#its already a lot of characters to keep track of okay

[thydungeongal]

Here's a fun question for you. My temple wants to run a TTRPG event each shabbat, but we're not allowed to write anything down. Assuming pregen characters, do you know of any good beginner-friendly (and possibly kid-friendly) games that don't need to write anything down?

Oh this is is a really sweet ask! :D Okay, so games that require zero note-taking so you can run it without anyone needing to write anything down?

I think that Lasers & Feelings and most of its hacks could easily be run in such a way. They only require keeping track of one number (which never changes), the game runs rather abstract so there's no keeping track of HP, equipment, and so on. Lasers & Feelings is, by default, classic adventure sci-fi in the style of Star Trek, so I'm not quite sure how well it would go over with most people who aren't already somewhat immersed in nerd culture. But it has a lot of hacks out there and they're very easy to find.

Here's a fun one: RISUS. RISUS is a pretty traditional simple dice-pool game and it does necessitate players keeping track of some changing numbers. BUT the fun thing is that in RISUS any damage to a character goes into their dice pools instead of a separate pool of hit points or something. What this means is that if you wanted to you could have players set an appropriate number of dice on their character sheet equal to each of their attributes and then literally take away those dice from their attributes if they lose them.

I'm struggling to come up with any more right off the top of my head, but hopefully my followers can think of some :)

[chiara-hotel]

When s/o is on their period

Characters: Blade, Aventurine, Sunday & Boothill

Warnings: Periods, cramps, gn!reader with the exception of fem for boothill

Part 2 Here: Mydei, Anaxa, Dan Heng Part 3 Here: Phainon, The Herta, Jiaoqiu + Castorice

- Blade is somewhat like his usual self while you’re on your period

- In a way he just becomes more protective of you

- He knows that you’re strong enough to defend yourself, he knows that you’ll be okay but seeing you in such a weak state just sets in his mind that he needs to protect you

- He feels honored though that you’d show him such a vulnerable side of him (and finds you cute but doesn’t show it on the outside)

- Its adorable even, hes like a little black cat cuddling his owner to protect them

- Or even just standing behind you to protect you

- Because of this hes also extra jealous during this time

- No one else can see you like this or even talk to you or Blade will get mad

- A great helper too when it comes to cramps, Blade can help massage your stomach/back if needed

- When it comes to shopping for painkillers, pads, tampons, etc. he usually just asks Kafka to buy you stuff and then goes to your place to cuddle

- Not because he doesn’t want to, he just wants to stay with you because he knows you want to cuddle him (he wants to cuddle you) and also he thinks kafka knows way more about him and will get the right ones

- Don’t worry though! He makes sure to listen every product you like to the exact specifications (if Kafka is unavailable, he will buy them for you)

- And yes he buys you a bunch of snacks too

- Blade doesn’t actually understand why you enjoy having so many snacks but he just goes with it…

- On days you don’t have cramps he doesn’t treat you much differently, except for being more protective

- And again, more cuddles… beacuse “you” need it

- Aventurine treats you with whatever you wish

- Pads? Sure he’ll fetch someone to buy you some, Snacks? Hes already got you covered

- Summons some random female IPC agent to get whatever your heart desires

- Aventurine also definitely keeps track of your period with an app

- He doesn’t use it for everything, Aventurine isn’t the type of person to record your mood, feelings and basically everything into the app

- Occasionally whenever he thinks its been a while since your last period he just checks the app too check when it’s happening

- Oh but he also has the app synced with his personal calander, every week before it starts he also gets you done boxes of pads/tampons

- Before you were dating your period started at his place and he had to run out to get a pads. So ever since then he keeps a few in his bathroom drawer

- Aventurine was so nice about it too, told you not to worry and showed you where they’d be for next time

- On your actual period he spoils you a lot

- Of course most of the day he’s kept up in his office, either he can work from home or he invites you to come to his office from him

- While there you lay down on his lap while he finishes work on the sofa, annoying calls, booking appointments, going over monthy stuff

- Sometimes he tries to massage your stomach but fails and just ends up rubbing it

- Boothill is…just okay on your period

- He’s clueless at first, but trying

- Boothill is willing to buy you snacks or even period products, he does not care about walking straight to them

- Loves buying you snacks actually

- Willing to give you any cuddles or massage you for your cramps

- Feels bad for your pain actually

- Can he heat up his body somehow? If he can, he would do that and cuddle you so you’d get warm (like a heating pad but he wouldn’t complain if you need that too)

- Other than that he knows you’re a strong woman and he also loves seeing you continue to do your job throughout the pain

- He doesn’t try to protect you when he knows you can handle the job, even on your period

- Other than those hes not really much different

- Sunday can be the best and worst on your period

- As a kid he always helped Robin while she was on hers so he knows what types of things you need

- Often times he also might ask her to buy you some supplies (which she usually gets her bodyguard to do since the fans would go crazy)

- He will get you any of your necessary requirements for this time

- But he also is very busy with his job as the head of the family and won’t have much time to cuddle with you/be with you

- When he gets home from his job then he will cuddle you, but his job often takes the entire day

- He will hug you during your sleep though

- Great massager for your cramps too

- His angel wings hovering over your stomach to give you some warmth to help with any cramps

- Also gives you time off work/stuff so you can rest & relax during this time of pain

- Especially if you don’t work for him, he forces them to let you have the time off

- If you work for him well, you still work and get paid but your job is just to be near him/rest on the couch

[cosmickid-inmotion]

What: An event to highlight disability visibility in the Pedro Pascal and Oscar isaac fandom! Writings or art MUST include some disability. In the header, I have chosen 4 characters with canon disabilities, but you can write for anyone! For examples:

Marcus Acacius losing eyesight Llewyn with a reader with a reader with epilepsy Javier Pena x Steven Murphy and Steve has cancer

Fics and art can be NSFW, friends, romantic, canon characters only, x reader, solo fics, ETC. If you want to explore a bonus chapter within a series you already wrote, that works, but,

MUST BE NEW CONTENT!

Who: Anyone who wants to make art or write a fic!

Where: Tumblr, but if you want to post on ao3 and send a link that works!

When: Through the month of May!

Why: It's important for all of us to look at the beautiful diversity of this fandom! There have been many discussions around race and gender/sexuality biases especially in the PPCU recently, and I want to not derail, but rather add to this conversation.

Rules: I'll try to keep it simple

Not a dead dove event: While dark content can be discussed or shown and I am not a dark hater, please no dead dove, non con etc. Not for this event.

Minor characters are allowed, but obviously no NSFW minors. You want to have Marc and reader in their teens, thats fine! but not smut.

No minors!: I am aware I cannot stop nor do I wish to stop minors from reading, but interacting with this event is strictly 18+

Non-disabled people can write, and disabled folk can write for disabilities they do not have, but do research: Reach out to friends who have a disability you want to write about. Watch youtube videos. Read book and blog posts. I'll link some resources at the bottom!

TRY not to fall into trope or harmful traps. Again, I'll link tropes in the bottom, try our best!

Try to end light. This is about the beauty of diversity. Like with my pride event, I'm not naive to hardships the disability community faces and we can explore that, but lets not let that be the main focus.

Readmore: Use the READMORE option! I'll reblog all fics but ONLY if theres a readmore

Add alt text to any pictures. I have literally done this maybe twice and that's my fault. it takes a minute, I have no excuses, but its very important for people who use aids online.

And this isn't a rule but a few notes. try to avoid the inspiration porn shit. If you don't know what it is, look it up and if you're still not clear you can ask me! Also, I recognize major depressive disorder , PTSD, anxiety ETC can be disabilities, these are things that are depicted a fair amount in fics already. If you choose to write to draw with these disabilities, that is okay! I'm still more than happy to include your work! I just want to gently encourage people to think of other disabilites we can try to include so others feel welcomed!

And as always with my events, I want to encourage you to think beyond the standard x fem reader. It's all wonderful and beautiful, but if you wanted to write reflecting your experience as a black disabled woman or a trans disabled man or writing about Santi's experience being queer and disabled I WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT ALL!!

Events tend to not have a lot of art, so I'd really love to see artists participate too!

HOW: SEND ME THE LINK ASKS OR DMS! asks in preferred so I can keep track. Do to internet safety, I wont look at anonymous links. If you have to be on anon bc you use a sideblog (looking at you, Haru!) then tag me in your fic or post, I'll open up a dm with you on that blog and you can send it there. I''ve had issues in the past trying to keep things organized so this is best for me! Everything will be reblogged, and then put into a masterlist!

I will be posting the masterlist on my new blog, @cosmic-kid-in-motion. I wanted to start the event here where I actually have followers, but the final product will be on my new blog, transferring things over.

I am so excited to see what you all come up with!!!!

Disability Visibility Project: An online page talking about disability issues. The sight is ran by Ali Wong. She also has a book of essays from different people called Disability Visibility, I HIGHLY REC. We read this book and used this site heavility in my intro to disability class, its why I named the event this!

Ableist tropes in media

Youtuber who is a friend of mine, Andy

Deaf awareness by same youtuber

Another youtuber I like

Disabled palistinian comedian

If anyone has other links they recommend im all ears!

I also open for any questions, and if any other disabled tumblrinas wanna open up for questions, comment below! You totally dont have to, but a wider range is always great! I have a few physical and mental disabilites and like I mentioned, I took a class. Im also good friends with the tuber i linked above and he's done a lot of disability advocacy and I've learned a lot from him, So I feel confident but if theres another I dont know I'll open it up! Any input or ideas are welcome!!!

Im so excited to see what everyone comes up with!

[bbina]

it was nice that kun wanted to treat you out for lunch to celebrate your first month of successfully working and dealing with chenle because last time he checked, all previous assistants didn't even last a full week

"a toast to y/n" kun raises his glass up in the air. you let out a chuckle, wiping your mouth with a napkin as you too raise your own glass

"to being overworked" you chirp, clinking your glass with kun, side eyeing chenle who rolls his eyes but raises his glass nonetheless

"i'm literally not overworking you but okay" chenle murmurs, clinking his glass against yours and kun

you and kun both share a laugh of disbelief. him not overworking you? yeah right. says the same man who makes you work overtime just to finish an unfinished report he had given you 5 minutes before you had to clock out

"so, y/n.." kun starts, "any complaints, reviews or what not that you've kept to yourself for the past month about working with chenle here?" kun nods his head towards chenle's direction who glares at him

because in his defense, why do people keep saying that he's such an evil boss?

you take a good look at chenle and kun before you try to formulate your answer. if you had to be honest, you had a lot to say about working under chenle

first of all, he was unpredictable. you literally cannot guess if the day was gonna be a calm day because most of the time, it won't be one

second, there are times that he's so moody but maybe that's what running a company does to you at such a young age. you do admit that you commend him for such feat. it isn't easy being a young and successful ceo. you can say that now because you literally work with him

sure there are some positive sides working with him but it's mostly with chenle's overall character that you still can't quite get a hold of properly but given that it's been a month and chenle hasn't fired you despite talking back to him more now, then that should be a good sign itself

"oh she's thinking. there must be a lot" kun comments, shooting chenle a look to which the latter brushes off

"let's not get ahead of ourselves. we already know what she feels about me.. right, y/n?" chenle smirks, clearly referencing to your viral tweet. its been two weeks since the incident but it seems like he's the only one still holding onto the comment

"i bet you liked the compliment since it clearly got to your head" you murmured, sipping on your water as you look at chenle

kun snorts at your answer, clearly amused by the way you talk to your boss. it's honestly so refreshing to see someone who isn't afraid of chenle. maybe that's why his previous assistants didn't last long, or so he thinks

"but seriously though. it's an actual miracle that you lasted this long. chenle here had 3 assistants and they all ran away" kun recalls, reminiscing the three assistants that only caused them more work than help since they all just left without a trace, "so you still being here has to mean something" he smiles, reaching over to pat your shoulder

"so sir zhong is the problem?" you ask, obviously a joke but the way you say it makes it sound like you were being genuine causing chenle to glare at you across the table and kun to laugh his ass off

chenle scoffs, remembering those dark times (not really) at the company where he and kun managed everything themselves. how he had to constantly rely on kun for the smallest of things because he couldn't keep track of anything anymore with everything going on all at once. how he had to balance his work and life balance all himself. review all those slides, papers, reports all on his own because he couldn't find competent people to actually help him and get the job done

it wasn't easy at the time but now, things have felt so much lighter now that you stuck around

not that chenle will full on admit that out loud. so what if you lasted a month with him? so what if you just magically get the shit he dumps on you done before the day ends even if it costs you to work over time (little did you know, he actually takes notes of the hours you spent working over time and adds it to your paycheck as incentives. huge incentives at that. his own silent way of thanking you for your hard work but you don't have to know that)

"i'm not hard to work with" chenle grumbles, eyes straying to you, "it's just that the previous assistants didn't do their job properly"

"so you're saying i do my job properly in your standards? thanks for the praise boss. i'll be sure to remember this forever" you coo dramatically, putting your hands on your chest as you smile at chenle

"thin ice. ms. jung. thin ice" chenle warns, eyes narrowing slightly at your playful remark. he would rather die than to admit that right now

"you said that earlier but look at you treating me out for lunch to celebrate me dealing with you" you retort

"you mean kun is treating you. not me because if i did, i would've chose the cheapest thing on the menu here"

"yeah sir kun did. with your company card so thanks anyway" you smile fakely at your boss

kun could only watch the way you two bounce off each other. even if it sounded like you two hate each other, the banter was something else. you actually match his energy. maybe that's why chenle keeps you around

"you two get along so well" kun comments, smiling between you and chenle

"no we don't" you and chenle both say at the same time. you let out a little gasp as chenle turns away huffing

"my point exactly" kun grins, seemingly happy at the situation. chenle had found his perfect assistant for him

BUSINESS PROPOSAL ᝰ.ᐟ . . . A MONTH

✎ . . . things aren't going as planned the way you thought it was going to be. especially the part where you find yourself falling in love with your own boss– which was definitely not part of the agreed proposal.

[ PREV / NEXT ]

✎ AUTHORS NOTE . . . we're getting somewhere + i think this might be the last implied timeskip chapters for now. ive only been doing that to establish how theyre getting closer lol

✎ TAGLIST . . . @mrkleelvr @jenodigital @https-dandelion @rik0shii @spacejip @yyangj3lly @multifandomania @taroddori @222brainrot @amouriu @defzcl @va1entinaa @carelessshootanonymous @onlywonb @flaminghotyourmom @do-you-remember-summer-127 @grimlinshere @yayayaiheardyouthefirsttime @hoeingthefuckup @meltinghershey @alwayswook @dutifullyannoyingstrawberrie @dudekiss3r @sibwol @planetmarlowe @doraemiz @morklee02 @httpsxnox @firydst @yuyita-rosier @ayukas @cottonjaems @monomya @neocults26 @greenyweirdo

[my-stories-vault]

Love and War.

Pairing: Dean Winchester X Y/N Singer

Blurb: You must've read a lot of enemies-to-lovers, let me show how someone can be your lover and enemy . . .

Warnings/Trigger Warnings (18+): language, gore, major and minor character deaths, break up, major angst, surprise ending, the Supernatural Wars (TSW) spoilers.

Song Inspiration: Love and War by Fleurie.

Prompt: "Nothing is fair in love and war."

Challenge: This is a flip POV challenge but can be read as a standalone one-shot! To read this same chapter from the reader's perspective, head on over here. Original plot credits of this first chapter go to my dear friend, Hepza on Wattpad. Go and show her some love 🥰.

{ Main Masterlist }

Love and War.

The metal hit the floor, clanging in the loud silence.

'You were never good with swords,' I bragged, shrugging with my free arm. Her formal cold smirk disarmed my heart just as much as I had disarmed her of all protection.

'That's why I brought reinforcement,' she smiled with a sinister nonchalance. Her backup emerged from the tree line: Charlie with an archery set, poised in a shoot-to-kill position.

As dread and agony pushed beyond the other emotions, a futile plea pressed past my lips. 'Princess—'

'No, you don't get to call me that,' she barked with such acid that it burned my heart.

'Y/N—'

'Put your sword down,' she cut me off once again.

I vanquished the control of the weapon. Charlie kicked it out of my reach and into my lover's hands.

A lover that had turned into my enemy.

'That's it?' my voice quieter than I'd like it to be. 'You are going to throw all that we had out the window – just like that?'

I should be more raged, more bitter, I should probably be yelling at her for what she did, for what she is doing – but I can't. I can't be mad at her without knowing why she did what she did. I just love her too much.

'Oh, no,' she calmly raised her head high, her expression of stark hate – the same eyes that couldn't not hold love when they used to look at me – the same face I've woken up to for as long as I can remember, the same girl whose love has consumed my every cell to the point that I won't know how to live without her anymore.

But she seemed to have no problem turning on me.

'You already did me that favor when you decided to hunt me down for your father, Your Highness,' she snarled.

'How did we get here?'

A few days before . . .

I was in the middle of a presentation, stating a common point, when the doors to the meeting hall were rudely opened to one of the most blunt, and annoying brats I'd ever set my eyes on: Y/N Singer.

'Your Highness,' the guards addressed, looking about nervously, probably worried about their job status after this – and if I knew Bobby any well, which I did – they were probably wondering if they were gonna survive the day.

But I could honestly not care less as my eyes drew to the rugrat of the girl His Majesty Robert Singer liked to call a daughter. She was amusingly in her nightly undergarments, unafraid of the stares and the jaws she dropped as she stepped into one of the most formal meetings, amongst the most esteemed kingdoms from around.

'Bullocks,' Bobby harshly mumbled under his breath.

'Your Majesty,' one of the two guards that seemed to have been chasing the princess breathed out, 'we tried to stop the Princess, but she . . .' he trailed away, unable to find proper words, also busy panting – he probably had had to run after her.

She'd do that to you. She was one of the better warriors I had met in my life while traveling the world. She was definitely fitter than the poor bodyguards that seemed to have been assigned to keep her away.

Stopping her is like stopping a tsunami dead in its tracks – it's impossible. That's one of the reasons why I love this annoying brat.

'I got this,' Bobby groused – he didn't, but okay. 'Now go and do your damn duty.' He turned to his daughter (this is going to be fun to watch), 'Y/N, what are you doing here in your . . . ' he tried to bring a polite statement into fruition, and was failing miserably.

'My undergarments,' she supplied, unabashedly. And I had to hide my proud smirk behind my hand as all the nobles began exchanging awkward and uncomfortable looks. Some of the ladies were jealous, and some of the men resisted to check my girl out.

Not that I minded – she was indeed a sight to look at.

'Let me see,' Y/N continued, 'I woke up and the first news I received was, Your Eminence has canceled our breakfast together. So, I was wondering what made you ditch our daddy-daughter date; and here you are, canoodling with your comrades.'

Her eyes swept over the table, her gaze tainted with slight resentment, and suddenly I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes till I could see my brain.

I knew how much she cherished the time she got to spend with her father, especially after what happened to her mother – Bobby was the only family she had. And I loved that she held onto that with everything she had. But her methods sometimes were slightly . . . crass, for the lack of a delicate word. She lacked the tact she needed to get things done her way.

Sometimes it was adorable, sometimes I just hated it.

It was a little bit of both right now. Even though it was adorable: her reckless courage and her flaunted beauty – I was in the middle of speaking about, as she calls it, "the damn Dam" – one of the most important projects our countries ever took up.

'Here, put this bloody robe on,' the King huffed, extracting himself from it and draping it over his daughter's modesty.

She slapped the robe off of her, crossing her arms and humphing with one of the cutest angry pouts I'd seen her sport – okay, maybe I was over the fact that she interrupted us and now I was enjoying this a little too much.

'Not until we sort this out.'

'Gentlemen, give us the room please,' Bobby intoned in a resigned manner.

Everyone, relieved, scraped their chairs across the floor, dragging themselves away from the room when Crowley stated: 'Well, I don't mind staying for the show.'

Y/N rolled her eyes, as mine own narrowed at the bastard. I mean, same, but come on!

'Not now, Crowley,' chastised the father, then turning his elderly stern gaze towards me, a silent order written in them to shoo the people away so that none could become prying ears.

After depositing them on the other side of the door, I stood back to eavesdrop myself.

'Listen, my dear, you can't walk into a royal meeting like this and demand we have a meal together.'

'And you can't ditch me like a prom date, then have a tea party with your friends.' She paused, composing her wits into reasoning, 'Never let anyone treat you like a damsel in distress, or anything less – you taught me that, Daddy.'

I smiled at her, even though she couldn't see me, and decided it was time I let my presence be known.

'Sometimes you make me wonder – did I make a mistake raising you like a boy?' he was saying just as I pushed the door in.

'For what it's worth, Your Majesty, I find the hubris of our Princess very gallant,' I found myself saying in a formal format, a smirk playing with my lips, as Y/N shoot me a "not-funny" look.

Oh, look who's talking.

'If only her future groom would agree to that,' the King tiredly said, a small smile on his face, one that I returned with a tight one on mine.

'Now, if you are done with this jibber-jabber, Your Majesty, I would like to know how you're making up to me for my loss,' she asked with authority.

Bobby smiled down at her fondly, 'I will make it up to you tonight, Princess. Promise.'

'I'll appreciate it if you keep to it,' she said.

'Of course,' he confirmed. 'Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bunch of Royals to threaten for their lives in case they have any ideas of leaking what happened here.'

We both chuckled, and he shot me a look over her head – a silent warning that the threat applied to me too. I simply nodded.

'Dean, do you mind escorting my idjit daughter back to her room?' Bobby raised his brow at me.

'Dad, I can—'

But I cut the gorgeous e/c-colored Princess off, 'Not at all. It would be my pleasure, Your Majesty.' And my hand quickly gripped her arm before the protests I knew were begging to be told could leave her mouth.

I could feel her orbs boring into my back as I dragged her away, but if she was going to be stubborn – so was I.

Our rapid footsteps led us to her bedroom hallway, and as soon as I knew all the eyes were off us, I swiftly bent down to put her across my shoulders like a sack of potatoes, a grin tugging on my face as she squealed in surprise – her reaction the only reason why I did it in the first place. She was too nauseatingly cute when she was taken off guard.

'Put me down, Winchester!'

There were no signs of compliance until after we were inside her bedroom where I let her to her feet gently, speaking soon as our eyes met.

'Really?' I wondered incredulously, 'Ambushing a royal meeting by waltzing in your undergarments – you got some nerve, Princess.' I teased, the title meaning more than just that within the safe confines of her room.

It was the term that I used to refer to the fact that she had me wrapped around her little finger like the Princess she was. And I love her to bits for everything she is.

God, I'm screwed.

'I am a Singer, my love,' she goaded. 'It is in the blood.'

Fair enough.

I took her hand to twirl her around, letting her fingers go from mine so that she stumbled towards her wardrobe. 'Now get dressed,' I commanded in that voice she said did things to her.

She sifted through her clothes landing on one of the familiar morning gowns.

'No, not that,' I chided, 'you wear that too often.'

My eyes shifted to the mirror on the side; I started to fix my hair which seemed to have lost its lusture like I had lost my will to live after that goddamn meeting – sure, it was important, but dammit, if it didn't make me want to kill myself out of boredom.

'Fine,' she grumbled, putting it back for an alternative choice. 'How 'bout this?'

I glanced over, grinning for she had brought up another number she looked mighty fine in. 'Yellow suits you, sweetheart.'

She nodded before staring at me – a look that I took too long to realize than I'd like to admit – was ordering me to turn for some privacy. But then, perhaps, I wanted to ignore that look. But she refused to budge.

Oh, come on! I thought to myself, 'What, it's nothing I haven't seen before.'

She kept staring at me dryly till I gave up.

'Alright, alright!' I sighed internally, surrendering as I turned to instead gaze at the door. So much for that.

Anyways . . . 'So, daddy-daughter date. Really?' It wasn't the fact that she liked to do it, it was the fact that she actually chose to utter these words. If that didn't deserve a face, I don't know what did.

'Hey, it's a work in progress,' she protested, shuffling her limbs to get changed.

I scoffed, shaking my head, once again realizing how annoying she had been before, well. 'How I fell for you, escapes me, Princess. You are—'

'Enticing,' she suggested, with a smile in her tone.

I felt her tap on my shoulder. I turned to her, a smile on my face, as a chuckle left me. 'That's not the word I was looking for, but I won't complain,' I teased.

'Quit flirting and help me with this, De,' she reprimanded, turning about to display her unlaced corset.

My fingers pulled at the strings, but the smile never left me. 'Is it enough?'

'A little bit tighter,' she requested. I heeded. She said, 'So, how is the Dam Construction project?'

'Kicking our asses,' I murmured, working on tying off the loose ends.

'Yeah, I barely saw my father during the last couple of months, and of course, you . . . I feel like I forgot your face,' her tone is sad.

And I feel bad.

She is right. We'd had barely gotten time to ourselves these last few months and all because of this stupid project. Well, not stupid – but still. The disagreements just keep on piling and I just want is to get this over with – probably one of the reasons why I've been pushing to dedicate more of my time to this instead of other things.

For now, though, I'll settle for some humor. 'What are you talking about?' I try to sound playfully offended. 'You could never forget a face like mine.'

She ignored my clear self-appreciation, 'However, I do appreciate what you guys do.'

'Yeah, it's gonna help a lot of people. The river can replenish many monarchies. Kids don't have to walk miles to get water if this project is finished,' I end with a deep sigh. I really want this to work – helping people is what I'm passionate about, but the lack of enthusiasm my stick-in-the-ass colleagues share has been grating on my nerves.

'When you finish it,' she corrected me softly.

'Only if it's as easy as it sounds,' I complained.

'My love, you people are constructing a historical monument that is going to gather a primary waterfront and spread it across to regions that don't have access to it. It is obvious it is hard.'

'Not just the labor, sweetheart, some of the Kings are rebelling at the last minute: not to share water with the half-breed domains,' I huffed, now helping her with the gown.

'Some of them as in . . . '

'Gordon,' I finished for her, adjusting the wrinkles on her dress for her.

'Bingo,' she said as if she'd had that pegged.

She handed me the necklace I gifted her after I was done. It was my one-year anniversary present to her, and I loved that there wasn't a day that went by without it around her neck. I gathered her hair with one hand, brushed it away to the side, and then dangled the jewelry around her neck – the symbol of our secret relationship.

'You were never a fan of him,' I noted, clicking the lobster lock in place.

'He is a prick, Dean,' she ranted, 'No one should be a fan of him. He is self-obsessed and despises the small sub-kingdoms – top of it all, I don't like the way he sees me.'

A smile twitched on my lips as she turned.

'What?'

'You're so beautiful when you're angry,' I admitted, 'I couldn't get my eyes off you this morning.'

It was true – how could I look away when her eyes gleamed with the fight that inspires me to never give up?

'Shut up,' she blushed. She distracted herself by walking to the mirror to redress her hair for the day.

That's when I noticed it, 'You're wearing your Leaflet Crown?'

'Yes. Why do you ask?'

'You only wear this when you're going on hunts,' I managed as dismay clawed up its way into my consciousness, 'and last time I checked, your father forbade anyone from going into the dark forest.'

I know it was petty to bring up her father's warning in our conversations. But it wasn't like I could forbid her from doing something. She was a stubborn woman who got what she set her heart to. For the love of God, though, for once, I just wished she'd listen to Bobby or me. I worry, and I don't know how long before my worries turn into my day-mares.

'Oh, that,' she seemed not to notice my inner discord.

'Care to explain,' I pressed, picking up the Crown from her head.

'I was going to meet Charlie,' she assured, 'that's all, my love.'

'Ah, right,' I realized, 'Charollete, your Chief Musketeer. Her and her troop have been really helpful to us on the guarding duty at night. She's wonderful,' I end on the admission.

'I know,' she childishly booped my nose, making me smile again. She replaced the crown then marched off to the shoe rack, selecting one that matched.

Before she could slip them on, I plucked them out of her grasp. 'Here – let me.'

'Your wish is my command, My Prince Charming,' she teased, moving away nevertheless to plop down on her bed.

I would mind, but I'd honestly take any chance I'd get to touch her. I was so starved for her touch, practically a man in a desert. And I swear it'd kill me if she were a mirage.

I dipped down at her feet, taking her heels on my knees as I slipped the first shoe on her, and she initiated another conversation.

'How is Sam?'

'Sammy is happy, actually,' I said as if it was as much news to me as was to her. 'Away from all the castle drama – he got his gal, his hair is as long as ever – so, he's as good as he can ever be.'

'Same ol' Sam, huh?'

'Yeah, I would be lying if I didn't envy his guts to stand up to my father and give away his title for Jessica.'

'I fell for the wrong brother then,' she playfully offered.

'I don't know, Princess,' I smirked, taking the other shoe to her free leg. 'The shoe fits,' I winked, as her foot perfectly slid in.

She bit her lip to suppress the grin I knew was begging to burst on her face. Then, slowly, the corners of her lips turned down as she switched topics once more.

'Why did we decide to keep it a secret again?' she quirked her brow.

The unexpected turn made my face fall. I had an answer that I'd rather not give. But it wasn't one that she hadn't heard before. Something she gave me proof of, 'Oh, right. Your Dad.'

'He'd rather marry me off to the Harvells,' I declared.

'Wait, Joanna?'

I nodded.

'Wow,' she huffed, 'your Dad is shaking up the wrong tree on so many levels. Charlie is gonna be thrilled to hear this.'

Her undertone shocked me, 'Wait, Charlie and Jo?'

'Mhhmhmmmm,' she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

'Wow,' I was taken aback. Who knew Jo was gay?

With that, Y/N reverted back to her original point. 'I don't get it, Dean. What doesn't he see in me?'

Her defeated look hurt.

I climbed up next to her on the bed, facing her as my hands took up residence on both her cheeks and she leaned into them on reflex. 'It's not you, sweetheart. It's just—'

'The fact that we're not hunters, but scholars – I get it, love,' she brushed me off, scoffing, and pulling away from my touch as if it had burnt her. She put as much space as she could between us while still staying in the room.

I knew how frustrated she was getting by my defenses. At first, she'd hesitantly give in, and shrug the disappointment off, but as our relationship grew, she expected more. She had never expected this to be a secret for so long.

I hated that I couldn't give her my everything, I hated how much of a coward I was.

I should have called quits on this relationship long back – given that I couldn't provide her with what she wanted. She was everything that I could want – and yet, I barely had anything to offer to her. She deserves the world, and here I am, in fear of losing her, I held her back from everything that she could have.

And hell, if I wasn't going to try my hardest to keep her in my life, still. I honestly don't know what she saw me, but until she was going to have me, I was going to try my best to have her too.

I reached for her, gripping her by the arm and yanking her back till she was spinning on her heels and clashing against my chest, her hand twisted against her back to allow me leverage to hold her against myself with as little space as I could manage. I searched her face for any signs that this was the moment that she gave up on me.

Finding none, I finally spoke. 'You are it for me, Y/N.' Her eyes closed as a blush rose to her cheeks, ears, and neck, her head lowering as she basked in my commitment. 'You are my happy ending and always will be,' he whispered into her hair as my free hand came up to trace nonsense patterns against her cheek. An involuntary smile kicked my lips upwards as I could feel the honesty behind those words thrumming in every fiber of my body.

I waited for her to look at me again, using the opportunity of when she did to dip down and capture her lips prisoner against mine.

We both melted into the intimacy as I stole the breath from her lungs for as long as I could, feeling my heart accelerate, knowing that I could never want anything more than this, right here.

When the need for oxygen overpowered us, I let her lips go, not failing to hold her gaze in the promise of my words.

'I hate it when you shut me up like that,' she said half-heartedly.

I called her bluff with a cheeky smile, 'No, you don't.'

She shook her head with a smile she couldn't control herself.

'Mmm,' I grunt in discontent freeing her from my arms. 'I must go,' I sighed, 'because if I stay, we might not leave the room till moonrise. Don't wanna give your father and the committee any funny ideas,' I joked.

She shook her head in agreement once again.

I pressed a chaste kiss on her forehead one last time. 'Stay out of trouble,' I cautioned, as I walked backward towards the only exit of the room.

'No promises,' she smirked.

I rolled my eyes, God, this girl is gonna be the death of me.

The meeting ended and left me worse for wear. I antagonize everyone in the meeting for their role in irritating me, as I move to the stables to leave for the examination of the constructions being conducted for the damn Dam. Not to mention I was running low on men because the ones assigned by Bobby were late. By two hours.

It honestly pissed me off, but then I decided to simply screw it and take the men that I did have with me to gauge the progress of the work.

My soldiers flanked me on their horses as I lead the team down the winded roads and towards the riverside we were trying to stem and reap for our benefits when I received the message.

It was a fraction of musketeers under King Robert that had been assigned to me for guard duty returning from their camp where apparently the Princess had been safely taken to after the unexpected attack on her in the Black forest.

Safe to say, no longer did work matter as I quickly dismissed everyone, and hauled ass to the Camp following the piece of soldiers who retraced their steps to their tents.

They guided me down the beaten paths through the trees, rushing against the wind under my agitated orders to make haste.

As soon as the treeline cleared, the daylight blinded me as we spilled into the clearing. As my eyes were getting accustomed to the light, my glance swept over the place where all the clattering and clamoring of moving and training soldiers seemed rather unaffected by today's ordeals – a fact that estranged me considering I was about ready to burst from fear.

The team took my horse and one of the guys led me to the tent that housed the love of my life.

'In here, Prince Dean,' he saluted, leaving me alone.

I had started screaming even before I had entered, 'What were you thinking?!'

'De—' she jumped up to sit, her eyes widening at my outburst.

'I particularly told you not to go into the forest or anywhere near it!' I yelled, feeling rage eat me up, thinking of the thousands of possibilities of what could have gone wrong – of what could have happened.

She could have been dead. Dead!

'Is this some kind of joke to you!?' I exclaimed, my body running so hot that I could have a fever, my chest heaving under the relentless stream of anger that had built up in my heart, and the lump in my throat threatened to choke me. 'You could've died!' I shouted, feeling tears prick the back of my eyes.

I kept on venting and she took it silently, watching me, 'You just never listen to me! You have this incessant need to be brave, to do it all by yourself, to-to be a freaking warrior! Well, guess what? You're life just isn't yours! It's mine, too, alright?! You're my life, and if something happened to you, I-I-I . . . I won't . . .'

I looked up to see her staring at me with guilt glazing her eyes. I doubt she was even hearing what I said.

'Say something!' I snapped at her.

She flinched out of her thoughts, shock, and fear marring her breath-taking features. And I felt that my anger was unjustified toward her. I took a deep breath, composing myself as I let my rage flare out of my nostrils, paving the way for the overwhelming fear I had felt on my way over when my mind had been reeling with thoughts of desperation over losing her and the pain that would follow.

All I know is that I never want to feel that again.

So, I kneel in front of her.

As scary as it is to love someone as much as I love her, I need to calm myself and be there for her.

'I'm sorry,' my gruff voice told her. My apology was supported by my hands as they went to her knees, rubbing circles there and my gaze lowered to anywhere but her face – my head heavy with shame and guilt of having exploded on her.

'Me too,' she apologized, her hand going forward, probably unconsciously as she started stroking my hair. 'I should've been careful,' she muttered.

The pressure in the room melted off, leaving the reality of the situation to settle heavily over me. My shoulders slumped under their weight, 'I just . . . I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you,' I voiced my biggest fear.

There. It was out in the open.

It was as simple as birds chirping and insects buzzing – I'd lose it; I'd lose myself if I lost her.

Everything that I did, that I'm doing, and that I will do – that was for her. I did it knowing that when I was done, I'd be going back home to her. To the promise of a love that consumed me, that made me the happiest guy in the world, to the woman of my dreams, and to the keeper of my heart. I'd be destroyed without her, and that was nothing short of a fact.

And that thought petrified me – chilled me to my very bones.

I've never had to think much about it before. She's been reckless but never came been this close to death. She's been hurt – but this was much worse.

She's been with me for as long as I could remember – we were kids when we were friends, and ever since it only blossomed into more. So much so, that I could never again imagine my life, my future, without Y/N in it.

She let my head go, and grabbed my hand from her lap, squeezing it tightly. 'Dean, I'm here.'

The hot lump that had accumulated in my heart thawed, letting the sweet grasp of relief grip me. I took a deep breath cherishing her hand on mine.

I swallowed, pushing my tears back – unwilling to let them make an appearance. 'And I couldn't be more grateful for that fact. Don't ever scare me like that again,' I gritted out, looking up just in time to see her nodding.

That's when I noticed the injury above her eyebrow, on her forehead.

'What happened here?' My hand instinctively raised to its level, my thumb levitating above the wound – one that'd surely leave a mark, one that was temporarily covered with herbs that imposed medicinal properties and benefits.

'The stupid Phantoms,' she blurted.

My heart lurched in shock, and a tendril of fear fizzled down my spine.

'Phantoms?' I quizzed, eyes wide.

She rushed to explain, 'Yeah, I rode the outer banks to reach here soon. I swear, I didn't even cross the border or step foot into the forest! Yet, they attacked us. Poor Phillip took most of the hit . . . Do you know the fire-forged sword didn't do a darn tooting to them—?' she cut herself off, waiting for my reaction – perhaps expecting another outburst.

But I was out of those, and tired – we both had had a long day – so, I tried to lighten the atmosphere. 'You were never good with the swords,' I decided.

She relaxed before delivering a playful punch to my shoulder.

I breathed out, 'Thank God Charlie and her men made it on time.' I made a mental note to send her a fruit basket for saving my life.

'Yeah . . . I . . . Yeah . . . ' she cleared her throat, firing a question at me. 'How did you get here so fast?'

'I was already on my way to examine the constructions at the Dam when they informed me there had been an assault on the Princess – I lost it,' I licked my lips, shaking my head. 'I couldn't stay there for a minute,' or I would have suffocated, 'I left there and rushed here,' to find my breath, I completed in my mind.

It dawned on her, 'Wait, does that mean—?'

'No,' I replied, already knowing where her mind went, 'your father doesn't know. I specifically ordered the men involved in the construction and Charlie's troop not to tell. If they break it, they know the consequences.'

'My hero,' she mocked, placing a hand over her heart.

But I didn't have it in me to smile.

My thoughts wandered off as I bathed in her presence, consoling myself constantly that she was right here in front of me.

'I would be lost without you, Princess,' I revealed, without even realizing that I was speaking it. I looked up into her e/c orbs, waiting for her to say something.

'Dean, I'm here,' she repeated. 'Am not going anywhere, and I'll always come back to you,' she traced a hand over the shadow that had grown on my cheeks.

I leaned into her hand, a sigh involuntarily escaping me. 'I love you,' I confessed.

'I love you, too, My Prince,' she conveyed.

The admission made my lips stretch into a huge smile – the kind which starts to hurt your cheeks, and one that the woman I loved mirrored.

You would think that we must have said it pretty often but being Royals and all, saying it out loud was not a constant courtesy everyone was awarded with. It was freeing to finally be able to say it again. And it was equally as exhilarating, if not more, to hear her say it back.

She leaned down to press her lips against mine, our eyes fluttering shut as the intimacy of our words spread to our actions – a kiss that was slow, passionate, and full of happy promises. If love were an action to me, I'd describe it with this one kiss.

And if it were up to me, I'd never let her go.

But the tent was barged into and our moment was disrupted.

'Oh, sorry!' Charlie exclaimed, looking as flustered as I was probably feeling.

Red painted my cheeks and neck and slightly tinted my ears, as I struggled for a reasonable explanation to the Chief Musketeer who could potentially ruin my chance to be with Y/N.

'Dude, if the tent is rocking, don't come knocking,' Y/N reprimanded.

And once again, I was reminded of her reckless and straightforward personality.

'I'll . . . I'll come back later. You carry on, then.'

I jumped to the rescue, 'Oh, no. No. There is nothing to carry on. I was just . . . uh, I was helping Princess Y/N to practice breathing exercises.' I dumbly answered.

God, never let me be a spy.

'Huh,' Charlie nodded, biting her lip to keep away her smile at the blatant lie – something she won't point out simply out of respect for the Royal.

'My love, she knows,' the h/c-haired woman broke to me, barely able to suppress her own glee and amusement at my pathetic attempt to keep our secret hidden.

'She—what? You know?' I quizzed.

'Yup,' she gave me a mischievous grin. 'Who do you think gave her the suggestion to wear sexy lingeries to your little rendezvous.'

Well, that was information. Incriminating one, at that.

Y/N was the one blushing now, 'Okay, shoo, get out of my tent, Commander, I think you have pressing matters on hand.'

Charlie lingered, 'I have more embarrassing stories, My Liege – if you're interested – you know where to find me.' And she fled before my love could utter another word to save herself from any further embarrassment.

I had my up-to-no-good smile in place as Y/N looked down at me, already glaring. 'Don't even think about it,' she terrorized.

And I burst into peals of laughter – the full-body shake kind. I was having too much fun imagining what all I could find out about her.

'Okay, sweetheart,' I said in a final tone, 'I have to go check on something, too. You take good rest, alright? I'll come to check on you once I'm finished,' I promised.

'Till then,' she dramatically leaned back against the armrest of the couch she'd been lounging on, 'I'll be here,' she put her arm over her face, performing more theatrics, 'waiting.'

God, I'm in love with a dork. An annoying, reckless, kind, passionate, stubborn dork who's now the reason I live.

I shook my head, retracing my steps out of the place before my breath hitched and I just knew I had to do this – I retrieved my steps just so that I could scoop her curious and confused self into my arms and kiss the daylights out of her.

I kissed her senseless, I kissed her like there was no tomorrow, I kissed her with everything that I had, with every cell that loved her, and every thought that worshiped her.

When I pulled away, it was safe to say we were both dazed.

I smirked softly, winking at her, before at last, I made my exit.

True to my word, I ended my work as quickly as I could manage; I needed to see her. I headed back towards the palace - arranging a small care package to the best of my abilities before discovering Juliet and sending her on a mission - to find Y/N and deliver her to me.

The note attached was sober: Meet me at our place.

It was this blossom tree near the small creek. Almost as gorgeous as the woman who was going to meet there.

Hearing her feet approaching I got down from the tree I was waiting in, silently, wondering if she would notice me before I snuck up on her.

She didn't fail me, spinning on the balls of her feet, the arrow already notched with a fatal aim.

My lips tugged heavenward as I offered the white roses I carried in one hand, forgetting momentarily what I'd called her for. 'I come in peace. I gather Juliet delivered my message with success.'

'She's feisty to everyone else,' she mused. 'How you enticed her eludes me.'

I smirked, feeling my chest swell with pride, when: 'Kneel.'

I was on the ground before my mind could even process the command. My knees buckled at just the smile of this woman, I could give my life if she asked for it - surrendering to her was too small in comparison.

'Surrendering so soon, My Liege?' she mocked, drunk on power.

'I will always kneel for my Queen,' I loyally commented, making a cute laugh bubble out of her, a hot blush rendering her ears and neck red.

She lowered her weapon, and we reshuffled our positions into a more comfortable stance where we could sit under the tree, arms wrapped around each other.

The blossom leaves broke from their home to cherish the love we held, fingers entangling and detangling, the moon reflecting its eternal shine into the water beyond us, its lustrous shadow shimmering and thrumming with endless possibilities.

'I didn't find you in an occupied moment, did I?'

'Nah,' she casually denied. 'I was scaring away another noble my father brought in to meet with me.'

My chest tightened with anxiety before relaxing again. 'Just the usual then,' I tried to joke.

My mood turned pensive as I plucked one of the leaves from the ground. 'Do you remember the day we found this place?'

'Of course I do! How could I forget? We tried to climb up the tree, and I got this,' she rolled up her sleeve to flaunt the scar on her right elbow.

'We were so young and carefree,' I muttered. 'Good old times.'

'De . . . What is it?' she picked up on the shift.

'My Dad wants me to marry Jo,' I blurted out quietly. 'He's planned this whole engagement ceremony to announce it to the citizens tonight.'

'What?' A pause, 'What did you say!?'

'What did you want me to say Y/N?' I deflected.

'I don't know,' she said. 'Something between - "No, I don't want to marry Joanna", or "I am in love with the daughter of King Robert"?!'

'It's not that easy!' I suddenly got defensive.

She scoffed, 'Nothing was easy for us, ever, Dean.'

I shook my head, feeling the weight of the conversation slumping my shoulders - an action she subconsciously mirrored as the reality of the situation kicked in.

'We should tell them!' she exclaimed in desperation. 'Both of our fathers.'

'I can't!'

'What do you mean "you can't"?!'

'You know,' I struggled to gain a footing in this argument. 'I can't do that!'

'Why?' She ranted, 'Because we are from two entirely different nations who just depend on each other? Is it because we are not hunters? You, of all people, know that your kingdom cannot survive without our lore knowledge! You need our expertise as much as we need your men! That is the deal.'

'I know very well about the deal, Y/N,' I snapped. 'That is not the problem!'

'Now what,' she shoved me back in an accusatory tone, 'your father wants our resources and not the Princess!?'

'He wants to unite Harvelle's nation with ours,' I reasoned, 'It would be a resourceful arrangement for all our kingdoms.' But even as I said it, I felt my throat close up, my eyes prick, and my heart crumble a little in the agony under the light of the prison sentence I was putting on myself.

'You can't be serious,' she argued. 'You're honestly considering this offer!?'

'I am not! As a matter of fact, I have no idea what to do!' I breathed out, worried that if I didn't rush this confession, I'd break.

'Let's elope!'

I don't think I heard her correctly. 'What?'

'You heard me,' she confirmed.

'Are you out of your bloody mind?' I glared down at her - finally noticing that we two had stood up unknowingly, trying to win an argument by physical intimidation - a natural reflex.

'I am not the one thinking about marrying another girl,' her gruff voice threw the acid words in my face, betrayal and hurt making her tone shake.

'I can't,' I clenched out, ignoring the last statement because if I thought about it for even one second, I wouldn't be able to do this.

'You can't, or you won't?' she challenged.

'I won't,' I rose up to the bait. 'I am not going to disobey the King's commands.'

'For the love of everything on earth, Winchester - you're not just his perfect soldier!' she screamed with venom.

'I am neither a love-struck teen,' I yelled back. 'I am a Prince. I pledged to put my country and my people before my own desires.'

'And I didn't?'

'You wouldn't be talking about eloping if you cared for your people! Your Father should've knocked some sense into you instead of pampering you,' I gripped.

'And John is what, Father of the Year? He handed you a Silversword and told you to scare away the wolves you were mortified of when you ran to him for shelter!' she emotionally wagered in my face.

'He was teaching me to fight back,' I offered.

'You were eight years old, Dean,' she pointed out as if that was supposed to make me change my answer.

Anger ran white hot in my veins, making all logic rush out along with the steam coming out of my ears. 'At least he is not like Bobby!' I glared, frustration oozing out of me in waves. 'Do you know he was the reason behind the delay of the Dam Construction? He wanted to include all the small towns so no one could be left out, all half-breeds and special kinds included. It took me a month to convince all the other Nobles - and now the raw materials are exhausted! That's why we need the help of Harvelles'. If not for his soft-ass nature, we wouldn't be in this mess—!' I blamed.

My words took a hit when the sting of a slap echoed on my face. My head had turned with the force of it, but when I righted my gaze onto her - she was furious, and I was hurt by her action.

A profound silence descended, the water of the creek gently waving, coddling our tensions that kept on increasing with the increase in the misunderstandings we were spectacularly failing to resolve.

I looked at her as if she were a stranger, shocked that she would hit me. I never thought in a million years that she would hit me.

That's when I knew I had gone too far.

My hand was already inching towards the warmth on my left cheek - probably leaving a bruise in the shape of her palm there. 'Y/N . . . ?'

'Don't,' she raised her hand as if to physically stop me from speaking. She was recomposed in her demeanor. 'Seems like you've already made your mind, Your Highness. I have nothing else to say. Marry any girl your Father shoves his finger at, and be his little puppet. But don't you dare talk about my Father like that,' she ended, punctuating by abruptly and promptly exiting.

What had I done?

The engagement ceremony dragged on. My royal attire felt heavy against my bodice - like if all the weight of my emotions were cut into cloth, this is how it would feel.

Jo was nodding and smiling politely at the people coming up to congratulate us - a tightness around her eyes from stopping herself from crying.

And ironically, she was the only person here who probably understood me.

This felt wrong, and I wanted to cry.

Jo's hand was wrapped with mine, but we both were tense under each other's touch - that's not how love should feel.

Love is when you could feel all your worries evaporate as soon as you just see the other person enter a room. Love is when you feel like the happiest human alive to just feel them love you back. Love is when you feel invincible if they support you. Love is what breaks you when they leave you.

Love is Y/N.

And I just seemed to have lost her.

I blink my eyes rapidly even though there's no water to blink back. I don't cry very often, and today I really feel like I want to.

'Oh, honey, congratulations!' another royal smiled sweetly.

I nodded, barely returning a ghost of the same smile.

'When's the date?'

'As . . . soon as we can marry,' I gulped. 'King John doesn't want to waste any time.'

'That's lovely!' she cheered.

Jo cleared her throat, her eyes rimmed red, voice thick. 'Can't wait.'

'You two are so lucky to have each other. Your love is like no other,' she boasted.

'Thank you,' we both said in unison, mirroring the fake gratefulness, our shoulders slouching as soon as she left.

'I can't take this anymore,' Jo murmured. 'My Liege, can we take a walk?'

'Uh, yes, of course. Princess,' I add in courtesy, hating that I have to call her that.

Joanna dragged me away from the dull and pretentious party, functioning only because of the open bar, teeming with equally jealous and hateful nobles.

She took me to the serenity of the garden where the plants, closer to the dead than living, still seemed to understand better the need for calmness we both desired and shared.

Down, ways away from the dying function, nearing a pond, my mind wandered off to what I had just given up. The water, always soothing, now a staunch reminder of my greatest woe.

'Are we screwed or what?!' she burst out, derailing my train of thoughts.

That's when I noticed Jo was crying, silent tears descending down her rosy-with-anger red cheeks.

'Jo . . . ' I trailed off, failing to find words that would ease her.

Because nothing would. Neither of our happiness was gonna survive this marriage and that was a fact.

She sniffed. 'Charlie never wants to see my face. She told me it was too hard, that I don't know what it feels like to date a Royal. Well, she doesn't know what it feels like to be a Royal!'

I scoffed involuntarily, 'Oh, trust me, a Royal won't understand this either.'

She met my agitated gaze, 'Y/N freaked?'

I wasn't even surprised that she knew - Charlie must have told her. Charlie can't keep secrets when it's with people she loves.

My hand raised instinctively to my previously slapped cheek. 'Something like that,' I dropped my hand.

'What are we going to do, Dean?' she sobbed, 'I don't like you! Hell - I don't even like boys! I love Charlie, Dean, I love her, and I can't live without her.'

'I don't know,' I repeated from earlier that evening.

'What do you mean, "You don't know"?!' she started pacing. 'This isn't right! Our parents are forcing us—!'

'No one's forcing me,' I cut her off.

'Fine! But you can't tell me you're happy with this marriage. I mean, don't you love Y/N? I've seen how you look at her, how you treat her, how you talk about her when she's not there - she was your first!'

The pinch in my chest tightened. 'Sometimes you have to sacrifice—'

'For who? Our selfish parents!?'

'Jo!'

'No! Dean, our parents got what they wanted! They married for love!'

'And look how that ended,' I raised my tone to match hers. 'My Mom and your Dad are gone - they're dead! Leaving our parents to exist as shells!'

'They died in accidents, but you want us killed. This marriage will kill us, Dean; it will kill me!'

'Apparently,' a third voice interrupted. 'It will kill King John, too.'

We turned to Castiel holding up a bloody arrow, the crimson making me dread the answer to whose life it took - but what made my breath hitch was that the arrow was decorated with a Phoenix feather.

'Prince Dean,' he addressed. 'It seems your lover has declared a war against us.'

No, no, no! This cannot be happening. That's impossible, absolutely not. No!

Things went to the crapper hella quickly.

My mind raced as I tried to swallow that in the last twenty-four hours I had almost lost the love of my life before I broke up our years of relationship, gotten engaged with a lesbian, and almost had my father murdered by who everyone assumed was the woman I loved (forgive me if I didn't want to jump to conclusions), leading to our advisors issuing an order to enslave her by my hands - there was even a bounty and everything.

Our soldiers have been fighting with one of our closest allies come dawn - the only reason why they received the news they did: My mentor, my Uncle - Bobby was dead. That's what our soldiers told us.

What even is this?

As we rode the horses through the forbidden forest, I couldn't help but feel the pit in my stomach grow. Something was wrong, and by God I swear, if something happened to Y/N . . .

She was the only one unsafe right now. Dad and Sammy had been granted protection, but she was out there, alone, no doubt being hunted by whoever killed her Father and I was not losing two of the few people I cared the most about in one night.

On our way, I lost the assistance of Benny and Cas - separated, the former by the soldiers of the Singers, and the latter by the devils of the forest. I rode alone towards the location the Princess was last seen at - and jackpot!

Her sword was out and swinging before I could demand her attention, my reflexes making me move on my own, and soon our weapons were clanging - then, sooner, I had disarmed her.

Her sword clanged against the half-cut tree stump. 'Should've stuck with archery,' I taunted, the tip of my sword levelling with the heart that once belonged to me.

She raised her hands in surrender - but I couldn't tell if she was playing along or actually being sincere. 'Come home with me,' I said before I could stop the words from toppling out.

'Home?' she spat out. 'Mine is burnt to the ground in flames, love. There is no way home anymore!'

'Come with me,' I offered. 'To our country. I'll talk to Father—'

'You mean as a slave?' she challenged.

My mouth dropped slightly, the words dying in my mouth, unsure myself as to how that would work. I wondered why I would even say something like that to her - her arrow was found in my father's chest. What more could I need than that to acquit her?

But deep down, I knew this couldn't be it. She loved her father, she knew what it meant to be devoted to the last parent you had. How could she even do that?

And obviously, the attack on the Singer Palace was not her. What was the story behind that? Something was going on, and we needed to figure this out - together, whether we wanted to or not.

'What, cat got your tongue?' she quipped.

'I don't see the way around, sweetheart,' I informed. 'You are unarmed, and even if I let you battle me, I don't think it is gonna do you any good – you were never good with swords.'

'Yeah,' she shrugged smugly, 'that's why I brought reinforcements.' Her gaze flicked to the side to reveal Charlie with an archery set, a Phoenix arrow pinning me as its target.

I was so preoccupied on getting things straight with Y/N, I didn't even notice her lurking in the shadows. 'Not gonna lie,' I said, 'I'm impressed, sweetheart. You did get me.'

'Drop your weapon, My Liege, or I'll need to run an arrow into your leg,' warned Charlie.

'I would do what she says; as you know, she's a woman of her word.'

Unwilling to heed just yet, my eyes darted to my peripheries – wondering if my soldiers would ever show up.

As if reading my mind, 'Oh, don't worry,' Charlie snarled, 'they aren't gonna join us, Your Highness, your Knight Benjamin, and other soldiers have been taken care of by none other than our Captain of the Royal Guards.'

Captain Garth Fitzgerald, I thought in annoyance.

'Come on,' I stalled. 'A fight between my vampire knight and your werewolf bishop? Somehow I feel bad I have to miss it.'

'Kneel,' My Queen's order interrupted us.

And every rational thought flew out of my mind as I threw the towel in. My sword clattered out of my hand and the ground dug into my skin as I looked up at Y/N, surrender encompassing my every fiber when I looked at her regally towering over me.

Somehow, I always knew she would be the death of me – but what's more, is that she's that one person who made me feel most alive.

Charlie kicked my sword for her to grab.

I smirked, 'Come on, sweetheart,' I goaded. 'You aren't gonna hurt me – we both know that.'

Just to prove a point she slashed the metal across my left arm, crimson seeped out of the horizontal, somewhat deep, wound, making me hiss.

But it shouldn't sting as much as it did, right?

'I would reconsider that theory.'

She's bluffing. 'Princess—'

'NO! You don't get to call me that. That is allocated for the people I love.'

And Charlie might as well have shot the arrow into my heart. Unwillingly, my eyes welled up with hurt.

How could she even say that?

'That's it?!' I gritted out, practically shouting. Pants began to slowly heave my chest in strain, 'You're going to throw all we had out the window just like that?'

'Oh, no, you already did me that favor when you decided to hunt me down for your Father, Your Highness,' she made sure to highlight the emotional distance we had nurtured in just the last day with the formality and venom sugar-coating her every word in an acidic way that was meant to burn me from the inside out.

'That isn't fair,' I said in a low voice, close to a whisper, pissed off that she was lecturing me about how she doesn't love me anymore just because I'm hunting her down.

She tried to kill my father for God's sake! . . . I think.

A fog seemed to be collecting in my mind, stopping me from thinking straight.

But either way, was her love for me so fickle and weak?

'Nothing is fair in love and war, My Prince.'

'How did we get here?' I muttered, already exhausted.

'You killed my father, Dean,' she explained.

My head snapped up in shock. 'What!?' I spluttered. 'Are you insane? Y/N . . . where did you get that from?'

'You burned the man who practically raised from ashes,' she cried out, her eyes wild with grief.

'Y/N, I didn't kill King Robert!' Sweat beaded my forehead, and I felt my heart accelerated its beating.

'Then what was your locket doing there?' she brandished my amulet as proof . . . the amulet that when I'd gotten out of shower earlier, yesterday in the evening, had been missing.

I had thought I had misplaced it and would've searched for it later since I was getting late for my own engagement ceremony. A locket that made her think that I had the blood of her father on my hands.

I struggled to speak, 'I . . . uh . . . .'

'You never go anywhere without this,' she claimed, 'tell me where you were last night!'

I couldn't believe my ears, feeling a part of me shatter. 'You think that less of me?'

'That didn't answer my question.'

'Fine,' I felt my throat close up, 'yesterday, there was an assault on the King at the ceremony. I was busy finding the assaulter and putting them to rot in jail. Turns out, it was the woman whom I dreamt of spending the rest of my life with.'

'What?' she stepped back in the exclamation. 'That is crazy – I was at the camp with Charlie. Mopping in heartbreak because of you.'

'In the entirety of the seven regions – you are the only one who uses the Phoenix feathered arrows,' I told her, feeling black dots dancing in front of my eyes as a throbbing pain between my ears made me aware of the unnaturally strong headache.

'Dean, I didn't try to kill John . . . ?' it sounded more like a question than a statement.

'That'd explain the bounty on your head, Princess,' Charlie pitched in – helpful for once. 'Connect the dots – it's like the worst murder mystery cliché ever; someone's trying to turn both of you on each other.'

Of course, I realized. My body slightly swayed and trembled on my buckled knees. Something is seriously wrong.

'But the real question is who could do that—' Charlie's throat was slit in the middle of her speech. Her eyes were dead and closed before her body hit the ground in the pool of her own blood.

'Charlie!' I heard myself scream along with Y/N.

The voices were getting farther away from me, somehow. My limbs thrummed with heat as if my muscles and organs were liquefying in one big pile of goo, yet it felt like I was being weighed down under tons of lead.

'She's too smart for her own good,' a hated familiar voice answered, 'and to answer her question – that would be on me.' His troops littered the area behind, guarding the Alpha male I would like to do nothing more than gut.

'Gordon, you filthy animal!' Y/N yelled, lunging forward to attack.

The crew he brought surged to meet her but I forced myself on my feet: 'Make a move on her – you'd be dead before you hit the ground. Do I make myself clear?' I used the steeliest voice I could muster, making them halt.

'Why am I not surprised these were your shenanigans?' Y/N scoffed, her feet unconsciously gravitating to make her stand next to me.

'You know,' he said, 'I'm gonna take that as a compliment, Princess.'

My mouth went dry with the effort of simply standing and talking, 'Why are you doing this, Walker?'

'Why do you think – it was all because of that damn Dam!' he confessed.

'You were all in for that since day one,' I argued.

'No, Dean, you were all in. I am not. What was I supposed to do – stand up against all of the other big nations? Even I'm not that foolish. The river starts in our nation – it is ours. I'm not going to share it with the malodorous half-breeds.'

'You nasty racist—' I stopped Y/N before she could recklessly get herself killed.

'You better think twice before you do what you intended to do,' I threatened, 'because my—'

'Your rescue?' he scoffed with a laugh, 'Benjamin and Garth? Oh, they are on their way to reach where her Mother and Father went,' he pointed at Y/N to make her angrier. Translation: they're dead.

'Now,' he explained the climax of his diabolical plan just as my weight was beginning to get too much to keep on my feet. 'It is time for me to settle my tabs with you two love birds then I will tell your Father that she killed you, and boom! All that union crap and the Dam project will be closed.'

'Not gonna lie, I'm shocked your malevolent brain can plot like that – only if you had put that to good use. I always thought you had it in you. In fact, Gordon, I had my eye for you . . . for a long time,' Y/N stepped out of my reach, lying as she went.

But my brows furrowed when an ache seemed to start spreading from my heart and flowing through my blood to other organs. The taste of warm rusted metal soaked into my taste buds.

Oh, shit.

Y/N apparently hadn't noticed. 'Now you stand here, sounding all smart with your devilish grin – it's so intoxicating,' she stated in a sultry voice.

With the little adrenaline I had left, I caught the sword Y/N threw at me in time - a feat she managed to accomplish as she had neared them with her distracting flirting. I used the momentum I already was in to plunge the sword into the first guard who came at me.

The second one took longer – more prepared as we sparred in quick flicks of our wrists, dancing on our feet in the art of war. My vision was seemingly getting hazier and I knew not how much longer I could hold my ground – but I couldn't leave Y/N alone to fend off for herself.

With her as my motivation, I swiped the man's sword from his grip by using the hilt of my weapon to his wrist bone that cracked under the pressure. I, then, applied a left hook and proceeded to behead the man with another fatal blow.

Y/N had already taken care of the third guard. There were only three plus Gordon. If we killed him, she would be okay. She was going to be okay.

But in the meantime, Gordon had taken advantage of our distraction to point Y/N's own weapons against her - her bow and arrow.

'Nice try,' he appealed to our attentions.

A small, almost inaudible gasp left me as my heart beat inhumanly fast. More blood gargled up my throat, the acidic burn left in its wake. I felt my knees buckle – this time involuntarily, an action that I followed by purging blood from my system – silently gaging and choking, as my body was wrecked with painstaking seizures.

'You're not gonna win this fight, Gordon. It's two against one. Us against you!'

'Yeah, I won't worry about that,' he smirked in confidence.

'Y/N . . . ' my voice came out strained, wheezes escaping my body as I grappled for any kind of comfort I could find in what's probably and horrifically my last moments alive.

'Dean!' her voice broke through the ringing in my ears. What just happened?

My hands were shaking miserably, unable to hover me over the bloody vomit. So I leaned sideward, a motion that made me dizzy, and I would have struck my head harshly on the ground had it not been for her.

She turned me till she was propping me up against her folded legs, her arms holding most of my weight up. But that was honestly enough for me. I was safe again.

'Dean, look at me, love,' her panic-stained voice pierced my hearing, her dainty fingers slapped my cheek lightly – the opposite cheek she had slapped me on just yesterday.

Huh, well, I'm positively fucked, was all I could think.

My eyes were dry and stinging with tears all at the same time, claret dripped from the corner of my mouth still. I could barely keep my eyes open – but I had to.

I need to see her one last time.

Because God, she's gorgeous.

Her h/c h/l hair fell in waves around her frame, singling out the beautiful features that composed her face. The now glossy e/c eyes, the small adorable nose, the thin pink lips, and the ever-glowing s/c skin.

'What did you do?' she was yelling.

'Me?' he asked with hysteria and amusement. 'Oh, no, it's all you, Princess Y/N. Once I knew he was after you, all I did was paint a pinch of black widow venom on his sword. To kill you on the spot, of course. Because I knew your Romeo won't be able to do that. But fate had other plans. You are the one who marked his pretty skin, so don't pin this on me,' he shifted the blame.

She truly is the death of me, my dying brain thought it was funny to remind me.

'Y/N,' I whispered, wanting to tell her so much.

I wanted to let her know how much I loved her, how sorry I was for the fight the previous night, how much I want to marry her, how much I would have loved to settle down and have kids with her, how much I want her by my side to rule our kingdoms, how fortunate I think I am to have her as my lover, how she made me the happiest man on the planet to let me hold and have her.

But all that comes out is a repetition of her name, like a chant – a prayer that saved me, and will save me. I've worshipped her for as long as I can remember, why stop now when I was dying?

'Save him, please,' I heard her plea as sleep fought to take me under.

'Now, where's the fun in that?'

'Oh, my God,' she sobbed, looking down at me as water glittered on her cheeks. I wish I could raise my hand and wipe it off – I wanted to tease her for this, make her laugh one last time. But it was impossible to move; my nervous system and organs shut down one by one. 'Dean, my love, stay with me,' she begged me.

I could only grunt in pain.

Her hand squeezed mine.

'You did me a favor, Princess. Now it's my time to seize the chance and finish the job.'

My mind took too long to process this, only realizing what it meant when an arrowhead poked out of Y/N's right lung, gory with her blood, making her gasp. But she didn't budge from my side.

I opened my mouth to scream at her to leave – to run. To save herself, but my vocals failed me terribly.

'You will pay for this,' she promised, but she didn't move, looking down at me in her arms.

My helplessness finally overwhelmed me. The woman I had sworn to protect was going to die – and I could do nothing to save her.

Tear broke their barriers.

This was it.

'I . . . love you,' I choked with all the remaining energy I had.

'My love . . . I love you, too . . . .'

A/N: Me from the first time I tried the first-person POV - I've tried not to harass its originality, so all the mistakes and drama-queenness is mine 🙃.

Anyhow, if you're new to my page and you don't know, this one-shot is intrinsically linked to my series The Supernatural Wars, Purgatory Series, and another in the works. If you're interested in diving into a whole new world, do continue to Part 2!

Tag List.

@stoneyggirl2 @hobby27 @globetrotter28 @aylacavebear @emma1998sblog

@stanzie

[theamityelf]

Hey not sure if you have answered this but how would other characters deal with a yandare makoto like would kyoko be willing to arrest him or is his Actions more protective and would byakuya be annoyed due to having another being like syo to deal with and would mukuro recepricate his feelings if she found out he was a yandare

Yandere Makoto with Kyoko

Okay, this one might be the toughest, because I feel like more would have to be going on besides just Makoto being yandere, for Kyoko to be unable to stop him from doing stuff. If Yandere Makoto is doing something Kyoko doesn't like, then I feel like she just must not know it's him, because he will stop if she asks. He very seldom acts as if he knows better than her.

For Pre-Tragedy Yandere Makoto, I think his grand romantic act would be making her dad apologize to her. It might even be a weird cute collaborative thing, maybe with Junko, like:

Makoto: I accidentally found out that Junko was planning on kidnapping your dad, so I asked her to let me in on it. She was going to kill him, but I persuaded her to just rough him up a little to make it easier for you guys to have a satisfying conversation.

Junko: It wasn't a little; we actually roughed him up a lot. It was great.

Kyoko: We?

Makoto: Aw, man. Junko, you promised you'd take the blame.

Junko: Puhuhu~, oops.

Makoto: I wasn't doing it for fun, like she was! Actually, I had to stop her from...Well, maybe that's too gross to say. Sorry. Was this a bad present? I also got you civet coffee.

How Kyoko reacts to all this really depends on how she feels for Makoto beforehand, but I think Yandere Makoto still befriends everyone normally before any yandere behavior rears its head, so, that being the case, Kyoko just kind of makes her adjustments to the fact that she'll need to be in charge of Makoto.

She might find it useful to let him loose every now and then. Not letting him hurt anybody, but having somebody that devoted to her is useful. In canon, she's already sending him to rooms to see if someone will attack him.

Yandere Makoto with Byakuya

His feelings for Byakuya aren't as deferent as his feelings for Kyoko. He admires him, but he's also fully aware that Byakuya's wrong about a lot of stuff.

Makoto definitely wouldn't be like Syo. I think, towards Byakuya, his yandere energy would be way more "He needs help" in nature. And again, this is after their friendship has a foundation in normal conversation. (The free time events.)

Maybe one day, Byakuya wakes up from a recurring nightmare and Makoto is there soothing him. Initially, it's comforting, but once he's all the way awake, it registers as bizarre that Makoto is in his room at all.

Makoto: Oh, Aloysius let me in. I told him I'm here to help you with your work.

Byakuya: ??

Makoto: Uh, remember those times you said you wanted me to be your secretary or something?

Byakuya: Yes. I thought you said you didn't want the job.

Makoto: Oh, I don't! But I was thinking about it, and...I think maybe you offered me the job for a reason. Like maybe you need someone to take on that role in your life. I just don't want your money.

Byakuya: Tch. So, you'll be keeping track of my meeting calendar free of charge?

Makoto: Actually, I canceled your meetings for today.

Byakuya: Pardon?

Makoto: Yeah, sorry. I just think someone needs to put their foot down and say enough is enough. You're way too young to have all these responsibilities and-...Oh, if you're looking for your phone, it's in my bag. I'm holding it hostage for the day; we're gonna go to the park or something.

Byakuya: (incredible glare)

Makoto: I know, I know, but it'll be good for you. I promise. Also, I talked to Toko about leaving you alone and I think I accidentally set her up with my sister? So, there's that.

Byakuya doesn't have as much of a hand on the ball, with Yandere Makoto, as Kyoko would, but I think he'd ultimately enjoy that. Makoto will let him have enough victories to feel in charge even as he's asking, "Can I borrow my phone to check the stock market?"

Yandere Makoto with Mukuro

This is fascinating, because I think if Makoto were yandere for Mukuro, he'd have to kill Junko, or get somebody else to kill Junko. And Mukuro would be devastated by the loss of Junko, but that devastation would pretty quickly turn to codependence. She needs Makoto, because her pillar is gone. When he tells her that Junko was bad for her, she knows it's true. She knew it the whole time. And she needs something to lean on, to latch on to, so she throws herself at the idea that he saved her from her sister. Every bit of codependence that existed between her and Junko gets transferred to him, and he's giving her compliments and reassurance the whole time.

What I'm saying is, the trajectory here is "standard Mukuro with a crush on Makoto" to "about ten seconds maximum of Mukuro wanting/trying to attack Makoto for killing Junko" to "Mukuro desperately needing to wrap her whole identity around belonging to Makoto the way she belonged to Junko".

And through all of it, Makoto acts almost just like himself. The only difference is that he was willing to kill Junko.

Makoto: I'm sorry. You really shouldn't have had to see something like that. That was really bad. Here. (wipes Mukuro's tears; she didn't even know she was crying) Um, maybe you should drink some water. Or...something warm. Don't worry, okay? I'm not leaving.

Mukuro: ...You're not...leaving?

Makoto: I'm right here.

Mukuro: ...Please stay right here with me. Please.

Makoto: I am. I promise. Here, I'm going to hold your hand, and we can both go get some water. Okay? Whoa! Tight grip, heheh...This was a lot. I'm really sorry.

[disregardcanon]

this probably seems like a weird question from your end,but why do fanfic writers care so much about comments? aos already tracks hits and likes, sorry ""kudos"", so why are comments such a big deal to the point that people will stop writing?

okay, so i'm going to take this question very seriously and i promise it's not to make you feel bad. this is a comprehensive explanation of reasons that comments are important for me, both as a writer and as a reader

engagement vs numbers game

seeing trends

buy-in

community building

engagement vs numbers game

let's look quickly at two different fics of mine. this is the kudos count for a fic called Of First Kisses and Burnt Lips

it's old. it's been up on ao3 for almost 11 years now. 258 people liked it enough to leave a kudos, 12 people liked it enough for a bookmark, and it's been clicked on 3,859 times.

i have no clue what almost any of these people on ao3 THINK about it. beyond "huh. sure. i'll kudos that". compare this to its crosspost on ffn, where i got 5 reviews

3/5 mention it being cute. 3/5 give appreciation to me for taking the time to write it. 2/5 praise the writing itself from the attention to detail with grammar to the craft. 1/5 is an "um..." which is hard to decipher but appreciate and 1/5 is a silly reaction, but it's a reaction! look, someone felt a felling reading my thing! that made me giggle!

looking at the stats here from a purely numbers perspective, my fic DID better on ao3. it got a lot more kudos than it ever got faves or reviews on ffn. but those ffn comments are still what i think about when i remember this fic.

sure, a shear number like hits or kudos can be comforting and motivating. i'm definitely not telling you to NOT leave kudos! but the fics that i've come back to, recently, are the ones where i don't have a lot of kudos but i do have a few people who are invested in the stories and leaving comments to tell me

2. seeing trends

lets look at a few of the comments on my fic The Maid of Honor Made Them Do It

so just in these two comments, we see both commenters hone in on the same detail: my choice to include a special christian music playlist that this characters' friends made for her. a few other people in this thread mentioned that same detail, so i know this bit really worked well! it's great feedback that lets me know that a good chunk of readers agree with my characterization here.

these readers zoom in on specific details that they really liked! things that made them laugh, the absurdity of the concept, enjoying reading it, and that they could see it staged, which is a HUGE compliment for a work in a fandom for theater.

i've always had trouble with imaging where characters are in a space, how they're occupying it and moving, and how to use that for characterization purposes. however, i got more than one comment on this fic about how people could see it staged! that means that i'm improving in an area that i've always struggled with. that's huge. it makes me want to keep working on this thing! it makes me feel like what i'm doing here matters, because lots of people are picking up on similar things! they're invested enough to give me a comment! and it makes me want to keep writing for the hatchetfield fandom because some people are invested in my work here. that is BIG! seeing trends in the way that readers experience your story helps a lot with writer buy-in for a project and also for writers self-analysis.

as a commenter: this helps me JUST as much. when i really dig into what i enjoyed about a fic to tell the writer about it, that helps me analyze and articulate the strengths and things i might want to take away from the storytelling, and that makes my writing better too!

3. buy-in

this is a comment on a series that has less than 100 kudos across three fics, but has thoughtful, appreciative comments on each work. it's called Melting Pot

the commenter deleted their ao3 account. they may be one of the people who commented on the next fic, which i posted recently. they might NOT have been! honestly, it doesn't matter that much to me. this person gave me a gentle and nudge about a fic that matters to me and mattered to them at the time, and they were part of the push i needed to get back to it.

from a commenter perspective, i know that hearing a kind word can help someone keep up their motivation to write, even when i can't write in depth comments the way that i like to!

just recently i only had the time to comment "nice update" on a favorite fic of mine called Teeth That Turn. but they know that i come and i read and they know and talk to me by (user)name. because they know i care about this thing they care about! and it's way more fun to do something like this when i know i can chat with the author about theories and thoughts and ideas. and this isn't a "wow aren't i so cool other writers like me! tehehe" bragging thing, it's just evidence for the case of why comments matter?

if i didn't want this to be a two way buy-in, i'd ONLY read published fiction, you know? we're all playing in the sandbox on the playground and i like what they made. they like that i like what they made :) we're scheduling a play date to fight with sticks after school my mom said it's okay!

4. community building

now i know that i just mentioned above here why i like being a commenter and how it helps authors, as well as why i like HAVING commenters as an author. i'm still arguing those things as a lead up to this section, where i have two other points to make about community building here too.

1. you can comment on OTHER comments! if you go through and read to see what other people are saying, you can agree with them. you can add some commentary! sometimes you can make a joke! and i've only ever had fun responses from something like that. authors tend to love that their fics are getting such a response that people are talking to each other about it! like look!!!!!! my thing got you to talk to someone else about it holy shit?!??!

2. commenting on fics in your fandom builds you a good reputation and makes other authors you comment on more likely to read YOUR fic. i'm not going to post any screenshots on this one because it would be embarrassing for everyone involved, but there have been authors that i really admired who gave my stuff a try after i commented on theirs. and they've told me that's why they tried it! like obviously it's not just networking or whatever, but it's really nice to have someone give your stuff a try because you've been enthusiastic and thoughtful about theirs.

and you make friends this way! fandom friends! who want to talk about your blorbos! you get to go on little play dates in cyberspace with cool people who like what you like. you don't ever HAVE to be a writer, of course. if you don't want to throw your hat into the ring or make art or edits or gif sets or anything, that's cool. no one ever has to participate in fandom outside of their comfort zone! but if you want to, you know that you'll feel more welcomed if you have some people in your corner for it, and making friends in a space, screaming about how much you love the characters you love, and remembering that fic authors especially are just fans too will help you feel like you "deserve" to exist in the space. maybe you don't write, but you go here too. you've got a space in the fandom and your comments don't have to be, like, perfect literary essays for authors to appreciate them and get a motivation boost from them still existing and us being able to go back to them and go!!! look!!! i don't suck!!! this person liked what i did so i'm okay! :)

[lightweaver-chosen-if]

Hey, I love this story so far!

As someone who is considering writing their own Interactive Fiction, I'm curious what your process for writing a chapter is. Like you mentioned zero drafting a while back, and I found it's really helped, so are there any other techniques you'd recommend? :0

Omg hiiii! It’s definitely a labor of love, but it’s so rewarding. I wish you luck if you end up going for it!

I'm a feeling a little uhh shy doing this since I'm not the fastest nor greatest writer out there... but I’d be happy to share what’s worked for me so far.

Just know that everyone's process is unique, but I hope something here clicks for some of you :D

Tips?

Try to avoid jumping around scenes/routes

I used to jump around from scene to scene, but I’ve found that it makes me prone to flow and continuity mistakes. It's especially troublesome as the story gets bigger.

Now I try to focus on one route or scene at a time. This helps me stay in right headspace, keeps everything cohesive, and is much more efficient.

If you find yourself tempted to jump around, try sticking with one part until it’s complete, or at least until you’ve written a solid chunk of it!

Use CSIDE's (find | find & replace) function to help look for pronouns/names. And do a quick test before playtesting your game

Not sure if everyone uses this... but Ctrl + F then typing the word (ex. he/she/her/him etc) you want to change into a variable helps so much. Especially for hunting pronouns. Highlights words making them easier to see.

A quick Ctrl + T will save you from pain when you're deep into playtesting...

Try the CGST plugin for playtesting routes

I mainly use it for the back button and seeing notifications when a variable changes. With this you can quickly check if all choices are working as intended. It's super useful!

Only caveat is that it only works in Firefox.

Oh and yes, you'll have to upload a private demo for playtesting in COGDemos to try it out ( ˙▿˙ )

Zero Drafting

I know I mentioned it already, but I have to rave about it again!

If you're struggling with where to start, this method might help you. It’s all about getting your ideas down first. It's okay if it’s a mess. Just pour everything into your draft. The main goal here is to keep your ideas flowing, you can always refine them later.

This gives you a foundation to work from and, in my experience, it's a huge relief knowing you don’t have to perfect everything immediately.

You can also mix in coding during the zero draft phase! It’s a great way to test how the choices fit together with the scene you’re working on.

Laying out all the groundwork can save a lot of time in the long run.

Apps that helped me (and might help you too!)

Articy (free)

Not only can it help visualize the paths, but it can track variables too! Also has tabs where you can store character and other lore entries. It has its own language so you'll have to learn it for awhile, but it's pretty easy to understand if you have time :)

I don't use it anymore though since I feel more comfortable doing everything in CSIDE now. But it still helped me a lot when I was getting dizzy with all the gotos, labels, and stuff.

Notion (free)

Just a neat place to store outlines, lore, or ideas! I used to use simple google docs, but this one has more features like; create checklists, put existing pages (scenes) into a timeline, etc. In case you're curious, I used this template in particular.

[rei-ismyname]

Uncanny X-Men #4 FROM THE ASHES

Just going with raw thoughts here. Spoilers, of course.

Yikes

- We keep flashing back to the whirlwind romance of Sarah and Charles.

- I assume up there is its end.

- Either she's also a psychic or has some power stealing ability. Chuck was shown under Cerebro last issue and she tore off after the Outliers. So either she needed to know how to use it or she borrowed Chuck/Philip's telepathy. More on this.

- The pregnancy. They've been together a month which is not 'too soon' to know, assuming they had sex immediately, at least with 2024 knowledge. We know Chuck fought in the Korean War 1950-53 after Oxford so this is 1949 at the earliest, but who knows with comic book time. Not sure what pregnancy detection was like back then, though there's not much wiggle room to say definitively from a missed period.

- Neither baby trap nor woman scorned are especially great beats to use for a rounded villain, and I feel like they're trying hard to rehabilitate Chuck, so having him run out on a baby mama would not be a positive move.

- I'm getting the impression she's either a mutant or a supernatural being of some kind. 'I knew in that instant' makes the most sense to me if that's true.

When we last left the homeless team Logan had left for the same reason he always does - he feels like he shouldn't be around people. Me too buddy. It's getting a bit old to me he's just dealt with this in his solo which is implied to be a flashback/take place before Uncanny.

- Rogue 'knows' he's in trouble and exactly where he is. They act like it's a mystery but it's pretty obvious Chuck is behind this, or a psychic. Law of narrative economy says Chuck.

She's right.

- Are either of those true? I honestly can't remember early Rogue that well.

- I have to assume we're toning down his healing factor this era. Good good, though he should be acting differently.

Rogue doesn't have final girl instincts, that's for sure. I know comic books need fights but teams also need leaders. Rogue is not looking all that competent. Her leadership kinda needs to be shown to us and new readers.

- Rogue hits harder than Logan but he's a lot more durable and lethal. You have a teleporter. Just leave!

- Going with my earlier mutant/supernatural being theory, she's really got a one track mind. 'Motherhood' is not much of a personality. Bit surprising from Gail Simone tbh.

- Krakoa mention! Pretty sure Kurt is referring to the WHR Krakoa AKA we're not seeing it anytime soon. Kurt and Logan were the two biggest skeptics of Krakoa with Logan never trusting it so I'm just going to say this is straight up out of character. Kurt might say it to someone else but definitely not to Logan. Sigh.

Are these folks actually stressed here? He's survived a lot worse casually.

There she goes sniffing the 'childlessness' on Rogue. It's feeling kinda gross and uncomfortable to me at this point. Even a cisnorm tradwife demon or whatever surely has other interests.

- Same goes for Kurt. We know he likes God, despite coming off a huge crisis of faith on Krakoa. Dude has other interests. After that priest misfire in #1 I'd like something else. Personality. 4 issues feels like enough to say that Gail Simone doesn't know how to write Nightcrawler. This is basic shit and maybe she should have used a new character. She clearly wants the Rogue book but the familial relationship with Kurt is recent and not strong.

She's saying a lot without giving us much here, except the implication of magic.

- 10 has some magical significance, such as association with death and rebirth, the universe, perfection and power, transformation and divinity in humans.

- They're already out from Charles' thumb. Some impressive topographic knowledge there though.

- Okay then.

- Brian is Charles' father's name. It wouldn't surprise me if that was significant here. I don't want it to be, but...

- I might be missing something here but aside from vibes this asks more questions than it answers. Confirms the supernatural being theory, though this looks like a death/trauma rebirth as opposed to 'born that way.' Maybe she was chosen.

- Surprisingly candid though.

Get fucked Jubilee. You're not the last X-Men. Delusional.

- Logan has a healing factor. He doesn't really need Jubilee.

- Uh huh. Eldritch knights? I don't know and Gail doesn't want to tell us right now. That's fine.

-These 'X-men' are planning a raid on Graymalkin but they're looking like they'd struggle raiding a pantry. Cyclops has a point here, and considering the assessment of the kids was 'they don't fight as a team, they just attack' that applies to everyone here.

- I bet the Eye of Agamotto gets used next issue. That's a Chekhov's Gun that needs to go off and Gambit won't pull his weight much otherwise tbh. Seems unlikely Rogue is winning that fight solo and the team pulling together as a team using all resources would be a nice W for them. A sorely needed one.

- I feel like this had pacing issues more than anything. The Rogue fight was a bit repetitive and nobody is using their head. If we get a second wind into a win next issue that's not going to feel earned or satisfying. Characters should make mistakes. They've been punished for them, now we need to see a regroup and display of what makes them a team. What makes Rogue a leader and what makes them X-Men.

- When they fought the Outliers in issue two they were inexplicably losing and then they just won. I don't want that again. Tension has been established and a promise made - several promises even - we need to stop treading water and pay that off.

- A bit meh overall for the flagship book, but I have my biases. What did you think?

[eastons-creations]

Live reactions to the first time watching arcane (season 1): *spoilers*

Mel is so hot tho.

I love that they spent that much time on the background of the characters. A lot of people would try to force that into just one episode. I appreciate the 3.

I know enough about the arcane fandom to know that people ship Viktor and Jayce, but don’t know if they actually get together. I hope they do cause I can totally see it 😂 just started episode 4. (I forgot I was doing this)

….half way through episode 5 and I literally would have sworn they were a thing. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! I also totally thought Mel and Elora were together.

OH NO VIKTOR WHAT NO DONT COLLAPSE. I’m so upset about Mel and Jayce.

If Viktor actually died I will throw tables

“He’s like my brother” I almost threw up

Kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss (Jayce and Viktor talking about plants dying lol)

No Vik don’t take the shimmer nooooo

“Jayce will understand.” GAYYYYYY

Mel and Jayce is so forced like why

Okay jinx is like crazy crazy

There’s this one account I follow on insta that did art of Jayce and Viktor and I think that’s why I have hope.

Vik did the thing oh no 😭 please don’t die.

The fight scene between Ekko and jinx is SO COOL

Cait and vi together would be epic. And if they aren’t hinting towards that I will protest. (I known the show does well on representation so I think if there’s a gay couple it’s this one but…)

The girls are fighting in the rain and- Oop side track not the oil and water line 😭 - and all I can think about it how we haven’t seen Viktor in forever. OH NEVER MIND HERE HE IS

VIKTOR WHAT THE FUCK DUDE

I honestly i don’t care about them blowing up the shimmer GO BACK TO VIK. PLEASE.

Ughh the animation is just 😭✋ (everything but I’m specifically mentioning Caits shower scene)

Last ep of season 1!!!

….i love Vik but like, bud. Ugh. I understand.

I remain in my previous comment: Mel is so hot. It is a shame she is interested in men. She would do great things as a lesbian.

JAYCE BETTER COME UP BEHIND VIK RIGHT BEFORE HE JUMPS CALL BACK TO WHEN JAYCE ALMOST DID PLEASE. BAHAHA CALLED IT. the parallels ✋😭

Will destroying the hexcore actually work? I feel like she to powerful now.

Oop a knife. KILL HIM BABES. OH SHIT. WRONG ONE NO

So I took a how to make a language class in college, and now in every show I watch (or any kind of media) that has its own language I’m obsessed. And I will be watching interviews on this later.

Ekko and bat man guy for each other??? That look looked pretty gayyy

Wow not him talking to the statue of the man he killed.

Okay force field. Oop jinx.

Okay they are keeping with the Mel and Jayce thing. Why. Vik is clearly a better option. (I say this acknowledging I have mentioned many times how hot Mel is).

Oh hey I’ve seen this scene on instagram. OOHHHH SHE KIDNAPPED SILCO….

IS HE DEAD. IS. HE. DEAD?!?!?! No way. I don’t believe this. Oooh does she take over his whole thing. Hell yeah. I’d be down for that.

Who survives: my guesses. If Jayce and Vik don’t I will protest. If Mel does…I will scream. Mel’s mom will tho, and that’ll be like a good I regret what’s I’ve done kinda thing.

We don’t know the other counselors enough for them to survive, but I hope the lady with the clock for a necklace does she’s cool. Don’t think caits mom will live, that forces cait and vi to argue cause cait would then hate jinx.

Idk this are my predictions.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk. Come back probably tomorrow for season two reactions lol.

(It’s already done- and spoiler, I’m so done with life after that fucking ending)

[riacte]

Okay, I will bite. What exactly is botc and how does one get into it?

Yipppee! Blood on the Clocktower is a social deduction game by the Pandemonium Institute (TPI) that's similar to Werewolf and Mafia (and I guess Among Us too). It operates on the basis of informed minority (evil team) vs uninformed majority (good team). The goal of evil is to kill + vote out most people on good and the goal of good is to vote out the leader of the evil team (the demon, the main baddie who kills people at night). Evil team know who each other are. Good team doesn't. This is simplified and general, there are many alternate win conditions because BOTC is a game that's ever growing in its complexity. New roles/characters are released periodically.

One huge draw of BOTC is that players can keep talking after death and they retain some agency (in the form of a single dead vote for the rest of the game). The second draw of BOTC is that everyone, good or evil, has a unique power, so you always have an incentive to play. Good and evil are both encouraged to lie for the benefit of their team. For some good characters, you have to lie or you lose. Another characteristic is that it's quite reliant on the storyteller (the host/moderator), sort of like a Dungeon Master. The storyteller's job is to balance the game so good and evil can have an exciting finale. Storyteller choices include coming up with fake information (to help evil) and deciding if someone should die (if the conditions are met). The finale is usually between 1 demon and 2 non-demon characters and the rest of the town has to decide who to kill.

I find BOTC to be inclusive because they have mechanics that allow people to join and leave mid-game and for people to be on the same team so they can share information (eg for a parent-child duo or people who don't like lying to each other).

Key terms: Townsfolk (good characters that help the good team, eg protective roles), Outsiders (good characters that hinder the good team, eg roles that cause extra deaths), Minions (evil characters that disrupt the good team, eg roles that poison information), Demons (evil characters that kill per night), Grimoire (game setup), Script (list of available characters for a game, not all of them are in the game so it gives you choices to lie and bluff)

Anyways BOTC is a large community (lots of online communities and real life meetups) and there are many, many roles to get used to. (See wiki.) People generally recommend playing/watching Trouble Brewing first, which is a "straightforward" and comparatively simple script. (As if any BOTC game can be simple lmao)

I think the easiest way to get into BOTC is to find a regular cast that you already know of / easy to get into. This is because you have to keep track of players AND their roles, and it's easier if you can already tell which player is which. For MCYT this probably means Hermitcraft or Yogs. There's also Good Time Society for Dropout fans.

However, I actually "got" into BOTC from No Rolls Barred, and it's pretty much because of the superb editing. I have the advantage of knowing the cast from HC, but I didn't know shit about the roles and couldn't keep track. NRB has a fantastic video style that shows the role of each player in public and private settings, so it's very easy to associate a player with their character. Online games have the advantage of showing us the grimoire (game setup), but NRB also edits the icons for in-person games. Even though I didn't know anyone from NRB, I found it easy to settle in. NRB cast is similar to HC cast because NRB is full of comedians/actors/theatre kids. Many of them have gimmicks they lean into so it's easy to distinguish them. (Eg. Ken is chaotic, Sully is the bumbling fool (think Ren), Laurie is always right but always loses)

NRB has a loooong public playlist that increases in complexity as the games continue, so you get to learn the game alongside the players. I also pay for NRB patreon for a new monthly BOTC and it's so good. NRB is very popular among the casual BOTC community (to the point some have called them overrated since NRB isn't the most technical channel) and they even partnered with TPI to facilitate the release of new characters.

After binging literally everything from NRB, I moved onto Noobs on the Gooftower run by Chris Grace (who was in some NRB). This felt like a natural progression since Noobs is similar to NRB's style but is more technical and they stream every week. (They're not noobs now after playing so much BOTC lmao).

The official TPI channel has some good cuts but I couldn't get into them as a beginner lol. TPI channel is the most technical/focused on gameplay mechanics out of those I mentioned here (there's more on the same level but I'm not that deep yet). TPI is for when you know many of the roles and want to see something chaotic and borderline game breaking that blows your mind. There are lots of insane plays from very smart players.

BOTC isn't for everyone and there's definitely a steep learning curve, but once you get used to it (and enjoy it), it's pretty much endless entertainment. There are tons of jargon and meta to dig into. The Hermitcraft ones confused me as a beginner so I think it's best to familiarise yourself with the game from a channel with good and clear editing (in this case I recommend NRB). I recommend watching online games in the beginner stage because the storytellers have the time to explain what they're doing and players have the opportunity to explain their plans. Good Time Society is also great for beginners but their editing is a bit confusing sometimes. Now I'm at the stage in which I recognise players but I don't know which channel they were "originally" from— it's just one big BOTC cinematic universe to me.

Also! BOTC is currently running its World Cup script tourney in which people come up with custom rules and people vote for the script they like more. It adds complexity on top of already complex mechanics but it's very fun for me.

Yayy okay this got long, I love rambling about BOTC. Sorry if it's a bit overwhelming but yeah hope this was useful!

[talenlee]

Game Pile: Sleepaway

We’re going to camp! We’re gunna have a ball! We’re going to camp to get awaaay from it all!

Wait that song includes lyrics about being bitten by the counsellors. Hrm. Maybe American camp culture is bad. Anyway,

Content Warning: Sleepaway is a horror TTRPG which explicitly invokes the threat of both animal harm and child endangerment as part of its horror elements.

Sleepaway is a tabletop RPG by Jay Dragon, made in 2020, and released by Possum Creek Games. The core fantasy of it is that the players are camp counsellors at an American-style summer camp, a thing that does not exist here. There’s going to be nuance I miss, a vibe I don’t quite understand, I hope that’s okay.

Let’s talk about the basic, fundamental resolution mechanic in this game. Players take moves and those moves contribute to the fiction. The two most common moves are ‘take action, leaving yourself vulnerable,’ and ‘invite the Lindworm to act upon the group.’ These two ideas are introduced and explained on page 14, but if you’re not already familiar with the game it might feel like there’s something more to be done, something more to be explained.

Basically, the action economy is one where players have Strong moves (that advantage you and advance the story), Regular moves (that just advance the story) and Weak moves (that disadvantage you, give you a token, and advance the story). All the moves you can do are things that make the story move forwards, but you need to suffer before you do strong things, and there is a clean exchange between advantages and disadvantages, with the bad things in the story contributing step by step

This game is GM-less, which is to say it’s a game where there’s no single person whose job it is to facilitate play, manage rules and keep people on task or following a thread of narrative. This is a feature, not a benefit or a drawback; it’s just something about how the game is structured, and you may find that a good thing or a bad thing. Particularly, the game as designed is heavily interpretive and narrative-driven, which means that mostly it’s going to appeal to people who already wanted to sit around and tell stories with one another. For me, that’s always a hard sell, because I have that already, it’s called my friends. A RPG is something specific with a structure that relieves the pressures on people to come up with narrative on their own and instead exist within a structure that other people provide.

The game has a large amount of material presence, what I call stuffness. In this case, the game has the book, sheets for the camp, sheets for the characters, sheets for the setting, pencils and scrap paper (and lots of index cards), a deck of playing cards, tokens, and a conspiracy theorist corkboard with string and pushpins, or a large piece of paper with a lot of coloured pens. And here is one of the many ways this game pulls at me, in that my first reaction to this list of required material is that’s too much stuff.

But then they get to the corkboard and I’m suddenly on board.

I think the idea of a TTRPG played off a corkboard as the group character sheet rules! That’s such a cool idea, and using it to store character information or track resources strikes me as a really cool approach to a game design! I wouldn’t have imagined it was the kind of vibe for a game set in a summer camp, but again, I don’t go there, I don’t know how common corkboard conspiracy charts are.

I’ve spoken at length about the idea of getting people invested in your game as fast as possible, in what I tend to call the approach. I’ve also talked about the way that a game’s interface can be impeded by even small amounts of friction, and how quickly a game can get you invested in who you are and what you get to be. As much as people may dislike the comparison, my gold standard for this is Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, where a player is already invited to create a character with just the basic polarity of ‘race/class’ and a two page spread introducing all the core concepts to them. That is a gold standard, I understand everyone is not in a position to spend Wizards money. I am however, keenly mindful of how you start your book and what you present in the opening of that book.

The opening of Sleepaway is a discussion of design influences.

I have no association with Dream Askew & Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum. I know they were used for another game, which was similarly loose that I spoke about before. I do not deeply understand the Apocalypse World engine by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker, either. Nor do I know Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (though hey, dope, Jenna Moran, long time fan here), nor do I know Pin Feathers/Cloud Studies, or Sorcerer or House of Miracles or The Secrets of the Forbidden Isle or what the Wayfinder experience are. These are signifiers that are for communicating ideas to people who recognise them.

This page is, to me, a page for a designer to speak to other designers.

This isn’t even a bad page! I think it rules that there’s a part of this book that’s trying to draw connections in a design space. It’s like a bibliography, a sign of connection. I like it. I question its presence here, at the start of the book. In the context of starting this book, we get title page, art page, blank page, ISBN and all that good stuff, credits, author bio, design inspiration, table of contents, and that means that it’s ten pages before we get to ‘how to play.’ And if it’s not there to be read at the start of the experience, then why is it there? How much of the opening of a book are we supposed to throw away?

The question might well follow: What is more important to this game than getting players interested and engaged? Who should be reading this book first?

Now here’s the biggest issue I have in this whole game that I would otherwise spend quite a lot of time complaining about: The resolution mechanic for this game rules. It’s cumbersome and it’s ugly and it requires a level of memorisation I do not find comfortable and I think there are better ways to implement it, but this is a game which uses playing cards for its resolution and a hidden actor to resolve it.

See, after the Moves are done, ultimately, people are going to hit a point in the story where you run out of options and have to take the move Invite the Lindworm to act upon the group. This means that all the players close their eyes, and one player (chosen in secret) picks one of the top three cards in the deck to present to the group. That player then closes their eyes and knocks on the table, and players no doubt look up the prompt to see what the revealed card means. There are rules to what the Lindworm will try to do, which means that it will avoid certain kinds of cards if it can, and it will try to kill animals rather than people, adults rather than children, and children rather than the protagonists, in that order.

This mechanism rules. I love the way that the game’s mechanical structure depersonalises this horror, where there’s an explicit mystery to what will happen and a fear of what might happen, all told in the silence of the ritual as people close their eyes and focus on the thing that they know is about to happen. It is not the bang, but the anticipation thereof.

This mechanic kicks ass! It’s such a good horror mechanism! I wish it wasn’t as fiddly as it is to execute what with the table and the person holding the card having to make an important decision without being sure what people will do with it, and I wish it didn’t come along with all the other details in the game like the conspiracy board, but I love how this mechanism creates a ritual for the Lindworm. It is a thing that brings with itself terror and that terror is heightened by the way it is invoked.

Someone needs a token to do a Strong action, and this is the least bad option they can come up with for how to get one, for how to use their Weak actions. And then… people close their eyes.

The dark comes.

It’s a great mechanic for a horror game!

I think Sleepaway is about an experience I don’t have and is a little confused in how it approaches its ideas, a beautifully slick, sleek engine that is unfortunately gummed up with concepts that I don’t think it needs but I couldn’t rightfully say it could get rid of without knowing the designer’s intention. There’s a want to tell a horror story that’s inclusive and diverse in a genre that is famous for its othering and exploitation, and a focus on not recklessly incorporating cultural elements inappropriately that also puts the Lindwurm, a Nordic mythical creature, in the setting’s America.

But maybe I was always supposed to fixate on the things in this game that excite me, because as I said: The opening seems to be for designers.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[cozage]

The Daughter's Return Part 3

Chapter 15: House Arrest

Start From Beginning | Next Chapter | Table of Contents | Read on AO3

Characters: female reader x Portgas D. Ace Word Count: 1.3k

You couldn’t look at your father. You knew he was waiting for you to look him in the eye, but you couldn’t. You were afraid you’d be stuck there forever in a stalemate. 

And then he bent down and wrapped his arms around you, and pulled you in for an embrace. 

“I know you’ve been through a lot recently,” his voice was low and comforting. “And I believe you did everything with the best intentions. So raise your head, and let’s talk.”

He pulled away from you and walked back to his office, you and Marco following closely behind him. 

When you entered the room, you found Whitey waiting for you, and she gave you a smile and a small wave. Her eyes held many questions, but she didn’t dare ask them here. 

It was just the four of you in there. You weren’t sure where the other commanders were, but they hadn’t even been on the deck to greet you. That was fine with you, you didn’t need added shame to what you already felt. 

“Let’s start from the beginning,” your father said. 

“We heard reports of Teach heading to Paradise, so we-“

“No,” he interrupted, pointing to your torso. “That beginning.”

You blushed. For a moment you had forgotten about the baby. 

“What do you want to know?” You asked. You weren’t about to give up information voluntarily. 

“How far along are you?” Your father asked. “When did you know? Who else knows?”

“I think a little over four months now,” you said. It was hard to keep track. “I haven’t had an appointment in a while, so-“

“You went to clinics?” Your father’s eyes darted to Marco and then back to you. “Which ones?”

You gave a nervous laugh. “Yes we went to clinics. I was throwing up everything I ate and then some.”

“So there are records,” Marco said softly. 

“I always used a fake name.”

Your father stared at you intensely. “Which clinics? Do you remember the doctors?”

You shifted uncomfortably in your seat. This was starting to feel more like an interrogation than a simple chat. You had expected some heat, but this was starting to get a bit much. 

“Why does it matter?” You asked. 

“Because,” your father said. “Anyone who knows about this is a risk. A big one.”

You scowled. “Shanks said something similar,” you muttered softly, more to yourself than anyone else. 

“Shanks knows?” Your father asked, and you nodded, which sparked a string of curses to fall from his mouth. 

“What the hell have you been up to in the last month?” Marco asked, looking at you with concern. 

“What’s the big deal?” You asked. You were starting to get irritated with everyone’s overreaction with every little thing. 

“That baby will never be safe if people know its heritage,” your father said. 

“Everyone knows I’m a Newgate! And I can’t exactly hide out for six more months and then come back with a newborn I ‘adopted’!”

Marco sighed. “It is Ace’s, ri-?”

“Marco!” You were infuriated he’d even think anything else. “Of course it is!”

“Okay!” Marco held his hand up in apology. “Sorry!”

“This is bad,” your father said, his eyes on your belly. “The timing couldn’t be worse.”

Tears pricked at your eyes. “I didn’t plan this, dad! I didn’t plan any of this!”

“I should’ve never let you leave this ship,” he said, shaking his head. “Now tell me where you visited clinics. We need to erase any proof you were there.”

“What are you going to do?” You asked. “They don’t know-“

“Nobody can ever know!” Your father roared. “You will die if that information ever gets out. The Navy will never stop. Never!”

“What’s the big deal?!” You screamed back. “I’m a Newgate, everybody already knows that!  The Navy will never leave me alone anyway! Just-“

“This isn’t about you!” He yelled back. His haki washed over you in waves, and you knew he was hiding something. 

Normally, his show of force didn’t bother you much. But between the baby and the sea prism, it overwhelmed you, and you fell to your knees. 

“Stop!” You screamed, tucking into a fetal position in pain. “Please stop!”

You didn’t plead often, and your father stiffened at your words. Instantly, the power receded. But you could still feel the effects tingling across your skin. 

“This isn’t about you,” your father said again, shaking his head. His voice was thick with tears.

“Pops.“ Marco interrupted. “I don’t think-“

But your father ignored Marco’s warning and continued. 

“It’s about Ace.”

“Ace?” You asked, lifting your head up slightly. You were still dazed from his haki and weren’t sure you heard him right. 

“I guess he never told you. Can’t blame him though, after I specifically asked him not to.” 

Your fathers words only confused you more. 

“Pops?” You stood up, your knees still wobbling slightly. “What are you talking about?”

“Ace is Gol Roger’s son.”

It took a moment to process what he had said. A part of you wasn’t shocked. You had known that Ace hated his father and never liked to talk about it. And yet he always seemed to understand how you felt, weighed down by living in the shadow of a powerhouse for a father. 

“I see,” you whispered, thinking back to all of the things he had said about his parents. 

Whitebeard raised his eyebrow at you, surprised by your response. 

“You don’t seem surprised,” he said. 

“I’m not.”

Marco looked at you, shocked. “You’re not?”

You shook your head. “He’s always been weird about his birth parents. I knew I needed one little piece to connect it all, and now everything makes sense.”

“So now you understand what kind of risk you’re at if the Navy finds out,” your father said. “You understand why I can’t allow you to partake in this rescue mission.”

“What?” You hissed. “No, I have to! You need all the help you can get. You can’t just keep me locked up!”

“You will not be much help in your current state,” your father said. “Use of strong and targeted Haki will knock you out. You can barely perform devil fruit abilities. You’d be more of a risk than an asset.”

You knew he was right, but the words stung. Your ability had become significantly weaker, especially over the last month. But that didn’t matter. Even weakened, you were still stronger than half the people on the ship. 

“Give me swords. I learned how to wield them in Wano.” Anything to get you on that battlefield. Anything to get you closer to Ace. 

“Absolutely not,” Marco snapped, before your father could even respond. “You’re pregnant. Even if you think it’s not a big deal, it is. We’re not putting you on a battlefield. You need checkups and rest, not sword fights and enemies.”

“Marco! That's not-“

“You may assist with the strategy leading up to it,” your father said. “During the battle, you will stay on the ship and help adjust the strategy as needed. That is all I will allow. Do not ask for more, or I will revoke it all.

“I’m placing you under Marco’s command until further notice. You will do everything Marco tells you to, and you will not complain. When Marco tells you to report for a checkup, you will do so without any nonsense. When he tells you to take medicine, you will not object. When he tells you to stop working, you will follow his orders. Is that understood?”

You could tell by his voice, there was no point in arguing. He had thought this through. And honestly, it felt like a better alternative than being thrown in a cell for a week, not knowing what was happening outside. 

“Yes sir,” you whispered. You blinked away tears, afraid of what the future would hold. 

“Do not let your spirit break yet,” your father said. “We have much to do, and if all goes well, we can pretend that this never happened.” 

But things in the pirate world never went according to plan.

--

Tag list! @taeyoge @teiza @tojislawyer @trafalgardnami @bloopbopsblog @dancingnewcat @dxestyi @flooofity @nyxthedragon01 @deadsnothere @h-rhodes1598  @morgyyyyyyy @trafalgardvivi  @fiestynatureweeb @frogpogjoghurt @beepboopcowboy @ms-portgas @luvyallbabes @appalost @zuchkaa @saybeyonce @stray-npc @kitsunechan707 @theyluvmesblog @heartysworld @aira-needs-sleep  @mothmomjay @ophelias-flowerss @aqualein @sehyojae @fanficwriter5 @forgotten-blues @amberash05 @firefistnoct @depressed-but-make-it-cute

[your-fave-microwaved]

WELCOME TO THE KITCHEN!

Hi! You can refer to all of the mods on this blog collectively as The Microwave, but if you’re looking to individually reference someone, here is our modlist, composed of short intros detailing that mods preferred pronouns, name and a fun fact about themselves.

I’m Brad! I’m the founder of this blog and so far the only moderator, I use he/him and it/its! I enjoy writing and all things knights, armour and chivalry!

WHAT DO WE DO?

Here in the kitchen, we make stamps of your favourite characters going through a spin in the microwave! All of our stamps are 99x56px, so characters with more detail may be obscured. All of our stamps are free to use! Credit is not necessary but is appreciated!

We post three stamps a day! If your stamp is taking a while, that probably means we have a lot of requests!

REQUESTS

Requests are…

OPEN!

Request requirments!

Basic:

Make sure the character has an official render from their source media, we will not use fanart for our stamps as to avoid art theft.

Media with suggestive scenes are okay, however do not request characters from media that is centered ONLY around smut.

You can send in multiple requests and requests for a group of characters, but please only ask for one stamp per request! And to make sure everyone gets a chance, try to space out your requests! We can do a maximum of 4 characters per one stamp.

Make sure to search your characters name on this blog to make sure they haven’t been done already before requesting! If your character has been done before, but you want a specific design of them you can request that!

Only send requests in our ask box please! Reblogs and dms are harder to keep track of, and please don’t use those to evade requests being closed ! ^.^

because of issues with transparent images and resolution, we will not do live action characters, sorry!

For Anon:

Use the character’s full name and source media (I.E “007n7 from Forsaken”, as opposed to just “7n”.). Please only use the character’s official or most popular name, rather than lesser known aliases (I.E “Sniper”, as opposed to “Mick Mundy.”)

For Non-Anon:

If attaching an official render, please also include the characters full name and source media for proper tagging. You can also just do their full name and source media! (* ^ ω ^)

BLACKLISTED FANDOMS

Harry Potter

The Coffin of Andy and LeyLey

NO SERVICE

We hope to expand our services to everyone to be inclusive, but some folks we will not knowingly serve. Please for the mod’s own comfort do not interact if you fall under any of the following categories:

TERFS (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists)

Neo-Nazis/Nazis/Similar Views

Zionists

Trump Supporters

Transmeds

Transids

Loli/Shotacons

Tags

#From the Kitchen - Non Stamp Posts

#Microwaved - Stamp posts

#Order Up - Requested Stamps

Mod Applications are….

OPEN!

Shoot a DM to this blog to apply ^_^

[the-s1lly-corner]

The Angst Alphabet

NOTE: any letter/alphabet prompts that have been made and put in the masterlist that do not specify which list theyre from, assume they are fluff alphabet prompts if they are posted prior to 6/19/24! Always worth to doublecheck, however this is a general thing!

Similar to the fluff and tropes list, you can turn to this list of prompts for ideas of what to request! This list will also be open indefinitely, hooray! If you're unsure if a character has already had any specific prompts done, you can always turn to the masterlist! You can find this list and other pre made prompt ideas at the bottom of the main masterlist! All will be in my pinned! You can find the rules for this alphabet under the cut, please keep them in mind when requesting! You are also free to use these prompts for your own writing!

Naturally, there is a chance that this list may contain subjects that can bring discomfort. I want to make it very clear that for the majority, if not all, of these prompts are in no way meant to be romanticized. That being said a lot of these prompts revolve around emotionally charged mistakes as well as people being naturally flawed; unless the scenario and character calls for it, assume that these are relationship hiccups.

CWs: mentions of death and grief, injuries, mentions of murder, talks of scars and while it can be seen in any way it can be seen in a S/H way however its a vague prompt, general mentions of loss, possibility of trauma depending on character and prompts that are requested together,

You can request up to 3 prompts and 2 characters in a single request! As long as I write for the character (I will let you know if I don't! We'd be here forever if I listed every character I write for..) and what fandoms I currently write for (can be found in the pinned as well as the status! If it says its ongoing, you're good to go!). As stated in the opening note, if youre unsure if a few prompts had been done for a character, check the Masterlist! Or alternatively you can ask me via inbox if it's been done yet! Speaking of, I only accept requests through the inbox since it's easier to keep track of.. as well as this I work on a queue system so expect your request to take a while; you're always free to ask when its expected to be posted! Request status will also be kept up to date in my bio! A lot of these prompts can be applied to romantic or platonic relationships however on the chance you ask for a character i only write platonic for and ask for a prompt that is more romantic leaning, I will do my best to make it platonic. If it cannot be done I will make that aware to you! Tags do not equal the fandoms I write for as thats subject to change! If a fandom is not listed or it's been a while I recommend looking at my pinned to see fandom statuses!

Admirer- What are they like when they have a crush on you, but they already know you dont notice them or reciprocate? Or alternatively, what if you were asked out by someone else before they got the nerve to do it themselves?

Break up- What can break your relationship? How are they like afterwards?

Clique- What if their group of friends and/or family disapprove of you, or outright hate you? How likely are they to crack under the pressure? Will they side with you or them, or will they choose to stand in the middle?

Distrust- How do they try to get your trust back? What can you do that breaks their trust?

Ex- What are they like when your ex turns up? Whether the ex in question is bad or not, how do they work through these feelings? Are they okay with you being friends with an ex?

Fight- How nasty can they get in an argument? Who walks away first, if there is any walking away?

Guttural- How do they show their emotions, do they talk about it? Do they silence themselves? Do they generally keep quiet or do they feel that they can't talk about it?

Heal- How do they make it up to you after a fight? Do they make a promise to do better or do they remain stagnant? Change is not linear, what will progress look like?

Jealousy- Very similar to the E prompt, as well as the Jealousy prompt from the fluff alphabet. How do they handle these feelings? What makes them jealous? Both in general, as well as when it comes to you?

Injury- Much like it's fluff counterpart... how do they handle you when your hurt... however, in this list... how are they in the moment?

Kill- Would they kill for you/out of revenge?

Lonely- How often do they feel alone? Do they seek you out or do they swallow their feelings?

Misery- How do they cope after your passing? How long does it take for them to pull themselves together ect ect

Nightmare- How do they soothe your nightmares? Do they have nightmares themsevles?

Opened- Will they throw something in your face in the heat of the moment, knowing it will hurt you? How do they proceed after the immediate damage?

Protective- How far are they willing to go to protect you? If they give everything they can, and you still get hurt... how do they react? Will they blame themselves, or you? Or will they go quiet?

Quake- Something in the past the effects how they move forward, in general and/or within the relationship

Rejected- How do they handle feeling rejected? Not just a rejected confession, but rejection as a whole? How do they cope when they feel rejected by you?

Strangers- What's it like when you find yourselves in the same space, after breaking up? Will they approach you or will they pretend they don't know you?

Two faced- How likely are they to lie to you, what would they lie about? What happens if they're caught?

Undying- In the case one of you are immortal or otherwise live long... how does that effect the dynamic?

Valentine- Different from its fluff alphabet counterpart, how will they feel if you stood them up on valentines day? On the flip side, what kind of emergency would make them stand you up?

Wounded- Do they have any scars, of any origin? How do they feel about them? How do they treat your scars, of any origin?

Xray- How obvious are they when theyre around something they hate/when you do something that upsets them

Yearn- Similar to it's fluff counterpart, how do they deal with separation or rather, how do they cope with wanting something they've lost and/or don't have?

Zestless- What happens if one or both of you lose your spark for the relationship? Will you try to ignite it, or will you simply part ways?

[loco-warehouse]

Mini TADC Theory

Okay, I'm not much of a theory person but since watching episode 3, I've been pondering a couple details. (Spoilers below)

I truly don't think there's gonna be a happy ending for the characters trapped in the Digital Circus.

I don't have too much evidence, but from previous statements from Gooseworx and the little bits of world building outside the circus, I believe we're gonna get a similar ending to, "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream."

I'm sure most of us have familiarized ourselves with the connection with the two pieces of media-- group of humans trapped to be played with by an AI higher being.

At the end of IHNMAIMS, the humans killed each other besides one, and the only known way out the Circus is abstraction, which is basically a death sentence (or so we believe at the moment.)

But, episode 3 showed something really interesting that I feel needs to be taken a lot more into consideration.

The one person you don't want losing their mind, is the higher power AI God who literally controls and keeps everything together.

Yes, the humans there can abstract from losing their sanity, but you're talking about people who have complex range of emotions and comprehension. Caine does not have that as an AI, but doesn't mean he isn't capable of losing it, as we have seen within' the episode. There's a sense that, yes, Caine himself can abstract, but it's not him that's abstracting, but the environments that he has created. So, for him as the Ringmaster, to have continuously do what he has been programmed to do for how ever many years, to be told suddenly one day that the one thing he believes he's good at, is actually bad-- that is all its gonna take for the whole world to start crumbling around our protagonists.

And due to this not being a official essay, I refuse to go through months of notes that the creator has said so I'm pulling a cheat card of slamming down the wiki pages.

This part is less on the show and more based on its inspirations, and Gooseworx's previous works.

Stanley Parable is a game with many interpretations and meanings, but there is a gist of deconstructing game play and storytelling, which leads into a more philosophical route based off player choices.

And basing it off the obvious, with episode 1 being heavily inspired by the game, the same is happening within' the series for all the humans. While their breaking points aren't a choice, Zooble has already been shown as a shining example of continuing to not play Caine's adventures, even if its for different reasons relating to their body/identity versus philosophical video game tatics. Pomni has made the choice to bring Gummi-Goo back, even if that choice was taken away from them in the end.

Runmo is a short animation based around our protagonist trying to get extra lives to finally be able to reach the other side of the obstacle, even if it meant cheating on gaining those lives. Which, ironically, results in their efforts being nothing, as there was no further platform on the other side of the spikes.

And Darly Boxman...well, I can't fully say, mainly because its less a story and more like a concept. Personally, the short animation feels more in tune with Gooseworx's bleak, dark comedy and slight hints at something bigger going on without giving too much away.

Anyways, the reason I'm mentioning these pieces is mainly to prove that Goose's work has a track record of making fun of the horrific, while also not indulging into viewers sense of happy endings and cutting it short in a dark manner.

There's so much to the show than what I'm saying and showing, but my prediction within future episodes is that the cast is gonna make Caine lose his mind, which may result in them having to hurt/kill Caine, and the rug is gonna be pulled under them where they're (or one of em, probably Pomni like I Must Scream,) in a more broken, haunting version of the Circus and still unable to escape.

Or I could be totally wrong about all of this! Which is fine, I just enjoy speculating and would like to hear other theories and thoughts, or even counter-arguments! Anyways thanks for reading my very first theory ever have a Gucci day yall