#luster dawn: closed starters

[lusterdawnxo]

Closed starter requested by Rainbow Dash @sparklesandsonicrainbooms​

“Hello, uh, do you happen to know where the Crystal Ball will be? And what date it will be held on? I’m still super confused about not being a pony anymore. I don’t know what’s going on around here. Also, are you the Rainbow Dash from Equestria, or the Canterlot High School counterpart of the Rainbow Dash from Ponyville?” Luster Dawn asked

[sylvies-chen]

Suggestions - Melendaire

(AO3 link)

// Neil accidentally lets something slip on a drowsy Sunday morning in bed with his girlfriend. Claire, naturally, panics. //

Word count: 2384

Neil Melendez wakes up with Claire Browne in his arms just about every morning.

The feeling still hasn’t gotten old.

Their one-year anniversary is coming around the corner. Just under two weeks away, the surgeon realizes when he does the math in his head. And even after all this time, the feeling of waking up with her head on his shoulder and tucked under his arm has never lost its luster. The rush of excitement and pure affection still rushes through his veins all the same. He’s still groggy as that dawns on him, barely awake enough to move away from the blinding sunlight coming in from the bedroom window. All he does is squint and tilt his head the other way, right into Claire’s brown curls. Getting a face full of hair should bother him, but he’s used to it by now— it only makes him smile.

They don’t need to get up right away today. It’s one of their few days off, which means they’ll spend most of the morning the way they usually do when they get a day off: sleeping in for a while, going a few rounds if they’re in the mood, and then making pancakes for breakfast. It’s a nice routine they’ve gotten into over the past year, one that’s made Neil dread work the next day. He just likes spending time with her too much; likes getting lost in her and her soft brown eyes.

Suddenly, he feels her stirring in his arms and she opens her eyes, waking up slowly with a tired moan. “What time is it?”

“Early,” he replies, sitting up in the bed leaning against the backboard.

“Ugh, I hate early. I want to kill early,” Claire groans. “Do we have to get up?”

“No. It’s our day off, we can sleep in. No surgeries, no difficult patients, no paperwork. None of it.”

“Good,” Claire sighs contentedly, pressing a lazy kiss to his cheek and sitting up to snuggle into him. “I like staying here with you.”

“I like it too,” he admits, smiling. “Hey, what do you say we go running this afternoon?”

“Yeah? You think we’ll be fully awake by then?”

“Definitely,” he affirms. “We can sleep in and then go after lunch. And the only thing I love more than you and my work is beating you at the track.”

“Oh, really funny, Neil,” she quips sarcastically, giggling. “If you win, it’s because you cheat!”

“I prefer to call it being creative,” he protests. “Besides, you’re the one who keeps falling for the old ‘fake an injury’ trick. I’ve done it a hundred times now and you fall for it every time.”

“Well excuse me for trying to be a good girlfriend,” she mumbles teasingly, accepting defeat.

“Don’t worry though, sweetheart. When I beat you this afternoon, it’ll be fair and square,” he comforts teasingly, pressing a kiss to her head. They normally spend their mornings like this too— exchanging quick kisses.

“You’re unbelievable,” Claire giggles. “Always so—“

“Arrogant?” He guesses the end of her sentence, because it’s one of the first things she’d called him when she came to St. Bonaventure’s.

“Self-assured,” she corrects him. “But if you want to say arrogant then I won’t argue with that.” She gives him a teasing smirk, which sends them both into a fit of laughter.

“I want to marry you,” he lets out as he chuckles, before he can really think about it.

Oh crap. Something he hadn’t even expected to say, something lingering underneath the surface of his mind, just slipped out.

Oh crap. Claire’s staring at him with eyes like a deer in headlights.

Oh crap. What the hell did he just say?

It’s not like he doesn’t want to marry her. He definitely does. They’ve been dating for quite some time now, ever since that close call during the earthquake nearly a year ago. But they’d both agreed to take things slowly, especially since it had taken everyone at work a little while to adjust to the idea of him and Claire in a relationship. Dr. Melendez and Dr. Browne, secret lovers. It wasn’t exactly a smooth transition, but they’d weathered it together. He loves her and she loves him, that’s all that ever really mattered. Now, they’ve built this life together— a routine of date nights and tender kisses. He’s never felt happier, and his love for her has only grown stronger with time.

So yeah, the thought of marrying her has crossed his mind more than once. Although apparently, it’s crossed his mind more frequently than he’d thought because here he is, blurting out a proposal while tangled up in bed with his girlfriend on a Sunday morning.

“What?” Claire gets out of bed and stands up, pulling the sheet up to cover her chest. Suddenly, through Neil’s fault and his fault alone, she’s wide awake and alert.

Neil winces, his nose scrunching up into his eyes. “Nothing. I mean, I didn’t— that’s not...”

“Oh my god,” she lets out, quiet and stunned as she gets up out of the bed and takes the sheet with her, keeping it wrapped around her body. “You just asked me to marry you?!”

“No no no,” he replies frantically, reaching to grab his boxers and yanking them on before standing up to face her. The bed separates them, but her eyes are wild and piercing with shock. He knows he’s just done something monumentally stupid. “That wasn’t a proposal, I swear.”

“Then what the hell was that?”

“It was...” he pauses to rack his brain for something to say to get him out of the corner he’s backed himself into, and he only lands on one thing. “... a suggestion,” he finishes with a shrug.

“A suggestion?” She looks at him skeptically, her arms crossed in front of her.

“Yes,” he confirms hesitantly.

“Ok, that’s it,” she nods curtly. “you’re insane. This— this is insane!”

“Look, I’m sorry,” he apologizes. “It was a nice moment, I was happy and still half asleep, and- and it just slipped out. Like it or not, I said it. But if you want to go back and pretend like it didn’t happen then fine, we can do that.”

“Well we can’t go back now, Neil,” she huffs. “I can’t go on pretending you didn’t just say that. I mean— god, I can still hear it in my head even now! We need to talk about it.”

“Ok,” he sighs— a little defeatedly, since he has a gut feeling that this conversation isn’t going anywhere he likes (and his gut has never steered him wrong, being a surgeon has taught him that much). “The floor’s open for discussion, Browne. How do you want to go about this?”

He tries to be as clinical as possible he waits for a response. This whole situation is a little embarrassing, really. In the small amount of time since they’ve woken up in each other’s arms, Neil’s somehow managed to blurt out a proposal to his girlfriend of less than a year and has nearly ruined everything. They’re both standing on opposite sides of the bed, in nothing but their underwear, and Neil swears the tension is thick enough to choke them to death. He can picture his colleagues attempting some hypothetical surgery, can picture calling the time of death of their relationship and marking the cause of death off as asphyxiation on some intangible substance. It’s funny, in some weird and twisted way. He’s beating himself up over where this conversation is heading, but at least Glassman would get a kick out of it.

But then, by some miracle, it doesn’t head that way at all.

Claire exhales quietly, deep in thought. Melendez can see her muscles relaxing, the tension leaving from her shoulders as she sits back down on the bed. She leans in a little, staring shyly at her fingers sunken into the bedsheets. “Well, for starters... I think you should ask me again.”

“What?” His brows furrow as a small smile creeps onto his face. Neil sits down across from her on the bed, delightfully stunned. “Are you being serious?”

“I am,” she replies calmly. Her tone is a hell of a lot calmer than Neil feels right now. He can practically feel the excitement rushing through his veins.

Is she saying what he thinks she’s saying?

Neil hasn’t expected this conversation to come for a long time. They grew into each other’s love in time, but it doesn’t erase the scars they have. Claire’s pain and trauma is actually what made her so scared to admit she loved him in the first place. It’d taken him being on the brink of death for her to admit her feelings. Now, they’ve finally grown more comfortable with their feelings but Neil still knows that taking it slow is the right move. It’s why he was so surprised when that proposal slipped off his tongue. Proposing after nearly a year of dating isn’t exactly moving at a slow pace. He supposes his feelings for her— the overwhelming urge to marry her— overcame all the voices of reason telling him to take it easy for fear of scaring her off.

Now though? Now it’s a whole different story.

He stays quiet for a second too long and the small smile on her face fades, bringing in a nervous glance instead. “I mean, only if you want to ask me,” she adds awkwardly after a moment.

“God yes I do,” he assures her. It sparks a small giggle from Claire, her eyes now sparkling and glossy with what Melendez thinks are tears of joy. “I just... I figured you might want it to be a bit different from this. I don’t even have a ring.”

“Well you know me, I’ve always hated romantics,” she dismisses with a watery chuckle.

He laughs in return and smiles until his cheeks hurt. The space between them on the bed slowly closes as Neil inches forward, dragging the sheets with him and taking her hands in his. “You... you are the single best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he starts. The awe in his own voice surprises him a little, but it’s not unexpected. Spend enough time around Dr. Browne and you’ll get used to incredible. That’s what he’d said around a year ago, and it still rings true now. He’s also said being around her makes him a better surgeon and person, which is also very true. She just makes him better, in everything he does. “I love you more than I thought was possible. So, Dr. Browne...” Claire lets out another watery laugh but her hands start to shake in his, so Neil holds them tighter. “... Will you marry me?”

There’s a moment where everything is quieter than silence. Neil starts hearing ringing in his ears, a throbbing sensation that this could go very wrong. Or, as he suspects (and hopes), it could go very very right. And he knows this is weird— that not-so accidentally proposing to your girlfriend while half-naked on a Sunday morning isn’t exactly the traditional way to ask someone to spend the rest of their life with you— but he just doesn’t care. Neil wants to have a life with her. He wants the whole package, the thing they’ve both been searching for long before finding each other. The life they’d almost given up hope on. And not for the first time since he’s met her, he wants it with Claire Browne.

And the silence is broken, like a dam flooding with a river that ends up only being one word. “Yes,” she whispers, tears welling up in her eyes. “Yes, I will marry you.”

Neil can tell, even without looking in a mirror, that his face lights up at those words. His cheeks hurt from smiling so widely, his body practically aches for her.

A year ago, he wouldn’t have dreamed of unprofessional touches or intimate moments. He’d been so scared to cross the line, the point of no return. But now, he’s about to spend the rest of his life with the most talented, kind, incredible woman he’s ever met, and he doesn’t have to be scared. He leans over, meets her in the middle of the bed while on their knees, and kisses her without hesitation.

It’s sweet, the way Claire’s kiss is always a sweet release to him, and beautiful. Admittedly, he feels tears of his own coming on and tastes the salt streaming onto their lips from both of their eyes.

Claire pulls away after a while, laughing and smiling while crying. They’re both blubbering messes at this point, filled with overwhelming tenderness.

“What do we do for a ring?” Neil finally asks after they both compose themselves a little bit.

Claire looks around the room, ruffles around the drawer of the nightstand for something, and then finally pulls out a sharpie. “Here,” she says, pulling the cap off. Melendez watches in shock as Claire scribbles a line all the way around her ring finger, forming the trace of a ring with black ink. “It’s not a permanent solution, but it’ll do.”

Neil laughs giddily. Only Claire Browne would draw an engagement ring on her finger. There’s truly no one like her, and he loves her for it. “It looks beautiful, Dr. Browne,” he teases.

“It’s just until we get something nice. And when we do, it better not be anything big or tacky or expensive. But that’s just my preference. You know— just a suggestion,” she finishes with a smirk.

“Right,” he chuckles. “And I suggest you kiss me now.”

“That can be arranged,” she quips back teasingly, smiling as she leans in with her hands on his bare chest.

Neil smiles into the kiss, his lips pressing against hers. His hands find her hips and pull her in until they’re flush against each other. They crash onto the bed in a frenzy of blankets, Neil settling on top of her gently, and he sees Claire’s beaming smile and the black ink around her ring finger.

It’s the last thing he sees before he moves in to kiss her again. Neil tastes her lips on his, and thinks proposing to her was the best suggestion he ever made.

[mememanufactorum]

Final Fantasy XIV Primal lyric starters

* FEEL FREE TO SHARE AS YOU PLEASE, NO CREDIT NEEDED. CHANGE PRONOUNS OR ANYTHING ELSE AS DESIRED.

-Under the Weight-

Cold are the hands that grasp at your soul

Bound to the dark, for the light I shun

Succumb to the hate that corrupts your fate

In spite of the blood that was spilt before, you whet your blades, you thirst for more

Now kneel, overdweller, your lord commands

There’s no salvation for the sons of man

The skies will tremble and the earth will quake

From the crumbling walls, no one escapes

I’ll drag you down to the seventh gate

-Thunder Rolls-

Thine advent quelleth creeping night

The wicked burn, their pyres bright

Soul without a name, heed my call

Sin doth stain the hearts of us all

Soon he too shall reap what is sown

Step into the storm, know its mercy

Let the wind and the rain crash down over thee

Soul fallen from grace, ware thee well

Judgment thou must face, thine own hell

Soul, thine end is nigh

Take my hand

All life must return to the land

Purge thy flesh of fear and be strong

Step in from the storm, praise its mercy

Let the sting of the rain never stray far from thee

Now lift thine heavy head and vanquish thine sorrow

Now turn thy gaze ahead and look to the morrow

-Oblivion-

There’s nothing left

Now close my eyes for one last time and say goodbye

The pain won’t cease

I’ll find no peace

We are taught to fear the reaper

I try and try but I can’t say no

This endless nightmare has just begun

My heart is dragging me down unto oblivion

The endless lies, I’ve cast aside

Steeled is my soul, my blood grown cold

I gain control

We all learn to fight the reaper

Can’t defeat her, so instead I’ll have to be her

My mind’s made up, my fear is gone

-Unbending Steel-

Red bloometh the rose of conviction

Red bloometh the rose of hate

Red bloometh the rose of conquest

Only blood will sate

The war, it wageth on

The storm, it rageth on

The bold ever fight on, their lives echo in song

All, like snow, they fall, petals plucked and strewn

The war still wageth on

The storm still rageth on

The bold blindly march on, their lives lost in a song

-Fiend-

What is it like when you pull back the curtain and realize every wrong is a right?

Your world is rusted like a dirty razor

You walk the path laid before you

The call of reason, you refuse to abide

Necessity is an inventive mother

You’ll find slumber when the world comes tumbling down

Retreat where lesser men lead

Flee from what you do not see

Heed the dark within your being

Waste no more time fighting your demons

Lay down your arms and let the evil inside

You let it eat until there’s nothing left at all, so you can feel that you are truly alive

Better to serve in a waking nightmare than to live in their paradise

What is gold always glitters, but it still comes with an unpayable price

You are the night at the end of the tunnel

The angels graze in the meadows of excess

-Equilibrium-

A heartbeat without harmony is moonlight without dark

The heart seeketh equilibrium

With balance will your worry part

-Locus-

Let go this destiny

You’re caught in a trance

The mortal coil we serve is taut like a spring

Our world’s a fantasy, no more than a test

No time enough tomorrow for turning back to where we began

This mortal coil we serve is naught but a spring

Your world’s a fantasy, you’ve failed the test

-Beauty’s Wicked Wiles-

In time, you shall follow

Behold as our burdens become south with the sun

Step from the dark to the light

Give into your hunger

Cast off inhibition, let passion run wild

Fuel the unquenchable fire

You needn’t hide

-Wayward Daughter-

Each petal a promise torn, shorn one by one and cast to the winds

I gave unto them my all

Wayward daughter, step into the night

Naught save the night shall know our sorrow

We give unto it our all

-Amatsu Kaze-

Is this divine torment or judgment, I know not

To the end of the world I flee to surrender to the whims of fate

He shirks not from my rage and speaks of destiny and defiance

Surrender to the wind

Surrender to the rage

-Sunrise-

Stranger to kindness until freed by love eternal, you and I

Honor binds me unto errant kin

If here I find my end, stay your tears for we shall meet again

As the light of the setting sun fades, bid farewell to me, beloved

In these fleeting moments, hold my hand as I whisper a silent prayer

Should dawn never break on this thousand thousand year night, I promise

Should I take to wing and seek you in every distant sky

One more life for us, one more chance – for this I pray, I beg, I plead

Dreams of you and me in my heart I hold forevermore

Wait for me, wait for me, my love

-eScape-

Come ride, heroes, ride

The storm heads gather

Why do weathered warriors wander their way whither wanting wonders wait?

Twixt the leaves you’ll find naught amiss – missing aughts and crossing fates

Dare the dead tread ahead on a road that was borrowed design

Through the sum of their suns do they seek tomorrow

Witness as the end shall begin what was final

-What Angel Wakes Me-

Yet with each descent do we rise again to our hearts’ content

Fly away, my friend, for a day and then we’ll begin again

Do you love me not?

Will you, when I’m gone, remember me?

Braving anything together, we learn to play our part

Catch a falling star, lock it in our hearts eternally

To these crowns we cling for we’ll all be kings tomorrow

Summer child with heavy eyes, come our angel nigh, sing in our sweet lullaby

Time wilts and fades, luster lost in the rain, bows to the blade, till the spring calls again

-Invincible-

These memories ache with the weight of fate

Ever we fight, never we fly

Ever we fall, forever we fall

Now breathe deep of the darkness beneath the flood, where all of the proud angels drink to their deeds of blood

Their lies, twisted and torn, into dreams they’ve spun

Yet ever we will stand stall, invincible

-Return to Oblivion-

My sins claim me

How long have I waited to open my wings?

The soul longs for oblivion

A slave to my fate, ever doomed to repeat this

No more goodbyes, though my heart is still aching

Now open my eyes one more time, here I come

Spring’s promise of sun is honored when winter’s weighed upon us

Clear as diamond, yet fragile as ice

My heart is racing

Falling too fast, but the fall will not break me

No more goodbyes, I am tired of waiting

-To The Edge-

All our splendor bathed black in silence, our surrender, a somber reverie

Know our places, for worth is wordless

Brother, stay this descent to madness

Come and save us

Catch us before we fall

Don’t lose hope

Like broken angels, wingless, cast from heaven’s gates, we only fly when falling far from grace

Hell can take us, heaven can wait

Quick to their ends, our candles burn until we’re free

In monochrome melodies, our tears are painted in red

Deep inside, we’re nothing more than scions and sinners

In the rain do light and darkness fade

Time circles endlessly, the hands of fate trained ahead

All things change, drawn to the flame to rise from the ashes

To begin, we first must see the end

Rock of ages, we cast the first stone

We know not what we do

Tomorrow’s come too soon

Follow blindly like lambs to slaughter, at the mercy of those who ply the sword

We’re forgotten, now and forevermore

Without a compass, wandering lost in lies and faith, only alive when fighting death’s amber embrace

Our hearts beat loud, unafraid

On hands and knees we pray to gods we’ve never seen

Come, shadow, come follow me

The final hour upon us, no more time to breathe

[dawning-luster]

{ @beyondequestria random starter }

After being enrolled at the school of friendship and moving to ponyville to begin her studies at the school, the young Luster Dawn still kept up her magical studies and practice despite not fully still attending the school for gifted unicorns. Often the unicorn would sneak back to Canterlot to spy on the royal guard magic training taking a great interest in battle magic. Today though, Luster had crept back into the Canterlot Palace skipping out on a class day to borrow some tomes on battle magic. Thinking that Royal Guard Commander Tempest was away for the day, Luster made her into the barracks armory searching about for the terms cloaking herself in an invisibility spell she had been practicing.

“Now, where are those battle magic tomes? I heard one of the guards saying they were kept close to the armory....”

She was trotting about the armory as quietly as she could. The unicorn would not be expecting anypony to find her whatsoever.

[mister-maiden]

The Forest: Where the hell is Timmy?

You want a good survival horror game? Boom. The Forest is there to help you on your feet. 

The forest begins with you and your son Timmy flying on a plane, when suddenly the plane malfunctions and begins to fall to the ground. In a stunning cutscene, you see your son being taken by a man slathered in red paint. You reach your arm out to grab him but it is simply too late, and the red man carries little Timmy into the forest, where you will be hunting down your son the man who did this.

Through the vile and damp plant life of the forest you must harvest and kill to eat and drink. Slowly you make your way past the putrid camps of the cannibals living on the island to discover things simply are not as they appear. This game has been in development for years (my last post probably explains how I feel about that better than I ever could) and they've done a good job actually finishing their game. Water has reflections of light, the fauna seems so realistic, and best of all the creatures the main character encounters are horrifying. 

You face the normal human looking creatures in the beginning. Their speed and numbers is what make them dangerous, as you can easily "stun lock" a creature by just constantly hitting them over and over again. If there was a gripe about this game, the combat would be it. It's very lack luster with little to no strategy involved other than getting close and just mashing the right mouse button and praying the stun lock lasts; however, you can't get away with this forever as you begin to venture deep into caves on the island, meeting creatures that seemingly are just merged masses of flesh. You think I'm playing? Look at this. I mean LOOK at it and tell me you wouldn't be horrified hearing the moaning and groaning of this THING as it charges at you at full speed....And until I realize I probably shouldn’t show that image since it has...*Gasp* Breasts.

Since you will be staying on this island for a while, you're going to be needing a home! This game has a wonderful feature where you can build a fully stocked base: complete with traps, tree houses, stairs, and more! I LOVE this. I love being able to build in games. Minecraft, Terraria, Starbound, etc. It's just so fun to be able to build something that I can call mine and fall back to when I need safety. You can build tall wooden walls to keep out the horrors of the forest, but eventually they will smash it down.

The AI are VERY smart...Sort of? In combat and other situations they can be ridiculously dumb, running into walls and not attacking; however, when they see you and notice anything on the island...the hunt it on, and they will begin creating search parties to kill you. If you let even one live as they saw you, your time on this island will not be fun, as night after night these mutants will raid your camp with more intensity than the last. They did such a wonderful job with this...if only the combat was actually good.

There is a huge selection of weapons and items to find in the game. Dynamite, a map, an axe, and more. It is possible to customize the weapon you have with teeth (yeah) for more damage, feathers to be quicker, and other things. You play the way you want to play and I really enjoy that feature. I want to progress through the game feeling my survival skill raising as I traverse this revolting jungle full of corpses.

THE CAVES ARE HORRIFYING. Caves are spread randomly throughout the island and boy does each one have their unique setting. I found a cave with hundreds of fingers tied with string hanging from the ceiling. I've been in caves with waterfalls and corpses hanging from the ceiling. There are also tons of clues that help you piece together the story of the island.This game just throws everything it has at the player and the player MUST be prepared to venture into these dark abysses to find Timmy. As the player ventured further into these caves and explores the island...it's clear something just isn't right here.

That's all I can really discuss in the beginning of the review since it deals HEAVILY in spoiler territory if I go on. So I give this game 8 out of 10 severed legs.

------------------------------------------------------------SPOILERS-------------------------------

WELL FOR STARTERS, the reason your plane malfunctions is because of a machine on the island created by an evil corporation (aye the beginning of every other horror game. Go figure). The red man is actually the head of the corporation running experiments on the island, and all of these mutants are mere products.

Of course there must be a reason for this evil corporation to be on the island other than privacy right? Correct! It seems there are entities that predate even the cannibals that live here. Old creatures had to have created these giant "machines" and they may not have been human. Giant monolithic doors that require sacrifice just to pass through. Whether or not some strange magic is involved, this definitely gained the attention of these scientists...Including an item called the resurrection obelisk. This giant supernatural creation is able to resurrect someone at the cost of a sacrifice....And guess who's little girl was killed? That's right. The red man's. And guess who's little boy is going to be a sacrifice for the red man's little girl? Timmy.

You'll find Timmy's lifeless corpse in the obelisk sacrifice area. So you search this giant underground lab to find the red man's little girl completely safe...until she begins to violently mutate into a revolting final boss. It is never explained how she became this way. After you kill her and move on, you find a large glass area with a wide view of the sky...and a plane slowly flying over head. A console in front of you begins to flash, and it dawns on the player. This is the machine used to crash planes...And since you need a child sacrifice...whelp. You press the button.

Time skip on forward and you are going to a live television show with your son completely healthy. Everything's great until Timmy begins to have a violent seizure on the floor. And poof to black. Basically it seems the resurrection obelisk brings the dead back, but it also mutates them.

The story was pretty good. I definitely was expecting some larger scale plot behind the scenes but nothing like child sacrifice. I think it's definitely a game anyone should give a try since it's so cheap and has so many features to keep the player busy for hours. Plus there's multiplayer!

Also, if you're wondering where the red man went...you can find him in his office with red crayons shoved in his eyes, seemingly by his own child.