#like I’m still not over hearthstone

[1800-lemon-boy]

Friendly reminder!!

Magnus chase was homeless for so long that when he first entered Valhalla he couldn’t sleep on the bed comfortably and instead slept on the floor.

<33

[shinyaharu98]

Unraveled Secrets - Episode 3 (ft. Yeojin)

LOONA ViVi x Male Reader

Word Count: 6823 words

Categories: smut, threesome, series

Disclaimer: Here is the third and final part of the trilogy! This episode of course happened directly after where we left off in Episode 2. LOONATHEHAREM will officially began after this, enjoy!

Also special thanks to @a-casual-kpopfan for proof reading!

Episode 1

Episode 2

Ever wondered why sometimes things just won’t go the way you want? Maybe you planned a trip overseas for months, but for some reason United Airlines just dragged your ass off the plane and ruined your day.

Perhaps sometimes uncertainty is what makes the world go round, and if you are blessed by the goddess of fortune, it can benefit you greatly too. If certainty is like checkmating in chess, then uncertainty is like playing Hearthstone. You better pray to RNGesus to give you that sweet curve or else you are going to smash your computer.

Location: A love hotel somewhere in Korea

“So let me get this straight again, Kahei.” You tried to understand the situation.

“For some reason, Yeojin found out OUR secret, and you two planned a threesome and practiced for a week?”

Kahei nodded bashfully.

“You know what is going to happen, right? Are you sure about this?”

Still couldn’t believe the position you’re in, you asked for her approval once more, but Yeojin barged in. “Ya oppa, why are you asking for permission? You are not her boyfriend anyway…”

“You are not her boyfriend… You are not her boyfriend… You are not her boyfriend…”

That line echoed inside Kahei’s mind, and reality finally hit her. She realized that this is not just a random hook-up between you and two LOONA members, this is war. A war of hormone, if you will. What happens later would finally decide the relationship between you and herself. Whether you two will remain friends, lovebirds or even…friends with benefits.

And in a broader sense, this also will define your relationship with other LOONA members as well, because she knows that paper can’t wrap up a fire. Eventually other 10 members would know your existence, and know you hooked up with the matnae and maknae of the group. Would they accept you? Would they hate you? Or…would they want to take part in this tangled mess of a relationship?

“...I’ll make sure by the end of the day, you’ll be mine and mine only.” Kahei said softly while gazing at you with her big, round eyes.

“And I will make sure that you will consider me as a potential partner by the end of the day!” Yeojin grabbed your arm and pressed against her chest.

Soft is the word that came to your mind.

And thus, war has been declared.

You tried to progress your storyline by stepping into the hotel, but for some reason Yeojin blocked your way.

“Yeojin? I thought this is your plan?”

“Shh……” She put her finger on your lips.

Kahei is visibly upset, because she is obviously jealous about your interactions with Yeojin. But Yeojin continued.

“We can’t go in together, it is way too suspicious. Us two will check in and prepare first, why don’t you wait around for our cue? We’ll send you the room number when everything is ready, alright?”

Perhaps it’s because of her shyness, or the nerves got the better of her, you noticed Kahei didn’t talk much. Yeojin has been taking the lead and acted way more enthusiastically.

There is nothing you can do now, as girls usually need more time to prepare, let alone such a big event like this. So, you decided to have a lunch break at a coffee shop nearby to kill some time and calm your nerves down.

Meanwhile, back in the hotel…

“Yeojin…I should take the lead for real this time. At the end of the day, it is MY plan after all.”

Kahei was worried that Yeojin might just overwhelm you and take over the entire situation…and take over you as well.

“Don’t worry, unnie.” Yeojin laughed while taking the keys from the concierge. “I know Jason-oppa loves you. I’m just having some fun on my own, maybe occasionally borrowing him in the future if he performs well tonight…”

“Don’t say that!” Kahei raised her voice. “Is he just a toy for you?”

“Oh, please unnie, you will definitely ask for more if he satisfies you tonight, wouldn't you?”

Truth stings.

“Come on, let’s get ourselves ready!”

“... Alright.”

This is an important moment for both Kahei and Yeojin, as they’ve been looking forward to this moment for days while suppressing their fantasy daily. But now it is the time, the time to finally begin to unleash their forces unto the person they've been waiting all along, you. Luckily, they already bathe themselves beforehand, so they only need to change into their chosen outfits, which they certainly knew would be super effective against you.

As both are getting dressed as planned, Kahei couldn’t stop herself from overthinking. She hasn't met you in real life for years, and the moment you two finally meet is in the context of preparing for a threesome with Yeojin. She has a million things wanted to tell you. How lonely she felt these years without you, how helpless she is when the only way for you two to communicate is through the internet, how much affection she actually had for you for all these years, how much she yearns for your touch…

Yeojin has a keen eye for details, naturally she noticed that Kahei is getting anxious. Trying to pump her up, she hugged Kahei from behind.

“Unnie, did you see sparkles flashing in his eyes? He really is happy to see you. I wish I had someone like that in my life, you are fortunate you know?”

“I…I am?”

“Of course, you are! And I understand the situation we’re in is brand new to you.”

“You sounded like an older sister just now you know?”

“Whoops, hehe. But I am more experienced in this area than you, unnie. But we must get ready, and to do that…”

Before finishing her sentence, Yeojin’s hands shifted from Kahei’s slim waist to her chest.

“Yeojin… What are you doing?”

“Getting your body fired up of course~”

It was DeJa’Vu for Kahei. Just like last time in the adult shop, she was once again ambushed from behind by Yeojin, her hands rubbing her sensitive spot while playing with her already erected nipples. Yeojin had familiarized herself with Kahei’s body, she didn’t overlook a single spot that would guarantee a reaction from Kahei. After all, they practiced a whole lot for this.

“Yeojin… Mmm… We can’t do this now… Jason is waiting for us…”

Clearly enjoying hearing from Kahei’s slurred speech, Yeojin showed no signs of stopping.

“I won’t let him in unless you are fully ready, unnie. He’ll turn into an actual monster when he sees your lewd expression hehe.”

“I’m not lewd at all…” Kahei tried to disagree, but she saw her reflection in the toilet mirror. Her pupils dilated, drool leaking out from the corners of her lips. Clearly her body is more honest than she is.

“No… Yeojin… I’m cumming!”

But just as she is about to reach her peak, Yeojin promptly stopped her movements, denying her orgasm.

“Tsk tsk, unnie. You are such a quick one as usual.” Yeojin said in a playful, almost condescending tone. “Don’t you want to reserve it for oppa first?”

“... Haah… You started it…”

“Yes, yes, I did. But now I think both of us are ready, I am getting turned on as well… Time to summon the beast himself.”

Yeojin took Kahei’s phone and called your number.

Meanwhile, back in the coffee shop…

It’s only been fifteen minutes, but it felt like an eternity.

“They do be taking their sweet time aren't they…” You complained to yourself. At the exact moment, your phone started to ring.

It’s that ringtone again.

It’s her.

But it’s not her voice.

“Oppa! We’re ready!” Yeojin’s voice can be heard loud and clear. “The room number is 9-12, we’re waiting for you!”

Just as you tried to respond, you heard another voice coming from the background.

“Mmmh!” A voice moaned.

Kahei?

Is she pleasuring herself?

It was DeJa’Vu for you. Just like last time over the phone, you once again heard her sultry voice moaning.

Adrenaline rushes to your brain as you quickly make your way to room 9-12.

You couldn’t possibly wait any longer, as you dashed towards your goal, ignoring judgemental eyes from others. The only scene you wanted to see, and indeed envisioned is Kahei and Yeojin sitting at the bedside, dressed up with their battle armour awaiting your arrival.

You finally arrived in front of the door. The only barrier between you and paradise is this wooden door in front of you. As your hand reached for the door handle, you stopped. Finally, you felt nervous, as you don’t know what to expect. You are afraid that if you have too much of an expectation, the more painful you’ll feel when you fall. But noises coming from the other side broke your train of thoughts.

“Yeojin… Stop… He’ll be here soon… You’re too rough!”

All hell breaks loose.

Of course, you know who that voice belonged to, of course you do. You heard that alluring voice countless times through the phone, but now it’s real.

It felt real.

It is real.

You gulped. Slowly, you turned the doorknob and opened the door. An inconceivably erotic scene appeared in front of your very own eyes.

Yeojin is pinning Kahei on the bed while simultaneously planting a deep kiss. Her tongue swirled around skilfully and formed strands of saliva as their mouths separated. Her hands are not idle as well, she slipped inside Kahei’s blue skirt and moved around while squelching sounds echoed across the room loud and clear.

“Yeojin stop… Jason?” Kahei snapped back from her trance the moment she saw you.

Your eyes couldn’t stop looking at the scene in front of you. This is wilder than your expectations could ever have imagined.

“Oppa! What took you so long?” Yeojin let go of her control and rushed to your side.

“We should start making out as soon as we can, right? I think someone cannot wait any longer~”

Yeojin’s petite figure bounced around, having the best time of her life. Her revealing mini skirt teases you as you can barely see her ass cheeks.

On the other side of the room, Kahei was drained from Yeojin’s previous assault, gasping for air and trying to regain her strength while lying on the bed.

“J… Jason… Don’t stare at me so much… It’s embarrassing…” Words slipped out from her drooling mouth, tears pooled around the edges of her eyes.

“What the hell did you do to Kahei, Yeojin?” You couldn’t believe she went through such a slutty transformation in just 15 minutes, all thanks to Yeojin no doubt. Not only have their outfits changed, but the entire mood of the room is also getting hotter and steamier.

“Oh, I am just preparing unnie to you, oppa! I thought you would like it.” Yeojin smiled, proudly. “Come on, don’t let her down now.”

You walked towards Kahei. Her face turned red as the bulge in your pants got more and more noticeable.

“I’ll take the lead first, okay?”

“Yes… Please do what you want to me…” Kahei said while looking at you with her big, loving eyes.

Knowing that she is in a vulnerable spot, you decided to start slow.

There is no turning back now, so you went into battle.

The anticipation of a kiss is building up as both of you move closer and closer to each other. A shared desire for the connection of your lips is getting stronger and stronger as well. As you bring your face closer to Kahei’s, you can't stop yourself from admiring her perfect visuals. Her big round eyes look deeply into yours with burning intensity as she yearns for your sensation. Her light and smooth skin shines under the lights, her plump lips glistened with anticipation, all in which further invites you to come closer.

Finally, your lips meet. A sweet flavour covers your taste buds, it must be her lip gloss. You closed your eyes and indulged in this new-found sensation. You moved slowly, savouring the sensation of your mouths finally connecting with each other. For all these years, you dreamed of hugging her and enjoying the warmth from her tiny body. All these years, you fantasized about how you would shower her with your love by planting deep kisses into her. And now, it has become a reality. No longer a dream, no longer something unreachable. You wish time would stop at this moment so you two can maintain contact for the rest of your lives.

“Aaah… Mmmh…”

Kahei moaned with pleasure, resonating with the wet sounds of your lips and tongue meeting each other. Your kiss intensifies as your hands wrapped around her waist. Surprisingly, Kahei responded by slipping her tongue deeper into your mouth, further escalating the intimacy and magnitude of the moment.

Finally, you let go. A pop sound can be heard as saliva dripped down from Kahei’s tongue to her chin. Perhaps the intensity was too strong for her, as her tongue was still sticking out when she gasped for air.

Too lewd.

“Haah… That feels… Too good…” Before you could respond, a naughty smirk appeared on her face. “Jason… I might get addicted to this…” Kahei said.

Uh oh.

Just when Kahei was about to make her next move, Yeojin who was waiting patiently from the side lines finally snapped. She was watching you two lovebirds enjoying yourselves without her, that is simply too cruel.

At this moment, Yeojin felt her body heating up. A voice ringing in her head telling her just BE HONEST. And now the choice lies within her hands, it’s up to herself whether she gave in for lust.

As you are still lovey-dovey with Kahei, you saw Yeojin slowly shuffled her way onto your bed.

“Oppa… Don’t ignore me, I’m still here you know?” Yeojin pouted as she complained. “You can do anything to me tonight, my body is yours to play with. Mess me up… Please?”

I guess she finally caved in as well. You can see it in her eyes, her facial expression, her entire body language. She is ready to accept anything that is going to be unleashed upon her.

Her fate is in your hands.

Or so you think.

Before you could have the chance to alter her reality, Yeojin took aim and stole the commander position from you. Her small body packs a punch, as she pinned you down and locked her lips with yours. Taken aback, you did what most men would do in this situation, which is asserting dominance.

But Yeojin was completely corrupted with lust, she refused to let this chance slip away, she refused to let your tongue slip away as well.

She turned to Kahei’s direction and gave her a playful look.

“Now it’s my turn… Right unnie?”

“But… Stopping halfway is cruel…” Kahei sulked. The sensation of your mouth still lingers on her lips, but she knows that you need to give some attention to Yeojin as well. After all, this trip would have been impossible without Yeojin’s help, so she needed some sort of compensation or reward too.

Yeojin’s hands are still working diligently while kissing you. She is constantly rubbing and massaging herself as her lower half is completely soaked to the point that fluids are leaking out, staining her blue miniskirt. She used her remaining free hand to slide across your chest, swirling around your nipples while lubricating it with her own juices. She worked her way downwards to your stomach…and finally arriving at your bulging crotch.

Her tiny body is completely pressed against yours as well. That doesn’t bother you at all, since she is basically pocket sized and light. Yeojin may be mini-sized, but her breasts are a different story.

“Oppa, your pants are in my way.” Yeojin said. “It’s so bothersome…”

With a clean jerk, she removed the only fabric barrier that is in the way between your erect member and the two girls.

Thanks to Kahei and Yeojin’s cheerleading session earlier, your shaft is standing tall and proud. It is throbbing in vain and drenched with precum. Amazed by its vigor, the two girls gathered around and stared at it intensely.

Especially Kahei.

“I had never seen this in real life, it’s so big…” Kahei was so shellshocked so lost the ability to speak coherently. But Yeojin, being the more experienced one, reminded Kahei what to do in this situation.

“Unnie, don’t just stare at it! Remember our training? You know what to do right~”

Just how much did they prepare anyways?!

Kahei slowly stuck out her tongue and licked your shaft from top to bottom. Slowly and steadily, she repeated her movements and continued to please you.

It is very apparent that her movements are very awkward, and she is trying very hard to hide her nervousness. But you know she is trying her best to satisfy you. She is venturing into a completely new area, risking it all just for you.

“It…feels very good, Kahei.” You patted her head, giving her a nod of approval. With her tongue still sticking out, she looked up to you and smiled. She felt happy that she can give you so much pleasure even though she is still an amateur.

Yeojin didn’t want to feel being left out, so she joined Kahei and double teamed you. While Kahei’s style is slower and mellower, Yeojin is unsurprisingly aggressive and experienced. Both girls licked your shaft at the same time, each carved up their own territory.

You thought to yourself you must be dreaming. Two beautiful LOONA members threw themselves at you and are working together to fulfill your wildest desire. But the sensation and slurping sounds they provide is very real. It is so real that you are unable to hold it back anymore.

“I’m… I’m cumming!”

Without waiting for their reaction, you shot your pent-up semen with great force, splattering onto both Kahei and Yeojin’s faces, covering them with your thick and white batter.

“There is so much of it…” Kahei was amazed by the sheer volume you ejected. On the other hand, Yeojin didn’t want your semen that was spread across their faces to go to waste.

“Unnie, semen is something that’s taken and tasted thoroughly you know? Like this~” She scooped up a generous amount of semen from Kahei’s face and inserted it into her mouth for her to have a taste.

“We can’t just waste Jason-oppa’s precious semen you know; it’s made out of love just for us!” Yeojin said as she licked clean the residue semen around her lips and showed Kahei how to properly enjoy it.

There is nothing you can do but act as a bystander at this point.

“Gargle it and really taste it through. A bit stinky, but normally it should taste salty. After you done that, open and let oppa see.”

“Like… Like this?” Kahei followed Yeojin’s instructions and gargled your semen in her mouth. The strong odor nearly caused her to have a gag reflex, but she pushed through it. She opened her mouth wide for you to examine.

“Aah…”

The white viscous liquid almost dripped out from her mouth, but she holds on to her position and lets you examine her thoroughly. This erotic scene happens all the time in adult videos, but you never thought that one day you would see your beloved Kahei acting like this. You quickly granted her permission to swallow, as her reflex is bubbling up again.

“Drink it.”

And she did. With a big gulp, she emptied her mouth and was getting ready to receive more of your love once more.

“You too, Yeojin. Swallow it all.”

You didn’t forget that Yeojin was also full of your cum, as her small mouth couldn’t keep in that much volume.

But just as Yeojin is about to engulf it all, Kahei intercepted her actions and stole her fill directly from her mouth. Without hesitation, she swallowed it all in one go. She proudly opened her mouth once again to let you examine it.

“Did I do a good job?” Kahei showed no signs of gagging, did she already get used to your semen?

“No fair, unnie! That was supposed to be mine!” Yeojin was not amused, as her chance to taste your love was stripped away.

Kahei was unfazed, she waited for this for too long, and now she is finally in the mood.

In the mood for MORE.

“I will start slow, okay?”

Neither you nor Kahei had any prior experience in the make out sector before. But you basically know the gist of it.

Kahei took off her skirt and laid down on the bed.

You’ve known Kahei for years, you’ve seen her naked body countless times over the phone during your “healing” sessions. But now it is no longer virtual.

It felt real.

It is real.

In real life, Kahei is way more attractive than any of her photos in your phone. Years of idol training has rendered her flawless in terms of body proportions. Her face card is always valid even without makeup. Mermaid lines are strikingly visible on her toned abs, together with her round and thick thighs made you wish to be suffocated in between them.

Kahei pulled her legs inwards to form a M shape, a position that is ready for you to devour her completely. Her entrance is already well lubricated thanks to her previous session, but there is something else that caught your attention.

Her pubic hair is nowhere to be found.

“You… shaved?”

“Yeojin dragged me to her laser hair removal session yesterday… And she convinced me to do it as well.” Kahei explained.

Of course. It is because of Yeojin.

“Unnie, I told you he would like it, now you believe me?” Yeojin grinned, pointing at your crotch.

Even after that blowjob section, your member regained its pride after seeing Kahei’s barren land.

Time waits for no one.

You took out a box of condoms from your wallet, saved for this very occasion. But Yeojin stopped you immediately.

"Oppa! Don't tell me you plan to use rubber tonight? Didn't we tell you that we want you to fill us up?"

"I thought that was just a figure of speech..."

"Seriously oppa. You are denser than a stack of bedrocks...You want some prove? I'll give you proof."

She took of her blue top, leaving her bare chest for you to admire. She is definitely bigger than Kahei, but her areola is smaller and pinker. She kept her miniskirt on, but of course nothing is beneath it.

"We are not joking around anymore, we meant it. We want it raw. We want you to fill us up. Breed us like there's no tomorrow..." Yeojin demanded as she lay down beside Kahei.

She wants you to decide.

Who will be the one to let you graduate from V-university?

"Who will you start first, oppa~" Her playful tone almost sounded condescending, yet somehow seductive.

Kahei didn't say anything to plead for your attention, but your eyes met.

That gaze. That power. The same determination.

You can see it from her eyes that she needs you.

She WANTS you.

Without hesitation, you leaned over and kissed Kahei on the lips, marking your choice to begin tonight's event.

"You're mine now, Kahei."

"Kahei, at your service. I'm all yours." Kahei said, beaming with happiness.

"Boo." Yeojin sulked.

You started slow, as your shaft slowly disappeared inside Kahei’s body. The sensation of her vaginal walls clamping down tightly with your cock nearly made you climax. You noticed Kahei’s body is trembling, since it is her first time, she is still adapting to your size. You moved your body in a piston-like motion, and her body reacted every time your cock scrapes her insides. It was painful at first, but soon pain turns into pleasure. Her body finally accepted you and your energetic cock.

“This is completely different than using my hands…” Kahei moaned while you continued to pleasure her with no signs of stopping.

“Vivi-unnie… It’s not fair that you hog oppa on your own…”

While you are still focused on bringing Kahei to pound town, Yeojin unleased a stealth attack on Kahei’s already stiffened nipples.

“This is what you get for leaving me out from the mix.”

You couldn’t stop yourself from moving your hips, nor could you stop Yeojin’s relentless assault onto Kahei, so you just leave her doing her own thing while you focus on making her as pleasurable as possible.

“Two at the same time is too much…” Kahei was overwhelmed by pleasure from two sources. Electricity sparked from her head to toes, a sensation she never achieved by her mere fingers. This can only be obtained by someone who she loves, who she wanted all.

And that is you.

The constant pounding, the moaning sounds of pleasures added with Kahei’s fazed yet satisfied expressions made you reached climax in no time.

“Kahei… I’m cumming!”

Instinctively, her legs wrapped around your waist, locking you into [position to prevent you from releasing anywhere except her insides. Waves and waves of guilty pleasure released inside her already warm body as her body responded with spasms of happiness.

She accepted all of you without wasting a single drop outside.

“So, this is what real sex feels like…” Kahei murmured. “I think I can get used to this after all…”

After uttering those words, Kahei collapsed onto the bed.

“Kahei? Kahei are you okay?”

No respond. She has been knocked out by your intense session while your member is STILL inside her.

You pulled out your soften shaft from her body. Streaks of white liquid leaked out from her vagina as the huge amount you deposited into her finally overflowed.

It sure is tiresome, it’s even more tiresome than that time you participated in a triathlon. But you saw Kahei’s expression.

Although she has been knocked out cold, but you can see a faint smile appeared on her face. She has been fulfilled, both physically and mentally. Her satisfied expression makes this all worth it.

Just as you are admired your work of art, Yeojin pinned you down on the bed and stuffed her mouth full of your cock.

“Yeojin, wait! I’m still sensitive, I just finished one round you know?”

“Bu you told me I’m next! This filthy cock of yours needs some cleaning, be grateful I’m doing this to you alright?” Yeojin beamed.

She skilfully licked your shaft from the base to the tip, cleaning up every single inch of it spotlessly. She is making sure that your member is ready for another round of intense love making. It’s almost like she is casting a spell onto you, your member became erect and regained its vigour after her treatment.

“You are too easy, oppa~” Yeojin mocked. “I already know your weak spots already, so just surrender yourself to me, would ya?”

“I already know your weak spots already… Weak spots already… Weak spots already…”

That line irritates you.

The fact that she thinks she got the hold of you just after one encounter is extremely annoying, Plus, Yeojin corrupted your best friend, Kahei to a degree that she can never be as pure as she was, ever again. Sure, you and Kahei had the bare minimum of sexual encounters, but that was all virtual.

To think that the adorable Kahei you know has transformed into this lustful version of herself is unforgivable.

UNFORGIVABLE.

You glanced at Kahei’s direction. She is still in her own dreamland. Now you don’t need to refrain yourself about using vulgar language anymore. Your blood is boiling with anger. The only thing on your mind right now is to give Yeojin the treatment she deserves.

Punishment.

You shoved Yeojin out of the way.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” You yelled. Yeojin is already partially naked, she removed all her clothing except for that miniskirt when you and Kahei were going down just now. Because of that, it was easy for you to handle Yeojin like a toy, which is what you intended to do. You lifted her voluptuous ass facing in front of you, as you are ready to ravage that gaping hole of hers.

Unsurprisingly, Yeojin was not bothered by your words. In fact, it had the opposite effect. She was getting aroused.

“What’s the matter oppa? Can’t wait any longer? Come on…”

“Shut up!”

You slapped Yeojin’s ass cheeks. Red marks appeared, a stark contrast with her pale skin.

“Know your place! You are just a needy bitch who begs for sex. Why the fuck would I consider you as my partner anyway?”

Those words clearly hurt Yeojin’s pride.

“But I am more experienced than unnie…”

Without letting her finish her words, you thrust your cock into her hole with full force, no holding back.

“Hnngh! You’re so big… And thick! How can it be this thick?” Yeojin gasped.

“Still talking? Fine, I’ll fuck your brains out until you shut up already!”

You continued to ravage that tiny body of hers. Yeojin moaned with joy every time you plunge your thick cock into her body and filling her up.

Her walls tightened every time you move, she is not letting you go until you climaxed with her.

At this point Yeojin finally stopped talking, unintelligible noises and moans is the only form of communication she knows as she has been fucked crazy.

Or so you think.

You nearly reached your limit, as you prepare to unleash your third load of the day.

But then Yeojin noticed. She wants the same treatment as her unnie does. She wants you seed to be unleashed all inside her. Couldn’t hold back her true intentions, she finally yelled out her request.

“Oppa… Shoot it all inside me! Inseminate me with your thick cum and make me all yours!!”

Under normal circumstances this should make up reach your peak immediately, can you even imagine Kahei saying this to you?

But not this time.

This is supposed to be a punishment, a rehabilitation of hers to know her own place. What kind of punishment is that if she is having pleasure and gets all she wants?

But just as she is about to reach her peak, you promptly stopped your movements, denying her orgasm. What goes around comes around, I guess. She did that to Kahei, and now it’s time to let her taste her own medicine.

You pulled out your cock that is just about to erupt a second ago. Yeojin’s face full of disappointment and disbelief.

“But… But why oppa?” Tears nearly poured out from her eyes.

But that doesn’t work on you.

“If you want it, beg for it.” You declared. “Beg for it like you mean it.”

She quickly followed your instructions.

Yeojin laid down with her front facing your way. She begs for your attention as she spreads her labia wide open for you.

“Please… Please shoot all your hot, thick semen inside me! Breed me and impregnate me as you wish! Do whatever you want to me…” The usual chippy and cheerful Yeojin has disappeared.

The only thing left on her mind is wanting you to put a child inside her.

“Well said, Yeojin.” You lifted her lower body. “But you forgot one important thing, YOU ARE JUST A TOY FOR ME.”

Once again you plunged your hardened cock into her, but not the one that she requested for.

“A… Anal??” A brand-new sensation gushed through her body as your member slid in and out from her butthole.

“You will never-ever get the same treatment as Kahei, you hear that?” You continued your movements while ignoring Yeojin’s refusal. “Kahei is the only one I cared about, and you will always be just a tool for me, got it?”

“Y… Yes oppa…” Yeojin’s vision began to blur. She claimed to have a lot of experience, but never with anal sex. Your treatment is so severe that her tiny body couldn’t take it anymore. Her body began to loosen up, her eyes rolled up while her tongue is sticking out.

Finally, you reached your peak and ejaculated all your semen inside her hole. Although it is the third shot of the day, the amount you deposited into her body is still that much. Yeojin’s body shivers with pleasure while she pants for air.

Perhaps finally Yeojin had learnt her lesson.

“You are going to shit white tomorrow, you know that?”

But there is no response.

“Yeojin?”

She is still breathing, thank God. But the rough sex you gave her has completely knocked her out.

Experienced my ass.

You looked around. Two beautiful girls lying on the bed, sleeping soundly because of you.

What a sight to behold.

Fatigue finally catches onto you, as you collapsed onto the bed and slowly drifted into slumberland…

A few hours later…

“W… What time is it?”

You finally woke up. I guess after a few consecutive ejaculations, you finally reached your limit and passed out like the two girls.

You felt a soft sensation on your right hand.

“Hmm?” You squeezed.

“Hello, sleepy head.”

Kahei’s…voice?

She is lying down next to you, snuggling up cosily AROUND YOU.

Also, your hand is on her ass.

“Hey, are you done touching?” She sneered.

“I mean… No. Of course.” You joked.

“… Pervert.”

You glanced at the wall clock, it is almost dawn. Yeojin is still sleeping soundly. I guess you really messed her up big time. Perhaps she will finally learn her lesson for good and stop being such a cheeky little brat.

“Jason…you told Yeojin that I’m the only one you cared about. Is that true?” Kahei said while raising her eyebrows in classic Gowon fashion.

“Wait, you heard us? I thought you passed out!”

“Well, anyone would be awake after all that loud noise you two made.”

Figures.

But now it is not the time for jokes or punchlines. This is the perfect moment for you to declare your feelings to her. If you don’t do it now, you might never have the chance again.

“Kahei.” You looked her right into her eyes.

“I like you. I liked you since out school days, but I never had the courage to told you so because I don’t want to jeopardize your dreams of becoming a singer…”

“Really?” Kahei chuckled. “I wish you’d told me sooner.”

“Why?” You asked.

“Do you still remember that field trip we had? The one we went to the beach?”

Oh right. Secondary school.

-flashback-

You and Kahei go way back. That year you are lucky enough to be drafted into the same class as hers. Although she is not the most active and outgoing member of the class, she still exudes a kind of motherly aura, as she always cares about people around her.

You two rarely talked to each other, but one fateful encounter propelled you into her orbit.

You class organized an outing to a nearby beach, something about camping and making memories, you couldn’t remember the details. But there was one activity that was so memorable, it sculpted as one of your precious core memories.

For some reason the guys in your class wanted to play dodgeball. So, your teacher at the time compromised and split the class into groups. You quickly realized that one of the classmates from your opponent’s team was none other than Kahei herself. You probably assumed that she would suck at sports, since she doesn’t strike you as a sporty gal.

But surprisingly, when her team was falling behind, she started acting as the de facto team captain, and started giving out commands.

“Attack, ATTACK!!”

It’s like a warzone out there.

Finally, her team overwhelmed yours and won the championship match.

All thanks to Kahei.

What an interesting individual, you thought. You want to know more about her, but you need to act fast.

You carefully approach her after the game and started a conversation.

“Hiya.”

“Hi.”

She was taken aback by your sudden introduction. But you pressed on.

“So… You played dodgeball before?”

“Not really, this is my first time.”

“I see.”

And so, the conversation goes on back and forth. It didn’t matter that this is your first real conversation, you two clicked instantly and chat about a lot of subjects.

The teacher’s voice let you two snapped back to reality as it was close to night-time already.

“Well, it was nice talking with you. I’ll see you soon.” Kahei smiled.

You never believed in love at first sight, but her smile just melted your heart.

A surge of courage led you made a bold decision.

“Hey! Kahei…right? We are on the beach anyways, you want to watch the sunrise later?”

“Umm…sure? But can you crawl up that early?” She smiled again.

Butterflies.

“Of course, I can!” A man’s pride is something needed to be protected. “5 am?”

“5 am it is.”

And thus, it begins.

-end of flashback-

“Of course, I remembered the sunrise! I still can’t figure it out where I got the courage to ask you out, Kahei.”

“I didn’t know why I accepted your invitation either.” She chuckled. “Perhaps its fate.”

“Maybe. But back to the point…you haven’t given me an answer, yet you know?”

You basically confessed to Kahei, but you two are immersed in your own flashback, she didn’t have a chance to respond.

“Well…”

Gulp.

“Close your eyes first.” Kahei said.

“But wh-”

“Just do it, okay?”

You closed your eyes, waiting for her response.

A soft sensation landed on your lips, intertwined with emotions and love.

You opened your eyes, and you saw that familiar smile again. That smile that made you fall in love with.

“Take care of me from now on, okay?”

“Of course, Kahei.”

A string of line poured through the window, the sun is rising as you two finally cleared up your relationship.

“Well, want to see the sunrise again?” Once again you gave the invitation out.

“Why not do it?”

Just as you two getting dressed and ready to go out, that familiar booming voice strikes back.

“NO FAIRRRRRRRR!!!”

It seems that Yeojin has emerged from her slumber.

“Ya oppa, I heard everything! What about me? Why didn’t you even consider me?”

What’s up with girls pretending to sleep and eavesdropping these days? But since your decision is official, Kahei managed to stand up for herself.

“Yeojin.” Kahei said firmly. “I know that it would be impossible for Jason and me together without your help, and I will give you credit for that. But there is only one person who can be his girlfriend, and that is me.”

Facts.

“But unnie… What happened between me and Jason-oppa is something I never experience before…”

Again, facts. Maybe because she was the only child in her family that made her a spoiled brat.

“IT FELT SO GOOD!”

Wait, what?

“I want to try something even more extreme with Jason-oppa…couldn’t we find a compromise?”

It seems that your plan has just backfired spectacularly.

“Well… It seems fair that you get some kind of compensation. Alright, occasionally is fine.”

Why in the world would you agree with her, Kahei?

“Since that problem has been resolved… Let’s go see the sunrise together!”

You don’t the right to voice out your opinion in this situation. But what guy could turn down this offer anyways? The three of you went outside just in time to see the sunrise. It’s been a while since you had the liberty to enjoy something that basic as sunrise. But now you are not alone. You have your girlfriend on your side… As well as Yeojin, wherever she fits in the picture.

Kahei is clearly enjoying herself. The same warm sunlight that shined upon you years ago has made a comeback, and it is better than ever. The question that has haunted her for years, the unsolved mystery between you and herself has been resolved. A sigh of relief puffed away with all her troubles, gone.

And now it is your job to fulfil her for the rest of your lives.

Meanwhile, Yeojin whispered some breaking news in your ears.

“Oppa… I just texted everyone in our group chat about your existence. They will give you a welcome party at our practice room as soon as we go back, isn’t that exciting?!”

And with that, your harem life with all 12 LOONA members has just begun.

The able-bodied Heejin, the endearing Hyunjin, the caretaking Haseul, the adventurous Yeojin, the lovable Kahei, the chic Jungeun, the dorky Jinsol, the sunshine Yerim, the warm hearted Sooyoung, the cutesy Jiwoo, the princess Chaewon and the ice queen herself Hyeju.

Dear me.

[livealittleoc-cb]

Small Hearts Month Update!

🎏: Do I have a Valentine? No, and I’m quite happy about that actually. Don’t have to worry about buying certain stuff other than maybe for Hel cause she nags me if I don’t 🙄 I love her but sometimes I want to bop her over the head-. Anyways…our E-Sports team is having practice later today and we might also be arranging something to do on the day of Hearts but…I don’t think I want to go-. We’ll see what they decide to do but for now I’m trying to get into the headspace for practice! I think we’re going to be streaming it too so people are welcome to join in and watch!~

🪦: Hehe I LOVE THIS MONTH! I know it’s kind of ironic but I love giving gifts so much 🥰 It always makes me happy giving my friends, family and Hecate gifts. Sometimes I know it can be too much but I can’t help it! I love seeing how flustered and shy Hecate gets or how happy Fenrir gets when I give him a sweet. Even Andr smiles a little when I get him something! It makes me feel the best! I hope everyone has someone to spend this lovely month with, even if they are a family member or friend and not a partner. It’s still nice and fun to spend it with someone you love.

🐺: So I told my bandmates like last month that I’ve never had a Valentines and they looked at me like I had two heads! I thought it would end there but today they gave me a bunch of stuff…stuffed animals, cards, flowers…OH OH AND CANDY! Lots and lots of candy 🥰 Also cake and cupcakes! I was so surprised but they said they’ll all be my Valentines. They’re so sweet ☺️ *whispers* I still don’t really understand this holiday… *perks* But we’re having a Valentine’s concert thing on Valentine’s weekend! It’ll be fun and I have the perfect outfit for it I think it’s my favorite stage outfit actually!

🩵����: @monsterhigh-cb [🐟🤍💍 && ⚡💙 && 👻💜 && 🐺💕 && 🎤💖 && 👑💛] @evicted-oc [☕️🤎 && 🐼🖤 && 🔦💛 && 🧊🩵 && 💄🖤 && 🏴‍☠️🤍] @theinvitation-bot [🐭🩶💒] @welcome-to-maniac [🐇🖤 💍 && 🌻❤️ && 🌕❤️‍🔥 && 🐿️❣️ && 🐉🩶] @fantasyaespa [🐈 💚💍 && ☀️🩵💍] @k-venturetime [🍓❣️] @multi-joong [🌧️🧡💍 && 🎨💚] @kardpackcb [🌙💝 && 🐺❤️‍🔥] @lavienrosecabaretxo [👑🖤] @obsession-cb [🍰🖤] @clubwnderland [💃❤️‍🔥]

possible new residents: @faywithlove @badbf-cb @domxbot @welcometosector1 @lunaaofthemoon @reve-rv @multi-esme @the-hellhounds @oppositesattraxt @domrachaa @hwangsiblings-oc @coffeexdreamcb @silcntxnight @moonlightchn @blogger-yura @thesugaredalchemists @folklore-cb @doom-bc @hearthstone-apothecary @redlight-cb @inferno-cb @darkloversxcb @9ateez-multiau-bot @mxthxbot @mirage-ocs @raiden-oc @fntsybot @adminhoney @crimson-l @themanor-cb [DM + / -]

[skyrim-forever]

A Solstheim RomCom

Here is Part 1 of my Neloth/OC Fake Marriage Fic! Originally this was supposed to be one part but seeing as it's over 4500 words (with a bit more to go) I'm going to split it into 2 parts (part two will probably be double the size haha). This is cross-posted on ao3 :)

Summary: When Dragonborn and mage Rochelle's plan to get her family off her back about marriage backfires; she is left with constructing a ploy to have a fake husband to prove to her sister she is married and fine. And if things can't get worse, her fake Husband is Master Neloth.

Warnings: None!

Words: 2k

Tagging: @thana-topsy @thequeenofthewinter @ladytanithia thank you all for your nice comments on the snippet <3

To see the Dragonborn in Raven Rock had become a common occurrence. Rochelle of Evermore, or Rochelle of Tel Mithryn, as she became known to the citizens of Solstheim, was in town today to mail a letter to her sister. Colette had sent her a letter the following week, inquiring about her life. 

As the older sister she was deeply worried for her younger sibling, especially ever since Rochelle left the College of Winterhold the previous year, due to what she had described as “creative differences”. Rochelle had not felt the need to worry her sister with what she had actually been doing, seeking the Black Books of Hermaeus Mora. Her work under Master Neloth had proved to worry her sister more than enough, causing her to write that “there were many suitors from home and the Imperial City” who would apparently be interested in meeting her and that she should “come visit immediately!”. Her sister, likely pressured by their father, was deeply concerned with seeing her married; despite her disinterest in the subject. 

In order to put everyone’s mind at ease, Rochelle had come up with a genius idea, one of her best. In the response to Colette, Rochelle had written:

Dear Sister, 

As much as I would love to meet these fine gentlemen 

I’m afraid I am already married! I’ve married a fine and wealthy 

Gentleman who supports my research. 

Please tell Father I am well. 

Regards, 

Rochelle

It was fool-proof, Colette would see she has done what they asked for and will leave her be. Perhaps they will even shift their questions to ask her about her work, or what Solstheim is like. Anything other than her dating, or rather lack thereof, life. 

Rochelle hands the letter off to Captain Gjalund, who has always made good on getting her letters to and from the courier. It should reach her sister in Cyrodiil in a few weeks, then finally, she will be at peace to do her work. 

The journey back to Tel Mithryn is typical, if not with less ashspawn than usual, but it is the ash in the air that still gets to her. I suppose I’ll get used to it, as the years go by. Arriving back took the better part of the day, making it evening when she finally returned. Though on the way back she found a hearthstone deposit in the ashlands perfect for Master Neloth. Just as her pack touches the ground, Master Neloth is shouting for her. 

“Rochelle! Rochelle! Where is that blasted girl?” Talvas can be heard coming to her defense 

“She left earlier for Raven Rock Master Neloth.”

“Find then, Talvas, go make me some canis root tea” Neloth orders. 

“Isn’t that Drovas’s job and besides-” before poor Talvas can remind him that he actually already ordered him to practice a new conjuration spell, Rochelle makes her way up the tower.  

“Ah there you are! Drovas quit while you were away and I’ve been without tea all day!” 

“I’m so sorry Master Neloth, I’ll get started on it right away” she reaches into her waist satchel and pulls out two heartstones “I found these on the way back.” Neloth raises an eyebrow at her. 

“This likely delayed your trip causing me to be without tea even longer” yet he still reaches for the stones “but these will be most useful.” 

To many, particularly those in his employment, Neloth was rude, self-absorbed and had no regard for the feelings of others. However true this may be did not matter to Rochelle, as she found him refreshing. She recalled her childhood, her mother in the Reach often spoke in riddles to which she could never figure out what was meant; and her father in High Rock had the habit of talking around an issue, never actually voicing his thoughts as to not upset anyone in any direction. But Neloth was always incredibly clear and direct, there was no way to misunderstand his orders.  

Pleased that they will be of use, Rochelle goes to grab the canis root and begin making tea. She can hear Talvas attempting to inform Master Neloth of something, exactly what she is not focused on, only for Neloth to disregard him by walking into his enchantment room. It feels good to be back. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few weeks had passed and Rochelle was back in Raven Rock, picking up some food for the residents of Tel Mithryn. Unable to find a replacement for Drovas, himself a last ditch effort, the Dragonborn took it upon herself to act not only as a member of House Telvanni; but as steward as well. She stood on the dock, gazing out to the sea, watching the Northern Maiden approach the island. After a few minutes the ship docks and the workers begin unloading the supplies. One of these must have the order of apples and cabbages. 

As she walks closer to the unloading, Captain Gjalund calls out to her:

“Rochelle!” He walks closer to her, grabbing a crate on his way. “Here is your order” placing the crate down, he pulls an envelope from his chest pocket “nearly forgot this, here is a letter, right from Cyrodiil.” 

“Ah, my sister” It has been several weeks. The feeling of relief washes over her, finally she would be free from the familial pressure to marry. She understood they meant well, but the talk of marriage always came at the expense of her passions. They never asked about her research, her experiences, or even what she wanted from life. And besides mother and father never married, so why does it even matter anyways? Though, she supposed her parents' relationship was nothing to emulate. 

Thanking Captain Gjalund, she moves the crate to the side, stopping to read the letter before the journey back. The envelope is sealed with the crest of her brother-in-law's family, the Redwort Flower in matching red wax. Rochelle reads the letter:

Dearest Sister, 

Congratulations on your nuptials! I had no idea

you married, how I do wish you invited the family!

Nevertheless, Father will be quite pleased to have 

both his daughters being taken care of. 

As I am so curious as to who could capture your heart, 

I shall be coming to visit! I’ll be leaving shortly after 

this letter is sent, see you soon!

Love, 

Your darling sister

Oh no Rochelle thought, her mind scrambling no no no no. Her plan had backfired, her plan could not have backfired anymore. Rather than get Colette off her back, she has enticed her even more. I need to leave, I need to run, I need to fake my death! No, no, Colette is already on her way, it’s too late for that. Tucking the letter into her waist satchel, Rochelle begins to head back to Tel Mithryn at a speed of which Solstheim had never seen. 

Floating up the Tower, Rochelle immediately runs towards Talvas, who is currently in his bedroll, having a rare nap. 

“Talvas!” She whispers, as to not let Neloth hear. “Talvas! Wake up!” 

“Rochelle? What’s going on? Is everything okay? Are we being attacked?” He goes to prepare a spell when she speaks. 

“Oh no, it’s far worse than that, far far worse.”

“Huh?” A groggy Talvas says “What are you on about?”

“My sister is coming to visit” Confused as to why this is a bad thing, Talvas asks, 

“And that’s terrible because?”

“Because” Rochelle answers, adding emphasis on because “I wrote to her I’m married and now she wants to meet my husband” 

“But you don’t have a husband?”

“Yes Talvas, that is precisely the problem. I need to find someone to pretend to be my husband long enough to convince my sister I’m taken care of. Someone wealthy and impressive.” Talvas starts to wake up a bit and with a cheeky smile, he brings forth a suggestion. 

“What about me? I could pretend to be your husband.” 

“You’re like a son to me Talvas”

“But I’m older than you”

“And yet you fail to be responsible, Master Neloth and I always need to remind you how to cast correctly.” Talvas huffs a bit, Rochelle may be kinder than Master Neloth; but he seems to be rubbing off on her, in more ways than expected. “Besides you are neither wealthy nor that impressive.”

“Alright, tell me how you really feel” He says, before his face forms a pondering look, signaling he is formulating an idea. 

“So your letter said you married a wealthy man?”

“Correct” Rochelle answers, unsure as to why he is repeating information she knows back to her. 

“And you’re looking for someone to impress your sister but also someone who supports your research?”

“Correct again” She pauses for a moment “Talvas, I’m not sure what you think you’re accomplishing here?” He laughs, although she is not sure she said anything funny. 

“I’m just thinking out loud Rochelle” He looks to his left, to which she follows, casting her gaze to where Master Neloth is reading. “But what about Master Neloth?” 

“What about Master Neloth?”

“I know he’s not exactly ‘marriage material’ but he is impressive and wealthy.” Rochelle stares at Neloth, his back turned to them, poured over another tome. He is wealthy and one of the most powerful wizards in Morrowind Rochelle stops for a moment. 

Master Neloth really was everything she was looking for, having long abandoned the idea of love; she supposed that if she ever did settle down she’d like it to be someone like him, someone who was direct and could show her a wealth of knowledge. “I doubt he’d agree, he would likely consider the whole thing foolish and beneath him; which it is, of course.”

“Maybe you’d two would be a better match than I thought” Talvas laughs. “It can’t hurt to ask, well I guess it can but what other options do you have?” He’s right the only other men who could potentially fit the bill would be someone like Captain Veleth, the head of the Redoran Guard, but Rochelle did not think she could pretend to be married to him. No Master Neloth is the best choice; he and Talvas were those who she saw the most, and  therefore she could act easiest with them. 

Talvas advises Rochelle to be strategic, bring him some canis root tea and then ask for a favour. 

“Explain the situation to him, agree that it’s silly but that you don’t have much time and it would be most efficient if he plays along.”

“You’re right, it is silly and if I can get him to see I also think so maybe he’ll help me out.”

I doubt he’s ever helped anyone Talvas thinks, decided to not tell her as his role is to be a supportive friend. Plus she's already stressed enough.

A cup of canis root tea in hand, Rochelle approaches Neloth, by now he’s moved into the enchantment room, looking over his latest staff. 

“I brought you tea Master Neloth”

“Hmm” If he had been annoyed at being disturbed he didn’t let on. Thankful to catch him in a decent mood, Rochelle places the cup down on the desk. 

“Master Neloth, I have a favour to ask. You see, well, I, the thing is that-”

“Yes, yes spit it out already! You of all people should know how valuable my time is!”

“Sorry Master Neloth” she takes a deep breath here goes nothing “I’ve received familial pressure to marry and despite my efforts to explain to my father and sister how I do not desire to marry; they have been insistent, citing fears of me going through this world alone. Therefore to get them off my back, I stated that I married a wealthy man and am taken care of. I admit this was thoroughly stupid of me, as it has enticed my sister to come visit and meet my non-existent husband. I would like to ask you to pretend to be that husband for a few days until she leaves.” Before Rochelle can explain that it would require nothing more than referring to her as his wife and a dinner with her sister, Neloth speaks. 

“You forgot the apples and cabbages didn’t you?”

“What?” 

“You weren’t carrying the crate when you came into the tower.” Rochelle is silent, she was never good with social cues but even she found it perplexing that this is what he chose to focus on. “Return to Raven Rock tomorrow and retrieve the supplies” the woman nods “and I shall do as you requested, even if it is asinine.” 

“Thank you Master Neloth.”

“Hmmmmm.”

[ashe-delta]

I Hate Losing

My Bloodied History with the Card Game Genre

I’ve got a weird history with card games. I feel like they go against everything I stand for when it comes to game design, and for the longest time I didn’t get why people couldn’t see what I was seeing. The skill curve was drastic, there was too much reliance on RNG, and the genre is actively demanding in an almost pay to win sort of way. Yet here I am, still thinking about them. What happened?

(This is a long rant post about my history with card games and my opinions on the genre. All opinions are my own and shouldn’t be taken seriously. Forgive the weird pacing and focusing on things for too long, I’ve got a lot to say after all.)

I don’t think it’s a secret I’m a stupid nerd. Ever since I was a toddler I was playing video games (shout out to Yoshi’s Story), and I’ve been watching anime since I was around 12 (and earlier, whatever my dad was watching at the time). So, I would eventually run into the card game fandom eventually, as being a nerd typically will cause you to do.

And that I did, but it was always a dud to me, mostly due to the barrier of entry. I did collect cards, but never actually played any games with them. That was, until Hearthstone, which was the first time playing a card game was really accessible to me. And it was... okay. I didn’t spend any money and didn’t play a lot, so I was always underpowered, and eventually I was forced to play Hunter for any chance of winning, so I stopped playing.

I’d come back to it every once in a while, some periods of time longer than others. I played C’thun Warrior and Deathknight Hunter when those existed. But when the meta shifted, I’d just start losing because I didn’t get the cards I needed. So I moved on. 

My main frustrations were that it felt like I was always fighting an uphill battle. I had to memorize hundreds of cards, play around all of them, and learn how to fight against things correctly in a timely manner. The skill curve was needless to say intense. Plus, with having to get my cards randomly, and having some decks randomly just not work due to shit draw, it just wasn’t fun to me.

After Hearthstone, I bounced around a bit to other card games when they’d come out - I’d play MtG Arena, and while it was okay, it felt like I could do nothing when the opponent had an answer to everything. Then I’d try LoR, and it was that but SIGNIFICANTLY worse.

So, I mostly wrote myself as someone who can’t play them and doesn’t like them. My problems with the genre were valid criticisms, but at the end of the day it was obvious I didn’t like them.

...and yet. That albatross still remained. ALL of my friends love this genre. It’s like... the genre to like a nerd. How the hell do I not like it?

This haunted me. I’d keep trying card games over and over but to no avail. I’m already someone who can’t handle losing well (something I’ve gotten SIGNIFICANLY better at in the past 2 years, but still comes back to bite me sometimes), but having the tutorial be “lose until you get it” was maddening.

The genre was failing me. I was it’s target audience and it still couldn’t teach me it’s ways.

Even now, I don’t think that’s an insane take. Every game within the genre forgoes the new player experience in favor of getting those who know the genre already and it’s nuances. If you want to get into the club, you’ll have to work for it.

My philosophy of game design is that a skill curve should ease a player into the experience. If you just drop them in, it won’t be fun for anyone. In that regard, the game’s were doing the exact opposite of what I considered good design. To me, it’s as if you made Champion’s Road the first level of 3D World. That’s insanity!

...and even still. That albatross still remained. I was right about design. Yet, I’m still missing something. What the hell was going on?

I recognized that card games could be well designed, but without being able to play them without being miserable, it was mostly empty observations, with a tinge of spite from how the games wronged me. Yes, these games should be criticized for their skill curve and terrible payment model, but there’s so much more it, isn’t there? So what am I missing? What could be so glaringly obvious that it’s causing me to just not get it? Was I really that ignorant?

Enter... Marvel Snap.

Marvel Snap is what I would call a card game for people who don’t like card games. It lasted only 6 turns, had no health between players, and decks only had 12 cards, meaning you’d see 80% of your deck in every game. It’s the most consistent card game on the market. Or at least it would be, if it wasn’t for the locations.

Locations are a teaching tool. They teach you to play around randomness. They teach capitalizing on mistakes. They teach playing from behind. They teach sandbagging. They teach planning ahead. They teach you card game bullshit.

The final thing Marvel Snap taught you was that losing was not only okay, but actively required. It was turned into a skill test - do you surrender early, before the opponent snaps and makes you lose double the amount? Or do you stick it out? Losing was part of the game.

Marvel Snap takes all of the card game jank and BS and threw it into a very specific, readable teaching tool. The tutorial is also pretty decent, making you face off against fairly competent bots until around bronze-silver rank, but the locations are the real teaching tool. All the things you’d need to learn for other cards games are all put into one spot for you to think about instead of needing to balance 50 different things in your head.

However, it’s teachings don’t stop there. Because it’s a safe place to learn, lose, and try again, it teaches you card game mechanics from other games, too. You get used to the randomness of Magic the Gathering, and getting land locked. Sometimes you just draw bad, and it happens, and you move on (or retreat). You start having plan Bs if something goes wrong, because the game isn’t over just because you got wiped. You plan ahead yourself and know how you’re spend your turns.

Marvel Snap isn’t just a card game for people who don’t like card games. It’s a card game for those who want to learn card games.

...yet just one more piece of the puzzle was missing. I boot up MtG Arena to learn the game again, excited that I might enjoy a card game again, and then...

Nothing.

It’s the same as before. Less frustrated before, with the lessons I’ve learned, but it felt empty. The game was definitely more fun, but something about it was still super overwhelming and that uphill battle feeling was back.

I thought that would be the end of it. I was hyped to play, but ultimately I would succumb to what I knew before: that the genre wasn’t for me. Then, a friend asked if I could play against them in Tabletop Simulator (as the cards would be free and wouldn’t have to use MtG Arena). I said yes, and they built me a deck to use since I had NO idea what cards were good, and got ready for a mediocre time.

Then, to my surprise, it was fun. A lot of fun, in fact.

Even when losing, just seeing the card game bullshit unfold in front of us was both hilarious and fun as hell to watch. I didn’t even care if I was losing. Well, maybe a little. But it didn’t matter. Even if I wasn’t winning someone else I cared about was, and seeing them get excited for their miracle paying off was just as rewarding as seeing my lucky draw win me the game.

A conclusion so stupid, so heartfelt, that it could make you cry. The secret thing I was missing in card games wasn’t the mechanics. It wasn’t the powerful cards. It was the community. The friends.

Every card game I’ve played was completely digital. I played maybe one or two rounds physically in my entire life, and they were never even finished, usually because we had something else to do. Losing online hurt because I didn’t even know the person. All I got for losing was watching my rank go down. Why would I like that?

But being with friends? And seeing that chaos? And struggling to fight back, even with my back to the wall surely to lose? It didn’t matter. It was just fun.

So, with the lessons of the best card game for non-card game players, and some very patient friends, I’m having fun with the genre I was destined to hate my whole life. I used to hate losing, especially as a kid. It was the worst feeling the world, having all that work be for nothing. But now?

I can’t wait to lose again.

[noisyalmonddreamer]

Valentines day: Hearthstone

-I lowkey see Hearthstone as pretty romantic - Like he really tries - He's not amazing but he tries! - So when he finds out theres an entire day dedicated to showing extra appreciation your s/o he really likes the idea - He's someone who really like appreciating the people he cares about - However he can sometimes feel like if he fully shows it he would come off as annoying??? - So an accuse to be all cuddly with you....more then normal! - It's a dream come true! - Now you might think 'does he know any of the valentines traditions?' - The answer is no - He does not - But Blitzen explains! -He is kinda confused - Why a flying baby? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Blitzen is the biggest Hearthstone x Y/N shipper

"I set up dinner for the two of you" Blitzen signed to Hearthstone. Hearthstone blushed, scratching the back of his neck You didn't need to do that

Blitzen waved him off and chuckled "No don't worry about it. You wanted to celebrate and so did (Y/n). I don't mind. I'll be out of your hair in a little bit. I'm taking myself on a date! Now go. I set clothes out for you to wear!" Blitzen pushed Hearthstone into his room where a button down shirt and some more formal pants laying on his bed.

After putting on the outfit Hearthstone walked back into the kitchen and Blitzen was nowhere to be seen. Looking down at the table Hearthstone saw a letter written in Blitzen's hand writing.

Hey bud Sorry for dipping out so suddenly I was about to be late to my reservation I'm letting (Y/n) know I set up an outfit for them in my room so they'll be up in a few minutes after closing up shop For the dinner just serve it. It's all done cooking Also there's some dessert in the fridge Just sit down and wait -Blitzen

Hearthstone let out a small breath, his face felt warm. He grabbed the presents he got you and sat in the living room waiting for you.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he felt you tap his shoulder. Turning around he saw you smiling at him, dressed in your own 'formal' outfit. He somehow blushed more while taking in a quick breath to calm himself.

Hi

You giggled and pecked his cheek "Hi Hearth. You look nice." You told him, moving to sit next to him on the couch. Thank you. You look amazing

You smiled at your awkward boyfriend. It seemed silly, getting all dressed up to eat at home but the two of you still wanted a romantic evening. You just didn't want to go out.

"Blitzen did a really good job with making the apartment all romantic." Hearthstone nodded at you, a small smile decorating his lips Yes It looks very nice. We should thank him later

You agreed and stood up for a moment "I'll be right back, love. I forgot your gift in Blitzens room."

While you were gone Hearthstone took a deep breath trying to compose himself. Why did you have to be so attractive???

As you came back you smiled at him and placed a kiss on his lips. As you pulled away a full smile graced Hearth's face. You smiled back at him, going in or one more kiss.

Then you handed him your gift and he handed you yours. Opening the wrapping you saw the book you had been wanting for months. You never got it because it was pretty expensive. Well more like this version was. You could get the story for not that much but what made this version special was the cover. It was a limited addition cover and you had been talking about it since you first saw it.

Wiping you head up you smiled widely at Hearthstone and moved the book onto the coffee table. Lifting your hands you asked Hug? and he nodded, opening his arms up for you.

Jumping into his arms you hugged him tight, kissing all over his face. Hearthstone felt himself blush hard as you pulled away from him still grinning. So I take it you like it?

You nodded rapidly "Yes I love it! Thank you so much Hearth!"

It's no problem

~~~Time skip~~~

After dinner the two of you retired into your shared bedroom, cuddling close, just enjoying each others presence.

Hearthstone tapped your shoulder, gaining your attention.

"Yes Hearth?"

I just want to say thank you

Oh? What for

It just. He hesitated for a moment You make me happier then I thought I ever could be

(If you're wondering what you got him and can't think of anything I was gonna make it a hand made pouch for his ruins)

[bakedbananners]

Thinking about MCGA Crystal Gems AU so I’m just gonna ramble a bit under the cut about it or whatever LOL

Magnus- Citrine (duh) who emerged late on Earth and was abandoned by others. Spent hundreds of years alone before being found by Natalie (human) and later on Hearthstone and Blitzen after her death. Gets shattered by Surt (idk a high-ranking gem or maybe diamond) and Samirah/Lionskin Jasper basically picks up his pieces to put back together. After shattering he’s missing a piece which gets replaced with Sumarbrandr- hence why his weapon seems to have its own consciousness and telepathic link (its the only way Jack can manifest as a separate being). Gets poofed and reformed a few times and changes appearance over time (not by much though). Citrine’s weapon is a shield, Sumarbrandr is separate to that but he uses him more often.

Samirah- Lionskin Jasper, a high ranking guard to one of the Diamond courts. She takes a lot of pride in her job, but tends to question the reasons and methods of her Diamond. After taking in Citrine/Magnus and later Alex she abandons her role in the court. Still very loyal, but more so to her new family. Her shapeshifting abilities are incredible, but she doesn’t practice and rarely uses them, preferring to rely on her fighting prowess. Her weapon is her ax.

Alex- Commonly mistaken for Watermelon Tourmaline but is actually a mix of Peridot and Pink Spinel after shattering and reconstruction a long time ago by Mr. Fierro, a jewelry maker. Loves earth and human culture a lot. Due to gem make-up tends to alternate in personality between very serious and very silly. uhh still genderfluid like alternating between feeling masc or fem ig. Excellent at shapeshifting, but her abilities tend to alternate between not working very well (peridot) and being unstable (spinel). She is NOT a fusion, but is typically called that and it gets on her nerves because she’s just ONE person/ consciousness at all times, and has little to no memories of the two gems that existed before her. Has two weapons- a dagger and garrote. Has only gotten poofed once and it freaked him out because he wasn’t sure if his two halves would split apart. He finds Citrine to be a bit of a kindred spirit because of their similar histories. Goes by Speridot or Speri/Sperry or something or maybe just picks the human name Alex bc thats just so trans of him lol

Gunila- Malachite, in the same court as Lionskin, officer of her cadre of jaspers, gets shattered eventually

Mallory- Carnelian, the first to emerge in her kindergarten and very much the leader of that group, fought on the frontlines of a gem war and lost her comrades to shattering/corruption. Deserted her post afterwards to live alone, plant-hopping

Halfborn- Granite or Feldspar or something, basically just a rock lol. Emerged much bigger than expected, almost 7 ft tall. also fought on frontlines of a gem war and lost comrades, eventually left alone on his planet and meets Carnelian after planet-hopping

TJ- Magnetite (type of stone that is magnetic and sometimes put in steel, i thought it would be fitting lol). An excellent fighter during one of the gem wars, but better at long range fighting and tends to get poofed. Deserted after realizing the fighting was futile and bullshit. More of a loner, but very friendly and chill, meets Carnelian/Mallory and Halfborn on a random planet. His weapon is a rifle with bayonet attached.

Blitzen- Onyx, has a few powerful connections but indebted to a certain future-seeing gem and must work for him (meeting Citrine is part of this). Purpose was to be an architect but much rather prefers fashion and helping gems express their unique style. He accidentally gets looped into being a revolutionary by his boss oops lol. He doesnt have a weapon, but is a decent shapeshifter.

Hearthstone- Goshenite, part of an extensive lineage of the gem and had a place in his diamond’s court, but was cast out for being considered “defective”. also indebted like Onyx/Blitzen is. His powers are more mental and he doesnt have a weapon. His “father” gets corrupted and they have to shatter him like in book 3

[suguwu]

understated

He’s always warm at your side despite his respectful distance, like hearthstones after the fire has gone out, all lingering heat. It’s distracting, and sometimes you can’t help but look at him, at the cut of his high cheekbones, at the curve of his jawline and the column of his neck.

(Sometimes, you think he’s looking back.)

pairing: salaryman!nanami x f!reader

warnings: none really, just some fluff!

word count: 1.2k

notes: coming in hot at 11:50pm to squeak under the wire for v-day. literally this happened just bc today i thought about tailoring nanamin’s valentine’s day gift. also me trying to write non-angst for nanami: how do i do this. how does this work.

You hadn’t expected Nanami to still be at the office.

It’s late. Later than you’d meant to stay, especially considering that it’s Valentine’s Day, not that it means much to you.

Marunouchi’s lights have flickered to life; they stream through the window, a white fluorescent glow. If they weren’t so bright, you probably wouldn’t have noticed Nanami. But the light plays over him, outlines him in the darkened office. Like this, he’s the brightest thing in the room.

As you walk closer to him, you think of how moths flutter around the streetlights, drawn to the sheer glow of them.

He’s leaning back in his chair with a towel draped over his eyes. His hair gleams pale gold. His arms are crossed over his chest, his dress shirt pulled tight across his surprisingly broad frame, but there’s an exhausted slump to his shoulders. It softens him in a way that makes you ache.

Your heels click against the tiled floor. Nanami lifts the corner of the towel with a thumb and peers out from under it.  

His dark eyes flit to you. They thaw, just slightly, a promise of spring. You think of the night sky, deep and endless and quiet, how it watches over everything below it. There are moments of sharpness with Nanami, sometimes, as if he’s seen too much to contain.

He sits up, pulling the towel away. “I didn’t realize you were still here,” he says.

“I was just leaving,” you say, your hand tightening on the straps of your tote bag. It’s light, almost empty now, your giri choco dispensed to your coworkers throughout the day. The only thing left is your gift for him. It’s languished in your tote all day, as you tried to gather the threads of your courage and knot them into something strong enough to approach him. “Are you staying much longer?”

He glances at his watch. You watch the flex of his forearm, the way it pulls tight with thick, lean muscle. His hand curls with the movement, too, and not for the first time, you think of what it would feel like to have his fingertips sink into the fat of your thigh, for him to push apart your legs so that he could slot between them.

“Depends,” he says.

“Nanami,” you say, the courage pouring through your chest, “I have a Valentine’s gift for you.”

“That’s unnecessary.”

“But—”

“I’m not offended by not receiving giri choco,” he says, not unkindly. “So there’s no need.”

You tug at a loose thread sticking up from your tote’s handle, unraveling a few more stitches of it. You pull your lower lip between your teeth and nibble at it.

Nanami is a difficult man to read. You can’t quite put all the little pieces of him into place, not yet, even after over a year working with him. He’s stern, and sometimes his words are so blunt that they feel more like a hammer, but there are little moments where it feels like the sun is finally catching on a different facet of the prism of him.

(It’s always the little things. The way he sighs wearily at a basic question from a new hire but still explains it. How sometimes you see him scrolling through a food review blog. The day he gives the secretary his umbrella.

I’m staying late, he says, pressing it into her hands. I don’t need it.

It’s still raining when he leaves for the night, just like the forecast said.)

He’s already focusing on his computer again, the monitor coming to life as he taps at the keyboard. You can see the vague outline of one of the major portfolios. It should have been one of yours, considering the tail risk. Put options are easy enough, but it’s one of your specialties.

When Nanami points that out in a meeting, his tone matter-of-fact, your boss waves him off.

But you work with him on it, from time to time. He’s always warm at your side despite his respectful distance, like hearthstones after the fire has gone out, all lingering heat. It’s distracting, and sometimes you can’t help but look at him, at the cut of his high cheekbones, at the curve of his jawline and the column of his neck.

(Sometimes, you think he’s looking back.)

“It’s not chocolate, actually,” you say into the quiet.

Nanami pauses, his thick, blunt fingers stilling on the mouse. He turns to look at you. “Chocolate is traditional,” he says.

“Yes,” you agree, reaching into your tote. The cellophane crinkles beneath your fingertips. “But you like bread.”

That gets you a raised eyebrow.

“Here,” you say quickly, pressing the loaf into his hands. In his grasp, it’s almost small, dwarfed by his large hands. The plaits are slightly messy, but elegant still, with thick swirls of chocolate peering through the golden-brown crust. You pray he’ll never find out how long it took you.

Nanami blinks.

“It’s babka, so there’s still chocolate in it,” you say. “You know. For tradition.”

He’s quiet. You try not to fidget, because both of you know this is not giri choco.

Nanami stands, the babka still cradled in his large palms. He sets it down gently on the desk. The crinkle of the cellophane sounds like a wave crashing against the sand, deafeningly loud in the stillness of the office, where the only other sound's the hum of the computers.

“Thank you,” he says politely, with a small bow. “This is very kind of you.”

Ice spreads through you, curls beneath your skin in whorls of frost, until you’re almost numb with it. You stare at his loosened tie so you don’t have to meet his eyes. You search for words, because they’re all jumbled together, a mess of things you can’t quite say.

He clears his throat, and you glance up at him.

“There’s a restaurant I’ve been meaning to try,” Nanami says slowly, as if he’s surprising himself. “It requires at least two diners, as it’s a shared plate establishment.”

Your cheeks heat.

“Oh,” is all you manage.

“I would—” he pauses, choosing his next words with the same fastidious analysis he applies to the fluctuating market. “I would appreciate your company.”

“Oh,” you say again. Your pencil skirt wrinkles beneath your fingertips.

He raises a thin brow. “That’s not quite an answer.”

“Ah! Yes, thank you, I would like that.”

He gives you a short nod, his dark eyes lingering for a moment more. “Good,” he says. “I’ll send you the information.”

Nanami turns back to his desk, his broad shoulders eclipsing his monitor. Even beneath the starch of his pristine dress shirt, you can see the play of his muscles, the way they shift and flex, and you inhale sharply.

He glances over his shoulder. “Was there something else?”

“No,” you say softly, tugging at the threads of your composure to weave it back together. “I’m looking forward to it, Nanami.”

It’s a whisper of a thing, how his lips barely tilt until there’s the thinnest crescent moon of a smile that softens his stoic features. It’s so small, and it disappears quickly, wisps away like smoke in the breeze. Seeing it feels like a secret, like something to greedily swallow down, to keep for your own.

And you do. You tuck that little smile away, let it settle over you.

It keeps you warm all the way home.

[kelyon]

Dark Mistress 15: Maturation

Baelfire feels like he is growing up.

Read on AO3

It was almost dawn when Baelfire woke up to the sound of someone retching. He threw open the blankets that hung around his bed and poked his head out into the main room of the cottage. In the dim light, he saw his father sitting on the hearthstones with his head bent over the slop bucket. 

“Papa?” he said. “Are you sick?”

He shook his head. “It must have been something I ate.”

Baelfire doubted that. The two of them ate the same food every day, and he felt fine. Besides, over the past few months he’d developed a sense for when his father was lying to him.

Still, Baelfire couldn’t let him suffer alone. He got out of bed and began to put on his shoes. “Mint is good for an upset stomach, right?”

Eyes closed, Papa nodded. 

He put on his cloak and grabbed the water bucket before he went outside. There was frost on the ground, but the mint was growing strong. It was one of the first spring herbs. He gathered enough to make a tea, then went to the creek for fresh water. 

When he got inside, Papa was putting on his outdoor clothes. He seemed recovered, as healthy as he ever was.

“Since we’re both awake, we might as well start the day.” He picked up his staff. “You go ahead and make breakfast. I want to check on the sheep.”

Baelfire nodded and set to work stoking the fire. At least Papa was well enough to walk to the barn. And the sheep certainly needed looking after. 

The stud ram they’d rented in the fall had done his job, all four ewes had gotten pregnant. Abbey and Babbey had already given birth without a problem. A few days ago, Baelfire had walked into the barn in the morning and found the new lambs. Only hours old, the fluffy white things were standing up and suckling on their mothers. 

Papa said that Cabbey was looking to follow the same pattern as her sisters, but that Dabbey might have a problem. He said her belly was bigger than the other three, so she might be having twins. Twins were good for the herd, but they could be too much for a ewe who was carrying for the first time.    

When the water in the kettle had boiled and Papa still hadn’t come back, Baelfire decided to check on him. He heard the bleating as soon as he opened the cottage door. The sheep didn’t normally bleat when they were all together in the barn. Something was wrong.

He told Baguette to stay in the cottage and shut the door behind him. The dog was good at getting the sheep to go into the pasture, but not at keeping them calm when they were in the barn. As he ran across the yard, he looked around for trouble. Something had been spooking the animals these past few weeks. He kept his eyes open for something horrible to come out of the forest. 

In the barn, Papa was on his knees in the lambing pen. Before the lambing had started, they’d spent a day weaving supple branches into a fence just big enough to keep a new mother sheep separated from the rest of the herd. Dabbey was laying on her side in a bed of straw. She was oddly quiet. Her breathing was heavy. The bleating Baelfire had heard was from the other sheep. They were concerned because she was away from them.

“Oh, Bae, good. I was just coming to get you. I think she’s going to need our help.”

Baelfire nodded. He didn’t know much about helping a sheep through labor, but he was ready to learn a lot, and fast.

“What are we gonna do?”

Papa pointed toward Dabbey’s head. “You just keep her still and calm. I’ll take care of the messy part.”

Sitting down in the straw, Baelfire watched his father take off his cloak and roll his sleeves up to the elbows. He frowned.

“What’s the messy part?”

Papa caught his eye and grinned. “That’s the kingly life of a shepherd. Right now, our girl isn’t open wide enough for the lambs to come out. I’m going to have to reach in there and pull.”

He must have made a face, because Papa laughed. “That’s why I gave you that end, my son. And count yourself lucky that you’re not younger. Tiny hands would be very useful right now.” 

Baelfire concentrated on Dabbey. He held her head in his lap, so his legs were on either side of her. That kept her body from thrashing. He wrapped one arm around her neck, so she couldn’t look around and wouldn’t try to get up. With his other hand, he scratched her woolly head. 

“It’s alright, girl,” he said softly. He tried to think of what Papa would say if he was comforting her. “You’ll be alright. Papa won’t let anything happen to you.”

She tried to twist a little, but he held onto her and she stopped. Was he really that strong? Or was it that his sheep trusted him that much? Either way, it made Baelfire feel big inside. 

He tried not to look at what Papa was doing. Hearing the squelching noises was bad enough. 

“Is it really twins?” he asked to distract himself. 

“Well, I’ve seen two noses right next to each other,” Papa grunted. “So it’s either two normal lambs or one very strange one.”

“Do you hear that, Dabbey?” Baelfire stroked between her eyes. “You’re gonna be a mama. You’re gonna have two little lambs to take care of.”

The sheep flicked her ear back at the sound of his voice. He knew what he said didn’t matter to her, but it felt nice to explain things. It was good that he knew what was going on, even if she didn’t. She kept calm and still, just like she was supposed to. 

“Got him!” Papa shouted. 

When Baelfire looked over at him, he was holding something in two hands. It looked like a wet bundle of muck and sticks, but Baelfire knew it had to be a lamb. Papa set the thing down in front of Dabbey’s nose. She sniffed, and took a tentative lick at the yellow slime that covered her first baby. 

“The other lambs didn’t look like that,” Baelfire said. He was trying not to show how absolutely disgusting he found this whole process.

“By the time we saw them their mothers had already cleaned them up,” Papa said. “You’re seeing lambs as new as they can get.” 

“Do human babies look like that when they first come out?”

“Yes, but we love you anyway,” Papa grinned. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get his little brother. Unless you want to try?”

“Ugh!”

“Thought not,” Papa chuckled. “I’ll tell you what, Bae. Go back in the house and warm up a bowl of water. Stir in a good bit of honey and bring it back here. Dabbey’s had a rough night of it, we’ll give her something to get her strength back.”

“Better than staying in here.” Before he got up, he gave Dabbey another pat on the head. He thought about petting the lamb, but it was still covered in thick, sticky fluids. He would give mother and child a few hours alone before he got too close.

When he got back with the honey water, there were two lambs in the birthing pen. The new one was getting licked, and the older one was already nursing. Papa stood over them. He practically glowed with happiness and pride. 

“Two healthy boys,” he said as he took the honey water and gave it to the sheep. “What more could a parent ask for?” 

“I can’t believe they’re real,” Baelfire said. “Do you remember, it was just last year that we bought Dabbey and the other sheep? They were lambs then, and now they’re mothers.”

“We’ve all changed in the past year.” Papa wiped his hands on some straw and let it fall into the pen. Then he wrapped one arm around Baelfire. “You’ve grown quite a bit too.”

For the first time he could remember, Baelfire felt like he had.

****

The days grew warmer and the lambs grew bigger. Green grass covered the pasture. They planted seeds in the garden and paid their rents to the Duke by sowing hay in his fields. The forest burst alive with leaves. Wild animals shook off their winter sleep. Everything was new and fresh and beautiful.

The only problem was that Papa kept leaving at night, and he kept getting sick. Baelfire had gotten used to him going out on the night of the full moon and the new moon. He didn’t like it, and Papa never told him where he was going, but at least he always came back. He’d even come back that time in the winter when he’d been gone for a whole day. Whatever it was he was doing, it had been going on for months now and nothing had gotten any worse. Baelfire tried to let it stop worrying him.

The sickness was new. Baelfire knew in his gut that it was bad. Papa didn’t tell him how often he felt queasy, or if he threw up when Baelfire was doing something else. But he heard him often enough, and the mint in the garden was always picked over. He was used to his father giving up meals if there wasn’t enough for both of them, but now there was plenty to eat and Papa would only pick at his dinner. 

He was pale, and always tired. He tried not to let it show, but Baelfire had eagle eyes. Papa did as much work as had to be done, and no more. More than once, he had fallen asleep at his spinning wheel, hours before they normally went to bed. 

Worst of all, Papa always said that he was fine. It was true that he never had a fever, and he never had to spend a whole day in bed. But Baelfire wasn’t stupid. This sickness wasn’t going away. It wasn’t anything he ate, it wasn’t just Papa getting old. Something was wrong with him, and they couldn’t even talk about it honestly.  

Sometimes the lies and secrets were too much and he had to get away. There was always plenty to do off the farm. Baelfire would go into the forest to hunt for wild herbs and spring mushrooms. He would set traps for rabbits or go to the creek to fish. When Papa did have an appetite, he always devoured meat and leafy greens. If Baelfire couldn’t do anything else, he could at least make sure his father was fed.

****

Morraine’s birthday was a few weeks after the lambing. That afternoon, Baelfire walked through the forest to meet her at the creek bend. His gift to her was safely rolled up inside his cloak. They were lucky to have a few hours when they could both be spared from their chores at the same time. He supposed he could have gone to Morraine’s house and given her his present there. But he didn’t want to intrude on the family’s celebration. For some reason he couldn’t name, it felt important to see Morraine when it could be just the two of them.  

All the flowers in the forest had blossomed at the same time. As he walked, Baelfire took the time to pick some of the prettiest ones and make a bouquet. White and pink and yellow and pale purple, they looked good together. He even found a few clusters of blue forget-me-nots. That would be good for a girl’s birthday, wouldn’t it?

It was strange to think of Morraine as “a girl.” She wasn’t a girl, she was his friend. They used to run around together the way lambs frolic in the pasture. They used to play in the mud and make “potions'' with sticks and leaves. On summer days they used to take off their clothes and swim in the creek. They had been children together, before they knew anything about the war or being hungry, or working so hard their bones ached. 

Maybe it was silly to give her flowers. Maybe his other gift was silly too. Maybe she would laugh at him, tell him he was being too serious. Baelfire rubbed his hands on his breeches. His palms were sweaty. He paced around the bank of the creek, where he waited for her. Maybe she wasn’t coming.

Maybe he wasn’t important enough for her to take the time to come see.

Taking a breath, Baelfire sat down on a log and held his head in his hands. Now he was being silly. Morraine wouldn’t leave him out here alone, she wasn’t that kind of person. If she didn’t want to see him, she would have told him so. When they’d talked on market day about meeting here, she’d been excited--and he hadn’t even told her he had a present for her.

He had to trust Morraine. She had been his friend all his life. Growing up wasn’t going to change that. 

He heard her humming before he saw her. He recognized the tune. It was one of those songs about a girl who loses something on a fine spring day and asks a handsome lad to help her find it on a sunny hill. There was a bounce in her step as she walked up the path. 

Baelfire stood up. Normally, when Morraine hummed and bounced like that, her hair would bounce with her. She usually wore it long and loose. It would shine like gold, or stalks of wheat.

But now… Now her hair was up. It was braided and pinned on top of her head. He could see her neck.     

  He’d seen her neck a thousand times, but suddenly it was different. Suddenly, she wasn’t just Morraine anymore. She wasn’t even just “a girl.” She was a woman. Suddenly, he couldn’t stop looking at her neck. Her neck, and her shoulders, and her collarbone, and her…

“Hello, Baelfire!” she said as she came to the creek bank. She smiled her triangle smile and Baelfire’s mouth went dry. 

“Hey,” he said. Thank the gods his voice hadn’t cracked. “Happy birthday.”

“Thank you!” She gave him a friendly hug. Baelfire had to let go of her quickly and step away so he didn’t embarrass himself.

“I picked these for you.” He held up the bouquet with his arm straight out. He looked like an idiot, but Morraine’s eyes lit up.

“Stars above. Baelfire!” She took the flowers and pressed them to her nose. “They’re beautiful!”

Like you. He thought the words, but was too nervous to say them.

Morraine took the cluster of forget-me-nots out of the bouquet and tucked them behind her ear. “Now I’ll never forget you, Baelfire. Even when I’m old and gray.” 

 “Good,” he breathed. Then he remembered himself and took her other present out of his cloak. “I’ve got something else too.”

“Really? What?”

It was one of the pieces of paper he’d bought from the merchant over the winter. There were only three sheets left now, but it was worth it to give this to her. He’d rolled it up like a scroll and tied it with a piece of yarn. Morraine undid the bow and let the paper roll out.

She didn’t say anything. 

When Baelfire dared to look at her, she wasn’t smiling. Her eyes were wide and her lips were in the shape of an O.

He wanted to say something, but there was nothing he could say. If she didn’t like the present, he couldn’t take it back. He couldn’t pretend it was actually for someone else, or that he hadn’t worked hard at it all winter long. If she didn’t like it--if she didn’t think it was good enough--then Baelfire had no choice but to hear her say it.

“What do you think?”

“It’s me,” Morraine whispered as she stared at the drawing. “You… You drew a picture of me.”

Lips pressed together, Baelfire nodded. “I had to do it in ink, because I was afraid the charcoal would smudge when I rolled it up. I hope you don’t mind it’s just your face, I really wanted to pay attention to--”

He stopped talking when she barrelled into him for a hug. Her hug before had been friendly and happy. But now she was hugging him tight, tighter than anyone else in his life.

For a minute, his arms stayed stiffly by his side. Slowly, he raised his hands, then wrapped them around Morraine’s body. She was softer than he thought she’d be. There were curves that seemed just right for his arms to rest against. They fit together. His nose bumped against the top of her head. He could smell the flowers in her hair.

It was so nice. 

They broke apart. Morraine took a step back and kept her eyes on the ground. She tried to press her lips together, but her smile was too big to hide.

“Thank you.” Her voice was a little mouse squeak. 

“You’re welcome.” Baelfire didn’t think he’d ever be able to breathe again. “Of course, I did the drawing before I knew you were going to change your hair.”

“I don’t mind,” she said quickly. “I like it a lot, actually. Now I’ll be able to show people what I looked like when I was fourteen.”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “Even when you’re old and gray.”

She giggled, and Baelfire had to take another step away. In the back of his mind, he knew that if he stayed too close to Morraine, he would hug her again and probably wouldn’t ever let go. 

He cleared his throat. “That’s a pretty dress.”

She twirled around so the long skirt flared out. “Do you like it? Mama said after she had the new baby this winter, she would never fit in this again, so she fixed it up for me.”

Baelfire blinked. That was Tabbat’s dress, the blue one she wore on market day. It was in the new style, with laces up the back so it could be pulled tight and show off more of a woman’s figure. It shouldn’t have surprised him that Morriane had a figure now. Those were the curves he had felt during their hug. The grown-up dress showed off that his friend had a waist. She had hips. Gods, she even had a bosom.

“You… you look prettier than the Blue Star.”

Her cheeks went pink. “If this is what being fifteen is going to be like, I think I’m going to like it a lot.”

His heart was pounding, almost too loud for him to hear his own words. “I hope it is.”

“You’ll have to tell me on your birthday, if you like being fifteen.”

His birthday was in three days. “Papa will be sheering the Duke’s sheep on my birthday. I’ll be helping him. Will you be able to stop by?”

“Of course. Maybe I’ll help you help your father.”

“I’d like that.”

Morraine set her presents on the ground and sat on the fallen log. When they were little, they would pretend that the log was a giant wall that separated the world of humans from the land of monsters. Now, sitting next to Morraine was as much of an adventure as defending the kingdom had ever been.

“I’m going to wish on the Blue Star tonight,” she announced. “If you make a wish on your birthday it’s sure to come true.”

In Baelfire’s experience, wishes only came true if your parents could already give you everything you needed. But Morraine already had that, so maybe she’d be luckier with the stars than he’d ever been.

“What will you wish for?”

Her jaw dropped and she pretended to be angry. “I can’t tell you that! Telling is how you make sure a wish never comes true.”

“Oh.” Maybe that had been his problem all this time.

“I’d like to go out into the forest tonight and climb a tall hill to make my wish, but Mama says it’s too dangerous. I’ll have to stay in the garden.”

“Why is it dangerous? Because you’re a girl?”

Morraine rolled her eyes at him. “My mother would never say that. No, she’s not letting any of us go out at night, not even Toma. Not while those stories are going around.”

“What stories?”

“You haven’t heard? Oh, you might not have, out on your farm. I only heard because of what hunters say when they come to Papa’s shop to sell meat.”  Morraine leaned forward, like she was about to share a secret. “Word has been going around for months that the Dark One has been spotted in the woods around here.”

Baelfire sat up straight. The Dark One was the most evil thing in the world. Mother of devils, stealer of babies, murderer of everything that was light and good.

“That can’t be true.”

“It is! Up at the castle, they say the old Duke called on her the very day he died.”

“Wait, the Duke is dead?”

“Has been since the autumn. Some of the people who work up there saw it all. They say that he asked her for help and she killed him. The new Duke forbade anyone from talking about it, but you can’t stop the truth forever. Some say she took a liking to the new Duke’s wife, and that’s why she’s been lurking around the land.”

“Yeah, I--I thought the Dark One lived in the Gray Forest. That’s a week’s journey away from here.”

Morraine shrugged. “Maybe she saw that the ogres were gone and decided to make a new home.”

“I hope not.” Baelfire crossed his arms over his knees. “Things were just starting to get better around here.”

“All the stories say they only ever see her in the forest, and only ever at night. I mean, unless someone is desperate enough to call her. And it’s not even all the time that people see her. Only on nights with a new moon or a full moon.”

Baelfire’s heart dropped to his stomach. Then his stomach dropped to the ground.

“What?”

Morraine nodded. “It’s strange, isn’t it? Why would she come out when the stars are in the sky? Anyone who wants anything can just wish on them instead of making one of her deals.”

“But--” Baelfire stood up. He wanted to pace, but he didn’t want Morraine to know he was upset. “But you said the new moon and the full moon, right? Only then?”

She shrugged. “That’s what the rumors say.”

“What does she do? Do the rumors say that?”

To his surprise, Morraine giggled. “Well…” she started. “They never say what she’s doing. But the way people talk makes it sound like…” Her face went red and she couldn’t finish.

“That?” Baelfire was going to throw up. “The Dark One does that?”

“Well, she is a woman,” Morraine said. “And some of the stories say she’s beautiful. She always wants things from people, she must want that too.”   

“Who would do that?” Ropes of dread crept over his body. “Why would anyone do that with something so evil as the Dark One?”

Morraine stood up off the log and brushed off her skirt. “My mother says that what goes on between a man and a woman can be a lot of fun, even if you do get a baby at the end of it.”

“But the Dark One isn’t a woman.” He was speaking more to himself more than to Morraine. “The Dark One is a monster. Why…” He turned to his friend. “Has anyone ever seen who she’s with?”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “What do you--oh! Of course! If she’s coming to our forest to have a good time, she’s got to be doing it with a person. Or maybe there are lots of people in her thrall. But no, no one’s ever mentioned anyone but her.”

“Every new moon and every full moon.” Baelfire shook his head. “Why the hell would he do that?”

“Who?”

Baelfire blinked. He hadn’t realized he had said that out loud. “Uh, whatever poor wretch the Dark One sees twice a month.”

“You think it’s been the same person all this time?”

“Yeah,” Baelfire nodded. His head felt heavy as he looked up the path back home. “I do.”

[taotiegames]

Anyone else feel like Valve is overblown as a developer?

I mean they rarely publish games and when they do, the game winds up as more of a showcase for whatever element it’s supposed to be ‘revolutionizing.’ than it is a game in its own right.

Portal wound up being too focused on the portals themselves with little else to use to navigate the game.

2 did a much better job giving the player more to work with and as such was a better game, but still spent more time being impressed with its own mechanics than being a well-rounded experience; still being more focused on being a showcase than a game.

Left 4 Dead was actually pretty good from a mechanical perspective, pacing was good, weapons were easy to use, special infected shook things up fairly well, but outside of that not much to talk about, clearly its point was to be a fast-paced arcade shooter based around co-op.

I’m torn on L4D2. On the one hand, it’s a direct improvement in every way over L4D. On the other, it was a glorified expansion pack and ultimately failed in what a sequel should do: refine and expand what its predecessor did and cover new ground and new ideas. The fact it came out within a year of L4D only serves to highlight that.

Team Fortress 2 is both my most hated Valve game and the one I’ve spent the most time on. I’ve spent so much time on it because it’s one of my favorite kinds of games, an objective and class-based multiplayer shooter. I hate it because it refuses to grow in any real way. The game is old, quite old, and it has not meaningfully improved itself over the years. Yes, a game should not just follow trends, if it’s good then it’s good, but TF2 has ignored every opportunity to try anything new. They added new weapons and failed to do anything with them. The Demoknight build was cool, the fact that it was and is still the only (meaningfully) alternative play-style in the game is not cool.

New game modes and additional elements are relegated to the realm of player-made mods that are occasionally ‘made official’ with what boils down to a rubber stamp from the dev team.

Half-Life as a franchise exists solely for ‘revolutionizing’ purposes. 1st one gave FPSs a story, 2nd gave them a physics engine.

That’s it.

Notice that the only chatter involving HL only started happening when VR began taking off? They only pull Half-Life out of the mothballs when there is easily-covered new ground.

Because that maintains Valve’s image as an innovative and revolutionary development house.

Why do you think they have such a focus on the modding community?

Modders give Valve Indie points and are a source of ‘revolutionary’ ideas. Whether or not they are actually revolutionary isn’t important, Valve can package them as such.

Dota 2 is far from an early entry into the MOBA genre, but Valve got street cred because they hired the guy who made the original mod.

Artifact also made a late entry into the digital TCG genre but it couldn’t compete with Hearthstone and was unceremoniously shuffled offstage.

Underlords seems to exist solely to dominate a genre of which there are only 3 entries.

I have no real patience for Valve’s reputation farming.

The fact they are unwilling to meaningfully experiment with their games when they have this many resources and this much goodwill is nothing short of professional cowardice. If individuals and tiny development houses can try something new, a multi-billion dollar corporation that is the (mostly) undisputed king of digital distribution can most certainly risk a bit.

Valve is underwhelming as a developer. Both in quality and in scope.

[bloodkrieg21]

It feel like this blog have come a long way. Now that I have like 60 non bot followers I can “safely” say that my blog have upgraded. From a unknown blog to a small blog. To celebrate I have made a new pinned post (that and I lost my better old one).

Now to like my main side blog https://anime-40k-andanxiety.tumblr.com/

And also to say thanks for all the people kind enough to follow a 17 year old hobbyist who’s autistic fixation allows him/them to win over laziness. (Also about the autistic thing, it works funny. It’s barely noticeable, it has only made my social skills a little below average and increased most others to pretty good. Also don’t treat me like a child, just don’t look down on me like your super and it should not come up. :)

Also a RPG blog that I’m trying out

Finally a list of things I like,

Warhammer 40k lore and model making

Anime

Star Wars

Star Trek ish

MCU

Owl House

Gay shows in general

Avatar the last airbender and sequel

DND

Fallout

Rimworld

Star Wars the clone wars

Steelshod

Minecraft

Hearthstone

Speculative Evolution

Con Lang

Genesis

TTRPGs

AI ((in concept, not in practice) also in narratives)

Manwha

Model making

Learning C++

Hawaii Part ii

Analog horror

Digital horror

Horror ARGs

In Stars and Time

Epithet Erased

Jello Apocalypse

Also very important things I can’t stand

Unaware cannibalism (for example eating the flesh of god. Good. Eating a pie unaware of the human meat. Bad)

Being insane without knowing I am (heightened anxiety dose this to a man)

Dream theory/ending (compared to the other two this is much more of a joke but still. Hate this as a ending to a story unless it is narratively satisfying like inception.)

[-g one half…shit we’re I’m I.

[amemesiella]

sudden rtgame appreciation post incoming hello

i don’t think there’s been a youtuber that i’ve consistently watched as much as rumble tumble games himself. certainly i’ve taken some breaks, but i believe that was in the earlier days when rt didn’t have a consistent upload schedule (moving back to ireland from japan, some life changes he didn’t say/i don’t remember), so i had a hard time keeping up with him. but since a little before quarantine, and every day after that, i’ve watched his videos or tuned into his streams. he’s genuinely such an entertaining person and his antics have made me laugh more times than i care to remember. his variety content videos are just a joy to watch and rewatch over and over again and i personally think it’s because you can feel his enjoyment through them, whether it’s obvious or not. honestly, they’re kinda timeless. sometimes i just find myself rewatching the older terraria videos (with the zack gimmick) just as much as the video of him playing turnip boy commits tax evasion because,,, they’re just so fun!! and the humor still sticks!! the plants vs zombies videos are some of my favorite to rewatch for more chiller content, and my god the hitman video where he kills someone for every new sub is still so fucking funny. also, he somehow got me to rewatch every single one of his hearthstone videos??? still have no idea wtf is going on but man every time he celebrates i celebrate too bc cards and effects go brrrrr + please god the drift king jokes somehow never get old

but to get back on track, every video is like a bonbon - the game shapes the humor, but the humor never loses its core. rtgame’s the reason why i adore variety content, because he proves that the right person can make any game extremely entertaining. and i really like his philosophy on making videos - that every video should seem ‘new’, that each video should stand on its own. it makes every video that much more rewatchable, and doesn’t require me to go back and watch 34 previous videos for context to the one i’m watching in the moment.

when he says that the videos are sort of like an invitation to his streams/a small taste of what it’s like on twitch i really stand with that statement because his streams bring a more rawer energy than his videos (which makes sense, because they’re not edited) but that energy comes from just the experience of being on twitch a long time. he really knows how to handle his chat (which, side note, how tf can he have 6k people watching him and have chat be readable?? that’s insane), work with their humor, and add his own bits. even when he knows he might have to up the haha funny a little bit so he can make highlights of it for youtube, it doesn’t really seem forced, and he lets the humor come naturally. chat also knows when to be supportive of him, and in those parts it’s just really nice to see chat come together to support him when he might have to deal with anything spidery, or when he’s struggling through a boss. i also appreciate that he knows when to draw a line and end bits, because having a chat go off and be uncontrollable is not fun on stream, even when you have chat off ngl. it’s a nice dynamic, and it’s what keeps me in streams from beginning to end. oh yeah, and also his fucking epic gamer skills (pointing to his celeste + hollow knight streams. this guy’s a real madlad, i tell you. when he said that 800+ deaths were a lot in celeste, i almost cried because my death count after my first playthrough was triple that)

also, another side note - the community is so nice and accepting - and legitimately so funny at times like guys please can i have your humor + there are so so many good fanartists and i really love that rt acknowledges and encourages the artists in his fanbase (rt + photoshopped lisa legs.......... truly a blursed era HAHAHHA)

but to end a very long ramble (i honestly could say more but jdbdnjdjf this is. way too long now), rtgame is one of my favorite youtubers/streamers, because his flavor of content and his handle on streaming is very funny and very inviting. he makes every game (even ones i’ve already played) a new experience simply because of the humor and commentary he brings to the table, and i wish him a very long and successful career. he deserves it.

[mischievouswritingblog]

Meta Essay: Medivh The Bisexual Icon

As of the time of this post, there’s going to be an update coming to World of Warcraft where the once all female ghosts in Karazhan will be changed to include male varieties as well.

Full details on the update can be found here: https://www.wowhead.com/news/female-only-ghosts-in-karazhan-updated-to-include-male-versions-324371

This has caused a lot of fun posts and people to take this as an ‘accidental confirmation’ by Blizzard that the character Medivh is bisexual. Pair this along with how some of his portrayal in Hearthstone was made into Warcraft canon, and in my opinion, it’s an excellent update to his character.

It’s no secret that Blizzard’s had a massive lack in LBGTQ+ representation for the longest time. Often when such subject matter did show up it was treated more as a punchline in some quests or was kept conveniently to the sidelines, with nonconsequential, blink and you miss it text, side characters, moments. It’s insulting, to say the least, and is the source of a growing frustration from the LBGTQ+ members of the audience. What’s more, whenever this frustration gets voiced it’s always talked down to. We are told that to ‘keep politics out of gaming’ and that we are too sensitive, when these are the same people that get bent out of shape when even a single thing changes or is called out in their game. It’s bullshit. LBGTQ+ people exist and the act of existing isn’t a political issue.

But of course, with people even making lighthearted jokes or posts of Medivh being a ‘Bisexual Icon’, there’s folks crawling out of the woodwork with reasons from “But the loooooooore!” (as if the lore isn’t constantly changing and being retconned from one expansion to the next) to “Well A-C-T-U-A-L-L-Y, those male guests were just for the female nobles that visited and attended his parties, Medivh was very straight”. To that, I’m going to say: “Nah, Medivh is a bisexual icon, deal with it”.

In my personal opinion, Medivh is an excellent character to explore queerness  with. He’s a character that’s been around since Warcraft 1 and the effects and ties from his story are still felt throughout World of Warcraft in various ways. Medivh is also a character that’s gone through a large amount of evolution and various portrayals. My personal favorite being the One Night in Karazhan take on him because it’s so different from the usual ‘brooding, grand powerful hermit-mage’ that his type of character usually is. Medivh in One Night in Karazhan is instead, vibrant and is a thriving social butterfly that loves to have and treat people to a good time. His reasonings for being this way make a lot more sense when you really think about what Medivh’s situation was.

Now, I have to mention that I do a much deeper dive and deconstruction of Medivh’s circumstances and just how messed up they were in this self indulgent essay/headcanon dump: ‘My Completely Self-indulgent Medivh Essay’. Feel free to give it a read but here is the basic gist for this essay:

Yes, Medivh was the Guardian, one of the most powerful mages to exist at the time. He was also possessed by Sargeras and was the one that created and opened the Dark Portal that brought the Orcs to Azaroth and changed Azeroth forever. But here’s the thing, Medivh had no choice in any of it.

To be the Guardian means you have to put your life on the line for Azeroth’s sake. This is a role that had to be kept to secrecy, people had to make a lot of sacrifices to be the Guardian. You gain phenomenal powers and it is a great honor but none of this was anything that Medivh ever asked for. He was literally born to become the Guardian, there was no other choice for his own future. 

Then you have Sargeras, he had his plans in play long before Medivh was even a thought. A sliver of Sargeras had entered Aegwynn (Med’s mother and the Guardian before him) from a battle between Aegwynn and his avatar. This influence hid within her and made its move when she decided that she wasn’t going to allow the Council of Tirisfal to choose her heir for her title and powers for her. Ignoring Chronicle’s softening of her, she used Medivh’s father, Neilas Aran, the court magician of Stormwind to sire a child. In TLG she let him know she flat out used him and felt nothing for him then came back later and tossed baby Medivh to him for free childcare. What neither of them knew at the time was that Medivh was possessed by Sargeras while he was in the womb. Sargeras would then screw him over even further by causing his powers to lash out when he was fourteen, causing him to accidentally kill his father and fall into a near 10 year coma, and wake up mentally and emotionally fourteen in a twenty-three-year-old’s body. So from the very beginning Medivh was always set up for failure.

So with this summary out of the way, the point of the matter is that Medivh is a character that had little autonomy for most of his life. His career and his fate were chosen for him from the start. Sargeras was in his head messing with him throughout his life, in TLG Medivh even tells Khadgar that he tried to fight it as much as he could. His story is a tragic one but with his reappearance in Legion there’s potentially a ray of hope.

I think there’s a lot of aspects in Medivh’s story that can tie well with the feelings and experiences of queerness. Not so much the being possessed by discount space Satan, but more so the struggle of trying to have autonomy and hanging onto who you are as a person. Being queer myself and looking at it through that lens, I see Medivh being vibrant and throwing parties as an attempt for him to seize what autonomy he could for himself. To exist, to be seen, and to have an identity of his own that had nothing to do with being the Guardian of Tirisfal. I think that it’s also something that separates Medivh from Sargeras. There were likely times where Sargeras may have forced the lines between them to blur as he gradually poisoned Medivh’s thoughts and twisted his soul throughout the years. Medivh likely had to struggle a lot with separating who he truly was from Sargeras. This being inside him, who wasn’t him but would at times take over his body suppressing Medivh’s true self. It’s a horror story where some elements can really hit close to home.

Medivh I believe surrounded himself with like minded, free spirited people like Barnes and the theater troupe (while there’s the joke Medivh’s only seen three plays, I choose to headcanon he’s a theater kid, given how he has a theater to begin with and his own love for theatrics). Whether you picture Medivh as aro, ace, gay, bi, pan, or trans, with the upcoming changes he clearly accepts many kinds of people into his home.

This also has the interesting effect of changing some of the tones for some events in his lore. One example being the titans sending down the Maiden of Virtue to punish Medivh and make him live a more ‘pure’ life. The Titans are Azeroth’s closest thing to a pantheon of gods. They are beings of order, having taken Azeroth in her rawest form and molding her into something they saw fit. Apparently, Medivh’s parties and behavior was seen as something that required ‘correcting’.

On one hand, it’s really easy to read it simply as Medivh being a selfish, spoiled brat. But with looking at it through a queer lens one can put a more positive spin on the situation. The Maiden of Virtue was sent to shame and punish him into conforming into something the Titans believe someone like Medivh should behave. It clearly didn’t work. Looking at this situation, one can read it as Medivh refusing to relinquish his identity because a ‘higher power’ wanted him to. In the real world there are so many that have to hide their orientation and gender thanks to people using religion and belief as a cudgel. So having a character like Medivh as queer, with the power and willfulness to flat out refuse and shut it down is a refreshing power move.

Medivh’s story and the way he is in general has elements that I believe many people of the LBGTQ+ can relate with. He’s a complicated character that has dealt with abuse and being forced into roles without his consent, he made identity for himself and it was stripped away by an oppressor (Sargeras), and, depending on if Blizzard decides he’s actually resurrected/alive instead of being a ghost, is a survivor.

So to me, I love the idea of Medivh being a queer icon in Warcraft. It hasn’t been officially stated by Blizzard at the time this essay was posted but it has started a fun conversation. There are and will be the haters who will scream and tantrum about the LBGTQ+ touching their precious (when convenient) lore with their filthy paws and tarnishing ‘their game’. But in the meantime, I’m going to continue having a blast with the idea and enjoy working the story potential it gives into fanfics, speculations, and essays.

If you enjoyed this essay, I did a few other bits of meta, headcanons, and speculation for fun: My Completely Self-indulgent Medivh Essay

A Bit About Wizards and Sorcerers

Headcanons: Medivh is Alive and Currently Uses ‘The Guardian’s Study’ as his Home

[celedyn]

Celedyn glides smoothly onto the stage. Tucked under his arm is a massive tome bearing the title “The History of Azeroth.”

Celedyn opens the book with a creak of its spine, smoothing his hand adoringly over the vellum pages, enjoying the moment with a soft hum.

Celedyn retrieves a fluffy feather quill, dusting it lightly at the underside of his jaw as he reads, then starts, looking surprised to find the audience present.

Celedyn pulls the tome back, feigning scandal as though secreting the contents of a diary away, then laughs, offering a bright smile before he starts into song.

"My days are so busy it's making me dizzy; there's so much lore to sort through!"

"There’s comics and cut scenes, and chronicle readings and quests that’ve since been removed."

"Text below Hearthstone portraits and how I deplore it when a novel’s a whole trilogy."

"Then stare blank at my screen asking “What do you mean: they decanonized the RPG?”

"Then it’s back in game where I remain to read through some gossip text."

"And browsing dev Twitter when I heard the titter that Falstad was being fact checked."

"And it's hard, It's hard! It's really really hard. So very very hard!"

"I make it look easy but honey believe me it's hard! It's hard! It's so incredibly hard! So inconceivably, unbelievably hard!"

"It's hard to be the bard!"

"I’ve played so many expansions, through so many new lands and I can hardly keep track of it."

"Like how nobody talks about that time Azeroth all fell to the Nightmare Lord’s mists."

"The Exodar’s repair? Like a secret, I swear; it still sits there on Azuremyst Isle."

"Garithos and the Forsaken formed the Alliance of Lordaeron, at least for that little while."

"And for sure, for sure, unreliable narrator makes the world feel more ~authentique.~"

"But don't make me do it, Don't make me sort through it! Can somebody get me a drink?"

Celedyn ruffles his hair in frustration, then tosses his head dramatically, running hands over his face.

"'Cause it's hard! It's hard! It's really, really hard! It's sexy but it's hard!"

"This bar that I'm raising to be this amazing!"

"It's hard, It's hard, It's so annoyingly hard! So unavoidably, unenjoyably hard!"

"…It's hard to be the bard, baby."

Celedyn stares tenderly into Tamani's eyes as he leans down to take a half finished cocktail from her hand.

"You see, what people just don't understand is that canon’s demanding! It's mentally challenging and it's a bore."

"It's such a chore! To sit in a room by yourself as you pour over lore!"

Celedyn drains the glass in one pull and saunters away through the crowd.

"And you’re trying to sort: when someone says “Horde” is it this New Horde now? Oh, the Horde from Draenor? The Old or the Iron? Maybe a new name next time if you're taking suggestions?"

"That one little snippet of quest text from Wrath; then Eureka! You get it! You’re on the right path!"

"Your timeline is right… right?"

"WRONG!"

"Once you’ve got it all set that’s when you get the news: An expansion’s come out and Brann’s got new interviews!"

Celedyn frantically starts tucking new sheets of vellum into the tome, writing fresh text on the pages.

"So Ner’zhul was Lich King, controlled by the Jailer"

"Was vanquished by Dreadlords, who worked for the Jailer"

"They were cut down by Arthas; on command by the Jailer"

Celedyn rapidly flips back and forth through the pages, scribbling notes in the margins here and and scratching out whole paragraphs there.

"Oh who did it, when was it, what is it, why is it!? Bleh dgh-dgh bleh-diddy bleh-bleh-bleh-BLEH!"

"It’s hard! No. It is, isn't it? It's really the worst! Makes me wonder why I didn't pencil things first."

Celedyn starts tearing out scribbled through sections and then entire pages.

"Hard to alleviate the pressure to create! Hard to make something new in this tangle of canon I’ve got to accommodate!"

Celedyn starts shredding up the paper, tearing it into tiny scraps.

"It’s hard! So hard, that they have decided to discard any lore they don’t want to regard!"

"Just pop on down to the Caverns of Time, have a spaceship arrive from a different timeline!"

"Heard about Me’dan and I had enough, continuity’s terribly and unbearably hard!"

Celedyn throws the shredded paper out over the audience, showering them in retconned confetti.

"Yes it's hard!"

"It's hard!"

"It's hard!"

"IT'S HARD!"

"At this point my plan’s: fire myself from this canon, I can’t stand that it’s so freaking hard."

@tamani-tightclamps

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 17: WE TAKE A ZEBRA TO VEGAS

"Is that a new sports car?" Nico asked, he still wasn't clear on why mustangs and impala's were, nor how horsepower related to the engine. His stomach clenched up unpleasantly at just the name of that city and he was really looking for any stupid distraction right now.

"Maybe they find a portal in a zoo," Will offered eagerly.

"A zebra's not big or fast enough to carry all three of them, so it can't be literal this time," Alex nodded.

"I'm more worried Ares turned one of them into a zebra, so how about we find out," Thalia sighed.

The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.

"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."

"You knew it was a trap," I said.

Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled black-smith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."

I shoved his shield at him. "You're a jerk."

"Percy, you should learn to take a compliment," Will gave a nervous laugh as he once again wondered how Percy had even lived to get to Hades. He found himself wondering that an awful lot.

Jason had a constipated look on his face as well for this guy disrespecting Mars like that, but he wasn't as surprised either after the Medusa head. He had admitted to being impertinent.

  Annabeth and Grover caught their breath.

Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.

"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner.

"That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTER-NATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

"I have found the zebra!" Jason chuckled.

"I have found its bad when the title's revealed so early," Nico bitterly reminded. He only realized after he'd been speaking at a normal enough volume everyone heard him, and were now frowning at him oddly. He scolded himself for getting too comfortable in here and just hoped whatever wonderful thing happened to Percy would hurry up already!

Percy was still watching him, clearly wanting to say something to him as those seagreen eyes would not go back down to the book. Nico felt trapped and a little terrified of being so completely under his focus with no clue why he was opening his mouth-

"Come on Percy," Will swooped in first and laughed eagerly, "I want to hear about the rest of the cute animals in there!" Nico looked like he was trying to stare down Medusa and Percy was the one starting to grow pale and uneasy like he needed to remember something about Nico. Will was flailing to try and keep everyone from exploding, clearly missing something and just wanting to help.

It worked, thankfully, Percy turned back to the book and muttered something about a hotel while Nico exhaled and switched his glower to the nearest shadow. Thalia mouthed a thanks at Will though and he nodded while biting his lip to stop himself asking for once what in Tartarus was going on.

I said, "You're kidding."

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to me.

Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuff Oreos.

"Mmm, that was worth it just for the Oreos," Magnus grinned, he hadn't had such luxury, or any of those things just casually in that bag for almost two years. Finding that would be like a treasure chest! Then he yelled at Percy to pause as he remembered and ran off to the fridge, coming back with a plate of assorted cookies now to be passed around, no insane war god or spiders needed!

He let Hearthstone have his pick first before offering Alex the plate and taking note of which she selected. She took a large bite as she watched him watch her...there was something so unique about her he couldn't put his finger on, and it wasn't just the green hair, uniquely shaded eyes, and pink vest. She was so confident about everything-

Percy had already kept reading, that plate had moved around the room weirdly fast and he was still stuck being a tongue tied idiot.

I said, "I don't want your lousy-"

"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving me his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."

"I would like to see that look," Thalia sighed, she'd yet found one of her own to get Percy to shut up on command.

"It looks like he's watching someone take a chainsaw to a tree, so be it your own peril," Percy shrugged.

I gritted my teeth. It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I didn't want anything that Ares had touched.

"You're so," Jason paused and gave him a strange, appraising look that was no where near complimentary. "Odd," he finally concluded. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind though, as a nereid had warned about gifts, and this had just been added to the pile. Shoes and backpacks, possibly even the sword or Annabeth's hat...Who to believe, who to trust...

"And you're blonde, anything else we need to clarify," Percy rolled his eyes.

Jason at least didn't think he was alone on this opinion though, only Alex seemed as dismissive of being so rude to the gods as well. The others at least had a healthy look of fear on their face when it happened.

Reluctantly, I slung the backpack over my shoulder. I knew my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose.

"He might give you another backpack if you do," Alex said helpfully while Percy grinned at her.

"Don't encourage him!" Thalia protested.

"He'd more than likely throw him into the stratosphere," Will groaned.

"Thank you, mom and dad," Percy mocked as he continued reading loudly instead.

He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers-every jerk who'd called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I'd gotten expelled.

I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.

Great, I thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow.

Magnus waved off, "I doubt you're famous enough to get repeat headlines. We still haven't even heard your fugitive name."

"At what point should we be grateful the poor preteen isn't being looked for by the country?" Percy scoffed.

I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.

"I take it back, that would be worth it," Magnus said, somehow even more delighted when Alex howled with laughter while the others still glanced nervously around, as if somehow fearing Ares would spontaneously sense the challenge of that and pop in here to kill them.

"You owe me one more thing," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level.

"The fact that you accomplished that at all should have been your bead for the trip," Thalia said.

Percy ran his thumb over the beaded necklace and wondered why Thalia didn't have her own more than the silly comment.

"You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

The room's water spun crazily around them for a moment like someone had started the spin cycle, slamming all of them back into their seats unpleasantly, but settled back just as quickly as Percy steadied his breath. He hadn't needed proof, he'd believed Thalia when she'd said that, but to hear it repeated, confirmed by a god somehow made the news feel more vital, and disturbing.

He didn't bother to ask her or anyone what that could mean, but instead kept reading at critical speed.

The ground seemed to spin beneath me. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

"Kept. Why?"

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."

Percy and Jason froze for just a moment, an echo, a connection, a tension traveling across the room from all directions before it settled back and they looked away from each other without ever having decided to frown at the other. 'Their lives had been meddled with...' Hadn't Oceanus told them that, back when they were all struggling to even catch up their first five minutes here?

Percy went back to reading while deciding he did owe his father a thanks. Nobody controlled him, and no way would he be sitting idly by if he was somehow being used.

"Nobody's controlling me."

He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."

I balled up my fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind in my hair. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

Will swallowed and already decided he'd be happier hearing about Nico telling him of the Underworld rather than Percy's upcoming fight with Ares, it sounded like it was going to be a bloodbath.

He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.

Annabeth said, "That was not smart, Percy."

"We have on record the first time Annabeth ever said that to you," Thalia grinned.

"Why would you need it when you'll have it live soon," Percy said in anticipation.

"I don't care."

"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god."

"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but ..."

He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.

"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."

I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver.

We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.

The trailer was dark inside until I uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene.

Percy was already starting with a rather disgruntled look on his face for that unpleasant reminder, inhaling another warm cookie to distract himself from the fact he seemed to remember smells the best during this trip.

Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for.

Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!

Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.

By the time he was done, a familiar pain was clenching up his gut as he pictured with mental perfect clarity pitching all responsible for this into a tank with man-eating sharks. He was pretty sure he could talk them out of eating the people while teaching them a lesson anyways.

Thalia was throwing around ancient Greek like she was literally trying to curse the mortals responsible, she was in fact practicing to see if she even had the power to do so, and that was before she even informed Artemis of this travesty.

"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"

He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and I would've helped him, but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.

"I am very disappointed in you not busting open the back of that truck to do this while freeing those poor creatures!" Alex protested.

"You clearly need some pointers on that sword," Magnus agreed as he crumpled the last Oreo up in his fist.

We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Annabeth was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips.

Thalia groaned as if in actual pain before she said, "you had a good idea over Annabeth!"

"Don't remind her, or she still might sick that lion on me," Percy chuckled.

I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used Anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.

Grover calmed the antelope down, while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. We told Grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for night.

Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuff Oreos and nibbled on one half-heartedly; I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first.

We could make it in plenty of time.

"Jinx," all seven of them decided to tell Percy at once.

"If you're not going to say something helpful than-" Percy stopped and just sighed and looked back down at the book. "Never mind, I can't hold that either."

On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with me. At least Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it-he'd put up cameras and advertised me as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, I had a feeling my quest was being watched.

I was a source of amusement for the gods.

"Us puny mortals always have been," Alex sneered in agreement.

"They rely on us half-bloods too," Will reminded with a sad, but stubborn smile.

"Us demigods need the gods the same way they need us," Jason peaceably settled.

"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy."

"That's okay."

"It's just..." She shuddered. "Spiders."

"Because of the Arachne story," I guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"

Annabeth nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me. I hate the creepy little things.

"I swear you guys have got to be exaggerating some of this," Magnus both signed to his friend and looked to them. He knew how much his cousin hated spiders and had never asked for a reason.

"If only we were," Will grumbled as he forced himself not to shiver in disgust at the thought of a snake popping up down here.

Anyway, I owe you."

"We're a team, remember?" I said. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."

I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"

Annabeth and I laughed.

She pulled apart an Oreo, handed me half. "In the Iris message ... did Luke really say nothing?"

I munched my cookie and thought about how to answer. The conversation via rainbow had bothered me all evening.

Luke had been bothering him since he'd first heard his name, Percy mentally grumbled, had this guy ever not been weighing on his mind?

"Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree."

'It's like he wanted him to ask about that,' Hearth signed.

'Trying to help Annabeth open up?' He offered, though he wasn't so sure. Luke would know she wouldn't be getting along with Percy, apparently with that rivalry, but Annabeth hardly needed a babysitter to make peace. She was managing just fine on her own.

In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions.

Grover let out a mournful bray.

"I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along."

"I've had my suspicions all along, and he was still the first person I wanted to come," Percy corrected, since that day on the lake Grover had told him Thalia's story. There was a familiarity in the way his best friend and Annabeth spoke to each other, something only a shared childhood trauma could relate to. The two had just more or less confirmed it along the way.

"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus."

He nodded glumly.

"And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp ..." I looked at Annabeth. "That was you and Luke, wasn't it?"

She put down her Oreo, uneaten. "Like you said, Percy, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were ... amazing monster fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."

"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," he said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue.

Alex watched in appreciation she no longer had to wonder what Annabeth's glare looked like as much, as Magnus scowled at that stupid centaur. She agreed, it sounded awful of him to prioritize kids by their heritage like that, as she rubbed the tattoo on the back of her neck.

Will opened his mouth, he wanted to protest Chiron had been putting Luke and Annabeth's best interest at heart too, they'd be safer without Thalia around attracting as many monsters as she did, but then he frowned and glanced at all three in here, particularly at Nico. He hoped their head counsel, or anyone had never tried to impress that into him. Being safely escorted to camp and avoiding people your whole life were not the same, and he'd be having words with anyone who said so!

We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought ... I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker ..."

Jason pursed up his lips at the ugly thought that flitted across his mind, that anybody who'd been foolish enough to trust a fawn with a task deserved these results, but it felt horrible and he immediately speared the thought away to hopefully never come back. How old had Grover been when this was happening? He'd already shown how capable he was multiple times.

"Stop it," Annabeth said. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either."

"No, I don't," she agreed firmly. She'd had a long talk with Grover that first summer. She hadn't had to quite beat it into his horns, but it had come close.

"She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably, "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."

"Sounds like that council needs to be de-cloven," Alex wrapped her garrote around her fingers as a sure promise she'd get started on that.

Nobody was crazy enough to argue with her, even non-satyrs hated those jerks, and Will and Thalia eagerly looked forward to a time when they got disbanded thanks to the promoted Lord of the Wild.

"Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" I said. "That's not fair."

"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither would Luke.

Thalia made a really odd face, like the water had tried to invert her expression for a moment. She would always loath Luke for what side he'd helped and be grateful to him all the same for looking out for Annabeth while she'd been trapped in the tree... that he'd turned around and poisoned for Kronos as if her memory meant nothing to him, all so he could possibly free her. All choices had unintended consequences.

We don't care what the council says."

Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy."

'Three,' Nico bitterly kept to himself, but somehow less than usual with his unpleasant thoughts as he still relaxed and smiled Will nor Thalia chucked him under the bus.

'Three,' Will brightly wanted to correct but held his tongue, as the son of Hades was still tapping the pommel of his sword and had made no move to share this information with anyone, he wasn't going to do it for him. 'Four counting his sister,' but he sighed himself as he glanced uneasily to the satchel Alex still had possessively by her side. Maybe they'd get lucky and it would be full of party-favors for when they left after this one book. He hoped this time had at least convinced Nico he wanted to be friends, maybe the guy would open up about his sister soon someday on his own.

"You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now."

She kicked me in the shin.

"Yeah," I said, which I would've done even without the kick.

"I'm sure she was just testing a theory about how to get you to respond on command," Jason said with just a hint of joshing.

"It's not luck that you found Thalia and me, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan."

'It's no wonder he became a minor god himself,' Thalia thought with a small smile, 'he was the one, he was destined for so much greatness.'

I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier.

When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he'd fallen sleep.

Laughter broke any tension left in the room. "If only compliments were a universal snooze button," Nico kept snickering, wishing to linger on this longest of all so that truck would never stop.

"We can all give it a shot tonight when we have to sleep with the fishes," Will chuckled.

"That was terrible," Nico rolled his eyes and fought off a smile.

"You're off to a terrible start!" Will protested.

"And I'm ignoring you both," Percy pleasantly reminded before doing just that.

"How does he do that?" I marveled.

"I don't know," Annabeth said. "But that was really a nice thing you told him."

"I meant it."

We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips and looked at me hopefully.

"For more hamburger meat, or...?" Magnus asked.

"I wasn't waking Grover up to ask," Percy shook his head.

Annabeth rubbed her necklace like she was thinking deep, strategic thoughts.

"That pine-tree bead," I said. "Is that from your first year?"

She looked. She hadn't realized what she was doing.

"Yeah," she said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress-now that was a weird summer..."

Nico, of all people, finally waved his hands for silence and looked imploringly at Will for the story.

He melted at the sight and didn't at all care for this bizarre turn of events, he'd lock him up in a trailer with sad animals all day if it would get him to interact like this more, not that anyone had any protests anyways as he happily explained, "okay, so, it was actually my first summer there," he tapped his own necklace that had the same bead in place, "so I can not emphasize enough how weird all of this was to me too.

Chiron's not the only centaur, he mentioned that right?" He waited politely for nods and any questions before eagerly going on, "well they're called the Party Ponies, they have chapters in every state, but they're as opposite of him as you can imagine, they completely live up to the name. This group from Louisiana, it was near Mardi Gra time, when they invaded camp, Chiron let them in because they were actually escorting this Aphrodite kid. Long story short, they found out we weren't planning on celebrating, and refused to leave until we all put on a party and everyone had to earn a necklace the traditional way-"

"You had to flash a bunch of centaurs?" Alex interrupted, clearly appalled.

"Oh gosh, no, there's a whole history to the event that has nothing to do with that," Will said quickly. "It involved feats of justice, faith, and power, that new girl was made head councilor her first weekend there for organizing most of the event, new record; we also had a paintball war, it was wild. Anyways, the leader of the group wore a dress the whole time, it was purple, gold, and green with little bells on it, I'm pretty sure he just loved the flashy outfit, you can apricate that, right Alex?" He grinned so delightfully at her she could do nothing but smile back. "So Chiron finally promised to put him on his very own beaded necklace if they'd leave."

"The more I hear about you guys the more I'm with Magnus," Jason told him, "you guys are nuts." Not a single thing he'd mentioned had made a lick of sense to him, partying centaurs?

"We know how to live!" Will cheerfully corrected. "Mr. D himself made the design! I think he likes them."

Nico was still watching him with such a casual smile like he was waiting for more details, a question in his eyes Will nodded at to answer who exactly that girl had been.

Percy was still chuckling and thanked him for the story before turning back, and Nico looked very much like he wanted to take the book away and sit on it. He hadn't seemed this content since the only two weeks he'd spent at Camp after Krono's defeat and Will now made it his mission to get him invited to the next chapter's party, he was positive there would be one going no matter when they got back.

"And the college ring is your father's?"

"That's none of your-" She stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"You don't have to tell me."

"No ... it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard with-out her... That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Yeah, well... the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."

"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?"

She wouldn't meet my eyes. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."

"You shouldn't give up," I told her. "You should write him a letter or something."

"Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."

We passed another few miles of silence.

Percy would have cut off Nico's hand if he'd tried to grab the book away, who was still eyeing Will like he was hoping he'd go into extravagant detail about every bead rather than keep the miles rolling, while he was wrapped around every letter getting to hear a pinch more of Annabeth's personal life. He wished so badly she was in here now, to ask if things had gotten any better, or hear what she'd done at that epic party, whichever she wanted to share.

"So if the gods fight," I said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"

"Don't count your troops until they're trained," Jason muttered, he and Percy kept exchanging ever increasing uneasy looks as mention of a war just kept being thrown up like that.

She put her head against the backpack Ares had given us, and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."

Magnus smiled without surprise. He wished he knew his cousin better, to be able to pinpoint the exact instance and reason he knew the answer, but it was nice all the same he did already know that answer from his firm grasp on her.

"Why?"

"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"

"Several, but none that she's here to answer," Thalia laughed at the stunned look on Percy's face like she'd already declared she was in love with him.

I couldn't think of an answer for that. Fortunately I didn't have to. Annabeth was asleep.

I had trouble following her example, with Grover snoring and an albino lion staring hungrily at me, but eventually I closed my eyes.

...

My nightmare started out as something I'd dreamed a million times before: I was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, Come on, Percy. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil.

Magnus swallowed and tucked his left hand close to his chest, a teacher had once strapped him to a desk and made him write with his right hand despite being left handed and his mom had gone nuclear on them. Boy did he hope Percy had never had to go through something similar.

Hearth got his attention by using his sign name, his friend knowing his aversion to touch had given him one very early on, and asked if he was okay. Magnus nodded quickly and didn't at all want to know what look had been lingering on his face to be asked.

Then the dream strayed from the usual.

I looked over at the next desk and saw a girl sitting there, also wearing a straitjacket. She was my age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy green blue eyes,* and freckles across her nose. Somehow, I knew who she was. She was Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

Magnus had his mouth flopped open in fascination that these dreams could even show the past and future! 

Thalia stared Percy down now with a look like she was going to zap him out of his seat.

She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at me in frustration, and snapped, "Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here."

"Even in your dreams I'm always right," she nodded and looked away like he'd passed inspection while Percy exhaled and stopped wondering if she could electrocute molecules.

Then he sighed as he read the next sentence.

She's right, my dream-self thought.

and endured the others laughter with his own indulgent smile until he could keep going.

I'm going back to that cavern. I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.

That snapped the amusement right back down as if this whole book were one giant seesaw. Not one of them were fully convinced it was even Hades doing this, but Nico sunk lowest of all in his seat as he dreaded more and more this trip to Vegas. If Percy somehow wound up in that hotel and saw him, finally remembered who he really was and then was convinced he was there for his dad, he didn't know if he would bother defending himself or just go up to the roof. Why he was even still down here listening he had no decent answer for.

The straitjacket melted off me. I fell through the class-room floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm.

Percy Jackson, it said. Yes, the exchange went well, I see.

I was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing me. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.

And he suspects nothing? it asked.

Another voice, one I almost recognized, answered at my shoulder. Nothing, my lord. He is as ignorant as the rest.

Thalia mentally burned with hatred she'd been the one in the straight jacket when that's what he deserved, not the Luke she'd known who had never bowed to his own father for authority, let alone called anyone Lord. Oh how far he'd fallen.

I looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible.

Deception upon deception, the thing in the pit mused aloud. Excellent.

Truly, my lord, said the voice next to me, you are well-named the Crooked One.

Most of them were doing good to remember the named gods who had and hadn't shown up yet, and even if they had a phone to check, none of them had the reception down here to look up what Greek deity had once been called that too.

But was it really necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly -

You? the monster said in scorn. You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened.

But, my lord-

Peace little servant. Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him.

Jason sat up straighter in his seat with excitement for finally getting an explanation to that. The original thief had been caught, and put the plan on hold! There was a third party involved...an unwitting one too apparently.

Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hands ... but wait. He is here.

What? The invisible servant suddenly sounded tense. You summoned him, my lord?

No. The full force of the monsters attention was now pouring over me, freezing me in place. Blast his father's blood, he is too changeable, too unpredictable.

Alex smiled grimly to herself, more frustrated than anything they were given no hints whom this mysterious person was but more tease, but also absently agreeing Percy wasn't the worst person she could have something in common with.

The boy brought himself hither.

Impossible! the servant cried.

For a weakling such as you, perhaps, the voice snarled.

Will's hand moved sharply before he stilled himself, almost like he wanted to step between Luke and Kronos of all people, Nico noticed in absolute confusion. Even after everything Luke had done, it clearly angered him Luke had let himself be spoken to like this, when apparently his goal had been to tear down the gods for having no love for their children. Nico never even would have considered such an idea, but it was written all over Will Solace's face.

He wondered if Luke came back if Will would forgive him, just how far his foolish niceties ran.

Then its cold power turned back on me. So ... you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige.

The scene changed.

I was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together.

Nico scowled and glared at the floor for all his fathers glory on display right there, it was no wonder they were known for nothing but death and betrayal when that was all he advertised. 

He missed Will trying to catch his eye, even if he had no nice words to brush that off, he still wished he could try.

Standing at the foot of the dais was my mother, frozen in shimmering golden light, her arms outstretched.

Magnus forcefully kept in mind how much this wasn't Percy's fault, that Sally Jackson was being tantalized in front of him and Magnus had no doubts now he would get her out, his dream would become reality and he had a mom to go back to. Was it to late to trade godly parents?

I tried to step toward her, but my legs wouldn't move. I reached for her, only to realize that my hands were withering to bones. Grinning skeletons in Greek armor crowded around me, draping me with silk robes, wreathing my head with laurels that smoked with Chimera poison, burning into my scalp.

The evil voice began to laugh. Hail, the conquering hero!

I woke with a start.

Grover was shaking my shoulder. "The truck's stopped," he said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."

"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.

She had it easy. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips.

"Turnip brain is a tad catchier, I'm surprised it never caught on," Thalia chuckled.

"So that's what that face is," Alex grinned, "doing a great job Percy!" She even gave him a double thumbs up.

"You guys make me wish for the chimera blood crown," Percy rolled his eyes.

The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.

"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances."

"I wish you hauled a hearse," Will said darkly, more than happy to get between those poor animals and those awful excuses for people.

Nico mentally scratched off animal abuse on his list of things Will wouldn't forgive, at least he'd never done that.

He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.

"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.

The lion roared in indignation.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.

Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.

"I am now concerned Grover might be part hippo," Alex said seriously.

"I would not test that theory," Magnus shivered.

The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at me.

There was no sound, but as clear as day, I heard it say: Free me, lord. Please.

Percy startled and looked around, but while most of them looked just as surprised as him, Thalia, Nico, and Will didn't. He touched his ear and looked around the ocean, half expecting to hear it again and wondering how crazy you had to be to hear voices nobody else did, from a zebra.

I was too stunned to react.

There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.

The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"

A voice outside- it must've been Eddie's-shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"

"What are you banging for?"

Knock, knock, knock.

Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"

Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.

A second later, Annabeth appeared next to me. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer.

"Look at you with the astute observations," Thalia applauded. "Here I thought the antelope had achieved sentience and was doing it."

"I liked you better in the straight jacket," he said right back.

She said, "This transport business can't be legal."

"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"

That's right, the zebra's voice said in my mind.

"We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Annabeth both looked at me, waiting for my lead.

'The fact that Annabeth follows his lead so willingly surprises me,' Hearth admitted.

'It's his quest,' Magnus shrugged, 'if she's willing to fight beside him over her mom, I take it she also respects his choices.' He didn't really think she'd just up and run to leave those animals even if Percy did bolt though.

I'd heard the zebra talk, but not the lion. Why? Maybe it was another learning disability ... I could only understand zebras? Then I thought: horses. What had Annabeth said about Poseidon creating horses? Was a zebra close enough to a horse? Was that why I could understand it?**

"Can Annabeth understand spiders?" Magnus asked in fasciation of something so odd yet oddly cool.

"I, have no clue," Thalia admitted, "I've never asked. Though if they are cussing her out, it would explain the screaming. I can communicate with many predators, we employ wolves and falcons in our hunts quite often."

"I've never met a cow to ask," Will said cheerfully.

'Why a cow?' Hearth asked curiously.

'Dude, why any animal?' Magnus rolled his eyes.

The zebra said, Open my cage, lord. Please. I'll be fine after that.

Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. I grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.

The zebra burst out. It turned to me and bowed. Thank you, lord.

Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.

Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs.

Nico's olive skin was starting to twitch unpleasantly, but he fiddled with his ring and squashed out the petulant memory trying to surface of being thrust into this unknown world. Percy would never get trapped in that stupid hotel and he wished he could just banish the place from his mind. Maybe his father had done him a favor making him forget, or maybe it was Hades's own selfish desires to leave his children in the dark about his past. He could never decide.

We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.

"Along with all the other wild animals out there, I'm sure it'll blend right in," Alex chuckled.

Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"

"Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.

"The other animals first," Grover said.

I cut the locks with my sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.

"Good luck," I told the animals. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets.

Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.

"Will the animals be okay?" I asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all-"

"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."

"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.

"Would a blessing not work on himself?" Jason asked, blushing slightly and glad Grover wasn't here as he was sure that was a rude question.

"No, but it might work on Percy," Thalia smirked.

"Hey!" He protested, only to look down and sigh as he repeated.

"It only works on wild animals."

"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.

"Hey!" I protested.

"Who knew noise echoed at the bottom of the ocean," Will chuckled.

"Kidding," she said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."

We stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and we must've looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay us much attention.

We passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. We passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty, which was a pretty small replica, but still made me homesick.

I wasn't sure what we were looking for. Maybe just a place to get out of the heat for a few minutes, find a sandwich and a glass of lemonade, make a new plan for getting west.

We must have taken a wrong turn, because we found ourselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

Nico sat so tense in his seat now Will was looking back and forth between Percy and him like he thought he'd have to bodily throw himself in the way of an oncoming meteor. 

Everything is fine, Nico scolded himself, Percy wasn't going to get trapped, he was going to turn around any second.

The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers-lotus blossom, maybe. I'd never smelled one, so I wasn't sure.

Nico found himself inhaling slow, deep breaths like he was still trying to breathe that air in now, his body still craved it when he woke up some days to just go back to such a pleasant time where he never had to worry about anything- stop that! Such weak willed thoughts was why he'd never go back to the state of Nevada.

The doorman smiled at us. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

I'd learned to be suspicious, the last week or so. I figured anybody might be a monster or a god. You just couldn't tell. But this guy was normal. One look at him, and I could see. Besides, I was so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and said we'd love to come in.

He shuddered so hard he drew everyone's attention like some whimpering child, but okay, yeah, Percy got sucked in...then Annabeth would snap him out of it! Any second now.

Inside, we took one look around, and Grover said, "Whoa."

"No," Nico said with such absolute dread Percy dropped the book and grabbed his pen while the others all looked at him like he was about to drop dead. 

"Nico?" Will began to reach his hand out, he just wanted to lightly grasp his shoulder and talk to him about whatever this place clearly was to him, but Nico shut down.

It was creepy, almost comatose looking, like his mind was still trapped there and trying to bring him back from thousands of miles away as he looked around at nothing in here.

"Um, should I summon the grindylows?" Magnus asked in what he clearly thought was a helpful tone of voice.

"Absolutely not," Jason frowned, "but maybe we should get Oceanus back in here-"

"It's fine," his voice was wrong, too level, steady as the ocean; placid on the surface and a toil of trouble beneath. "Just keep going Percy." He obviously wasn't still trapped in there, Percy was rescued by a god to get on his righteous path, and he was absolutely, one hundred percent, perfectly fine.

He was so fine he didn't notice Will didn't take his eyes off him the rest of the chapter.

Percy was positive of it this time, Nico knew exactly what was happening. He snatched the book back up and read with new horror what was about to happen to his friends without giving anyone a second of breathing room.

The whole lobby was a giant game room. And I'm not talking about cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. 

Hearth gave a tentative smile and wanted to laugh at what Percy called cheesy. He loved pinball, it was one of the few things Midgardians had created he couldn't find a single flaw with.

There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.

"Hey!" a bellhop said. At least I guessed he was a bell-hop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."

I stammered, "Um, but..."

"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, loom 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or what-ever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."

He handed us each a green plastic credit card.

I knew there must be some mistake. Obviously he thought we were some millionaire's kids. But I took the card and said, "How much is on here?"

His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."

"Ooh, I see," Magnus was clutching at straws as he looked from Nico being a reanimated corpse to Percy looking very close to vomiting from all this remembered pleasure. "You died and went to heaven."

"Magnus," Alex looked very much like she wanted to reach over and smack him. "Magic. Mind games," she sneered. She wanted to shapeshift into an elephant and demolish just the sounds of such eternal punishment as being trapped in there.

"Right," he deflated and looked around at their own little slice of paradise, that they all wanted out of.

We took the elevator upstairs and checked out our room. It was a suite with three separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. The balcony had its own hot tub, and sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun. I didn't see how that could be legal, but I thought it was pretty cool. The view over the Strip and the desert was amazing, though I doubted we'd ever find time to look at the view with a room like this.

"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is ..."

"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."

There were clothes in the closet, and they fit me. I frowned, thinking that this was a little strange.

I threw Ares's backpack in the trash can. Wouldn't need that anymore. When we left, I could just charge a new one at the hotel store.

I took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. I changed clothes, ate a bag of chips, drank three Cokes, and came out feeling better than I had in a long time. In the back of my mind, some small problem kept nagging me. I'd had a dream or something ... I needed to talk to my friends. But I was sure it could wait.

Thalia wanted to open her mouth, to tease and laugh with her friend about this little misadventure and how he'd forgotten her, but she wanted to hear of them being out of there more.

I came out of the bedroom and found that Annabeth and Grover had also showered and changed clothes. Grover was eating potato chips to his heart's content, while Annabeth cranked up the National Geographic Channel.

"All those stations," I told her, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"

"It's interesting."

"I feel good," Grover said. "I love this place."

Without his even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes and lifted him a foot off the ground, then back down again.

"So what now?" Annabeth asked. "Sleep?"

Grover and I looked at each other and grinned. We both held up our green plastic LotusCash cards.

"Play time," I said.

I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun. I came from a relatively poor family. Our idea of a splurge was eating out at Burger King and renting a video. A five-star Vegas hotel? Forget it.

I bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the waterslide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter. I saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing-where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. I saw Annabeth playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. I didn't think much of it, but Annabeth loved it.

There was no monster circling them, no worries or fears, and yet this felt like the worst thing Percy had encountered. Jason kept trying to pinpoint what this place wanted! Were there no lines because the guests were being eaten at their happiest, but Percy had just said he was already far past that.

The truth terrified him. It just existed to keep you from remembering.

I'm not sure when I first realized something was wrong.

Probably, it was when I noticed the guy standing next to me at VR sharpshooters. He was about thirteen, I guess, but his clothes were weird. I thought he was some Elvis impersonator's son. He wore bellbottom jeans and a red T-shirt with black piping, and his hair was permed and gelled like a New Jersey girl's on homecoming night.

We played a game of sharpshooters together and he said, "Groovy, man. Been here two weeks, and the games keep getting better and better."

Groovy?

Later, while we were talking, I said something was "sick," and he looked at me kind of startled, as if he'd never heard the word used that way before.

He said his name was Darrin, but as soon as I started asking him questions he got bored with me and started to go back to the computer screen.

I said, "Hey, Darrin?"

"What?"

"What year is it?"

He frowned at me. "In the game?"

"No. In real life."

He had to think about it. "1977."

"No," I said, getting a little scared. "Really."

"Hey, man. Bad vibes. I got a game happening."

After that he totally ignored me.

I started talking to people, and I found it wasn't easy. They were glued to the TV screen, or the video game, or their food, or whatever. I found a guy who told me it was 1985. Another guy told me it was 1993. They all claimed they hadn't been in here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most. They didn't really know and they didn't care.

The place was literally perfect, Hearth found himself thinking, already trying to stamp down the guilty thoughts, but they were festering around the edges and didn't want to leave. It attracted you by smell, so he wouldn't be immune, he tried to scold himself, but to late he was busy wondering, yearning to know if maybe they had a room to study magic in there. Maybe, maybe he'd even be able to hear laughter in such a utopia.

Magnus was about to do something very impulsive and stupid himself, like figure out if busting down a wall would snap his friend out of this. He was fiddling with his fingers, not making any signs at all but clearly thinking about this place and it needed to stop!

Then it occurred to me: how long had I been here? It seemed like only a couple of hours, but was it?

I tried to remember why we were here. We were going to Los Angeles. We were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. My mother ... for a scary second, I had trouble remembering her name.

Percy was finally looking back on his own past self with the same stupidly aggrieved look the others usually had on their face, for once he vividly remembered something better now looking back than he had this whole time!

Sally. Sally Jackson. I had to find her. I had to stop Hades from causing World War III.

I found Annabeth still building her city.

"Come on," I told her. "We've got to get out of here."

Will still hadn't taken his eyes off of Nico, watching him flinch and close his eyes. Will's hands moved on impulse to rest on him again, the glow of a healing touch already surging through him, but Nico felt his movement and leaned just the slightest bit away, still staring at nothing. He let his hand fall away even as he schemed. 

Everybody at camp knew he was a son of Hades, but nobody was quite sure about anything else in detail. He'd showed up one winter break and left just as quickly after he'd found out his sister left with Hunters of Artemis and died, he'd come and gone from camp so infrequently afterwards he was more like a ghost story to some kids.

Was this the place he kept vanishing to? He'd burn this place to the ground if so to break its thrall.

No response.

I shook her. "Annabeth?"

She looked up, annoyed. "What?

"We need to leave."

"Leave? What are you talking about? I've just got the towers-"

"This place is a trap."

She didn't respond until I shook her again. "What?"

"Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!"

"Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes."

"Annabeth, there are people here from 1977. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever."

"So?" she asked. "Can you imagine a better place?"

I grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the game.

"Hey!" She screamed and hit me, but nobody else even bothered looking at us. They were too busy.

I made her look directly in my eyes. I said, "Spiders. Large, hairy spiders."

Percy absently wondered how much she'd kill him if he started carrying a fake one at the very least around in his pocket, just to make sure they never fell under such a spell again.

The worst of it was that he wanted this for her. Isn't that what you should want for someone you loved, just to be happy? If his mom had been there with them, he probably never would have left.

That jarred her. Her vision cleared. "Oh my gods," she said. "How long have we-"

"I don't know, but we've got to find Grover."

We went searching, and found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter.

"Grover!" we both shouted.

He said, "Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!"

"Grover!"

He turned the plastic gun on me and started clicking, as if I were just another image from the screen.

I looked at Annabeth, and together we took Grover by the arms and dragged him away. His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!"

The Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"

"We're leaving," I told him.

Nico had never even thought of leaving. He'd spent years playing and laughing in there to his hearts content. They'd conveniently had a Mythomagic Tournament going on and he'd been beating players twice his age, a boy had even traded some rare cards with him and asked to hold his hand.

Bianca hadn't either though, he tried to tell himself he was even mildly less useless than he already felt. The few times he had seen her she'd always been in the kitchens, the chefs had never kicked her out but instead enjoyed learning from her, their moms recipes she was always trying to get perfect.

Percy had never been sucked into a game like Annabeth and Grover had been addicted to. Changeable, too unpredictable, Kronos had called him, and that fluidity had given him a chance to start asking questions. 

"Such a shame," he said, and I got the feeling that he really meant it, that we'd be breaking his heart if we went. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."

He held out the cards, and I wanted one. I knew that if I took one, I'd never leave. I'd stay here, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon I'd forget my mom, and my quest, and maybe even my own name. I'd be playing virtual rifleman with groovy Disco Darrin forever.

Grover reached for the card, but Annabeth yanked back his arm and said, "No, thanks."

We walked toward the door, and as we did, the smell of the food and the sounds of the games seemed to get more and more inviting. I thought about our room upstairs. We could just stay the night, sleep in a real bed for once...

Then we burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk.

Nico's breath caught as if Percy had just gotten up to punch him in the stomach with all the might of the ocean. As if he'd ever needed more proof how much better than him the son of the sea god was. He'd escaped all on his own, he was so powerful and never let anyone manipulate him.

It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day we'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert.

Ares's backpack was slung over my shoulder, which was odd, because I was sure I had thrown it in the trash can in room 4001, but at the moment I had other problems to worry about.

Was it because it was a gift from a god, Jason wanted to protest, but Percy was finally breathing easier, not quite so tense at never having to think of that place again. Grover's shoes, something about them working in there without using the word to activate them...don't trust the gifts...those had been the only gifts mentioned acting differently in a place full of magic, or was that just coincidence? Percy and Annabeth had no reason to use their own...

I ran to the nearest newspaper stand and read the year first. Thank the gods, it was the same year it had been when we went in. Then I noticed the date: June twentieth.

We had been in the Lotus Casino for five days.

We had only one day left until the summer solstice. One day to complete our quest.

It was almost over, Nico kept telling himself as he felt a horrible churning in his gut, Percy would rush off to LA now and save the world, he'd never even caught a glimpse of him in there! What if he had...Little cracks began to appear in the floor as memory tried to swamp him. It was the last place he and Bianca had ever known, the last peace they'd ever had before being shoved into the street and overwhelmed at the bright city lights; uncaring people who didn't even seem to hear the screaming kids tugged along by the Fury to drag them off-

"Nico?" Will's voice came from a long ways off, even as he asked with such concern it drew everyone's attention...he'd swear the walls were starting to close in on him as the cracks in the floor grew and something horrible was building in him, the shadowy room was literally flickering around them all as Percy lowered the book and looked right at him, but he would, not, cry!

"Hey man, don't tell me you lost your memories too," Percy laughed awkwardly even as he began to shut the book in concern.

Nico cleared his throat so hard it hurt, but he forced himself to collect a calmness back with so much power, his form pulsed with dark energy for a moment before he tried to speak again. He could do this, Percy could laugh anything off, so could he. "No, just bad memories, nothing to concern yourself with, trust me." King Minos had been a great, if selfish teacher as he pushed it all from the forefront of his mind and concentrated. Not so much he actually drew ghosts a plenty down here to him, but enough the room stopped forming shapes out of nothing. He could feel them though, just waiting to lose control again, but he would master and overcome his childish whining.

"Nico," Will tried again, but he snapped, "just keep going, no sense dwelling on it! There's nothing for you in that city Percy!"

Percy glanced at the book, back to him, then to Thalia as if to confirm, but finally and to his immense shock Jason and Alex both agreed if Nico didn't want to say what was on his mind it was his right.

"Well, um, it was the end of the chapter, so," he passed the book to Thalia and gave Nico a significant look to the door like he was totally offering another break.

Nico waved his hand carelessly and Thalia gave him a sorrowful look but thankfully went on. She knew what it was to have no choice but to look ahead because your past was long gone.

Will still looked unhappy with him, but he crossed his arms and didn't care. Bianca was gone, the memories of their time in that stupid hotel were fabricated magic and not even real. It had been pointless to let Will distract him or keep pretending his past had anything to do with the current problem at hand, he had to get out of here already and back to the one spot of good he knew he could do. No more wandering around the Fields, he was going into Tartarus.

PJOPJOPJOPJOPJO

*Ah the first of many continuity issues. Thalia's eyes are said to be green in this passage, but later changed to blue. Whether you're a 'the first thing said is the true cannon,' or a 'the author changed their mind after and so the second is better' is obviously a personal preference. I bend between both depending on the context, and I like her with blue eyes better, so that's what I went with.

**This is my favorite thing and never referenced with any other children! It's not cannon, but I'm going to go with the idea that yes, every time a god created or blessed an animal their children can communicate with it, which is no wilder than the Hunters of Artemis talking to their animals for no good reason other than because.

The problem though is that we don't don't get told in the books of what most of the gods sacred animals are, and if you just look it up there's lots of over lap between such as Athena's is the owl but Hade's can be a screech owl, etc., so to preserve my sanity and not go down a million rabbit holes I'm only taking specifically what is stated in PJO as cannon material for these guys. Anything else referenced is considered 'myth' to them too.

[anything-goes-my-friends]

A New Beginning

The ending of ROTT broke me and I was left very disappointed in the ending of the show. I loved the movie, but the last 10 minutes didn’t sit well with me. I needed a fix-it fic with the ending I think the series deserves, so don’t be mad at me if you don’t like it. This is just what I think it needs, obviously not what everyone else thinks it needs.

In this fic Jim goes back to the day he got the amulet, but instead of giving it to Toby he takes it himself, and relives his journey with the knowledge and experience to save everyone he lost.

A New Beginning When he said goodbye to Blinky, Claire, and the others, Jim knew the journey ahead would be the most difficult thing he’d ever have to do. He needed to find a good time to jump back to, but whenever he settled on a date he thought of someone else he could save, and the date was pushed forward.

So he settled on the day it all began.

When his alarm buzzed, there were no words to explain the emotions swirling through him. With the deaths he witnessed still raw, and the destruction fresh in his mind, being in his old room seemed foreign. He remembered one of the last times he was there, recently half troll and struggling to adapt. But now, none of that had happened, but it had to him. He thought of everything ahead and smiled. But first, Toby.

He hastily prepared the meals for himself, his mom, and Toby, but nothing as fancy as the meatloaf he made the first time around. His head was buzzing and he struggled to focus on the simple task of making the sandwiches. But soon enough it was time.

The garage door opened and he gripped the handlebars of his bike until his knuckles turned white. This would prove that everything he did was worth it. Just to see Toby’s smile once more. The innocence in his eyes. He would never take it for granted again.

And there he was, his best friend. Jim let out a sound that was a mixture of a laugh and a sob and rammed into his friend to engulf him in a hug. It was worth it. All the pain he’ll endure again, and the burdens he has to bear were worth it for this moment.

“Come on Tobes, let’s take the canals today, I have a good feeling about it.” Jim took off on his bike, Toby hollering nonsense to pass the time and it was music to Jim’s ears. 

And when they reached the bottom of the canal, and he heard the amulet speaking his name in Kanjigar’s voice, Jim smiled.

“Hello again, old friend.” He whispered as he ran his finger over the familiar metal of the amulet.

<><>Time Skip to the end of ROTT with the new ending Jim created<><>

Jim read the text on his phone from Claire, asking him when he was on his way to Trollmarket. He hastily typed out ‘be there in 10’ before shoving the phone back in his pocket. He could feel the amulet buzzing in his bag, and grinned to himself. He knew what today was, he had it marked on his calendar for years. Today was the day the Titans were defeated in the old timeline. The day Toby died, and Strickler, and Nomura, and countless others. He thought of how different things had become as he rummaged in his bag for his horngazel. The door opened easily under the bridge and he started to descend the stairs.

“There you are, Trollhunter, cutting it close aren’t we?” Claire teased as she met him at the bottom of the stairs. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and she threaded her fingers through his. They began to walk through Trollmarket, all the familiar buzz that had been lost the first time. Jim had learned from his mistakes, but also knew there were some events that had to happen. Losing Trollmarket was not one he could bring himself to do. His gaze shifted to Claire, who’s white streak in her hair, the ponytail, and purple armor was the same as the day the titans attacked. But she was smiling, and there was still a light in her eyes.

“Romeo and Juliet? I would love to try out...Your brother was taken by goblins into the Darklands, I’m sorry, but I’ll get him back I promise. For now, try to get to know NotEnrique, he might surprise you...Everything we’ve done, we’ve done together, I love you Claire, and I always will.”

He had dreaded letting Enrique get taken into the Darklands, but Claire had once remarked that she was glad NotEnrique came into her life, and thought of him as a brother. He didn’t want her to lose that relationship. And saving Enrique pushed Claire to become the sorceress and warrior she was destined to be, bringing the two of them closer together in the process.

The two of them waved to Barbara and Strickler, as Barbara showed off her new ring to a group of changelings. Strickler gave Jim a nod, and he returned it with a smile.

“Strickler, I would like you to meet my mom...The Janus Order has fallen, you’ll be safe in Trollmarket...Yes, I would be honored to be your best man.”

The fall of Gunmar had been a shock to troll kind. Jim had arrived in Trollmarket knowing where the Janus Order had hid the bridge, and used that knowledge to secure it early on. Toby, Claire, and Jim had trained for months as Trollhunters, answering calls and building strength to enter the Darklands. Jim had made the mistake of going alone once, and didn’t want to do that again. So when they were ready, they entered together. Blinky and Aaarrrgghh had rescued Gunmar’s prisoners, even though they got distracted by Blinky’s brother. Claire and Toby had gone off with NotEnrique to free all of the babies, while Draal and Jim faced Gunmar. And at the end of the day, and with a battle that lived in infamy, they emerged victorious.

Gunmar, eager to avenge his son that Jim had slain, and his ego clouding his judgement, had agreed to a fight to the death with Jim. A fight that Jim won. The Trollhunters exited the Darklands with refugees and freed Gum Gums, and babies that were taken care of by Barbara and Strickler until they could find loving homes for them all. And with the fall of Gunmar, the troll world was left without direction. The Janus Order struggled to adapt now that they couldn’t take form as human, but Jim made sure they were welcomed into Trollmarket with open arms. Gunmar’s spies and allies were hunted down by the Trollhunters if they made a mess of things, and after months of struggling, peace was nearing. When Strickler was brought into Trollmarket, he drifted closer to the Lakes, and when he got down on one knee, Barbara didn’t even hesitate to say yes. He had even given Jim the ring to Angor Rot’s soul, and Jim was able to return it to its rightful owner, and set the Trollhunter Hunter free. And Claire, reunited with the real Enrique, gained a brother in NotEnrique, and her family became a little bit bigger. 

Jim never slept better after the Darklands. He was proud of his decision to go in together once they were ready, as was the original plan the first time around. Jim knew the importance of seeking help from friends, and he was able to live without that particular trauma twice.

Gunmar was defeated, Trollmarket wasn’t lost, Angor Rot became an ally, and his friends were alive and happy. Jim smiled as he and Claire walked past the forge, where Draal and Nomura were sparing, swapping insults that bordered on flirting, although both would deny it. Jim was most proud of saving Draal, although he would never tell anyone that. After defeating him in battle in the forge and gaining the respect of Trollmarket, Draal moved into his basement and the two of them renewed the bond that had been ripped away by Gunmar. Draal never lost his arm, was never under the control of Gunmar, and never died saving Jim’s life. He fought beside Jim as equals throughout his battles, and remained one of his closest allies and friends.

Vendel entered the forge to yell something at Nomura and Draal, but it wasn’t long before the three of them erupted in laughter. Vendel looked around and noticed Jim smiling at them, and gave a curt nod with his staff to signal a hello and his continued respect. 

“Vendell, Queen Usurna is working for Gunmar, she wants to take over Trollmarket and steal the Hearthstone.”

When it had come the time of the Eternal Night, there was no Morgana to rage war, and no Gunmar to destroy Arcadia. Jim stayed human, and stayed in Arcadia where he belonged. Blinky shortly became Vendel’s right hand, and the two of them set out on a mission to organize trollkind in the wake of Gunmar’s defeat. Dictatious had wanted to go along with his brother, but knew he was needed in Trollmarket to help the Changelings and Gum Gums adjust to a life post-war. He was joined by Aaarrrgghh in his endevor, who was happy to help others the way Blinky helped him. 

After the day the Eternal Night was supposed to be, Jim found himself wandering into the cafe Douxie worked at.

“Douxie, we need to find Merlin.”

Teaming up with Archie and Claire, the four of them set off to the tomb, where Merlin was resurrected and the next steps were taken. While they prepared for the war with the Arcane Order, Toby had stayed back in Arcadia as it’s one Trollhunter. He had formed bonds with Aja and Krel, and protected Arcadia from the threats better than Jim would’ve. He came into his own as WarHammer, and had accepted the role he chose himself.

“Claire, let’s free Morgana. She isn’t a bad woman, and she can help us in the days to come.”

With Douxie and Merlin at her side, Claire had freed Morgana and managed to settle her down enough to talk. And with her help the plan was made. The Wizards and Trollhunters traveled in time to determine the identity of the Green Knight, where Douxie was named a Master Wizard and the Trollhunter amulet was made. Deya was named the first Trollhunter, and the past was secured. And when they returned, it was Morgana that saved them from the Green Knight. She gave Arthur the rest he deserved, and when the battle was over, she left with Merlin to grieve and find themselves in the new world. Nari had stayed behind with Douxie, who had accepted his role as protector.

“There’s Douxie!” Claire briefly let go of Jim’s hand to wave, and Douxie beamed and returned it. Archie was sitting on his shoulder while Nari padded along after the two of them. Archie was mentioning something about going to visit his dad, and Douxie agreed to go along for moral support. Nari looked at Jim with a knowing look in her eyes, the way she always looked at him. He could never tell if she knew what he did, and all that he had changed, but he decided he didn’t care. She was alive, and Douxie had succeeded in protecting her, and that was all that mattered.

“We need to find the seals Nari...Do you know where the rest of the Arcane Order might have gone?...It’s over now, you’re safe.”

The Genesis Seals had been found and rehidden by Douxie, who didn’t tell anyone where he hid them. Not even Jim or Nari. They had all agreed it was for the best. When Douxie died the secret would die with him. Unable to find and open the seals, Skrael and Bellroc scrambled to find Nari and finish what they started. And with the help of Krel and Aja, the Trollhunters, and the Wizards, the two had their magic stripped away by Akiridian tech, and Jim was able to deliver the finishing blows.

Now today, the day the Titans were supposed to have risen, there was nothing but blue skies. School happened like normal, and the world was at peace. Claire and Jim finished their stroll through Trollmarket as they arrived at Blinky’s study. He was ready for them, and complained that they were the last to arrive. 

Inside sat Toby and Aaarrrgghh, who were shoving their faces with the feast that Blinky had prepared. Jim and Claire sat down at the large table and Blinky looked at him expecting him to speak. Jim chuckled and rose to make a toast.

“We have overcome a lot. The defeat of Bular, Gunmar, and the Arcane Order. Merlin and Morgana are off on their own. Douxie and Archie are protecting Arcadia from mystical threats. Aja, Krel, Steve, and Eli are off on Akiridion-5 to rule together. The Darklands liberated, our families reunited, and our loved ones close. This was all I ever wanted for all of you, and I couldn’t be happier.” Jim looked around at the smiling faces surrounding him. This was his family, the ones that had been with him since the start. Blinky, his mentor and father figure, Aaarrrgghh his loyal friend, Claire the love of his life and powerful sorceress, and Toby, the friend who had been with him since the beginning. From a time before trolls and aliens and wizards. When he had wanted more excitement in life.

There were days the burden of the what-could’ve-beens plagued Jim’s mind and he struggled to carry on with the weight of his mistakes. But then days like this happened, where he knew he had changed things for the better, and the world was better off because of his sacrifice. He wouldn’t change a thing, and given the choice to have the time stone again, he would toss it aside. This was the happy ending they all deserved, the ending he worked hard to give them all. There had been changes that brought new threats to face, new calls to answer. But he faced them all with the friends and family he chose and surrounded himself with, and he used his experience to do what he could. He was a hero, the Trollhunter, the champion of Trollmarket. He was Jim the Bular Slayer, the Gunmar Slayer, but most importantly he was Jim Lake. The first Human Trollhunter. And he didn’t think, he became.