn’t fully appreciate the tremendous sense of finality that it would have for people”. He envisioned an ending that posed new questions, something in the tradition of high sci-fi that left players dreaming about what that particular galaxy’s future could hold. “Frankly, there’s a lot more that we could have and should have done to honor the work players put in, to give them a stronger sense of reward and closure”

AAA games are massive undertakings with a million moving parts. Somehow they come together but even the best-planned projects don’t turn out quite like devs hope. From start to end video game production is a series of compromises. It’s rare if not impossible for devs to ship a game they’re entirely happy with. “I think that people imagine that when you finish a game, it’s exactly the way you wanted it to be. But whether people end up loving or hating the final result, we work hard to finish it the best we can, knowing that there’s a lot we would have wanted to do better. I think that’s true of any creative work”

As the dust settled after the initial reaction to the ending and later its epilogue, meant to show the wide-reaching ripple effects of Shep’s final choice, “players emerged mostly asking for one thing”. CH: “Now, most of what we hear, after both ME3 and MEA, is ‘Hey, just go make more Mass Effect’. And that to me is the most important thing. Knowing that players want to return to the ME universe is what inspires us to press on and imagine what comes next”

Mass Effect: Andromeda

By creating a new ME in a new galaxy the team was challenged to put their own visual stamp on the game while keeping it true to the franchise

Being the first ME game on a new gen of consoles meant for more detail

“Massive transport ships called arks populated with salarians, turians, humans, asari and quarians” made the risky jump to the Cluster

MEA was the first time BW had truly codeveloped across 3 studios: Edmonton, Montreal and Austin. The bulk of the work especially early on was done in Montreal, which was composed of a handful of Edmonton expats and heaps of experienced devs who joined from elsewhere specifically to bring a new ME experience to life. Series vets in Edmonton then came on to contribute writing, cinematics, design and QA, along with leadership from creative director Mac Walters and the core Production team. Austin writers and level designers also joined the fray

“It took a new team to take ME beyond the Milky Way”

Mac: “A lot of people in Montreal joined BW as fans of the franchise, so they just had this passion, and it felt like it was more like the days of Jade Empire, where a smaller younger team gets to do something for the first time. Even though it wasn’t necessarily a new IP for me, it felt fresh and new because of that. The team was just super excited to be working on it”

Early plans had the player exploring hundreds of worlds, procedurally generated, allowing for a nearly infinite variety of experiences. But as development wore on, it became clear that the game narrative required more specific, hand-touched level design on each world to keep the story focused and the experience engaging. “The plan was to give players numerous uncharted worlds to explore. Designers worked hard to come up with procedural elements that would make such planets special. Eventually the team made the difficult decision to abandon procedural planets in favor of more memorable hand-touched alien worlds, each with a specific story to tell”

One challenge was defining what ME meant without Shep. Care was given to include many of the MET’s key species. “Ryder recruited turian, asari, krogan and salarian followers”. Like Shep Ryder represents humanity’s hope for a peaceful coexistence among aliens who had long operated without human contact

Beginning with MEA the team decided that with few exceptions vehicles in ME have 6 wheels. Early Nomad concepts were bulkier. Later ones focused on its ability to move over its ability to protect itself from hostile fire, underlining the themes of exploration

German concept designer and auto-motive futurist Daniel Simon was contracted to create the Nomad and Tempest. The Tempest’s final design took inspo from the Concorde 

Concepts for angaran fighter ships have the following notes: “Two doors swing open, wings rotate down to function as landing struts, the landing struts split open. It has a spinning turbine engine 

Despite being set a galaxy away and some 600 years after Mordin’s death, there was a time when he had a cameo. It wasn’t cut due to running out of time however, it was cut due to drug references. John Dombrow explains: “One day I had to write a small quest for Kadara. I thought it’d be amusing if these 2 guys living way out on the fringes in a shack were growing plants for uh, medicinal purposes, and needed Ryder’s help with it. It occurred to me, wouldn’t it be amusing if Ryder had the option of actually trying ‘the medicine’ to see what would happen? And I thought, what if it turned into some hallucination that somehow involved SAM - like maybe SAM would sing? But why? How could I motivate that? Then it hit me. Who else in the ME game sings unexpectedly? MORDIN. As a nod to him I wrote SAM singing Modern Major-General. It got even better when our cine designer John Ebenger wanted to take it even further. Bless him, he came in on a Saturday to do a special hallucination showing Mordin himself. It was great. Til the fateful day we were told MEA had already been submitted to the ratings board. That’s when you declare things like drug references in your game. Mordin fell under that category which meant it was a no-go. We were too late”

Ryder’s white AI armor contrasts Shep’s iconic dark armor (intentional design)

Concept art for Ryder involved experiments with cloth (cloaks, ponchos, capes - “Pull here to release cloak”) and asymmetrical design elements

For alien design, there’s a few exceptions but humanoid figures are the ME standard and this persisted into MEA

Kett and angara concepts explored striking lines and textures 

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[relatablegenzwriter]

How to write erotic moments or short stories without making it convoluted, cheesy or tacky? I grew up very religious and although i no longer believe have lots of trouble with sexuality in general. I'd like to try writing stuff as exploration cause i find p*rn too exploitive and iffy and dont wanna support that industry. but i'm not really sure what to do to do it "right" instead of dull or cringy. I just sit for hours with a blank paper till i give up

Writing Non-Tacky Sex and Romance

I'll start right off the bat by saying that this is definitely not my writing area of expertise, and I don't know how much I can tell you that you don't already know. So I'm gonna offer a couple of tips and then send you to a lot of posts that might answer your question better than I can! (P.S. I know your question was about sex specifically, but as you can see from the title, all of this can be applied to romantic scenes as well, which I got similar questions about.)

1. Be careful with metaphors. Of course, no writing style is "right" or "wrong", but flowery language can often make or break any scene, especially romantic ones. Many times, the overuse of dramatic, romantic metaphors can overload a scene and make it feel cheesy and cliche. And let's face it, millions of tiny stars aren't bursting around a couple every time they kiss, and we all know that sex is not magical in the slightest. I think the biggest problem with these kinds of descriptors, though, is not that they make you groan with how sappy the writing is, but because they often feel impersonal to your characters. So instead of your character "hearing a symphony swell around them", maybe "for a moment all their worries about [plot conflict/subplot conflict] seemed to move toward the back of their head". (not my best descriptor i could come up with on the spot but you get it) Although, while this will remove the cliche aspect of your scenes, it can still go overboard. Bringing me to my next point…

2. Be realistic. Like I said before, not every romantic or sexual interaction your characters have is going to feel like a Nicholas Sparks movie. There are lots and lots of awkward, ordinary moments. Include these! Of course, you probably won't want to make every moment of every sex scene say "yeah it wasn't that special" (unless of course this is the direction you want your story to take). If your character enjoys kissing or sleeping with someone, say that. But there are very few people whose worldview has shifted after one night together, and I doubt this is true for your characters, either.

3. Be careful about your source information. It's okay to take inspiration from everywhere, but it's important to take everything with a grain of salt. Particularly with sex scenes, writers tend to take inspiration from two major places: porn and WattPad (you know, THOSE fics). Keep in mind that porn is not meant to be realistic in the slightest, and I could go on a whole other tangent about the horrible expectations it sets for sex in real life. And don't get me wrong about wattpad: there are great writers on there and it's a great option to share and read fiction (for free, too!). But a lot of the ridiculously smutty fics, while entertaining and well-written, depict fun-sounding but sometimes unrealistic sex, that may not fit into the fantasy novel you're writing, @sjmaas. (Disregard that last bit if you are writing something akin to wattpad smut) Also, just a little side note that you should never be treating porn or wattpad as legitimate sex ed for real life!

4. Try building your scene from the ground up. I did a post on this a while back, but I used to really struggle to write romantic scenes until I figured out a method that works for me. Basically, you picture your scene as a building that you first need to lay the framework for, then fill in the cement/bricks/whatever, then furnish and decorate. First, I go through and write all the dialogue that will be taking place and mark crucial events. (example: "Hey, can I tell you something?" "What?" "I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me." [kiss]) Next, I rewrite the scene almost monotonously, in the plainest way actions can be written. ("They held hands." "She took her jacket off." "He walked across the room.") Once I have my "building", then I can go in and add all the emotions and little details. I do this so that I don't have to stare at a blank page, since I already know how my scene is going to go. Then all I have to do is fill in some little details that make the scene more personal to my characters. I highly recommend this to you, since you talked about how you know what you want to write but can get scared of a blank page (hey, me too!).

5. Extra Resources! Here's some people that can probably help better than I can with specifics:

Including Consent In Writing (SUPER IMPORTANT)

Non-Explicit Scenes

Explicit Scenes

Romance In General (with a section containing tons of nsfw writing advice)

Good luck with your story!

[bubblyani]

Mistletoe Scheme

(Bruce Wayne x Reader)

A Bruce Wayne/ Batman Christmas One Shot

Summary: Trapped in a Basement on Christmas Eve, an unexpected yet impactful conversation starts between Batman, and the civilian he was trying to rescue: You. 

Word Count: 4.2k

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Mention of Blood.

Author’s Note: This idea came to me in an instant and never left my mind. Plus, this was a great chance to write more stuff for Bruce Wayne/Batman.I’m a sucker for dialogue. My last Bale Character fic for 2020. Started with Bruce, ending with Bruce heh. Can’t wait to treat you guys more next year. Enjoy y’all! And Merry Christmas!

Desperation. He held her tight with sheer desperation, for releasing was an option deemed non-viable. In fact, he did not wish to. He did not hope to. Not for anything.

If the end of days had dawned, he simply xwould not perceive. If danger lightly tapped him on the shoulder, he simply would disregard. Even if his head dared to crack open, he would simply let it do so. His hold on her was ironclad, and it was final.

Yet his hands, they were nowhere close to the famished, passionate nature as his lips. Those lips, that were willfully enslaved to hers, forming a strong bond that nature never dared to birth before. Sheer Desire certainly displayed its true colors tonight, and two souls were evidently responsible. Thus, he held her, in every manner possible. All in the desperate need to know her, to feel her. To make up for lost time.

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

(An hour Earlier)

The snow fall outdoors seemed barely visible when the fluorescent light flickered with speed indoors. Even the infusion of Sleigh Bells and the joyous Seasonal Music blasting out of speakers all around the city, seemed barely audible. Certainly they all would be, when one was caught in the midst of nowhere.

The beeping of the timer was continuous, until it finally halted, resulting in a deafening blast.

BANG!

The door being the pitiful victim, broke open in an instant. However, instead of falling back down, the steel door remained at a 90 degree angle, revealing a thick layer of concrete standing right behind it. The Impact Mine was simply useless, leaving Batman full of regrets.

Upon the faith of his instincts, he pasted another explosive device on the broken door. And off went the continuous beeps. BANG! One more blast. Yet, all that awaited him was pure disappointment, when the door remained unmoved.

Running out of resources in his Utility Belt, it was evident he was forced to throw in the towel. He had to look upon the truthful face of bitter reality; Trapped in an underground Basement on the outskirts of Gotham city. With no way out. Not yet, at least. With a heavy sigh, frustration had caught up with the Dark Knight, and with a strange headache making its sudden appearance, he brimmed with the urge to curse out loud.

“DAMN IT!!”

Which she managed to do on his behalf.

Turning around slow, Batman watched the woman pace from one corner of the room to the other, her heels clicking out loud. And right then, he was reminded. How he was truly not trapped here alone.

“The signal’s no good…” she said, with the phone held against her ear, “...can’t get a hold of anyone...”

Batman nodded, “Wait here…” he replied in a hoarse tone, before making his away to the other corner of the basement. With the light brush of his fingers against ears of his cowl, a dial tone echoed within his mask. A call was made. The dial tone stopped as the caller finally answered.

“Alfred?” Batman began.

“Master Wayne-” The voice of Alfred Pennyworth reached his inner headset, “ I-trouble-hearing-”

Loud static noise attacked the line with confidence. And Batman began to grow restless. The headache grew even stronger.

“Alfred!” Batman growled, “Can you track my coordinates? Alfred?”

“-Sorr-Please wai-”

With one final static to spare, Alfred’s voice disappeared, leaving nothing but a pin drop silence in the room. The flickering of the lights paused, growing slightly dim in the process. Unwilling to display his own failure, the caped crusader inhaled deep.

“I’m afraid…we’re stuck indefinitely. But don’t worry…” He grunted, his eyes lingering on the empty wall, “We’re gonna make it out here alive”

However, the woman did not respond. Eyebrows furrowing underneath his cowl seemed inevitable for Batman. Would he possibly face eventual panic from her? A meltdown perhaps? He dreaded turning back.

Instead, he heard a soft chuckle.

“Well, bet you never had to go through this before, huh?”

He spun around upon her light hearted reply, and her seemingly friendly demeanor. His eyebrows furrowed once more.

She certainly was unexpected.

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

Never in this life did her lips taste passion at such degree. However, then again, never in this life did her lips meet his own until then. Was pure frustration to blame? Was it the fuel that strengthened this flame? Or could this encounter be worthy of the term “Fateful”? “Destined” ?

She indulged it, the manner in which his lips enveloped in with hers. She was simply the hand, finally uniting with him, who simply was the glove with the perfect fit.

With her fingers lingering in his hair with the utmost care, her other hand clung onto his strong neck. She pulled him close, until any distance between them proved non existent. For the first time, she was certain of what she longed for. More importantly, who she longed for.

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

(Half and hour earlier)

Any man, woman or child that managed to encounter Batman, let alone catch the mere sight of the man, would certainly be aware of a few special traits: His swiftness, paired up with his sense of utmost mystery. The traits that shield him when his arrival was far from expected, and his exit practically invisible. Camouflaged into the darkness of the night.

However, the mere concept of getting trapped in a confined space with him, was simply mind boggling. Even for you. Therefore, your query did not appear to be a ludicrous one. Was it not?

“Well, bet you never had to go through this before, huh?”

“You’d be surprised”

Batman responded, which threw you off guard.

“Oh! really?” You blurted, cheeks flushing, “I-I-”

“But yes…” he said, “…not like this…” He added, scanning the premises for possible clues. A sigh of relief left your lips. Rubbing your forearm, you felt yourself sinking down to the dusty floor. You could not help but trace a hint of awkwardness in the air. At least in your part. You may know of Batman, but you certainly did not have the privilege of knowing him. Thus, there you both were: Two strangers trapped together.

“Guess...” you began soft, “...there’s nothing to do but-WAIT!!!”

Your cry managed to send tremors through the room. Enough for the caped crusader to spin around and freeze.

“Batman…” you breathed, wide eyed, “Are-Are you bleeding?” Perplex was evident when Batman’s lips pursed. But the moment a thin line of red trickled down through his cowl towards his lips, he finally believed your query. And it frightened you.

“I …uh..” He struggled, rubbing it off with his gloved hand. “Did you...get injured?” You inquired with concern. “No…” Taking his hand away, he dismissed quick, “...it’s nothing” “What?” Your eyes widened, ”That’s even crazier!” You exclaimed, stumbling as you rose up with your heels, “ We gotta get that checked”   “No, its fine…” “No, its not…” Your instant yet commanding response was surprising, even for yourself, “Your head might be injured, so we need to-” You paused, “ Oh!”   A few seconds passed, while bitter realization coursed through your veins,  “…but that...that would mean-” Batman nodded, “…taking the cowl off, yes” “Crap…”

You muttered with a sigh.With your hands resting on your waist, you were nothing but remorseful. What you requested from the Dark Knight seemed far worse than the most dire physical challenge. Simply worse than leaping into a pit of fire, or diving into the oceans deep. Compromising his identity, it was a Cardinal Rule that must not be broken.

However, your concern seemed to have overpowered it all. Obstinate, you were not intending to bow down so easy. But why? Could it be perhaps, in your eyes he was the Guardian that Gotham needed? Could it be perhaps, he was a man you always had admired? And could it possibly be that you did not hope for him to die unexpected, all in the sole attempt of rescuing you?

“Okay, how about this?”

You began,  “How about you turn around, and take your cowl off-Just hear me out!” You pleaded when he attempted to interject, “If...the wound is in the BACK of your head, let ME clean it up. If not…YOU do it. Seems fair, right?”

Batman stared at you with a blank expression. You assumed his silence for the worst. “No wound or cut should be left untreated. Not even yours” the insistence in your tone was shocking. What had changed you, it simply was difficult to comprehend.

Batman remained quiet. You suddenly were regretful. Certainly you were blinded with obstinacy, and did not know your place.

“Fine…”   A grunt left Batman’s lips, leaving you wide eyed and relieved. His cape swished with grace as he turned away from you to sit, “You a doctor?”

“Oh no!” You let out a nervous chuckle, “…my friend is…” you added, kneeling behind, watching him remove his mask,  “I’m actually in Publishing… I’m a Literary Publicist. But…that does NOT mean I can’t be a Good Samaritan right- Ah! See?” You cried out, “It IS in the back of your-Oh my!”

Silence shushed you with judgement. And you did not care, especially when blood bubbled out slow from what appeared to be a cut already stitched in the back of his head, full of luscious, brunette locks.

A firm punch landed in your heart. For you could not help but wonder: How far must his body go, in order to save this godforsaken city?

“Everything alright?”

His query woke you from your thoughts. Without the mask on, slight clarity was present in his voice, yet the gruff remained. As he was on a futile attempt to mask his sound. You cleared your throat: “Yeah…Anyways, Let me…”  you muttered, pulling the silk scarf that left your neck in a smooth motion. Though your neck immediately shivered upon meeting the chilly air, it did not seem as important as this. Folding it to the thickest layer, you placed the scarf over the wound with care.

The howling wind outside reached your ears with clarity as the silence seeped in the Basement once more. A Christmas Carol involuntarily landed on your lips as you began to hum it. “Angels We Have Heard on High”, to be quite specific. Why that exactly? You simply did not know. And given the silence shown by the other party, it seemed Batman did not mind your humming.

The longer you stared, the stronger your fascination grew for his hair. For there it was, Batman’s actual hair. And you were just a mere turn away from his real identity. Was it idiotic to be starstruck by that fact? Fascination merged with curiosity when you wondered of his face. Could it be possible he was actually handsome? With those beautiful lips he bore, you were not mad to assume as such.

You shook your head all the sudden with an embarrassed smile. For ethics grabbed your superficiality by the ear with disappointment. How dare you even objectify him as such? He is a hero, not Mr. Handsome. And more importantly, why must you think so fondly of his lips?

“If you don’t mind me asking…” you began, attempting to change thoughts, “What the hell happened tonight, Batman?” You inquired, “And who…the hell…was that guy?”  

“Dino Maroni…” Batman answered, his voice raised a bit higher than before. Your eyebrows furrowed. “Maroni?” You repeated, “Like…‘Sal Maroni’ Maroni? The Mob boss?” “Dino is his distant nephew…” he explained, “…estranged, from what we’re guessing. Could be that he is trying to earn a place back in the Family” “Huh…” confusion was rife in you. “…He tried to kill Harvey Dent tonight” “HE WHAT?” “Ow!” “Sorry….” You whispered, when you realized your passionate response forced you to press on his wound hard, “….So, that’s why you were on his tail…” you understood,  “Until he met me-…” “-kidnapped you, more like…”

Batman was right. Tonight was filled with unexpected events. You knew fully well when you accidentally bumped into a man who seemed to be running across the street. The sight of the passerby’s panic, confused you at first. But when the sweating man grabbed you by the shoulder and placed a pistol on your right temple, the panic seemed justified. The image of Dino spitting out threats to end you, especially at Batman, remained clear as day. No one dared to intervene, which gave him the leverage to flee, with you as hostage. Batman certainly did not take long to find you. Except he met with the unfortunate fate of being trapped alongside you when Dino and his men sealed the door.

“I know Harvey Dent is not exactly ....Mother Teresa to Organized Crime in Gotham, but...” you paused, only to present an annoyed expression, “...on Christmas Eve? Seriously? When will those jerks give YOU A BREAK?”

A hearty laugh leaped out of Batman, surprising you. Amused, you laughed along. “Good point” He replied in mid laugh, hand reaching back to take hold of the scarf instead. The gruff in his voice had vanished, leaving his laughter to ring in your ears with pleasure. 

Your own laughter faded as you leaned against the concrete pillar behind you. It was a wonderful surprise indeed. And with that, the luxurious desire for know more about him was birthed. Given the number of times excitement sparked in you the form of mini fireworks, it was evident your fascination for him had grown. More importantly, your attraction.

“I’m guessing you had plans...” he began. You tilted your head with wide eyes. “...before they eventually got ruined by Dino?” He finished, his voice heavy on smoothness all the sudden. Looking down at yourself, you chuckled.   “Yeah…Office..Christmas...Party” you enunciated with dramatic energy, your hand smoothing the material of your grey belted robe coat. The robe coat that concealed the beautiful navy blue velvet cocktail dress you wore underneath it, along with pantyhose and heels, “Normally I never show up. But, tonight was supposed to be …” you paused, “...special”

“Hmmm?”

Chuckling again at his inquisitive hum,  your eyes remained on your coat, “It’s silly…” you said with embarrassment , “I…I rather not talk about it”

“Hmmm…”

With a hum of acknowledgement, he maintained his silence. You smiled, looking at the back of his head. You sensed consideration in him, you sensed safety in him. But simultaneously, you sensed fear, in you. Fear that this would be the end of a possibly entertaining conversation. Your heart was proof, pacing quick, tapping you on the shoulder with impatience.

“Actually-” you began in softness.

“So you DO rather talk about it…” He amused, voice now almost of a velvet quality, and simply irresistible.

“Guess you ARE good at…making people talk…” you smirked, laughter erupting from you both.

“But anyways…” you added mid-laugh, “…there’s this guy…I’ve had my eye on…” you said, looking up. Batman’s laughter vanished right then.

“I mean…” you paused, with a sigh, “…he seems nice and all…I don’t know” shrugging, you continued, “I kinda thought maybe tonight I’d…I don't know…” you shrugged once again, “…make a move?  Let him know I…like him? ” The second those words left your lips, a sourness remained.

“How long have you known him?”

“I don't know…6 months?” You answered so casually, “I’d see him in meetings, always around our colleagues, we never met in private…I don’t know…he’s fine” you stated, “ Seems like the proper guy, ya know?”

“So, what?” Batman teased, “You’re gonna meet him by the punch bowl, and tell him how you feel?”

“What do you think this is? Senior prom?” You giggled, where you heard him snigger in return, “And I believe there WILL be a Punch Fountain…A Champagne Fountain actually-Anyways” you said, before you lost your train of thought, “NO!…my plan actually had more CLASS than that, just so you know…” you added with pride, crossing your arms, “There’s this lovely balcony on that floor and…” your voice growing soft, “I’m pretty sure there’s gonna be a Mistletoe there”

“Are you su-”

“I AM sure! ” You interrupted him, laughter following suite. Joy was quite evident in your tone, “So hopefully, if everything goes right, I’d have him find me there, I don’t know…” you smirked, “…maybe accidentally trip, let him catch me and Voila!…that will be the moment…where our eyes would meet…and then our lips…leading up to the most…gentle first kiss ever…”

You finished with a sigh, your heart evidently immersed in the depths and the beauty of your own haven, your very own fairytale.

“Wow…heh” Batman’s voice shook you awake, “Your planning is really making the criminals look bad…” he remarked, with added laughter. To which you smiled.

“NOW I know you’re teasing…” you replied with a mischievous smile, “ I mean, come on! I could NEVER plan THIS…” looking around the chilly basement, your tone brimmed with sarcasm. Especially when you realized how you jested about the horrid disposition you both were facing.

“Well, you know…maybe with a little hard work…”


“Oh, don’t you dare, mister!” You guffawed, “Besides, I really wouldn’t wanna see your bad side if I did”

With the laugher dying down once again, you both took in deep breaths. It certainly felt lovely. 

“You really thought this through, huh?” Batman inquired with earnest. Shrugging, your eyes continued to familiarize with his hair :

“I guess…” you said, rubbing your shoulders all of the sudden, “Maybe if we’re lucky and we get out of here on time, I’ll still have a chance, But… I don’t know…” 
To your disappointment, silence took centerstage once again with a smug look, ready to begin its haughty performance. Until Batman cleared his throat:

“ I know I’m a guy you just met but…” He began, “…should you even go through with it?” His query, forced your eyebrows to rise in unison. Once more, that beating of your heart began to quicken.

“What makes you say that?” You inquired, to which he shrugged his own broad and strong shoulders. 
“Well, you said ‘I don't know’ 5 times already, and you barely told me anything about him”

With your mouth agape, You froze. Waves of realization crashed against the sand of your conscious. Did it take Batman, the greatest detective to deduce your hidden doubt? And did he, by any chance, rescue you from a possible regret?

“Touché” You nodded in slow motion, a few seconds later. “Wow…” You chuckled, “..I was actually gonna go through with it, with just one foot in the water, huh? Damn!” Shaking your head, you exhaled with great depth. Along with your exhalation, there exited your blindness.

“To be honest, I don’t even know if I like him. I just…” Pausing, your hands clasped together, “ I was in love with the concept OF HIM” you said, grateful of how the truth had revealed itself to you, “But at the same time…Did I just miss my only chance? To finding someone?” You inquired, heart suddenly growing heavy. Countless nights of your fervent prayer for someone to love you, flashed before your eyes, causing you to feel sheer pity, “ I mean…” your chuckle grew sad, “I’m not getting any younger…And this job ain’t easy…oh!-I’m sorry” you said, involuntary sniffing as your nose grew itchy, “I’m blabbering here…”

“No need to apologize…” A soft, and empathizing reply exited Batman, “It’s not like I can’t relate to that”  

With shining eyes, you beamed at the back of his head. It did not take long for a rush of warmth to embrace your soul. The number of times you laughed at comfort, with the help of this man for a few minutes, were simply more than what you would experience within 24 hours. 
“I hope he wasn’t as understanding as you…” You said, "Cause if he was, then I missed a great guy”

“On the contrary, I think HE was the one who missed big tonight…” Batman replied, his velvet voice never failing to comfort you. His kindness was brimming, yet you did not mind being soaked by it.

“Thank you-Oh!…has it stopped?” Your eyes widened, the moment he took the scarf away from the head. He nodded. Excitement danced within you as you crawled towards him.

“Great, now we can finally clean this up…” Enthusiasm was rife, while you stood on your knees,“Ugh! I wish we had some saline-”

“No, really it’s alright”

The stitches have finally dried out, even faster thanks to the cold. The need to pat him on the head,  or even run your fingers through his locks grew strong. However, that need retracted itself a few seconds later. You shook your head. What on earth was going on with you?

“I do have a bandaid though…” you stated with confidence, bending to your left to reach out for your purse, “…its in here somewhere-Oh Oh no..Agh!”

The unfortunate loss of balance, forced you to gravitate to your left, falling in the process with speed. You were certain your heart would fall out of your chest. But to your relief, your face nor your heart did not meet its fate with the cemented ground. Instead, you were caught by Batman himself. Right before him. Revealing his face.

His face. Your eyes widened. His face.

With a quick gasp, you closed your eyes shut with immediate fear within a split second.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry…” you whimpered. However, to your surprise, you heard him chuckle.

“Don’t apologize…” he assured, as his voice grew softer. Unlike his powerful demeanor, the man behind the mask seemed gentler than expected, persuading you to open your eyes with care. And once you finally did, your eyes indulged the sight before you. The face that simply stared at you.

Around your age, he was blessed with handsome features, that left you breathless. With the black paint that surrounded his eyes, it was a daunting task to trace the beautiful hazel green eyes he possessed.

“I won’t tell a soul…I swear” you found yourself whispering with sincerity. To which he nodded:

“I know…” he breathed.

The manner in which those eyes sparkled, his concern for his identity had vanished. And at last, all seemed clear to you. Bravery kept you calm, as you took one of his hands, placing it over your chest. All that, in order to confirm your suspicions. To confirm that the lightning speed of your beating heart was no hallucination. The stomach acting up with tickles, your overwhelming concern, your indiscriminate joy, amidst the danger. It was evident that Magic had stumbled into you. Finally. That very moment you had dreamed of.

Moving from your heaving chest, Batman’s hand proceeded to cup your face instead. Your breath could not help but hitch. And his touch was to blame, even with the presence of his gloves.

“That Mistletoe Scheme of yours…” He began in a low voice,“…You really upset that it got sabotaged tonight?”

“Honestly…” you paused, “…now that I think of it…it wasn’t that great. So…”

“Good”

Low but pleased, his response brimmed with the power to push you towards insanity. And it engulfed you whole, the moment he leaned forward, and kissed you.

No Christmas gift would ever succeed in providing the magic as his kiss did. If your body was akin to a Christmas tree, then his kiss was simply the electric switch, setting all bulbs alit. Those delicious lips were generous, offering you all that you longed for: Gentle. It simply was the word, with his lips pressed against yours with the softness of actual feathers, awakening every inch of stimulus in your system to life. Gentle was what he promised, as your lips and his, both embarking on their own pilgrimage, to heal one another. And to spark the magic you both had missed for simply too long in life.

Pulling away, your foreheads rested on one another, releasing one long, shaky breath. And all the sudden, his face began to grow very familiar in your eyes. However, you could not place his name. Who was he?

“Bruce Wayne…” he breathed, answering your silent query, “Nice to meet you”

With a dropped jaw, you uttered your own name in reply. This was certainly unexpected. However in all honesty, it did not matter either. Especially when his sheer humanity, and his lips won your heart over already.  

Loud, static noise reemerged from his removed mask, causing both of you to jump. The voice of an elderly man followed soon after:

“Sir! Master Wayne!” He said, “I finally received your coordinates! Are you alright? We’re on our way”

Relieved beyond all measure, you both shared sighs and huge smiles.

“Merry Christmas! Bruce” you wished.  

“Merry Christmas!”

With his shining eyes, Bruce swooped you in for a kiss once more. Infused with gusto, Impatience had replaced Calm, while Passion had replaced Gentle. Yet, you did not mind. Not at all. Especially when you shared his sentiments to the very core.

Trapped you may have been underground, smothered with the cold. And even so, no form of anger lingered in you towards Dino Maroni. Not any longer. For once in your life, you were ecstatic for a plan to have failed miserably. For this may have been Fate’s real plan after all.

——————————————————

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Teyvat, the twins, and the Archons: a theory

Hello today I will be explaining my genshin impact theory which is most likely right because I say so and I have an inflated ego

Note: I will be referring to the MC as traveler and the Leader of the Abyss Order as such or as the missing twin for neutrality’s sake. And also because I chose Lumine and I can’t bear to say Lumine is “evil”

Note after writing all of that: Actually, I’m wrong. Reading it made me realize how batshit off the rails it all sounds. But here it is anyways because it’s a funny theory.

Contains multiple spoilers for the entirety of the game (1.3 edition)

Part 1. Gnosticism, Archons, and Humanity

I think by now, most of us have heard of the Gnosticism theory. If you haven't heard of it, Gnosticism is the belief that humanity could be more than what we are at present because of the world we're in.

Gnosticism has many versions but the basic concept of it is that humans are stuck in a fake world where our full potential is locked away because of our belief in false gods. The true God is the creator of the true world and between us and him, are beings called Aeons. One Aeon who is called Sophia (meaning Wisdom) created a being who thought of himself as the One True God and created the physical world in his flawed image. Oh, and he gave seven beings rule over the world he created, who are called the Archons.

Under Gnosticism, humans are thought to be part physical, but also have a spiritual component in us that grants us divinity. But because the false god and archons actively work to make sure we never realize that there is divinity within us, we never reach our full potential.

Connecting this with genshin impact, the humans in Teyvat have access to visions that give them power, as well as a chance to attain godhood. However, they believe that it is a gift from Celestia instead of a thing any of them can attain themselves. In fact, they don't even know that if one "receives" a vision, they can become gods because it's a secret that only Archons are privy to. Venti says this himself at the end of the prologue section of the main storyline when we ask him about visions.

It seems like Celestia doesn’t want humans to ascend to godhood. If we pair this  with what we know from the Main Storyline trailer that Dainsleif narrates, it becomes clearer. He says that Celestia goads humans with their seven treasures, rewards for the worthy, the doorway to divinity. However, it seems like there is a warning for those who dare to try and ascend, as if they say that the throne in the sky is not for us even if we have the means to.

Doesn’t that seem to contradict the purpose of the vision? Yes, it is a means to help humans live in Teyvat, but why give out visions when the Archons know fully well that it could help them gain access to Celestia? Doesn't it then seem like visions are not gifts from the Archons but instead innate power that all humans possess?

Part 2. What are the twins + What is Dainsleif + What are they doing in Teyvat + the Genesis Pearl = A Loop

Most signs point to the idea that the twins are actually older than they look. It seems like Lumine and Aether landed in Teyvat at least 500 years ago during the cataclysmic event that wiped out Khaenri’ah.

Going back to the idea of Gnosticism, the true God sends out Messengers of Light to the false world to guide the humans to their full potential. And we see traveler helping their companions ascend further, reaching their fullest potentials when they “max out.”

Furthermore, it doesn’t seem like they’re human. During the 1.2 Dragonspine event, Albedo does tests on us, and though he doesn’t tell us his complete findings, he alludes that we are like him, created from a substance that is yet to be defined. This goes off from the theory that he’s a homunculus, created from chalk, purified soil, the building block of the world. Aside from that, after our fight with Childe, one of the dialogue options after he mentions the fact that traveler can use both anemo and geo, is that they’re slowly gaining back their true power.

And of course, when the twins first enter the world, they have actual wings which were stripped by the Unknown God. Doesn’t seem very human to me.

So, if the travelers are Messengers of Light, then why is that not their main goal? Based on the We Will Be Reunited trailer, when the Abyss Mage mentions the traveler to the missing twin, their face looks shocked, like they just remembered that they have a twin. There’s desperation in their steps when they rush to the cliff to see their twin again, like it’s been so long since they’ve seen their sibling who they literally forgot. I think that aside from stripping them of their power, the Unknown God also took away some of their memories.

So the missing twin might remember the actual purpose as to why they’re in Teyvat, but didn’t remember their sibling until recently, and traveler remembers their sibling but doesn’t remember the reason why they were in Teyvat in the first place (or they do but that isn’t their main concern since they’re putting their sibling first).

So how does Dainsleif relates to this particular segment? Well, in another version of Gnosticism, Aeons come in pairs. Sophia’s partner was Jesus. Now, in the Main Storyline trailer, Dainsleif alludes to a woman when at the very end of the video where he says “My memory has all but faded completely, but I will always remember, how she too loved these flowers.” The flowers are the flowers Lumine especially likes, the ones she adorns in her hair. A flimsy connection it may be, but a connection nonetheless.

Now, I’ve seen theories about Dainsleif being an older version of Aether, but that theory doesn’t hold water if you choose Lumine as your traveler or if you consider the fact that Dainsleif and Aether don’t share the same eye color. Yet, it’s not completely off. There are thirty Aeons in total, although this number can differ in other versions of Gnosticism.

Now, in Dainsleif’s quest, we immediately question this stranger as he is somehow omniscient, if we haven’t already questioned him with all his narration in the Collected Miscellany videos where he hints that he knows more than we do. I will say it now: I think that Dainsleif takes upon the role of Jesus.

I could be wrong. But I think I’m right. For now.

In another version of Gnosticism, Jesus goes to the false world and saves Sophia, as she forgets who she is, she forgets her divinity and is stuck there. If we follow the theory that Dainsleif is actually the second heir from the Gnostic Chorus teaser, and that he is searching for the Genesis Pearl. The Genesis Pearl symbolizes the beginning and purity that is incorruptible. This could be the essence of Sophia, the lost Aeon who incidentally created the false god.

Back to the Main Storyline trailer, Dainsleif says that the war has already begun, and that is just a continuation of past battles. We could take this in a sense that the conflict has reached its boiling point and that it was only because all these problems were left alone for too long. However, we could also consider the possibility that Dainsleif has lived through whatever the twins are going through right now because he is the first Messenger of Light to step foot in Teyvat.

We can also look into Dainsleif’s name, which is a Nordic name, actually written as Dáinsleif. This means Dain’s Legacy which is the sword of King Högni, which aided him in a never ending battle that went on until Ragnarok.

It seems like the twins are repeating a cycle that has already happened to Dainsleif and whoever the unknown woman who also likes the flowers the missing twin likes. All four of them are Aeons or Messengers of Light.

So who is that woman? I have no idea. It could the unknown god but that feels like a stretch. The unknown god might actually be the demiurge, the false god that created Teyvat and the seven Archons, and not Sophia herself. It could also be Paimon who might have some kind of relation to the unknown god, whether it be that she is the unknown god, or she is a being from Celestia. Either way, both feel like shaky theories.

But of course, Mihoyo is only taking inspiration from Gnosticism and several other sources which could lead them to take creative liberties when applying it to the game.

Part 3. The Abyss Order and Khaenri'ah: war crimes against humanity

Going back to my point about the twins’ original goal to why they went to Teyvat in the first place, let’s question why the missing twin joined forces with the Abyss Order and began to lead them to burn the throne of Celestia.

While we don't hear the missing twin mention Celestia in the We Will Be Reunited trailer, the only other time a throne is mentioned is in the Main Storyline trailer when Dainsleif mentions that Celestia does not want humans to ascend to take up a throne in the sky.

Back to the safety of the game's actual lore, we understand that Kaenri'ah is a godless nation that might have underwent a calamity that might have killed off most of its people since they were closer to understanding the truth, and were technologically advanced, compared to the other nations of Teyvat. An alchemist named Gold ultimately led to this cataclysm due to their greed for seeking erudition.

It is safe to assume that Celestia wiped out Khaenri'ah and all the technology they created. We could also assume that the people were all killed, yes, but it would be better to assume they were cursed instead. Into what though?

The hilichurls.

In the archive section of the game, under the books, there's quite a lot written about the hilichurls, thanks to Jacob Musk. The author describes the hilichurls to be drawn to old relics of the past, with even attempts to recreate it. Their way of lifestyle is even described, and it looks like they worship the element itself and not the Archons who represent it.

Doesn't it seem like the hilichurls have a connection with the ancient civilization of the past? Not to mention their strange connection to the elements in which shaman hilichurls (samachurls) can harness the elements without the use of a vision? If I am correct with my theory, then hilichurls were once citizens of the bygone Khaenri'ah who discovered they could harness the elements without an Archon's blessing that came in the form of a vision.

It doesn't feel too surprising considering that for monsters, hilichurls are quite smart. They even display human-like characteristics. In the game, we see them dancing, sleeping, just minding their own business in general. They have their own architecture and their own language. In the Hilichurl Cultural Customs book, we even discover that hilichurls are not as barbaric as they are made out to be as they have leaders who decide their policies and course of action. It's as if they have their own culture.

Ultimately, the hilichurls are part of the Abyss Order. The organization's main goal is to get undermine Celestia's rule, and at this point of this mess I call a theory, doesn't that make them stand in a position where nothing is painted as black and white as it seems. Yes, they do heinous things like steal, possibly murder, and set off a dragon on Mondstadt, but it looks like they're operating through a "the end justifies the means" kind of morality.

And the missing twin shares this sentiment. As they had seen what Celestia had done to Khaenriah 500 years ago before the beginning of the prologue, their desperation grows. Their war with destiny will not stop until Celestia falls because it is their ultimate mission. Traveler has taken up the safer side of this war, wherein they help the humans but the missing twin has taken up the side of fallen humans. This is why they're not evil per se; just going through questionable steps to achieve a righteous goal.

Part 4. Teyvat and its Archons

Based on all that, it seems like I’m painting the Archons to be the bad guys. I am. They wiped out an entire civilization on the basis that they might learn the truth of the world, and their uncanny closeness to Celestia.

But we like Venti and Zhongli, right? Of course we do! However, they were still complicit in the downfall of Khaenri'ah and the limitation of humanity in Teyvat.

To start, Venti had his gnosis was forcibly taken from him. He doesn't seem to mourn over that (although he could be hiding it) and it looks like he can still present himself in a godly manner as we see in Venti's quest when he revealed himself as Barbatos to Stanley. When we spend time with him under the tree of Vennessa, while he divulges the secrets of Celestia to us, he still seems to comply with them. This could be chalked up to the fact that ultimately, he is Mondstadt's Archon and also the weakest of the seven. We could also consider the fact that at the time of Khaneri’ah’s downfall, he was in Dragonspine with Dvalin, dealing with Durin.

With Zhongli, it becomes a bit more interesting. He gave away his gnosis under the agreement of a contract we do not know the details of. But why he did? Why not because of his regret as the geo Archon and of love? Zhongli once ruled over Guili Plains with another god named Guizhong, the god of dust. Guizhong loved their people but perished during the Archon War. He then moved their people to Liyue Harbor and in her place, began to love them. Although he is stilted with the way he deals with his people, we see that he cares. Over the years, he has grown soft and shed the persona of Morax, a god who dealt with war. He says this himself and it feels like his ability to care extends beyond that of Liyue. It's possible he gave up his gnosis because he understands what the Tsaritsa is doing and what she's fighting for.

The Tsaritsa is the cryo Archon and the god of love. However, according to Tartaglia, she had to harden herself to go through with her plan. But what is her plan but an act of love for humanity? Wiping out Khaenri'ah could've opened her eyes to the inherent cruelty of Celestia. The timeline makes sense because Venti said that 500 yers ago, he knew her well but now, not so much. It’s at that point she loses whatever loyalty she had for Celestia. She had to steel herself and begin her plans to overthrow Celestia, which involves taking the gnoses of the six other Archons to fight the false god and alleviate humans from the hell they are in. That is her way of showing her love to humanity.

Teyvat is only a false world. We have seen many instances of this being hinted at like when Katheryne of the Adventurer’s Guild says “rebooting” or “error” as if she is only a program, or when Scaramouche says that the sky and the stars are all fake. Even in the game, if you take a closer look at the stars, it feels fake, as if it is a dome that traps the humans in Teyvat. Even more unsettling, when going deeper within the Spiral Abyss, the more stars you see which could mean Teyvat is actually upside down and that go deeper within the Spiral Abyss, we are ascending closer to the true world.

What greater act of love could the Tsaritsa commit other than giving humanity the truth?

Part 5. In conclusion: none of this makes sense

To summarize my main points:

Genshin Impact takes a lot from the mythos of Gnosticism

Visions are not gifts from the Archons but an inherent power from humans that come from their own "divinity"

The twins and Dainsleif are related in some manner

The twins are repeating a cycle that Dainsleif has already been through

The twins are suffering some kind of memory loss

The twins are in Teyvat to help humans realize their power

Celestia is not heaven but more like hell

Teyvat is a false world

The Tsarita is actually good

The Abyss Order is a morally grey organization

Archons are bad

This could all be wrong as this is only a theory. But the connections I pointed out make a bit of sense. There’s still more lore to uncover as we’ve only unlocked two regions and the Pale Princess and the Six Pygmies only have one volume out so far (this book is important because an Abyss Mage says that there is a lie within it) so this could all be debunked when new regions are unlocked.

Still, it’s a pretty fun theory to believe in at the moment. Thank you for reading this mess I call a theory!

[medusinestories]

 And the rewatch continues...

Black Sails, II (S1ep02)

- Back to Breaking Billy. Damn, he looks so shell-shocked by what he did. He... LIED to the crew. I think a lot of viewers don’t see how this is a big deal in a world of thieving lying bastards which make up about 95% of the cast, but it’s a huge deal to Billy. Later in the ep, Gates tries to brush it off, telling Billy that it’s for the good of the crew (and, well, he may be right - the crew is already trying to spend gold they don’t have yet). I also love that Gates opens with “I’ve always been straight with you”... Why yes you have, except when you didn’t tell him about Flint’s plans. And Billy knows this, deep down he must know that he comes second to Flint in Gates’ list of priorities.

- Randall and his “we don’t like thieves, this is what happens to thieves” (at this point crew members are pissing on Singleton’s corpse)... the way he looks at Silver, nearly like he knows. Also a foreshadowing of the “he’s a thief!” dialogue. Also, why on earth didn’t Gates search Silver? He’s the only man on Parrish’s crew that didn’t get searched. Either Silver was extremely lucky, or something happened between them to distract Gates (is this a request for silvergates fanfic? yes).

- Silver taking one look at Flint's face and belly-flopping into the sea... CLASSIC. Billy running after him, he seems to be able to handle. Flint looking right at him... PANIC!

- Anyhow there’s a lot of things in this episode that reveal bits of Silver’s identity. He thinks incredibly fast, hard to tell if he’s thinking on his feet or applying techniques he’s already used (I suspect the latter), but he manages to vanish on the beach, from the brothel (after nearly losing an eye) and in the wrecks. But then he goes and does something halfway decent when he sees Max being throttled by Vane and asks Idelle for a weapon. I wasn’t sure if it was for self-protection or what, but since Max is gesturing at him not to do anything, he actually seems fully prepared to go in and save her as had been previously discussed.

- We see a lot of Vane in this episode, and a lot of different facets. He’s surprisingly cautious when Rackham puts the “we get info on the Urca” plan to him, and his attempts to argue calmly with Eleanor show quite a lot of (awkward) restraint. And then there’s the brutality against Max, which also seems to come from a place of paranoia (and probably jealousy?). But above all, it’s interesting that while Vane’s name strikes fear in the heart of people, like Flint, also like Flint, he doesn’t truly have control over his men and their brutish behaviour. Also, very much like Flint, he wants things done his way, as demonstrated by him killing off the messenger Silver sends to fetch the pearls. I also found it nice (for Vane) that when Rackham falls into the sea, Vane actually stops to check that Rackham is okay before going after Silver again.

- Max. I have to admit, she’s one of the characters that still leaves me the most mystified on a rewatch. She gestures to Silver not to intervene when Vane is throttling her, even though she has no leverage and no idea whether he’ll actually leave her alive or not... why? Max Accepting To Endure Pain will come up again in the next few eps (ugh :-/ ) and I still have trouble understanding what motivates her. Is it pride? A fierce will to be free/independent? I get that she doesn’t trust Eleanor and refuses to be protected by the same person who basically stabbed her in the back. But she goes several steps further into pure recklessness and I don’t really get it. Your insights/comments on this are welcome!

- That said, her begging Eleanor to run away with her and give up Nassau, “we can be free together”, well that’s pretty much what John “all I want is to be free” Silver would like from Madi by the end of S4, isn’t it?

- I kind of wonder whether Silver wasn’t hoping to be captured by Flint. I mean, he was probably hoping to manage to escape, but getting caught by Flint was apparently what he considered his second best option, since he calls Vane “the madman”. It’s pretty interesting how he’s already decided that Flint and his crew are better than Vane. I can only imagine that the difference is that while he’s seen Flint commit a really disgusting murder on another pirate, Silver thinks it’s not as bad as Vane who killed a beggar and threatened to kill Max. (that or he’s already fascinated by Flint, of course)

- I just love the little bits of vulnerability you see in Flint in this episode. His talk with Eleanor, where he’s slouching and exhausting, and instead of explaining why he wants Nassau specifically, tells the story about Odysseus and the oar. And then at the end we see him watching his men having fun in the camp before he leaves to see Miranda. The moment he’s back in this familiar environment and she tells him to get his boots off and she’ll boil some water and he just... crumples. A+ acting and just brilliant.

- So we hear that Richard has been bribing the Lord Proprietor for years. We know that Lord Alfred was the proprietor. Now I kind of wonder whether the killing of Alfred Hamilton is recent, and whether this is why the navy's coming in now that he’s gone.