#it's honestly one of my favourites by shinee the key change makes me ascend

[atlas-dr0wned]

'the name' doesn't get enough credit for being one of shinee's best ballads i fear

[theprinceofflies]

Sleeping Beauty

Ship: Danti

(dapperstache, google/chase/bing implied)

~`~`~`~`~

Dark walked the halls of the long empty halls of the old castle. No empty wasn't the right word. Frozen, that was it. Almost a hundred years had gone by since it had frozen. He paused in front of the Jims. Frozen in place chasing a dog.

A cruel twist in their fate. The fairy had said they would continue to age and die before their prince could awake. She must have changed her mind. Maybe she didn't want Dark to be lonely as he stayed to protect the prince. It wasn't much though everything around him had just stopped.

Dr. Scheeplestien and Dr. Iplier were frozen in the healer's ward. Dr. Iplier focused on mixing a concoction while Dr. Scheeplestien stared out the window, awaiting everyone's fate.

Jackie and a young squire were mock duelling in the ballroom. Marvin was frozen in fear, staring at where the fairy had appeared to bring her curse to them. The Host sat in the library talking to Bim Trimmer. Yandere was staring at a well-known knight who they had fallen for.

Google was reprimanding Chase and Bing for breaking a vase. Bing and Chase seemed seconds away from attempting to 'kiss it better' while Google, as usual, didn't notice.

Illinois was in the dungeons with Yancy, laughing because Yancy got himself stuck in jail for two days. Yancy was growling as he reached for the keys on Illionses belt.

Ed was in the kitchen sneaking some food. The Chef was about two seconds away from threatening to chop his arm off.

Wilford, Darks second in command, sat at a table surrounded by other knights and guards staring at JJ, a lovesick expression stuck on his face. JJ was sighing something to Robbie, stuck in a silent laugh.

The king and queen sat at their thrones joking about something. Jack was doing finger guns while Evelien was covering her mouth, eyes filled with joy.

Now only Dark was left. Left to make sure no one got hurt because of vines or wild animals. Oh, the vines. They stretched all over the castle, seeking to strangle the inhabitants. Huge dark green thorny vines.

Dark cut one down now as it was reaching for the Jims. He continued down the hallway, reaching a tower. He didn't know how the fairy did it but she had managed to place the tower right in the centre of the castle and make it seem like it belonged there. He ascended the steps now. Something he had done every day. At the top of the tower, there was a door, leading into a well-lit room. It was already open and Dark scolded himself for it.

The Prince lay sleeping on a bed. His green hair tied in a long braid behind him. It seemed to be the one flaw in the fairies spell. The only thing that didn't pause in time. Dark just braided it and prayed he didn't have to cut it.

Anti. Dark had been his guard when he was awake. Hopelessly devoted to him as Anti said. He could recall it vividly.

"Don't be so stuck up."

Dark sighed. "Come down from the tree your majesty."

"Oh come on that fairy needs me for her spell so she's gotta keep me alive till then," Anti said giggling. Dark sighed again, that was true. "What do you say I jump."

"Your majesty you can not-"

"One two three!" Anti shouted as he jumped from the tree.

Dark caught him as he fell. "Anti!"

"Aw I know you would catch me. Hopelessly devoted is what you are." Dark didn't respond, instead, he just glared. "And did you finally learned my name hot stuff?"

Dark blushed and set him on the ground. "I apologize to your majesty."

Anti laughed. "Seriously use my name dickhead."

"Language."

"Live a little. You've got another year of me and then I'll go to sleep and wake up with a handsome prince." Anti said and leaned again the tree.

Dark sighed. "And what is this handsome prince going to look like?" Anti froze. "You always say you want blond hair and blue eyes and," he said prompting Anti.

"He's going to have black hair and dark eyes. He's going to be kind to me. He's going to love me. And I," Anti trailed off.

Dark just stared at him. That wasn't what he normally said. His next sentence was about how his future husband would have a big dick and then he would go into fits of laughter. Beautiful maniacal laughter.

Dark shook his head and smiled at him. "You'll find out in one hundred and one years."

Anti nodded, not really feeling reassured.

~-~-~-~

"Come one I hate writing lessons. The Host hates me and you know it." Anti crossed his arms and glared at Dark.

"You are not skipping your lessons," Dark said plainly.

Anti sighed. "Fine."

Dark smiled and turned around. "Well-"

"Sike!"

Dark turned around to see Anti hopping out the window. "Shit!"

~-~-~-~

Dark dragged Anti out of a bush muttering to himself. "You can skip your lesson, just don't run away again and don't tell anyone I let you skip lessons."

Anti giggled. "Yay!"

"Why are you so adamant to skip your lessons?" Dark asked, letting go of Anti.

Anti hopped up and smiled sadly. "Well in like five months I'm going to fall asleep and wake up with everyone I love dead," he trailed off.

Dark nodded. "Do you want to watch the soldiers train?"

It was one of Antis favourite things especially if Dark was in charge. But if he wasn't commanding everyone he liked watching people fight Wilford who honestly played dirty most of the time. "Hell yes!"

~-~-~-~

"Wilford!" Anti shouted, running over to the training grounds.

"Anti darling, how are you?" Wilford drawled, leaning against a fence.

"Aren't you supposed to be training?" Dark asked.

Wilford chuckled. "Yeah, but I like the view."

Dark raised an eyebrow. "It's just the castle."

Anti frowned. "Yeah, I oh," he trailed off.

Dark looked concerned. "What is it?"

"JJ's working."

Dark turned to see JJ, the royal advisors apprentice sorting papers. Wilford sighed. "Isn't he just lovely?"

"Have you even talked to him?" Anti asked smiling.

Wilford shook his head. "Have you?"

"Well, it was rather awkward. He just stared at me, smiling. It was very one way."

"He uses sign language Will," Dark said.

"I can learn sign."

Anti laughed. "You're hopeless."

Wilford giggled, his moustache twitching. "I know."

"Just promise me when I go to sleep you'll talk to him."

"I promise."

~-~-~-~

"It's tomorrow," Anti said pacing back and forth.

Dark stood in the centre of his room nodding. "I know."

Anti grabbed at his hair. "My first kiss is going to be when I'm fucking passed out."

"You could change that I'm sure one of the squires would kiss you," Dark said.

Anti glared at him. "Help me pick an outfit."

"Outfit?" Dark asked with a chuckle.

"I'm stressed, Dark! Now green or blue?" Anti asked, peering into his closet.

"Black."

Anti looked back at him. "The black suit in the back of the closet with the green trim. You've always wanted to wear it, wear it."

Anti blinked at him. "Yeah, that's a good idea."

"I'm full of good ideas Anti."

Anti smiled and nodded.

~-~-~-~

The fairy had come the next day, early in the morning, taking everyone by surprise. She pulled Anti up the stairs and then he was asleep. He did look gorgeous in the outfit.

After Anti had fallen asleep and everyone had frozen, Dark was left alone. Not able to sleep or eat, just watch and guard everyone. He supposed he should thank the fairy for sparing everyone in the castle. He supposed.

Dark jumped as a crash cut through the silence. He walked out of Antis room and closed the door. He stood in front of the oak door awaiting the stranger. Footsteps approached and a young man appeared. "Hello? Who are you? Do I need to fight you?"

The man had sort of a blue and black swirl pattern on his armour. He had blond hair and black and blue eyes. He glared at Dark and grabbed for his sword. "No, I'm the guardian of the prince. He's in his room you can pass."

"Dude you look tired." The man said tilting his head.

Dark shook his head. "What's your name?"

"Die."

"Thank you, for saving us all from this curse."

Die laughed nervously and nodded at the door. "Could you move?"

Dark stepped aside and Die walked into the room. Anti lay still as ever in the room. Die sucked in a breath. "So I kiss him?"

"Yes."

"Ok."

Die walked over to him and leaned over. Dark turned away and closed his eyes. "Um."

"What?" Dark asked.

"It's not working."

Dark blinked and turned back to him. "Did you kiss him?" he asked almost frantically.

"Yeah see?" He leaned over and kissed Anti for about five seconds before pulling away. "Not waking up."

Dark walked over to Anti, panic evident in his expression. "He has to."

Die shrugged. "I don't know dude."

"But he has to!" Dark said, staring at his friend and prince.

"Why don't you fucking kiss him then?" Die muttered.

Dark stared at him. "What?"

"Kiss him. If he's supposed to wake up then you try."

"That's not-"

Die raised an eyebrow. "I dare you."

"Fine but when you try again and he wakes up you won't breathe a word," Dark growled at the prince. "Not a word."

Die nodded.

Dark sighed and leaned over Anti. He kissed him gently, meaning for it to be a peck on the lips before he pulled away and yelled at the other prince. That was until hands gripped the back of his head, pulling him closer. Anti pulled away giggling. "Hello, hot stuff."

Dark pushed him away. "Not me, him," Dark said, pointing to Die.

Anti raised an eyebrow. "I woke up kissing you," he said pointing at Dark.

"There was an issue with the curse it took too long, he kissed you first."

Anti nodded and turned to Die who smiled at him as if he had accomplished something. "Aw, that's cute you can leave."

Die's smile vanished. "But I-"

Anti waved him off. "Shoo get out."

Die blinked rapidly. "But I-"

"No not you. I didn't wake up kissing you so it's not you getting out."

Die left the room grumbling to himself. Anti stretched and hopped out of the bed. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep for a while."

Dark nodded taking a step back. "Your majesty I-"

Anti grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him in for another kiss. "Darky please," he whispered. "Use my name."

Dark blinked at him. "What?"

Anti groaned. "Oh my god, Dark, you're my knight in shining armour. Not him."

"How-"

"Because I fell in love with you, not some rando that didn't exist when I fell asleep," Anti said waving at the door.

Dark just nodded, standing stiffly and staring at Anti. Anti grabbed his braid. "Did you do this?"

"It was messy."

Anti laughed. "You know I asked her to let me grow my hair out, I've been trying for a while. Didn't think it would be this long."

Dark nodded again. "At ease soldier," Anti said.

Dark relaxed and paused for a second before he quickly pushed Anti against a wall, kissing him deeply. Anti squeaked in surprise but returned the kiss. "I've missed you," Dark whispered, running a hand through the prince's hair.

Anti sighed. "Well, I would say I missed you two but it was a blink for me."

Dark pulled away from the prince. "We should probably make sure the others are ok."

Anti perked up. "She spared them?"

"Yes."

Anti cheered, grabbing Darks hand and running down the stairs with him. They exited the tower and saw soldiers cutting down vines that had now grown aggressive. "Anti!" Wilford said, smiling. "Do you have any idea where all these vines came from?"

Anti shook his head and turned to his guard. "Dark?"

"They grew when Anti fell asleep."

Wilford frowned. "But he's right here."

Dark nodded. "It's been a hundred years Will," he said and smiled at his old friend.

"What," Wilford whispered.

"You were frozen for a while old friend."

Wilford thought for a moment and turned to Anti. "Wait then where's your prince?"

"Right here," Anti said, hugging Darks arm.

"You?" Wilford asked pointing at Dark.

Anti nodded and Wilford squealed. "I'm so happy for you!"

"Thank you," Anti said and kissed Darks cheek.

Wilford giggled and swayed back and forth. "So Dark?"

"Yes?"

"I was frozen for a hundred years."

"Yes."

"Anti was asleep?"

"Yes, Will I don't know how this is not registering."

Wilford grinned and took off. Anti laughed and Dark stared at where he went. "Remember his promise to me? To talk to his crush? He's either gonna talk to JJ or fuck some shit up."

"I should-"

Anti grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hallway. "Oh no, you don't. We're going to talk to my parents." Dark nodded and yawned. "After that, we can go to sleep."

"I can go to sleep. I believe you and the rest of the castle will be up for the next two days."

Anti snorted. "I don't think I'll sleep for a week."

Dark laughed and smiled at the prince. "I think I'll sleep for a week."

"Don't you dare I want to talk to you."

"Ok," Dark whispered and kissed Anti on the cheek.

Anti nodded and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for protecting me."

"You're very welcome my darling prince."

[felidae-charr]

This episode of the living story was disappointing in several ways.

But you know what? That’s always the case with GW2 lately. It’s always fucking disappointing me, somehow, in some way. The writers destroy their own characters or forget they exist (Canach, Marjory, Kasmeer), they have moments of brilliance that they abolish and never return to (Joko’s fantastic ending monologue) and they misrepresent the selling points of their content which are hidden behind notorious grinds (Requiem armour set, Skyscale.)

I’m fucking sick of it. 

I’m so sick of it, that in fact, I’m going to do a positive post first. Because there’s so much bad shit right now that if I keep looking at it, I’m going to abandon this game altogether and I don’t want to do that. I really don’t, I love this game, and I want this game to be better. So there’s a LOT of shit wrong with the latest update.

But there’s a lot of good, too.

• The map design is one of the single best map designs we’ve seen in a long time. Even for a map that was clearly designed for the Skyscale, every mount has value here. Skilled griffon flyers can really show off their stuff, dodging and weaving between branches. Jackal portals, once you get used to where they take you, make it very easy to get to the important cliffs very quickly. There are a huge number of gaps or breaks in terrain that both raptor and skimmer can cross, with Volatile Magic helping the skimmer in particular do so with ease. Springer easily shines with the new updates to it, turning it from my most hated mount to one of my second most used. The paths between each of the camps are, within reason, mostly flat so that the roller beetle can help you zip around from one camp to the next with little interruption.

This map is a good fucking map, okay.

• Map currency doesn���t feel horrendously difficult to get, and for once all the high prices at the vendors actually feel appropriate. Dragonfall is, hands down, one of the most rewarding maps ArenaNet has ever given us in terms of map rewards and map currency and do you know what this does? It makes me play it. Dragonfall is actually my favourite map right now to explore and farm - no hearts make it fun to complete on all my level 80s, the meta is not challenging but is engaging with events everywhere you go of hugely varying challenge, and the map currency nodes aren’t arbitrarily locked to characters or per account. This map feels good to play in and, as a result, I’m actually playing in it.

• The Mist Shard amour set is behind achievements, gives a recipe to you to unlock all the weights of it, is cheap to craft (as opposed to 25+ gold Diviner sets on the trading post) and, very notably unlike Requiem armour, is fun to upgrade. Upgrading it isn’t some god-awful collection hunt using overpriced items, it just involves playing on the map some more and that’s literally it. You get all the map currency, spirit shards and ectos you need playing the map, salvaging the rares it showers onto your heads and gathering the chests.

• I’m gonna come right out and say it; the Scion weapons look beautiful and it is really nice to see the Ascended skins given a new breath of life. I’ve always loved them, I’ve always loved the Sunless set though I’ve never gotten one, and I will be in this map for a very long time doing events, gathering keys and opening chests to try and get Gifts of Aurene and unlock some of those skins. It’s nice. It’s a good example of a simple but pretty skin, that even makes sense considering the Sunless set that already exists.

There was a lot wrong with this episode of the living story. Like... a lot. I’m not going to pretend that it was perfect because I’d be lying to myself if I did so. But you know what? I am playing GW2 again. I am enjoying parts of this new content. And while I genuinely hope that ArenaNet takes all the criticism to heart - especially regarding things like suddenly absent characters that make no sense to be absent, or the Skyscale problem - I hope they take to heart some of the compliments too. 

Because while there was a lot wrong - a lot really wrong - some of the stuff in this patch has honestly been the best it has been in a long time, particularly regarding map design, the implementation of map currency and how you can obtain it, and the scaling and variety of events available. 

(P.S. Screenshots of Felidae, soon. My poor mascot for this blog has been nothing but a glorified bank for a long time. Today I changed that, gave her a new look, gave her a new build and I’m going to try actually playing her more often.)