#maybe i should do a review pt 2 in like 5-10 years to see how this node of thoughts and emotions evolved.

[blinkbones]

Minor Detail -- Adania Shibli

Rambling warning. This reading got so mixed in with my current state of mind and feelings + the difficulty of speaking about something related to a heated current issue, it's a whole mess. And probably not a well-worded one. Also I'm ignorant. I hope I don't compound anyone's pain today, and if I do, I am endlessly sorry. Also anyone being dehumanizing in my notes is catching a block.

This book I bought on a whim, against my own rules. My new job has been taking its toll on me and, I don't know, I sort of felt compelled to... do... something...?

It's an awful thing to say, but I've been compartmentalizing a lot. I've been limiting the time that I take to engage with news, because it kept sending me down doom spirals.

But... I still care, yknow. And I guess that's why I picked up a book with such a discomforting blurb even in my aching state -- and how comforting can you get in your writing as a Palestinian author, in the context of the last... century... anyway?

Ok, less about me and more about this book. It's a short, and well-crafted novel, in two parts. In the first half, the reader is put in direct contact with the cold point of view of an Israeli soldier in the few days that lead up to the rape and murder of a young Arab woman. In the second part, decades later, a Palestinian woman seeks to reconstruct the full truth of those events. You don't need me to tell you that this can be a triggering read -- but if you can handle it, it's a good one.

The writing is deceivingly simple in appearance. You will not be stumped by the sentence structures -- but the overall structure of the story itself is complex, interlacing within itself.

There are obvious mirrors to anyone who paid attention in literature classes. The dog's barking echoes like an ominous bell across the two parts. The two main characters (unnamed) both descend into a sort of feverish paranoia.

There are two scenes that I keep going back to in my mind, one from each part.

In part 1, the soldier gets stung by an insect, and his state deteriorates. As he gets more unwell, he becomes more and more meticulous and controlling regarding his environment, obviously unwilling to risk a second incident, all the while growing more and more ill. One night, or day, as he avoids the burning sun, he gets up and smashes every single insect he can find; big spiders, small spiders, even a moth. The text doesn't tell you, but you can guess -- this won't help him at all; he's already sick ; and a moth? What harm could the moth ever inflict upon him? What it reveals is his obsession for control, born out of the fear of one unpleasant but seemingly non-lethal bite, inflicted by a creature who got trapped under his shirt when he slept for the first time in a house that belonged to someone else, that we as readers imagine to be dead or trying to find refuge far away from their old home. You read it and you can't help but think about children, a week ago, yesterday, today, probably right now. Moths as well. Humans treated like insects and all lumped into a bag of "killables".

In part 2, the woman goes to work. She calls it "her new job" but you soon get the sense that she may have been at it for a while. She struggles with the limits of things, where to put them and where they end and if she's the one in charge of drawing the limit or of following its implications. This, in the context of a country whose borders are regularly pushed inward like a booby trap designed to crush its victims, is such a simple sentence, but a terrifying one. Anyway, that's not even the scene. She goes to work. On her way there, she gets stopped by soldiers telling her that the way is blocked, as they are leading an operation to deal with some young people ("terrorists" was the word, I think) holed up in a nearby building. She finds another way to access the building, where she opens the windows so the glass won't break. Soon after, there is an explosion, and the glass doesn't break. She focuses on the dust, which she abhors, because it comes in a cloud and covers her work station and the papers she's working on. It's rough and dry and hard to deal with. Her priority in that moment is to get the dust off of her papers, so that she can keep working. This resonated deeply with me. Even though my situation is, no doubt, much less depressing and much less dangerous than hers, how often have I ignored a horror I can't deal with to focus on the stupid minute details of something I do have some form of impact on? In the text, the narrator worries that this may be difficult to understand, focusing on the dust, when a literal bomb blew up nearby, but I really don't think it is. With the state of things, how they've been and how they've been going, worldwide, locally, continentally, nationally, whatever you want, and how powerless it makes a lot of us feel, I think it's inevitable to focus on what you can actually affect. And she's right, it is so silly, in a way. But maybe it is just a survival strategy as well, and it doesn't mean that one cannot care, or try to have a bigger impact, or be more involved in attempts to change things ; indeed, the woman eventually draws from every resource at her disposal to try something -- maybe "anything", I'm not sure. I mean, I've been giving my opinion and feelings here, but it'd be presumptuous to say that I really understand the author's intent.

On that note, I was hungry for more after I was done reading, so I watched a few interviews. How ironic that Adania Shibli herself got arrested when she visited the same museum her character visits, because they had "never seen a Palestinian woman with a computer". This simple sentence weighs on my mind as well, again not entirely sure why. How ironic, as well, that her award ceremony was postponed in the wake of October 7th. As if her getting her prize was going to deafen Israeli voices (I'm referring to the justification given by the book fair in question). As if this really was a simple mathematical problem, in which pain can only be recognized under one flag at a time. As if recent history showed dominance of Palestine over Israel. As if human pain wasn't universal.

I don't claim to know everything, but the level of bullshit kind of makes me feel insane sometimes. Anyway, please don't try to debate me -- this is only a book review, and I am only a random fuck with basic principles of "I don't like it when people are hurt" and no free time to argue why that's my principle.

[daddychims]

Offside Pt 12

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12

Series Masterlist!

Genre: Smut, Soccer AU, College AU

Pairings: Soccer Player! Jungkook X Sports Trainer! Reader

Word Count: 2k

Other BTS members all make a cameo as well because I’m an OT7 Trash!

You work as a sports trainer, providing basic first aid and injury management for the Hanguk University’s soccer team. Going with your mundane life of caring for the dozen of guys hurting themselves in the soccer game takes a turn when one of the guys catches your eyes. It’s not his breathtakingly good looks or his muscular athletic body usually seducing girls at the campus that catches your eyes. But the action plan in your kit, indicating he is diagnosed with Asthma is what draws your eyes time and time again to the Golden Boy of Hanguk University.

Warning: Slow burn, eventual smut, Taehyung being a freaking tease the whole time, Also Jimin not letting the female MC live for one day, Fuckboy!Jungkook, Asthmatic! Jungkook , mentions of episodes of Asthma, Take your Ventolin kids, Take your medications kids!

You hesitantly knock and wait for the guy’s sweet voice calling “Come in” before twisting the doorknob and entering doctor Kim’s room. He brings his eyes up to you and flashes you his usual sweet smile as he points at the chair in front him “Come in, who caused trouble this time?”

“No one,” you quickly shake your head to reassure him, unzipping your bag as you take out the green colored journal “I’m here to talk to you about this Dr Kim!”

Your heart sinks at his sweet smile fading on his lips, expression immediately sunken as he murmurs “He didn’t accept, did he?”

“He did,” you speak up, not bearing to give the young doctor more heartache “He said he’ll do it?”

“Really?” The young doctor immediately shifts in his seat, face lighting up with hope “Jeon accepted to do the diary? How?”

“Yeah,” you nod with a reassuring smile “I’m checking on him three times a week, plus two days of training that I’m on shift.”

“Wow,” the words slip out of his lips and he hesitates for a few moments before sighing in relief “It doesn’t feel real,” He then reaches to hold your hand as he mutters “Thank you, Y/N.”

“That’s fine,” you smile, cheeks blushing at the sudden contact of his hand on yours, after 2 years you still cant deny you'd risk it all for the etheral looking guy “I’m glad it worked out.”

“So when are you guys starting?” You almost pout when he pulls his hand away as he quickly types a few things on his computer “Can I book you in for weekly meetings with myself, so I can review his diary as well?”

“Sure, I can come in an hour before the training on Fridays if that works for you.”

“Sounds good,” he nods before pausing his typing and looking at you “Instead I’ll talk to the admin team and we’ll add an hour to your roster. You’re not doing this for free on my watch.”

“I- I’m not doing this for money,” You quickly interject “It’s a great experience for me too! I appreciate this opportunity as it is. ”

“Of course you do,” he nods before sending you a warm smile “but I really appreciate what you’re doing too. But you’re sacrificing you time and only then I’d feel comfortable for taking your time.”

“Alright!” you nod as you quickly reach inside your bag “Dr Kim, I had a question …”

“Sure, what is it?”

“I have a friend who’s quitting smoking,” you start with a hesitant tone, hoping that he doesn’t pick on who exactly you’re talking about “I heard that the side effects can be quite bad in the beginning. Is that true?”

“Well it depends on each person,” Dr Kim nods “but often the first few days can be quite rough, has your friend try nicotine gums or patches?”

“I- I’m not sure!”

He quickly reaches for his drawer and grabs a small rectangular box and places in front of you “This is a nicotine gum sample I usually give my patients, give this to your friend and ask him to give it a go. If this doesn’t work, he should try the patches, they’re usually stronger and have a more lasting effect.”

“Thank you,” you quickly grab the box “I’ll have him give it a go and see how he goes.”

“I’m glad I was any help,” he says with a wide grin before looking at the clock “ You have training in a bit. I’ll see you Friday then.”

“See you then Dr Kim!”

You quickly leave his room and make your way downstairs to the changing room to prepare your kit for the training when you find Jungkook sitting in the changing room, scrolling on his phone. When he hears your footstep, he looks up at you, raising one eyebrow

“Hey,” you wave hesitantly as you place your backpack on the table “What’s up?”

“I was looking for my inhaler,” he shrugs pointing at one of the draws “I couldn’t find it there.”

“Oh right,” you quickly rush to one of the cabinets and grab your kit “I forgot to put it back after the last training,” you quickly grab the inhaler and the spacer and walk back to where he’s sitting “Sorry about that!”

He grabs the inhaler and moves it closer to his lips but pauses as he notices your demanding gaze on himself “What?”

“The spacer,” you wave the plastic device in front of him “10% more medication? More useful? did you forget?”

He sighs looking away from you before muttering “Well since you’re here, why don’t you do it for me?”

“What-“ you gasp as he reaches for the back of your waist and pulls you on his lap. You stumble forward and have to hold onto his shoulders to balance yourself as you plop down on his lap, face a few inches away from his “What are you doing?” you ask as he locks his hands tightly around you

“You’re not gonna give me medication standing, would you?” He rolls his eyes as he hands you the inhaler

“What if the guys come here,” You shift uncomfortably, peeking at the door “They’ll get the wrong idea.”

“Isn’t that better for you?” He shrugs “Maybe they’ll think you’re taken and stop checking out your ass!”

“No one checks out my ass-“

“Mhmm,” he nods with a knowing smile “Sure, they don’t imagine what they’ll do to you when you bend waist down to grab the bottles of water wishing you could quench their other thirst.”

“Guys are disgusting!” you cringe and put the spacer and inhaler together and bring it up to place it between his lips “Don’t forget, head up, push your tongue!”

“God, you have a specific way of giving instructions” He smirks as he cups your neck and whispers “I’ll definitely use that when you finally suck my dick. I don’t like too much tongue.”

“Jeon, don’t test my patience,” you sigh “I’ll shove this spacer down your throat.”

“I’ll take my chance,” he smirks “As long as I can have my cock down your throat.”

You shake your head in defeat as you actually shove the spacer between his lips “I’ll press the canister and start counting, don’t breathe out too quickly.”

He just watches you with his deer like eyes as you press the canister and start counting, watching his chest as he holds his breath and finally releases it after you finish on the count of 10.

“You can do the second one yourself right?” you quickly move off his lap “the guys will barge in any second, we don’t want them to see us like this.” You quickly prepare your kit as you hear him

“Why not?”

You turn around and watch him stare at you with questioning eyes

“Because you said you don’t want anyone to see us together.” You furrow your eyebrows

“What?” he asks in a confused tone “when did I say that?”

“The day I was at your place,” you say defensively “you said you don’t want anyone to see us together, so Its better for me to come to your place for the checkup.”

“I didn’t say that,” he rolls his eyes “I said I don’t want anyone to see us!”

“W-What’s the difference,” You ask with a lost tone “potatoes, potAtoes,” you smile as you quickly look away to hide your emotions “You have a reputation to hold up. I get it Jeon, Don’t worry!” you say as you quickly cut the tapes into pre-measured pieces

“What reputation? What are you talking about?” he asks as he finally stands up and walks to you, grabbing your arm and stopping you from your fiddle with the tapes

“I’m talking about your reputation as the Hanguk’s Golden boy,” you say matter of factly trying not to show that voicing out the words actually hurts you pride “I’m not dumb. Being seen around campus with a girl like me is not gonna do your reputation any favor.” you keep it together and try to sound as cool as you can although you know deep down you’re not cool.

“What’s wrong with a girl like you?” He scoffs

“I- I mean,” your eyes wander around slightly embarrassed to respond, “I’m a nerd, compared to the girls that are usually around you. You know what I mean?”

“No, I don’t know what you mean!” Jungkook responds with a cold tone, shutting you off

“OH-“ you gulp slightly nervous about his icy response, It’s not like you said anything bad about him, you only depreciated yourself in this conversation and he looks offended as if you called HIM a nerd “I didn’t mean it in a bad way- I mean those girls are hot, like so fucking hot I would have a crush on them. And then there is me, like look at me-“you laugh nervously but stop mid-sentence when finally speaks up

“Y/N, just shut up,” he shakes his head and closes his eyes and you nervously press your lips together, physically trying to seal them so no words come out “When I said I don’t want anyone to see us-“ he pauses biting the corner of his lips as he adds “it’s because I don’t want anyone knowing I have asthma.”

“W-What?” you ask even more lost than you were a few minutes ago

“Its because of my asthma!” he sighs “That’s why I said I don’t want anyone to see us,” he hesitates before adding “while I’m taking my medication.”

“Oh,” you breath out and immediately start hating yourself for being so dumb “I-I’m so sorry!” you bite your lips

“It’s fine,” he gulps and for the first time you see a side of him you’ve never seen before, the vulnerable side you always wondered if the Hanguk’s Golden boy even possess behind his rough and cocky exterior

“Jungkook, but-” you hesitate as he brings his glazy eyes to you “There is nothing wrong with having a condition like asthma. Its not like you've chosen to have asthma, you were born with it. that’s why I didn’t even guess that’s the reason,” you pause a few seconds waiting for him to respond but his sorrowful eyes tells you he’s still not convinced “Coming so far you have despite it all, being the best in your team and in your school as an athlete, If I was you, I would have worn It like a medal. This is nothing you should be ashamed of or hide.”

He stares at you, eyes wavering on you as if he’s trying to decide whether he should trust your words or not. You see a glimpse of all the self-hatred and blame he’s put himself and his body for not keeping up with his peers, the pain of having to pave a path rockier than everyone else but having to hide it all because of the fear of judgement.

“You don’t get it,” he finally voices out, looking away from you “try living with these fucked up lungs and I’ll see if you can be proud.”

“I’m sorry,” you quickly nod, reaching to squeeze his arms “I’ll never know how you feel since I’ve never experienced it, but,” you gulp “I can reassure you, you never have to be ashamed of it with me.”

He brings his gaze back to you and look at you with something different this time. A look of amusement, tinted by something more … something you can’t put your finger on and the fast beating of your heart urges you to not pry further so you do what you can do best and mutter

“But you should be ashamed that you smoke though,” you say jokingly with a fake frown and his lips curl into a smile “I’ll always shame you for that one.”

“Whatever,” he laughs “I quitted for you anyways.”

For you? You furrow your eyebrows hearing his words and are about to question them when he cups your cheeks

“Look, I need to get this straight,” he says in a rushed tone “I’m not embarrassed to be seen with you,” he says in a firm tone “And I don’t want you to think like that about me.”

“F-Fine, I got you now,” you nod with an anxious smile, trying to reassure the guy “We’re cool!”

“Those girls,” he starts anxiously “The girls you said are surronding me, I don’t care about any of them.” He hesitates as if he’s chewing his next few words “If only you’d want-“

Your eyes widen at the expense of his words that you guess will follow, but you don’t get enough chance to hear them when the door opens with a loud thump and Taehyung enters the changing room, calling for you at the top of his lung

“SUGAR, YOUR TAE TAE IS HER-“he looks at the way Jungkook is standing again you and immediately yells “FUCK, YOU GUYS ARE-”

You reflexively push against Jungkook and quickly rush to your kit and grab the heavy box, trying to not make any contact with Tae as you mutter “I’ll let you guys change, see you later!”

You quickly push past the bewildered guy standing at the door, grateful that he doesn’t block your way on the way out as you rush away from the changing room to the field, trying to forget whatever happened in there …

[mlek13]

Year 6: End of Year Review

Here are my stats and household rankings for Year 6. (Super long text post under the cut.)

Year 5 End of Year Census

Royals (1 household, 5 sims total)

1 elder (female)

1 adult (female)

1 young adult (male)

2 teens (1 female, 1 male)

3 cats (2 female, 2 male, one runaway)

2 dogs (1 female, 1 male, both small)

Change from previous year: -1 sim, -1 pet

Losses: Prince Elton graduated and moved to a Noble household.  Prince Laurence is at University and will probably become a Noble when he graduates, but since I don’t know where he’s going to end up after graduation, I’m still going to count him as a Royal for now.

2 elderly pets died, but a new cat was introduced to the household. One of the cats is a runaway and it doesn’t look like they will be coming back.

Nobles (13 households, 90 sims total)

10 elders (6 female, 4 male)

25 adults (14 female, 11 male)

13 young adults (8 female, 5 male)

20 teens (10 female, 10 male)

13 children (5 female, 8 male)

6 toddlers (4 female, 2 male)

3 babies (3 female)

6 dogs (4 female, 2 male / 1 large, 5 small)

5 cats (1 female, 4 males)

Change from previous year: +18 sims, +1 pet, +1 household

Losses: 3 sims died from illness, 2 married into a lower class, 4 pets died from old age.

Gains: 21 sims were born into households.  2 sims joined the Noble class by marriage.

The one new household was Princess Petunia and Thaddeus Durden returned from university.

Merchants / Middle Class (13 households, 63 sims total)

8 elders (4 female, 4 male)

29 adults (16 female, 13 male)

7 teens (3 female, 4 male)

11 children (4 female, 7 male)

4 toddlers (2 female, 2 male)

4 babies (2 female, 2 male)

5 dogs (3 female, 2 male / 1 large, 4 small)

8 cats (3 female, 5 male)

Change from previous year: +16 sims, +7 pets, +1 households

Losses: 4 deaths from old age, 3 deaths from illness, 1 moved to the Peasant class.

Gains: 16 births, 8 married or moved in from another class.

The one new household is Jonathan Durden and Meredith Ajjanagadde.  I don’t think of them as Merchants, but until I have more “Middle Class” households, I’m going to group them in together.  The Laughlin household was lost this year, but I think Justice’s household is new since he would have been promoted at the end of last year and not counted in the previous census.

Peasants (11 households, 49 sims total)

3 elders (2 female, 1 male)

19 adults (10 female, 9 male)

11 teens (5 female, 6 male)

7 children (1 female, 6 male)

7 toddlers (2 female, 5 male)

2 babies (1 female, 1 male)

9 dogs (5 female, 4 male / 9 large, 1 small)

2 cats (2 female)

Change from previous year: +15 sims, -2 pets, +1 household

Losses: 2 sims died from illness.

Gains: 15 births, 2 moved or married in.

The one new household is Elias Peasant and Christa Midlock.

____________________________________________________________

Not a lot has changed since the previous year, so I’m not going to bother to post the graphs.  All my classes are growing, except the Royals, which is to be expected since it is a single household.  (The graph for the Royal population is very symmetrical, peaking with 12 sims in year 3.)

The net gain of sims in the kingdom was 46 which is nearly the same as Year 5 with 48.  The growth rate might be leveling out.

The proportions of each class have stayed mostly the same since the previous year.  Royals went from 4% to 2%, Nobles from 45% to 44%, Merchants from 30% to 31%, and Peasants from 22% to 23%.

___________________________________________________________

I am always tweaking my points system, partially because I forget how I did things previously.  (Looking back at my previous year-end-reviews, there are a lot of ideas I’d forgotten . . .) Other than making some changes to the numbers and formulas, I decided to add a line of succession bonus for my upper classes and an age deduction for everyone.  My points are really heavy on aspiration, which is naturally going to be higher for older sims, so I subtracted each sims’ age times 10 from their score in the interest of helping younger sims (though I’m not sure that it does much.)

At the end of Year 6, I had 24 sims who were in line to the throne. I added bonus points ranging from 500-0 in increments of 25.  Twins got the same number of points as each other.  This just left Biana and Olivia Burgos at the bottom of the list that ended up with no points.  The bonus points are not set, but will be adjusted annually.

The top ten currently in line to the throne are:

Princess Lila - 500 pts.

Lady Louisa Durden - 475 pts.

Princess Violette - 450 pts.

Princess Rona - 425 pts.

Princess Ruby - 425 pts.

Lady Ramona - 400 pts.

Princess Nova - 375 pts.

Princess Hyacinth - 350 pts.

Princess Sheridan - 325 pts.

Lady Sharona - 300 pts.

___________________________________________________________ 

Noble Households

Queen Rosalin’s hold on the throne remains safe, as no one comes near her in the points ranking.  Not much has changed in most of my upper class households from Year 5, but I am going to put the households in ranking order, according to their points and see if that changes next year.  (I also need to update last names at some point.)

Royal

Head of household: Queen Rosalin Royal

Spouse: None

Heir: Princess Lila Royal

Household Score: 6861

Income: 6000

Cade

Head of household: Lady Erin Cade

Spouse: Sir Navin Langerak

Heir: Lady Leila Cade

Household Score: 4854

Income: 4000

Durden:

Head of household: Lady Nicolette Durden

Spouse: Sir Trevor Cade

Heir: Lady Lucretia Durden

Spouse: Prince Elton Royal

Household Score: 4696

Income: 4000

Burgos:

Head of household: Lady Laurel Burgos

Spouse: Prince Florian Royal

Heir: Lady Sabrina Burgos

Spouse: Sir Evan Cade

Household Score: 4438

Income: 4000

Valora:

Head of household: Lady Cora Burgos

Spouse: None

Heir: Lady Colette Burgos

Household Score: 4196

Income: 4000

Lyndlia:

Head of household: Princess Dahlia Royal

Spouse: None

Heir: Princess Lynette or Princess Cecily Royal (twins)

Household Score: 3728

Income: 3500

Beamont:

Head of household: Lady Beatrix Burgos

Spouse: Sir Montague Durden

Heir: Lady Sophie Burgos

Household Score: 3693

Income: 3500

Rocade:

Head of household: Princess Hyacinth Royal

Spouse: Sir Claudius Cade

Heir: Princess Sheridan Royal

Household Score: 3672

Income: 3500

Pederson:

Head of household: Princess Violette Royal

Spouse: Sir Galen King

Heir: Princess Ruby Royal

Household Score: 3658

Income: 3500

Cadeking:

Head of household: Lady Elaine Cade

Heir: Lady Elise Cade

Household Score: 3295

Rank: Countess

Income: 3000

(Elaine and Tobias are just living together and never got remarried.  She should marry him though, because that would bump their score up above Dahlia’s.)

? - Formerly Kara and Lorenzo’s household

(I’m not sure if I should count them, because I didn’t move Princess Rona in until the beginning of the next year, but maybe I should have moved her in one the last day of spring.  Now that I look at it, I might have been off on her graduation date . . .  This is basically a new household in an old house with some of the members of the former household living there.)

Head of household: Princess Rona Royal

Spouse: None (But should be Erik Durden soon.)

Heir: Lady Ramona Royal

Household Score: 2928

Income: 2500

Royden:

Head of household: Princess Petunia Royal

Spouse: Thaddeus Durden

Heir: Princess Willa Royal

Household Score: 2976

Income 2500

Clarett:

Head of household: Lady Clarissa Cade

Spouse: Brett Burgos (betrothed)

Heir: Lady Miranda or Lady Chastity Cade (twins)

Household Score: 2383

Income: 2000

Elover:

Head of household: Lady Elodie Burgos

Spouse: Nicholas Barthelet

Heir: Lady Bianca or Lady Olivia Burgos (twins)

Household Score: 2023

Income: None

(Marrying Nicholas was a very bad idea for her ranking.  Without him, she would have been above Princess Rona. I am using the household scores to determine points that offspring get for their rank.  If I hadn’t used the previous years scores, her children would have suffered too.)

___________________________________________________________

Merchant Households

I still haven’t quite figured out how to use the points for my merchant class.  The individual points for each sims is easy enough.  I calculate the merchants and peasants in the same way, but I’m not sure how to calculate the business points.  It gets complicated when I have households that run multiple businesses and businesses that were passed down from one generation to the next.

2000 is the threshold value for my Noble class.  The only merchants that have a personal score over 2000 are Garen Durden, who was born a Noble, but he and his wife Pasiphae average a score below 2000, and Justice, who was promoted from the Peasants at the end of the last year.   But having over 2000 is why he got promoted last time.   Even with -500 for being born a peasant and -610 for his age, his score is 2881, which is higher than a lot of my Nobles.  His businesses are low ranked though.  Since his personal score is so high, I ended up giving him an income like I did with the Nobles.

My current households and points are:

Ajjanagadde - 1540 pts (using the Nobles point system.  I should probably see how the Merchant score compares.  The biggest difference are badges and how I score BFFs)

Meredith Ajjanagadde and Jonathan Durden

No business owned

Carpenter

Timothy and Kitty Carpenter - 800 pts.

The Carpenter Shoppe - 55 pts.

Collin

Morgan Collin - 513 pts.  (Morgan is the one Audrey left the businesses to.  Mallory and Nathaniel average 1294 pts.)

The Shore - 10 pts.

The Church - 100 pts.

The Farmer’s Market -  -30pts.

Fancey

Allyn Livingston - 1187 pts. (Chloe Fancey - 986 pts., Marlin Livingston - 470 pts.)

Fancey Restaurant - 495 pts.

Farmer

Caleb Farmer and Aiyanna Kwa - 613 pts.

Farmer’s Lot -  -20  (This business was doing so poorly that I closed and then reopened it to give the family a chance.)

Hanby

Jordan Hanby and Patrick Peasant - 1417 pts.

The Hobby Shoppe - 610 pts.

Jenron

Rebekah and Darius Peasant - 799

The Hideaway - 130

Justice

Justice Peasant, the good witch - 2881

Justice’s Potion Shoppe -  -30

The Pet Shoppe - 100

The Pet Park (The Pet Cemetery) - 0

Potter

Katrina Potter and Derrick Vijayakar - 1475

The Pottery Shoppe - 1680

The Craft Lot - 10

Smith

Florence Smith and Apollo Tavern - 396

The Smithy - 65

Tavern

Pasiphae Tavern and Garen Durden - 1860

The Tavern - 3410

Community Lot Tavern -  -400

Vijayakar

Lindsay Vijayakar and Colby Schamess - 1446

The Magic Carpet Shoppe - 475

___________________________________________________________ 

Peasant Households

Deducting points for age really helped prevent too many of my Peasants from being promoted up to Merchants (which was one of my goals for adding an age component).  My highest ranking Peasants are still the oldest Peasants.  Here are the top ten Peasants:

Jeremiah - 1761

Brooke Tellerman (who was originally a townie and doesn’t have the -500 deduction.  She brought a lot of money with her that made her and Hugo’s scores higher) -  1557

Clare - 1544

Madeline - 1386

Vivian - 1261

Braxton - 1212

Ezra - 1085

Raymond - 947

Hugo - 895

Marisa Shahan (originally a townie) - 670

Without the age deduction Jeremiah and Clare would have been over the 2000 threshold and Madeline would have been just under 2000.  Earnest, who was high enough to be promoted last year, is still scoring well above 2000 (2388 using the Nobles system) so I think the age deduction is working well without dropping scores too much.

___________________________________________________________ 

In Memorium

Brendan Laughlin (77)

Audrey Collin (69)

Chris Fancey (68)

Jeff Ternynck (76)

Angelica Peasant (15)

Renee Guevara (34)

Lorenzo Cade (48)

Garrett Kay (45)

Myra Peasant (27)

Teagan Peasant (26)

Kara Durden (49)

Lucinda Durden (26)

[lokisasylum]

Map of the Soul: 7 Album - First listen review

[I won’t bother reviewing the ones from PERSONA that were added, since I already did a post for Persona when it came out. Only the new songs]

#1. Interlude: SHADOW

WOW.... just when you thought the first version hit hard/differently. The extended version comes in to choke-slam you against the wall.

#2.  Black Swan

Our new Royal to take a spot in the throne of power along with Blood Sweat & Tears, Spring Day, Fake Love, and Outro: TEAR.

Do we even need to add more additional to what we’ve been saying since its release? As an artist, the lyrics still pull at my heart strings the same way they did the first time I heard it. Especially the verse that says:

‘If this can no longer resonate No longer make my heart vibrate Then like this may be how I die my first death But what if that moment’s right now Right now .’

This verse can be applied to ANY time we loose faith in ourselves or have to give up on a dream/passion and how that separation slowly kills us inside.

#3. Filter (Jimin’s solo)

....Not gonna lie, this song gives me TRUST ISSUES just because its Jimin LOL!

‘Cause I remember seeing & hearing Serendipity for the first time and it was such a lovely melody and the lyrics were so soothing like a lullaby expressing Love in its purest form.

But then you see the choreo and it all went Magic Mike SO FAST X”D.

Because on one hand the lyrics (at first glance) can be interpreted as Jimin seeing himself through Army’s eyes. How WE see his “Duality” - cute/adorable/lovely one minute and then sensual/tantalizing the next.

That boring expression of yours, boring feet Please look at me now Put down your phone, don’t even think about turning your head Let me know your type You can choose and use me yeah

Oh I cover your eyes with my hand Oh go towards the secret I’ll take you to a brand new world Yeah open your closed eyes now go!

Mix the colors of the palette, pick your filter Which me do you want? The one who’s going to change your world, I’m your filter Cover it over your heart

(Ok) How is it, do you feel it a bit? Is it still not enough? (Yes) Girl you have your chance I can be your Genie How ’bout Aladdin? I’ll become anything [for you] You can choose and use me yeah

That first part really does sound like how he would accommodating his “Persona” to make us happy.  And every-time something he does isn’t enough he changes again. 

Of course this doesn’t have to mean what he’s doing in the present, “Filter” could be just like “Lie” which spoke of his past-self and how he used to blame himself for the group’s failures. So maybe he’s expressing how’s he’s had to change himself throughout the years to please the fans as long as they understood and accepted who HE REALLY IS beyond the Idol persona.

Or y’know, this is just a very sexy number he wanted to try and shy away from his comfort zone XD. And I’ll bet all my money that the choreo’s gonna be SEXY AF and WE AIN’T READY FOR IT.

P.S. that moment when the music stops and he goes: “OKAY.” WITH HIS SEXY DEEP AF VOICE, JESUS!!!!

#4. My Time (Jungkook’s solo)

Kook’s solo not only reminded me heavily of “Begin”, but it also sounds like what “Decalcomania” should’ve been if he had released the full version.

He’s seeing himself not as an Idol, but not quite as Jeon Jeongguk either.

Like he’s just standing in the middle watching his two selves, his two Personas and trying to find which one is his. Which reality he is living in--or should be living in. Which part of his life belongs to his “normal/non Idol self” and which one is part of the mask/Idol self he puts up for the fans.

And yes, you know, yes. you know Oh I can’t call ya, I can’t touch ya Oh I can’t Let me know Can I someday find my time? Finna find my time Someday finna find my time 

This verse sounds like he’s still experiencing that loneliness that all artists experience during stardom very often (Note on how in Shadow Yoongi is the one who says: “Nobody ever told me how lonely it is up here.” ). Like how he sometimes wishes he could tell someone, but can’t?

#5. Louder than bombs

All rise for our National Anthem!

If Shadow hit hard while choke slamming you. Then this song is the overkill.

The vocals are insane, and the lyrics mixed with the music tell one story through two points of view. Actor in the spotlight and Actor as a Spectator.

This is BTS telling us how people view them and having to keep their emotions in check in the face of criticism from general audience and even antis, versus how they truly feel inside and behind close doors.

Break, unwind, let it out, breathe out, stand up, pray for better days and keep moving.

#6. ON

THIS👏SONG👏FUCKING👏SLAPS👏PERIOD👏!

The energy, the rap line, the vocal line, the CRAZY FOOTWORK AND INSANE CHOREO.

THE JIKOOK NIP-SLIPS

THE BODY ROLLS

THE TATTOOS---

THE SUBTLE “GO FUCK YOURSELF!”

I LOVED IT and it gave me such a strong throwback to NOT TODAY.

#7. UGH!

This is CYPHER_pt3 Killer, CYPHER pt. 4, TEAR & DDAENG’s lovechild.

This song is the Rap Line going like: “THESE MOTHERFUCKERS WANTED TO TRY ME (AGAIN) AND IMMA GIVE THESE BITCHES A CYPHER.

BITCHES LOVE CYPHERS.”

#8. 00.00 (Zero o’ Clock)

When I saw that we were having another Vocal Line unit song the first thing I kept praying for was: “PLEASE don’t let this be another Truth Untold...”

Because I absolutely HATED the hypocrisy that came out of this fandom ESPECIALLY the toxic Solo Stans who did nothing but hype up their faves while shitting on other members (I will never forgive those who went so far as to defame and even act as if Jimin wasn’t part of the Vocal Line, ya’ll are still trash for that).

But I gotta say Zero o’ Clock was totally something I can see them enjoying while performing. Despite, of course, the song talking about hardships and finding a new way to be happy throughout the tough times even when you don’t feel like smiling.

I liked it, the vibes are a bit like “2,3″ and “Magic Shop”. A song for HEALING.

#9. Friends (VMIN sub-unit)

VMIN

SOULMATES FOREVER.

I also LOVED that they added the voice messages Jimin & Tae used to leave each other since their recording schedules were different and they didn’t see each other. That was such a nice touch. T_T

That little “Hello my Alien” .... that made me emotional. I kept imagining those mischievous kids running around playing pranks on the other members, like that one time they made Hobi fall off the chair and got chased by him XD ...*SOBS*

#10. Inner Child (Taehyung’s solo)

All the time I kept listening to this song I kept imagining Taehyung sitting in a park next to his Younger Self, like the way a father sits with their youngest son and talks to them about life. What to expect, what will change and how to go about these changes.

Really heartfelt song.

#11. Moon (Jin’s solo)

Just like Tae’s song, “Moon” makes me thinking of all those moments when Jin kept doing his “Heart Event” where he kept pulling out hearts out of nowhere. Each time more clever than the first, just to show ARMY how much he loves us.

I wonder all of a sudden, do you really know yourself? Do you know how pretty you are? I will orbit you I will stay by your side I will become your light All for you 

This part in particular makes me think of Jin up on stage staring at a stadium full of bright little stars that are in reality Army Bombs.

#12. Respect (Namgi Unit-song)

Fave verse from this song is:

“Re-spect”, it’s literally looking again and again Looking again and again and you’ll see faults But despite of that you still want to look

And the fact that you have two members of different ages (Hyung/Donsaeng), in a sort of conversation that goes back and forth between what the real meaning of “RESPECT” is and how people throw the word around, even those who speak ill of others behind their backs.

And were they talking in Satoori in the end??? That was nice XD

#13. We are Bulletproof: the Eternal

Throw stones at me We don’t fear anymore We are we are together bulletproof (Yeah we have you have you) Even if winter comes again Even if I’m blocked off, I will still walk We are we are forever bulletproof (Yeah we got to heaven)

#14. Outro: EGO (Jhope’s Solo)

EGO is Jhope and Jhope is EGO in all it’s glory.

Like “Just Dance” i like the contrast how in EGO he’s doing a back-track to his younger self, how he used to dance to prove something TO OTHERS, where as now that he’s older he just accepts that everything that happened is just part of life. So he’s a happier now doing what he loves BECAUSE he loves to dance.

#15. ON (feat. Sia)

....WHY?

Like... I don’t wanna be THAT BITCH and drag nobody, but like... was this really necessary?

I mean atleast Nicki Minage and Halsey had their own parts that they owned like the bad bitches that they are.

But like...

Yeah, Imma stop right here.

[starstruckteacup]

Cottagecore Films (pt. 11)

A Little Princess (1995)

starring Liesel Matthews, Liam Cunningham, Vanessa Chester, Eleanor Bron

synopsis

I was extremely disappointed in this film, to put it lightly. The story itself was beautiful, but that is thanks exclusively to the novel on which it was based. The movie itself utterly failed to convey the magic and timelessness of the book. The acting was flat, emotionless, and forced at every point, from every actor (except for maybe Cunningham, but he was absent for half of it). One would think a gaggle of girls would have some form of natural chemistry, whether pulling them together or apart, but not a single child actor portrayed even the remotest semblance of a relationship to another. (Note: I describe in my review of Pan’s Labyrinth what quality acting from a child looks like, for reference.) Even Matthews and Cunningham could not pass a believable father-daughter relationship, despite the story being about that. As far as emotional acting, the adults were just as bad as the children. They couldn’t even feign a single moment of joy, sadness, or anger, regardless of the context. I actually laughed for the entire scene during which Sara nearly died because of how bad the acting from the adults was. At least Chester seemed somewhat worried; Bron and the nameless police officers stood around so vacantly it looked like they forgot what was happening. I really was appalled by the abysmal acting, especially when so much was handed to them in the story. I want to preface my next point by saying that yes, I know computer animation was still a work in progress in the 90s. But this was horrifyingly awful. I have never once, not in my entire life, seen CGI as terrible as the monster in Sara’s stories. I nearly gave up on the entire movie within the first five minutes because of that monster. And it kept showing up, which absolutely ruined whatever favor I tried to hold for this movie. If you don’t have the budget, which this film clearly didn’t, don’t try to animate a monster. It’s that simple. I wish I had more words for it but it was truly so atrocious that I’m at a loss. Any good will I hold for this movie is due to my fondness for the story (no credit to the film), the settings (while not exceptional, they were fairly pretty), and Liam Cunningham’s acting. 2/10

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

TW: blood, mild gore, torture, racism against indigenous people

starring Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish, Jordi Mollà, Samantha Morton

This film is the sequel to Elizabeth (1998) (see part 10 of my film reviews), which continues the story of Queen Elizabeth I as her rule progresses. Tensions between Catholic Spain and Protestant England grow ever greater, escalating to treasonous plots and assassination attempts. Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and King Philip II of Spain conspire to depose Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne, restoring Catholicism as the national religion. Even as these events lead to war between the two superpowers, the court provides no sense of stability as new faces and new stresses surround the Virgin Queen. She forms a strong friendship with the pirate Walter Raleigh upon his return trip from the New World, where he seeks to establish colonies under the English flag. However, his stay is extended greatly when Elizabeth’s selfishness and pride take over, and are only broken down in the face of battle when she puts him at the forefront of the British navy. Outnumbered, Elizabeth will need Raleigh’s loyalty and cunning, along with the unwavering loyalty of her people, if they wish to survive the Spanish onslaught.

While still a drama, this film proved to be much more war-oriented than its predecessor, but I’m not sure it did either as well. I liked the deeper look this film gave us into the Elizabeth’s mind, especially with her social and emotional conflicts. They remind us that she is still human, despite the somewhat cold appearance the first film gave her at the end. She is more mature, and even more prideful, but there’s still a limit to what she can take as a person. I think the first film gave a better portrayal of her complicated mind, but this was a solid continuation of what years of ruling can do. I also liked how much detail they put into Raleigh’s character, which the first film didn’t do as well with its secondary characters. We got to know more about him, even if he did still feel somewhat surface-level. I think the dramatic aspects could have felt more high-stakes than they did, especially for the characters who were actually in danger. Even though so many characters were actively committing treason, I only felt that level of tension with one: Mary Stuart. Her death was particularly elegant and laden with symbolism, and even though I knew the outcome historically the scene still delivered the anxiety it was meant to. The others simply didn’t have the same delivery. Even the assassination attempt didn’t project any kind of concern, regardless of one’s historical knowledge. The war focus was a fairly different take than the first had, which I appreciated. The film established a strong balance between the tensions in England, Scotland, and Spain, and did a good job making the stakes very clear for each group. Given the uncritically positive stance on England that this film takes, I would have expected the film to villainize Spain a little more to form a stronger dichotomy between the two rulers, but Spain was presented rather neutrally to the audience. The Spanish ruler and nobles didn’t have much character, despite being the antagonist. As for that uncritical positivity regarding England, I do have a bit more to say. Although to an extent it makes sense that the film would lean in favor of England, given its content and the point of view from which the story is told, it became overbearing at times. England could do no wrong in this film, despite children dying in battle, indigenous people being humiliated and dehumanized for show, talk about slavery, and a complete disregard for the suffering of non-white and non-Protestant groups. In contrast, the first film heavily criticized England, from Mary of Guise shaming Elizabeth for sending young children to war, to Elizabeth frowning upon Walsingham’s torture methods (granted she never stopped them, but she didn’t approve as readily as she did in this film), and so on. Although England in truth did all of these things without rebuke, the film could have handled it more gracefully and came across less like propaganda, at the very least. 5/10

Loving Vincent (2017)

TW: suicide (action offscreen, death onscreen)

Sensory Warning: movement of the impressionistic paintings can be very disorienting for those with sensory processing difficulties. I had to break from watching multiple times so as not to become ill.

starring Douglas Booth, Eleanor Tomlinson, Jerome Flynn, Robert Gulaczyk

This fully hand-painted animated film follows Armand Roulin, a young man with a severe temper, on his way to deliver Vincent Van Gogh’s last letter to a living recipient. When he reaches the town where Vincent died, he begins speaking to a variety of villagers with their own stories about the artist, and their own theories about how he died. Armand tries to piece the puzzle together, wondering if the death was not a suicide as claimed, but rather something more sinister.

This film was spectacularly breathtaking. The amount of work that went into painting every scene was awe-inspiring, and definitely sets the bar high for any other films of its kind. The team of artists that created this film represented Van Gogh’s unique art style exquisitely through their loving application of oil-based paints, and truly brought to life the emotion he put into his works. I wish I hadn’t struggled so much with the constant movement, as I feel I would have been able to appreciate the film in its entirety better, but as it was I struggled to pay attention to the story because the art style consumed too much of my sensory processing capabilities. As for the story, I thought it was interesting, but I found it lacking despite the incredible artwork. Foremost, after some cursory research, I discovered that the homicide theory on which this film was based was only acknowledge by one individual, and spurned by hundreds of others. Although the film leaves the verdict open-ended, both to Roulin and to the audience, the story itself seemed to lean into the homicide theory, then completely give up on it with no resolution, so it came across as fairly noncommittal. I won’t argue for or against the theory, as I don’t know nearly enough about Van Gogh to assert an opinion, but I’m somewhat unsettled by the amount of weight it gave to it without any kind of evidentiary support, only to dump it as if the writers changed their mind themselves. The pacing was also slow for a murder mystery, which is basically what the story turned out to be. I would much have preferred the film to cover Vincent’s life, or even the days/weeks leading up to his death, instead of only featuring him in other people’s flashbacks. This kind of existential impressionism should capture the life of its creator, not the mundane views of people who didn’t understand him or even hated him. There wasn’t anything wrong with the film, per se, but I wish the writing was given as much love as the art was. 7/10

Part 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10

[fuwafuwamedb]

Cursed G Pt 18 (Gilgamesh, Hakuno)

Previous Part: One - HakuPOV / GilPOV, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

_____

The morning began with a shower.

More accurately, it began with her body still feeling sensitive from his incessant cuddling and rubbing against her. She’d thought, perhaps a shower, but then found him behind her. Showering had turned to his looking more deeply into her blowdryer. The blowdrying had turned into more pampering. Pampering turned into them hurrying to get dressed. Getting dressed had turned into a dispute about her plain panties versus the more scandalous articles she owned…

But finally, finally, they were able to get out of the house. Plus, they had been able to stop for coffee.

She was getting used to him, she thought vaguely, sipping at her drink as they headed towards class. His hand rested in hers as they both enjoyed their drinks. He read while the teachers lectured this time, reviewing and tapping at her shoulder here and there when he found words he didn’t understand. His cards were swapped for her tablet with a digital copy of a dictionary.

A poor one, she’d noted, but they were dealing with some language that hadn’t really been enacted in thousands of years.

It was bound to be a bit lacking.

It wasn’t until her last class that she noticed.

She was being cuddly back.

Not kind of, sort of, cuddly- she was actually holding his hand when they were at classrooms with tables. His fingers would stroke at the back of her hand as she wrote things down onto her papers. She would find him scooting a piece of candy from her bag at her whenever she answered questions for the class and would glance her way when others answered.

It was the hand holding she noticed in her class.

Then it had been the bribery.

Saying something would disrupt class.

Saying nothing- well- she wasn’t really sure what she would say anyway.

Instead of saying anything, she let it slide, simply settling in at her seat until class released.

Her hand remained trapped in his despite their getting up, leaving her to surrender to the inevitable and simply carry her things in hand, including her coat. She could feel that strong grip remaining in place as they wandered the halls. His attention elsewhere as he held his coat over his shoulder and led the way today.

Prayers were sent out.

She really didn’t want the others noting the ring on her finger, making a fuss about her engagement to this man or making any remarks about their hand holding. He was just here until she could see him home. He wasn’t going to be actually married to her.

They were just…

Those red eyes glanced her way, leaving her to stumble a bit.

“You’re carrying too much,” he complained.

Note he merely complained. That didn’t make him stop their path to the cafeteria nor did it mean he was going to carry her things for her. She still ended up holding her belongings a bit closer and picking up her pace.

They settled into a corner of the cafeteria as they noticed the others hadn’t arrived, with Hakuno thanking her gods.

“Are you-“

“I’ll grab us lunch if you want to wait here a moment.”

The man waved her off.

If only I could get him to head home that easily.

Even as she thought that, selecting lunch at random, she knew it wasn’t that simple. Nothing was ever quite that simple.

Such thoughts were too dangerous to ponder.

The room was still filling with people as she returned to their table. The king barely sipped at his drink before he pulled her chair closer and pushed a book before her. She found his chin resting on her shoulder as he leaned in close and showed her the text.

“This author is frivolous, and their beliefs are mockable, but their methods have promise. We should try creating a dimensional rift. This book has the best details about how to manage these interdimensional time holes.”

“Oh?”

This looked like fiction.

She glanced at the cover, finding it to indeed be a work of fiction.

However, she was engaged to a king from ancient Uruk so…

“We’ll look into it later. Maybe-“

Any continuation of that was stopped the moment she caught sight of the woman from before.

Gaudy makeup, atrocious clothing; the woman looked like she’d walked off the runway and into the cafeteria. She was laughing with a few boys, twirling her hair and beginning to look around at the room. It seemed like she was just giving a glance to the room, but…

She is looking for Gil.

Her hands yanked up Gil’s hood, covering his hair.

“Hakuno-“

She climbed onto Gil’s lap immediately, thinking nothing as she turned his head away from the woman’s direction and wrapped her arms around him.

Shit.

Was she looking randomly now? Did she suspect them?

If her home had been a poor location for the two to encounter one another, then the cafeteria filled with unsuspecting humans was even worse. Any kind of argument would be documented. Any kind of death or fighting would mean arrests and police.

Shit-

The king’s arms were pulling her in, an amused snort came a moment before she felt his hands delving into her hair. He leaned in closer, ducking further to lean in close to her face.

“How bold of you,” he purred. “I suppose I can indulge you this time, Hakuno.”

His mouth moved against hers, deeply and thoroughly taking her. She could feel him pulling his coat around her person, doing her in. She could see the woman in the corner of her eye, glancing their way a moment before turning and heading off. It didn’t seem she’d thought a thing about them.

Another second and Hakuno found herself simply giving in.

Gilgamesh was stealing her every breath. His person…

But she was getting used to this kissing business between them.

It was so easy to get caught up in him doing this.

A soft sound escaped her lips as she found herself hiding away the room. There was no longer a room to consider with the taste of him on her lips and the lightheadedness from worrying and from having her breath taken away.

Someone coughed nearby, requesting with a tap to their shoulder that they move their actions to another room.

Ishtar could be waiting…

“Gil,” Hakuno glanced up at him. “…I think I want to head home.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m a bit tired.”

“…Damn,” Cu’s voice came from nearby, making her freeze. “Hey, Rin-“

“Don’t even think about it. It’s bad enough you fell asleep in class today, Cu.”

She could sense the others nearby, glancing at the two of them. Naturally, it wouldn’t be when they had been sitting politely at the table. It would be when she was straddling Gilgamesh’s lap and busy kissing him.

She couldn’t look the others in the face. She slid off Gil’s lap and kept her gaze near but not directed at them.

“I…”

Gilgamesh laughed, pulling her onto his lap and smirking at the others. “Is it truly that surprising? She is my spouse, after all. It’s only natural that she has interest in climbing onto my lap when the opportunity is available.”

No, it was not right.

It wasn’t right at all.

Rin and Rani both sighed, settling at the table and glancing at the book.

“Fiction?”

Cu settled next to them, laughing a bit. “Looks like one of Sakura’s romance novels.”

“It’s Gil’s.”

Cu threw her a smirk at the nickname.

She could feel the man behind her leaning in. As the others started a conversation about the morning classes and about readings, she could feel a hand snaking around her waist.

“We will finish our moment later,” he murmured.

Or they could avoid that.

It had been to keep Ishtar away. If he was buried under his hood and kissing her, then it meant that no one could really see his face. No one would be able to know that the king was holding her and busy kissing the life from her.

What her kiss hadn’t been about was getting closer to him. She was already close enough. Too close, actually; they were becoming very quickly attached at the hip.

“Hakuno?”

“Hmm?”

“When’s your wedding?”

All she could do was stare at Rin, watching the woman pull out her planner and flip through pages.

“I just need to put it in my planner for later.”

“What’s customary for here?” Gilgamesh held her tighter, moving closer to Rin and Cu nearby.

“Depends on how soon you want a wedding. I know some choose a month, but-“

“It’ll be in a month’s time then.”

What about going home, was on the tip of her tongue, but Gilgamesh was looking at the planner and pointing to a date that was empty.

“We’ll have it then.”

“You’re going to have it in a month? Do you both have attire?”

“I’m sure Hakuno was planning to get it with her close friend. She’s spoken highly of your taste,” Gilgamesh shrugged. “If you don’t want to…”

“Hakuno, you’re making the best choice!” Rin smirked, slamming her pen down. Every facet of her being was radiating light. The room looked dim in comparison to that smile. “You couldn’t have chosen a better maid of honor! Naturally, someone like myself would be easily able to select the best things for your wedding! We can easily find-“

“You, woman.” Gil turned to Rani. “You may be better suited.”

“You’re going to earn me an early death. I refuse,” Rani told the man simply.

Rin was still prattling on. The woman motioned to several dates, going a mile a minute on plans and getting Cu to move so she could sit closer.

“We need to find you a wedding dress. I’m guessing you’ll do a western wedding instead of a wedding like we do here.”

She needed to pull Rin aside and explain this.

She needed a plan on how to explain Gilgamesh so she could pull Rin aside and explain this. She wasn’t going to be actually marrying him. It was just a thing to make him happy until he was home and she could get back to-

“Whichever is more amusing,” Gilgamesh countered.

“Western then. As Hakuno’s closest friend, I need to make sure Hakuno gets the best option. She and I can go out this weekend and look into wedding dresses. I’m sure Cu and you both could amuse one another.”

“Are you still working on that building?” Gil asked.

“It’ll be a few months, so yeah.”

“Then we’ll be fine.”

This was not fine. Hakuno opened her mouth to argue, but Sakura and Emiya were coming over. She found herself pulled closer as Rin began to take notes for finding magazines later.

“We need style ideas. We don’t have much time.”

They had so much time.

All the time, actually. In fact, she was quite happy to postpone the wedding until well after she was gone and taking up residence with that underworld goddess Ereshkigal.

The conversation around the table was building though. Sakura and Rani were talking about a trip to look at cakes. Emiya was talking about something with Cu, earning Gil’s much unwanted input on the matter.

Everyone was chattering away quite enough that she couldn’t think straight. She’d never been happier to look at her phone and point out the time.

They all scrambled to hurry, minus Gil who simply stood up and brushed himself off. His books were back in his bag, his bag back over his shoulder before she found him holding that hand out.

She didn’t take it.

“We have to go,” she told him.

Each second felt like an hour.

Each minute felt like a day.

Her eyes drifted over to Gil’s person as the afternoon lecture began. Her hand felt so empty. She felt so restless sitting next to him.

“Kishinami?”

Hakuno looked up at the front, pausing as she realized a question had been asked.

I really need to-

A piece of paper moved a bit closer.

“…I disagree.”

The teacher nodded.

A piece of candy was slid her way.

Damn it all, but she ate the candy since she’d not really eaten much at all during lunch. Her hand went to his, lacing their fingers together only for the man to smirk and resume his readings.

He was working her over this way.

Slowly but surely, she found she liked his hand there. She liked having rewards for her efforts. She liked the attention and the attachment. It was easily addictive. She could get used to seeing his face within short distance to her own.

It had to be all the cuddling.

That was it.

A couple days after he headed home, she would be alright.

She wasn’t getting used to him, she told herself as class ended and they headed out of the room.

She wasn’t really running into a marriage, she reminded herself as Rin called her phone and talked to Gilgamesh on the way back to the house.

His arms were around her while she cooked, reading aloud the passage about wormholes from one of his books. He was pouring more of his belongings into the house now, throwing aside her cushions and pillows for an endless stream of his own.

I don’t have feelings for him.

They moved dinner time to the living room, turning on the television and the king stealing the first bite of her food. She ate the first bite of his own in return.

I don’t care about King Gilgamesh other than to see him home.

He laughed at her stealing the first few sips of his wine, pulling her in roughly before he was holding the glass to her lips.

She wasn’t sure what the show was about that was on the television.

I don’t have feelings for Gilgamesh.

Her arms wrapped around the king’s neck as she was carried back to her room. Their clothes were pulled before they climbed into the shower.

Rather than drying off, they simply climbed into bed, one of the man’s legs slipping between hers.

I don’t…

She cuddled against him before he had the lights off. Her face pressed against his chest a moment before she found his arms pulling her against him. Solid muscle and strength met her touch. Her mouth was pressed to his once again.

Hakuno found herself falling asleep in her husband’s arms before she could do anything to stop herself.

What was she to do about a husband who would soon disappear?

[winryofresembool]

Love Can Melt the Ice, ch 17

A/N: 17 chapters already? Wow. And I have all you lovely people to thank for that, this fic wouldn’t exist without you guys :) I keep saying that this fic is gonna end soon but now I’m almost certain there’s only the “grande finale” left (it will probably be 3 chapters, lol). If someone wants to help me to write figure skating, hit me up. Enjoy and please review because that way you’ll get the grande finale (and MAYBE even the thing you all have been looking forward to, but NO PROMISES) faster :’) BTW, if you haven’t read my companion piece A Letter to Winry yet, I do recommend reading it because it might have a role later in this fic.

Ps. Thanks again for everyone who’s been drawing stuff for this fic, you guys are incredible!

Previous chapters:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 pt 1, pt 2, 16

Next chapter: [x]

Companion pieces (note: these are all post Olympics happenings so reading the main fic first is recommended): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Words: 1300+

Genre: general?

Warnings: mention of a miscarriage

”Isn’t it my old student Edward? It’s been a long while.”

Like he had decided earlier that morning, Ed called to the most maternal person he had in his life. She was Izumi Curtis, his old “nanny” and teacher. Izumi was very strict when it came to training and household work, but she was also someone whose opinion Ed respected, and whose relationship with her husband was probably the longest and healthiest one he knew. Truth to be told, Ed was sometimes slightly scared of her because of her random outbursts, but he also knew she was fair and wouldn’t just shrug off his issue.

“Uh, yeah, it has…” Ed couldn’t help but rub his neck awkwardly even though Izumi couldn’t see him. “Sorry about that… I’ve just been busy. So, how’s everything in Dublith? How are you and Mr. Sig doing?”

“The business has been, well, busy lately!” Izumi answered, deciding to start from a safe topic. “Sig and I are having our hands full with our shop. But why do I have a feeling that that’s not actually why you are calling me?”

“How can you hear it through the phone?” Ed couldn’t hide his amazement. She was obviously right, but he wasn’t going to jump to the reason of his call that fast.

“Because even though we haven’t seen each other in a while, I know you, Ed. You never call people just to ask how they are doing.”

Ed had to admit he had never been a phone call person, not even before the Nina incident. “Ouch. That might be kinda true, though, unfortunately.”

“Yes, I know it is. Anyway, before we get to the reason of your call, I need to ask: how did you allow yourself to get hurt like that?! Wasn’t playing at the Olympics your dream even before I left your home? Didn’t I teach you to always watch your back?”

Even though Ed knew about his old teacher’s temper, he was still slightly taken aback by her questions.

“Hey, it’s not like I planned that to happen! That guy just got mad and completely blindsided me! Do you think I’m enjoying not being able to walk not to mention to play?”

“You’re right,” Izumi sighed, “of course you didn’t. Sorry, it’s been a tough few months for us, and I got so worried when I saw you getting hurt…”

“What do you mean with ‘it’s been a tough few months’? Has something happened?”

It was quiet for a while. “Yes. You could say that.”

Ed felt he never knew what to say in a situation like this.

“Uh, I’m sorry. Do you… want to talk about it?”

“I guess you deserve to know. You know how Sig and I have tried to get pregnant ever since we got married?”

“Yeah, you have mentioned it…”

“Well, I finally did get pregnant about 4-5 months ago…”

“What? How come you never told us that?” Ed asked, both surprised and confused. Hadn’t Izumi just said something was wrong?

“Because we lost the baby, Ed,” she replied with a shaky voice, even though she was trying her best to keep her cool. “I was about two months pregnant when it happened… And when the doctor did some tests on me afterwards, she said it would be dangerous to try again. So, we won’t…”

Ed knew being a mother had been a lifelong dream of his old teacher, and even though he couldn’t see her, he thought he could hear the pain in her voice. “Teacher, I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry for things that are out of your control!” she said surprisingly harshly, and Ed thought she might have smacked him had she been in the same room with him. Thankfully, she wasn’t. But that didn’t make him any less worried for her.

“How… are you feeling?” he asked cautiously once he was fairly sure she wouldn’t explode again.

“Been better, that’s for sure. But we just have to accept this is what was meant to happen. I have sort of gotten used to the thought by now.”

“Are going to try adoption?” Ed asked, trying to think of a safer topic to talk about.

“I’m not sure. I think… the wound is still too open.”

“Believe me, I understand,” Ed said suddenly, to Izumi’s surprise. She didn’t know about Nina yet.

“What do you mean? You haven’t lost a child, have you?”

“No, I haven’t. But I lost someone who was almost like a little sister to me, in the worst possible way. That hit me so hard it’s partially the reason why I haven’t really…”

“Been in contact with us? You idiot! Keeping all that inside you is the worst thing you could do to yourself! Haven’t I taught you anything?”

“Y-you h-have, teacher!”

It was silent for a while again, before Izumi said: “Well, I’m glad you came out about it, now.”

A sudden thought occurred to Ed: “Can I ask you something, teacher?”

“Edward, I haven’t been your teacher for several years. You can stop calling me that. I’m Izumi.”

“OK, Izumi, can I ask you something?”

“I think you already did.”

“Whatever… Uh, so, after the… loss, was it difficult for you to communicate with Sig? You guys are alright, right?”

Izumi seemed to consider her answer for a moment before saying: “I admit that for a few weeks I just wanted to hide from him, because I was so ashamed of myself and felt guilty for the miscarriage, but he dragged me out of my room and said he wouldn’t allow me to blame myself for it. It opened my eyes to see that he really loved me no matter what, and eventually we managed to talk things through and are now better than ever. If there’s something I learned from that experience, it’s that I am so lucky to have found someone who has seen me on my bad day but is there to support me no matter what. If you ever find someone like that… don’t let them go.”

Winry’s face flashed in front of Ed’s eyes once Izumi said that. Wasn’t that exactly what she had done? She had seen his worst moments yet hadn’t given up on him. And if Ed was honest? Even though the leg was a pain and having to watch the others play was frustrating, he had also had some of his best moments in a long, long while during the Olympics. And he had Winry to thank for that.

“Oh. Thank you, Izumi.”

“For what?” She asked with confusion.

“I think I finally know what I should do.” He said quietly, smiling at the phone with relief.

“I know a lot of things, but I don’t know what you are talking about now,” Izumi noted, and Ed was sure she was rolling her eyes at him on the other side of the line.

“It’s a long story… Or maybe not that long… I met this girl a few weeks ago, and… we have had our fair share of problems, but I finally know what I want to do with this… situation.”

“You met a girl? A girl as in a girlfriend? My tiny student really is growing up!”

“I’m not tiny! And don’t… say… that!”

“So, tell me all about her! Who is she? Is she an athlete? Is she smart? How did you meet?”

“Tea… Izumi, calm down. We met at the figure skating arena, and…”

The call got surprisingly long, with Ed describing what had happened at the Olympics (leaving the more private things out, though, because he felt those belonged to him and Winry only) and Izumi asking questions, but when they were finished, Ed felt he was finally seeing clearly. Now, all he needed to do was to wait until Winry was ready to see him again…

[patchworkelephantposts]

Travel Destination Posts - December - Disneyland Paris

Unusually, I'm going to start this post categorically saying that this wasn't top of the my list of places to visit in the world, and if you've read my other posts you'll see this is a little out of character. So, why go and why Christmas?

Well, the answer to the first question is "kids" and the second bit is more to do with family politics and deciding years ago to vacation at Christmas to avoid the whole uncomfortable situation.... but that's a whole other story.

I'm sure I'm not far from the truth when I say that most adults visit any Disney resort because they have kids, especially Paris. Before ours, it wouldn't have been anywhere near somewhere we'd contemplate - after-all why go to Disneyland when you have the delights of Paris on the doorstep.

I’m sure you’ve probably sussed already that I’m not a fan of Disneyland Paris – I much preferred Disneyland in California mainly because it was a day accommodated into a wider, varied holiday. We had a stressful holiday full of problems, so this will be unlike any of my other reviews; instead of a guide of highlights and extolling the virtues of the place, this is more of a guide to what not to do and hopefully ensure people don’t make the same mistakes we did.

Anyway, you’ve decided to do a Disney theme park. It doesn’t matter whether that be Paris, Florida or California, the same main piece of advice is applicable to all – research, plan, research, plan, research and plan, and repeat x 100. You really do need to do a lot of research and planning to make sure you get the right holiday for you. Which one you choose is down to personal preference but one thing I will say is that there is a reason why most UK families choose Disney in Florida – the weather, the space and the fact that you can have a full holiday and take in other attractions such as Universal Studios as well. Similarly, with Disneyland California, it’s an easy to fit into a family holiday especially for older children or diverse age groups. You can do an awful lot more than just go to Disneyland. But maybe you prefer somewhere more local – you don’t like long haul, or you only have a short break in mind - then if you live in the UK, you’ve decided Disneyland Paris is your only option.  

Aside from the “Research & Plan” advice on repeat, the first piece of advice I would give is to book with Disney direct. Now I know this goes against a lot of advice out there when booking holidays, but I do believe that NO-ONE will give you the service or the expertise that Disney themselves do. The issue I have is that so many of the “Disneyland Paris experts” out there are the sort of independent travel agents that are just two-man bands; and whilst they may have been 20 times themselves, they will have been on “their” holiday which will not necessarily be the holiday you want. Sadly, they only know their holiday so if your requirements are very different, that may not be fully appreciated, and they may well think they know best and advise or book accordingly. Now given their often very very limited travel experience, they will not know everything even about somewhere as small as the Disneyland Paris resort.  I know there are exceptions to this and your local one maybe that exception but if you do decide to use them and not Disney, ask a lot of questions of when they have been, how they went and what they did and stayed. Just so you get a feel of what they have experienced and what they can offer. We booked with supposedly one of the best (message me direct and I’ll let you know who to avoid) and this advice comes from having an awful holiday because of their limited experience. Why did they fail? Well they failed abysmally mainly due to the complete lack of advice on what “extras” we needed to book, what we should expect regarding meals and what is the best way to “do” Disney. All advice that should have been available to us when booking and before we went; so I am hoping with this post, I can give some of the advice that we think would be useful.

The second piece of advice is to ask yourself, “Do we need to stay onsite at Disneyland Paris?” Would you actually prefer to stay in Paris and commute in? The reason for asking is that, in our opinion, there is better food and better hotels in Paris. If you’re Disney mad and want the full Disney experience, then stay onsite – there are some good deals to be had with fast passes for rides, breakfast or other bits included. However, we found both the main Disney hotel (at the entrance to the park) and Newport Bay hotel to be tired and dated. They need a revamp. We stayed at Newport Bay Hotel and we had a Compass Club family room. It was supposedly one of the best rooms aside from a suite but I can honestly sum it up as tired, dated, and above all else small – it just fitted 2 double beds in it. We’ve stayed at bigger family rooms in a Premier Inn. So bear this in mind. Also, the food in the hotels wasn’t great quality but exceptionally expensive. We ended up eating in the park or Disney village – better quality and less pricey.

Which brings us onto the third main piece of advice, and that is to think hard about meals and your plans for each day. Meal Plans are a good option because they do give you discounted meals, but you need to ensure the restaurants have menus you want to eat and that they are open when you want to eat. If you do go down this route, make sure you book the number of meals you want for the time you are there. Sounds obvious but you may be there on days where lunch isn’t available (its not available in the hotel buffet at lunchtimes, for instance) or even dinner (especially during the Christmas/New Year Holiday period). Also, look at your travel times – you may arrive after lunch on your first day or need to leave before lunch on your departure day. Don’t be caught out – instead of listening to experts, do your own research and ask the questions.

The final piece of advice, and probably one of the most important, is to look at when you are going. There is an urban myth that a lot of the “experts” like to put out around about the Christmas/New Year holiday period. They will tell you that the local French people who have annual passes are busy at home with their families from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, making this the quietest time of the year to go. This is a LIE. I still recall the shocked laugh and look of disbelief from the Compass Club concierge when I told them what we had been told (enough for them to want to make a note of the so called “DLP experts” who had sold us this lie). As she calmly corrected, Christmas Eve to Boxing Day are some of their 3 busiest days of the year as is New Year’s Eve and New Year’s day. They had the stats to show me. When I say busy, I mean 45-minute queues minimum for any ride. Not great for adults; a complete torture for kids of any age. Their quiet time during the holiday period, if you do want to go at this time? 27th – 29th December, or whenever there is no general holiday for everyone as bank holidays do move depending on when Christmas falls. Similarly, for the rest of the year – if you want the best experience, go out of season or out of French school holidays.

This leads nicely back to “do you need to stay onsite?”. Quite obviously the majority of those in DLP are French, and they don’t stay onsite. Instead they commute in which is remarkably easy from Paris and the train stop is so close to the entrance to the park. It’s a 10-minute walk closer than any of the hotels unless you’re at the Disney hotel which is above the noisy entrance to the park. There is a supposed magic to staying onsite – you can arrange for character meet and greets at the hotels – but they are a 15-minute walk (with kids) through the Disney village to the park. Just bear this in mind when you are planning.

What else do you need to know?

1.       Its quieter if you’re in the Park from 7pm onwards – especially the rides for smaller kids such as Dumbo or the Teacups. Not great for their bedtime routine but if you do find it busy, it’s worth the sacrifice.

2.       Use the Disney staff for advice whilst you’re there too– they saved our holiday and understandably are the real experts.

3.       Book your meals before you go, and research all your options. The restaurants do get booked up.

4.       If you are travelling with a child with ASD, however minor, again talk to Disney. They understand ASD and the issues you may have and will have suggestions as to help. We wish we’d done this, but the lack of awareness we’d experienced at other tourist sites meant we didn’t think there would be measures in place. We were so wrong and wish we’d flagged it earlier rather than trying to manage the situation ourselves as we usually do. Thankfully Disney came to the rescue when we were struggling whilst we were there and for that we will always be eternally grateful (see pt 2)

5.       Look into the experiences that you pay extra for and work out whether it’s something you’d want to do. They get booked up well in advance and its important you do your research depending on what you want.

6.       Parades. For the 5pm parade, we found the best place was as you first walk into Market Street, by the Disney train. At that time, most people are in the main body of the park and so those bits of the parade route get easily clogged up. If you’re by the exit/entrance, there are less people there and you can get a front row spot easily just 15 minutes before it starts. Also, stand on a bend – they have to slow down for bends for you get a longer view.

7.       Work our whether you need to stay up for the Fireworks. You’ll see better displays on the TV at NYE, and its mainly just a light projection of a mashup of Disney films with the songs – sung in French mainly. Decide if it’s worth a crotchety kid the next day for staying up so late.

8.       We found the rides closed at 9pm – an hour before the fireworks at 10pm. It may have just been they did this during the winter but just something to be aware of.

9.       If you want a meal in your Disney hotel on Christmas Eve dinner or Christmas Day lunch, be prepared to pay for it. There are no meal plans for these 2 meals and the price for a family of 2 adults and 1 child was 452Euros per meal. Disney will push this option but there are other restaurants open during this period that you can use if you’d prefer – the set meals at the hotels are not the only option.

10.   Disneyland Paris site is quite small. Whilst you will spend a lot of time queuing, actually walking around the site won’t take you very long – we did a recce in about an hour with our 5-year-old. Take this into account when planning how long to spend there. We had 3 full days there (and we stayed onsite) and it was far too long. Two days would be enough and actually we’d have been happy having a day trip from Paris, although it would be a long day.

So I’ll end the advice as I started…..Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan. DO YOUR RESEARCH and be honest on what you want from the holiday. Go into detail - what rides you want to do, where you are going to eat; plan to take snacks with you and bottle of drink (one bottle of cordial and one bottle for water is a good idea as there are good water fountains to refil around the site); take varied clothing and layers for your time in the park especially if you’ll be there all day (and foldaway rainy gear if needed). It may all seem like an awfully lot of hard work but you will benefit and you’re less likely to feel like you’ve faced an endurance test.

[sepiadice]

Tales of Genius Ch. 3: Blossomforth Brides Pt. 1

(1/26/2019)

I’ve been wanting to get to this session for years. Literal years. Since the overly dramatic high school group, when I first introduced and used North Fort in a Pathfinder session, then reiterated on for years after, always dying to do this campaign.

What feels like a decade later,[1] we finally reach Blossomforth.

Shorter session this time. Limited player availability, late start, arguments over the difficulty dice in magic, my usual distraction making dinner.[2] The usual.

Hopefully I can coordinate sessions more often, since we actually stopped two-thirds of the way through my plans.

I’ll have to actually figure out what happens next. Dang.

CAST

Eli Roberts: (Played by Lyons) Child of Clio. Doctor, travelling to write a medical text akin to Gray’s Anatomy. He’s an Intellectual! Older gentleman, hits on women to fluster the GM.

Olivia Grayson: (Played by Maddie) Child of Thalia. Apprentice to Eli. Believes her Squirrel-raccoon companion is her boyfriend reincarnated. Murdered a dude, stole his clothes.

Fromthe: (Played by Jose) Child of Calliope. Military veteran and current mercenary. Also has some mercantile ambitions. Doing fine.

Jean De Ferrero: (Played by Anthony) Child of Terpsichore. Travelling con artist. Took aforementioned murder victim’s gun.

So we pick up where we left off last time: standing outside the Soldier’s Rest Mayor’s office, Eli with a letter. I had an idea for what they encounter if they backtracked to North Fort,[3] if they stay,[4] and of course if they actually move forward.

This is why it’s handy to be loose with session planning: gives you extra room to think up threads for other locations if the party goes rogue and wants to go back or over there. If you intend to mostly wing it, you can write out a couple sentence-long ‘this is a possibility’ suggestions, and be prepared to improv if you get called on it!

But the players tend to be good at minding my overly obvious plot threads. Maybe in an overly meta way. I have to learn subtlety.

Anyways, the party reviews the plot, and figures out how to advance. Namely, by going south to the nearest train station in Blossomforth.

They get a wagon ride and arrive about a half day later, in the evening.

Blossomforth is an agricultural town well regarded for its Strawberry Wine, which is exported even beyond the borders of Astree. Small town, traditional, and because I’d watched a Let’s Play of Night in the Woods, there’s a subtle undercurrent of the younger folks moving away and the older folks being afraid of the town fading away.

Eli happens to know someone in the town whose son he saved.[5] William lets Eli and pals stay at his home, noting his son moved to Taffyport and works at a factory.

Which is the first canon mention of Taffyport.

Unfortunately, due to winter, the trains aren’t running up to Blossomforth just yet. That’ll have to wait until after the Forest Bride Festival.

You see, every year, a little before spring, the town gathers to prepare for planting season and celebrate surviving winter. They open a barrel of Strawberry Wine prepared during the last Harvest Festival, dance, sing, play booth games, send a maiden into the woods for an ancient ritual, feast. That sort of stuff.

The party joke about human sacrifices. William gets uncomfortable. After some needling from Dr. Roberts, William comes clean:

The titular Forest Brides are supposed to come back. Historically, they do! Bring in a bottle of wine and food, supposedly talk to the local deity,[6] then come home.

The last two never came back. So the town’s divided. Be Tevye and continue tradition, or maybe stop losing girls to the woods... Forest? I’m not clear on that.

Anyways, Olivia hears forest and wants to go that way. We really need to examine why she’s learning medicine from Eli if she hates people so much.

The party manages to talk her into waiting for morning.

The next morning, she immediately heads towards the woods. The rest of the party follow. So I move a character from town to the woods so I can do the plot.

This is Ms. Marian Shepherd. In another, more elf-inhabited universe, the niece she shares a name with is often called Trix.[7]  Marian’s trying to get a pair of town guards to let her into the woods to investigate. Both Eli and Jean try to flirt, but Ms. Shepherd is more concerned about one of her pupils, Maryanne Diane, being this year’s Bride. Olivia hides amongst the trees.

Fromthe is businesslike, so she mostly deals with him.

She says they’d need to get permission from the town council, and agrees to take the party to them.

Olivia senses magic. There’s a lot of magic. Unfamiliar magic yet similar to what the party sensed in the mines they’d come from.

The party goes to where the festival preparations are happening and meet with the town council, who Eli decides he knows. I compromise, but mostly ignore the personalities he ascribes. We have Briggs, Sarah, and the third member who never got a name.[13] The party try to negotiate permission to investigate, mostly to Briggs.

Briggs is initially hesitant, but slowly comes around. The first Bride to go missing was his granddaughter, Ashley, but it’s not impossible she used the chance to run away and find a new life elsewhere. Fading town subplot, after all.

Councilwoman Sarah is opposed and doesn’t particularly like Eli, and tradition demands no trespass in the woods. Argue argue.

The third councilman, who most falsely assume is senile, speaks up and gives permission. As he’s the oldest person in a town that operates on a Town Elder system of governance, it’s the final word.

Briggs gives them a permission slip.

They invite Ms. Shepherd along, but she concedes she has nothing to offer, and was only trying to get into the woods so someone would be looking into things. Now someone is.

Into the woods.

The party follows the source of the odd magic, and eventually come upon a woman sitting on a boulder, eating a Corned Beef Sandwich with extra mayonnaise.[8] She introduces herself as Isabelle.

Oh, and Isabelle is wearing the same robes as the man Olivia murdered in the mine, and a rabbit skull mask. She also does not like seeing Olivia wearing the cloak and snake skull mask she looted, and demands to be allowed to burn it.

Olivia refuses, and after the party try to convince her to give the items up, Jean just grabs the mask, and eventually Olivia agrees to give up the cloak.

Turns out she’s here for the same reason as the party, more or less, and as they walk deeper into the forest, she provides some exposition.

She’s a Dark Shepherd, a secret society dedicated to maintaining cosmic balance and the traditions of Deep Magic, sometimes called dark magic or blood magic and the like. But it’s not really a morality thing, don’t worry.

The guy killed in the mines, however, belonged to a splinter group: the Feral Oaths. They think covering the land in iron and the growth of industry is bad and should be undone to return to the old ways.

She also says that, while deeply tragic, killing the giant snake in the mines may have been necessary, and doesn’t condemn the group. And while the loss of life is always sad, the man Olivia murdered[9] was a Feral Oath, so screw him.

They reach a clearing in the center of the forest. There’s a serene pond with a small island in the center with a tree on it. Isabelle takes a moment, concludes she doesn’t actually know if there’s a proper ceremony nor how to perform it, so she just sits.

A massive deer emerges.[10] The tree, as it turns out, is part of an antler. He’s really big.

He speaks. Probably in the mortals’ minds for the time being, but I didn’t specify that since I needed to get to a dramatic hanger.

So he’s been lonely. No one came last winter. Or the winter before that.

Which means the brides haven’t reached their destinations.

Huh.

Thus ends the session.

This is actually a little earlier than I planned, so I’ll have to figure out how to fill out the next session. I already have the general path Eli’s following, and I have schemes prepared for Fromthe and Olivia. I need to figure out something for Jean De Ferrero.[11] Probably should just talk to the player. Like a reasonable GM.

Lessons learned: nothing concrete comes to mind! I’m feeling more comfortable behind the screen, even though I still feel an amount of inadequacy. And I still need to confront my anxieties about my voice and speech impediment[12] before I can shift into a podcast project, but practice is always important. And hopefully a group that can lend gentle criticism and maybe argue about the magic rules less.

I think a good background thing is that it’s okay to have sidequests and plans that need to be triggered like a video game, and not to close options because the players didn’t jump on them. Narrative time is flexible, things can get moved, cooperate with players and grant them the chance to do what they feel is pressing and/or fun in the moment without sacrificing story or investment.

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

-

[1] Can’t be bothered to do the math. Write up should be on this blog.| [2] Everytime I tell myself ‘Next time, casserole’. Then I make something with curry. [3] Fun fact: in North Fort, I had a vague concept for what would happen if they decided to screw the catacombs/mine, and instead try going North to ask for help. Also an explanation the North Fort mayor would give for not trying this himself. [4] Both events could still trigger. Heh heh. [5] Lyons has picked up on my willingness to accept things that circumvent minor problems or non-issues. Would’ve let them grab an inn, but it doesn’t actually matter. He also names everyone because I’m garbage at names and haven’t enacted any solutions to said garbage. [6] Who isn’t a wolf that resides in wheat, and don’t you suggest I wear my inspiration blatantly on my sleeve! [7] Original, Pathfinder plan was this was a retired Trix, but things shifted, and Ms. Shepherd doesn’t have the right personality. [8] She needs the calories. [9] There were some lies about what happened, since he didn’t get a shot off, or really provide any characterization himself. [10] I decided to reference Princess Mononoke moments before I utilized it. So add it to the list of things I blatantly rip off. [11] Maybe he can found a confection company? [12] This has been occurring more often at work than the table, but still. [13] Lyons said third council-guy is name Lysander. I don’t recall this happening, so it’s a footnote of dubious canon now.

[writingwithadinosaur]

“Fireproof” - Epilogue Pt. 1

“Fireproof” - Epilogue Pt. 1

( Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 )

My Masterlist - Here

My Tag List - Here

Eggsy Unwin x Reader

Word Count: 1,548

Key: Y/N = Your Name, Y/L/N = Your Last Name, H/C = Your Hair Color, E/C = Your Eye Color

Warnings: Feels(?). If I missed anything, please let me know 

Summary: After a genetic mutation showed itself about 5 years ago, you became a Kingsman and worked alongside some of the best agents: Your father, Merlin, Roxy, and Eggsy. When you are assigned a mission with Eggsy, things flare up.

Author’s Note: I was writing out the epilogue earlier and realized that with where I wanted it to go and how long I tend to write, it was either going to be a very long epilogue, or I make it into 2 parts. A 2 part epilogue? Is that even a thing? IT IS NOW!

Forever thankful for @the-witching-hours12-3 for beta reading and being a friend! <3

If you would like to be tagged in any of my future pieces, check out my tag list above and let me know! And as always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

<3

- DreaSaurusREX

It had been 8 months at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. While you didn’t really fit the “youngsters” part of the title, Charles had made an exception for you. He’d seen how badly you wanted, and needed his help; you had so much potential. Charles made it a personal goal of his to get you to an X-Men level of control. This being said, he was not forcing you to be a part of the team. He knew very well that it was your choice if you wanted to or not.

The past 8 months had been a mixture of some of the best things to happen in your life and the saddest moments so far. As much as you appreciated how much Charles had taught and trained you, you couldn’t help but be homesick. You missed your father, Roxy, and Eggsy like hell.

Visitation wasn’t easy at the school. Charles had to be aware of it and then there were all these security protocols that had to be taken care of. It was a hassle, but that didn’t mean it was impossible. Your father visited after your first three months, and then Eggsy and Roxy visited a month or two after that. You were able to go home for holiday, but that was only a two-week long break. Then it was right back into your world revolving around your mutation.

Even though it was a struggle to visit your family, you had strong communication across the pond. You were sure to update your father as much as you could, and video called him at least once a week to actually see him. The same went for Roxy. Eggsy was a different story. The two of you video called almost every night, unless he was on a mission or you were training late. But you never lost your love for each other.

It was one of those nights where you were extremely homesick and wanted nothing more than to either be back in London, or have a bit of London with you. You were sitting on your bed with your laptop. While taking a short break from reviewing your notes from Hank’s class on genetics, you couldn’t help but look at some pictures you’d taken with Eggsy during your holiday break.

Even though you were here for training, you enrolled in classes as well. Not as many as some of the other students, but enough to have a decent workload on top of your work with Charles. Every now and then, you needed to take a break. Those breaks were spent relaxing or looking at pictures and videos that you had saved on your computer.

You were in the middle of watching a video that Roxy had gotten of you and Eggsy walking around the park in the snow. The video ended with you and Eggsy laughing as snow fell off of a tree branch that was above the two of you. You paused the video, looking at how happy and carefree you and Eggsy were. After a minute or so of staring off into space and thinking, you were jolted back into reality by your computer jingling followed by a pop-up message:

“Eggsy Calling”

It was 5PM in your time zone, so it was close to 10 o'clock at night for him in London. You gladly answered while wiping a rogue tear away from your face.

“Hey there, babe!”

“Hey, luv! How’s the studyin’ goin’?”

“Very slow. This genetics stuff is due in a couple of days, but I thought it would distract me from thinking too much about tomorrow.” You slid your hands over your face and tried to take a deep breath.

Charles wanted you to go through a set of trials to really test how far you’d come. He wouldn’t tell you anything about what the test consisted of, which only added to your anxiety. Knowing him, it would not only be physically challenging, but also mentally strenuous; probably a mixture of both at one time.

“Hey, look at me.” You did so. “You are going to be fine. I know I haven’t been there to really see how much you’ve grown, but I already knew you were a fuckin’ badass. So I know damn well that you are not gonna let this all go tits up without a fight.”

You just laughed and nodded. It was still a wonder how he knew exactly what to say to make you feel even a bit better. You thanked him but of course he shoved it off.

“You never have to thank me for that kind of thing, (Y/N). You know that.” He winked and everything seemed normal until you saw his face slowly get more and more serious.

“Something’s not right. What’s wrong, Eggsy?”

“I uh…. I gotta go on a mission in the mornin’. Not just me, but Merlin and Rox as well.” He was watching you intently, trying to make sure you don’t get too upset.

“Oh…”

“So I won’t be able to call you before your trials. But I should be able to talk to you tomorrow night.” You would be lying if you said you weren’t a bit sad about that, but you knew what being a Kingsman entailed, for everyone. So you really couldn’t complain.

“That’s fine. You got a job to do.”

“You sure you’re alright, luv?” You blinked back some tears that were beginning to sting at our eyes and nodded while taking a breath.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just please update me when you can. You know how worried I get when you go on missions, now add the fact that it's you, my best friend, and my father.”

“I know. I promise to tell you as much as I can.”

There was a buzz on his side of the line and he turned to put on his glasses and listen to whoever was giving him orders (most likely your father.) You knew what was going to happen next. He said some things quietly before taking them off and turning back to you.

“I’m sorry, babe, but I gotta go. Merlin wants us all to talk more before leaving in the morning.”

“It’s okay. I gotta finish this chapter and then go help with dinner. Rogue and I are making dinner for the team, even though I’m not technically a part of X-Men.”

“Alright. Well, I will text you in the morning when we head out. I love you.”

“I love you too. Now go meet with them and then get some sleep, mister!” You said jokingly, smiles growing on both of your faces.

“Will do, luv.”

Eggsy blew a kiss to the camera and then hung up. Leaving you alone again. Well, for a few seconds that is. You were running your hands against your face and through your hair, trying to fight off tears. Then you focused some energy on rolling a flame between your fingers, helping you calm down a bit more. A series of light knocks on your door

“Come in,” you breathed out, quickly wiping your face. Charles rolled in and could immediately tell that you were struggling; he knew you played with small flames like this when you needed to calm down. You didn’t let him into your head unless it was absolutely necessary, so he couldn’t tell what exactly was going on, he just knew something was wrong.

“Rogue started working in the kitchen and asked me to fetch you. Are you alright, (Y/N)?”

“Just homesick and thinking too much about tomorrow. I thought I would be able to talk to everyone back home before the trials, but Eggsy just told me that they have to go on a mission. According to him, I should  be able to talk to him afterwards though.”

Charles wheeled closer and put a hand on your arm, causing you to stop moving the small flame around, focusing more on him.

“I promise you that tomorrow will be fine. You are much better than you think. You’re actually very close to the standards I hold for the team. Tomorrow will confirm that, not only to the others, but for you as well. Maybe then they will see why I proposed the idea of you becoming an X-Man.”

You couldn’t help but smile a bit at that. Hearing a compliment like that from someone who really knows the life of a mutant hit you harder than normal. But then you thought about being a part of this team. There was no way you could choose this over your family in Kingsman. But you were becoming a part of this family as well.

“Thank you, Charles. I just don’t know if I could. If there was any way to think of being a part of both, I would heavily consider. But my blood and heart are back in England.” You felt another tear fall down your cheek, this time from more positive feelings. You quickly wiped it with the back of your sleeve and took a breath in.

“That is perfectly understandable. It was just a thought.” He took a pause, considering something before smiling and changing topics. “Now, no more tears. We better not keep Rogue waiting more than she has been.”

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