#like she was the dungeon lord at one point. she must still have these weird desire to control the monsters and dungeon | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

faroreswinds · 2 years ago

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More thoughts on Totk.

Wasn't the Master Sword fully restored in the last game? Why is the Deku Tree telling me it is only now fully restored? Plus, why did Link go get it? The whole point is that the Hero only needs the blade in dire need. When they went to get the MS, there was no apparent danger that necessitated the use of it. But I guess Link just carries that thing around now.

I still miss the idea of Sages making the Master Sword and not Hylia. :/

Also, the Deku Tree noted that he could feel the Master Sword moving. But er.... if this is a time loop, then shouldn't he have noticed how odd it was there were two Master Swords at some point? That shit don't add up if I'm being honest.

Lmao, there is a side quest referencing Lord of the Rings.

And I found the "It's a secret to everyone!" line! I always love finding that line in these games.

Real talk but the lighting in this game is pretty bad..... Like, truly terrible.

Phantom-Zelda is weird, because she is SUPPOSED to be Phantom Ganondorf in disguise, but then in his infinite evil... tells a bunch of researchers to wear underwear publicly instead of clothes. It made me laugh but like, weird choice bro.

There is a order to the memories and you are guided to find them IN order but like... I'm not going to walk away from a memory I find just because it's not "in order". So here is the current order of memories I have found:

1. Intro scene where Ganondorf awakens.

2. The scene where Ganondorf attempts to send a bunch of Molguda towards Hyrule. Rauru uses his power, along side Sonia and Zelda, to basically laser-blast them in the face. Ganondorf is all "hmmm, I need one of those stones". I don't know how he managed to see the stone from that distance but ok. And of course, Zelda's light is MUCH bigger than Sonia's.

3. The actual "first" memory, when Zelda awakens in the past and meets Rauru and Sonia.

4. The actual second memory, where Zelda realizes she is in the past, and Sonia and Rauru agree to take her to the castle. (They basically outright say that she is related to both of them. How cross-breeding of races work here I have no idea).

5. And now Sonia is apparently dead since Rauru is at her grave. Zelda tells Rauru that Ganondorf is still alive in her time and that they will fail tomorrow when trying to attack Ganondorf. Rauru says that maybe things will go differently since Zelda is here now, and she must be here for a reason.

6. All the Sages... become Sages. Rauru basically handed out secret stones to his favorite people, kek. Well, not exactly, but that is what it kinda felt like.

7. Oops, got the last memory of Zelda holding the Master Sword and hoping it will reach Link in the future (more on that in a second).

Oops accidentally got the MS already. Ok, here is what happened. I straight up could not find Hetsu. I had 100 Korok seeds and mommy needed more inventory space. I figured that if I triggered the events in Lost Woods then Hestu would appear (spoiler, he didn't). Anyways, so I went to the Lost Woods and defeated Phantom Ganon that lurked inside the Deku Tree (nice callback to OoT and LoZ). Now the Deku Tree tells me that the Master Sword is moving, so weird and all. But I figured I would get it later. I managed to come across the "get the fierce deity outfit" side quest and so of course I had to do it. I decided to fling myself up in the air so I can traverse across the land to one of the piece locations faster. Well, it just so happened that Zelda-dragon was flying by as I did this so.... Well, I just had to get it then. I already had the stamina since Botw trained me that you get stamina before heart pieces, so.... Yeah. Oops. At this point I hadn't even done a single dungeon yet.

SPEAKING of Hetsu, he is so easy to miss. He is "technically" on the guided path set out by you by the main quest, but he is still off the beaten path AND he blends into the environment. I missed him entirely the first time I ran by. This is the only thing I actively looked up because I got tired of having 120 Korok seeds and no Hetsu to give them to. Honestly, Botw did this better.

And speaking of NPCs, some NPCs just don't know Link. Hetsu acts as if he never met Link before. Weird. He's not the only one either, actually. But the world feels more alive. I'm constantly running into NPCs that either give me solid advice, give me a little side quest, or hint at cool stuff around the corner. Very well done imo.

OK, let's move on to the Rito Dungeon. The climb to the dungeon was a bit too long, but that last bit where you hop from boat to boat was probably some of the best Zelda experiences ever, especially the last throw up into the air and you can just see everything. Unfortunately, the dungeon was terrible. It was tiny and easy, and it was basically 5 shrine puzzles thrown together. I actually encountered some harder shrines than this entire dungeon.

The boss, though, was a stellar spectacle. Flying in the air with a boss like that was amazing. Easy boss though, it was barely a fight. But it was more spectacle than substance, and sometimes those bosses are ok too.

Tulin, however, is incredibly annoying af. Please stop talking to me while I fight, thank you.

After beating the boss, you meet the past Rito Sage. He has no name apparently, and we don't even see his face. Idk why they basically put no effort into these Sages. We NEVER see their real faces. They just wear past-Divine Beast masks basically. But he tells us that everyone survived the imprisoning war (except Rauru cause reasons) and then Zelda asked him to lend his power to Link in the future.

Overall, pretty decent cutscene. Too bad Link basically didn't react the ENTIRE FUCKING TIME.

Tulin's ability will be useful for traversal though. Very reminiscent of what OoT had planned to do with the Sage Medallions.

#totk-spoilers

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ghostofstudentspast · 3 years ago

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OBLIGATORY part 4

Draco x Pureblood!Reader (Series) MASTERLIST

Back again with another part to the series!! Since I’ve been on hiatus for so long I’m taking this story in a completely new direction which I am SO excited about. I really hope you all enjoy it! I know chapters have been a bit short but I’m building to some bigger events soon ;)

PART 5 Word count: 1400

A hangover after a five-day bender. That’s the only way you could describe the way your body was feeling. Your stomach cramped up and a whimper escaped your lips as you curled in on yourself, soft sheets beneath you. Soft sheets. Not the cold hard floor of a dungeon classroom. Cracking open your eyes and sitting up slowly you peeked around the room before you.

Not the hospital wing either. The room itself was spacious, with a big window on one side, golden light streaming in through light curtains. There was a small desk in the corner, a cushy arm chair next to a small bookshelf and a fireplace. The bed you found yourself on was impossibly soft, with the fluffiest duvet you’d ever felt in the world. But still you had no idea where you were.

The soft click of a door drew your attention to the other side of the room. A familiar face slipped through the door before spotting you sitting up, awake.

“Ah, so you’re not dead after all.” You watched Draco walk towards you carefully, almost as if he was approaching a feral cat.

“No-I….where are we?” Your throat felt dry and your voice was barely above a whisper.

“I know why you did it,” He ignored your question and stopped next to your bed, handing you a glass of water you hadn’t noticed. You gratefully accepted the drink but never took your eyes off Draco. “It’s this isn’t it?” he’d rolled up his shirt sleeves and turned his arm towards you to expose the harsh black lines of the skull snaking down his porcelain skin.

You shook your head silently, too tired to stop the tears from welling up in your eyes. You tried to come up with the words. How could you tell him it terrified you to spend your whole life under the dark lord’s thumb when Draco was so loyal to him. You could feel your breath hitch and the panic bubble in your chest.

“Hey, look at me,” his tone was surprisingly soft, almost gentle. He perched on the edge of the bed, closer than you were prepared for. His hand carefully gripped your elbow and you couldn’t stop your body from flinching slightly under his touch. You looked up at him as a tear rolled down your cheek and your chin trembled. His eyes held no malice anymore, no anger and none of the disgust she was expecting.

“I’m just as scared as you are.” He spoke as if saying it out loud for the first time. Maybe it was.

Of course, you knew he’d taken the mark, but you’d been so caught up in your own anger and fear that you hadn’t considered the toll it would have taken on him. The bags under his eyes spoke of restless nights. He looked frazzled, nothing close to the usual perfectionist persona you grew up with. For the first time you looked at his dark mark voluntarily. It made your skin crawl but now you could see the raised skin under the tattoo. The edges were red and looked as uncomfortable as you felt.

“Why did you take it?” you whispered and looked back at his face.

“He would have killed my family Y/N,” he didn’t look back up at you, instead focussing on the tattoo, disgust clear in his eyes. He dropped his arms into his lap and picked at the material of his trousers. “My father angered him, and he offered me up like a scapegoat for his actions.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I just thought…” you took a deep breath, “I’m sorry.” You grabbed his hand to stop him from fiddling and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Me too.” He finally met your eyes again and offered you a tiny smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Truce?” you wiped your face from tears and a small laugh cut through your sob. He squeezed your hand back this time and nodded. “So, how do we know if me almost dying actually worked?” you pushed your hair back and took a deep breath, collecting your thoughts.

Draco pushed himself off the bed and walked over to the little desk in the corner of the room. He picked up the contract and brought it back for you to take a look at. At first glance you could only see blood splattered across the page and it looked like a crime scene. But when you took a second, closer look at the paper, the words had started to fade. Certain sentences had already disappeared off the page and others were hidden behind dark spots of your blood.

“It’s disappearing?” You looked up at Draco questioningly.

“It’s been fading for as long as you’ve been out.” He nodded, “but it hasn’t changed since you’ve woken up.” You kept flipping through the contract.

“So, we’re still bound to this,” you muttered, “but there’s enough missing that there must be a loophole here somewhere.” A spark of hope flared up in your chest and a small smile graced your lips.

“I think so,” he agreed and allowed himself to drop into the chair next to the bookshelf, inspecting at you from a safe distance.

“I’ve cast a charm on the copy of the document so anyone who looks at it will be fooled into thinking it’s the real one, so we have time before our families find out about this,” your brain was in idea mode, words tumbling out of your mouth before you could completely process them.

“You’re an idiot,” Draco spoke up, but it didn’t hold any malice this time, “but you’re a clever idiot.”

“I can get us out of this.” You grinned at him.

___________________

“Y/N!, where the hell have you been!?” Daphne screeched as soon as soon as you set foot in your shared dorm room. You’d come out of the room on the third floor dazed and a bit baffled but hope still sat in the back of your mind. As soon as you’d turned to ask Draco a question, the room was gone and so was he.

“Literally to hell and back.” You flopped onto your bed, body still sore. You launched into a full explanation as you showed your best friend the bloodied contract.

“This is insane!” She gasped as she read through some of the clauses, “and Draco, he’s…he didn’t want…?” she whispered even though you were alone. You nodded silently, he was in the same boat as the two of you. A scared kid.

“Look,” you pointed to the top of the contract, ‘The two parties will enter into a magic bound partnership’, “Before, all of the clauses pointed towards marriage, but now,” You flipped to another page with some vague outlines of the magical bond, “it only has to be a partnership. If we stick to the remaining demands, we can live the rest of our lives separately as long as we don’t break any of the rules.”

You were already planning on how to avoid some of the written demands. If you just made a list of the things the two of you had to stick to, you wouldn’t even have to live near each other. You just had to interpret a new meaning of the word partnership.

“This is insane, you almost died,” Daphne was still in shock, “I would have murdered you for that you know,” she smacked your arm with very little force behind it.

“I wouldn’t dream of leaving you to fend for yourself without me,” you teased her and pulled your friend into a hug, relief spreading through you. One problem was dealt with. Now you had room to imagine a way out of danger for you and your friends. If you could keep your head down, play pretend for a little longer, you might make it out of here alive.

“We’re out of here as soon as we turn seventeen,” you promised Daph quietly, still holding her tightly.

“We have to be,” she squeezed you gently.

If you were going to survive your families, the Dark Lord and the stirring trouble that was brewing among the entire wizarding community, you’d have to keep up the loyal daughter façade for one more summer. Seventeen was when you’d be ‘marrying’ Malfoy. Seventeen was when you were considered your own person in the wizarding world. Seventeen was when you would find your freedom.

Obligatory Tag list:

@xkonpinkx @detroitobsessed @follow-me-down-to-wonderland @pointlesscoconut @irlkell @thehumanistsdiary @mo-onstarrs @summer-writes-words @aplaintart @jjjmaybank @rainstorm22 @weird-pale-blonde-person

#draco malfoy fic #draco x reader #Draco Malfoy #draco malfoy series #Harry Potter #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter series #obligatory #Obligatory series #hp fanfiction #hp fanfic #HP Fandom #HP

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smndragon · 3 years ago

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Hello, I know I haven’t been following your account for too long but you’re one of my fave accounts. You really put a lot of effort and offer your resources/knowledge/time without hesitation which I feel often times other creators don’t really have the opportunity to do. Thank you for your dedication because I’ve found your posts really insightful and they’ve been really helpful in expanding my knowledge <3

I also wanted to ask if you were offering readings atm because I was really interested in receiving one from you! If not, it’s okay! <33

[ Big Six :

Sagittarius ↑, Scorpio ☀︎, Leo ☽

Virgo Venus , Capricorn Mars, Sagittarius Mercury ]

I hope you’ve been doing well and I hope both sides of your pillow is cold !!! <3

Also, Idk if you watch anime but if you could recommend one one of your faves I’d really appreciate it! :,))

If you don’t mind me asking, I was wondering how many years you’ve been studying Astro considering the amount of knowledge you have. I’ve been dabbling myself but I find it intimidating. ESP when it comes to the complexity of birth charts because of all the different variables you need to consider.

Thank you for taking your time to read my ask! I really appreciate your consideration!! <3

You had me over here looking up "what does atm mean in text" like a grandma on Google 😭😭 I really couldn't figure that out I thought of the money atm. Thank you for saying all this though! I do try to take time even if my fingers have to hurt for it. I'm glad you're learning a bit from them or opening your mind to it! Glad to be one of your favs!

An anime recommendation is probably sword art online. It's a basic but I really like it I've watched all the seasons at least 5 or 4 times. Either that or possibly is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon I think it was called. I haven't watched anime in a while to be honest. Learning wise and growth I believe movies like Mirai and flavours of youth on Netflix are very sentimental and leave you touched.

I've been studying only since early 2021 really maybe mid? I started by Tumblr actually, I got the app because I wanted to read more fanfic sites and explore more and I got into more astrology here. I already was interested before then for years but I never actually looked so far into it until then. I actually only learned by readings posts every day I would look up "astro observations" and just read for as long as I could. I took a few people's charts that are long dead by now to compare and analyze since I liked them so much. I learned everything here and still am. I actually recently got back into the astrology side, I took a break to read more into other things. The rest I get are based on feelings and easy searching, I'm sorry I can't really explain it too well. Most of the stuff I learned was from @d4rkpluto @saintzjenx @hillarysss and @ilyneptune I believe is somewhere there either that or it was for pile readings which they have really good ones!

It's like 5:36 in the morning I haven't slept at all but I feel great so let's do your reading! Hm, Scorpio sun, Leo moon, and Sagittarius ascendant. We have the same ascendant which makes me happy! I didn't save so a part got deleted but I saw a girl with lilies on her head immediately, like a sort of crown. It reminded me of Hans Christian Andersen because he once made a flower crown and placed it on someone's hat making them mad after finally finding it💀 this girl reminds me of a time that seems so long ago now. She smiles at nothing and laughs at air, as if she sees things no else had dared speak to. Children are walkways wonderful because they have these gifts, to see things we cant. Possibly 'imaginary' friend when you were younger, or you spent time just pleasing yourself easily.

The first sign that talks to me is the Leo moon, the Scorpio wanted to speak but the Leo was very loud. It feels so touch starved to me which ain't bad but lord both it and the Scorpio sun are. Possible manifestation abilities. They aren't strong but you're able to do it anyone is, whatever you want in life must be looked brightly at, it's okay to have dark days but return that dream and wanting image to your sun and it will become as close as true as out world allows it. The flower crown I saw makes me think there's an Innocence and purity in you that still stand today, never changing. The flowers are the manifestation of this Innocence and this need to be that ways somewhere in you. Possibly fear of expectation and somehow losing that part of you to something in the future. You shouldn't be afraid of what happens, things will change sadly, we can never change that and as people we have to accept it even if it gets dark. Unless this will deeply harm you it's time to let go. Tell that younger you or someone that they cna be free, to be a with all the friends they were with when they were younger. Ik that wasn't a full reading but that's what I got from either your Leo or Scorpio. The Leo wants your joy to be brought back, but not in the form of the fear of losing something. "I'm here" "it's okay" they held you at your darkest moments and will continue to do so. I feel they'll be there especially when you're older, telling you it's alright to let go of the life you once had. (Dark theme sorry but it is what happens to us all in the end) their home is in you, every part I see, the physical body comes out when you need her, a dirty blonde with a white plain shoulder and neck showing shirt, with a plain but modern skirt thin material. They have brown eyes, the eyes of a mother really, with a broad and flattens at the nose. A few dots on the sides of their eyes or face. Aura color is a wheat yellow.

The Scorpio sun is very wanting, jealous of being ignored at times. It wants some things so wholly it hurts. The domain of the Scorpio is a dark and warm place, sweat falls down my forehead as if I'm being boiled to a roast. I want to hold the Scorpio sun, it feels ignored by people. Scorpios are every sympathetic people deep down, they crave affection and reassurance, when not given they cna form unhealthy habits. Not to say you're suffering from this too harshly it's just your Scorpio needs to be cared for at some point, drink a cup of tea or something soothing, talk to your Scorpio and let it talk back, in the deepest parts of your mind they are there always and forever, waiting to recover with your strength and company. Aura is brown and radiant black splotches here and there. Possible placements are the neck, or left shoulder. Body is in the form of a bulked Scorpion, brown shelled. You may possibly have longer nails or well shaped ones. Been complimented on your hands or had them called small which was annoying maybe.

The last of the signs is the Sagittarius ascendant. It take the form of a human, has a long tail though, reptile like. It adores the space you allow it. It roams the chest area, pillows and blankets cover the room. The Sagittarius isn't lazy, it's just overworked they don important things for the body, they care for your muscles and heart. Making sure it has steady beats. They keep you as active as you could be. Enough to keep you healthy. The room is plain with white walls and tan yellow carpet. The Sagittarius takes chalk and writes on the walls "plans" "action" weird words to put down but they keep writing, I also them what they're doing but don't really get a reply. Nothing left here.

Characteristics: small hands well shaped nails, brown hair?, Style is kind of alt if or neutral. Hoodies, jeans, skirts occasionally, the not too extreme chokers, bracelets, slight makeup or none. Because of the Sagittarius I would like to say tall and slim, but I have that and I sure am not those💀 possibly could still work though. I think short though honestly. Sneakers. Binders and folders in school or home. Filled with ideas and things. Brown or green eyes.

Soulmate/ future relationship: (it in one now ignore or keep reading) I see you both planning stories and all kind soft things, laying down pointing to journals and books of your things. You guys don't laugh often but you do show affection in smiles, kisses, hugs, and closeness. I feel they won't fully kiss you until you age to grab their face or after the 11th date🙃

Possible zodiac influence in your life around you: Scorpio Mars, Gemini Venus, Libra

Future/health: nothing much here possible accidents involving phones be careful and lay attention, may crack or break it soon.

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gilbirda · 4 years ago

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Payment

After winning their silly little bet, Lucifer had arranged a vacation for him and his detective in a private island. What he doesn't know is that she had plans of her own.

<< Prequel

[Read in AO3][Read in FF.net]

"So," she heard the voice followed by a loud thump of something really heavy hitting the floor. "What do you think?"

Heavenly, was her first thought, but she was sure he wouldn't like the humour behind her words. Instead, Chloe pulled up her sunglasses and stepped into the mansion - she refused to call it a house - by the beach where Lucifer apparently wanted them to spend the rest of the week.

A beach in a private island, because of course The Devil owned a Caribbean island in the Bermuda Triangle. Despite the creepy mysteries behind planes and boats disappearing here, he had assured her that there wasn’t anything supernatural about this place; and as a bonus they had plenty of privacy here. The smile as he said it told her that he wasn’t exactly referring to nosy neighbours or unwanted visits.

She had never been in a private island. Or any island. One would think that with a famous mother she would have traveled a lot, but the fact is that she always been too busy with her studies and acting school to keep Penelope company in her travels.

Chloe smiled, swallowing down the knee-jerk reaction to Lucifer’s absurd wealth shows, and turned to see his buried under an equally absurd amount of luggage. It was his own fault, insisting that he chose everything she would wear or need as part of their bet, so she didn’t offer any help as she would have any other moment.

He didn’t seem tired, anyway.

“It’s nice,” she shrugged with a smirk, putting back her sunglasses and going inside the mansion with a flick of her hair.

Chloe was having the time of her life. She knew it was petty of her, but sometimes being predictable was boring and wasn't Lucifer complaining all the time about getting bored? That she could use some excitement in her life.

Seems like teasing the Devil was her new favorite pastime.

Serious teasing. Sexual teasing. Hinting promises and leave him hanging all day, being extra careful with her tongue movements as they ate ice-cream before, making unnecessary eye-contact every time she responded with an innuendo.

She really have been trying to read this book for a while, too, but Lucifer’s glare was too heavy to ignore even if he had been as quiet as a cat as he hovered around her.

A shadow was cast over her, but she didn’t lift her head to look at him.

“The main protagonist is about to have mind-blowing sex with the Dark Lord, so please move. You are blocking the light.”

The Devil snorted. “Why do you read that crap when you can have real-life mind-blowing sex with your own Dark Lord?”

He was trying so hard to conceal his frustration that her mask of controlled boredom almost cracked for it. It was endearing, watching him squirm and get all bothered because of her.

“Chloe…” he practically whined.

The woman smiled and closed the book, taking off the sunglasses. Maybe it was time to stop her game. She knew that they were here because of that stupid bet and that she was supposed to be living the fantasy of a deserted island with her boyfriend; but the truth is that she had been brewing a plan for this little vacation.

Lucifer thought she wouldn’t notice how he tried so hard to meet her needs, sexualy speaking that is; but the fact is that she did notice him withdrawing every time she presented a more active front. She knew he liked going down on her and tending to her every whim and plea, they had talked about it before, but it didn’t mean he didn’t have a preference or two. He had eons to try everything, true, and he must have a favorite position or kink.

So far she hadn’t approached him about it, but she was going to change that.

“Yeah?”

His expression was a mix of kicked puppy and Trixie’s face when there’s steamed broccoli for dinner.

“Please.” She wasn’t sure if she liked how he sounded saying that word; but the sensation surely won over the impulse of comforting him immediately.

Chloe smirked. “Join me for a quick shower?”

His smile lit up like a Christmas tree.

Breathing heavily, Chloe considered her boyfriend as he rearranged his bathrobe, his hair beyond salvation after the attack of her hands as he did so many wonderful things between her legs.

“Want more?” his voice made her focus on his eyes. They glinted with mischief.

“Uh-huh,” she shook her head, jumping off the bathroom counter. Didn’t bother with a towel, though. “Just thinking.”

“About?” he offered her another robe, opening it for her to pass her arms through.

“You.”

“Obviously,” she rolled her eyes at his tone, “but what about, specifically?”

She could cower and let it go, she knew; but between with the deep relaxation after a perfect shower followed by a mindblowing orgasm, she felt bold and brave. She came here with a mission.

“What do you want?”

He blinked. “I’m afraid I don’t follow. You mean for dinner? Or…”

“Sorry. Let me rephrase it,” she cleared her throat, looked at him in the eye, leaning in a bit. “Tell me, what do you desire?” she said trying to mimic his accent.

Lucifer snorted and pinched her nose. “Awful. Just awful. Don’t do that ever again.”

“Okay, okay. I won’t,” Chloe batted his hand away. “But my question still stands. What is it that you most want?”

“You. I thought it was obvious,” he frowned like it was a stupid question.

“I mean, hm…” her bravery was vanishing. “In sex. I know you have a lot of experience and everything… Let me finish!” she said when he opened his mouth to, probably, reassure her once more that monogamy wasn’t a torture and she was more than enough and Detective, please, nothing can compare. “I have a point. What I wanted to say is, I have noticed how you do a bunch of stuff for me but don’t ask anything in return.”

“I thought that it was okay to do something without it being a deal…?” Chloe could almost see the question marks floating around his head.

“Yes! Yes, it is. But, trust me I can’t believe I’m saying this, I would do anything you ask of me. Doesn’t matter how kinky or, dunno, weird.”

“Anything…” he murmured the word, taking a step back, analysing her.

“Tell me, I’ll understand,” she looked down at her fidgeting hands, forcing them to stop. Here it goes, she though. Lucifer, the King of weird kinks and forbidden desires. What kind of thing would be the Devil’s kink? His one forbidden desire? The man who spoke of sex as an everyday thing, who had a BDSM dungeon (she knew about its existence, but never been there) fully stocked, who could draw the darkest and deepest fetishes of people without blinking.

Lucifer was still watching, considering, making her more nervous. Was it so fucked up that he didn’t want to talk about it out loud?

“Detective,” she jumped at his voice, “while I appreciate the thought, you don’t have to do anything for me. What you already give is more than enough for an eternity.”

How could he deliver such corny and cheesy phrases without sounding tacky? It was a mystery, but her money was on the accent. And his height.

Chloe took a deep breath. “I know. I’ve had my fair share of guilt tripping boyfriends pressuring me into sex to know you are not one of them.” He smiled dangerously, making it clear that he wanted the names of those ‘boyfriends’. “This is something I really want to do. And who knows, maybe I’ll like it too?” she gave him a tentative smile.

Lucifer relaxed, smiling back, closing the space between them to softly place a kiss on her lips.

“I love you,” he whispered like it was a fact.

And it was.

“Then tell me what you -”

“Stop right there if you value your kidney,” he grumbled. The devil didn’t like her butchering his catchphrase, it seems.

“I wasn’t going go say it.”

“Liar.”

She smirked devilishly, pushing him towards the bed, amazed once more when he let himself be pushed.

“What is it?”

Was it a blush in his cheeks? “Promise you won’t laugh.”

She frowned. “Laugh?” Chloe frowned.

“Yep. Promise.”

“I promise, sure, but I wouldn’t laugh at you anyways.”

He searched inside her eyes for a few seconds before sighing, closing his eyes.

“I want you to dominate me.”

Her eyebrows went to the hairline. “That was unexpected.” But she rolled with it, as she always did with her partner. “I thought Maze…?”

“Dear Mazikeen sure is the dominating type in bed,” he conceded with a slight nod, “and I let her do with me what she wanted more than a few times. But what I crave is more than pain and restraining. True submission is about -”

“Trust,” Lucifer saw the gears work inside her pretty brain. She knew him well, knew about his opinions about free will, about his issues with trust. Hell wasn’t place of trust and friendship, he had told her plenty of times. Maze was his trusted bodyguard and lover, but she was, after all, a demon. “And you trust me.”

“With my whole life.”

Chloe kissed him, hard.

“I don’t do pain, though,” she grabbed his face, looking at him in the eye. “I wouldn’t-”

“I know,” he smiled.

“Good. Then I’m game, if you excuse my inexperience.”

Lucifer moved her so he could stand up from the bed, straightened his bathrobe, and flashed her a charming trademark Lucifer smile.

“Worry not, Detective! We can start with something simple.” With long strides, he glided towards a dresser by the bed, opening a drawer and retrieving some stuff from inside. “Have you ever used one of this?”

Chloe should have expected this. She should, with how the conversation was going. But she wasn’t ready to see a pretty and shiny (and new, she noticed) strap-on with the dildo already attached. She had flashbacks of a moment a long time ago, with a young Chloe awkwardly kissing a woman, a girl who thought that “she was just experimenting” and “just a phase”. Yeah right.

“Once,” her voice didn’t falter, thankfully.

“Nice,” he smiled, showing a lot of teeth, “I want to hear about that story sometime.”

She made a face. Of course he would want to hear about her sex life, even if it wasn’t as colorful as his.

Chloe stood and approached him to retrieve the strap-on, one hand on his chest to push him back towards the bed. He let her, stealing a kiss as he walked backwards. The woman snorted.

“So,” she said, watching him from above, weighing the dildo in one hand as she contemplated what to do next. She wasn’t usually dominating in bed, but… well, it warmed her heart to hear his reasons behind wanting it. “Take off the robe.”

He nodded and did as he was told, making a show of it.

Chloe smiled softly. “Now, I want you to....,” she looked around, considering her words, “kneel.”

His knees made a dull sound when they contacted with the wooden floor, but he didn’t make an expression of pain. Chloe put her free hand on his hair, petting him softly, trying to dictate what kind of dominance she was going for. She didn’t do pain, didn’t do humiliation. He had suffered that enough in his life; and she was absolutely sure that it wasn’t what he was asking for with his request.

“You look so pretty like this, Luce,” her smile was soft, “I love how vulnerable you look around me.” Her hand went down his face, caressing his lips. He leaned into the touch, but didn’t say anything.

“I love kissing you knowing that I am the only one. That your lips are mine,” her nails scrapped his scalp softly when she grabbed a bit of hair, not enough to hurt. “Are they?”

“Yes,” his voice didn’t tremble, but he closed his eyes. Chloe smiled.

“Good. Stand up.”

Being so close to him, his height made him tower above her, but that didn’t make her cower down. It never did.

“On the bed,” she slapped his backside when he turned to do as she told him. “Good devil.”

“Always.”

“Uh-huh, didn’t give you permission to speak,” she stood before him, placing the strap and the dildo somewhere on the mattress and focusing on him.

He arched an eyebrow, but bit down whatever he was going to retort with.

“Now, for your little slip of the tongue, you are not allowed to move,” she locked eyes with him as she kneeled between his legs, her intentions clear. “No words, but you can make sounds. And no touching me.” Her growl was good, he decided. Pasable.

Without preamble, she took him into her mouth, delighted when he jumped and fisted his hands on the sheets. He enjoyed touching her, her face, her hair, her shoulders, anything, as she does her blowjobs; she was sure that part of it was to make sure she was real and was actually doing it. She liked it too, not going to lie, even if sometimes he got a bit rough.

Okay, maybe those times turned her on more that she was going to admit out loud.

She looked up as she bobbed her head up and down his length, smiling around him once she found a very flustered devil, jaw locked in place, trying very hard to control his own body from reaching for her. His eyes were shifting between normal brown and hellfire red, the only sign that she was doing exactly what she wanted.

Lucifer should have expected this, he thought. His Detective was cunning and clever, with a mischievous streak buried deep under her sensible clothes and brown shoes. What he didn’t expect was looking down to find her swallowing him further and further, her face scrunched in concentration as she overcame her gag reflex with the ease of enough practise.

Once she managed to reach all the way up, he couldn’t hold it in anymore. Throwing his head back, he moaned loudly, her name on the tip of his tongue, remembering in the last minute that he wasn’t allowed to say words. His hands trembled on his sides, the urge to grab her head and pound into her throat consuming his thoughts until he couldn’t stop imagining it even with his eyes opened.

She kept her head down one moment that felt like eons before withdrawing, taking a deep breath.

“Do you like it?” her lips were swollen as she smiled her question, one hand idly stroking his cock with care. Lucifer nodded hastily, taking the break to breathe himself. “Good devil.” He shivered at her praising. “I love watching you like this, too. I love doing this to you knowing that I am the only one who can touch you like this. Am I? You can speak.”

"Yes.”

He was close, she knew. It was tempting to give her all and make him cum after the teasing, but she was strong enough to ignore the siren’s call.

“Good, good,” she nodded and let him go. Lucifer gasped, looking at her like she had just murdered his puppy. “No talking,” she reminded him when he opened his mouth.

Lucifer rolled his eyes in a very Decker way.

“On the bed,” she made a gesture with her chin, a soft smile on her lips. “Good devil,” the woman said as he did so, ignoring the smug smile when he laid down, hands behind his head, and proudly presenting his Luciferness for her.

Chloe reached for the harness, her hands finding their places in the straps and quickly fastening the contraption between her legs. She felt in control, dominant, and exactly in tune with what she wanted to do. Lucifer watched her with anticipation while she went for the lube and applied a generous quantity over the silicone, stroking the false cock to thoroughly spread the glossy substance.

She kneeled between his legs, reached for a nearby pillow and put it under him, ordering him to lift his hips with a soft slap on the leg, before spreading even more lube on her right hand and grabbing his member by the base, waiting for confirmation. He nodded briefly, letting her hand slid down, biting back a retort about not really needing prep, duh, who has she thinking he was?

“Before you start bitching about it, remember how vulnerable,” she made a point by squeezing his cock almost to an uncomfortable point. He jumped and gasped, but not really for the pain, “you are around me. Trust me.”

The thing is, he did.

Chloe put in a finger, lazily pumping him with her left hand, looking into his eyes as she added almost immediately another finger. She felt him relax into the sensation, not really aroused by it but enjoying the feeling of his Detective touching him in such delightful ways.

The woman added another finger, slowly spreading them, focusing on the rhythm and his reaction to it.

Lucifer gasped when she deemed him sufficiently prepared and withdrew her digits, pouring some more lube just in case.

“Thank you for allowing me this moment, Lucifer,” she caressed his chest as she shuffled closer to him, her fingers leaving wet tracks on his tanned skin, “I love how doing this to you makes me feel. How your body responds to me,” she said as she probed the entrance with the plastic toy.

Without any further warning, she slowly pushed the dildo in, watching out for any discomfort or pain in his expression. He had closed his eyes, one of his hands floating near her hip as if reaching to guide her. Chloe waited for a moment.

Lucifer’s breath hitched when she withdrew as slowly as she entered. No one told him it would be like this. No one could have warned him it could be like this. Sex with the love of his life was amazing and everything but, bloody hell, this woman…!

She thrusted right back in, and he actually mewled in response, his hands choosing to fist around the sheets again. Was he allowed to touch her again…? He wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure anymore about anything. Why was Chloe doing this? He should have asked sooner. Hell, he should have offered sooner, if this was what got her into his bed.

“You can speak,” her words were like fresh water in the dessert.

“Chloe,” he grumbled, his voice a hybrid of a growl and a moan. “More.”

She didn’t say anything else and picked up the pace a little, her hands searching for anchor in his thighs to power her thrust, searching for the balance of force and speed he craved.

“More!” He arched his back, feeling like something was quite there but not there, making him mad with the need, like scratching an itch he couldn’t reach.

Instead of going faster, Chloe gradually stopped. He opened his eyes, horrified, scared that he said the wrong thing or wanted too much, or she was finally realizing that dating a celestial maybe wasn’t exactly what she wanted-

“On your belly,” her breathing was labored but her expression focused. She slapped his stomach softly when he didn’t move. “I have an idea, one that maybe won’t require cramping my legs.”

In a daze, Lucifer did as told, missing the pressure of the dildo inside of him, missing the reassurance of seeing her face and asses if she was okay or not. His back may not be scarred anymore, and she was allowed to touch him where she wanted now, but he still felt utterly vulnerable in his position. Maybe she knew this?

Chloe run a finger over his spine, right between where his wings would be. “Wings. Out.”

“Chloe?”

She kissed his back instead of answering.

Taking a deep breath he unfurled his enormous wings, careful of not pushing her out of the bed in the process. This wasn’t the first time he showed her his cursed appendages, even during sex; but it was the first time she asked for them. She knew about the conflicted emotions around them, the pain and the loss, about the grooming and what it entailed. What it meant to be touched there.

“I’m going to touch your feathers, maybe pull them. Is that okay with you?” her voice was soft, not demanding at all, breaking character for the one question he knew he could answer truthfully.

The words came easy. “Please do.”

He felt more than saw her nod before feeling the silicone cock touching him again. He angled his ass better for her, delighted when her hands bracketed his hips like they were made to be there. Just as naturally and easy, she pushed in and started to pump in and out again, slow at first as she found the position to power through what she wanted to accomplish.

Lucifer’s arms trembled when her hands roamed up to his wings, her nimble fingers finding places that triggered shivers and sighs and nice feelings; and places that send lighting to his groin, too. He moaned after one powerful thrust, his hand sneaking down, trying to reach that extra completion…

“Uh-huh,” she slapped the hand away.

“No?” he turned his head to look at her beautiful naked body, the visuals of her cock disappearing inside of him giving him the shivers.

“Nope.” She grinned in a very him way, pushing in a bit harder to accentuate her point. She was in control. She did the action.

“O-okay…” he almost screamed, but bit down the urge.

Lucifer closed his eyes, letting himself feel the friction and the delicious sensations she provided. He screamed when she grabbed a handful of feathers and pulled, careful of not hurting him too much even if she couldn’t know that with her human strength she couldn’t really damage his wings. She pulled again, this time accompanied by another powerful thrust.

His arms trembled, unable of supporting his weight anymore, and fell down, losing the last bit of control he held over what she was doing to him, letting himself be held down by the woman.

“Detective,” he moaned into the pillow. She hummed, raking her nails deep into his wings, sending electric currents through his body. Lucifer screamed again.

“My name, Lucifer. I want to hear my name.” Her voice couldn’t be louder than a normal conversation, but it rang loud in his brain.

He didn’t know if it was her tone or how the new angle made the silicone hit just right but he was sure that he was close again. Still, it wasn’t enough. Nothing was enough. She was enough, but there were so many things he wanted to do with her. It was always like this. He wanted so much, too much, and he wanted all with her. She said she wanted to fulfill his desires but would she really?

He turned his head to look at her delicious form, her focused expression, her lower lip between her teeth in concentration. She was sweating and breathing hard, but she looked… radiant.

“Detec-”, she slapped his ass, glaring at him when she found his eyes. “Chloe,” her name sounded like a plea. “Please don’t stop.”

She was going to ask what he meant, when she felt the resistance to her movements increase, his legs trembling slightly, and she understood now. As he came, she kept moving at a slower pace, guiding her actions by his breathing and the tone of his moans, how he looked at her with eyes switching between dark brown and hellfire red.

He was beautiful like this, she concluded. His hair messed beyond repair, utterly wrecked and helpless under her body. She pulled some feathers again, smirking when immediately he screamed her name, arching his back as much as she let him.

“Don’t stop, please,” he kept saying, this time with eyes glowing red, “Please.”

And she didn’t stop. Chloe kept thrusting and pulling and caressing and slapping; slowing down sometimes, notching the speed a bit up when she found the strength. Her legs were burning, but she kept going. She could do this. She wanted to do this.

It wasn’t until he eventually stopped pleading and mewling and moaning that she ceased all movements. She was tired. And needed a shower. And water.

Slowly, she withdrew the silicone cock, Lucifer’s body falling limp on the bed. She worried for a moment that she had hurt him, but when she rushed to check if he was alive she found him awake but silent, watching her in a daze-like state. She snapped her fingers and he moved his eyes to hers in question, but didn’t do anything else.

Deciding that it was okay as a response, she unfastened the straps and got out of the bed, waggling towards the bathroom as fast as her tired legs could. She wetted a cloth and came back to clean a still unresponsive Lucifer, wrestling with his celestial weight and wings to turn him to clean the bodily fluids clinging to his skin. He would need to shower too, but that was for the them of the future.

For now, napping.

If he agreed or not, she couldn’t know. The only signs that he was alive were his still changing eyes watching her every movement, a blank expression in his face. She had broken him, she knew. For a few seconds, she considered getting this moment captured in a photo for future blackmail, but she dismissed the idea with a smile.

Once they both were clean enough for her standards, she threw the cloth to a nearby table and proceeded to yank the sheets from under the Devil’s body. If she was tired before, she was about to collapse now. Chloe didn’t care if it wasn’t night yet, she was going to nap.

At last she got under the covers with her boyfriend, spooning his unresponsive form, wings and all. She closed her eyes, humming with delight.

“Chloe,” she heard him whisper.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.” His voice broke with emotion. She didn’t comment on it.

“I know,” she kissed the back of his head. “Now, sleep.”

“Okay.”

#lucifer #lucifer netflix #lucifer fanfiction #deckerstar #chloe decker #lucifer morningstar #lucifer x chloe #gil writes #fanfic #fanfiction #writeblr

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juiceboxman · 5 years ago

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So I took Siobhan’s advice and listened to the BBC’s radio adaptation of the Lord of the Rings from the 80′s

It’s pretty good, you can listen to it here https://soundcloud.com/inkmore/sets/lord-of-the-rings-radio

I had some issues with it but I liked it for the most part. I’m not a massive LoTR fan, only watched the films so I don’t know much, but here are the thoughts I had.

I once heard someone describe Hobbits and the Shire as “drama free people” after listening to this series, that’s obviously not the case. Hobbits seem to live for the drama, always talking shit behind one anothers back. I think Tolkien was trying to satirise rural or village life in England and I think he did a good job depicting how petty people can be.

Sam is a working class hero and Frodo doesn’t deserve him.

I understand how people can like Sam/Frodo because there is massive gay vibes coming off them. Personally I interpreted it to be unrequited and an example of some class division, with Sam being working class and Frodo being middle class. The amount of dedication and support Sam shows Frodo I don’t think Frodo would show back if the roles were reversed. I feel like its a very one sided relationship with Sam putting in way more effort than Frodo.

Bilbo’s whole thing seems to be that he went on a gap year once that turned out quite bad and now he kinda lives like a hermit.

I don’t know how reliable to the books the Radio series is, but I feel like the movies do more justice to stuff. Like in the Radio drama Gandalf makes his first appearance by just coming through the door and Bilbo is like “ah, Gandalf” and...that’s it. Movie version was better in my opinion.

I think the radio drama does a lot better to explain what the ring of power does than the movies. I always got confused by what the ring does, like in the movies all it seems to do is turn people invisible and make them into heroin addicts. With the radio I kinda understand more about it. Like the ring’s power kinda depends on the wearer, like a Hobbit could simply use it for invisibility and expanding their life force but a King could use it to control the minds of an entire enemy army and a Wizard could do even more. But it’s still vague and I presume Tolkien intended it to be, like it’s just a representation of the concept of power and this world’s equivalent of a deal with the devil. Power or wishes may be commanded but they will ultimately corrupt you.

Time in the books seem wild. Like at one point Gandalf says that Bilbo has gone off and he himself will start researching the ring and then twelve years go by and Frodo has just been fucking about, forgot that the ring even existed and Gandalf comes back and is like “oh yeah, ring is bad”

Also, Frodo is 50 when he leaves the shire???? Jesus

Also, were the Nazgul just running about for 12 years looking for the ring? Like at one point the Nazgul knocked on some Hobbit’s door asking about Frodo and the Hobbit told him to go fuck himself and slammed a door- to a NAZGUL

Aragon’s voice in this radio drama is...way off. Like it sounds like Greg Davies. You don’t really have the soft voice of Viggo Mortinstein but the gruff righteous voice of the Principal from the Inbetweeners

Elrond denying Aragon to marry his daughter until he becomes king of Gondor is like a stern dad refusing you to date his daughter until you get a real job.

Also Aragon gets the reforged sword, like, immediately when they leave Riverdale. Which is a bit weird to me.

It makes sense why Frodo is trusted with the ring. A king couldn’t be trusted because he’d use it for conquest. A Wizard could overthrow Sauron but in doing so would become just as bad so you’re back to square one. With a Hobbit, there is no desire for conquest or any wish for power outside of simply having the ring. Even when Golum had it all he used it for was to hunt fish and extend his life cycle. I’m curious of whether if Sam had carried the ring all the way to Mordor if he could will himself to destroy it or would he have failed like Frodo.

Gimly and Legolas’ friendship is so cute. Like they start off disliking eachother but bond over their prowess in combat and plan out a gap year after the whole fellowship where they see the sights of middle earth. So wholesome

I don’t understand why they didn’t just kill Golum. Like I know he was important to find the way to Mordor and was ultimately necessary to destroy the ring after Frodo failed, but like the idea of “don’t kill him because of pity and he also probably has a part to play” is bullshit to me. Like he’s so gross and troublesome. It’s the same excuse Jedi have with “oh you can’t kill a Sith Lord because striking them down means you need to embrace the dark side” bitch Luke Skywalker round house kicked a guy into a Sarlack Pick- whaddya mean he can’t kill this wrinkly ass Emperor??? Ethical mental gymnastics are mind blowing.

For me the moment that made me really dig the series was when the Fellowship disbanded. Like shit hit the fan and everyone’s forced to do their own shit, really engaging storytelling.

The series is quite short when you consider all the battles are short cutted. Like in the radio drama you’ll hear a series of grunts for 30 seconds and then a song about how bad that battle was. I guess it would take a lot to depict a battle purely by means of audio.

Seriously the series is quite short, like it’s 13 hour long episodes and by episode five I’m like “oh shit we’re starting the second book already? Damn” It felt half the time there was so much stuff cut out I don’t know why

I think the radio drama is best suited for people who have either watched the movies or read the books. Like I don’t think it’s well suited for people who haven’t seen LoTR content before. Like the scene with the Balrog there is no description of what it looks like.

Also, Gandalf fought the Balrog from the deepest dungeons to the tip of the mountain? Damn, Gandalf’s leg day must be intense

I love the introduction of Treebeard and the Ents. Like you get this horrific imagery with warring Orcs and other evil creatures and then turn a hard 180 to these hilarious tree people. I guess that’s why the LoTR is so great. Because you do get those hard, gruesome battles but you also get these lovely peaceful wholesome scenes.

Quick question, how do you meet a guy called Saruman and then be surprised that he’s the bad guy? It’s the same deal with Victor VonDoom.

Also, did Tolkien have to have all the big villains names sound so similar?

Man, Tolkien loves having people end up together. With the Horse Princess who got friendzoned by Aragorn meeting up with that guy from Gondor. You love to see it

So like, was the King of Nazgul just talking shit or can he not be killed by a man? Like could anyone kill him by stabbing him the face or did the Horse Princess just find a loophole?

At one point this woman kinda makes fun of this flower called Kings Seed or some shit and Aragon basically calls her a THOT

Kinda sad the series didn’t have more dragons. Like I would have liked to see a huge black dragon at the final battle at Mordor. But that’s just me, I love me some dragons

Also, the final battle at the gates of Mordor is so endearing. Like they don’t even know if Frodo and Sam are still alive but they go to war anyway because they believe they are and in doing so keep the eye of Sauron off of them. It’s really heart warming

The radio’s version of the destruction of the ring is kinda anticlimactic. Like I said it’s better with the dialogue than it is at the representation of physical actions like combat. Like if you didn’t know what happened at the end of the lord of the rings and you were listening to this you would have no idea that Golum fell into the lava with the ring

I love the owner of the Prancing Pony’s reaction to Aragon becoming King of Gondor. It’s like “hey, remember that guy you saw shit in the woods that one time? Yeah he’s the President”

Also Sam’s Pony lives at the end of it. Love to see it. I feel like Tolkien read his first draft to his kids and they were like “what happened to Sam’s pony?” and he was like “uh, yeah, the pony....the pony lived! yes! the pony found its way back to town” you can tell this story is vibing on a different level than GoT or ACOC

Hobbits returning to the Shire fucking shit up like level 16 PCs returning to the town they started the campaign in

Also, all the Hobbits in the shire have no idea what the fuck went down? Like I understand they live in the middle or nowhere but that’s astounding

It’s so funny what ends up happening to Saruman. Like he goes from being the second in command of the Dark Lord to being a shitty local businessman in a Village in Yorkshire

I can see how people can really get into the LotR. Like a world like GoT is just fucked beyond compare and any happy ending will be bittersweet at most. But here you have an ending where the characters leave the world better than when they found it

Frodo asking Sam to live with him was him totally trying to get with Sam, right? And Sam was like “oh that’s nice Frodo, but I have gf” and Frodo’s like “oh that’s alright, she can move in too!” it’s like watching a man back step his request for love by inviting a family into his home. You missed your shot Frodo! You had a whole year with Sam and you blew it!

Sam ultimately moving on from Frodo with his thicc Hobbit gf is the character development we deserved

That said, in the movies Sam getting a gf was a thing at the end of the third movie- like he’d been so shy before hand but after almost dying he’s like “fuck it, might as well give my shot” but here in radio drama he...had a gf all along? Like we only hear about her in the final episode and he’s like “oh yeah, my gf ain’t too happy. I left her for a year to fuck about with you so now I need to marry her. Woops” very startling

Also love how Tolkien represented PTSD with Frodo. I don’t think works of Fantasy like this before Tolkien really did this stuff justice. That said the ending is a bit weird. Like I understand that the “Undying Lands” are supposed to reflect Tolkien’s belief in Catholicism, Eternal Life and Heaven. But it’s really hard to not interpret the ending as Frodo as struggling to deal with his PTSD so he commits suicide. Because the Undying Lands is a place that Sam cannot follow. It’s heart breaking but that’s the vibe I got off the ending.

So yeah, there’s my thoughts. It’s pretty good but I’d only recommend the series to anyone who’s either seen the movies or read the books. If this was your first introduction to LOTR I don’t know if that would be any good.

Also, while we’re here I recommend Escape from the Bloodkeep from Dimension 20. It’s DnD actual play series that is a slight parody of LOTR. It’s really good.

youtube

#dimension 20 #acoc #escape from the bloodkeep #lord of the rings #lotr

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cosmiciaria · 5 years ago

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Radiata Stories review! (spoiler free - long post!)

I am SPEECHLESS. I can't believe I spent so many years without knowing about this game. My friend thoroughly recommended it to me but with my ps4 and many other pc games, I just wasn't in the mood for a ps2 oldie. But here I am, and I want to spread the word: play Radiata Stories.

In the world of Radiata, the land is divided into regions that belong to different races: elves, dwarves, orcs, humans (and ronsos – no, sorry, wrong game – but you can't fool me there's a lion guy who looks like Kimahri from FFX). These species have been at odds since time immemorial, and thus the dragons – Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Silver and Gold – have guarded their beings from above.

We follow Jack Russell, a 16-year-old who dreams of becoming a knight. We accompany him to the entrance exams, only to see him fail miserably against a girl, Ridley Silverlake. Despite his clumsiness and obvious embarrassment for having been defeated, he's allowed to join the Radiata Knights, alongside Ridley, only because he's the son of an important late knight. They form a new brigade called Rose Cochon, under Captain Ganz Rothschild's leadership.

This trio will be sent into action in no time. Their dynamics are fun and there's a bit of rivalry between the two new knights, but they get things done. Ganz is proud to finally be able to be captain of his own brigade, and regards his two pupils with care and wisdom. This seems to be the flow the story is going to follow.

An important quest arrives: Rose Cochon brigade must reach the Elf Region and ask the Light Elves leader for a favor. However, things get tough in their journey there: a blood orc attacks the Dark Elves village, and the brigade plunges in to fight and defend.

In the battle, Ridley gets mortally wounded. Jack gets all frantic and desperate, and the brigade asks for the Elves' help. Lord Nogueira, the Dark Elf leader, decides to do the unthinkable for non-humans: the only way to save Ridley is to perform the transpiritation ritual, a spell only available for elves that allows them to take the soul of a dying fellow and use it to heal another one who might still live.

The ritual is successful, and Ridley's soul is fused with that of a small elf who'd died in the battle. Everything seems to settle down for a bit, with Jack and Ganz returning to Radiata City filled with good hopes for Ridley.

The next day, you're fired from the Knights.

This is where the game opens up for you!

From now on, it's just you, Jack, in the middle of a big city, paving his way to the top of the Vancoor Theater guild, the guild of warriors. Since the only thing you can do is fight, better to put it to good use and earn some money in the process!

The game offers a variety of things to do. You can start recruiting people as party members. You know, like, in Dragon Age, you can recruit characters into your team? Or, in any other rpg, that you have a team of five or six characters, maybe some more? Yes? Ok, here in RS you can recruit (listen to me) over 170 characters. Yep, you read right. Mind you, you can't recruit them (catch 'em all) in your first playthrough, but just so you know, yes, this game is that big.

Some people will ask you for a favor before they're added to the 'friend list', but others will join your right off the bat. Once you have a respectable team of four party members that you choose, you can begin doing solo missions, which are the guild's assignments to you and will redound in money and goodies. You get to know the other guild's members, you get to fight alongside them, you get to know and care for the civilians in the city. With a night-day system, if this game is anything, is alive.

NPC's have their own schedule: following the clock in the top left corner, they do and say different stuff depending of the moment of the day you approach them. They're walking around the city, performing random things, making them seem alive. Some events are only available at night, some others only during day. Some people will be nice, others not so much. Some parts of the city will shine, others will look depressing and dirty. Birds chirp, trees are swept by the wind's fine breeze, mosquitoes swarm around – this game breathes life into its pixels in every corner.

Now that we're on the aesthetic aspect, I must admit, this game looks gorgeous. With a very prominent anime artstyle, still it aged pretty well for today's standards: sometimes the lighting was too real, the sunlight pouring from the mountain's side, the character's long shadow stretching onto the road. The animations are good as well, as are the physics: I am beyond amazed by how well clothes and hairs move as flawlessly as if they were real. Each of the recruitable characters have a different victory pose and they have different lines for everything. Some particle effects are really nice, since I didn't think there existed the technology for it back then. The main city is huge, and when I say huge, I mean, every door you see, you can enter, and inside you'll find at least a two-floor building with objects to interact with and people to talk to. And don't even get me started on how BIG the Vareth Institute is in itself – and all that stuff is optional! The world is also vast and filled with brimming elements, although don't be fooled by the illusion of 3D: this game is, mostly, a 2D experience when you want to go from point A to point B.

You'll spend a good chunk of your game doing tasks for the guild. In the meantime, Ganz is somewhere playing the bandit and Ridley is hearing voices in her head. In this 'middle' part of the game, the story seemed to drag on forever for a bit: I wanted to go on with the main plot, and, while you can actually do that (just hit the sleep option over and over until a cutscene appears), the game tends to make you go through long and tedious solo missions to get that Grind™ you need. Dungeons are not long or too big in reality, but the number of encounters (which are forced on you since you can't avoid enemies by circling around most of the times for the 2D aspect) turns what should've been a walk in the park into a dragging hell. This portion of the game, I'm not going to lie, seemed a bit too long for me. And since the gameplay mostly consists in pressing the circle button and hearing Jack yell "Ha! Haiiyaah! Ha! Haiiyaah!" for ten hours straight, yeah, it can get boring.

But I guess the game was trying to make you feel at ease, comfortable around these walls. You're training your fave party members, you go with them everywhere to play the warrior and earn some money, you get occasional messages from Ridley telling you everything's fine – until the plot makes a halt and suddenly you must choose.

I'll keep this spoiler free, but this game is almost fifteen years old, so these are no news: there will come a point where the plot branches into two possible paths, the Human side, and the Non-Human side. I can't tell you which one is right, for there seems to be pros and cons in both, so I'll let your heart decide. For what we care now, I chose the Non-Human side, completely convinced with my decision, only to see myself doubt in many instances.

At this point, your plot shakes. Your comfort zone breaks. Suddenly, things are changing: your team is not there anymore, Ridley acts weird, where the hell is Ganz, what's going on with the dragons? Who am I supposed to trust in this world full of people who just want to exterminate each other?

I won't spoil it. I'll just say, that whatever you choose, please stand firm by your decision. You'll need that conviction, because the game is going to make your ground tremble a few times. And with those endings that await you – man, I don't know if I want to finish either path.

So, to avoid spoilers, I'll talk about the characters a bit!

Jack is your main protagonist, as you could've guessed. He's your average shonen main guy, at least in the beginning hours. He's clumsy, he wants to be a hero, and he even mocks shonen protagonists by saying that he'll awaken to a dormant power and save the world with his friends. But life hits him hard, accuses him of things he hasn't done, and so Jack evolves across the story. His character development is subtle, but it's there: he starts off as a brat who wants to fight, ends on a mature note, with some quite insightful thoughts and reactions I haven't expected from him. Normally, the shonen guy remains a shonen guy; this doesn't happen here. Jack ends up being an adorkable character, worthy of respect, sympathy, and a force to be reckoned with.

Ridley remains a calm force during the game. She's collected, she's well-educated, and she knows her way around. At the beginning, she can't stand Jack much, but as days go by, she starts to consider him as an equal and true friend. In the Non-Human path, her romantic feelings towards him are crystal clear: there's a small spark between them, that flickers every now and then when the plot allows them a moment's respite. Only them and a handful of other characters know the truth behind the transpiritation event, and as such there's a profoundly deep connection that keeps them together, although they're separated most of the story.

Ganz is ma fave boi and he must be protected at all costs. A young and promising man, Ganz was created to be likeable. You can't help but sympathize with his funny appearance: chubby, huge armor, huge sword, and funny moustache. But he's also a man of wisdom, with a golden heart. He's righteous and wants to do good. And he deserves all the love in the world.

Other notable characters are Genius, a scientist who's obsessed with the transpiritation thing that went down, and may know more about the plot than it seems at first glance; Natalie, a guarding woman who works as Ridley's not-so-secret bodyguard; Larks¸ the leader of the Knights and whose motivations remain a mystery to me even to this day – I can't read into this character at all!; Lord Zane, the leader of the Light Elves, who laughs maniacally when no one is watching and I can't bring myself to like him; Gawain, Ganz's father, who disappeared 16 years ago since his best friend died; and Cross, Ridley's fiancé, who just wants to be the best hunter and paves his way to the top of the knight ranks by any means necessary. I hate this guy so much, his only trait is 'I am a bad person' and that's it, he's so cartoonishly evil it makes me want to punch the screen. Probably you see more of him in the Human path, but unless he has a very tragic backstory to redeem him, he's not likeable at all. I mean, you can say that he has ambition and he gets s*it done, but still, damn him, and his voice actor, UGH.

Despite some minor thingies, the relationship between the characters is gold. Jack and Ridley are cute and make me wanna draw the meme of NOW KISS every two seconds. Jack and Ganz are companion goals. Ganz and his father – I loved that they kept their interactions personal and off screen. Idk why, but this story is about Jack, and yes, I care for Ganz as well, but his trouble with his father was his own, not Jack's, so I guess this is a director's decision which I'm 100% behind.

The plot can get predictable at times, but there's also a healthy amount of plot twists that made my jaw drop in a few occasions. I mean, I guessed who the bad guy was since the beginning, but let's face it, it's pretty obvious and the game doesn't hide it. There are other things that made the plot unfold worth my time, like trying to recruit that awesome character, or like what is the deal with Jack's late father, or what the hell is going on with Ganz, and what will happen to the city now that I'm on the Non-Human side? And the game answers them all (I read that the manga answers even more questions, so treat yourself).

All in all, RS is a vast jrpg experience, with high replay value and tons of things to explore. The world seems small, but it isn't. There's always a reward for those who wander off. For a ps2 title, this game is giant. And in the good sense. I thought I had seen the pinnacle of the ps2 era with Final Fantasy XII, but I'm highly considering changing my view on that one.

The endings are bittersweet in both paths. There's not a complete happy ending, I warn you. Things get darker towards the end, and the story knows how to subvert expectations in the good way. Remember Jack saying he wanted to be the hero like in a shonen anime? Well, not happening in this game guys. At the end of the day, this isn't a shonen story: this is a Radiata Story (roll credits), and like in every country's history, sometimes blood must be shed for events to take place and situations to unfold.

I am beyond pleased with this game. I'm considering playing through the Human side now – but first I need to recover myself from this Non-Human ending. I'm not ready to face more tragedy yet.

Go play it. Just do it. You won't regret it.

And pray that Tri-Ace develops ONE DAY a decent sequel.

#radiata stories #tri ace #jack russell #ganz rothschild #ridley silverlake #square enix #videogame #videogame review #review #ps2 #valkyrie profile

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bruno-in-barovia · 5 years ago

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Session Two

Before I get into what happened in the basement, I should note that by the time we got to the stairwell down, most of us had found some kind of armor or clothing. I managed to get my hands on a full set of plate armor, which chafed a bit since I had nothing underneath but was way better than nothing. I felt a lot more prepared for whatever we would find once I had that comforting weight on me.

Anyway, we headed downstairs and started exploring this really grim catacomb beneath the house. There were cots and some other necessities in this one sparse-looking living space. We could hear faint chanting coming from deeper in the basement. I realized what we were most likely going to find there, and the notion had me on edge.

Zazear kept running ahead to explore, so Elliott volunteered to keep him in check. Opal and Lith stuck with me for the time being, and so our group split in two to keep exploring.

The three of us found a section of the basement that was more of a mausoleum, with four coffins, each labeled with the name of a member of the family that had lived here. We went upstairs to get the bones of the two kids, Rose and Thorn, and we laid them to rest. Their ghosts faded away once the coffin lids were closed. Two tallies resolved, praise Athros.

We rejoined Elliott just as Zazear came rushing back from where he had apparently been scouting the next room. His fur was all puffed out, and he announced in a furious whisper, “There’s somebody in the well!”

Naturally, we had to see for ourselves. We huddled around the edge of the well and peered in all together, and sure enough, there was a HUGE man standing in it. He and Elliott exchanged a greeting, and he seemed decent enough, so we did our best to pull him up and he managed to get over the lip of the well with our help.

He introduced himself as Haku. We all had to take a minute to take in the sight of him. He’s over seven feet tall, with bulging muscles, literally bulging, I don’t know how his skin holds it all in. Lith seemed into it. I’m not sure what that’s about.

Haku said he was looking for his brother, which is how he entered the house in the first place. Elliott got his jaw off of the floor enough to make a comment on his size—rude, Elliott, I thought you were some kind of gentleman—and Haku seemed taken aback. He gave himself a good look over, and he had no explanation for it. Apparently he only remembers being a normal sized human prior to finding himself in the well. I’m not sure what to make of that, but it reeks of dark magic. I’ll have to keep an eye on him, no matter how friendly he is.

The six of us moved on together, since Haku reasoned we were his best bet at finding his brother. We opened one door and got pounced on by a grick, so that was exciting. Lith torched it, but it got some good licks in on us before that. The next enemy was a lot worse. We somehow stumbled into a handful of ghouls and had to fight them off. That was not fun. Even with the armor, I got bit pretty bad, but thankfully Opal was ready to heal me up.

We found some chests in another living area, and there wasn’t much in them but we each took something. This place is as good as abandoned. I found a few moss agates and tucked them away for safekeeping. You never know what will come in handy when you’re stuck in unfamiliar lands and have nothing to barter with.

The next couple of rooms had some unsettling stuff in them. There was some kind of statue of a man labeled “Our Dread Lord Strahd” in one. Even if it weren’t for the skeletons chained to the walls all around it, calling somebody a “dread lord” is never a good sign. By that point I was pretty sure there was some bad necromantic juju going on in this house. And all throughout this, the chanting continued in the distant lower levels.

The statue of the dread lord guy was holding this orb thing when we first walked in. Opal started examining it right away, and then she took it down and held it. She made a face after a second and then suddenly rushed out of the room to where the others were exploring down the hall. I heard Lith’s voice and then Opal came back in without the orb. She said that she couldn’t use the orb but a sorcerer like Lith could. Elliott and Opal and I kept investigating that room for a while longer, but we didn’t find anything interesting. Then the yelling started from the others down the hall.

Our group came running, of course. What we found was... yikes. So Lith, Zazear, and Haku were in this tiny room that had a headless corpse on the floor and a headed one standing up, talking to them. She was horrible. She kept moving and talking all weird, I don’t know how to describe it, manic and syrupy and snarling in turns. Obviously I cast a sacred flame as soon as I saw her. For as freaked out as we all were, it was a relief that that thing went down as easy as it did. I burned both bodies while the others explained what had gone down before our trio rejoined them.

The undead woman was the lady of this house--the mother of those two kids, who she had locked away to die months earlier. Gods, it’s sickening. The other corpse was her husband, and he had been hanging from the ceiling when they first walked in. Then Lith had disturbed a painting on the wall and she had climbed out of it. Zazear showed us the note he had found in the husband’s pocket. Apparently he’d noticed his wife becoming... whatever she was now, and felt like he might go the same way and harm his children. Um. I have some thoughts on that logic. But yeah. So that was the last of this family, except for the missing baby that Angela was talking about earlier. Walter.

At this point, we’d been on the move for over a day without food, but we were so close to the source of the chanting. It was coming from down another flight of stairs. It took some arguing, but we resolved to scout out the next section of the basement and come back to rest if there wasn’t anything progressing. We wouldn’t be any good to the baby (who at this point I had doubts was still alive, given that the rest of the household apparently died months ago) in our current state.

The first room at the bottom of the stairs had relics all around the niches in the walls. Opal said they were fakes, but Lith didn’t believe her. She took a couple of bone daggers anyway. We looked around a bit more, and didn’t find much aside from a small dungeon (everything in it was long dead) and then a water entry of some kind with a portcullis. The chanting was coming from beyond it, but we couldn’t see anyone. The words were clear by now: “He is the Ancient, he is the Land,” over and over.

Nothing seemed to be changing, and we were all hungry and tired. Elliott didn’t want to wait before going through the portcullis and facing the (definitely necromancers). I half agreed with him, because necromancy really shouldn’t be left to its own devices any longer than necessary, but also, we weren’t at our best necromancer-fighting shape at the moment. He was outvoted, and we went back to the previous section to rest a bit.

We still hadn’t found anything by way of food, and by this point it had been more than a day and a half since we got stranded. Luckily Elliott thought to examine that grick we’d killed earlier, and trailman that he is, decided it was worth trying. Lith finished cooking it, and Elliott used a little bard magic to make it taste better. The dog he picked up, Lancelot, was perkier after getting something to eat. I’m not sure how that little guy survived for the last few months without food or water.

After sleeping, we returned to that water entry. Haku lifted up the portcullis—I guess the whole unnaturally-large muscles thing is handy—and we stepped into this big watery chamber with a stone altar on a dais in the center and a path running around the edges of the room.

It was empty at first, but then this circle of floating cloaked figures faded into view around the room. The chanting changed and became louder, insistent. “One must die. One must die. One must die.”

We stood there looking at each other. Lith made the first move, pointing at Lancelot in Elliott’s arms. “Give them the dog!” Elliott refused. Opal and Zazear seemed to agree with Lith. I was petrified. One the one hand, who knew what would happen if we didn’t do something, and it was awfully convenient that we happened to have one living thing with us that wasn’t a party member. On the other, that felt gross to even consider. And my deity wouldn’t look kindly on me for participating in a necromantic ritual as self preservation. Haku seemed a little lost, his gaze darting around the room frantically. Lith tried to take Lancelot from Elliott, and they started a tugging match. We were all arguing, shouting over each other, all while the chanting got louder and louder around us.

Haku let out this wild yell, and he charged at the altar, bringing an axe he’d grabbed earlier down on the stone with so much force that it cracked in two. I’m not sure if it was his actions or if we had just run out of time, but the chanting stopped. All the ghost cultists called out, “The end comes! Death be praised!” and faded away.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then this mound of something began to move at the other end of the chamber. As it rose above the water line, we could make out the shapes of bones and things in it. Oh gods.

We spread out around the room to fight it. At one point, it lashed out at Elliott and enveloped him. His face would poke out of the mess every once in a while and he’d try to tell us something before getting sucked back under.

Finally, the monstrosity burst apart under our attacks, leaving behind an exhausted Elliott... and a crying baby? I’m retching a little just recalling it’s face. It was crying black tears. It was obviously undead, but Opal insisted on magically checking to be sure. Yep. I started forward to burn it, and Lith and Opal stopped me, pointing out that we knew where its resting place would be. So we all headed upstairs to put the baby to rest in the crib from earlier.

As soon as the body touched the crib bottom, it faded away. There was a rumbling around us, and the house started to fall apart. We all rushed down the stairs and made it out the door just before the whole building collapsed behind us. Everything that we had picked up from the middle levels of the house—mostly armor and weapons—started to rust and disintegrated off of our bodies as we ran. Zazear and Lith were the only ones who had taken or made makeshift clothing from the decrepit upper level and the basement, so the rest of us were down to our underwear again.

In the ruins of the house, the shapes of Rose and Thorn flickered, mouthing their cries for help from earlier. But... hadn’t we put the ghosts to rest? They shifted into another person’s shape then, and then another, flickering so fast it was hard to distinguish the different people. One lingered a little longer than the rest, causing Haku to make a sharp noise in reaction. It was his brother’s shape. The visions disappeared for good once they had all been cycled through.

The house must have been drawing people in for years like a sick people-trapping death... trap. Poor Haku. He says that his brother can’t be dead, and he’s sticking with us to keep looking. It’s sad to see someone that deep in denial.

There was a man not far from the house who we ran into after this. He introduced himself as Vasili and gave us some of his supplies, as well as directions to the closest village, Barovia, which we learned is also the name of this whole valley. We’re getting our bearings now. Who knows what we’ll find in Barovia. If this house was any sort of a sign for what’s ahead, I think I’m going to need new armor.

#campaign #curse of strahd #d&d #session notes

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caszino-blog · 6 years ago

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hostage

words: 3816

inspired by billie eilish - hostage

read it on ffn

i wanna be alone

alone with you, does that make sense?

i wanna steal your soul

and hide you in my treasure chest

Draco doesn't know what he's doing when he sits down next to a distraught Hermione Granger, her painful sobs echoing through the hallway and tugging at his heart. She's surrounded by a pile of canary-yellow feathers and Draco only has a moment to wonder why, before she whips around to look at him.

It's always so fascinating to watch Granger process situations. It's like he can hear the wheels turning in her brain and the thousand different expressions that cross her face are more attractive than Draco cares to admit. She always thinks before she acts—unlike the other two idiots who tag along with her. Sometimes, he wonders how Granger didn't end up in Ravenclaw, but then he remembers her penchant for plunging headfirst into dangerous situations and her weird need to help the downtrodden, and he doesn't doubt the Sorting Hat's decision at all.

A few minutes pass in silence before she speaks. "What are you doing here?" Her voice quavers a bit and he can tell that she's trying to sound strong. It isn't working, but Draco does not comment about it.

He shrugs because he actually doesn't know what he's doing there. He was heading back to the dungeons after an unsuccessful attempt to fix the cabinet and he'd taken a winding route downstairs, not particularly eager to face Pansy and her simpering attentions. He needed time, to clear his head of the bitter resentment and anger which had defined the past few months of his life.

He was ambling down the hidden staircase near the Gryffindor tower when he'd heard her crying. His feet dragged him to her and something about the way she sat, defeated and broken, had convinced him to sit next to her, against his better judgement.

"Spit it out, Malfoy. I know you're dying to make a comment about the poor little Mudblood," She says venomously and Draco flinches at the way she calls herself a Mudblood—the fact that she thinks that he considers her a Mudblood.

Don't you, though? A voice asks in his head and he pushes it away.

"Not really, Granger. I'm far too tired to come up with anything remotely insulting right now." Besides, I don't want to see you cry because of me.

"Huh, that's a first," she snorts and Draco silently agrees, wondering what's wrong with him. The last time he remembers interacting with her, he'd taunted her mercilessly. Why should it be any different now?

They sit, side by side, studying the night sky from the arched windows. The silence is not stifling or dreadful, like the chill of Malfoy Manor. It's almost comforting. It's like fragile glass and Draco feels like anything he says will shatter it.

Granger, of course, feels the need to talk. "You're disappearing every night, apparently. Harry noticed you know. He's convinced you're up to… something, I guess. Merlin, he's almost obsessed with you at this point," she rolls her eyes and he suppresses a snicker. "Where do you go?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, Granger," Draco smirks and she huffs. Then, abruptly, "Why were you crying?"

She glares at him and he cocks an eyebrow. "You can't expect me to answer your questions when you don't answer mine." Her voice is snooty and he's reminded of the self-righteous eleven-year-old she was and how her demeanour used to annoy him.

They lapse into silence again, both of them unwilling to cross the impasse they've reached. It's almost childish, really, but Draco will not give her the satisfaction of being answered.

Finally, after what seems like hours, Granger sighs and pushes an unruly curl away from her eyes. "Ron. He… he snogged Lavender Brown in the common room today. Everyone was watching. And pitying me, I'm sure." She sniffles a bit, and a frisson of panic shoots through him—what is he supposed to do if she cries again? "It's just… I always thought we'd end up together, you know? I do everything for him—hell, I Confunded bloody McLaggen so that he could be on the team… and he doesn't see me, waiting for him. He never sees me." Her voice is watery and he knows she's trying hard to keep it together. Draco wants to reach a hand out to her but no, he can't because they're different, they're supposed to be on opposite sides and touching her will only start a shitstorm Draco does not want to be a part of.

Draco sneers a bit and says, "Personally, I don't really know what you see in Weasel. He has so little to brag about himself that he goes around blustering about Potter's achievements—pathetic, really. I'm shocked that you think he's worth crying over. But then again, you did have a fucked up sense of pity." His words are not really a comfort, he knows, but it's not poison, either.

She snorts and repeats fucked up sense of pity, shaking her head. He smirks a little, watching her as she carefully runs her hands over the denim of her pants as if she's contemplating something.

Her eyes are deep pools of brown as she looks at him and asks, " D-did you take the Mark from him? Are you a Death Eater?"

Her words trickle down his back like a drop of cold water and Draco stiffens. He stands up and snarls, like a cornered animal, "N-no! Where did you get that idea? Potter? You can tell him to mind his own fucking business." He immediately regrets his words, knowing that his defensive tone will confirm Granger's suspicions.

"You are, aren't you?" Her voice is coloured with horror and he wants to look away as her face morphs to pity, but he can't. "Malfoy…"

"Don't, Granger… just…" his voice breaks and he clenches his fists. He carefully schools his features into a familiar mask of disdain and says, "Don't make assumptions about something you have no idea about, Mudblood. Don't assume anything about me."

And with that he stalks down the stairs towards the dungeons, feeling oddly lonely as his hands shake and the tears threaten to blur his vision.

i don't know what to do

do with your kiss on my neck

i don't know what feels true

but this feels right, so stay a sec

you feel right, so stay a sec

She drops her bag across from him, and he barely looks up from his book on Vanishing principles as she huffs. Her curly hair is wilder than usual and her eyes are burning with fury as she slams her potions book down on the table. Realisation hits Draco and suddenly, he knows why she's all worked up.

"Still peeved about Potter's little bezoar stunt?" He questions, a slight smirk on his face. He looks up from the book—he's so fucking done, trying to fix that cabinet—and his smirk widens as he looks at her slight frown transform into a full scowl.

Teasing her feels familiar now. He knows exactly how to push her buttons without going too far and she's too gullible to his taunts which makes it all the more enjoyable.

He wonders when it became familiar, when she became familiar. That one night on the stairs went on to become a chance encounter in the library, to an unspoken agreement to meet every day in the little Astronomy corner, full of old leather-bound books. It became their little haven of escape—from the reality of his task and the horrors of his nightmares, from her heartbreak and constant worrying.

He wonders how she can stand him, knowing that he's a monster and he asked her about it, one day, in a moment of absolute self-loathing. She simply replied that she doesn't want to make the mistake of judging him for what he has been forced to become and bile rose in his throat because he knew he didn't deserve her kindness.

"I don't understand how he does it! I mean, it's a stupid book—how can it be right all the fucking time? I spent so much time on that antidote and he just shows that stupid little goat stone and Slughorn's all over him! I-it's not fucking fair," she seethes. Draco raises an eyebrow at her words—he's never heard her swear.

"Now you know how I feel," Draco says, shrugging. Hermione looks up, comprehension dawning on her face. He knows she understands—Potter's had it all so easy. He's broken more school rules than all of the Slytherins combined and he's still favoured over everyone else. He should've died, several times over, but he always made it out unscathed.

It must be nice, he thinks bitterly, to be lucky.

"Yeah, well," she sighs. "I need to find a way to get him away from that book before he learns something much worse than the uses of a bezoar from that horrid book. I-it has dark spells, Malfoy. Horrible curses—I've seen it. I don't want him to get into trouble—he has so much on his plate already."

Draco almost snorts at that. So much on his plate, his arse. Like avoiding Slughorn's fawning and getting cosy in the Headmaster's office every other day is so taxing. How about plotting the murder of said Headmaster when your mother's life is at stake?

He is snapped out of his thoughts by Hermione pulling his book from his hands. He holds his book firmly, not willing to let her see it, to allow her an opportunity to ask questions he certainly does not want to answer. "What are you reading?" She asks curiously and he's about to make up an excuse for why he's reading about Vanishing, of all things, when his left arm starts burning with the intensity of an inferno.

He bends over in agony, clutching his arm and he can vaguely hear Hermione's voice asking him if everything is alright. The pain is decapacitating, terrifying. The Mark burns his nerves and he feels like tearing it off his skin—he just wants out, to escape from the pain and guilt, to escape his dreadful task. But there is no going back. There is no going back from the Dark Lord's ranks or he will suffer a fate worse than death.

His mother will suffer a fate worse than death. And she does not deserve it.

That is the only thing keeping him from running away.

He will fight. If only to keep Narcissa Malfoy safe, he will fight.

He feels cold fingers pushing up his sleeve and he protests weakly, scrambling to keep his jumper in place. She does not listen to him and the dark ink of the serpent and skull burns more as she touches it. He hisses and she recoils, hesitantly cradling his arm.

"What have they done to you, Draco?" She whispers and suddenly it's all too much.

He does not deserve her strength, her compassion, but he basks in it. He cannot be redeemed, he knows that much. But the warmth of her eyes as she looks at him, the single tear on her cheek for his pain makes him believe that he can be forgiven and he gives in to his overwhelming urge to lean in and kiss her.

The pain fades as she gasps and responds to him, her soft lips matching the fervour of his own. His thumb grazes her left cheek, wiping the tear away and her hands slip through his hair and the world narrows down to her and there's nothing left of him but her. He cannot string together a coherent thought as the scent of cinnamon and smoke fills his nose and his fingers get entangled in the labyrinth of her hair. She pulls him closer until there's no space between them and Draco thinks that he can forget everything right there in her arms.

He regains his sanity a moment later, when she pulls away to rest her forehead against his, a defeated sigh escaping her swollen lips—like she is accepting the fact that there is no going back from… this, whatever it is. Draco knows the feeling.

She buries her face in the crook of his neck, pressing a warm kiss to his skin as his hands gently trail down her back. He feels like crying again, for her, for them, for whatever they've gotten themselves into now, because it can only end in tragedy.

He does not know what to do.

But everything in the world feels right again, with her warm body curled up in his arms, his back against the stone wall of the library and so, Draco stays.

gold on your fingertips

fingertips against my cheek

gold leaf across your lips

kiss me until i can't speak

His back slams against the door of the Room of Requirement and Draco growls, kissing Hermione with bruising passion as she pulls him towards the couch in the middle of the room. Their hands are desperate, pulling robes off shoulders and unbuttoning shirts. He knows he doesn't have much time left with her, that being with her after these stolen moments is almost impossible. She must know too, because her hands possess the same urgency as his own.

They fall into a graceless pile on the couch and Draco shivers as Hermione presses her perpetually cold fingers to his cheek, tracing a path to his newly acquired scar, courtesy of Potter himself. He runs his fingers over her curves, watching as her eyes flutter with pleasure and her lips part. He feels a sense of affection bubble within his chest and wonders whether he should voice his feelings. Whether she'll reciprocate his words or throw them away with disdain.

"I knew I should've taken that book away from him," she mumbles, her eyes on the angry red surrounding the pale white of the scarred flesh and Draco kisses her softly, trying to tell her it isn't her fault—she is blameless for everything that's happened, even if she insists otherwise. "Look at what he did to you. I-I'm sorry."

"Not your fault," Draco whispers, twining a curl of her dark hair in his pale fingers. Sometimes, he's fascinated by the poetry of it all—they are complete opposites in every way. Hermione is a painting of rich colour, deep brown and olive tones against gold and red, while he is a pale sketch of silvers and greys and greens. She is everything good and pure while he's stuck in the greys, unable to escape the clutches of the dark.

"No, Draco—" she begins, but Draco pulls her closer. He bites her lower lip, muttering, "Shut up and kiss me."

And she does.

When they return from their high, his fingers map a constellation between the freckles on her collarbone and he says, "I just want you to know that I'm… sorry. For everything. I was terrible to you and I understand if you don't forgive me—" he holds up a hand when she begins to speak. He has to get this out. He needs to get this out. "—But I was acting on years of prejudice and unreasonable hatred that my father had taught me, but I was wrong. Merlin, I was so wrong—everything's so fucked up. And… and I feel so sorry that I made you cry, that day I called you a… a Mudblood." She kisses him and he sighs, "I wish things were different but I hope you know that I won't… I haven't thought of you—"

"I know, Draco. Trust me, I do. And I forgive you." She wraps her arms around him and he relaxes. "You deserve forgiveness. You're not evil, Draco—I know you think that. You're not. You're good and brave and I love you." Her last words are a whisper and she stiffens.

But Draco does not let her dwell on her insecurity, as he embraces her tightly, whispering that he loves her over and over again. She forgave him. She loves him.

And perhaps, she will save him, too.

gold's fake and real love hurts

and nothing hurts when i'm alone

when you're with me and we're alone

The last time he sees her is before he goes to the Room of Requirement to open the Vanishing Cabinet for Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters. His hands shake and his heart thunders, but as he approaches her in their little library corner, he feels at peace.

Her eyes are sad, understanding and he sometimes hates how compassionate she can be. If she wasn't, then perhaps he wouldn't be so in love with her that he can't bear the thought of leaving her after tonight.

But he knows, in his heart, that he would not have it any other way.

"Don't cry, my love," he says, quietly, brushing a few tears with the tips of his fingers. He hates seeing her cry—perhaps it's because the first time he saw her cry was when he was the cause.

She laughs a little, rubbing her tears away furiously. "You've never called me that before, you know. I kind of like it."

He smiles a little, holding her hand. "If we both make it out of this war alive… I'll call you my love, every minute of every day." If you even want me around, that is.

They haven't discussed the future, mostly because it's so uncertain and painful, and Draco curses himself for blurting out those words. He's almost about to apologise, but her smile suddenly brightens as she says, "I'll hold you to that, you know."

He smirks at her, stealing a kiss from her lips. "I know."

And then, he kisses her for the last time, buries his nose in her cinnamon-scented hair and walks away without a second glance, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists as her quiet sobs reach his ears.

it's not like me to be so mean

you're all i wanted

just let me hold you

hold you, like a hostage

When she finally wakes up, relief comes crashing down like a flood and he almost buckles under the feeling. Her eyes are disoriented and bloodshot, her voice cracked but it's his Hermione, who says, in a questioning tone, "Draco?"

"How the fuck did you get caught, Granger?" His anger wells up, and suddenly, all he wants to do is scream at her because she told him that she would be safe. Told him that she'd be careful, but here she was, half-dead, and tortured by his crazy aunt, of all people. His heart burns with fear and fury and he's almost blinded by it until he sees her flinch at his expression.

"I-I.." she trails off into sobs and his heart breaks. He approaches her cautiously, hatred for himself replacing the fury. She nestles into his arms, and she feels so light and weak against him that he's afraid she'll shatter if he touches her. Her tears soak through the dress shirt that he hasn't bothered to change out of, and he rocks back and forth, his own tears hidden in her mahogany curls.

They stay like that, his arms trapping her within their safety and her head against his heart, until Fleur comes up to inform him that dinner will be ready soon and her face lights up with joy when she sees that Hermione is awake. "I shall tell 'Arry and Ron zat you are awake, yes? Zey will be pleased to see you."

Hermione just nods and Fleur offers the both of them a parting smile before shutting the door again.

Suddenly, Hermione stiffens and asks, "Did you tell Harry and Ron… about us?"

"I thought you did," Draco says, confusion etched in his gaunt features. "Harry wasn't too surprised when I Apparated here with you."

"Oh, no, he figured it out, last year, he had the Marauder's Map you see—it shows the location of every person in Hogwarts," she says, by way of explanation. Draco rolls his eyes—just what Potter had needed, more help to break the rules. "He told me he knew, when we were on the run. But Ron didn't know. He took it well, I suppose, considering that you're still in one piece."

"Oh, if you mean 'tried to hex me six ways to Sunday' by 'well enough', then yes, he did take it well. But… he was okay with it after a while, I think. Because I took a Cruciatus for you—Harry told him. He hasn't bothered me since we came here, so I don't know." Draco shrugs, running his thumb over the bandage on Hermione's left arm, where Bellatrix sliced a deep, straight line with her cursed knife. Draco is thankful that he'd fought back before she could proceed—he has a feeling that Bellatrix wanted to do much worse than carve a single line in Hermione's skin.

"You took a Crucio for me?" Hermione asks, her eyes looking larger than usual in her thin face. In the moonlight, she almost looks like a child, innocent and sweet.

"I had to. I-I couldn't just stand by and watch that madwoman torture you, Hermione. I'd had enough. The things I saw there…" Draco shudders at the haunting memories, remembering the Muggles he tortured, the sick pleasure on Voldemort's face as he watched countless people die on one of his pointless revels. He remembers the pain of suffering from the Cruciatus at the Carrows' hand, because he'd refused to torture a first-year—a child. He remembers the fear on his mother's face as the Snatchers dragged the three disfigured prisoners and Bellatrix smiled maliciously at the defeated girl in front of her—and he somehow knew that it might be the last time he ever saw her, because he would die to protect Hermione from his aunt's wand.

"It's alright, you know, it's alright," she whispers, a bloodless hand coming to rest against his cheek and he shudders, holding her tight as she soothes him by repeating her words, over and over again. He does not cry—he doesn't think he can, he is too broken for it—but he can feel himself healing as her sweet whispers ghost against his skin.

They whisper their love against each other's lips as they desperately try to forget the last few days—last few months, really. He remembers a conversation they once had in the darkness of a secluded Hogwarts hallway, when he told her that she held him prisoner in her heart because he didn't see any way he could escape from her, from them, without hurting himself.

Her eyes flutter with sleep and she yawns. He kisses her forehead. "Sleep, my love."

He watches as her lips stretch into a drowsy smile and Draco thinks that if he really is her prisoner, he is glad because he's never felt freer than he has in her arms.

#dramione #draco malfoy #draco imagine #draco x hermione #hermione granger #hermione #draco #draco malfoy x hermione granger #hp #hp imagine #harry potter #harry potter fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #fic

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dabbling-translations · 2 years ago

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Chapter 5: ‘The Scorching Witch’ returns. Witch-sama grills a gigantic fish

“Yuo-sama, I will be guiding you around the village today on behalf of my grandfather.” (Hannah)

As its ruler, it’s important for me to be familiar with Yapan as a whole, so the day after we arrived, we decided to check the village and territory out.

Hannah, the village chief’s granddaughter, volunteered to be our guide. She looked cute with her short golden hair. She efficiently showed us around and never lost her bright smile.

But she still looks thin and undernourished.

I firmly vow to build a prosperous village so that her condition will improve!

"Yuo-sama, this is Noboribetsu Cave." (Hannah)

After touring for an hour or so, we finally arrived at the place that I wanted to visit the most. The place where my grandfather excavated those strange objects was near the cliff.

Maybe more interesting things are buried there

The might even be a dungeon! Just the thought already has my heart racing.

… but once I got closer, I was disappointed.

Noboribetsu Cave was just a normal cave. It was no more than 10 meters deep and didn’t even look like it would have slimes in it.

Eeh? I thought we would see something interesting.

"... there must be some secret passageway or something. Lara, let’s look into it.” (Yuo)

"Roger that!" (Lara)

Thinking that it was suspiciously empty, I decided to go snooping around the cliff with Lara. I’m sure this was where my grandfather excavated all those weird junk so I still believe I will find things there. Hannah helped us by moving some rocks around.

However, even after an hour of searching, we still didn’t find anything.

Hmmm… I guess it’s not gonna be easy.

Just when I was giving up, I heard Hannah's sharp voice.

"Lord! Please leave immediately! That’s the Great Earthfish that attacked grandpa recently!" (Hannah)

I turned around and saw a 10-meter-long fish coming toward us with its mouth open! It swam in the soil and had two heads. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a fish like this. It looked quite familiar to a fish I saw in the capital called ‘porgy’ (鯛).

I just know this will taste good grilled.

“I’m gonna distract it! Eiyahh!” Hannah pulled out the sword on her waist and boldly challenged the monster.

She’s surprisingly very agile.

Hannah’s agility helps her dodge the monster's attacks with aplomb.

For someone so thin, she’s actually a magic swordsman?

However, the monster's skin looked hard and impenetrable. In an effort to protect us, a back-and-forth battle between Hannah and the gigantic fish began.

“Ugh, I don’t have any strength since I haven’t eaten yet…” (Hannah)

Although Hannah was able to keep up, her movements started getting duller for some reason. Seeing this, the monster opened its mouth wide and took advantage of Hanna’s weakness.

“I can still hold him off! Master, please return to the village and call for backup! Ice attack, [Ice Lance]!” (Lara)

Just in time! Lara shot an ice attack from her palm to save Hannah. She then instructed me to evacuate as soon as possible.

Lara may have a point. As a lord, I should probably go back to the village and call for help. Regardless of the fact that I’ve been banished, I’m still Lara’s master and the lord of this fief. I can't just leave the two of them behind and run away. It’s my duty to protect my people, and I have the means to fight.

My [Heater Skill] can cause anything I touch to heat up and explode. In other words, if I get this big fish extremely hot, it’s gonna be grilled, right?

“Lara, I’m going to blow this fish up. You take care of Hannah.”

The two-headed, ground-swimming fish is very large but its movement was linear and predictable. While it swimming toward me, I avoided it by jumping on its back and then touched it.

I concentrated on the thought, “Explode!”

At the next moment, the monster's right head exploded with a loud sound. Blast waves from the explosion caused Hannah to stumble and almost fall if not for Lara’s quick aid.

“Great job, master! But watch out, it’s still attempting to escape!” (Lara)

With one of its heads blasted off, the fish immediately attempts to escape its current predicament.

“Oh no, you won’t! This is for attacking the village!"

The monster tried to escape, its head attempting to dive into the cliff.

It would be a hassle if it escapes into the cliff. But I won’t let that happen. If I let it escape, it might retaliate against the village.

“You’re gonna blow up!” (Yuo)

With little only a bit of its body remaining, I put my hand on the monster’s tail. I concentrated on the thought of blowing it up and immediately ran away.

Dogaaaaam!

The cliff collapsed with an unusual sound. I felt a sharp pain behind my ears. The area was covered with debris.

Oops… It seems I made it too strong. My bad.

Hannah said it was a tough opponent, I hope it’s okay that I blew it up. Well, it's just fish anyway, what’s there to be scared of?

"Master! That was amazing! It’s like you’re the child of destruction, the Scorching Witch!" (Lara)

After I confirmed that the monster was gone for good, I receive weird praise from Lara.

It feels good to be praised.

But the "Scorching Witch" is a witch from legends, a witch who scorched everything to the ground. It might be fictional but no young lady would want to be associated with such an infamous character.

“Ehh, that’s not good…” (Yuo)

No matter what, I don’t want to be known as something so violent like a Scorching Witch. Why can’t I be called Guardian of Flames or the Lady of Blaze?

“Scorching Witch? Haaaaaaaah? Lord-sama is the Scorching Witch?!” Hannah exclaimed in a high-pitched voice.

Don’t tell me…

“That's not true! It was just a metaphor, okay? There's no way I'm a witch!” I tried to correct Hanna before she has some weird ideas.

It would troublesome if weird rumors spread at an important time in my reign as lord. Plus, I don’t want to be mistaken for a violent and scary witch. It's as crazy as claiming to be the reincarnation of the Earth Mother Goddess.

"Fufufu, did you just realize? Indeed, in a way, master is the Scorching Witch." Lara says admittedly, fanning the flames.

This is supposed to be a joke! Don’t say such things to a naive country girl or else she might actually believe you!

Hannah has a strange twinkle in her eye, I'm afraid she's the type of person who would take a joke seriously.

“I knew it! There's no way you would be able to defeat a Great Earthfish, a monster that preys on forest dragons, with just your bare hands if you were just a normal lady! I'll make sure to let the villagers know so they don’t get careless!" Hannah said with excitement, emphasizing how vicious of a monster that fish was.

I heard that even with their combined efforts, the entire village was still unable to defeat that fish.

NO NO NO NOOO! I just heated it up a bit and it exploded, I didn’t do too much!

Guuuuuuuu~ A strange noise came from Hannah's stomach.

"Ah, I'm so sorry!" Hannah apologized in shame while blushing.

Come to think of it, during the fight, she mentioned that she didn’t have strength because she hasn’t eaten yet. That’s why she wasn’t able to finish off such a weak fish [1].

“I see! No one has the strength to handle the monsters around here due to hunger…” (Yuo)

The villagers lack nutrition and therefore don’t have the strength to fend for themselves. After all, people have to eat properly to fight, don't they?

“Hannah, I'm sorry blew most of the fish up. If there are any edible parts left, you can take it to the villagers so they can eat too.” (Yuo)

I instructed Hannah to retrieve the fish. Monsters are edible anyway so the villagers could feast on it instead of leaving it here to rot.

“Hiiiiiieeeee! Are you sure you don’t want to keep it for yourself? It’s a ten-year-old Great Earthfish, it’s meat is very nourishing, you know?" (Hannah)

“We can't eat it all by ourselves. You can have it." (Yuo)

"Thank you very much! Witch-sama’s mercy is making me cry. I love you, Witch-sama!" Hannah took my hand and shook it.

She immediately dashed back to the village. What? She called me ‘Witch-sama’ so naturally.

Oh no, this is definitely a trend that's gonna stick!

“Lara, what were you thinking? Everyone’s gonna think I’m a witch even though I have zero magic power!” (Yuo)

"Well, it’s all part of my plan to let everyone know how strong master is.” (Lara)

Unsurprisingly, Lara didn’t mind what I was saying despite my desperate protests. I really don’t think strategies like this would be useful in such a remote area.

“Nonetheless, you truly are an ideal feudal lord, master. Distributing food to your people was very compassionate of you.” (Lara)

“No, no, it’s not that big of a deal!” (Yuo)

I just believe that food should always be shared.

It’s true that some feudal lords, like my stupid brothers, hoard all their territory’s resources instead of distributing them to their people, but that’s not how I want to lead my territory.

“Master is a great lord. Let's all work together to turn this frontier into the most powerful nation!” Lara said happily.

The most powerful nation, huh? That's a far cry from the slow life imagined. But I don’t mind making my father and brothers regret ever banishing me by making this land prosper.

While watching the sunset at the frontier, a new goal sprouted in my heart.

<<Scorching Witch’s Recent Gain>>

Great Earthfish meat

A gigantic fish-shaped monster usually found at the frontier. It can swallow a lesser dragon with ease. Two-headed variants are polished and seasoned hunters. Can be a great source of delicious white meat.

<<Scorching Witch’s Ability>>

[Thermal Blast]

Level: Quasi-death technique

Transmitting an excessive amount of heat, any target she touches explodes. This includes hard objects like boulders and tough metals. When used on humans, it cannot be defended against and disintegrates the limbs.

(T/N) She genuinely thinks that fish was easy to kill… I hope you enjoyed this chapter and any corrections are greatly appreciated, just refer to the corrections panel on the navigation bar.

[Prev] [TOC] [Next]

#scorchingwitchdtl

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readbythestarlight · 6 years ago

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c2e30 (I’m very late and I know it but here it is anyway)

I’m almost a week late but hey that’s fine let’s do this!

Still miss Ashley but I’m gad Travis and Laura are back!

I also miss Keg

I’m so glad they fucked Lorenzo up. I’m sorry for Matt’s plans but fuck that guy.

“Enduring it silently” Yasha my girl

“Case closed” cool make me cry again that’s fine

Nott just has no fucks to give for Fjord xD

Oh, Yasha, my girl.

"I have healing I have healing who are you I have healing" oh sure Jester NOW you wanna heal

“Where’s Molly?” FUCK it’s fine I’m fine

“is he waiting upstairs?”

“He didn’t make it.”

“To… this dungeon? Cause he’s waiting upstairs?”

IT’S FINE IM NOT CRYING

Fjord sounds so exhausted someone hug him

Everyone’s sad I’m sad I don’t wanna live with this again

Fjord. Honey. It’s not your fault.

God Fjord and Jester and Yasha are going to have such a rough time healing and moving on…

This is really hard… like. My heart hurts.

“We learned for the future. This won’t happen again, understand me?”

“Nothing this good ever happens, this is great.” I love him. He’s sweet and he tries.

Jester and Beau back at the cute BFF banter already

B: “I would have laid down my life for you guys.”

J: “I would have tried to heal you back.”

Oh lord guys you can’t just make butt jokes in the middle of my crying.

Oh damn, I forgot Molly and Fjord shared a room the most often. Poor Fjord.

“It’s probably stolen.”

“People need killin’ if that happens.”

Them talking about Molly possibly coming back like that’s what we’re all still hoping for please don’t pull my heartstrings like this.

And the Fjord/Jester train rolls on again. They wasted no time.

“Oooooo, ooooo! That’s all I need to know.”

“INSIGHT CHECK”

oh my god Sam xD

WHISPERS

“Fuck human traffickers, ammiright?” You are so right.

“Please bring me any books” Caleb’s priorities back in place again

Cad cooking food I love him

Matt plz chill with the torture stuff

I love how they’re always finding random potions

Godddd Lorenzo’s chamber…

“Some young creature” it’s a baby Matt just say it

Bag of holding?? IT IS A BAG OF HOLDING?

YAAAS

Please no body parts please no body parts…

Fjord checking the room for books <3

I want Fjord and Caleb to get back to being bros man I miss that so hard

Fuck I forgot Caleb was still injured Jester plz heal him

I adore Cad you guys. Adore him.

“Roots.”

“Do I smell anything…? Nah it smells like breakfast fuck it I go back down” xD Travis

A long rest sounds like a good idea, but is the fortress safe?

“WHAT’S THAT NEW MAGIC YOU USED?” SAAAAM LOL

Cad is gonna be the weird uncle of the team who keeps them all fed and relatively healthy

I’m curious about the bag and what all it can do and stuff

lol Fjord just spilled everything out

“I have deep arcane abilities” lol Fjord

101 PLATINUM NICE

Ooooo a gem!

Oh daaaamn wax sealed envelope

AN ACTUAL ENVELOPE

okay what is it….

omg could they collect anyone 101 platinum?

Oooo Wayfairer’s Cove? Is it Pirates?? Please be pirates.

Also does that mean they’ll go to Nicodranus?

OH.

OH SHIT.

FJORD HAS ONE. IN HIS STOMACH.

“You have 50 rings, do you have a glass bead?”

Nott has the most amazing collection of stuff

Ouch, 5 intelligence check

Fjord my darling why are you collecting a tusk?

Also guys i’m over my annoyance with Fjord I missed him so much he’s back to being one of my faves

“HEY LOOK WHAT I MADE :D” Caleb my son he’s so proud and happy look at him

He’s been working on it so he can protect his friends I’m crying

Cad just makes me smile every time he speaks. Taliesin just knows how to cheer me up with every character he makes.

I can’t believe Caleb actually managed to make them a small “home” they can move just like he wanted I’m so proud of him

NOTT PLZ

Jester dragging Yasha in lol

Niiiice magic potion and magic red gem

bad magic manacles no

C: “This has great power.”

N: “What is it?”

C: “It’s a meat hook.”

300 bolts nice

Beau looking for something throwable

Those are creepy manacles 0/10

Caleb please stop being weird about fire YOU’RE SCARING ME

“It’s not my thing” hnnn

Beau honey please keep it for him he doesn’t need it right now

Fjord using Molly’s sword is good

DON’T EAT THE GODDAMN SWORD

PLEASE

Fjord’s actual identity is a bag of holding I’ve solved it

BEAU

BEAU NO

beau plz

Oh Jester… oh honey… I’m crying again

“Why didn’t you come?” IT’S FINE

I’m fine

it’s not fine

Bye Keg WE’LL MISS YOU

Letter for Nott I cry

“Oh, a note… It’s really badly written…” Nott plz

That letter I’M CRRRYYYYYING

“p.s. if anyone hurts you I will kill them” <3<3<3<3

Marisha’s face when she looked at the letter I’m crying

Ashley B is the best I miss her so much

Fjord keeping the glaive for Yasha. <3

Cad offering to help dye the bag pink xD

He and Jester are going to be good buddies

C: “I need to head east at some point.”

Cad: “What is east?”

C: “I don’t know. But I’d like to find out.”

—

B: “He makes dead people tea.”

F: “He makes what?!”

Hmmm okay so what’s making the illusion. the cart itself?

MAGIC ILLUSION CART that could be great

Stealth cart yessss

Happy (late) birthday, Ashley!

Cad should stay with the cart maybe?

They’re very touchy about the cart xD

Ophelia is classy as hell and I don’t trust her but I like her

Oooo smart to remember to bring the glaive Fjord good job

My boy with the Nat20 persuasion ayyyyyyy

No wait we’re keeping it for Yasha

Nice okay good she let them have it

Oh dang I forgot they were supposed to escort her back to Zadesh

“I think ‘hot fuck’ is accurate on a few levels” Beau continues to be THE disaster lesbian

Fjord is creeped out by Cad and I’m loving it

Oh no who’s coming…

Oh okay it’s just the carriages lol I was worried

Stealth check for giggles lol

Money says Beau will try to sleep with Ophelia before the trip is over

SAM NAMED THEM AFTER ABBA SONGS omg I’m crying

Oh oh oh a crick person. What were they called?

J: “Shady deals happening!”

Cad: “Oh is that what that is? I’ve never seen one before.”

Okay we’re in the slums this is where something is going to happen

Driving through slums in fancy carriages is bad

Frumpkin is gone sadly

Oooo Jester has a fancy new spell? Nice

“Next time you use it maybe it will have a purpose” xD harsh, Nott.

Oooo some Beau and Caleb talk! It’s been a few weeks. And yesss give us some Beau backstory!

“Why are you running around with criminals? And me?” Caleb you are just as much a criminal as the rest of them

Beau and Caleb’s friendship and their conversations are my fave

I SAW SPOILERS ABOUT WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN AND IM NOT OKAY

is his coat there

HIS COAT IS THERE

thank god

I’m not ready for this

Taliesin looks like he might cry, I’m gonna cry, everyone’s gonna cry

Letting Taliesin choose which card Jester pulled I’m weeping

the same card she pulled when they met I’m sobbing now

Fjord with Summer Dance I’m just. A wreck.

Yasha wakes up AT MOLLY’S GRAVE THIS ISN’T OKAY

“What’s going on” noPE MATT HOW DARE

Oh Yasha my dear oh god

“It happened again” stop please I beg you

She didn’t even get to help kill Lorenzo

Oh, oh, Yasha…

Oh fuck.

Oh. Oh, my heart.

She doesn’t even have her sword.

Caleb and Nott please don’t make me cry either

TALIESIN DONT

I CANNOT

He’s gone.

He’s really, forever, never coming back, gone.

“I made the earth remember him. Something will be here.”

Like… like I had this vague hope that somehow he’d come back, ten, twenty episodes from now. Hell, maybe close to the end, he’d just come back. He’d return to life and maybe he wouldn’t remember at first, but they’d help remind him who he is. But no… he’s gone. Tal gave him the best goodbye he could.

C: “Come, everyone. Molly wanted us to keep living.”

B: “And make things better.”

I’m glad they all got to say goodbye but my god, none of them had ever die, because I can’t handle anything like this ever again.

Goodbye, Molly. For real this time.

“Those ideas I had have come to fruition” oh god what does that mean

Caleb worries me

New feat is cool but he still worries me

Ophelia and the Gentleman, huh?

PFFF SHE BIT HIM. kinky.

I like Ophelia more and more tbh

Cad just grins

also the Gentleman doesn’t have Cad’s blood that’s probably good

Hey @ the Gentleman don’t be a dick “that’s just the way of it” i’m gonna kick you

LOL Nott and the moisture thing again I’m cackling

How much money? I don’t remember

“mostly platinum” O_O

600 platinum NICE

250 gold

6250 alksjdlaksjflkjsdhfkjasdhg

+50 platinum for the loss of Molly HE WAS WORTH SO MUCH MORE HE WAS PRICELESS

Nott explaining “money” to Cad lol

“I can’t think of four things I’d like to get, that’s nice.”

A tea set, a skillet, more cups.

Fuck okay he’s gonna get his blood sigh

WHISPERRRSSSSS

Cad and his bugs alksjdlkas

I’m actually glad that Caleb lied about Molly… I’m not sure why but I’m just glad. Molly didn’t want to be tied to Lucien, even in death.

Metagaming pigeon lol

GO SEE PUMAT SOL I just want him to meet Cad desperately

Tal rolling to determine how Cad feels about milk lol

Tal wants to strangle Sam/Nott for their tragic lack of knowledge (r their total deception) about how whiskey is made lol

Introducing Cad to alcohol lol

Fjord is so baffled whenever people flirt with him I love it

“Here is to fucking making it work” <3

Beau I don’t think he wants to talk about it, darling

Alright Fjord needs a goddamn hug. Like a big one.

They think Jester is fine but guys she’s not fine keep an eye on her. This is how she copes but she’s gonna fall apart. There are cracks.

Caleb is right about her. She’s suffering.

Cad: “I’ve had six drinks. I’m in the biggest city I’ve ever been in. Everything tastes TERRIBLE.”

—

N: “Have you not thrown up yet?”

Cad: “Is that part of the—are you supposed to?”

—

Oh boy intruding Jester to alcohol too let her be sweet and innocent and not a useless drunk like all of you smh

Jester is going to have so much fun introducing Cad to pastries

“What’s a smut shop?” Oh lord.

C: “To that purple devil. To Mollymauk Tealeaf.”

B: “And now to our new… tea leaf…”

Travis just suggested shopping the world must be ending

Matt just keeps ducking his head and giggling I love him

Nott my dear you are not subtle

I’m so glad they all back together (minus Yasha—come back soon, Ashley!!). I missed these happy nights of goofiness.

And I’ll always miss you, Mollymauk.

“FOR MOLLY!”

Goblight lol

“Caduceus Clay, we are your destiny!!” xD Caleb

Oooo some downtime episodes coming! Some time to get to know Cad, that’ll be nice.

THEY EACH HAEV OVER 1000 GOLD

amazing

“Just one 10 hour Critical Role episode, please.” Someday, Liam, someday.

Good episode. Good, good episode.

#emi watches critical role #critical role #critical role spoilers

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mollymauk-teafleak · 6 years ago

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I’ve been wanting to write something for my and @minky-for-short‘s Alex/Eliza Dungeons and Dragons AU forever and what better to write than the classic and beloved fan fiction trope of whoops, there’s only one bed?

Please enjoy, if you did, I’d really appreciate a reblog or some money kicked to my Ko-Fi to fund my hot chocolate addiction.

She’d had such high hopes.

Though no, not high hopes. The expectation of a bed with an actual mattress and a frame, hopefully stuffed with down though straw would suffice instead of the bare ground, a room with a window to let the morning sun gradually filter through rather than hitting her full in the face like an insistent slap, a bowl of warm water to wash her face in or maybe even a bath, as opposed to spending a few minutes sucking in her breath and marshalling her courage before jumping into an ice cold river in order to start the day not smelling like a barn. Those weren’t exactly unimaginable luxuries, when Eliza thought about it.

Though travelling and adventuring had really adjusted her perspective on life, in many different ways.

The room did look ridiculously cosy and inviting after so long on the road that she’d actually lost count of how many nights she’d spent sleeping under the stars, which had sounded romantic back when she’d come of age and realised she found her life in their father’s manor house stifling. When she’d been dragging her feet through the endless social engagements expected of a high lords daughter but had never seemed to be expecting someone quite like her and considered her a disappointment, leaving her leaping at the chance to go travelling with her sisters. But Eliza had realised that often ‘stars’ meant thick clouds or incessant, chilly drizzle or the boughs of a tree that would be resolutely dripping on her all night long.

But this room had a small candle flickering on a bedside table, warm and welcoming, the honey gold light thrown around the room like arms spread wide ready to receive them, showing beams overhead like they were in some kind of converted barn, a flagon of water, a window with the drapes cinched tight against the night outside. There was a sheaf of paper and a quill on the desk to write a letter to their parents, a sight which soothed Eliza’s mind as much as the aches in her legs, she was certain they’d be nervous after so long without word of how their journey was going.

There was also a bed. It looked like the kind of bed that would swallow you as soon as you rolled into it, in the best kind of way so that you didn’t need to think of anything but the fresh smell of washed linens and soft pillows and warmth enveloping you until the sun came up.

However, there was only one. And Alex was currently sat on it, looking up at Eliza with an expression that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be belligerence or apologeticness and was making a poor imitation of both.

Eliza dropped her pack and closed the door behind her with a short, sharp sigh of resignation, “There’s no use looking at me like that. You know this wasn’t my idea either.”

“I’m not looking at you like any kind of way,” the tiefling retorted, though there was a bitter edge to his voice, “It’s no big deal. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Eliza frowned, shaking her head, “Alex, come on, that’s crazy. We can share a bed for one night, it’s big enough for two. You’ve been sleeping on the ground as long as I have.”

She hoped her voice was steady and certain as she wanted it to be, so maybe she’d be able to convince him that she really didn’t see sharing such close quarters with him as a huge deal. When maybe she did...just a little. Though not for the reasons she was sure he was thinking.

It really hadn’t been either of their decisions. An unplanned trip into a particularly stagnant and murky pond a few days ago had left Peggy with a pox of red, raised spots on her skin. Angelica had had it years ago, when she was much younger so she was immune which was a relief given that she had the most healing skill out of any of them. Alex and Eliza were at risk though and had been banished to the bed he was supposed to be sleeping in alone, definitely alone, definitely not with his party mate that he didn’t honestly get off on the best foot with. Or had been finding the right foot with since. They were still kind of looking for the right foot. And Eliza didn’t think they were going to find it while they were going to be crammed together in the same bed, comfortably big but certainly not big enough that they weren’t going to have to touch at some point.

And weird things had been happening whenever Alex and Eliza touched recently. She’d been trying to ignore it or pretend she didn’t notice that flowers bloomed between her fingers whenever she saw Alex just after he’d woken up and Peggy had kicked him out of his bedroll, when his hair was sticking up around his horns and his eyes were bright and no shirt to cover his muscles or tattoos. Or when she’d be cooking at the fire and he’d come and drop down by her wherever she sat to give her some herbs he’d found, so much so that his arm pressed against her, when he’d wander away Eliza would find some daisies creeping their way pointedly up her shoulder.

Whenever her powers showed themselves unconsciously, it was in response to a strong surge of emotion, something Eliza knew in the back of her mind but was trying very,very hard not to focus on.

Because having any kind of strong surge of emotion in response to a young rouge who’d first made his acquaintance with the sisters by trying to collect them for a bounty, who was very cagy about the kind of work he’d been involved in before he met them, who had such dark, beautiful eyes and a wicked smile that revealed his pointed teeth and a little of the vulnerability that lived behind it...it would be a very bad idea.

Alex brought her out of that dangerous line of thinking with a short, sharp huff of a sigh, “I don’t think there is a way for this not to be awkward, huh, Princess?”

Eliza rolled her eyes at the nickname he’d adopted for her that had started as a poisonous jab the first time he’d used it (though in fairness to him, she had been hoisting him upside down with vines) but had slowly softened over their travels into more of an inside joke. He’d use it, she’d aim a kick at his shins that never really intended to land and point out that technically she was the daughter of a high lord and deserved only the title ‘lady’ at best though that had always made her wrinkle her nose right from when she was five years old.

“No, I don’t think there is,” Eliza shrugged, scuffing the edge of her boot against the rug, “So how about we just take a deep breath, handle this like adults and then never talk about it again after tonight? Because, honestly, I just want to sleep right now.”

“I always handle stuff like an adult,” Alex muttered, though he did get up and relinquish the bed, going over to the opposite end of the room, “I need to change. No peeking.”

Eliza snorted, turning her back just as he did so they were eye to eye with opposite walls, “Long as you return the favour.”

“Um, I am a gentleman? So that should really go without saying?” Alex’s voice was jokingly indignant and Eliza could hear the whisper of clothes against skin and the gentle breath of it being dropped to the floor. She marshalled her thoughts determinedly before any could wander in worrying directions and focused on her own dress.

“I can’t believe you just managed to say that with a straight face,” she shot back to distract herself.

She heard Alex gasp and could almost see with perfect clarity the look of shock and horror he’d have on his face, “Schuyler, I am aghast. You hear me? Aghast.”

Eliza couldn’t stop the laughter that bubbled up in her throat as she pulled her sleep shift out of her pack, “Alex, I don’t think true gentlemen hide live frogs in people’s bedrolls when they aren’t looking.”

“You deserved that and you know it,” there was a crooked smile in his voice, the one Eliza was growing very familiar with, “Don’t think I don’t know it was you who stuck all those briars to my tail.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, Alex,” Eliza smiled to herself, thinking about how incredibly funny it had been to sit back and watch Alex try to charm several townspeople for information, all while completely oblivious to the many feathery, white seeds stuck to his tail. It had kind of diminished his roguish attitude somewhat.

She was lost in the fond memory which was maybe why she didn’t think her next action all the way through as she carelessly turned and was granted a sudden, startling eyeful of Alex, across the room, edged in golden candlelight that bronzed his dark blue skin, entirely naked aside from a very, very small and very, very tight pair of shorts. Fortunately, he was occupied with his shirt and didn’t notice and Eliza managed to dive for the bed and pull the sheets up over her head before he saw the alarming shade of red her cheeks had taken on. Alex merely shot her a puzzled look before shrugging, dressing and blowing out the candle, allowing the room to be swallowed entirely by the night.

It was awkward as it promised to be for a few, stilted moments but after that, both Alex and Eliza found themselves letting go of the tension in their muscles. Part of it was the exhaustion and the welcome embrace of an actual bed, though part of it was simply the fact that lying there with the slow, steady breathing and warmth of another person right by them was incredibly comforting. Even if their relationship with that person was complicated, for want of a better word.

Eliza must have drifted off before too long because the next thing she was aware of was her eyes flickering open without focus, a shock running through her as her body was tipped from sleep. Time must have passed, the shadows were different and there was a new sound, one that took her awhile to place with her thoughts coming slow and sluggish. Thunder. Rain hitting the windows with some force. A storm.

She sat up a little, curious. Memories already arose from the sleepy fog of her mind, of sitting on the window seat in the room she shared with her sisters, their gentle snores just behind her and reminding her she was not alone, watching a storm tear the night apart just on the other side of the glass. Those nights were always precious to her. She could never quite say why but they always felt like they were from another time.

It was only then that Eliza realised Alex was awake too. His shallow, rapid breathing caught her attention, immediately sounding panicked and precarious. She turned to find him lying rigid and stiff, eyes wide and glowing white in the gloom though he didn’t seem to even notice her, like something else entirely had it’s claws in him. In every fight she’d been in by his side, Eliza had never seen him look so terrified.

“Alex?” she blinked, startled, reaching for his shoulder and giving it a little shake, overwhelmed with the need to do something, anything, to help him, “Hey? It’s okay, its me, it’s Eliza…”

Another loud bark of thunder broke overhead, directly overhead, and Alex jerked suddenly, claws fully extended and biting into the headboard with a dull, splintered thunk like he was expecting whatever monster was clearly looming and roaring over them to seize the whole inn and shake it from side to side. He moaned thinly, a small child’s sound of fear.

Eliza acted purely on impulse, only understanding that Alex was upset, the storm was the cause and she had to do something. In one smooth motion, she covered the two of them with the blanket, pulling it down to muffle the noise of the rain and the wind like the woven wool could act as some kind of shield. She wondered why on earth she’d thought such a ridiculous thing, though only for an instant, for after that, Alex distinctly calmed, pulling himself into a tight little ball so every inch was under the protection she’d offered. More than that, Eliza was surprised to find his arms, warm and strong but with a note of desperation, winding around her, becoming his anchor. She considered being shocked, being disarmed, being awkward but all those thoughts she swept away with a careless arm as she held Alex in return.

“It’s just a storm, Alex,” she whispered into the darkness, feeling him still trembling against her, “It’ll pass. It can’t hurt you, not here.”

She wasn’t expecting him to reply, she wasn’t even sure if she was fully awake or if this was just some kind of waking nightmare for him. But he did, in a voice that sounded so small and so shaky, she couldn’t believe it came from the confident, crookedly smiling tiefling she knew.

“Promise?”

Eliza found her hands moving up to the tangled mop of his hair, usually so neat but flustered by his tossing and turning in the blankets. She combed her fingers through it, slowly, soothingly, giving him some real sensation to cling to and remind him where he was, “I promise, Alex. You’re safe.”

“I...I don’t like storms…” he muttered by way of explanation.

Eliza shook her head, still stroking his hair, a smile growing on her face, “It’s okay. Just get through it and then never talk about it again, remember?”

Alex managed a thin laugh but it was more like himself and Eliza was relieved to hear it. The storm did pass on, eventually, though neither Alex nor Eliza noticed. Sleep found them again, still in each other’s arms.

And if either of them noticed the small carpet of tiny, white flowers that had appeared around the legs of the bed by the morning, true to their word, neither of them mentioned it.

#hamliza #alexander x eliza #Hamilton fanfic #Alexander Hamilton #Eliza Hamilton #dungeons and dragons au #dnd au #as in theyre the races and classes and such #Eliza is a human druid #Alex is a tiefling rouge

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evajellion · 7 years ago

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Madou Monogatari: Convoluted Final Exam explanation

Well, that’s the translation that makes the most sense here besides “nonsense”, which is gonna be fitting for this game! I apologize for procrastinating with this one, but here it is.

After 6 years, Compile finally released the sequel to the Madou Monogatari trilogy, as this game continues after Madou Monogatari III. This game is about Arle, much like in Madou I, taking her final exam by traveling through a dungeon.

Arle explains before beginning how she was once attacked by Schezo, fought Satan, met Rulue and Minotauros, leading to where she is now, taking her final exam, which is arranged by a familiar masked principal.

This time though, she will not be the only one graduating. Lala comes back to compete with Arle with a few other students, and Rulue (who is now a student in the magic school because of the events in Madou III) is also attending.

However, Rulue is really the only student that actively tries to compete against Arle. Lala doesn’t do anything grand, which I feel is disappointing, as we still have not seen her in a fight before.

So the game pretty much… begins. Arle solves the puzzles in the dungeon smoothly, but Rulue, lacking in magic, tries to break through things with brute force and technique (it doesn’t work).

In a deeper part of the dungeon, around the 7th floor to be exact, Arle encounters Satan. At first he says “Oh no Arle, it’s me, the masked principal”… but he forgot his mask.

Arle rightfully pummels him due to her intense distrust of Satan, swiftly defeating him. Rulue finds that Arle has beaten up Satan, and angrily demands that Arle stop, which leads to the two of them fighting right after Satan did. Between Rulue’s brute strength and Carbuncle’s laser fire, a new path suddenly opens up, indicating that there is more to the final exam, and Satan was trying to seal this pathway up.

Arle jumps into the Ancient Labyrinth, abandoning the principal’s dungeon. There are plates scattered throughout the area that Arle cannot read.

Oh yes, it’s also at this point, Archan makes her debut.

Yeah, her debut wasn’t Puyo~n, it was this game. Fun little trivia for you guys.

Arle finds a bracelet while exploring the labyrinth, which allows her to read the what is written on the plates. However, this bracelet actually belongs to Schezo, who had somehow found his way inside of the Ancient Labyrinth. After saying the classic line, Arle calls him a pervert, which immediately leads to them fighting.

Arle defeats Schezo, but decides to heal him after the battle, so she can get an explanation as to what this labyrinth is. Schezo says that this ancient ruin contains treasure that are said to willingly leave the world in their slumber, as if they have dimensional powers.

Arle attempts to return the bracelet to Schezo as a thank you, but he rejects it. Since he had lost to her, Schezo believes that Arle should now be the bracelet’s owner.

Rulue is encountered again, demanding a fight with Arle. This time though, Rulue manages to get into a battle with Arle that’s so brutal, she makes Arle relearn the spell of Jugem (I guess because it’s too OP to have at the start of the game).

Arle finds out that the treasures, which have four guardians that must be pursued. Rulue catches up with Arle again, but rather than fighting, they hear a commotion. Schezo has broken a seal and ended up encountering a terrible treasure guardian.

The Phantom God, the main antagonist of our story.

This design is absolutely badass, but honestly, I think this character’s background ends up being a let down when you get into it...

Arle and Rulue jump in to help Schezo, but Phantom God is invincible. The Phantom God prepares to kill all of them, but Schezo, getting up one last time, cuts open a void for the girls to escape into, while Phantom God obliterates him with thunder magic. Arle cries out over Schezo’s self-sacrifice, absolutely distraught over it.

Crushed with anxiety and sorrow, Arle wakes up in the Phantom Zone, where she meets a woman who she refers to as her doppelganger, due to their heavy resemblance but the only difference being the doppelganger’s colored armor and eyes.

The doppelganger makes a bet with Arle. If Arle can find the doppelganger multiple times, she will give Arle the equipment needed to defeat Phantom God.

Arle does exactly that, defeating the doppelganger multiple times before coming across a mirror. The mirror breaks open, and the original “doppelganger” comes out to challenge Arle one last time, using her full strength.

This doppelganger is different from the other ones, as instead of using carbon copies of Arle’s spells. These spells are notably called “Flame Tornado”, “Dark Blizzard” and “Heavenly Thunder”.

Upon being defeated, the doppelganger gives Arle some important advice for her battle against Phantom God, leaving Arle literally asking who the hell this doppelganger is.

Arle is pushed out of the Phantom Zone, and back into the Ancient Labyrinth, where she ascends to the Guardian’s Floor. Here, Arle defeats the Gem Guardians, and takes the treasure they are holding onto.

Red Ruby, a spirit immune to fire magic.

Yellow Diamond, a spirit immune to lightning.

Blue Sapphire, a spirit immune to ice.

And Green Emerald, a spirit immune to jugem.

After defeating all of them and collecting the treasure they were protecting (the Ruler’s Mantle, a sacred cloth), Arle meets up with Rulue one last time, wishing her the best of luck against the Phantom God.

And so… Arle avenges Schezo.

After Phantom God has taken enough damage, they show their hideous form-- proving to be one of the most difficult final bosses in the Madou franchise.

Phantom God’s defeat leads to them becoming tame, Arle now holds the Seraphim Orb in her hands, thus holding Phantom God themselves in her hands. Arle says she’ll never forgive Phantom God for taking Schezo’s life, until Phantom God says they had never killed him, just temporarily eliminated him.

Despite being heir to the Seraphim Orb, Arle forces the treasure to be forgotten about, rejecting the destiny to hold it. Instead, Arle graduates her final exam, moving on to continue her hard work and adventures with Carbuncle and Rulue.

Phantom God laments over the rejections with the Gem Guardians, as they find it amusing how much Arle was very similar to “that person”, as they are closed within space once again.

… This is only a loose translation of the events because this last part is a mess, dear lord!

So yeah, that’s Final Exam / Final Test / Nonsense Exam / whatever.

I think the story in this in enjoyable… for the first half anyway, the later half getting into stuff that only makes sense if you read the novels, is irritating. Especially when this is the only game in the franchise to follow the novel story, while the rest go off on their own. To make it worse, years after this, it didn’t even matter, because the Madou Monogatari franchise died, with no continuation to this story. All thanks to Compile’s poor business decisions.

Phantom God is an excellent antagonist, and one of the hardest bosses from what I’ve seen. But them suddenly turning soft at the end kind of kills it, because you spend so long being angry at them for what they did to Schezo. Heck, Schezo’s popularity kind of kicked off even more after this game, people were already in love with him from ARS and the Puyo games, but this sealed the deal.

One of the biggest criticisms towards Final Exam is the graphics, and the non-human characters like Skeleton T, Mamono, and Phantom God look fantastic. Humanoid characters though…

I once saw someone compare this to the Zelda CD-i games. Not far off, but I think that’s an insult to the Zelda CD-i titles. They weren’t as stiff looking, and at least had some cartoonish characteristic style.

The weird thing is, the opening and ending animation videos look amazing. So I’m guessing they blew the budget on that, as opposed to making the rest of the game look good.

The soundtrack also leaves a lot to be desired compared to other Madou games. It sounds like it was done with a MIDI keyboard, especially when compared to how nice the PC98 games sounded.

So while this was the sequel to Madou III we had been waiting years for, it… didn’t entirely pay off. It’s not terrible, there are things I love about it, such as the battle system being improved, but the latter part of the story, the visuals, and the soundtrack are a turn-off.

However, on the plus side, the next game would prove to be one of the best in the Madou franchise, if not the best. One reason for its acclaim popularity being that Compile listened to the fan demand and popularity contests, where they decided to make a game for the most liked character.

Guess who that character was?

#Puyo Puyo #Madou Monogatari #Doppelganger Arle #Archan #Phantom God #Arle Nadja #Schezo Wegey #I apologize if I got some of this wrong

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andrewmoocow · 7 years ago

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Gravity Soul chapter 6: In Search of Pacifica, Another Enemy Returns? (originally posted on March 20, 2018)

AN: Welcome back from hiatus boys, girls and every other gender/sexuality! From here on out, Gravity Soul is going to get even insaner and you’re all coming along with me for the ride. Welcome one and all to the Quest for the Northwest arc, and now your new cipher brought to us by Mr. A1Z26. 1 12-9-20-20-12-5 7-9-18-12 2-25 20-8-5 14-1-13-5 15-6 14-15-18-20-8-23-5-19-20 23-1-19 2-15-18-14 20-15 2-5 20-8-5 22-5-18-25 2-5-19-20 14-15-23 19-8-5'19 11-14-15-3-11-5-4 15-21-20 3-15-12-4 20-15 19-1-22-5 8-5-18, 20-8-5-25 13-21-19-20 2-5 2-15-12-4

Mere hours later, the beastly Madness of Sloth formerly known as Preston Northwest charged through the woods of Gravity Falls with his wife Priscilla and their currently unconscious daughter Pacifica clutched in his large hands, startling many a woodland creature and supernatural oddity. “Please Preston, if you’re still in there, just let us go!” his wife cried trying to flee, but her words fell on deaf ears before the monster finally arrived at their former mansion, which was now property of Fiddleford McGucket, but something seemed off. It was now infested with monsters roaming its courtyard, the windows darker than the night sky and the roof having a large hole in it, allowing the light of the moon to shine upon the foyer. “Master Kishin Cipher, I have returned!” the Madness boomed entering the house. “Master, where are you?” he wondered looking around for his lord. “I believe he has other matters to attend to sir.” a diminuative elderly man dressed in all black with a pointy nose explained appearing before Preston. “I am Mosquito, at your service.” he cordially introduced himself. “I suppose you must be another one of his minions, correct?” “Of course we are, we’re all working for the same guy right!” another man called stepping into view. This one in particular had very pale skin, metal piercings, a fur-collared jacket and brown gloves that extended past his elbows. “Who’s the ruffian with you?” Northwest asked setting his captives down. “This ‘ruffian’ is my partner Giriko. We made a deal with Bill to resurrect a certain someone in exchange for our services.” Mosquito stated. Giriko got quite mad over the former philanthropist calling him a ruffian and got his face incredibly close to the other’s. “Who are you calling a ruffian?! You’re the ruffian here for being a terrible parent from what I’ve heard!” “SILENCE!” another voice roared before its owner crashed down into the floor through the hole, none other than Kishin Cipher. “Kishin Cipher, I have been expecting you my lord!” Mosquito distracted himself from the duo’s argument by kissing up to the fusion of Bill and Asura. “My most glorious, almighty, unholy-” Kishin Cipher interrupted him by literally zipping his mouth closed. “Skip the formalities Pointy and hand me the journal!” Although Mosquito’s speaking was muffled through the zipper, he complied giving his boss the second journal written by Stanford Pines. “Oh yes, finally someone gave me one of the journals for once!” the fusion cried in euphoria. “Now all I need are the other two and the ritual to get my power back will be complete!” Skimming through the book, he glanced at Giriko and the Madness of Sloth still fighting before shocking them with a wave of his finger, ending their tussle. “Quit it both of you!” “Okay then you big lug, no need to create another spark over this.” Giriko chuckled at his own terrible pun before getting serious again. “So what do we do with those two over there?” he wondered turning to the other Northwests. “Whatever you do milord, please have mercy on them.” Preston offered thinking for his family. “Oh isn’t that sweet? This man still cares for his family even after he’s been turned into a hideous creature! Whatever shall I do to please him?” Kishin Cipher mock-cried mulling over what to do before he finally came to a decision. “Oh I know! Golems, take the woman to the dungeon where she shall remain!” “But we made an agreement!” Preston roared as his wife was tossed into his family’s former panic room by a pair of large stone creatures. “Well I’m not one for keeping promises bub!” the Dream Kishin exclaimed before gesturing towards the still comatose Pacifica. “And place the girl in a special cage, we’ll need her for later.” The Golems did as they were told picking up the girl and sticking her in a gilded cage before it was raised to the ceiling. “What do you plan on doing with her?” Sloth wondered fearfully backing away. “You’ll see Mustachio. Now go outside and guard the front door!” The Madness of Sloth reluctantly complied before walking outside and taking his position. Cipher went back to eagerly scrolling through the journal before Giriko finally spoke up. “So what’s this ritual you were talking about?” the Deadly Demon Weapon wondered. “That is a very good question buzzface!” Kishin Cipher answered faux-affectionately pinching his cheek, much to his displeasure. “In order for me to regain my maximum power, I need the blood sacrifice of a human, a Witch and a Demon Weapon. I’ve already got one of them down, but all I need are the other two.” He produced an image of the Mystery Meisters before Giriko & Mosquito. “Kill every last one of them, but bring the old man and the Demon Scythe to me. Understand?” he commanded. “Yes master.” the two accepted before going on their way. “But master, what would happen if someone else got involved?” Mosquito inquired before Cipher grabbed him by the shirt collar. “What do you mean by someone else?! If you’re talking about him, then our plans will be ruined if he finds out! Now go already!” He finally dropped the Bloodsucker to the ground and retreated back into the shadows, presumably to recharge his energy as the two walked out of the mansion. “So explain to me again why we’re working with him if he looks like he wants us dead?” Giriko wondered. “Don’t you remember my boy, we originally made a deal with him to resurrect Lady Arachne in exchange for our services!” Mosquito exclaimed irritated at his partner’s forgetfulness before consoling himself and focusing on the task at hand. “But your incompetence doesn’t matter now, let us continue on our way.” The pair finally disembarked on their mission, confident that they will succeed but didn’t know what they were in for.

Meanwhile, deep in the woodlands of Gravity Falls, Dipper and Maka began making plans for an attack on Kishin Cipher with the rest of the party watching. “Okay everyone, here’s the plan.” Dipper began mapping out strategies. “It’s a long way to the mansion so it’s best that we all split up into groups to find a decent pathway to our destination.” He then began listing off the teams. “Mabel, Waddles, Maka, Soul, Crona & I will form the first team. Stan, you, Ford, Kid, Liz & Patty and Wendy form the second. Soos, Melody, McGucket, Stein, Spirit & Blair are Team #3. Finally Black Star, Tsubaki, Gideon and Ghost-Eyes will make up the fourth team. Any questions?” “I got one,” Mabel raised her hand. “how do we communicate with one another when our teams are far away from each other?” she asked. “That’s where these come in.” Maka stated pulling out a bag of flashlights and handing them out to each group. “Each team gets one flashlight they’ll have to share. For every five meters, one of you will have to flash it twice if it’s safe. If there’s trouble, flash it four times. As for other signals, all members within each team will give each other hand signals.” She formed her hand to make an OK symbol. “Use this whenever you’re in the clear.” Then she lowered three of her fingers down while the pinky & thumb pointed outward. “And this is for perilous situations. Are we clear on that?” The others nodded in agreement before Spirit raised his hand. “I think I got a good hand signal!” he exclaimed before he demonstrated said signal by clapping his hands, making a peace sign, then an OK sign and finally placing his left hand over his brow. “I think he’s saying "Your underwear is showin’”.“ Stan translated the signals. "Yeah boy!” Spirit cried fistbumping the great uncle while Maka watched in embarrassment. “Good grief.” “Before we proceed, I think we need to contact my father about the current situation.” Death the Kid suggested before extending his hand, causing a skull-shaped magic circle on the ground to appear and an image of Lord Death to pop out of it. “Hey there, hi there, ho there everybody! How are you all doing children?” the Shinigami cheerfully greeted. “We’re doing fine Lord Death. We contacted you because we’re about to go on an important mission.” Maka explained. “Who the devil is Mr. Tall Dark & Mysterious over here?” Stan wondered. “And what’s with that mask of his?” “Mr. Pines, I’d like you to meet my father Death.” Kid introduced the great uncle to his father. “Ah, so you must be one of my son’s new friends.” Death politely stated. “So wait, your father is literally the Grim Reaper?!�� Stan exclaimed gaping at the Death God. “To be honest, I don’t really see the family resemblance.” “You must be Lord Death. The name’s Pines, Stanford Pines.” Ford greeted stepping forward. “They’re our great uncles and super cool too!” Mabel exclaimed. “Oh look, little Dipper and Mabel are here as well! What’s up with this mission I’ve heard about?” said Death. “Well here’s a question for you sir.” Dipper stated crossing his arms. “Have you ever heard of Bill Cipher?” Lord Death gasped at the boy’s question, as if he knew the dream demon from days long passed. After regaining his composure and answering. “Why yes, yes I have.” he stated. “He and I go way back. Hundreds of years ago, he plotted to unleash his weirdness upon the world but me and my eight guardians refused to have any of that. We found a way to break into his hideout in the Nightmare Realm and prevent his invasion, but I feared he would come back someday ready for revenge.” “Well that’s why we contacted you Mr. Death, he’s back and fused with this guy named Asura!” Wendy exclaimed which again sent Death into a tizzy. “Wait, Asura’s back?! How, and why?” he exclaimed. “He fused with Bill for one simple purpose: revenge.” Stein said turning his screw. “And now he’s kidnapped a young girl after brainwashing her father into becoming one of his minions.” “Oh my, that is quite perilous! I’ll promise to watch over you and make contact when all is said and done!” Death proclaimed doing a military salute as the hologram gave out. “Lord Death, out!” When the message finally ended, Dipper turned to the other teams. “Okay everyone, we all know what to do!” he announced raising his flashlight skyward. “For Pacifica!” “For Pacifica!” the others shouted before finally dispersing across the forest. All except for Wendy who stopped her younger friend and snatched the trapper cap from his head, replacing it with the pine tree hat she took to remember him by last summer. “Wanted to do it when you first came back, but I guess I lost track of time.” she said before running to catch up with the elder Pines, Kid and the Thompsons. And so, the great quest for Pacifica Northwest that would last them through the night finally began. Meanwhile with Lord Death, he had just ended the call before turning to gaze around his special room, pondering about their current situation. “So Asura’s back, just as I feared.” he reiterated in a hushed fearful tone unlike his usual wise eccentric personality. “I wonder if it’s finally time I tell Kid.” “Is something wrong sir?” a blue-skinned zombie entered the room without Death knowing. “Oh it’s nothing Sid, I’m just concerned for my son.” Death answered sheepishly. “Oh, you mean Kid? I’m sure he’s doing fine in Gravity Falls.” Sid replied. “No Sid, not just him.” the Shinigami corrected him. “The other one as well.”

Owls hooted loudly as Dipper’s team, consisting of himself, Mabel, Maka, Soul, Crona and Waddles wandered through the forest in search of a good pathway to the former Northwest mansion. “Are you sure we should be out when it’s this dark? I don’t know how to deal with this.” Crona moaned hiding behind Maka. “It’s gonna be okay Crona, you got us sticking by you all the way.” Mabel comforted him before Ragnarok popped out of the Demon Swordsman’s back. “Yeah, all that mushy power of friendship crap or something!” the Black Blood blade shouted giving his Meister a noogie. “Hey, quit it Ragnarok!” Just then, Waddles started oinking in fear and dashing toward Soul. “What’s up little guy, you look like you’ve seen a ghost!” the Demon Scythe tried to soothe him before the group spotted a snake slithering before them. “What are you all scared about, it’s just a snake.” Dipper said. “That’s not just any snake Dipper,” Maka exclaimed. “look at its scales!” The Pines brother nervously stepped forward to examine the reptile and much to his surprise, there were various arrows adorning its body. “That is definitely nothing like any snake I’ve seen!” he shouted as it snapped its jaws at him. “Correct child. In fact, I’m not just a snake at all.” the snake suddenly spoke to him in a female voice terrifying the Meisters in the twins’ group. “No, that’s impossible!” Maka cried preparing for a fight as Soul’s scythe form flew into her hands. “Oh it most definitely is Maka-chan.” The snake began morphing into a young woman of fairly average build with black dotted tattoos winding down both of her arms. She had yellow eyes with matching hair and was clad in a sleeveless black cloak but was barefoot, revealing black nail polish. To the Pines twins & Waddles she was a frightening sight, but to Maka, Soul and Crona, she was none other than Medusa Gorgon. “Is that supposed to be Medusa?” Mabel wondered clinging to Maka’s overcoat as the young Meister prepared for a rematch with the snake witch. “Yes, but I just can’t believe she’s still alive!” Maka replied readying her scythe. “Well then, why isn’t she turning us to stone?” The clearing suddenly became deathly quiet as Medusa tried to comprehend the little girl’s question. “What…did you just say?” she asked increduously. “I mean, isn’t Medusa supposed to be like some kind of crazy snake-haired lady who can turn anyone looking at her into stone?” “Wow Mabel, I honestly didn’t know you were that into Greek mythology.” Dipper gasped in astonishment. “Well to be honest Dipper, I mostly got it all from that movie from '97 we watched a lot when we were little.” Mabel said. “We had to replace the VCR three times because I had a crush on Herc-” “SILENCE!” Medusa shouted interrupting their random conversation with an arrow that gashed Mabel’s cheek and blew her back. “I’ve had enough of your meandering chatter little ones, now I must assassinate you for my new master Kishin Cipher!” she declared summoning more arrows from her person. “Oh my gosh, are you okay Mabel!” Dipper howled worrying for his sister. “I’m fine bro-bro, just go get help.” his sister groaned reeling from her injury. The boy immediately reached for his flashlight to contact the others before it was suddenly destroyed by one of the witch’s arrows. “You won’t be needing them now little Pine Tree.” “Oh my gosh, someone help us!” the boy began screaming for help as Maka and Crona engaged Medusa in combat.

“So if your dad’s Lord Death, then where’s Lady Death?” Stan asked as his group, also made up of Ford, Wendy, Kid, Liz and Patty, ventured through their neck of the woods. “To be frank, I never knew my mother or if I even had one at all.” Kid said. “Small world, my mom’s not around either.” Wendy added wrapping her arm around the young Shinigami’s shoulder. “She died when I was like a kid and it still really affects my family even to this day.” “Ditto, we all know what happened with me and Patty’s folks.” Liz affirmed before an arrow whizzed past them and landing on a nearby tree. “What was that?!” Patty cried. Racing over to where the arrow had landed on the tree, it suddenly vanished into thin air. “Just where did that come from?” Ford wondered. “I think it came from over there everyone, we should contact the others!” Stan cried picking up his group’s flashlight and flashing it four times, signaling the others to their side. “We got your message Stanley, what’s up?” Stein wondered. “We were just talking about moms and then an arrow just flew by our faces!” “An arrow? Oh geez, not her!” Black Star cried. “Her who boy?” Gideon wondered. “You’ll know when we show you Gideon, now follow us!” Stan exclaimed leading everyone else on the arrow’s path.

“I’m shocked you’re still siding with Lord Death’s cronies my child.” Medusa stated after defeating Maka and Soul while the Pines twins hid in fear of the witch. “And where is Ragnarok? I don’t suppose you made him into part of those tacky clothes, haven’t you?” Crona was enraged by his mother commenting on his current outfit and let out a mighty battle cry as he dashed towards her with Ragnarok in hand. “SCREECH RESONANCE!” “Seriously, defeated again?! I thought we were stronger than this!” Soul shouted rubbing his head in pain. “It’s not that we’re getting weaker, I think Medusa’s gotten stronger since we last saw her.” Maka guessed watching the mother and son clash. “You think it has something to do with Bill?” her partner asked. “Possibly, that would also explain the change in wardrobe.” “Kids, we’re coming!” Stan cried as he and the other groups raced towards them. “Grunkle Stan!” the twins cried rushing to their great uncle who simply glared at Medusa. “So you’re the hussy that was a terrible mom to Crona, aren’t you?!” he snarled brandishing a pair of brass knuckles. “And I suppose you must be Pine Tree and Shooting Star’s great uncle, right Mackerel?” the witch said putting on an evil grin that distorted her entire face. “How are you even alive Medusa?! You were supposed to have been killed by Maka’s Genie Hunter!” Tsubaki cried changing into Black Star’s chain scythe. “Why it’s simple you all. I can never truly die, plus we all know about the deal I made with Bill. In exchange for helping to morph Crona into a killing machine, he offered to make me into one of his loyal minions!” Medusa summoned a snake-like creature made out of her own tattoos to her side. “You may call me the Madness of Wrath!” “Oh I’ll show you some madness and wrath!” Stan hollered charging towards the witch and hitting her with a left hook. “Come on, who’s with me?!” Just then, Ford, Soos, Melody, Stein and Black Star joined him in taking on Medusa. “So it has to be that way?” Medusa crossed her arms as a black mass swarmed around her. “Nake snake cobra cobbra. VECTOR ARROW TIMES THREE!” She unleashed a barrage of arrows towards her opponents but unfortunately for her, they all swiftly dodged them. “Have some of this!” Soos socked her in the eye with his hammer and Melody slapped her with her shock gauntlets. Meanwhile, Black Star tied her up with his chain scythe leading Stein to send an electric shock just by gripping the sides of her head. “That children, is called Soul Menace. Where you can literally weaponize your Wavelength to create a concussive shock.” “Brag all you want, but you forgot one thing.” Medusa smirked bringing forth her snake creature. “Light Serpent, now!” The monster grew to a gargantuan size and snatched up the entire party in its jaws, flying high into the sky above the forest while the others cried for help. The only member that wasn’t captured was Crona who trembled in fear as he watched his friends on the verge of being dropped to their doom. He became so furious at his mother that he screamed at the top of his lungs and sprouted wings of Black Blood from his back and chased the Light Serpent down. “Hey is it me or are we being made to look like idiotic weaklings?!” Black Star shouted trying to break out of the serpent’s jaws. “Especially me, the man who’s gonna transcend God someday!” Then Dipper proposed a hypothesis. “I think it’s like what Maka & Soul said, it’s possibly because she’s become way too powerful for us!” he said. “Very good observation Dipper, but can we plan on how to escape without dying here!” Gideon exclaimed. “Hang on everyone, we’re coming!” Suddenly, the group all spotted Crona flying after the Light Serpent, keyword being flying as he now had wings. “Wait, Crona can fly now?!” Melody exclaimed. “I recognize those wings from anywhere.” Kid declared. “He gained this ability after devouring every soul aboard the ghost ship Nidhogg with the Black Blood.” he explained. “Great, that’s cool and all but how is he gonna save us with that?!” Wendy wondered. “Like that.” “BLOODY SLICER!” Crona screamed cutting his wrist, allowing blood to fly out & form into a curved projectile. This attack whizzed toward the Light Serpent and sliced its head off, causing it to vanish and its prisoners falling to the ground. Just then, Crona swooped in and picked up all his friends within the wings and gently set them down on the ground. “I can’t believe it Crona, you saved our lives!” Dipper cried gasping for breath. “Yeah, you totally did it!” Mabel added before everyone started singing Crona’s praises. The Demon Swordsman shed a small tear at how much love they all showed him before Medusa finally cornered them. “So you destroyed my Light Serpent? Very good job on that one.” “You leave her alone you crazy snake lady!” Soos firmly stated while he and Melody rushed to the child’s defense. “No Soos, let me handle this one.” Crona declared making the two move out of his way. Stepping forward to face Medusa, the boy put on a determined scowl on his face as he summoned Ragnarok. “You dare challenge me Crona? And I thought I trained my son to obey me!” the snake witch scoffed. “No, I am not your son anymore and I refuse to be called that! A mother is supposed to love and cherish their children, not abuse them into becoming weapons! From this day forth, my name is no longer Gorgon. Instead, call me Crona Ramirez!” Soos put on a small smile as he and the others watched Crona stand tall against his former mother who just groaned and simply said “Vector Plate.” Just then, large arrows pointing in different directions away from Medusa sent all four teams flying away from one another, with Crona being shunted back to Dipper, Mabel, Waddles, Maka and Soul. “Stan, Ford!” the twins cried out for their great uncles. “KIDS!” “Where’s she sending us to?!” Wendy cried as her group tumbled through the forest. “I do not know, but I sure hope it doesn’t get any worse!” Kid exclaimed before they started screaming again, fearfully awaiting what would happen to them.

Meanwhile deep in the forest rested a small cave in which its entrance masked by the surrounding flora. There was a large body of water winding all the way from that entrance to a pedestal, which rested a sword that was illuminated by the moonlight coming from a large hole in the cave’s ceiling. The sword was the cave’s only inhabitant. Along with a few fairies who’s faces were contorted in pure disgust.

That’s all folks! Hope you’re all ready for the next chapter when the Stans, Wendy, Kid and the Thompsons happen upon a certain Holy Sword. Hilarity ensues. Until then… FOOLS!

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