#like i know if you don’t have that obscure piece of knowledge then there’s no way to assume that’s what it is

[farm-lesbian]

the fact that at least a few radfems on this stupid site fell for an edited pic of the 4chan-pepe-alt-right’s favorite meme….ladies i love you but being reactionary and believing every tweet screenshot or reblog you see is not how andrea raised you.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Homebrew Mechanic: Meaningful Research

Being careful about when you deliver information to your party is one of the most difficult challenges a dungeonmaster may face, a balancing act that we constantly have to tweak as it affects the pacing of our campaigns.

That said, unlike a novel or movie or videogame where the writers can carefully mete out exposition at just the right time, we dungeonmasters have to deal with the fact that at any time (though usually not without prompting) our players are going to want answers about what's ACTUALLY going on, and they're going to take steps to find out.

To that end I'm going to offer up a few solutions to a problem I've seen pop up time and time again, where the heroes have gone to all the trouble to get themselves into a great repository of knowledge and end up rolling what seems like endless knowledge checks to find out what they probably already know. This has been largely inspired by my own experience but may have been influenced by watching what felt like several episodes worth of the critical role gang hitting the books and getting nothing in return.

I've got a whole write up on loredumps, and the best way to dripfeed information to the party, but this post is specifically for the point where a party has gained access to a supposed repository of lore and are then left twiddling their thumbs while the dm decides how much of the metaplot they're going to parcel out.

When the party gets to the library you need to ask yourself: Is the information there to be found?

No, I don't want them to know yet: Welcome them into the library and then save everyone some time by saying that after a few days of searching it’s become obvious the answers they seek aren’t here. Most vitally, you then either need to give them a new lead on where the information might be found, or present the development of another plot thread (new or old) so they can jump on something else without losing momentum.

No, I want them to have to work for it:  your players have suddenly given you a free “insert plothook here” opportunity. Send them in whichever direction you like, so long as they have to overcome great challenge to get there. This is technically just kicking the can down the road, but you can use that time to have important plot/character beats happen.

Yes, but I don’t want to give away the whole picture just yet:  The great thing about libraries is that they’re full of books, which are written by people,  who are famously bad at keeping their facts straight. Today we live in a world of objective or at least peer reviewed information but the facts in any texts your party are going to stumble across are going to be distorted by bias. This gives you the chance to give them the awnsers they want mixed in with a bunch of red herrings and misdirections. ( See the section below for ideas)

Yes, they just need to dig for it:  This is the option to pick if you're willing to give your party information upfront while at the same time making it SEEM like they're overcoming the odds . Consider having an encounter, or using my minigame system to represent their efforts at looking for needles in the lithographic haystack. Failure at this system results in one of the previous two options ( mixed information, or the need to go elsewhere), where as success gets them the info dump they so clearly crave.

The Art of obscuring knowledge AKA Plato’s allegory of the cave, but in reverse

One of the handiest tools in learning to deliver the right information at the right time is a sort of “slow release exposition” where you wrap a fragment lore the party vitally needs to know in a coating of irrelevant information,  which forces them to conjecture on possibilities and draw their own conclusions.  Once they have two or more pieces on the same subject they can begin to compare and contrast, forming an understanding that is merely the shadow of the truth but strong enough to operate off of. 

As someone who majored in history let me share some of my favourite ways I’ve had to dig for information, in the hopes that you’ll be able to use it to function your players.

A highly personal record in the relevant information is interpreted through a personal lens to the point where they can only see the information in question 

Important information cameos in the background of an unrelated historical account

The information can only be inferred from dry as hell accounts or census information. Cross reference with accounts of major historical events to get a better picture, but everything we need to know has been flattened into datapoints useful to the bureaucracy and needs to be re-extrapolated.

The original work was lost, and we only have this work alluding to it. Bonus points if the existent work is notably parodying the original, or is an attempt to discredit it.

Part of a larger chain of correspondence, referring to something the writers both experienced first hand and so had no reason to describe in detail. 

The storage medium (scroll, tablet, arcane data crystal) is damaged in some way, leading to only bits of information being known. 

Original witnesses Didn’t have the words to describe the thing or events in question and so used references from their own environment and culture. Alternatively, they had specific words but those have been bastardized by rough translations. 

Tremendously based towards a historical figure/ideology/religion to the point that all facts in the piece are questionable.  Bonus points if its part of a treatise on an observably untrue fact IE the flatness of earth

[x-on-the-calendar-business]

ryan ross iceberg explained (masterpost and tier 1)

tier 2, tier 3, tier 4, tier 5, tier 6, tier 7, tier 8

if somehow you have no idea how icebergs work/what they are, then i’ll give a tldr: it comes from the saying “it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” so basically, the entries at the top of the iceberg are the stuff the average person would know, and as you go deeper, the content becomes more obscure. for example, if you’re a more casual panic! fan, then a lot of the entries in the sky tier are more likely to be things you would know, whereas you’re probably only going to know the stuff at the very bottom if you’re an insane person (me).

i got most of the entries from this iceberg from a couple of others that i found on twitter, here and here [i]. i combined them, shifted some stuff around, and added some things to make this one. of course, a special thanks to the twitter users areyouIlooking and checkyesjuul for making the ones i used to create this one.

i also want to give a special shoutout to the tumblr blogs @pathetic-at-the-disco and @prettyoddfever because i got so much info from them for this iceberg and they are just incredible sources of information for panic! fans.

finally, i'm really hoping everything on this iceberg is correct; of course, i did my research and there was a lot of it i already knew. however, i was not actually there for presplit panic! so i can't speak off of firsthand accounts for a lot of things. with that being said, if something is wrong, or if there is something you think should be added, please feel free to let me know, and i will go back and edit the post.

enough introduction, let’s get started.

the sky (tier 1):

guitarist of panic!:

what he is most well known for. ryan was the original guitarist of panic! and one of the true founding members. he departed the band in 2009 with former bassist jon walker, which we’ll come back to later.

rosevest:

this refers to an iconic piece of clothing that ryan wore while they were touring their debut album, a fever you can’t sweat out. he wears it in live in denver as well.

(side note: the post i got this pic from is a very interesting look at their outfits from that tour so i would recommend checking it out here!) [ii]

good at makeup:

during the fever era, ryan was really well known for doing makeup looks, some elaborate. i’m inserting some examples here, but i’m also going to link a post that showcases more pics of the makeup looks he did. there are more that he did than just the ones shown in that post or here (like the god awful blue eyeshadow he did on that red carpet), and there were a lot of times he just did the classic black smudged eyeliner.

and the tumblr post as promised: the makeup styles ryan ross wore in summer 2006 [iii]

ryden:

oh boy, where do we even start with this one. there are actually going to be quite a bit of ryden references in this, but at the end i’ll link a masterpost for further reading (although most of it will be covered here). but to be keep it short and simple, ryden is the ship name for ryan ross and brendon urie. it was arguably one of the biggest ships in early 2000s bandom, as evidenced by the litany of fics written with them as a pairing. this ship (unfortunately) still lives on in people’s hearts today even though ryan and brendon don’t speak anymore.

also, i know it would seem to make more sense if their ship name was ryDON not ryDEN because of how brendon’s name is spelled, but the ship name comes from the mashing of their nicknames ryro and bden (which still doesn’t make any sense but i digress).

unfortunately, all of the ryden content on this iceberg will probably be long because i am a former rydennie (yes u can make fun of me for it go ahead) so i have a lot of knowledge on that ship. but trust me i know that ryden was not real.

“creative differences:”

this entry refers to the july 6th, 2009 split where ryan and jon left the band. the most cited reason for the split was musical differences, as stated in these interviews with brendon and spencer [iv]. however, most people believe the band actually split due to personal reasons since they basically all stopped speaking afterwards, and because of some comments jon made [v]. in fact, one MTV interview specifically singled out ryan and brendon as not getting along, but it has since been deleted [vi].

cheez wiz:

this references a clip from the pretty. odd. short-film called american valley [vii]. the video went viral circa 2015/2016 and became a huge meme in the bandom community, especially in the crankthatfrank yeemo fanbase (that sentence wasn’t in the bible). if you were a panic! fan during that time, you know the cheez wiz jokes were inescapable.

milk fic:

“ryan was kneeling in the bathtub…”

this is also unfortunate. to be blunt, this is a ryden fic in which brendon gives ryan an enema with milk. it catalyzed a trend of other shocking fics within the bandom sphere, such as the comb fic. it’s just cringy. sadly, it became so iconic that brendon knows about it and even made a vine referencing it [viii].

i would link it but i’m not going to because the author, druscila, is a pedophile. so there’s that.

onceler jokes:

i’m going to put a picture of the onceler, who is from the lorax, and ryan side by side. and that should explain this.

now let’s move on to the next tier.

tier 2

references:

[i] https://twitter.com/areyouiooking/status/1366887508441718790?s=46&t=srOJ3YueMMsx9_sm96odQQ, https://twitter.com/checkyesjuul/status/1368794897499615233?s=46&t=srOJ3YueMMsx9_sm96odQQ

[ii] https://prettyoddfever.tumblr.com/post/628882839458512896/panic-at-the-discos-2006-summer-tour-costumes

[iii] https://prettyoddfever.tumblr.com/post/629161631117656064/the-makeup-styles-ryan-ross-wore-in-summer-2006

[iv] https://patd.livejournal.com/2943372.html, https://patd.livejournal.com/2928377.html#cutid1

[v] https://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/131968366779/jon-walker-and-ryan-ross-from-a-2009-interview-in

[vi] https://whisperdlullaby.livejournal.com/9051.html

[vii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBot_X9pquo

[viii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyWlisnfrm0

[hollowtones]

Do you have a favorite piece of obscure video James trivia or funny weird bits of game knowledge?

I don’t know how obscure this is given how it’s a fairly big-ish documentary. Anyways, Puzz and I have been watching “PsychOdyssey”, the big doc about the development of “Psychonauts 2”, and there’s this neat trend we noticed where, like...

Multiple times they’d highlight some level concept, or some mechanic, or setpiece they were trying to create for a given level, & they’d end up going “oh this is too difficult, or this doesn’t fit his world and this story, or this isn’t working out for one reason or another, let’s scrap this.” Nine time’s out of ten it ends up being an idea you see in the released game’s version of Bob’s Bottles. Ranging from “lone boat atop a mountaintop,” to specific puzzle layouts, to “impossibly turning hallways,” to “cake”. A bunch of other examples that I don’t remember off-hand, but it was a neat thing to notice.

[electronicclowncollector]

STINGUE ESSAY

(Credit to @lilacharbour for providing me with the screenshots for evidence)

(^Yours (and your cat’s) reaction to seeing this post)

That’s right, in this essay, I will be persuading you, and any of the doubters out there, that the ship stingue is undeniably canon, and not the sort of canon you can just headcanon away. I will present several pieces of evidence with my vast knowledge of the Fairy Tail franchise (really vast) that can completely prove that stingue is a real ship (also known as Ring, stogue, the sabretooth boys, strong, but for the sake of keeping track of it, I’ll use the most obscure name for it, stingue). P.S. if you haven’t read my Rogue post, go do it, this won’t make any sense without a firm understanding of my analysis of Rogue’s character, and it's way shorter than this so there’s no reason not to.

Exhibit A: In this manga panel, we can see that sting is wearing a cat outfit. Many of the doubters would dismiss this, saying that this was all a part of his character development in the Saber Tooth arc, where he *Allegedly* wanted to become true to his guild name and become a sabretooth tiger (with cool dragon powers). I propose a different idea. He was doing this to impress Rogue. We all know the entire Fairy Tail franchise loves cats, it’s common knowledge, if you didn’t know that then you did inadequate research in preparation for this essay. But what makes this specific to rogue is that he’s wearing a cat COSTUME. NOT CAT EARS. NOT A CAT TAIL. AN ENTIRE COSTUME. You know who else is a cool cat in costume?!?!? THAT’S RIGHT, FRESH! ROGUES CAT. CLEARLY, sting was doing this in a bid to replace Rogue’s beloved cat Fresh, and you can CLEARLY SEE Rogue blushing, however, the blushing is only in the colored version of the director cut of the manga, and its top secret (only I have a copy), so you’ll have to trust the experts on this one. Also is the girl on the right single? If so, send her my way.

I’m sure the manga readers In the crowd are reacting just like Sting and Rogue did in exhibit B. But OP, I hear you ask, what about the anime only viewers? They won’t have this part of the manga adapted for years! And I must say, what an astute observation, I completely respect your question and you have earned a red heart, you can redeem it at the bottom of the post, or if you want to pass it to a friend press the two arrows button next to it to recycle the heart. ANYWAY, this shot here, was taken directly from the seen during the the raids on the beaches of Akane, when both Sting and Rogue had been caught in a quicksand trap by the SINISTER Bickslow. Where does Stingue apply to this? You may ask. Well, just outside the frame, we can’t see (but we know its true) that everyone is running around them to get ahead, because even the background characters like Natsu and Gajeel (may the dragons bless his sacrifice for the sins of fairy tail) know that they are romantically involved, but the scene cuts to black to see fresh teaming up with stings cat whatever its name (Bradley or doug or something) to save them, but off screen, they literally reach out and HOLD HANDS in the scene. THEY THOUGHT THEY WOULD DIE but their only thoughts were their mutual love for eachother. If that story didn’t make you cry, then I don’t know what did.

But OP I hear some of you asking, if they’re in a relationship, WHY havent they been openly talking about the more intimate side of their relationship? First of all, go reread the manga, second of all, this point is for you. Read Exibit C. Now, I’m sure this doesn’t need any explanation, it’s a completely self-explanatory point. But for some It is necessary, and I shall provide. These two were getting very lovey dovey during a date together, they were going on a walk in the forest and oh my, a river, and how did they get across? Stepping stones! The reason why it says a “Person stepping contest” rather than a “Stepping stones constest” is because of a translation error, no need to elaborate further. Another point to be made, more specific to this panel, is the character in the background, that very few people noticed on their first few reads, is Gandalf! Now, I’ll give you a chance to pick up your phone/ipad/PC/book after you all dropped it in shock, because that’s a lot to take in. But how does it relate to the ship? Well, Gandalf is a very close word to Gander, the word for an adult male goose, which in fairy tail culture is an animal associated with passion and romance, so Gandalfs presence obviously correlates with that. He has appeared in every single manga panel with rogue and sting in the background, further proof that they have a romantic, passionate relationship.

My next point relates to the games, which I have played time and time again just for this one cutscene. During the Mt. Hakobe chapter, the two were forced to travel up the mountain to obtain the fabled dragonberry from the mountain, in order to save Rogues adoptive mother/auntie dragon. The following dialogue ensued, starting with rogue: “Heya fresh, do you think you could pass me the beans? They’re in the backpack” (fresh was in rogues backpack at the time), fresh responded with a mix between a meow and a ribbet, and sting responded with the following: “Hahah, not more beans! It’ll stink both of our sleeping bags up for when we’re cuddled up in the tent!”. Rogue proceeded to blush and a quick time event occurred. Their obvious lovers banter shows more then enough to prove that in the games, both characters are incredibly infatuated with eachother, because as Dr Seuss (with help from me) said: “You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because” “Rogue keeps eating all the beans before sleeping”.

Now my final point in this essay is how syncronised they are. Besides the obvious romantic tension when they do their special move where their massive balls touch (obvious gay symbolism), they’re also syncronised in many other things. Most notably, finishing eachothers sentences, read exhibit D. The example above shows this, where Sting says “Ah!!!” and Rogue finishes it off by saying “!!”, a reference to Stings famous catchphrase, “Ah!!!!!”, but this time rogue added on the last 2 exclamation marks, showing a clear understanding of eachothers speech patterns and mannerisms.

In conclusion, Sting and Rogue are the love of eachothers life, which has been clearly seen throughout the Manga, Anime and Game (s)(?) If you have yet to be convinced by this essay, then I thoroughly recommend you to reread the essay if you aren’t. but if you have been convinced, congratulations, you are officially a stingue shipper, welcome to the club, no, the family. I myself am an honorary member of  the fairy tail community, according to a friend of mine, so I’m qualified to tell you that you will fit right in.

(There was another point to be made about some random person drawing art of the two of them looking at eachothers balls and blushing, but they were mere amateurs without proper understanding of fairy tail as a franchise, so I left it out.)

[lucs-dxve]

tame

pairings: kaeya x gn!reader

genre: smut (MINORS DNI.)

warnings: nsfw, top!reader, sub!kaeya, mild swearing, dry humping, slight!dacryphilia, pet names (sweetheart, dove)

wc: 3k

summary: there’s hell to pay for kaeya’s misdemeanour. you love him to pieces, you do, but sometimes your lover gets a little too full of himself.

"quiet, alberich," you tut disapprovingly. "you don't get to make demands tonight."

kaeya's voice, caught somewhere between a chuckle and a choked moan, comes from underneath you as he pushes himself up with his elbows. you'd mistake his tone as flippant but you know better thanks to the shivers wracking across his body.

you could feel them; each and every minute jolt of his sculpted form. it's— it’s delicious, if you dare be so honest with yourself.

a guilty pleasure from where you're perched sitting pretty on his lap.

"aren't you being a little mean, sweetheart?"

there’s something about the way kaeya’s chest heaves that satisfies something deep within you- some obscured need. something primal. more visceral.

the knowledge that you have such a powerful, sought-after man in your bed, at your very fingertips, draws a smile from you. a proud one.

“a little,” you agree, but the smile drops as quickly as it came. “though it’s nothing compared to how you’ve been acting this evening.”

kaeya flashes you that signature grin, all teeth, feigning innocence as if he hadn’t been your personal hell less than half an hour ago. cheeky bastard.

“i have no idea what you’re—”

a single, steady hand on his chest pushes him back down onto the bed before he could finish making any excuses. he goes easily, falling with little to no resistance.

the man snickers as you raise a single brow at him, at his sly attitude. you let him laugh.

you have a feeling he won’t be soon.

silently you lean over him until puffs of his warm breath fan your face, and with two fingers you angle his chin so that he’s staring directly at you with those periwinkle eyes.

you had discarded his eyepatch long ago. it lays strewn across your floorboards, not that either of you particularly care; you were now able to search him in his entirety, and he could now admire you with a vision unobscured.

something you can only describe as twisted pleasure hits you, then, as you feel him squirm beneath you. your thumb rises up to glide indulgently over his lips and you can’t help but sigh at the feel of his skin.

kaeya’s lips are warm, plush, and soft— words you’d never associate with the vision granted to him by the gods. they follow the movement of your thumb as you pull and smooth over the delicate skin. he gives you a chaste kiss with them, all the while never breaking eye contact.

the action elicits a pleased hum from you, and you don’t miss the way his leg jumps at the sound.

he’s being so pliant, he is. so malleable under your touch.

so behaved - if that was even a term applicable to the cavalry captain - unlike how he was at the tavern.

archons. it kind of makes you want to kiss him, really.

but that’s something only good boys deserve, and kaeya alberich is anything but.

what a shame.

“tell me.” your voice is low, a gentle purr, seductive against the shell of his ear. you trace the area, touch ghosting. “just what were you trying to get at, earlier?”

kaeya can’t help but shudder, making a noise akin to a soft groan. sensitive, his ears were. so easy to make flush. his head is swimming, thanks to your alluring scent and voice. your touch. they all fill his thoughts with nothing but you, you, you.

not like you ever left. you were stuck there, an untouchable beacon of everything good in his life, ever since he met you all those years ago.

shit.

is that the cologne he bought you a few weeks ago? he’s certain it is- that potent mix of sunsettias and calla lilies. he remembers the scent well. the realisation sends another shiver down his spine, coaxes another suppressed grunt past his lips.

truthfully, he imagined this night going completely different; different in the way that he was supposed to be the one on top, and not the other way around. that was simply just the natural position for the pair of you.

it wasn’t like he was complaining, though. far from it. it was rare for you to top him like this, and he welcomed every moment with open arms. this side of you was a rarity- a delicacy. a treat, all for him.

but he’s still kaeya alberich, no matter how pliant he is beneath you. no matter how easily he bends to your will.

he does his best to match your forwardness if only to push your buttons.

always pushing, this one. always.

there’s a pause midway through his answer as if mulling his words over.

“i was only playing with you, dove. it was hardly anything,” he says matter of factly, like it was the truest thing in the world. that grin was still plastered onto his handsome face despite the heat seared onto his cheeks.

you wonder how long it’ll stay there. not long, judging by the telltale signs of his arousal.

“groping me under the table isn’t hardly anything,” you hiss. “we almost got caught, kae. i know you're practically half blind, but didn’t you see the way charles was looking at us? archons above, even diluc was staring!” the memory has your face burning despite yourself.

kaeya hums, drawing out the sound. there’s a glint in his eyes that you, unfortunatley, depending on how you look at it, know very well.

you’re a patient person.

he’s testing you. wants to know how far he’ll get before you crack.

you swear you are.

“so they were, yes. and what of it?”

but even the most patient of saints have their limits.

“‘what of it’...?”

before kaeya could so much as blink, you pin the both of his wrists onto the bed as you settle back onto his groin. roughly. you begin a slow grind- so slow it’s near agonising for the man you call darling.

a simple back and forth motion.

you delight in the melody of his startled choke, drinking it in and savouring the taste like a parched animal. such a pretty voice for such a pretty man. a light sigh of relief escapes you as you feel that familiar bulge pressing up against your heat.

how well endowed, this man. truly, he had it all. everything.

had you all. everything, everything.

you watch with ravenous eyes as kaeya struggles to maintain his cool facade. there are fissures, cracks, now, within his glacial walls that you see all too clearly. every last trace of faux confidence is gone, now that the only thing on his mind is the pleasure of you grinding down onto him. he curses, breath ragged and mind foggy.

shamelessly he starts to roll his hips up onto you, matching your set pace. kaeya’s moans grow just the slightest bit louder, more salacious, as you press the rest of your weight onto his straining cock.

but you want more.

always are wanting more- more of him, to be exact. his pain, his pleasure. you want it all. 

want it so bad that you’re willing to destroy yourself for it. for him.

you aren’t normally this needy. or at least, you think you aren’t. but the way he’d been palming you underneath the wooden table at the tavern earlier had left you hot and bothered despite the chill of his cryo-infused hand.

and yet despite your growing need, there’s a sliver of guilt within your subconscience for wanting to covet such a gorgeous man. there are times where you wonder if you’re truly worthing of having kaeya all to yourself, despite his constant reassurances and promises. the questions lingered at the back of your mind, taunting you when you least expect it to.

and this moment was proof of that. even in the midst of your shared passion do these insecurities sing in your ears like sirens. seductive mistresses in your bed.

you don’t realise your pace has almost all but stopped, nor do you realise the sudden flash of concern within kaeya’s frosty eyes.

“dove?” he watches with a frown as his soft call falls on deaf ears. the heavy expression on your face told him all he needed to know, and he, too, stops his motions in concern for you.

what place did you, a lowly baker, have at the side of someone such as he? an upstanding member of ordo favonius? the insecurities are enough to consume you whole sometimes, enough to keep you awake even as he finds refuge in your arms at night.

but you’re nothing if not a tad selfish.

and with the way that kaeya was sprawled so vulnerably across your sheets, letting you see the most hidden and intimate side of him, peering at you with a gaze so gentle is enough to quell your worries and hold them at bay.

this is the kaeya that only you, and you alone, were privy to. the fact that he trusts you this much is a testament to your relationship, how far you've both come; it placates you, and so does his hand stroking your cheek. you turn to give a lasting kiss on the palm that cradles you.

thank you.

the words go unspoken, but you trust he understands you nonetheless. he always does.

he’s so picturesque like this; half naked, cobalt hair cascading down his form in waves, and looking up at you with those eyes... kaeya is perfect. so perfect, in fact, that it’s almost painful.

yes, you murmur silently. you are selfish.

you pick up your pace, and he gasps.

the sudden change in your movements, once slow and teasing but are now faster and more deliberate, has kaeya reeling. his head falls back onto your pillow and the action exposes the length of his throat.

the sight makes you think of biting him. 

“hmm...” a single finger ghosts lightly at his jugular. kaeya whimpers. 

whimpers.

you change your mind. you’re going to bite him.

ducking down, you lave gently over the spot that you know has him seeing stars- an apology for the possible pain to come. then, experimentally, and for your own curious pleasure, you push down on the area with your tongue before finally nipping his skin, sucking the bite tenderly.

the action has him gasping your name into steamy air of your bedroom and thrusting shallowly back onto you.

oh, what a glorious noise.

you wonder, absentmindedly, if he knows what he’s doing.

he’s unravelling you without even trying, and you could only hope that you make him feel even just a fraction of what he does to you.

you click your tongue after giving the bite an apologetic kiss. the mark blooms a pretty red once you leave. you hope it'll turn purple. blue, even, if only to match his azure hair.

but perhaps you’re being too mean.

the sound of rustling fabric catches your lover’s attention almost instantly, kaeya’s gaze snapping up to your fingers that move to unbutton your shirt. it’s hard, trying not to act phased when he’s stringing curses like a piece of jewellery.

he’s shameless roving his eyes over your exposed upper body. a devious idea comes to mind and you stretch, bringing your arms up sensually above your head, if only to tease the man further.

and what a sight you were.

you're only a little too pleased with yourself when you catch his adam's apple bobbing as he gulps.

you can feel it, his cock. feel it throbbing away within the confines of his tight pants. you wonder if it hurts to have it strain so much; there’s a twinge of pity welling up inside you, but you pay it no mind.

after all, he dug his grave as soon as he made you flush at the tavern; buried himself as soon as he pushed all your buttons, testing you with his bratty behaviour.

he’d pay with his pent-up frustration.

leaning back on your hands, you slow down once again and begin making small circles with your hips pressed impossibly closer to his ache. a heat licks up your groin as you watch him melt like ice before you. his chest rises and falls with each shaky intake of air, eyes squeezed shut before opening, half-lidded, to watch you with fervour.

you smile coyly at him, curiosity getting the better of you.

“do i look good to you, mr. alberich?”

“please,” it’s sinful, how utterly debauched he sounds. how it sends pleasure pooling straight to your gut. “please, need to— need to touch you.”

need. not want, need.

he’s adorable when he wants to be, truly. you almost give into his wishes.

almost. but you're no pushover.

“touch me and it’ll be the last time you do for the next month.”

you indulge in the way kaeya whines in assent- the sound, almost imperceptible, makes you coo down at him. his hands fall helplessly to his side, left with no other choice but to grasp at the silken sheets. a sweat begins to build upon his temple thanks to his efforts, and you stoop down to kiss at the area.

he’s so good. so good, and he doesn't even know it. 

for a captain, he sure knew how to take orders from others rather well.

perhaps it’s time for a reward, then.

making a show out of it, you run your tongue over two thumbs, ensuring that he could clearly see the pink of the soft organ, before gently pressing them down onto kaeya’s pert nipples.

you flick them in a steady rhythm; up with one, down with the other, groping at his pecs at random intervals.

you’re truly blessed to be able to have your hands on someone so gorgeous. your hands lay claim to each and every single dip and curve of his body.

it’s difficult not to feel anything but aroused when he’s practically bucking up into you now, clawing desperately at the bedding.

he looks like he’s about to cry. you think you want him to cry. he’s awfully pretty when he cries.

“you’re— you’re killing me, sweetheart!” your breath hitches audibly at the sheer desperation in his tone.

you’re fucked, you think, for wanting a man so badly. for him to reduce you to a such greedy mess with nothing but his voice? you’re completely, utterly fucked in every sense of the word.

you offer him a dry chuckle. “well, this is all you’re getting.” a pause, crossing your arms and tapping your chin as if in thought, “so be a darling and enjoy yourself.”

kaeya’s surprised he hasn’t torn through your bedding already with the restraint it’s taking him not to just flip you over and have his way with you.

there’s nothing he wants more than to touch and spoil you with his affections, litter you with love bites and make you go silly. but seeing as he's in no position to do so, he instead focuses on chasing his high, closing his eyes in pure ecstasy.

“n-ngh…”

“that’s it,” you coo. “such a good boy for me, isn’t that right?”

kaeya’s world spins as he nods his head. he can’t seem to stop the tremors coursing through his body at your soft praise, can no longer hold back the tears from spilling past his lashes. they run down his face in pretty rivulets, leaving glistening streaks in their wake. 

but alas, you’re no cruel lover. having kaeya beneath you, the very picture of vulnerability and submission, is enough to satiate your desires. 

he has been good, after all. much better than before.

“alright,” you cede. kaeya’s floating through the haze in his mind, and he barely manages to catch the rest of what you had to say.

touch me, kaeya.

with your permission finally granted, kaeya all but shoots up to lean his upper body against the headboard. sturdy arms fly to wrap around your waist as he all but smothers you to him, and it’s all you can do to sling your own around his neck and hold on.

a pent-up kaeya was not one to be taken lightly.

he’s all grunts and wanton moans now. not that he wasn’t already, but now that he’s able to have his hands on you he can’t seem to keep himself sane. his grip is almost bruising as you're smushed against his neck, hands wandering to your hips, to your lower back, then back around your waist as if he didn't know what to do with himself.

kaeya practically rabbits into you as he presses you onto him. restraints be damned, he’s so close.

so, so, impossibly close.

the friction of his clothes rubbing against his constrained, throbbing dick and the feel of your warmth surrounding him has the captain breaking at the seams. he’s close.

you’re in no better position yourself; gone is your authoritative tone, and all that slips past you now are muffled whimpers and pitiful gasps. you bite your lip in an attempt to stay as quiet as possible. quite the shame for kaeya, he loves to hear your pleasure.

but your lover doesn’t seem to share the same sentiment, when it comes to volume. never has, really.

“‘m— ‘m gonna—!”

kaeya finds himself at the precipice of bliss, and he falls hard, sated, with the knowledge that it was you who brought him there.

the sound of him reaching his orgasm is something you’d never tire of. if his regular voice already had you weak at the knees, you had no idea how to describe what his orgasm did to you.

it’s… it’s angelic, as sinful as the sound may be. it has you tossing your head back, eyes closed and mouth agape.

has you climaxing soon after, and hard. his voice, so sickeningly saccharine, sends you into a state of euphoria as you sing with him, shaking helplessly in his arms. your voices harmonise in a wonderful duet.

kaeya is loud. so, very loud.

but so are you, in the end. you gasp and whine and writhe at the feeling of his seed soaking through your pants.

archons. you fucked like animals, and now you’re making noises like them, too.

barbatos strike you down.

kaeya pets absentmindedly at you as he rides out both your orgasms, murmuring variations of ‘i love you’s as he kisses the expanse of your neck. you lay slumped against him, the both of you indulging in the rapture of your highs.

in post-orgasmic glow you realise that his pleasure is truly just as much yours as it is his. for you to have come just by watching and hearing him climax…

fuck. 

he’d be the death of you, surely.

but that’s fine. something tells you the sentiment goes both ways.

[the-writer-nerd-ro]

Ohhhh we are popping the biggest bottles, it only took writing 25 fics (plus a small number of fics from other talented writers) but Sara and Hunter are FINALLY a recognized relationship tag on AO3

To celebrate, please enjoy:

Sara and Hunter are Two Rats

Hunter was exhausted after a long day of overseeing funerals. It was a stressful job, because mourners don't always behave tactfully and also because most funerals were for crows and crows tend to eat rats.

Her parents had had a much more friendly relationship with the local birds, but they'd been lost in a tragic rat poison incident and now Hunter was left running funerals for creatures that could eat her if they decided they didn't like the flower arrangements.

So she was a little on edge at the end of the day. All she wanted to do was collapse in her little hole until she had get up and go to work for the next murder victim or piece of roadkill that deserved a touching tribute.

The second she got comfortable and closed her eyes the hole filled with noise. She didn't have to open her eyes to find the source, she knew it was Sara.

Sara had acquired a zune from the humans and so everywhere she went she had background music. It was weirdly endearing- when you didn't have a skull splitting headache from a day of hard work.

“Hey! You want to go to the rat rave?”

“The what?” Hunter asked, which was a mistake. Responding meant confirming that she was awake.

“It's a rave for rats.”

“I should have known.”

“It doesn't get as crazy as the bat raves but those are pretty exclusive. I mean I can get in and I'd vouch for you, you do fit their aesthetic… Do you want to go to a bat rave?”

“Mmph.”

“How do you feel about being upside down?”

Hunter cracked an eyelid and looked at Sara. She loved Sara's enthusiasm and obscure party knowledge, but she couldn't match her energy on a good day and this one had been especially bad.

“Look, I almost got eaten today, so I don’t really feel like going out.”

Sara's eyes seemed to glow with anger at this revelation, “Who?”

“No one you know,” Hunter said quickly.

“Tell me their name and I'll hunt them down to the ends of the earth and make sure they never party in this city again.”

“Or,” Hunter suggested gently, “you can come over here and snuggle.”

Sara thought about it for a second, turning off her zune right as it was in the middle of “I Am” by Bon Jovi.

She came over and lay protectively in front of Hunter, so that any predators that found them in the night would have to go through her first.

“I'll keep you safe.”

Hunter nuzzled into Sara, “It's enough for you to keep me company.”

“I can do that, too.”

“Thanks for skipping the rat rave for me.”

“There will be other rat raves. But there's only one you.”

As she was falling a sleep Hunter kind of smiled and mumbled, “Yeah, I love you too.”

[deviljayman]

Darksider - Vampire Fantasy Novel (WIP) Chapter 7 - Magic (Draft 1)

If you want to read the full story, send me a message and I'll link you the document!

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

Arlin felt like a rock, his whole body felt like it was weighing him down. Usually he would wake up right at the start of Fight Night, when the stars were at their brightest. But when that time came, he couldn’t get up, he just didn’t have the energy to fight off his exhaustion. So he just laid there, in that state in between sleep and waking that he spent so much time in. 

But eventually he did wake up, sluggishly opening his eyes to get a look at where they had ended up. The first thing he saw was the sky, the stars beginning to dim as Second Night was beginning. It wasn’t exactly the time that Arlin was used to waking to. They were in a small grove, a clearing in the forest obscured by the surrounding fog. The first thing he heard when he woke was voices, those voices being Leon and Erica seemingly arguing.

“As I said before, I can heal my wounds on my own.” Leon said.

“You can, but you’d also exhaust yourself from overusing magic. With these bandages at least it will heal a bit on its own, then you can do the rest with magic.” Erica said.

Leon seemed to not have much reason to argue back, as Erica was bandaging up the wounds on his back. Just before she wrapped up the wounds, she took out a green ointment that she lightly dabbed on the wound. Leon winced slightly but didn’t make a noise as she continued to patch him up.

“Leon!” Arlin said, getting up and running over to the pair. “Are you okay?”

“I am alright, I just need to heal from our encounter with the Coven Guard.” he said. “There is no need to worry.”

“You got hurt?”

“Yes. Do you not remember?”

“I remember falling when we were running away from them; everything after that is a blur.” 

“You must have blacked out right when you hit the ground.” Erica explained. “When you fell, Leon ran over to shield you and got nailed in the back by two spears. So now he’s gotta heal up.” 

When the knowledge hit Arlin, his face fell into a frown. It was clear just by looking at him that he was upset, not just at what happened but by much more than that. Erica clocked it almost immediately; she quickly finished up Leon’s bandages and gave him a pat on the back.

“Alright big guy, I’m all done.” she said. “You’ve got to rest for a while, so no more overexerting yourself. You got that?”

“Yes, I understand.” Leon said with an unexpected twinge of annoyance. 

“Arlin, how bout we go grab some food while Leon rests? I saw some plum trees further down that way.” she pointed past the treeline. 

“Oh, sure I can help.” Arlin replied.

“Alrighty.” she grabbed an empty bag and flung it over her shoulder. “Let’s go, and don’t try to do anything too straining while we’re gone Leon.”

“You have made yourself clear.” he said. “I will not overexert myself.” 

She waved before heading in the direction she pointed out. Arlin followed behind, looking back to Leon one more time before catching up with her. The fog began to clear out as the two of them walked through it, the path behind them obscuring as they went further in. 

“Is this one of those safe places you know about?” Arlin asked.

“Something like that, it’s a small grove surrounded by a river so the Coven Guard aren’t likely to follow us here.” she explained. 

“River? Does that mean…” he put his hands on his head, making sure he was still in one piece.

“Don’t worry, we found a break in the river to take you through.”  

He exhaled, relieved by the news. “Thank goodness, that would have been bad.”

“I know vampires can’t cross moving water, but why exactly is that?” she asked.

“Well from what I know the currents and flows disrupt the equilibrium of our bodies, or at least that’s how my caretakers described it. The way they made it sound, I thought my arm might fall off if I crossed one.” 

“I’ve only seen it happen once.” she started. “A Coven Guard was chasing me and some people I was transporting. We hopped over a river in the area to lose them, but the guard tried to leap after us. When he tried to jump across something stopped him, and he fell to the ground in a lot of pain. I didn’t stick around to see what happened next.” 

Arlin’s body shivered. “I really don’t want to find out. I’m not sure why it happens in the first place.”

“Well I don’t know a ton about vampires, but I do know a good bit about magic. If I could take a guess, your body has its own flow that keeps you together, maybe the flow of the water interrupts the flow in your body.” 

“I guess that makes sense, I don’t really know a lot about magic honestly.”

“You don’t?” Erica asked.

“No, I never really got it when my caretakers taught me.” he explained. “I actually wanted to ask you about it.” 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I don’t really know a lot about magic, I keep messing up. If I could learn how to use my magic better then maybe I could be more useful. So I want to ask, could you teach me?” he asked. “You said you were really good with magic, so if you taught me maybe I could at least be okay at it.” 

Erica looked at him, a soft smile coming over her face. “Is this about yesterday?” 

“Yeah. I can’t keep failing like that. Because I couldn’t use my magic properly I ended up passing out and getting Leon hurt. He does so much for me; I don’t want him putting himself in danger because I messed up.” 

“You two care a lot about each other, when you were asleep Leon was talking about the same thing.”

“He was?” Arlin asked. 

“Yep, he thinks he’s been putting you in danger and not doing a good job of protecting you. But you didn’t hear that from me okay?”

Arlin nodded but the thought perplexed him; how could Leon not think he was doing a good job at protecting him? He was doing everything he could and even more than that, there wasn’t much else Arlin could ask for.

“You must have known each other for a while if you care this much.” Erica said.

“Well, actually we haven’t known each other for very long. I’ve only been with him for a few days.” he explained.

“Really? Why are you two so close then?”

“I can’t really speak for Leon but, for me it’s cause he’s the only person who’s actually cared about my wellbeing. No one’s gone out of their way for me before so, I guess I just want to pay him back.”

“And you want to do that by learning how to use your magic better?”

Arlin nodded. “I’m not good at a lot, but I’ve got this power at least. I want to put it to good use.”

“Alright, if that’s the case then I’ll teach you. I think it’s time I take a pupil under my wing.”

Arlin put his hands together. “Thank you so much, Erica!” 

“No problem. Oh, we’re here.”

The two of them came upon a pair of trees bearing fruit. They were small, shorter than the other trees in the forest. Unless you were taking a walk through the forest, you wouldn’t be able to spot them. Their leaves were a deep purple color and around them bloomed white flowers. A sweet scent carried through the air; the plums were ready to be picked. Arlin had just learned he likes sweet flavors so he was excited to try these. 

Erica handed Arlin the bag and began to pick some plums from the trees, placing the fully ripe fruit in the bag. After picking enough for the three of them to eat, she tied the bag shut and took it back from Arlin.

“So.” she started. “How much do you know about magic?”

“Not as much as I should.” Arlin admitted. 

“Well tell me what you do know.” 

“My caretakers described it as ‘the ability to impose your will on the world’ but that doesn’t sound right now. Leon told me it’s a force and what makes up our bodies. Honestly I’m still unsure on what magic even is.”

“Leon was on the right track. Magic is indeed a force, but there’s a bit more to it than that.”

She waved her hand and the fog of the forest parted slightly, revealing more of the landscape around them. Arlin’s senses picked up more of this place– the sound of the river flowing over smooth stones, the wind carrying the pollen and scent of the flowers, the worms carving through the dirt below. He was always aware of the world around him, of all of the life that was there. 

“You want to know what magic is? You’re looking at it.” she gestured to the area around them.

“I don’t understand.” Arlin said. 

“Magic is everywhere, it’s all around us. It’s under our feet, it’s in the air, it’s in everything. Magic is not the earth but it is with the earth.”

She held her hand out, snapping her fingers before a flame sparked in her hand. 

“When we use magic we’re calling it to shape the world, to change and create something new. When your caretakers said that you could use it to impose your will, this is what they meant, just with a bit of aggression on their part.” 

“So magic is a force that you can call on to affect the world?”

“Exactly.” she confirmed.

“Then how do you do that?”

“It depends on person to person. Since you’re a vampire you can use shadow magic, basically using magic to manipulate shadows and give them form. Most vampires I’ve seen call magic with dominance and force, they use their authority to bend magic to their will.”

“I really don’t want to do that…” he said, a bit of apprehension in his voice. 

“And you don’t have to.”

“Really?” 

“Really.” she nodded. “Like I said, the way people use magic differs from person to person, you don’t need to do it like them, you can do it like you.”

Arlin was relieved; all his life his caretakers had told him to demand shadows to bend to him but he just couldn’t do it. It was unlike him to force anything to his will, it was cruel to him. 

“Besides, your magic’s a bit different than any shadow magic I’ve seen.”

“Wait, is it?” 

“Most vampires I’ve seen have only been able to create inanimate objects, like weapons or tools. But you’re able to make living things out of your shadows; I haven’t seen anything like it before. It’s honestly pretty amazing.”

“I don’t think it’s all that great, I can’t make weapons or tools like other vampires.”

“Yeah but most vampires can’t make animals like you can, that’s something to be proud of.”

“I guess it is…” he said, trailing off. “So how can I call on magic? I know it’s unique to each person but what’s the process like?” 

“Well when I use magic I’m usually in a bind; I ask the earth to lend me a hand and help out.” 

“Do you have to ask out loud?”

“Not all the time, but when you want to cast something big, you usually do. It’s called an incantation; big magic like that needs a strong call for it to work.”

“Alright, I think I’m starting to get it.” Arlin said. 

“Another thing to keep in mind is from where you’re calling your magic, cause for you it could come from two places.” Erica said. “It could come from the magic in your body or the magic around you.” 

“What’s the difference?” 

“If you’re drawing from the magic in you you’re drawing from your own reserves of magic, your own energy. If things go wrong you’ll be feeling the brunt of it, like when you fell unconscious yesterday. If you’re calling from magic around you then you won’t have this issue, but it’s much more difficult to get the magic around you to listen if you’re inexperienced.”

“I see.” he said, trying his best to retain all of this new information.

“The reason that you were having trouble before is cause you were trying to call from the magic around you while also trying to force out the magic in your body. That’s not to say you can’t do both; you could call some of the magic inside of you to amp up the magic you’ve already called. It’s an advantage you have as a vampire; since I’m a human I don’t have the option to call from internal magic.” 

“Wait, human? I thought you were a–”

“Nevermind that, let’s stay on topic.”

Arlin relented, but he made sure to save that question for a later time. 

“Give it a try.” Erica said. “Try to call magic to you, in your own way.” 

He nodded, taking a breath to steady himself. Arlin had no idea what he was going to do; whenever he used shadow magic it usually exhausted him. But that wasn’t always the case, sometimes he did it without even thinking. They would just appear, when he felt lonely or needed help, the shadows would shift and move to assist him. It was different from what Erica described, it felt like they answered a call that he never made. 

At that moment, he had an idea. It wasn’t fully formed, but he knew the less he thought about it the better it would turn out. He put his hand out, pointed right at the ground in front of him. First he looked to the shadows inside him, but he couldn’t see much. It was blinding, a viscous muck that he was unable to part. But then he turned to the shadows around him, the ones he knew well. The shadows cast by the trees as the light of the stars passed through their leaves, the shadows cast by the flowers as the wind caused them to wobble in place, and the shadows cast by him and Erica as they were wrapped up in the lesson. 

These shadows had always been with Arlin, following him around the mountaintop and even into the tiny room he used to sleep in. No matter what, they were always there, laying there cast by the light of the world. 

So this time he called, but this time not with words. He was taught another way to speak, a language shared with him by the animals of the mountain. Deep in his body he called out, a howl rippling out of him and into the space around him. He closed his eyes, trying his best to focus on the call, not wanting to lose it. Slowly, the shadows around him began to move, flowing to the spot Arlin pointed to with his hand. They went from flat on the ground to gaining depth, evolving in complexity the longer Arlin focused on the call. 

Erica watched, giving Arlin the space to focus and figure things out on his own. She told him not to strain and he was trying not to, although the effort not to strain took some slight straining. In a flash, the shadows stopped, their movement ceasing entirely. Arlin didn’t want to open his eyes, he didn’t want to see that he had failed in creating anything once again. If he didn’t open his eyes, his fears wouldn’t be real. 

But he felt something– a sensation on his palm, a familiar one. He felt a wet nose press up against his hand, and soon after that something was licking him. Arlin slowly opened up his eyes, still scared that he might just be imagining all of this. But he was not faced with an illusion, but something real and tangible. It was a wolf, a wolf completely made out of shadow. 

“Ah!” Arlin gasped, in shock that this was actually happening.

The wolf brushed up against Arlin’s hand, clearly wanting to be pet. Arlin laughed and of course gave the wolf all the pets and scritiches it could ever want. It was just like a real wolf, one made of wispy shadows but a wolf nonetheless. 

“I did it.” Arlin said in disbelief. “I actually did it.” 

“See? I knew you could do it.” Erica chimed in. 

“Thank you so much Erica, I couldn’t have done it without you.” 

“It’s no big deal; besides, we’re not done with the lessons just yet. You still need to practice more to use your magic properly; up for the challenge?” 

Arlin promptly nodded. “I am! Please keep teaching me!” 

Erica smiled and did just that. The two of them trained for a bit longer, Arlin getting used to using his magic faster and more naturally. He managed to conjure a few other animals, a few birds, some snakes, and a couple of rabbits. A wolf seemed to be the biggest thing he could create at the moment. In excitement for this new progress he tried to create a bear but it ended up disbursing before it took any shape. At the failure, Arlin was a bit disappointed. 

“Don’t worry.” Erica reassured. “The bigger effect you want to make with your magic, the more difficult it becomes. You’ll figure it out eventually.” 

With that reassurance, they continued the lesson. After a few minutes, Arlin was getting a bit tired. Thankfully he wasn’t on the verge of collapse for a change, instead just being a little winded after using so much magic.

“How about we stop for now? We don’t want you to get too worn out, we’ve got a big journey ahead of us.”

“Yeah, I’d rather not pass out again.” he said, blankly.

Erica threw the bag of plums over her back and the two of them started to head back over to camp. Once again they walked back through the fog as it parted for them, eventually coming back to see Leon. He hadn’t moved at all since they had left, he was just staring at the path they took to go into the forest. His gaze was focused on it, but when he saw the two of them, his look softened. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting big guy, Arlin wanted me to teach him something.” Erica said.

“And what did he ask for you to teach him?” 

“Here, I’ll show you.” Arlin said.

He put his hands together and he called to the shadows. A whistle went through his mind as a small crow formed in his hands. 

“Ta-da! Magic!” he said smiling. 

Leon looked surprised but he returned the smile. “That is wonderful, Arlin.” 

Arlin’s smile turned somber as his tone shifted. “I wanted to say sorry again Leon; it feels like I keep messing up and causing trouble for us. So I wanted to learn how to control my magic. I'm not that good at it yet but if I keep trying then maybe I can use it to help out.”

“Young one, I have said it once and I will say it again; it is not a sin for you to make mistakes. You are learning from them, which is what you should be doing and I am proud of that.”

“I am trying, I just don’t want to make another mistake. I don’t want to be a burden.” 

“You are not a burden, Arlin. A burden is something that is unwanted, and that is not what you are. It is my job to care for you and I do it gladly, please do not think of yourself as a burden.”

“I’m sorry, I just want to carry my own weight around here. I just–” he trailed off for a moment. “I don’t want you to keep getting hurt.” 

“You do much for us, do not discount yourself. If you were not there we would not have made it out of the city.” Leon explained. “But, perhaps I have been rash with how I put myself in danger. I will do my best to avoid taking unnecessary damage from now on. Would that put you at ease?” 

Arlin nodded. “Yeah, it would.” 

“Then consider it done.”

“Jeez. When he tells you to take care of yourself you listen but, when I say it you get pouty.” Erica yapped, her voice lined with annoyance. 

“I did listen.” Leon corrected. “I have not moved from this spot since you left.” 

She sighed. “Not the point, but forget it; how bout we eat?”

She held out the bag to Arlin and Leon who each took a plum for themselves. Arlin opened his mouth very wide before sinking first his fangs and then the rest of his teeth into the plum as he took a big bite. The flavor was a good bit different from the fig; it was sweet but there was another element to it that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. 

“Is it to your liking?” Leon asked. 

“It is!” Arlin replied, mouth full of plum. “It’s not as sweet as the fig but there’s something else to it, it tastes, sharp?”

“I think you mean tart.” Erica chimed in. 

“Yes that! I like it.” he took another bite out of the fruit. 

They ate until they felt full, then Arlin ate a bit more and was finished. At this point the stars had dimmed greatly, the sign that they were well into Second Night. Usually this was the time Arlin would be sleeping, but he was still full of energy. The plums and magic training had tried him out a bit but he had just woken up an hour ago, it didn’t feel right to sleep now. 

“I do not believe we’ll be traveling this night, correct?” Leon asked Erica.

“Nope, you still need to rest more so your wounds can heal. Besides, I think it’s a good idea to lay low; the Coven Guard might still be out looking for us.” 

“So what are you going to do?” Arlin asked.

“For now, stay put and rest; like I said this grove is safe so we won’t run into any trouble.”

“Aw man, but I just woke up.” 

“We have a long journey ahead of us young one, you should get as much rest as you can.” Leon advised.

“Yeah you’re probably right.” 

“You don’t need to fully sleep but you should take it easy, so no pushing it with magic alright?”

“Okay okay, I won’t.” 

“What do we have in store for us on this journey?” Leon asked.

“We’ll be heading west, the Silent Sanctuary is right near the border of the Kingdom of Man.”

“That close? Are you not afraid of Latro or Holy Knights finding the place?”

“We’ve taken precautions so that they don’t find us; my teacher set up a few barriers and spells that keep humans out. Unless they’re given a pass like me of course.”

The question that Arlin wanted to ask her again came to his mind, he looked to Leon to see if he had any reaction to it. But when he looked Leon was stoic as ever, it seemed that the knowledge wasn’t surprising to him. Arlin felt like he was missing something.

“Besides.” Erica started. “Latro and Holy Knights aren’t likely to search near their lands for monsters, they wouldn’t expect us to be there. We’re basically hiding right under their noses, it’s the last place they are likely to look.” 

“I understand the logic but it still feels like a risk, but if you have been successful for this long, perhaps there is something I am missing.” 

“Trust me, it works. But regardless, because it’s so close to the Kingdom of Man that means the sun will be a factor. Which means we’ll have to be careful.” she said, glancing over to Arlin. 

“Can I ask a question?” he said.

“Sure you can.”

“What’s the sun like? All my caretakers said was that a vampire dies if they are caught in direct sunlight.”

Erica thought for a moment. “Hm, how do I describe it. Well of course it’s very bright, looking at it for too long can make your eyes hurt. I’d say it’s brighter than even the brightest stars in the sky.”

“That sounds, painful. Even aside from the whole, dying part.”

“Well it’s not all bad, it’s very warm. It’s actually very nice to stand in and take it all in.”

There was a feeling in Arlin’s chest that was new to him, it was like a haze that trickled across him. It was jealousy, jealousy at the fact that Erica could experience this and he couldn’t. He didn’t like the feeling, he didn’t like how it almost made him mad at Erica. 

“I’ll take your word for it.” Arlin said. “I’m sure it’s not all bad.” 

“Regardless, we'll be avoiding it, we’ll be traveling during Second Night. Well, just night for them I guess.” 

“Do humans not have First and Second Night?” 

“Nope, they just have one night. Our First Night for them is what they call day; it’s the time when the sun is out.” 

“So they go to sleep when the sun goes down?”

“Yes, they do.” 

“That makes sense, I wouldn’t be able to sleep with all that light either.” 

“Speaking of rest.” Leon interjected. “I believe it is time we all got some rest.” 

“Good idea.” Erica said. “I think I’m gonna take a really long nap; I’ll see you two in the morning. I mean, First Night.”

She quickly took out a bedroll and got inside, just about immediately falling asleep.

“Will you be getting some rest, Arlin?” Leon asked.

“In a bit, I just want to stay up a little longer.” 

“I understand, but do make sure you get some rest.”

“I will.”

“Good, I will be going to sleep. Good night, young one.”

“Good night, Leon.” 

He as well took out his bedroll and got to sleep, lightly snoring as he got some well-deserved rest. Arlin meanwhile snuggled closer to the fire, the flames flickering and dancing across the wood below them. He thought about the sun, a light brighter than any star. This campfire in comparison was like an ember compared to the bonfire that the sun must be. 

Because of what Arlin was, he wouldn’t be able to see it. If he saw it, he would be dead. That fact didn’t sit well with him; he didn’t like that he wasn’t able to do something through no fault of his own, just because of how he was born. Was that fair? To be denied something that he could maybe have loved? 

He sat with his thoughts, nothing but the sounds of snores and crackling fire to accompany him. He inched up to the fire, putting his hands out to feel the heat on his skin. He focused on it, warmth, the feeling that the sun gave. Arlin thought that he would like to be warm.

[cateringisalie]

So there’s a new translation mod for FFVII – one that includes cut-content and is leaning on developer commentary for how to translate into English. That’s a thing. It also is using Compilation and Remake as guidance on the translation. That’s… that’s bad? Like, if you prefer Final Fantasy VII as it was released on the PSX and don’t like what Remake has been doing to the story, a lot of people are really quick and willing to tell you to not worry. The old game is right there. And it is… sort of.

There’s a whole bunch of issues with the original game in this sense. There is the game as released on the PSX which is harder to source now thanks to the nature of physical releases that old (they can be found but can be pricey). There’s the PC port which is ostensibly the version you can mostly easily get – though the PC port changed a few minor things, and the Steam/PS4/Switch release changed a few more things. That’s not even getting into how the Japanese release of the PSX game is missing a few bits and pieces the US/rest of the world PSX version has (namely Ruby and Emerald Weapon, the escape from Nibelheim) which lead to the Japanese re-release of the US version as Final Fantasy VII International. So, saying you can just have the original game is a bit flippant if we’re being strict about what that means. It feels additionally off that people are actively modding it to “fix” the translation but with an eye to keeping it consistent with the Remake and Compilation.

Which is just… if Remake is a sequel to Advent Children as people love to speculate, why should the original game be consistent with a modified universe in its future? If Remake is a drop-in replacement then why does it change so much stuff that you need to alter the original translation to fit with it?

What even is the necessity of a new translation?

(some might here point out Reminiscence of FFVII included on the AC DVD as a point that there is scope for a new translation. And sure, the Japanese text is done as subtitles and maybe its a little different to the PSX version. But its basically beside the point. Handful of examples and unlikely whoever got the job of subbing the documentary was unlikely to go boot up a PSX just to replicate the dialogue as originally displayed)

People are very eager to buy into the idea that FFVII was badly translated. While it is true there are spelling mistakes, grammar errors, some peculiar though minor terminology switches, a few misleading lines and the odd point where someone will say something utterly nonsensical… the US release of FFVII is great. Oh, its not got the same translation and localization quality as FFVI or Vagrant Story sure, but its not wrong in any meaningful way. Friends of mine have played through the Japanese FFVII and in their estimation the tone and characters and meaning of the experience tallies very close to the translated PSX version. No translation can be perfect – you don’t think we have this many translations of Don Quixote because this time we’ll get it righter than the previous versions, do you?

Translation – and localisation – is an art. The latter’s need to more blatantly alter cultural aspects that would be obscure in the West has eroded over time thanks to increasing familiarity with other cultures. It’s still essential as some cultural stuff just doesn’t come across (like, I know some would know the answers, but some of Persona 5’s test questions are completely outside common knowledge and necessitate looking up the answers. The test questions are pretty clearly completely non-localized) – and you can either replace if possible or going to have to stick a big asterisk beside the item. Translation, though, aims to capture the spirit of the original. This, incidentally, is a thing I remember from the introduction to the copy of Don Quixote I have – this translation was trying to capture Cervantes’s voice and how it would feel to read in the original language in another language.

And by – admittedly – anecdotal evidence, FFVII’s US version works absolutely fine. But I think there is a method to illustrate there’s nothing wrong with the original translation:

The desire for Compilation consistency I understand but don’t appreciate, but Remake consistency is baffling.

A more interesting question to me is this: you, as a FFVII fan from the PSX days, likely sought out Advent Children as soon as it leaked. Fan subs were rendered pretty quickly and a certain amount of US fans likely watched the film before it was officially out in Japan (given the choice was watch it immediately or wait 7 months for the official dubbed release). Did you – in all honesty – not understand something that happened in Advent Children because of how FFVII US portrayed the story?

Was any character radically out of step with the depiction (excepting Cloud whom the creatives have admitted is OOC and then there’s a whole book to try and justify this). Was any character outright unfamiliar (excepting the remnants, Denzel and Moogle Girl – all added to the film without precedents in FFVII)? Sure, Rufus surviving is something of a surprise, but no version of the PSX release ever implied he had. Tseng’s a more nebulous point but even then neither version says he’s alive or dead. If you did steer well clear of subtitles and bittorrent at the time, same questions when the dub was released.

Given reaction at the time, no one was lead into a state of confusion or voiced some op-ed about how the PSX version of FFVII let them down when they came to watch Advent Children. There are bits and pieces of corrections/clarifications certainly – some honestly thought Tifa wore shorts in the PSX game, the nature and sizing of materia had a consensus but you would find outliers and AC presented a consistent size. About the only excuse I will allow for is if you played FFVII PSX and never found Yuffie or Vincent and yet here they are as part of the case. Fairer, though given their presence in the manual they weren’t hugely secret (something older FF fans got annoyed about at the time. Also, also if you had the real early subs with “Shion” instead of Tseng and not knowing “Agito” meant hideout and thinking the Forgotten Capital had an actual name or “Sierra” instead of Shera. You know, faults with the fansubs which were done in absurd haste anyway).

There was a lot of valid criticism of what AC wound up as and what its legacy has been but no one familiar with FFVII could not get a handle on what AC showed. And any part that you were confused over (and there are some) is a fault with AC/the Compilation not FFVII.

AC, incidentally, originally came with an animated short – since replaced with One the Way to a Smile – Case of Denzel. This older animation was called Last Order and more closely tied itself to Before Crisis – the mobile phone-centric game no one really talks about and has a lot of very strange plot adjustments that largely never got picked up. Not least was the expanded Turks cast (more than Veld and Cissnei) and their presence in most major incidents of most of FFVII’s cast’s pre-game lives. The point of LO was an action thing of Zack on his way to Midgar with Cloud but also a brief recreation of the burning of Nibelheim. LO is fascinating in that when it altered the scenes inside the reactor, fandom as a whole objected. This is why its not on Advent Children Complete discs.

The objection is small but kinda pivotal even if you can introduce reasons why it shouldn’t derail anything (and yet, Genesis is still allowed in Crisis Core somehow) – Tifa is awake when Cloud reaches her and the two share a brief conversation. Its small but that’s an issue with how FFVII works isn’t it? Sure, she can assume it was a delusion/dream/blood loss but Cloud’s also meant to be afraid its already too late for her. Oh, also he has Mako-eyes already.

So hey, LO in direct conflict with FFVII. And FFVII won. LO was ejected and never comes up the same way as the rest of the Compilation.

BC I can’t talk to much as the experience of trying to watch the story on youtube is not fun. I can say it reasonably weirdly introduces Weiss and Nero as SOLDIER recruits (so that’s why these members of the DC cast just kind of show up in CC to connect into DC) as well as the afore-mentioned expanded Turks. And has Cloud also have Mako eyes pre-capture (as with LO) and be some weird other kind of infantry guy. But no discussion or fic relying on BC is in open conflict with how FFVII told its story. Any inconsistencies stem from BC meddling with the backstory.

Its also worth noting here that FFVII – like every FF up to X was conceived of as a single instance (sorry FFIII is not connected to FFVIII, the previously popular FFVI to FFVII connection amounts to nothing. The FFVII and FFVIII references in FFIX are meant to be there but like as… jokes? Nods? Reference humour? Its cute. Like putting FFVII references in Parasite Eve 2. And like how FFVII has Xenogears references. And the FFX-2 to FFVII connection is terrible). There’s the weird and undeveloped maybe FFVI-2 but that seems to have gotten no further than a battle mock-up. All this extra sequel and prequel stuff was never considered during FFVII’s writing (and why would you? Yes, allegedly CC was based on an idea at the time of FFVII’s writing, but that doesn’t magically convey it established canon status if it wasn’t reworked to an unclear degree and released as a game a decade later. Even it was fully-formed, that’s a fault with CC as released and not FFVII. Far more interesting is how Parasite Eve and Xenogears were both discarded or rejected ideas before anything like the released game was conceived. Like how Resident Evil 4 produced at least three other games during development).

Dirge of Cerberus used to vie for worst additional element. And maybe it still does depending on your attitude. But as the third Compilation release (ignoring the book), the western version still relied on the FFVII PSX version for context on what was going on and how it related back to familiar characters. Deepground are unfamiliar! Pretty sure the Japanese audience didn’t know about them prior to this game either. Here are Nero and Weiss and maybe you can feel better for knowing they came from BC, though that’s a slim victory – likewise Grimoire (yep. Another BC one. Squeenix clearly absolutely care about your understanding of the universe and that’s why this weirdly key game was never localised. It could have been at the cost of CC). All the Omega Weapon, Proto-materia and chaos ramblings are all new. The tsviets and the fact the Planet has internet is something of a new reveal is it not?

And last of the Compilation is Crisis Core. Now, admittedly, Zack seems OOC here! Or maybe because it’s a prequel you feel he’s OOC in FFVII PSX. Which… that’s not how writing works if you are being honest. If Zack seems OOC to someone when playing FFVII PSX this is a problem with at least CC and possibly BC as well. And sure, maybe you would struggle to get him to match to his presentation in FFVII PSX as a writer. Hard to have sympathy when this unnecessary story was greenlit. You played yourself Squeenix. You walked into this situation with open arms.

People tend to gloss over what happens to Aerith here, but any conflict between how CC relays its story and how FFVII PSX presented it does not stem from a translation issue otherwise the problems would be wider reaching (see also how Aerith acts in Remake which is far, far closer to FFVII PSX than CC). You can claim that Aerith is no different, but her actions in FFVII PSX feel unlikely for the version of her wandering in CC to ever do and vice-versa. Like, her physically rushing into events in FFVII PSX being a thing you don’t see her do in CC (aware of the justifications for this too and they are absolutely awful).

And maybe you can justify why she is like that to yourself, you can’t blame the translation for why this is happening. A better translation will not smooth that shift and the mod adhering to Remake or Compilation will still conflict with what her polygonal model does on screen versus what it might now say.

What even is the point of restoring cut content?

I have heard that a chunk of the difference between Remake and FFVII US can be found in the cut or dummied text on the PSX disc. So we should all be happy its back because it was always supposed to be thing way.

Things are cut for reasons and blind restoration is not good by default. The most coherent theory I’ve ever seen for the FFVII cuts are timing and flow at the start of the game. And given FFVII PSX goes very, very fast and Remake is noticeably slower and time-consuming, it makes sense as a reason for the cuts to be made. Midgar is an oppressive atmosphere to make reaching the world map expansive and awe-inspiring.

Cuts can also be for bad ideas. Sure they got to the point where the text was in the resource files, but a whole tone of stuff gets into these (seriously, if this is new to you what happens is they pack all the data into big resource files and these are shipped out as is with the game. Things don’t tend to get pulled out once integrated because it’s hard to be sure all the places something is referenced. Hence dummying the text rather than stripping it out. You can’t be certain you found all the locations and the file-size difference is negligible) and is unused because of changes in attitude. Putting this back in does not increase understanding or consistency. No version of the PSX game was released with all this cut content in place – not ahead of Advent Children and not ahead of Remake.

There’s no expectation a player should ever be aware of what was removed before release. Knowing it won’t increase your appreciation of the PSX game. In truth it will only serve to champion the authority of the now de facto writer of the series and every one of his decisions. I find it highly contentious that he should be considered nearly the sole arbiter – and adhering to his attitude feels like it has been done with a mind towards a case that Remake is the superior version because the PSX game was hopelessly compromised. Which I would hope is pretty clearly not the case. The text was dummied out in Japan as well, again, both versions of FFVII PSX share the same mood, atmosphere and tone.

Cuts can also be made because those with more authority don’t like what they now say about character or events or attitudes of the characters. Restoring this risks throwing even more out.

I do understand broadly what the hope for this kind of thing. Make the game default Aerith instead of Aerith (and I am fully aware the game internally calls her Aerith before the prompt which then defaults Aeris in. This is a trivial bug all things considered. Plus, you do know the game has a basic expectation of you renaming the cast on your own whims, right? This was a thing right up to FFX at the last. Dictated party names was purely if you wanted them/to refer to them in conversation with others. Now you get no choice to personalize the game). Dig up the old honeybee inn scenes. Dig up the old Highwind scene (maybe. Not sure that ever got anywhere). Get some insight into the future of Remake by finding a late on conversation which alters the perception of FFVII PSX (but, I mean, people have extracted this text ages ago. You can go read it now if you want). But more than a “better” translation, the cut content will skew the experience of playing the game.

FFVII did not have the “best” translation or localisation – this is true. It did however capture the spirit of the game as released on PSX and in truth the case for a new translation is a handful of mistakes and a prevailing notion that it was always bad (and just… people aren’t careful or really seem to get what they’re messing with. I tried Because once and got weirded out by Reno and Rude changed to Leno and Lude – no official material reflects that change so why?). And no one familiar with the game was lost with Compilation entries for any reason other than those entries failed to set things up properly or forced new details into an existing story (or relied on an unreleased phone-based video game or a book that wasn’t due to be translated. These are faults of Squeenix’s business operations not a video-game from 1997).

(for localisation examples. So FFVIII has a weird fixation with hot dogs which is kind of just funny on the face of it. You can make them part of battle prep if you want. But… are they hot dogs? Zell looks like he's eating one in the end credits but to me it looks more like Yakisoba Bread. As in, what is localised in English as Hot Dogs was either Yakisoba bread or potentially simply bread in the Japanese release. Not wholly more sensible even in Japanese but not quite the same absurd feel. But I reckon the translators were stuck on what to replace it with until they saw the ending and make a judgement call. In 1999 getting across the concept of bread was going to be tricky. A more recent game likely wouldn't sub the food stuff given your audience has a better bet at understanding what it is)

Sure, some stuff didn’t make it through translation. I know people like that Aeris has a nick-name for Cloud that is totally absent in English – a shame, but its not a fundamental loss; their interactions are clear enough and the shippers still latched on just fine to the romantic potential between them.

The distinction between Reeve and Cait Sith’s voices doesn’t come across very well, but that’s a factor you would struggle to do purely in English text in any case. Didn’t make the reveal any less of a surprise though did it?

There is nothing in FFVII PSX that prompted the inconsistencies of the Compilation – that’s on those (mostly) same writers not remembering, not caring, or desperate to include a plot that required massaging, breaking, or ignoring how the PSX game said things worked or happened (see: Genesis at Nibelheim). The fault lies with the Compilation however much you personally may like it. Inconsistencies with Remake are likewise Remake’s fault and while you can turn up some elements that were created and critically discarded for the 1997 release, their restoration in Remake doesn’t make them any better ideas now than then – and it certainly doesn’t cover the fate ghosts (or whatever they are) or Sephiroth’s intro being a million times less effective at threat than FFVII PSX.

Any similarity between the dummied text on the PSX disc and the additions to Remake’s dialogue means is that the person with the final say-so on what is included has absolutely changed since 1997 and with it the character of the series. Even he wasn’t right all the time or made the best decisions, but he remains an oft-excluded (and completely from the development of Remake) critical part of why this game has a remake at all. I will of course be accused of being a purist and nostalgic, but again I must reference a friend who noted that the only reason people were so excited by Remake was via nostalgia and perhaps curiosity about other people’s nostalgia. Their nostalgia and positivity is seemingly more valid to others than my nostalgia and negativity.

FFVII PSX means a lot to me. And maybe Remake means a lot to you. I can’t take that away from you, and my experience with FFVII can’t be taken away but it feels like it’s getting tarnished. It is hard going when FVII PSX seems to only merit mention in context with Remake, with Compilation. Not in context to itself – the context it was created for. A single story with a start and end. Characters given as much background and detail as they needed to work for their roles. A game so many embraced. People were not calling for a Remake for so long (originally) for any reason than wanting to see the same thing but prettier (forgetting its dismissal in some contexts on release for being style/graphics over any other quality. Somewhat ironic). Entirely possible the desire post Compilation was to “fix” FFVII for consistency with the Compilation (which is a pretty distressing notion!) but the whole game’s legacy and fandom and popularity is because of the PSX game not in spite of it as so many seem to treat it now.

Yeah, it’s not as pretty, yeah the controls are clunkier and battles are slower.

But.

Its story and how it used different styles of cut-scene depending on context were considered and effectively chosen. It built character and told story with words and battles and animation. The polygonal figures are not realistic (until they need to be. To make sure the scene will impact you as intended) but perfectly able to convey the emotions they need to. It has mistakes, it has jank. It has some terrible plot shifts in places. Yes, you can leave the end of the world hanging for months if you want to breed and race chocobos. But it was still the start – the foundation upon which everything else was built, it was still a success. And not one part of the Compilation or Remake would have been considered for a second if it had not been a success. It is not a first version for which a second version exists that lead to all the add-ons.

No new translation is ever going to change that situation or truly improve on the experience from 1997.

[gracesshelves]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

            Like a few of the blockbuster books and movies we’ve already discussed, I was very excited when I saw The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams on our list. I first read this novel in middle school, when a friend let me borrow her copy of The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which included all five novels in the series. Perhaps I’m being too biased with my ratings, but this book was another five out of five for me. There were a lot of things I’d forgotten; however, I did remember some of the more iconic lines. Having lived in London since I last read this book, I picked up on more of the British-isms and cultural references. Adams’ style of writing is something I aspire to meet. Every line fits well together, each cleverly crafted to create this wonderful flow. His dry humor and witty jabs made me laugh out loud while reading. What struck me the most was the emphasis on improbable versus impossible. Particularly regarding the insane probability of Ford, Arthur, Zaphod, and Trillian knowing each other and ending up in the same place.

The absurdity and heart of this novel makes it easier for the reader to digest the massive amount of information Adams throws at you. Had the tone of the book been overall serious, I’d question more of the ideas he posits. Instead, Adams allows the novel to take on a earnest silliness, which means that I don’t need an explanation for every single fact – although he often expands on his statements. Having the entries in the novel made this an engaging read. Whether they were their own chapters, or just mentioned in the prose, I was desperate for knowledge every time it was offered to me.

Another facet of this book that makes it so memorable is the humor. Particularly, how British it is. From Ford Perfect telling Arthur to get over the destruction of his own planet to poking fun at every single character, it is clear where this author came from. While I have read great scifi pieces by American authors, it hits different coming from a Brit. Arthur’s ability to remain polite in such obscure situations makes him a compelling character, but I love seeing him break down as well.  

Looking at this novel as a self-contained unit, I simultaneously enjoyed and struggled with the non-traditional plot structure. Adams does an excellent job at keeping the past fast, so most of the time you don’t notice that certain beats are skipped. Part of this comes from how short the book is, in my version it is only 143 pages long. That being said, as the first novel in a series of five that follow the same character, I think this works fantastically.

Regarding the discussion of improbable versus impossible, I enjoyed how Adams used this argument as a point of hope in a story where, despite the humor, some messed up stuff happens. I’ve experienced a similar situation where I ran into someone in real life whose writing I had read years ago online. Before that, I would’ve thought moments like that were impossible, but they aren’t. They’re just very very improbable. Rereading this book encouraged me to reflect on those moments and appreciate the chaos of the universe. Sometimes it seems like our lives make no sense, and then moments like those occur and suddenly I am filled with hope.

[dashboard-elysium]

The Case of the Missing Swordsman / Post 20 / Previously

KIM – “You’ve read In System?” He’s trying to play it cool but a piece of him is just a little bit excited.

YOU – “Of course. My favorite book is I am a Radiocomputer and I Must Scream.”

JUDIT – “What a title! I don’t think I’ve heard of that one.”

KIM – “Are you sure that’s from In System?”

RHETORIC – You know what they say. When you find yourself in a hole, keep digging.

YOU – “I only like the most obscure In System books. The popular ones just don’t do it for me. That’s how into the series I am.”

KIM – “I see.” He raises an eyebrow. “You’ll have to loan it to me some time. Since, as a true fan, I’m sure you own a copy.”

CONCEPTUALIZATION – Okay, this is fine. You’ll just need to write a novel, get someone to illustrate the cover, get it professionally printed, and give it to him. That’s really your only solution at this point.

TRANT – Fortunately, any more questions about your knowledge of In System are cut short as Trant walks up and greets Kim enthusiastically.

TRANT – “Did I hear you talking about In System? You know, when I was consulting for the Wompty Dompty Dom Centre, the author gave a lecture there. The Centre was completely packed. The talk was fascinating. Do you know, some of the ideas in his books are based on the latest theories of entroponetic scientists? Highly fictionalized of course, but…”

COMPOSURE – Oh no. We’re going to be here all day if you let him keep going.

HALF LIGHT – Time to shake things up. Start throwing out wild accusations. Evidence? You don’t need that!

YOU – 

Point at him and shout: “Trant! Did you steal my Man from Hjelmdall mug?”

“I know the lieutenant here would love to hear all about those theories. I’ll be back after I check a few trash bins real quick.”

“Quite fascinating, I’m sure, but what do you think about other franchises? Like Hjelmdallermann, to pick an example completely at random.”

[daitranscripts]

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts Pt. 21

Liaison to the Inquisition

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts Masterpost First: Gaining an Invitation Previous: Addressing the Court

Morrigan approaches the PC on the balcony.

Morrigan (Celene rules): The Orlesian nobility make drunken toasts to your victory, and yet you are not present to hear them? Do you tire so quickly of their congratulations, Inquisitor? ‘Tis most fickle, after all your efforts on their behalf.

Morrigan (Gaspard rules as Briala’s puppet): Here at last I find out absent hero, hidden away despite the efforts of all Orlais to find you. The elves raise glasses in your honor while the newly crowned emperor glowers. ‘Tis quite the spectacle.

Morrigan (Gaspard rules): Here at last I find out absent hero, hidden away despite the efforts of all Orlais to find you. Gaspard drunkenly toasts in your honor. “Deliverer from Darkness” and other titles complimentary and awkwardly phrased.

Dialogue options:

General: It’s good to see you. [1]

General (Celene rules): They ran out of punch. [2]

General (Gaspard rules): That’s me. I’m a helper. [3]

General: I needed some air. [4]

1 - General: It’s good to see you. PC: Everyone suddenly wants to talk to me. You, at least, I’m glad to see. Morrigan: (Chuckles.) Then I have happy news, as you shall be seeing a great deal more of me. [5]

2 - General: They ran out of punch. PC: I would have stayed, but the punch ran dry. Scandalous. Morrigan: (Laughs.) Indeed? Let us see if you take this piece of news as poorly. [5]

3 - General: That’s me. I’m a helper. PC: That’s what I do. Fall out of the sky, make bad decisions, and somehow everyone still follows me. Morrigan: So they do. It seems I am also to join that esteemed crowd. [5]

4 - General: I needed some air. PC: There’s plenty of opportunity for that later. I wanted some air. Morrigan: I had no wish to interrupt your breathing, only to bring news. [5]

5 - Scene continues.

Morrigan: By imperial decree, I have been named liaison to the Inquisition.

Morrigan (Celene rules): Celene wishes to offer you any and all aid–including mine. Congratulations. Morrigan (Gaspard rules): Gaspard wishes to offer any and all aid to the one who supported his ascent to the throne. So here I am.

6 - Dialogue options:

Investigate: You want to join us? [7] Investigate: What can you do? [8] General: Welcome aboard. [9] General: I don’t get a say? [10] General: I’ll be watching. [11]

7 - Investigate: You want to join us? PC: I had no idea you were interested in joining the Inquisition. Morrigan: The assignment has been given to me, regardless of my personal interest. Morrigan (Celene rules): Celene knows you face an opponent who wields great magical power, which is far more important than her own curiosity. You will require my knowledge if you are to defeat such magic. Morrigan (Gaspard rules): Gaspard never liked my attendance at court. He wishes me as far from here as possible. Mayhap he feels the Inquisitor a convenient repository for unwanted apostates? I cannot say. Morrigan: Regardless, Corypheus is a threat to Orlais… and to myself. Thus I am not opposed to the appointment.

8 - Investigate: What can you do? PC: What skills do you have that would benefit us? Morrigan: I have knowledge which falls… beyond the realm of most mages. I suspect this is also true of Corypheus. Thus it behooves you to add to your arcane arsenal, yes? Mundane knowledge will not bring the rift in the sky to a close, after all. [Back to 6]

Dialogue options:

Special: Are you a blood mage? [12]

[Back to 6]

12 - Special: Are you a blood mage? PC: When you say “knowledge beyond the realm of most mages,” do you mean blood magic? Morrigan: I know many obscure, forgotten, and forbidden arts. Some of it you might consider blood magic, yes. Morrigan (non-Mage PC): Should thought of that frighten you, allow me to offer reassurance. Morrigan (mage PC): But I suspect that you do not fear maleficarum as much as the common folk do. Morrigan: Knowledge alone does no harm. What I possess I place at your disposal, to make use of or ignore as you desire. [Back to 6]

9 - General: Welcome aboard. PC: Welcome to the Inquisition, Morrigan. Morrigan: A most gracious response. [12]

10 - General: I don’t get a say? PC: This is news to me. I don’t get a say in who joins us? Morrigan: I am not joining you. I am a liaison, advising on the throne’s behalf and helping when called upon to do so. If you find that objectionable, you may indeed spurn your new ally’s offer. Yet consider this: you battle a foe you scarce understand, with all Thedas hanging in the balance. You need all the help you can get, Inquisitor. [12]

11 - General: I’ll be watching. PC: First sign of trouble and you’re out. Morrigan: I am not joining you. I am a liaison, advising on the throne’s behalf and helping when called upon to do so. If you find that objectionable, you may indeed spurn your new ally’s offer. Yet consider this: you battle a foe you scarce understand, with all Thedas hanging in the balance. You need all the help you can get, Inquisitor. [12]

12 - Scene continues.

Morrigan: I shall meet you at Skyhold.

Morrigan leaves.

Next: After The Ball (Default + Josephine Romance) - Next: After the Ball (Blackwall Romance) Next: After the Ball (Cassandra Romance) Next: After the Ball (Dorian Romance) Next: After the Ball (Iron Bull Romance) Next: After the Ball (Sera Romance) Next: After the Ball (Solas Romance) - Next: After the Ball (Cullen Romance)

[deludedfantasy]

Trimax Vol 6 Ch 4-6

Despite the fact that there are no GHG fights in this half of the volume and the smaller scale of the plot, there is still so much going on. I have a lot to say, and as usual, have been driven slightly insane by it.

Ch 4

Well, that’s not an ominous title or anything, especially with Knives as the cover image.

Knives out in public among humans…I don’t think we’ve seen him in the presence of anyone except the GHG before. It’s very strange honestly and like the new guy says, it feels dangerous when you know what he is. And the way the panels focus in on the top half of his face, it makes him look like Vash. Like it’s reminding you that they are very similar, both equally capable of destruction.

Omg baby Knives!! He has no right being so cute. But who is this guy and why does he recognize him? Why does Knives show up in his house in the middle of the night?

Oh!! It’s manga Conrad! So Knives needs him for his Plant knowledge and nefarious plans…whatever they might be.

Hang on, Conrad was the guy that helped Knives experiment on Vash then. So he’s feeling a little guilty about what happened in July too. 

Conrad is having second thoughts about working with Knives, even though he was originally fascinated by the possibilities he presented because apparently so little is known about Independents and what they’re capable of. Well, dude, he’s certainly not the little kid you somehow remember. How old is this guy if he knew Knives when he was little?

I was starting to wonder what happened to that plot point about the mysterious empty towns. What was Knives’s goal there? Was he just killing people or using them for something?

I don’t quite know what to make of this, but it’s interesting that the Plant scientist holds up a cross when he says they’re doing a Last Run on the dying Plant. I can’t tell if it’s because he’s asking for strength or forgiveness or what. To me, it feels like he’s warding himself against what’s about to happen, especially because he’s telling Knives and co. to leave. 

Well, that was horrifying! I get why the guy told them to leave. Knives’s face though, the way half of it is obscured, has so much fear and rage and hopelessness in it. This isn’t an expression or emotion we’ve seen from him before. 

I think this might be the first time we really see how humans abuse and misuse the Plants and understand why Knives is out for blood. And I get it, I really do. You know you have a great villain when their motivations and reasoning make such awful sense.

However, I’m curious about the way Conrad described the Last Run. “When Plants reach their final stage and they’ve run out of energy, they deliberately go out of control.” So, he makes it seem like a conscious choice by the Plant as they die, a part of their natural life cycle. But Plant scientist guy made it seem like this was scheduled, something that humans are doing to the Plant. Despite what Conrad said, by asking Knives’s forgiveness on behalf of humanity, he supports the idea that humanity was directly responsible. So who’s right? The thing is everything must die eventually, including Plants. Unfortunately, their deaths are horrific. Is Knives angered that they’re simply being used like this and driven to death? Or is Conrad not outwardly acknowledging their direct hand in a Last Run?

Knives just destroys the entire Plant facility in a rage (though a beautifully drawn rage I will say. These pages are sublimely horrifying).

The black hair reveal!! On my first read, I remember putting the pieces together about this and Vash’s changing hair color and getting so scared for him. 

But Knives has just been seriously betrayed. Conrad has been waiting for this to happen and actively keeping this fact from him! 

I can’t believe I didn’t catch this the first time, but he’s a lot more mad about what this means for Vash than for himself. That’s why he kills Conrad. I wonder, if he’d known how using their power would bring Vash closer to death, would he have done what he did to him at July or Fifth Moon? 

Also, this is a great reminder that no matter how fucked up Knives’s reasoning is or his ultimately genocidal plans, he loves his brother. He doesn’t want him dead, he just wants to make a better world for him. Does he go about it in the most twisted way possible? Yeah. But, still, there’s love there, no matter how dark.

Did Vash somehow sense Knives’s anger/emotions at a distance again??? Telepathic Plant powers are so cool honestly.

Ch 5 

Love me some narrative irony. The government calls Vash—basically an angel—an Act of God. They don’t know how right they are. 

Vash always becomes friends with the local kids. It’s so cute! But I often wonder if it’s because he never really got to be a child himself, so that’s why he does it, to give himself a moment to be childish and without burden or responsibility.

A fallen angel walks into a church…sounds like the start of a joke, but he’s really looking for absolution. And he can’t find it. He doesn’t believe he deserves it, not from others or from himself. I’ve believed pretty firmly that Vash was willing to offer people forgiveness and absolution in the hopes of finding some of that for himself, but now I’m not so sure. 

This page hurts a lot. Look at Vash’s face. The circles under his eyes, the dead-eyed look, he’s completely overtaken by despair. He’s not even trying to hide it right now. 

And then we go straight into the shenanigans. It’s very rude to attack a man in a church. 

“You got him out without a fight!” If only the bounty hunters knew that Vash is just Like That. He’s not going to let them open fire in a church!

Poor Wolfwood can never enjoy his noodles in peace.

Hang on, has Vash been drunk this whole time?? That explains so much actually. Downers are not good when you have depression, no wonder his thoughts in the church were so morbid. 

I’m also losing my mind over the way he licks alcohol off his hand. It’s so not Vash at all and he looks kinda unhinged. Look at how he’s drawn when he does it. 

His face is dark and obscured, we don’t actually see what he’s feeling. This feels a lot more like what the world at large imagines him to be: a ruthless, uncaring killer who would laugh and drink his way through a fight. I know he’s probably just very drunk, but it almost feels like he’s giving up a little.

For someone as drunk as he is, he’s still fighting really well. Especially after they get the news bulletin and he gets an idea of where Knives might be. 

Lol, needle noggin-isms. 

Well, Vash’s Plant powers haven’t done that before. It caught a fucking bullet in mid-air. 

Oh, poor Meryl. She’s terrified. It just brings her back to the Dragon’s Nest and being trapped inside of Vash, no idea what he is or what’s going on. I feel so bad for her. It was a traumatic experience and she’s been pushing it away, trying not to deal with it, because this is Vash, right? He’s not scary or a monster. But trauma is trauma and seeing it again just brings back that fear.

And Vash! He’s shaking and he falls down. He’s scared too, but for an entirely different reason. He didn’t do this of his own volition, this is his body acting on its own. As many people have pointed out, Vash controls himself very tightly all the time, because he’s so afraid of what’ll happen if he doesn’t. But this chapter his control slipped just a little. He got drunk, he’s shown all these people he isn’t human and one of the few people who has ever actually cared about him is scared of him. 

I just…the townspeople stone him. Talk about Biblical references, I guess. Vash’s reaction kills me though. He just takes it, because he thinks he deserves it. I’m glad Wolfwood is at least sorta standing up for him.

This is Milly’s moment where she truly grasps that Vash smiles through the pain. But as others have pointed out, she doesn’t see this as reflection of his determination to keep moving and always see the good in the world. For Milly, all she can focus on is how much of himself he’s really hiding. She sees a pain that permeates every part of him, but that he refuses to show to the world. He feels it, but doesn’t let it out. For Milly, who is a deeply compassionate person, it hurts to know that her friend is suffering like this and won’t let them help.

In the end, they do have to leave the girls behind. I guess you could say that it’s because it’s gotten too dangerous for them or it would damage their reputation too much to be seen with outlaws like Vash and Wolfwood. But I think it has a lot to do with Meryl’s reaction to Vash. Meryl can’t be with him right now. It’s still too much for her and it wouldn’t be good for her to keep forcing herself. There’s not even an argument from anyone this time about it. 

Okay, well, this chapter made me very sad. 

Ch 6

I’m so curious what Elendira’s goal here is. She seems entertained by the possibilities of Knives’s power being limited and the potential destruction that could cause. Either way, Knives has definitely become more dangerous. 

Wolfwood does not react well to being threatened, understandably. 

Is Vash somehow picking up the memory/impression of Knives murdering Conrad? That’s an interesting new power. Is it triggered by the fact that Knives was there and the one who did it?

Vash backstory time? I’m very excited.

Omg, baby Vash and Knives are so cute! On my first read, I was shocked when I realized that was Knives because he looks so nice. Tristamp has him being a bit evil even when he was a child and here…he’s just a little kid.

Also, Vash just floating by himself in zero g curled up into a ball…it does things to me. Why do I get the feeling that even before the Great Fall he was a lonely, melancholy kid?

Every version of Trigun has a birthday scene for the twins except this one makes me really sad. I didn’t notice this before but Rem’s eyes are obscured by her glasses, the same way Vash’s are when he’s trying to hide his pain. What she’s saying too seems very much like someone trying to obscure their deeper, more complicated feelings. She doesn’t want Vash and Knives to see whatever is bothering her. 

Can you imagine being stuck alone on a spaceship when the weird power source you don’t understand suddenly pops out too babies? There are some panels missing of her freaking the fuck out about it.

Can you imagine my shock when I first read this chapter and realized that Nai was an invention of Tristamp? Rem really looked at a baby and went, “I’m going to name you Knives.” I’m blaming it on the intense freakout we never see. 

“She looked so kind. But somehow her smile seemed sad.” :( 

Just like someone else we know. Vash had to get his bad coping mechanisms from someone. It makes sense that it all leads back to Rem.

Wow, Knives actually had a little hope for humanity at one point! He wanted them to accept him. I like that Nightow didn’t make Knives a villain from the beginning. He’s just a little kid, who wants to be friends with the humans and loves his brother. 

Also, can I just say how incredibly dumb it is to have only one person awake on the fleet, purely for mental health reasons? I don’t know how Rem didn’t lose her mind pre Vash and Knives.

Uh-oh, trouble’s coming. Why doesn’t Rem want the crew to wake up?

[darsynia]

Trust Fall | Ch 13a

ARC image by Eury Escodero | gif by @pedropcl

Story Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Summary: Tony/OC, ‘terrorists made us fall in love;’ IM1 timeline. In this chapter, Tony has a moment of fear after they fall to earth, and Emory does her best to support the protagonist.

Length: 2,409

Tags (please don’t hesitate to ask!): @starryeyes2000 @raith-way @arrthurpendragon @starksbf @themaradaniels @chickensarentcheap @tiny-anne

Excerpt:

The two of them work together to pry loose the last few screws that hadn’t been sheared off by his landing. She moves around to check at his back, and Tony wipes the sweat off of his face with his good arm. Seconds later, he feels a cool breeze practically dive-bomb him.

“Haven’t you ever heard of the butterfly effect? I can live with a little sun,” Tony protests. Inwardly, he’s so proud he can barely keep the smile off of his face. This tiny, gorgeous woman is pulling down the sky to help him cool off.

“Hold still,” she says behind him. “Of course I know about the butterfly effect, I’m not a heathen. One of my first crushes ever was Doctor Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park! There.” With that, the metal carapace slides off, and he’s able to rip off the thick leather neck piece and jacket, though he’ll probably put the jacket back on, once he’s a bit less overheated. He imagines it’d be very easy to get burned to a crisp out here.

“Let me guess,” Tony says, spinning around to brush stray sand from her face. With his other hand, he drapes the jacket over his shoulder. “You loved his rock-star cool? Leather and attitude?”

Chapter Thirteen: Big Orange Ball

Tony’s in midair; the whole world is hot and bright, even though they’ve left the explosion-riddled encampment behind them. The harsh sunlight seems to be coming from all angles, beating down from above and reflected off of billions of grains of sand below.

He knows his ETA for reaching the ground is going to be measured in pain level once he lands, but his damned helmet is blocking the view that would let him know how soon. All he can see is Emory’s body falling just out of his reach. She looks like a comet breaking up in the atmosphere, her hair and the loose fabric of her clothing whipping out above her.

Suddenly his view is obscured. He has sunk into a spinning, aerated layer of sand that scours into the suit, forcing his eyes closed for the final shocking whump of landing. It’s not the brutal, tearing concussion he had expected, but it still hurts like hell and rips away parts of the metal suit.

He’s partially buried, but Tony struggles free of both the sand and the fractured pieces of his armor, incongruously grateful that they weren’t able to tighten all of the screws after all.

Emory isn’t visible.

There are divots around him where various pieces have landed, but most contain a chunk of his handiwork; arm components here, an air canister for the pneumatic controls there. Nothing large enough to be a person.

“Emory!” he screams. Sand and fear grits his tone. He freezes, listening. The particulate she must have spun up to soften his landing had been enough to steal his breath, how much worse is it wherever Emory is? She had been so focused on saving him-- what if she hadn’t saved herself?  

A memory slams into him, her loss of magical energy in the midst of fear. What if she’s dying, powerless, somewhere beneath him?

He’s the source of at least some of her power, that much he knows. With all of his knowledge, his years of technical expertise, the most helpful thing Tony has right now is his voice.

“I’ll say it, okay? You got me!” he shouts, clutching his right arm in pain after having thrown his arms out in surrender. “I LOVE YOU! Fight! Spin your ass out of there, will you? I’ve got my own problems!” Tony stumbles around, unwilling to accidentally stand on top of where she’s buried. “I love you,” he repeats almost brokenly, hoping to hell she hears him.

The landscape is completely unremarkable, and he’ll probably have to walk a long way to find shelter. He’s not fucking leaving her here to die sunless and alone. He’s not.

“Goddamnit, Emory!” he shouts. If he’d been the one to take the injection, he’d be so full of power from his fear and anger that he could lift the entire weight of sand and find her that way. A breeze ruffles his hair from behind. Tony turns so fast he loses his balance, catches himself on one knee and his bad arm. It doesn’t even hurt, because in front of him is a whirlwind spiraling up from a person-sized crater that hadn’t been there a minute ago.

Emory bursts out and soars up, spinning out of control. At ten feet up she throws her arms out beside her and Tony feels air rushing past him. Seconds later, she freezes in place and starts slowly descending. She’s drawn a great deal of air from around him, and, he suspects, from behind her, slamming them against herself to halt both the spin and the lift. He’s incredibly grateful she didn’t hurt herself in the process, and decides to set aside his criticism of her methods until after they’re fully back in civilization.

As soon as her feet touch the ground she’s running to him. Tony’s about as happy and relieved as he’s ever been in his life-- but he holds out his hands to stop her, fumbling at the searing hot metal at his chest, trying to find the last few screws that are holding it in place around him.

“Not the first time I’ve said this in my life, but I’m too hot to handle,” Tony tells her with a smirk.

“Screwdriver. In your pocket,” Emory tells him. Her red hair is sticking to her cheeks, and he doesn’t know whether it’s because of tears or sweat.

Sure enough, he finds and holds up the screwdriver, which prompts a smirk of her own. The two of them work together to pry loose the last few screws that hadn’t been sheared off by his landing. She moves around to check at his back, and Tony wipes the sweat off of his face with his good arm. Seconds later, he feels a cool breeze practically dive-bomb him.

“Haven’t you ever heard of the butterfly effect? I can live with a little sun,” Tony protests. Inwardly, he’s so proud he can barely keep the smile off of his face. This tiny, gorgeous woman is pulling down the sky to help him cool off.

“Hold still,” she says behind him. “Of course I know about the butterfly effect, I’m not a heathen. One of my first crushes ever was Doctor Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park! There.” With that, the metal carapace slides off, and he’s able to rip off the thick leather neck piece and jacket, though he’ll probably put the jacket back on, once he’s a bit less overheated. He imagines it’d be very easy to get burned to a crisp out here.

“Let me guess,” Tony says, spinning around to brush stray sand from her face. With his other hand, he drapes the jacket over his shoulder. “You loved his rock-star cool? Leather and attitude?”

Emory’s grey eyes sparkle with impudence as she makes a gesture and rises up on a column of air that sends all the loose fabric in her outfit fluttering. She’s actually taller than he is like this, and he’s pretty sure it’s on purpose.

“Nope, I liked his brain,” she tells him leaning over to kiss him. 

I almost lost this woman, he reminds himself. The thought makes him reach for her, but as soon as he pulls her close, the draft of air she’d been controlling wavers, pushing against him until he locks both arms around her stubbornly. He senses her distraction in the midst of the kiss, and then suddenly they’re flying sideways, landing on the sand. Tony hisses.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I really have no idea what I’m doing,” Emory says, scrambling off to kneel beside him.

“Just a little sand burn, nothing serious,” he manages. Emory stands and he brushes the sand off of his pants before he does the same. Oddly, some of the sand is wet. He holds his hand up to show her, and her face pales.

“Shit!” she says, both hands going to the pack buckled at her waist. They’d never been able to weasel water bottles out of their captors, so when the time had come to escape, Tony had done his best to mold containers out of the metal cups they had on hand. Emory pulls the crushed remains of both of their precious makeshift ‘canteens’ from the pouch with a stricken look.

“Making those was a gamble anyway,” he tells her. “Maybe the spill rehydrated some of the beans?”

Emory laughs helplessly and hands them over. Tony does his best to consolidate the little liquid that remains into the less squashed of the two, and tucks it, upright, into the pocket of his leather jacket after putting it back on. They frown at the idea of chewing on the soggy beans smashed into the zippered pouch, and after deciding what to keep and discard (Emory takes off her pants and uses them as a makeshift head covering that also drapes over the shoulder cut-outs on her outfit, and Tony leaves behind the ironmonger suit pieces as unsalvageable), they start walking toward an outcropping of rock. The smoke from their escape is in the opposite direction.

Emory counts to sixty steps five times before she’s able to compress all of the jumbled, elated emotions she’s been feeling into something coherent enough to say to Tony. She stops, and Tony keeps walking a ways before he realizes she’s no longer beside him, thanks to the cloth draped over his face to block out the bright sun.

“You okay, AC?”

She shakes her head, laughing. “‘AC?’”

“Yeah, the cool breeze. I’m telling you, you’d better whip up an NDA as soon as you can, because I’m not sure you want me tattling on you to the Middle East Weather Service or whatever organization is going to be on your ass for all this airflow disruption.”

“Oh, so you love me, but you’ll sell me out to the weather police? Typical billionaire,” Emory says, shaking her head and starting to walk again.

“Honestly? I just want to see if you can tease out any super secret weather tech they might have under wraps,” he tells her conspiratorially, when she’s close enough for him to lean over and say it into her ear.

“You totally want to watch the cage match! This from the person who was basically a human lightning rod not an hour ago? Men!” she groans.

“You love it,” he says smugly.

“I do,” she says, reaching out and grabbing his hand. He squeezes hers and they slog along like that for a while before he lifts her hand to his lips, kisses it, and lets go.

“Too hot, but hold that thought,” he says. “Though, shit, are you even safe to fly in an airplane anywhere near me, or will my personal magnetism send us into a tailspin from all the excess energy with no outlet?”

Emory wants to reassure him, but she’s actually not at all sure what the answer is. Before she can respond, though, he makes a dismissive gesture.

“So we fly back separately, who cares? Once we’re home, my house is pretty remote, right on the ocean. I’ll open up a skylight for you and we can spend a month practicing ramping you up and ramping you back down,” he says, walking backwards so she can see the hungry excitement in his eyes as he tells her his plans.

She’s getting a little tired, so instead of responding, Emory pulls her constant cool breeze from a bit higher in the sky, and Tony actually jumps when it hits him. Her steps feel lighter for quite a while after that.

As it turns out, the beans are more appetizing after a few hours of walking with no food. An hour after that, Emory starts to feel very thirsty, very weak, and very stupid. She bears it silently, listening to Tony humming some of his favorite music until she can barely hold herself up anymore. Great minds seemingly think alike, because right as she’s about to stop, he does, pulling out their meagre supply of water and looking back at her.

“Is it me, or does it feel like it should be about ten PM by now?” he asks.

“I think it wasn’t even lunch time when we blasted out of there,” Emory whispers. Her throat is really dry, her mouth drier than that, and a stab of fear cuts through the dread she’s been collecting in her gut.

“You need to drink this more than me,” Tony says, frowning and holding it out.

Emory backs up.

“No, no, no, no,” he tells her, shaking his head, instantly upset.

“Listen to me,” she says, forcing her vocal cords to make sound, this time.

His tone is curt. “No. I have seniority, and I demand that you drink this. All of it.”

“If we’re talking about cave dwelling seniority, I was awake a full day before you were, you know,” she says. He shakes his head, and Emory wishes she could fly them somewhere safe and just hug this stubborn, brilliant man forever. “I screwed up, okay?. I’m going to pass out, and there’s no point in my drinking anything, at this point.”

“You-- what?” He comes closer, lifts her chin so he can look into her eyes. Tony’s expression sobers from incredulity to fear for just a second before he schools it away, but she sees it.

“I never really tested myself in the cave,” Emory whispers. “Everything was so new, I didn’t think about whether or not there would be a cost.” Her knees start to buckle, and she goes down. Tony catches her with one arm, sinking down with her so that her back is supported. He twists his handmade canteen into the sand so it’ll stay upright, then brushes her sweat-soaked hair back away from her face. Tony’s brown eyes are so vulnerable and pleading that she feels a lump growing in her throat. “I’m sorry,” she breathes. He crushes her to his chest.

“I appreciate the early first act characterization arc you’re going for, here, but I’m no hero, and you’re not going to be the reason I go on a terrorist-slaying rampage,” he says in her ear.

“Hi, I’m the Catalyst for Change, nice to meet you,” she jokes, coughing.

“Yeah, well, that’s shitty writing, you’re the one with the superpowers, here,” Tony tells her. He sounds shaken. “You’ve got to help me defeat the bad guy.”

“I’m kidding, okay? I’m not going to die, Tony. I’m just going to pass out,” Emory says, pushing a lot of her remaining energy into vocal confidence. “And look at you-- you’re worried about me, not about how much it’ll suck to be you once I’m unconscious. That’s growth, right?”

“Hah!” Tony says, triumphant. “That means you have to drink this. Think about yourself, for a change!” He grabs the canteen and pushes it into her hand. She can feel her grip failing and wishes she could figure out a way to still support him, keep him cool, after she’s unconscious. Then, it comes to her.

“Yeah, about that,” Emory says, struggling to sit up and holding the metal container up, over her head. With all of her remaining energy, she pulls down the coldest air she can, swirling it around the container and her hand, feeling the freezing burn of it, until black spots grow in her vision. Tony’s saying something, but the spots coalesce into unconsciousness, and she collapses down, down, down.

Next chapter, Tony and Emory wake up in different states, a fact neither of them find acceptable.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

Omg I’m so happy I’m not the only one who feels like this about Mihawk! I even cosplayed him, because I think he is so cool, but if I actually had to choose between any of those characters I don’t think Mihawk would be that high up there? Maybe it’s because I felt let down, since a lot of fans talked about him and I finally read one piece and there’s just so many more fascinating characters, with much deeper relationships between them in one piece world? But I like cross guild, do you think we will finally get some content? Maybe we get to see his duels with shanks? You think it will be meaningful enough?

(re: this post)

yeah, mihawk has incredible vibes but… not much in the way of concrete lore available, lol.

and you know, i understand why those fans talked him up to you! he’s the first shichibukai we’re ever introduced to, he makes one hell of an impact! his mere existence acts as a warning to the characters we already know and love about what it means to be on the grand line, and what it will take to survive there. he’s very cool, very powerful, very honorable (thankfully for zoro), and shrouded in mystery. he’s meant to intimidate and entice. and it works, he definitely does that!

but we’ve been on the grand line since chapter 101, almost literally a thousand chapters ago. we’ve met tons of powerful characters since then—many of the strawhats have become powerful on that absurd, grand line level—and plenty of those characters have bonded with our heroes, told their stories, explained their motivations, been given depth. not mihawk.

a few thoughts on this:

these days, mihawk occupies a similar role re: zoro as shanks does re: luffy, and all we’ve learned of shanks’ motivations has been from other characters’ POVs. maybe this is just how oda operates when it comes to mentors? obscure motives for all??

we only know as much as we do about zoro’s motivations because the audience was shown a flashback; to the best of my knowledge, zoro has never told anyone about kuina (except tashigi, and he kinda botched that explanation). if we only knew what zoro wanted us to know about his motivations, i think we’d know about as much about zoro as we do mihawk. so maybe this is just a swordman stoicism thing.

or maybe oda just… can’t be bothered to provide backstory for characters who aren’t in the main cast or act as major arc villains. he’s got so many characters at this point i can’t really blame him, lmao.

but maybe cross guild will give us an opportunity!

i can’t imagine it happening any time soon—i’m not super up to date, i prefer to binge read arcs after they’re complete, but the current arc seems unrelated to the laugh tale/one piece hunt—but as i’ve discussed before, shanks and buggy both going after the one piece makes me confident they’re going to run into each other at some point. for peak drama, it would only happen at the very end of the hunt, but oda likes to undercut drama sometimes (especially where buggy is concerned), so who knows.

whenever it happens, mihawk’s consistent refusal to engage with shanks, to the extent that he once left a battlefield specifically to avoid him, should be a conflict within cross guild. and a flashback to at least one of their fights—maybe their last one? or maybe to the first time they met after shanks lost the arm?—would make a lot of sense in that moment.

now, would the contents of that flashback be meaningful? i hope so. i haven’t put a lot of thought into the potential whats and whys of mihawk, or his relationship with shanks—but i want him to be more complex than he sometimes appears. like, for example: i don’t want to think mihawk refuses to fight shanks just because he’s down an arm. i want the reason to be more interesting than that.

[delphinidin4]

I just spent literally 5 working days migrating an entire public library’s info to their new website, and I can tell you:

LIBRARIES ARE AMAZING.

It’s not just books. It’s not just CDs and DVDs and magazines. Libraries all have streaming now. You can watch movies and listen to music and audiobooks and it’s all FREEEEEEE.

Many libraries are starting to have what’s called a “library of things”. This means that if you need something and don’t want to buy it--like you need a pressure-washer for a two-day job--you can borrow it from the library! It’s like a rental, except it’s FREEEE.

Libraries are one of the only “third spaces” we have left that are free. So there’s home, that’s the first space, and there’s work, that’s the second space. But people need places outside their homes and work to socialize and just BE in public. And almost all our third spaces require you to buy something to be there. Hanging out in a coffee shop while you write your novel? Gotta buy a coffee. Want to use the restroom at a restaurant? No using the bathrooms without buying something. Even public parks often don’t have restrooms, or are entirely outdoors, so they’re not suitable in inclement weather.

But public libraries let you hang out and use their resources without buying anything! You don’t even need a card to use most things in the library! Are you homeless and it’s snowing? Go hang out in the public library for a couple of hours and warm up. Visiting town for the day and you have two hours to kill and don’t know where to go? Go hang out at the library, use their free internet, browse their collection. Need to meet a friend somewhere and you’re broke? LIBRARY. IT’S FREE.

Libraries have educational programming. You can learn to dance or paint or attend a movie night. You can join a DnD group or a young mothers’ group or a book club. You can get your kids into programs that will help them develop literacy, social skills, and knowledge. You can make new friends. We think of the library as the place where you’re not allowed to talk above a whisper, but increasingly, libraries are SOCIAL spaces. They offer you SO MUCH.

Having financial difficulties and need to know what kinds of aid programs are available in your area? Ask a librarian.

Need to do your taxes and don’t want to pay $200 to a tax-preparer? Your library has free tax forms and may be able to help you fill them out.

Want to read a book or magazine or watch an obscure movie that isn’t in the library’s catalog? Use interlibrary loan (ILL). They will track down materials for you from entirely different libraries and library systems all over the country.

Need to find a cheap notary? Ask the library. Need some help understanding a new piece of technology? Try the library. Need something to read before bed? Library. Need to borrow a wifi hotspot so you can do your homework even though you don’t have internet at home? Library will lend you one. ¿Necesitas aprender inglés? Puede haber una clase en la biblioteca. Volunteering. Children’s programs so you can have a break as a parent. Opportunities for homeschooled kids to meet their peers. A place to sit and cool down for half an hour on a hot summer day. Homework help. Games. Resources for starting a new business or a new hobby. Don't know what book you want to read? You can fill out an online form and tell them all about your specific tastes in books and the librarians will fucking MAKE A LIST OF BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS that are JUST FOR YOU!!!

Libraries protect your rights to knowledge, free speech, and privacy. They are activist spaces. You can borrow materials on any subject, without any judgment. You can learn what other people don’t want you to know. You can borrow banned books. You can read a book about how to leave your abusive husband and then put the book back on the shelf and leave the building, and your abusive husband can never find out.

Libraries offer so many things. And they’re fucking FREE. 

Go to your local library. Ask them what kinds of services and materials they offer. They will be delighted to tell you! Or tell them you’ve got a problem and see if they have anything that could help you with it. Librarians love a good challenge. They’re people who want to serve the community. That’s what they’re there for.

That’s what the library is for. It’s for YOU.