#my favourite We Survived The Great War couple

[apricusapollo]

Love how you also are just so happy with and for CR Reg and James. they went through so much and just deserve everything 😭

they mean so much to me, now I get why people cry at weddings, I can't remember the last time I've felt so much happiness as I did with their wedding and family.

just sobbing on the floor

they are SOOOO important to me I'm so fr I love them so much

it's also like,,, crimson rivers is literally The First fic I started reading the moment it was posted -> went through all the updates frequently -> gonna be here on Wednesday when final chapter is posted. I've been in lots of fandoms and read lots of fics, but this is the first time I've ever been Here during the process of fanfic starting and ending, ykwim??? because of this I am so fucking attached to it.

and it also feels like I watched cr james and regulus grow up right in front of my eyes. they went through So Much and felt So Much pain and fought So Much to be together and now they Are, they're married and they have children and they're just,,, Happy.

I remember when regulus claimed to be hating James and when James claimed to be hating regulus and now they're HUSBANDS and FATHERS.

I am so incredibly proud of them.

[goosewriting]

Glad to hear requests are open! I just wanted to say I love your inquis!cal fics :D

I was wondering if you could write something with Cal? Lovesick Inquis!Cal hunting an in-denial-of-feelings-for-him Jedi!reader is always a favorite of mine. Literally just Cal pinning the reader down and insisting how they’d make such a great team if only reader would join him. Just anything really, being at his mercy- ugh.

Feel free to write it or not, I don’t mind, just figured I’d put it out there :)

Loth-cat and Mouse

summary: as reader escapes from an inquisitor, old sparks might reignite despite the danger.

relationship: Inquisitor Cal Kestis x gn!Jedi!reader

warnings: mentions of death and murder 

word count: 3.6k

A/N: top tier request anon, tysm! writing the whole force shenanigans was my favourite part tbh. i’ve been meaning to explore that aspect for so long, battle of the will and all, and i’ll definitely be doing it again! tell me what you think pls c: 

[all masterlists] 🪶 [star wars masterlist] 🪶 [ao3]

(english is not my first language. constructive criticism and grammar corrections are very appreciated!)

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Living in hiding when the galaxy thinks you’re dead is easy. It comes with the privilege of being virtually invisible in a galaxy that seeks to oppress and exploit every living soul.

Ever since escaping the Clones turning on the Jedis as a Padawan, and the rise of the Empire, you’ve lived in hiding, as most of the surviving Jedis did. And for a long time, you were successful. That is, until an Inquisitor picked up your scent and started hunting you down.

This went on for two years, and you somehow managed to evade her, always being a step ahead. You only came face to face with the Inquisitor twice: the first time, when you looked the purplish skinned Mirialan in her yellow eyes for the first time, and the second when you knew what you had to do.

Sitting in the dusty booth of a run-down tavern somewhere in the Outer Rim, your shoulders slump forward as you remember how you had felt her life essence vanish through the Force like a cloud of spores disappearing, carried away by the wind. You knew you couldn’t get through with it with your own hands, so you rigged an old warehouse with so many explosives that not even the strongest Jedi Master would be able to escape. Using yourself as bait, standing by the entrance to the building, that was the last time you’d see her. Your plan worked, and the whole thing came down on her. So much so that it almost took you out as well, but you survived despite the injuries. You hope that in the eyes of the Force, you had freed her from her pain. Maybe somewhere deep inside she was thankful.

Or that was what you’d keep telling yourself to be able to sleep at night. 

It’s been a couple of months since then, and you’ve doubled your efforts at staying hidden, as you don’t think you can take another Inquisitor hunt. Not because you can’t win against them. You already did, and that’s the problem. When you first realised an Inquisitor was trailing you, you were afraid. But now, after defeating her, the thought of going out there and turning around the hunter and hunted roles suddenly seems… exhilarating. But that would make you no better than a Sith, would it? Your face contorts in discomfort as you can practically hear your Master’s disappointed voice at what has become of you.

“I thought I taught you better.”

You sigh. Yeah, you did. But you trained me to be a peacekeeper, not an outlaw. It’s a kill or get killed world out here. It probably always has been, but we were shielded from it, had a roof over our heads, clothes to wear and food on our plates. You smile bitterly to yourself, the hood of your cape casting a shadow over your face as you twirl a toothpick between your fingers. Who’d have thought that we had it better during the war than afterwards. 

Your motions come to a sudden halt and you involuntarily snap the thin piece of wood in two as you feel the air in the tavern change, turning impossibly cold. The constant chatter doesn’t stop though, the few customers currently in the tavern continue on unaware of the shift. 

Rising up to your feet quickly but without making a noise, you beeline towards the bar, turning a sharp corner into the kitchen and then towards the back exit you know of. You can hear some modulated voices back in the main room; Purge Troopers. And where there are black armoured troopers… you don’t need to look to know what else is there. 

Once out of view from the main area, you quicken your pace, exiting the place with one goal in mind: getting as far away as possible. With your mind reeling, you skilfully evade every person and droid in your way so as not to make a fuss or cause noise by something falling to the ground. Mentally, you go through every interaction from the last several weeks, trying to find where you did something careless that gave you away. But you’ve been so thorough with your recons, moving every few days, never staying in one place too long. 

How did they find me? 

This question echoes through your mind over and over as you take step after step. The destination of your brisk walk doesn’t really matter, you just need to put as much distance as possible between yourself and whatever hound they’ve sent after you. 

It isn’t until you suddenly feel your burning lungs and aching legs asking for a break that you realise how far you’ve walked, and at what speed. You ran all the way back to your hideout. Agh, stupid! you reprimand yourself, smacking your hand to your forehead. it must have been an automatic response to come to your current “safe spot”, but if they find you here, you wouldn’t be able to come back to retrieve your supplies. In the few days you’ve been here, you’ve collected several machinery parts that you were planning on selling, but that plan just went down the drain. So you pack up whatever you can carry, mentally saying goodbye to not only the place and everything you’re leaving behind, yet again, but also the potential money you could have made which you desperately needed. With a sigh and a mental promise to do better next time, you head out to the port. Not the nearest one, though; the troopers probably have that one surrounded and monitored. You’re going to the one two towns over. It will take a while to get there, but it’s the safer choice. 

The whole way there, you do your mental meditation exercises to keep your Force signature hidden. The familiarity of it also helps you calm down a little and recentre yourself. 

After what felt like half an eternity, you’re finally at the port, and you go to buy a ticket off the planet. You’re relieved that at first glance there don't seem to be any Stormtroopers doing patrols out here. There is a bit of a line at the ticket shop though, so you stay a little further back by some crates and equipment waiting to be loaded into the cargo ships. Hiding out of sight, you wait until you can approach the window directly. 

One by one you watch the people in the queue leave, and when there’s only one person left, you take a quick look around to make sure no Imperial has arrived. The coast is clear, and you take a step in that direction. Except that your boots remain stuck to the ground. All at once, you’re surrounded, no, enveloped in that cold, eerie aura from the tavern earlier, which holds you in place. You take a gulp of air much like a fish out of water, and you try to turn your head around when you hear a modulated chuckle behind you, but you’re frozen in place.

“Going to the port further away even though it cost you more time. Bold choice,” the modulated voice of a man says, and your heart feels like it’s about to leap out of your throat. 

This is it. They found me, you think to yourself, trying your hardest to slip your hand to your belt underneath your robe to reach your weapon, but to no avail.

“Don’t worry. All the troopers are probably still by the tavern searching the whole village,” he says, and you can feel yourself slowly being turned towards him. You were ready to spit in his face and curse him out, but the image before you catches you completely off-guard. While the red visor of his sleek helmet is practically unmistakable regarding his line of work, he threw on some sort of poncho to cover his armour. It’s almost comical, and were it not for the imminent danger you find yourself in, you probably would have laughed a bit.

“Everything has been so boring lately,” he continues, rolling his head back and to the side to make his point. Then, his visor locks onto your face, and he stays silent for a moment. “When I read what you did to the Eleventh Sister, though, I knew I had to come check you out for myself.”

��W-why,” you manage to croak out. His Force grip is starting to get tighter and it's getting harder for you to breathe.

He slightly shrugs, one of his shoulders leaning onto the big supply crate that shields you both from view. “As I said, I was bored. And you get a head start, so…” He pulls the poncho over his head, letting it fall down to the ground unceremoniously. “Entertain me.” 

As he turns on his heels, he finally lets go and you can fill your lungs again. You don't know what just happened, but you’re not about to waste this chance to escape, so you beeline to the ticket shop and buy your way off the planet. Before boarding the ship, you take one last look over your shoulder; the Inquisitor is nowhere to be seen. Or felt. 

From then on, a strange game of Loth-cat and mouse starts. You’d escape, the Inquisitor somehow following your trail, even though you took great care to stay anonymous. Only days after arriving at a new location, you’d find his Purge Troopers looking for you. Every time you thought you might be able to get a break and rest at one place a little longer, the Inquisitor would reach out in the Force, poking at you ever so slightly, just as a reminder that he’s still there. 

You’re exhausted.

People who aren’t Force-sensitive emit a certain aura, while those who are able to tap into and manipulate it, manifest in different ways. Most seem to have an extra set of long, immaterial limbs, able to scan their surroundings. Sometimes it’s like a flowy cape, fluttering around the person with grace; sometimes it’s more like thick and heavy vines, dragging themselves around and scratching everything with their thorns. 

Inquisitors have a very strong and rather aggressive presence in the Force, but you’ve never quite felt a signature as distinctly intense as the one currently hunting you. His whole essence feels like an icy mist, spreading quickly around him and seeping into every corner, looking for his victims. It starts out slow, unnoticeable at first, but by the time you realise what’s surrounding you, it’s too late. Once the victim is found, the mist solidifies into ice, sticking their feet to the ground, rendering them unable to move. The Inquisitor stretches out his arm in their direction, and the mist becomes more dense, constricting their airways, squeezing out every last drop of oxygen agonisingly slowly. 

At some point, his presence starts haunting you at night. In the few hours of restless sleep you allow yourself while on the run, you find him to be there more and more often. Worn down by how long the chase has been going on, your guard starts to fall. Suddenly you don’t dread it anymore, the cold shudders as you walk through a market, and the icy mist following you into your dreams. Not just his Force signature but his whole presence as a whole, it’s so strong, it’s almost intoxicating. The more he keeps finding you, the more you keep catching yourself almost looking for his presence.

Much to your surprise and not delight, you realise his manipulation game is working.

It doesn’t take much longer until you finally come face to face with the Inquisitor. You know it’s too late to escape him, and you don’t know if you can hold your own against him in your current state, but you have no choice.

As if the exhaustion wasn’t enough, you’re currently stuck in a tropical forest, and you can feel the dirt and debris after running through the thick vegetation sticking to you, a thin sheen of sweat on your skin. The only sound you hear is your ragged breathing and the sounds of the jungle. You know the Inquisitor is not far behind you, but he’s been moving surprisingly silently given his armour. More than ever, he feels like a predator. 

Arriving at a clearing in the forest, you stop. Deep in your gut you can feel it: it’s time. Whatever happens, only one of you will walk out of here. So, after taking a deep breath and wiping off your face with the back of your sleeve, you turn around. 

All this time, you’ve tried not to imagine what he looked like underneath his helmet, as you knew it would only humanise him and make it harder for you to fight the man. So when you’re met with a face instead of a red visor, you’re surprised. Whatever mental image you might have had of him, you were not expecting him to look as handsome and young as he did. There’s also a strange air of familiarity which you can’t place, but decide to ignore for the time being.

Sizing each other up from either side of the clearing, you merely stand there, looking at each other. He moves his hand and you instinctively reach for your sabre, but he casually adjusts his gloves, weapon stil sheathed.

“You know,” he says with a slight chuckle. “I only ever came after you because I recognised your name. I personally requested to pick up where the Eleventh Sister left off.” 

Your brows furrow at his confession, which feels very much misplaced. He talks like he’s expecting you to be flattered or honoured at his words.

You deny ever having seen him, and he seems a little dejected at that. Kneeling down, he picks a little blue flower from the shrubs, and takes a couple steps in your direction. Offering it to you, he calls you by a nickname that you haven’t heard in what feels like several lifetimes. 

That’s when you suddenly remember: you had met him once, on Coruscant, when Padawans from all over the galaxy would go to the temple and be shown the archives. You were from two different home planets, there was no reason for you to have ever crossed paths, yet fate would have you attending the tour through the archives on the same day. All Padawans got to spend some time together, mainly to train and spar with each other. You can’t really remember anyone else you met that day, and the events are pretty blurry as is, but you do distinctly remember a Padawan with wild copper hair and freckles that looked like the constellations the Jedi taught you about. You and him would steal glances at each other the whole day, until finally he approached you, offering you a little white flower he picked somewhere. Where exactly, you had no idea, given the lack of green spaces on the planet. 

“Cal. Cal Kestis,” you say as his name comes back to you, like it’s always been on the tip of your tongue, dormant. 

“Ah, so you do remember,” he smiles a little at that. You don’t take the flower from his hand though, so he flicks it away without a second thought.

”What did they do to you…” You shake your head in disbelief.

You mentally compare the sweet little boy with fiery hair that you had met that day, and try to superpose that image with the man now standing before you, and it’s just not possible. It’s not the same person any more. His eyes, once the colour of oceans and clear skies, now glow an angry yellow, his gaze piercing right through your soul.

Since coming face to face in the clearing, Cal’s presence in the Force has been as unmovable and strong as ever, so you had no choice but to mentally and emotionally shield yourself, like hiding behind a rock in a snowstorm, trying to avoid the relentless icy wind clawing at your exposed skin. But now that you know who he is, you’re certain there has to be something left, even if very deep within him. So you dig deep in your own heart for that short connection you had felt with him that day on Coruscant, and bring it back to the surface, holding onto it for dear life. You dig out the warmth, the safety, the certainty that those days used to have, using them as a shield to part the cold wind as you take step after step in the metaphorical snow towards Cal. 

Feeling the shift, Cal straightens up.

“What are you doing?” he questions.

You don’t answer immediately, holding his harsh gaze the best you can.

“I’m reaching out to you,” you say after a moment, the light of your Force finally strong enough to allow you to approach him without being knocked back by his icy aura. The dry leaves crunch under your feet as you take a step towards the Inquisitor.

To an outsider, this interaction would have looked like an intense staring contest. But if you allowed your dynamics in the Force to have an impact on the physical world, you two would have flattened the terrain around you both in an instant. 

During this battle of will and determination, which seems to go on forever, you shorten what little distance separates you from Cal. His whole body is tense, trying to keep his wits as you’re blinding him with your light. You wonder if there is a part in him that wants to give in, and that’s exactly what you’re trying to find within him. Stretching out your hand, you carefully cup his face. He flinches slightly in surprise, but doesn’t pull away.

“It’s not too late, Cal,” you say. Your voice is soft, contrasting the intensity in both your gazes. “Please come back.”

Now that you’re so close, you decide to drop the metaphorical shield you were holding up, exposing the warmth and joy from before to him. His icy wind almost knocks you back a couple of steps, but you let it wash over you. You inhale sharply as you let everything he’s throwing at you bounce off; his hate, his  anger, his pain. 

“Stop,” he demands almost breathlessly.

But you bring your other hand to his face too, holding him, as you cling onto the memory of your first meeting with him and try to emanate that light through his own shield wherever you find cracks. And you succeed, feeling how, for a split second, all his walls come crumbling down and all you’re left with is just a boy, scared and alone.

“Stop!” he yells, as his own hand reaches out this time, swatting yours away and harshly grabbing you by the throat. Pushing you back several steps until your back hits a tree, he holds you there, your own hands clawing at his wrists in an attempt to ease the pressure of his grip.

“Stop,” he repeats, much more collected this time. 

“You’re so deep in that dark cave, you forgot there’s an exit at all,” you say. “You don’t have to stay there, you know. Let me help you get back to the light.”

“Why would I want to leave?” He chuckles darkly. “Let me show you the way into the dark instead. There’s more here than you could ever know, so much power to be tapped into that you’re missing.”

He takes a moment to study your face, loosening his grip on you ever so slightly, which allows you to take a gulp of air. 

“Come with me,” he offers. ”You’ve already proven how powerful you are. Imagine how much more we could both accomplish if we joined forces.” 

“Me? Become like you?” You scoff. “I’d rather you kill me now.”

Cal hums, as if considering your suggestion for a moment. But he remains silent, with you still pinned to the tree. He doesn’t let go of you nor does he tighten his grip, leaving the next move to you instead. Your head spins, trying to figure out what to do.

He raises a brow at you, urging you to do or say something. You frown, conflicted.

“All this time I thought you were just playing a twisted game, coming after me until you got bored. And then you’d kill me. Now you’re trying to recruit me?”

“If I wanted you dead, you never would have even seen me coming,” he retorts with a bit of a snarl.  

Then he reaches out for the lightsabre at your belt, and one of your hands protectively grabs onto it before he can. Cal gives you a smug look as that’s exactly what he wanted, and placing his hand over yours, he guides your weapon up, pressing the unignited end into his ribcage. He’s essentially saying, ‘if you don’t want to come with me, you’ll have to kill me right now, right here.’

“Quite the conundrum we find ourselves in, huh,” he says after a moment, giving your hand a squeeze. “What’s stopping you?” 

“…Hope,” you answer rather unconvincingly, cringing at how corny it sounds.

He scoffs and lets go of your hand, which falls to your side still holding onto your weapon.

“Don’t worry, I can fix that.” 

Cal suddenly leans in, placing a lingering kiss on your cheek. 

“I’m looking forward to our next encounter,” he whispers into your ear, and a shudder runs down your spine. 

He lets go suddenly, your legs giving in, and you fall to the ground with a grunt as you take a couple deep breaths now that your airways aren’t constricted anymore.

As he walks away, Cal doesn’t turn back once. He picks up his helmet where he discarded it earlier, putting it on and disappearing amongst the trees.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

A/N2: part 2 anyone? 👀 let me know how you’d like the story to unfold!

A/N3: the amount of times i’ve written reader getting choked by inq!cal…….. i think i need to unpack something there

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[susandsnell]

hey coco! hope ur having a good day! was wondering if u’d like to talk about why u like and what u find compelling with atton/exile? do u have a particular route or headcanon underwhich u prefer them or is it more of an overarching meta appreciation?

Hi, friend!

Thanks so much for the well-wishes. My day's kind of ehh due to continued Issues but the weather's nice and I'm feeling a little calmer. Hope your day is good!

Thank you so much for sending me this and enabling me shamelessly. I've been ride-or-die for Atton/Exile (which is M/F if you played the Jedi Exile as female, which I did and which is 'canon' but let's not talk about the latter lest we kick the hornet's nest) since summer 2011, which is almost 13 years now? Wild. Literally half my life. Anyhow, my reasons/headcanons have changed and evolved just as I've done a lot of growing up since the time I was first obsessed, but I'll do my best to synthesize/organize my thoughts! (Assume all the Restored Content is canon). More under the cut because 'synthesis' is still essay-length for me, God help me.

First off, I tended to play the Jedi Exile as light-sided and Revan as dark sided; I find the narrative of both games to be the most meaningful with these choices. This post basically puts into words why Revan works better as a Dark Sider, but the Exile, to me, as Revan's foil and mirror, works inversely best as a light sider. The game seems to want you to play her light-sided given how Kreia's best stuff/approval lies in that path. KOTOR II is one of the darkest entries to the Star Wars universe by far, but with a light sided exile, it's a story about how moving through life with an unyielding belief in love and justice for others in your heart will ignite that light in the people around you, and repair a broken world/galaxy.

Enter Atton.

KOTOR II is great in that you technically have such a wide range of shipping dynamics/options, and exactly none of them are functional, largely because it's one of the Star Wars media entries with the most harrowingly realistic depictions of war and its psychological impact on the people it touches. Atton Rand happened to be my favourite of all the love interests at the time because of his voice and his snarky meta-jokes (I was a Daria fanatic almost 2 decades too late, what do you want). Nowadays, I love him because his character basically took the Star Wars expanded universe requirement for Han Solo expys and went off the rails with it, making his 'scoundrel' archetype half-his charming and humorous personality, half-a facade to cover severe and quite realistically portrayed war PTSD as well as his actions as Jaq, the torture-happy mercenary. It's "what if the self-serving charming rogue during wartime archetype was brought to its logical conclusion" and I am here for it.

So first you have the parallels and contrasts - both committed atrocities during the Mandalorian wars, but while Atton was loyal to Revan after their fall and never faced justice for his wrongdoings, the (light-sided) Exile turned from Revan and still was scapegoated by the Council. Atton is a character mired in his own bitterness and cynicism, and you have the option to choose to play the Exile as a character driven solely by her morals, even when she'll suffer unconscionably for them, and it is through this unflinching clinging to her morals that she gains the idealism necessary to survive everything she goes through. Atton once sought to rip freewill away from his victims; the Exile unconsciously, slowly saps it through the cipher.

As a young teen, I admittedly was starry-eyed over the 'sheltered good girl manipulated and hurt by so many meets sexy bad boy recovering from his own past and they protect each other as a power couple' archetyping, but it does go a lot deeper than that. Their dialogue options have easy, natural, sexy chemistry that draws you in, but I do think my appreciation goes deeper. This isn't a simple 'fixing the bad boy' because of the narrative device of the Force cipher meaning you quite literally have "I can fix him" and "I can make him worse" as your game mechanics, lol. You get your surface-level fun of their interactions between the proper, well-mannered Jedi and the flirtatious rapscallion, but you also have two people who, for the reasons I outlined above, fundamentally understand each other after harrowing lifetimes spent alone in their pain and trauma.

I'd go so far as to say Atton is the best-placed of anyone to understand the Exile; the Sion ship is compelling and squee-worthy to any Phantom fangirl worth her salt (as I was), but she's everything he couldn't be or fathom, Visas may have felt closer to the pain the Exile did over Malachor V but her worst actions were committed under duress as a captive of Darth Nihilus and not of her own volition (so I argue she's a lot more morally innocent than Atton or the Exile), Mical/The Disciple is the innocence and warmth of the Exile's upbringing untouched by how the Mando wars reforged her and while Brianna/The Handmaiden is excellent as a potential parallel for specifically the Exile's abuse at the hands of the Jedi (Atris in particular), she's still similarly sheltered to Mical. Bao-Dur was with the Exile during the war but the game didn't develop him enough and understands that aspect of her, but they canonically per the dialogue emotionally distanced themselves given the circumstances, and Mira the Bounty Hunter is cool sister-zoned, but I suspect her family being victim to Malachor V would drive a wedge no matter how much forgiveness the game preaches.

Meanwhile, Atton knows and/or loves not pieces of the Exile, but as she is; the battered and betrayed veteran with a lifetime of wrongdoing to atone for that he recognizes in himself, and the naive Jedi she was before that the charming flirt in him likes to tease. And although his backstory is a revelation, and a harrowing one to the Exile, who sees what she might have become had she stayed with Revan, this is what their relationship is; seeing someone in their totality, and loving and honouring the worst with the best. Despite knowing what the Exile's done, Atton values her enough to still care about how she views him that he begs Kreia not to tell her the truth about his past. The two are instantly drawn to each other on Peragus, not just out of necessity but genuine, instinctive protectiveness, attraction, and a deeper sense (be it Force-Assisted or not) of understanding. Atton refers to it in his death scene (if you count that) as love at first sight, and while there was probably initial infatuation, I think there was just such an instant magnetism that grew and grew between them through shared experience. "Don't give up on me now, dammit!" and "You want her, you get through me." come to mind. Atton is the only party member that asks her to train him in the Force, whereas she has to prompt and convince the others into their awakening. He's deeply scarred by his experiences with the Force, not to mention it's actively dangerous to train as a Jedi due to the Exchange, but he's willing to face that for the Exile - he tells her that part of why he wants to train as a Jedi is to be better able to protect and fight for her. One of the first things he does is teach her to play Pazaak in her head to prevent from psychic attacks through the Force/harm through Kreia's force bond - the exact weapon he wielded against others. The tragedy of any Jedi Exile ship is the constant insecurity created by the force-wound/cipher; how much of anyone's choice to follow in their footsteps or love them is their own free will? What power dynamics, unspoken or obvious, arise from it? But Atton's fierce independence and selfishness almost serves as the clearest answer to this. He willingly reawakens himself to the Force to connect with her, to be better able to fight for her. He chose her, a thousand times over, and whatever role the Force Wound plays, he accepts her influence out of admiration for that steadfast-to-a-fault morality I talked about before.

This isn't some corny gender essentialist "she is his redemption" nonsense either, although redemption is a major theme of a light-sided KOTOR 2; by training Atton and others as a Jedi, the Exile is actively doing the work to heal the galaxy she helped to break. By protecting and teaching and bonding with the Exile, Atton is regaining his own humanity through recognizing hers, over and over, the way he failed to recognize those of his victims. They're together in this, in their recovery, in how they've experienced all extremes of morality. Love, in this story, isn't about fixing someone or breaking them, it's about meeting them where they are and walking alongside them, hopefully to someplace better than where you were when you both met. Is it any wonder that he's the one she walks away with in the end? (As if he'd let her walk alone ever again.)

With all this being said, and to address your question, while the route/headcanon preferences I prefer for Atton/Exile create, I think, the richest narrative with what's there, I've definitely got an overarching meta appreciation for them too. I spent my teen years eagerly eating up every possible iteration of them as a couple, and much of what I described above can hold true in a different aspect if people prefer to play them dark-sided, if people hold the tragic dying in your arms ending as canon, and so forth. They're compelling any way you slice them.

[racingliners]

Euro 2020 pics Part 2!

So as mentioned in the prev post, I had six different shifts across six of the eight matches Wembley hosted (ngl I got so lucky with my shift selection).

MD1 - Group Stage: England v Scotland

My first shift was for ingress (event organiser terminology for the spectators arriving at the stadium) at Scotland v England which... was an experience. Not gonna lie I was really relieved when it was announced that there was going to be a limit on spectators as part of the covid protocols bc I don't think I would have survived dealing with 90,000 Scotland and England fans at once 😭

(Also the irony of me being half-English/half-Scottish and getting Scotland v England as my first shift... the football gods clearly love me.)

I was fully expecting the journey to the stadium to be awful but bc I have to be there hours before kick-off it was fine, though I still saw some Scotland fans on the tube and they clocked my uniform and asked me about what I was doing and wished me luck for the day which was actually really sweet.

For my first shift manicure I did my nails a pastel lime green to match the accent colours on my uniform, going super super neutral (as volunteers representing UEFA we had to be neutral anyway, but for me even more so).

Genuinely I don't think I had ever seen so many people wearing kilts on one place (a couple of people were in formal highland dress, the rest were just in football shits, kilts and trainers, sadly there wasn't many bagpipes where I was)

The one thing I remember from the day was that were my group was stationed towards the back of the stadium was so windy. It was literally early June and I was having to do star jumps to keep myself warm (either I took my hoodie as a just in case or my Sister-in-Law told me to take it, either way I was so glad I had it on under my raincoat)

As I wasn't on shift for egress (the bit where everyone leaves the stadium) I left just after kick-off with my packed lunch dinner and hot footed it back to my relatives place to avoid any carnage, pretty sure I was the only person in the whole city thrilled with a 0-0 draw dvhsjdvhdfjzhj

MD2 - Group Stage: Czech Republic v England

Besties for my second shift I came prepared. I had so much stuff in my backpack it was a good thing I was on shift for both Ingress and Egress as I struggled to fit my food bag into it before going home.

This shift was really fun as it was pretty minimal stakes, England were pretty much guaranteed to be through into the knockout stages so the spectators were mostly fine. For this shift I was based on Wembley way so I spent 90% of the time taking pictures of people with the stadium in the background. For my nails I went with a bright orange (it's my favourite colour so I had to fit it in at some point)

We were all stood down just before kick-off and were sent to the volunteer centre to have our meal, which was a sandwich, packet of crisps, fruit, chocolate, and at either this match or the next one we got some hot soup as well. The eating area was literally in the middle of Wembley arena (as in the bit where the concerts happen), which was wild but with social distancing they needed plenty of space. It was actually quite fun getting to decompress and chat with everyone.

Egress was super simple, just smiling and waving goodbye but some of us had light sticks which led to a bunch of us pretending we were in Star Wars, naturally. (I had a criminal amount of fun, sadly I had to hand the light stick back before I left).

MD3 - Round of 16: Italy v Austria

So for this shift I got given a megaphone :D

It was so much fun, obviously I used it for Serious and Official Volunteering Messages, but I did have a bit of fun by saying Buona Sera to any Italian fans which... their costumes were so good. We had Mario and Luigi and some people dressed up as pizza slices. They brough such a great vibe and were just living their best lives and were really nice to all of us. The entrance I was posted at was at the Italian end so there wasn't that many Austria fans, but I did see one lady wearing a really pretty dirndl which I complemented her on.

This match started the recurring theme all of us had of "please don't go to extra time I want to get home before midnight"... none of them listened which was very rude and bc I was a bit weary of travelling round London super late at night I asked to leave early since my London based fam live on the other side of the city to Wembley and I got back safely!

For this match I did my nails bright pink, and if you ever want a good picture of your manicure take pictures on the tube bc the lighting will never let you down (especially if they're shimmery of sparkly)

[verynotsigmaofu]

My boy only breaks his favourite toys

(by me lol)

"Mariano is refusing to sign the papers"

Said her lawyer as he sat back down

"What do you mean he's"refusing" to sign the papers?"

She said with a confused look on her face

"We don't have any kids and I don't want any of his assets"

"The problem isn't the assets dolores, It's you. He doesn't want to let you go"

He said

“Once I fix me”

"Stop calling me that"

she said

"Calling you what?"

He said

"mi vida, I'm not your wife anymore"

She said

He let out a sign before speaking up

"You're right,but you still mi amor y eso no ha cambiado"

He said

“He gonna miss me”

"You're the one who broke my heart in the worst way possible and you weren't even there to see it"

She said as tears flowed down all at once

"As those words came out her mouth I felt like I was being stab multiple times in the chest, knowing that the one person I loved was the one I ended up hurting the most. After 4 years of loving her and protecting her from any harm, I was the one that broke her,

¸¸♬·¯·♪·¯·♫¸¸ 𝓟𝓵𝓪𝔂𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽 ¸¸♫·¯·♪¸♩·¯·♬¸

0:00 ─〇───── 0:00

◃◃ ⅠⅠ ▹▹

my boy only breaks his favourite toys - Taylor Swift

we can't be friends (wait for your love) - Arianna grande

The Great War - Taylor swift

K. - Cigarettes After Sex

Glimpse of Us - Joji

My Love Mine All Mine - Mitski

Let The Light In - Lana Del Rey

Pyramids - Frank Ocean

I Don't Wanna Live Forever - Zayn, ft Taylor swift

Say yes to heaven - Lana del Rey

Never felt so alone - Labrinth

Don't blame me - Taylor swift

Grenade - Bruno mars

Nobody gets me - SZA

PRIDE - Kendrick Lamar

CHIHIRO - Billie eilish

Wave - Meghan trainor

20 something - SZA

"He had her, now he's losing her, but he do anything to get her back"

When the "perfect" couple marriage is falling apart, and slowing hurting each other

Will they survive this Great War and come back to each other?

Or does he end up losing her forever?

(Okay I decided to bring the story I wrote like back the April but completely forgot abt on here, yes it a doloresxmariano modern fanfic so yeah, this is just to give u an idea of it and the playlist, hope u like it!!)

[pinkbelugacollective]

👽 : Favourite villain

🤖 : Favourite adaptation

🐕 : An Elseworlds story you'd like to see

I'm greedy

Favorite villain: My favorite Superman villain of all time is General Zod. I think his character can be adapted into any era bc I think there’s always something to say about a guy who’s in prison for pre-Superman crimes, who then also manages to go BACK to prison cuz of even more war crimes 😂😂😂 My favorite iteration of his clown ass is during Geoff’s reign.

Favorite adaptation: Smallville (2001-2011)! It wasn’t always the best time, but it got me into reading DC Comics and introduced me to forever faves like Bart Allen, Lex Luthor, and of course, Soupeyman himself. It also got me into reading Silver Age comics and the original Superboy series. As corny and terrible as it was at times, I think it fulfilled its purpose in attracting a new generation of readers aka me :’>

An Elseworlds I’d like to see: I’d like to see some kinda folk horror comic about Krypton. I think there’s great potential in exploring a culture with few survivors through a horror lens, especially when you think about generational trauma, forced migration, and lingering feelings. I think Phillip Kennedy Johnson posed an interesting point about the Phaelosians, and coupled with Krypton lore we already have, I would love to see a much more spookier look at Krypton’s history. Can ghosts and demons survive a planetary genocide? I think it’s a pretty cool question to ponder on.

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

05/26/2024 – 06/01/2024

Sunday

Week 16 of missing Cipher Academy

Had outdoor activities again this weekend so I didn’t get much manga reading in, but I did start watching The Simpsons for the first time ever. I guess it’s one of those shows where it’s so legendary that I figure I should check it out, and it’s been fine so far. It’s gotten a few chuckles out of me, but I’ve gotta say that Homer is the weakest link for me right now. I don’t mind “lovable but bumbling idiot” type of characters, but he’s not particularly lovable to me currently…especially with the back to back episodes of Marge almost having an affair before backing out and Homer having his picture taken with an exotic dancer…it just never feels like Homer truly earns his redemption to me. My favourite sitcom of all time is Malcolm in the Middle, so it’s hard not to compare the two couples and see how Hal and Lois treated each other kinder and more fairly.

Monday

Akuheki fine…I’ll save my full thoughts for the ending but it’s not looking good, folks.

Girl Meets Rock good, love the teen drama. I’m a bit sad that it looks like it’s going to be a girl band vs boy band rivalry because co-ed bands are so rare in manga, but it is what it is.

Oshi no Ko fine…as expected, they’re pulling the punches and steering the story back to mainstream appealable normalcy, even sanding off the complication of Goro being an adult surrounded by previously teenage love interests by separating Goro from Aqua entirely. I don’t know, it feels a little cowardly I guess…it feels like they had stuff like the incest pseudo-age gap as a hook and a vehicle for both comedy and drama, but when they had to confront the logical endpoints of these ethical dilemmas, they just backed away completely and gave us a bunch of rationalizations to make the course correction as palatable as possible… I would’ve preferred that they just went for it, it would’ve made for a more unique and interesting story…but whatever…I’m sure everything’s going to end up perfectly happy and normal and I’ll think it’s mid.

Dandadan good, I see now why they introduced that cop as his own character. I’m excited to see how this figures in Zuma’s redemption, because the other kids haven’t really had their parental figures factor in their personal arcs (except maybe Vamola, but in flashback only).

Magilumiere fine. Obviously they were going to have a repeat of what happened to Alice for maximum drama lol

Chainsaw Man fine…? It’ll be peak if something actually happens as a result of this chapter.

One Piece very good…in addition to the massive lore drop, the spread where that one Elder splits the whole cloud in half was very cool.

Tuesday

Read through most of She Who Became the Sun’s second part and aghhhh the pages just fall away like nothing because I’m so engrossed in the political war drama… I’ve become really endeared to Ouyang (he’s such an interesting foil for Zhu) and the inevitably tragic tension between him and Esen (the scene where they drink together had me holding my breath). I appreciate Parker-Chan focusing on both sides of the war and how each faction has their own issues and internal power struggles. I don’t want to see Ouyang or Zhu lose, but their trajectories will inevitably pit them against one another, and it seems that only one will emerge as the victor. I’m also fascinated by Lord Wang – I was genuinely rooting for Esen and Wang’s relationship, but I don’t think they can ever come back from what happened now. But Wang’s shrewdness clashes with the Mongols’ sensibilities in fascinating ways, and I like how he sticks to his own principles no matter how much other people look down on him. Meanwhile, Ma and Zhu’s relationship is also interesting, and I like that Ma is showing Zhu what can lie beyond her base instincts of survival and achieving greatness. I will say that some of the wording does get repetitive at times (I think we get the greatness vs nothingness struggle by now without needing those specific words repeated ad nauseum), and I would’ve liked to actually see the Jiankang battle play out (war arcs can be really fun to watch when done correctly), but oh well. I couldn’t bring myself to read the climax of part two yet because I’m dreading what’s to come, but we’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

OH MY GODDDD WATASHI NO MUSUKO GA ISEKAI TENSEI SHITAPPOI FINALLY UPDATED AFTER SEVEN LONG MONTHS I’VE BEEN DREAMING OF THIS DAY and then I read the chapter and regained the pit of dread in my stomach. Mio’s still missing, Doubara’s floundering, and now with Haruji closing in I can feel the seconds ticking down to the bomb exploding…

Wednesday

Rewatched Succession season 4 episode 8 as I made dinner, and I really love how thematically cohesive it is. The episode starts with Tom basically laying out the thesis to us: information is power, and it’s important to know when and how to utilize it for maximum effect. This whole election is an information war told from the perspective of a news organization, and it’s so interesting to watch how the dissemination of information and especially misinformation can change the tide of reality. Lies becoming truth is another one of Succession’s main themes, and it’s articulated so well in this episode. From the uncertainty of who started the fire to the Schrödinger’s burned ballots to Roman undercutting Shiv with right wing buzzwords at every turn, it really is all about controlling “the Narrative.” And oh god, when Shiv tries to play the same game and it completely blows up in her face…her biggest misstep was definitely underestimating Greg. Shiv’s always so focused on one-upping her family members that she neglects Tom and by extension Greg, and she has no idea how entrenched Greg has become in all the spheres of power that surround them. (Conversely, Tom is hyperaware of this, having had a hand in raising Greg into the slimeball we see today.) Greg even gives her a chance to offer something of value to him, but Shiv just resorts to empty threats of violence and weird wordplay and all of it is downright cringe (and I like that you can see Greg thinking this too, as he just kind of just scoffs rather than cower like he did in their first interaction four whole seasons ago). And when it came down to it, Shiv failed to control the flow of information (not considering Ken’s connection with Nate nor Greg’s involvement) and it all came crashing down around her…and that being reflected in the election is so genius.

Finished Simpsons season 1 and it was pretty okay. I like seeing the world expand and being introduced to new recurring characters who inhabit Springfield. I really liked Krusty Gets Busted, just a fun little mystery episode and it’s funny how intellectual and well-spoken Sideshow Bob is. I think Bart and Lisa are my favourite characters, and it was really cute to see Bart care about Krusty and eventually prove his innocence.

Got to the end of part 2 of She Who Became the Sun and wow…I was initially a little put off by Zhu intentionally inflicting biological warfare on her own soldiers in order to avoid taking a side in the incoming coup, but I guess it was her only real option…it seemed uncharacteristically callous at first read, though. I loved that the climax to part 2 was Zhu and Ouyang’s confrontation. After all the build-up and shifts in power on both sides of the conflict, having these two foils finally clash was amazing. Not only are they both invested in/representatives of their respective sides, but their conflict was also so personal and meaningful. It can be difficult to write a high-stakes fight in which your protagonist loses but doesn’t die, and I like the resolution here of Ouyang cruelly aiming to disfigure Zhu and subject her to a life of scorn rather than an honourable death (I’m sure Zhu won’t be deterred so easily, though).

Thursday

DunMesh episode with a side of the same thing I had last Thursday, but it wasn’t as good as last time. The food, that is, because the episode was amazing and so so funny. I love all of Marcille’s weird movements as she tries to control the familiars, the gags about the shape of the familiars, and the final punchline of eating them. Just a perfect comedy episode.

Started Simpsons season 2 today, and I’ve gotta say, the writing has gotten a lot better. Homer’s more likeable, for one thing, but also the episodes feel tighter and more deserving of the reputation that they still have today. I can see why even I knew about the Bart Gets an F episode despite never having seen Simpsons before.

Friday

Ummm

Saturday

Watched the latest Smartypants episode, and to be honest the first two powerpoints felt like just normal educational presentations despite their wacky subject matter, but it was still entertaining to watch. But I really appreciated Raphael for being the first one to actually embody a character giving a presentation, and his was my favourite of the episode.

[40sandfabulousaf]

大家好! Palestinians in Gaza who're able to get their hands on food distributed by aid agencies survive mainly on canned food and flat bread. So I opened a carton of sweet corn kernels for my simple breakfast on Wednesday, which was a public holiday, out of compassion for them. Whilst I was eating, I came across the following video which gives us some insight into why the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza is so arduous. The second highlights Israeli settlers trying to make a land grab in West Bank whilst the war in Gaza is going on. The third provides proof that weapons supplied by the US were used in the destruction of Khan Younis; schools, shops and residences have all been reduced to rubble.

Since Wednesday was a public holiday, Pa and I had lunch together. We went to a Hainanese cafe which, besides selling local coffee, tea and breakfast foods, also serves Hainanese pork chops with rice, Hainanese chicken curry, as well as laksa and another local favourite, mee siam. Mee siam is a bee hoon (rice vermicelli) dish with hardboiled egg, mini taupok (bean puff) cubes and bean sprouts in a tangy sweet broth. Mine is a somewhat zhnged (elevated) version with prawns, omelette strips, mini tau pok cubes, bean sprouts and a sprinkle of fried shallots. This bowl was also less sweet than the ones found at local food stalls and cafes; it was so delicious that I wiped the bowl clean!

I revisited the stall owned by the middle-aged couple from China. There's a perpetual line of customers waiting to place their orders so they are doing very well! I wasn't surprised since the dishes I've tried so far have been excellent value for money. I chose ji pa la mian (chicken cutlet handpulled noodles). It's usually served dry, but I asked if they would make it soupy and they obliged. $6.50 got me a large bowl of la mian, blanched crunchy bak choy and crispy chicken. Mmm yum, this was GOOD! The chicken was well marinated, the la mian QQ and slurpable and the light broth wasn't too salty. Definitely will return to try their other noodles!

What an eventful week this has been! It began with the ICC prosecutor seeking arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas parties believed to have committed crimes of humanity or war crimes. Then, Norway, Ireland and Spain recognised Palestine as a state. Now, the ICJ has ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah. The dark cloud hanging over Gaza is starting to shimmer with more silver linings. Palestinians have been suffering for over 7 months now. Over 35,000 have tragically perished, over 77,000 wounded, much of their critical infrastructure including homes, hospitals and schools are destroyed and mass starvation is occurring in the war-torn strip. May this be the beginning of the end to this genocidal war.

This weekend I'm in for a treat. It's Saturday in this region; Grace is cooking huang jiu ji mian (yellow wine chicken noodles) for lunch. I'm so excited! This delicious dish isn't something one easily finds at dining establishments. The one that I knew served it has closed down and even then, their version isn't as fragrant. Grace and Douglas use plenty of old ginger, garlic and a more expensive brand of wine, so theirs is more delicious. This pretty much wraps up a great week. May there be more of them! 下次见!

[firstwizardingwarfest]

Masterlist and creator reveals!

We had truly great works in this fest. We're thrilled everyone was so excited to explore the First Wizarding War with us!! Your mods, @yletylyf and @maraudersaffair, want to thank everyone for making it such a success.

If you haven't had a chance to catch up on all the works yet, you can browse the collection here.

Below is the final fest masterlist with creator reveals!

We'll Make the Best of It by @patriceavril (James Potter/Lily Evans Potter) [Fic]:

“I’m going stir crazy. I’m sick of this stupid house and this stupid garden and…” “My stupid face?” Lily grinned. “Your face is alright. Could be worse.” The highs and lows of the Potters’ time in hiding.

Sincerely, Your Favourite Cousin by LimeOfMagicLimo (Gen) [Fic]:

When her favourite baby cousin is down in the aftermath of his House Elf's death, big cousin Bellatrix heads up to Hogsmead to cheer him up. It changes the course of war like you wouldn't believe.

a learning experience by Laeveteinn (Tom Riddle/Hepzibah Smith; Various Platonic Relationships) [Fic]:

Voldemort spends ten years in customer service. In retrospect, this may explain certain things.

Cruel Bravery by @trinitydaydabbles (Sirius Black/Bellatrix Black Lestrange) [Fic]:

He's on a mission for the Order of the Phoenix. She's on a mission for the Death Eaters. Only one of them can succeed, but neither are getting out of this unscathed.

The Depths of the Abyss by @thecryptidlady (Regulus Black/Barty Crouch Jr.) [Fic]:

Regulus, increasingly disillusioned and buckling under his guilt, seeks comfort in Barty's arms.

two coffins for sleep by knowinglook (Severus Snape/Regulus Black) [Fic]:

Regulus’s body was ice-cold and his skin was so sickeningly blue, that it almost looked translucent. Severus pressed his fingertips, shaking he noticed, against Regulus’s wrist, searching for a pulse. There, a faint pulse. He’s still alive. He’s still alive. Or: Severus helps Regulus survive the Horcrux poison.

Choices by @mystcwritings (Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Rodolphus Lestrange, Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks) [Fic]:

The Black Sisters made their choices. All for love. Bellatrix love of the Dark Lord; Andromeda and Narcissa the love of their husbands. But War has its consequences.

The Recruitment by @silenceinwinter2019 (James Potter/Lily Evans Potter) [Fic]:

Prompt 32 by Chelonie: In canon, Voldemort tried to recruit Lily Evans. I would LOVE to read that story!

Sectum Princeps (Dolorissimum) by SerenaEW (Gen) [Fic]:

The first cut hurts the most. A canon-compliant-ish fic about how Sectumsempra came to be.

No Mercy for Beasts by @maraudersaffair (Remus Lupin/Severus Snape) [Fic]:

It's sixth year and Severus is desperate to become a Death Eater. He's also desperate for Remus Lupin to fuck him.

Stronger by @digthewriter (Dorcas/Marlene) [Art]:

Some couples are driven apart by the war, twisted by fear and suspicion, but it only brings Dorcas and Marlene closer together.

Auror Potter and the Vices of Men by @camelot-dragonlord (Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort) [Fic]:

The Ministry sends Auror Harry back in time to defeat Voldemort before the prophecy. During his mission, Harry falls in love with someone unexpected.

A Way Out by @shiaya21 (Peter/Regulus, Peter & Regulus) [Digital Comic]:

Peter Pettigrew and Regulus Black hanging out in a random park. They have a nice little chat about the future and question their life decisions. (Spoiler: They're not very good at it.)

Damage Control by @sniperjade (Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy; Gen) [Fic]:

Realising that he was now very much on his own in this life Draco Malfoy goes back in time to try and fix the past. He thinks can change things. Set everything back on the right path. He didn't expect to meet someone so important that the future would not exist without her. He never expected to be battling in a warzone whilst trying to protect someone completely unable to protect themselves.

Here to Honour You by DeanDangerous (Regulus Black/Barty Crouch Jr.) [Fic]:

Before walking into his death, Regulus says goodbye to an unsuspecting Barty.

love like the blood in my teeth by anonymous (marlene mckinnon/dorcas meadows) [Fic]:

Some couples are driven apart by the war, twisted by fear and suspicion, but it only brings Dorcas and Marlene closer together.

leave a message in the dirt Fic by @yletylyf and Art by @digthewriter (Remus Lupin/Fenrir Greyback) [Art & Fic]:

Remus is reeling after the Order sends Sirius Black on a suicide mission. Remus doesn't want to be human anymore. Fortunately—or unfortunately—he has a built-in solution for that.

Nyctophobia by @soloorganaas (Bella/Lily) [Fic]:

The time for playing by their rules is over.

In a Mirror, Darkly by @inmyownlittlecorner5 (Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter) [Fic]:

Lily Evans Potter would do anything to protect her family from Voldemort. Even seduce her ex-best friend Severus Snape.

cauldron smoke and fresh paper by Laeveteinn (Barty Crouch Jr./Voldemort) [Fic]:

If Barty Crouch Sr. spent time at his manor, he might have noticed how often Voldemort did the same.

The Sisters of House Black by @adastraarts (Bellatrix Black Lestrange & Narcissa Black Malfoy & Andromeda Black Tonks, Bellatrix Black Lestrange & Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks) [Art]:

The three Black sisters - Bellatrix, Andromeda, Narcissa - and the different paths each of them walk during the First Wizarding War.

Scream, aim, fire (god has spoken) by @bluesundaycake (Gen) [Fic]:

After graduation, Barty's life spins and spins — into the war, into the Department of Mysteries, into the Dark Lord's inner circle. War always exacts a price, and everyone must pay it.

[huggingtentacles]

Queen Bhumi

Greetings, Tarnished! It is I, the Invasion Woman, and I am here yet again to deliver you another one of my favourite builds for invasions. This time it's Bhumi, a failed Geomancer, but a successful Strength build.

This build is the most beginner-friendly thing I've managed to come up with. If you're still reluctant about invasions, I hope this post will convince you to try it out. Let's get into the basics, first.

The stats

Radagon Soreseal: On

As you can see, this strength build doesn't have a lot of... well, strength. That is because strength is the most forgiving damage stat there is. This build is very beginner-friendly primarily thanks to high survivability. We have decent endurance and a lot of vigor, which will allow us a lot of room for error. Higher endurance is also useful because of how heavy our weapons will be. Don't worry about the damage, though. Our weapons are not only powerful, but can also get buffed with greases. Speaking of which:

The Weapons

Here is my arsenal that I personally use:

You may have noticed a couple things already, but let's go over the function of each of these, first.

The Stormhawk Axes at the top, those are my Nuclear Options. The ash of was Thunderstorm has a quick start-up, good range and amazing damage, however, it has VERY long recovery, making it risky to use. I have 5 of them to be able to quickly swap to them from any point in my inventory. I've already made a post about this: The Guide on Hard-Swapping.

The Rotten Greataxes and Battle Hammers are my Scarlet Rot sources. The latter ones are meant to be dual-wielded to compensate for their lack of range. Our build is focused on surviving, that's why sapping our opponent's health is effective in a long invasion. I recommend having the ash of war Stormcaller on one of the hammers, since it allows you to stunlock your opponents, as well as apply scarlet rot on them. The other one may be any ash of war, but I recommend bloodhound step in case you need an escape tool. Switch between them when the situation calls for it.

The Great Club, Troll's Golden Sword and the Zweihanders, as well as Claymore are meant as weapons for trades. You have some really good armour on this build, so you can make use of it by trading blows with your opponent. Troll's Golden Sword is infused with Troll's Roar ash of war, which is good for ambushes, as well as taking pressure off yourself if you're surrounded. The Zweihanders have both variations of Stamp ash of war, which became really good since the latest patch. Claymore makes use of Storm Stomp ash of war, which combos into an strong attack. It's good for mix-ups and punishing over-aggression. The Great Club is just a weapon with a fantastic strong attack, that comes out fairly quickly for a colossal weapon to deal massive damage and smash your opponents into the ground.

The Banished Knight's Halberds have Poison Mist and Flaming Strike ashes of war. The former has a lot of utility since it's a damage-over-time status effect that is very easy to apply. The latter is a burst-damage ash of war, that is good for combos. Both of them have great chase-down potential as well, thanks to their powerful running attack.

Speaking of chase-down, the Great Épée and the Godskin Stitcher are both ideal for such scenario. Not only that, their jump light attack actually combos into a light attack! After that you can follow-up with a Piecing Fang or Impaling Thrust ash of war, which is a really powerful combination.

I'm the very end of the list you can find my finisher/escape weapons. I either use them when I'm doing really well or when I'm doing really poorly. Both Miséricordes and Cleanrot Knight's Swords are infused with a Bloodhound's Step ash of war, which are ideal for escaping a tough spot. Their quick attacks also make it really easy to finish-off your opponents. A quick swap to them into a light attack usually does the job.

The Talismans

You can observe the ones that I have equipped. The Bullgoat's Talisman, the Great Jar's Arsenal and the Radagon's Soreseal are the default talismans.

The fourth talisman slot if basically free and can be used for anything, depending on the situation here are some of them:

Need to heal? Quickly equip the Crimson Seed Talisman to save up on the red flasks. Need some Ash of War damage? Alexander's Shard will help.

Need to top off your health? Quickly swap to Two Fingers Heirloom, cast Bestial Vitality and swap to them Blessed Dew Talisman.

Want to make use of those powerful jump attacks? Swap to the Claw Talisman.

Use any of the Charms to protect yourself from status build-up, and the Drake Talismans to shut down any elemental damage. They are defensive talismans, and they are very powerful when used with Cured Meat and Dried Livers.

Arrow's Sting improves your damage from arrows and bolts. If you ever want to use that Jar Canon, you better use the talisman, too.

If you don't know what to anticipate, use the Ritual Shield Talisman. Though those situations are kinda rare, it's good to be safe from at least one hit.

Conclusion: go invade Right Now

Thank you for reading this! I really appreciate your support, and I hope you'll enjoy playing with this build as much as I do. If you ever have any questions, my inbox is open.

Good luck invading, tarnished!

[kaistrex]

What are your all time fave sterek fic reccs? (regardless of theme/au/tags)

And what do you like about them? (if you want to share)

So, a lot of my all time faves are ones that I read like 6 years ago, and it's been so long since I've read them that I think I've forgotten what most of them are 😂

Most of them are also fandom classics by writers that everyone knows, so the few answers I can remember are going to be very boring haha

But a big favourite of mine which is lesser known is:

This Was How Legends Were Made by Delta_Immortal

Caught between the Hales and the Argents in their war, Stiles finds himself a slave of the great Hale pack. Stiles spends each day working hard, hoping to earn his freedom and see his sick father. It also seems each day he’s capturing more and more attention from Derek, the young Hale lord. Stiles tells himself it’s mostly because Derek is merely trying to figure out how to send the annoying, useless slave away- not because of affection, despite the tales coming from the rumor mill.

It doesn’t matter what Derek's intentions are. Stiles can’t bother with love right now. He's got to keep his head down and survive long enough to keep his promise to Kate Argent. After all, she's promised to keep his father safe.

I think this fic features one of the most jaw-dropping scenes I've read in any Sterek fic ever, and it's even just given me chills to think about a specific line from it. It's the sort of scene where it really made me wonder if Stiles and Derek could even come back from it, but the writer handled it delicately and realistically instead of going for a cheap resolution which I really love. I've gone back to this fic quite a few times.

Another fic I love which is lesser known that I’ve been banging on a lot about over the past year is:

Set in Stone by orphan_account

When Talia is born on January 11, 1959, no one knows about time travel. Eight years later, Talia hears whispers of wolves who get unstuck from time from the alphas who visit her family. This is why, when it happens to Derek, Peter, and Cora, she is ready.

A Time Traveler's Wife AU.

I think about this fic a hell of a lot. I think my favourite thing about it is the kind of genius way that it makes Cora’s absolutely bonkers miraculous survival of the Hale fire in canon actually make sense.

We all love Derek and hurt over the shitshow that is his life, but this fic turns it all into a knife to stab you right in the heart in a way I’ve never had another fic do, before or since. I had to put my phone down at one point to actually sob into a tissue, and I’ve never had any other piece of written media make me cry like that.

What hurts my heart too is that, from what I’ve gleaned from the author’s note, they had it posted to ao3 for a couple of years, chose to delete it, then reuploaded it 4 years later, only to orphan it after just a few months. I just hate to wonder about the author’s reasoning for it, like if they lacked confidence in what they’d written or something? Because this fic is incredible and I’m absolutely gutted that I’ll never know who the author is so I can’t check out any more of their works.

As for some others, I adore Sugar and Spice and I get filthy when that liquor get into me by standinginanicedress (both deleted now, but many copies are floating around the internet easily found) and I don’t think they need an explanation as to why I love them considering the author haha

I know that I loved What I Did On My Summer Vacation by grimm

There's something weird about Beacon Hills that Stiles can't quite put his finger on. The way everyone in town knows his name the day he arrives. The way they insist the melancholic howling that echoes through the forest every night is just a dog. The way his dad denies getting a dog, even though Stiles comes home to find one sprawled across his bed, some big black thing whose eyes gleam red in the right light. The way that massive oak tree out in the woods vibrates under his touch, pulsing with sickly life.

There's something weird going on in this town, and Stiles is determined to get to the bottom of it.

but I think I’ve only read it once a good while ago so I don’t really remember the details of why I loved it lol

And I think that’s a problem that I have with a lot of fics which probably came under the ‘favourites’ umbrella. There are so many fics I loved that are fandom classics and on every rec list and I recognise all the titles, but it’s been so long since I’ve read them that I don’t remember the details of them. (Honestly though, that’s a pretty great problem to have. The Sterek fandom is blessed ✨)

I will leave you though with one of my favourite fics from last year which was:

The Misguided Believer by Kaye_Fraser

It isn’t easy for a human to make it in a wolf's world, especially not for a human trying to earn an unconventional living as a private investigator like Stiles. Sure, the Human Rights Act had been passed twenty years ago, but that didn't lessen the discrimination that still existed against humans. Stiles is determined though. In an effort to pay rent, he takes on a human murder case that has been buried by the werewolf authorities, only to find himself on the trail of a potential serial killer. Unfortunately, to get anything done around town, he needs the help of one stupidly grumpy wolf by the name of Derek Hale. Granted, meeting the wolf over a dead body hadn’t made the best of first impressions, but Stiles is going to solve his first case and make a name for himself, and if that means winning over Derek to his cause by being his most charming self, then so be it!

I love the setting of this fic and all of the incredible worldbuilding, and I still have my fingers crossed for a part 2. I remember I put off reading the final chapter for like a week because I just didn’t want it to end. It’s criminally under-read, so people should go and give it some more love!

And that’s all I have! I really feel like there’s a glaringly obvious fic that I’m forgetting about which I’ll probably remember as soon as I hit post, but you can have these for now haha

[tomcats-fandom-blog]

“So let’s circle back to my old favourite punching bag: Age Of Ultron. Specifically the bit where Quicksilver dies. See, Age Of Ultron spends basically the whole movie trying to convince us that Hawkeye's going to die. He gets injured early on, sarcastically announces that he's going to live forever, and we learn he's got a secret family with a loving pregnant wife and two adorable kids and he stares at a picture of them before heading into the final battle. Then, when he runs into danger to rescue a kid and gets attacked by a gunship, Quicksilver zips in behind a car, gets riddled with bullets, says "you didn't see that coming,” and dies.

Couple of problems, and by a couple I mean... WOW.

So, category one, "the twist makes no sense." The movie shows us that Quicksilver is fast as Hell. I have NO trouble believing he could get Hawkeye to safety. But I do have trouble believing he couldn't ALSO get himself to safety. Like, did he... Carry Hawkeye most of the way to the car and then push him while he was still in the open? That seems kind of unsafe at those speeds. It makes more sense that he carried him behind the car, but then why was Quicksilver still out in the open to get shot? The movie doesn't convince me that Quicksilver had to die, and in fact gives me reason to believe he's absolutely fast enough to NOT die in this specific situation. We've seen what bullets look like to him! And it's pretty embarrassing for him to go out like a punk when barely a year earlier Days Of Future Past showcased exactly what a speedster like Quicksilver was capable of. Not a great look.

Category two, "the twist isn't as clever as it thinks it is." When your plot twist looks directly into the camera and cheekily says "you didn't say that coming,” please just... Stop. And maybe fire your writers. More importantly, I did see it coming and so did a lot of people. See, when you give us a lot of really obvious death flags on an important character but then introduce a bunch of disposable new characters, it's not hard to assume that you're faking us out. Vision and Wanda are famous for their relationship in the comics so they were both out of the death running, which just leaves us with Quicksilver, who's arcs are mostly centred in things like Magneto and the X-Men, AKA stuff Marvel doesn't have the rights to. Yeah, it wasn't hard to see that one coming.

Category three, "the twist is less interesting than not having the twist." I want you to picture for a moment, a world where Quicksilver existed for the events of Civil War, Infinity War and Endgame. He'd already started outgrowing his angry, jaded personality and had begun recognising the Avengers as heroes, seeing them do their absolute damndest to save Sokovia from a problem he indirectly helped cause. He started off hating Tony but changed his mind to side with him instead, recognising that all Tony wanted to do was fix the problems he caused. So, if Quicksilver survives Age Of Ultron he becomes an Avenger, most likely as fiercely loyal to them as he was to Ultron, just in time for them to tear themselves apart in Civil War. Say he sides with Tony, seeing the accords as just another step in Tony's journey away from being a weapons dealer he hated. It puts him in opposition with his sister, the first time they've really fought, and would be cool to see them fight! Even if it... Probably wouldn't last very long.

Say he survives the snap in Infinity War, the first time he's separated from his sister. The way they played out Endgame, during those five years there were almost no active supers on the planet. Thor was getting drunk and Hulk was getting therapy, but I don't see Quicksilver taking armageddon lying down. He could be doing his damnedest to keep the peace Flash-style, maybe even clashing with Hawkeye's one man vigilante crusade, a narrative foil situation, each of them responding to the loss of their family in very different ways. Maybe he's doing for Earth what Captain Marvel is doing for the rest of the galaxy, desperately running around keeping things working while the rest of the team searches for a real solution because he's the only one with the powers to do it. Then Wanda comes back after the snap and suddenly there's a five year age difference between these twins. Wanda's still mourning Vision, Pietro's just happy she's alive, and- My God! The emotional baggage they could unpack there. There is SO much potential here, but Age Of Ultron wanted a death and Pietro was available so... Sucks to be him. Bad twist.

Category four, "the twist has no meaningful impact." You guys notice nobody liked Quicksilver? Literally nobody but Wanda. And his death just made her kill Ultron-bots slightly faster than she already was. Quicksilver dies, Hawkeye lives, the cast expands by two instead of three, nobody mourns, nobody gets a funeral, nobody cares. Hawkeye grimaces sadly for a couple of minutes and then everyone puts on their Dark Serious Pants for Civil War. (And I'm pretty sure they don't even mention him in Civil War.)”

-Red from Overly Sarcastic Productions on “Why The Quicksilver Twist In AOU Is Poorly Written.” (Trope Talk: Plot Twists)

[absolutebl]

Thank you so much for your post on soulmates!! It’s one of my favourite tropes, along with mafia storylines. Do you have any mafia recommendations? I don’t care if it’s gay, lesbian, hetero, non-binary. I just love the mafia ones. Especially if they actually have a plot, like Manner of Death!!

Btw, supportive of the name change! Nice one!

Thank you!

I love a mafia too! Although I only really pay attention to queer and romantic stuff.  

Hard to find these days, it seems to be thought of as somewhat old fashioned. 

Let’s see...

BL Mafia Stuff 

Long Time No See (Korea 2017) is about two hitmen who fall in love via online gay fanfic without knowing they are hitmen on opposite sides of a turf war. Or do they? It’s absolutely great and very under appreciated. On GaGa. 

HIStory 3: Trapped (Taiwan 2019) is about a cop investigating a cold case where a mafia boss is the only witness. Along the way to solving it, they fall in love. Side characters = mercenary hitman meets nerdy cop of his dreams, cooks for him. Main couple ends ambiguously, side couple ends happy. On Viki. 

3 Will Be Free (Thailand 2019) is about a mafia kid, a stripper, and a grifter who accidentally kill a hitman and then have to go on the run, with two assassins chasing them. Along the way the three of them basically fall in love with each other. You also get the mafia hitmen perspective. It’s GREAT and very queer. On GMMTV’s YouTube channel. 

Where Your Eyes Linger (Korea 2020) ostensibly high school set about a poor kid whose been raised in a mafia kid’s family specifically to protect him (whipping boy trope). Themes of codependency and survival and pretty classic Korean style romance ending. On Viki. 

Golden Blood (Thailand 2021) a Thai BL pulp with the whipping boy trope about a boy who is pulled off the streets because he has the correct blood type and trained to be the servant/caretaker/bodyguard of a rich mafia kid. They fall in love. On YouTube. 

Manner of Death (Thailand 2021) this is a gay romantic suspense featuring a doctor and a mafia brother character. It’s not strictly BL, and it’s more a murder mystery than a mafia romance, but it is great. On WeTV. 

Not Me (Thailand 2022) this is crime thriller about a group of motorcycling malcontents bent on bring down a corrupt system. Overtly queer, the romantic threads are not entirely the narrative drivers and it’s very slender on tropes, making this one, like MoD more gay romantic suspense than BL. But if a gritty tension is what you’re after, this one has that in spades. On GMMTV’s YouTube channel. 

KinnPorsche (Thailand 2022) is airing 2022 and I will dominate this niche. So far fandom seems to love it, I’m finding the directing and tone uneven, but the chemistry and acting is spot on. On iQIYI (ironically). 

Mafia... Tangential? 

Because of You (Taiwan + Korea 2020) is about a family of brothers who seem to be THAT kind of family. Uneven but ultimately cute. And I love listening to the contrast between Korean and Mandarin since characters speak in both languages. On Viki. 

Irresistible Love (China 2016) is mafia esk but it’s very rough and censorship got its weird mits all over it. Mafia boss has obsession with his family’s butler. Sometimes pops up on YouTube. It’s in two parts and the second part has two endings, you want the one that ends not entirely unhappily. 

Advance Bravely (China 2017) is about a security firm that provides services to grey businesses, but again with censorship and a serious WTF ending. It’s about a rich pretty boy trailing after the hunky head of the security team and getting them both into trouble. On YouTube. 

Unforgotten Night (Thailand) is coming hopefully in 2022 and looks like the arsehole CEO dumpster fire version of KinnPorsche. It should be gloriously terrible, we hope. 

(source) 

dated mid 2022, not responsible for mafia trash that drops after that date 

[tommyspeakycap]

“It’s a couple minutes after midnight and there were already a couple resolutions broken.”

with tommy maybe?

thank you for all your writing. those past two prompts made my first day of 2021 so much more enjoyable, as all your writing helped 2020 (a really shitty year for me personally as well as overall!) you’re an Angel x

that’s so kind of you to say!! i hope this year treats you a lot better x sending love ! x

Tommy nods his head in the direction of his sister after she placed a crystal glass of his favourite expensive whiskey into his hand while he continues his conversation with Arthur. “You can add manners to your fucking list of resolutions, ungrateful bastard.” Ada huffs in response to this, scoffing at her elder brother as she sits down and takes a drink of wine.

“Swear jar!”

Heads turn to the two little boys standing mischievously in the doorway in their pyjamas with huge grins. Ada rolls her eyes playfully at her son and nephew as you appear behind them. “I told them they could stay up a bit longer, behaviour permitting eh boys?” You ruffle both of their hair and feel your son wrap his arms around your leg, “Of course mummy! love you!” His words make you beam, your love for him so obvious in the way that your eyes shine. It makes Tommy smile from across the room.

You walk in carrying a small plate of some homemade shortbread to place on one of the small tables in the large family room that the entire Shelby family was occupying in yours and Tommy’s huge country estate. “Exactly Karl,” Tommy says, pointing at his nephew as he moves the conversation back to the issue of his sisters profanity. “Swear jar, Ada.”

Ada shakes her head, but honours the newly instated Shelby swear jar rule and puts a few coins into the glass begrudgingly. “We were talking about resolutions,” Arthur informs you, “Tom said he’ll cut back on the smokes, right Tom?” You turn to your husband, eyebrows shooting up in surprise as he sits on the couch, one elbow resting over the arm of the couch with that glass of whiskey in his hand and the other arm around your daughter half asleep leaning against his chest . “Really daddy?” Your daughter remarks quietly. You watch him shrug his shoulders. “Course.” He says. “I know how much your mother hates it,” he paused to lean closer to her to whisper, “and i love your mother very very much, so i’ll do it for her,” with a gentle wink. You didn’t hear those words, but watching him with the daughter he loved so much made your heart swell.

“And stop swearing!” Ada chimes, prompting a giggle from you. “Around the kids, at least.” Polly adds as she sips from her champagne glass. Tommy rolls his eyes again, feeling rather under fire from his tipsy family. With your heart fluttering every so slightly in your chest because to the rest of them, the resolutions that the head of their family was attempting were just that, silly resolutions that everyone makes every year. But to you, or rather between you and Tommy, those were changes you had voiced your wish for many times, especially since your daughter had been running around the house shouting “By order of the Peaky Fucking Blinders!” at the top of her lungs with the plastic gun John had gotten her since Christmas.

It was, of course more the smoking that bothered you. You worried constantly about his health, you knew it couldn’t be good at all that he was at the point practically a chain smoker. You wanted him to see his children grow up. You wanted to spent as long with his as you could get with the life you all lived.

“A man after my own heart,” you coo, leaning down to peck his lips, the cheeky nature of your husband kicking in as he slips his tongue between your lips and somehow manages to hook his arm around you and pull you down onto his lap without spilling his drink. You pull back, shaking your head at him playfully with a smile as you lean back against him. You hear John snigger from across the room, “He was going to quit drinking.” He taunts, nodding his head to the amber liquid in Tommy’s glass.

“Not the new year yet, John.” Tommy glares, but you know drinking isn’t going to be likely something that Tommy is going to stop, especially not within the next five minute before the year changes. The only thing that really matters to you is that he’s going to try. Esme hits John’s arm as a means of telling him to shut up and stop teasing his brother. They knew he was trying to make these changes for you.

“Mrs Shelby?” You turn your head to the maid standing cautiously at the door. “The baby is awake.” You nod your head, patting Tommy’s knee to prompt him to release him arm from around your waist. “I’ll get him, thank you Francis.” The maid nods her head and you kiss your husbands cheek. Tommy, as he always does, follows you with his eyes as you leave the room. A twinkle gleaming as he thinks about you and the newest addition to your family. The way you hold the baby boy, glowing with happiness even in the middle of the night reminds him of everything that is good in his world. His family is all that keeps him going and he knows for a fact that he would not be able to survive without you.

“Hello baby,” you coo as you enter the nursery, “Suppose you want to wish everyone a happy new year mister? oh aren’t you just the more gorgeous baby.” As you lift him into your arms to cradle him gently, you find yourself getting lost in time thinking about how much you love your family. You felt blessed to have three happy and healthy children despise everything that you had done and everything that had been done to you in your life. You had suffered a lot and caused suffering in some cases, so you felt as though there was nothing you could have done that would have amounted to you deserving three beautiful little humans who love you unconditionally. You didn’t know you could even love that much until you held your babies in your arms. And the way you got to see Tommy love them and care for them and become the man you had known all those years ago before he was traumatised by the war was the most beautiful thing to you.

Having children made him a better husband and a better man. You counted yourself lucky to get to be the woman who’s hand he holds as you walk together throw the fields behind the house, watching your son and daughter race and tackle each other in the snow or run through the long grass in the winter. For those moments where there was peace from the world, from the dangers and demands of the great Thomas Shelby, everything was made worth the battles.

You’re dragged from your admirational daze when you hear Tommy’s heavy footsteps falling behind you as he walks into the room. He wraps his arms around you from behind, pressing a long kiss against your cheek. “Happy New Year, Mrs Shelby.” You hum contently at his words, “Mm, Happy New Year to you, Mr Shelby.” Tommy gently rubs his finger over the small head of hair on his new son, “And you, sweet baby.” His voice rumbles lowly in your ear as he rests his chin on your shoulder. “What’re you doing up here?” You ask, turning your head to look at him. Tommy averts his eyes, taking a few steps back to sit on the rocking chair by the window. “Might’ve broke a few resolutions.” He murmurs, the awkward embarrassment feeling that he only ever gets with you rises up to flush his cheeks just like it used to when you first got together all those years ago.

You giggle slightly, placing the baby back down in his crib. The carpet is soft beneath your bare feet as you cross to Tommy, reaching out a hand to lift his chin so he’s forced to look up at you. “It’s ten past midnight Tom, what did you do?” You don’t speak with malice or anger, instead a hint of humour leaking through your words. Tommy shakes his head, “Just had a drink. Not important.” He uses his arms again to hook you down onto his lap. This time, you tuck your head under his chin to rest on his chest, closing your eyes softly for a moment. “What is important,” he continues, “Is how much i love you. And our family, so much.” He feels you smiling, “I love you too.”

Tommy rests his chin gently on top of your head. “Love you more.” He feels you laugh slightly this time as it dawns on your he may be fully serious about how much he loves you, but he’s also buttering you up.

“Thomas?” you query, voice raising in pitch every so slightly. “Mhm?” he responds, neither of you moving from your the comfort of your position. “Didnt you say you broke, resolutions? Not just a resolution?” You now sit back so you can look at him as he grimaces at you, “Well, that’s not really-“

Your head snaps between your little girl and your now apolgetically and almost painfully grimacing husband after you hear her adorable little voice practically answering your question for you before words could even leave Tommy’s lips with her sweet voice shouting;

“Daddy! Remember you need to put money in the shitty bastarding swear jar!”

[jsio]

ANARCHY BERYL

Moebius' precious gemstone

Anarchy Beryl is the Moebius equivalent of Chaos Emeralds, both gems giving the user an immense surge of power, and both opposites. Chaos Emeralds only come in 7, however, Anarchy Beryl is the opposite, there's tons of it, 100s, thousands, maybe millions of pieces of the gem around Moebius.

But yet, Anarchy Beryl is only seen once, and in that one Apprearnce, the design is just bad. Officially in Archie, Anarchy Beryl just looks like the green Chaos Emerald, nothing special about it design wise, and I'm here to change that.

The official design of Anarchy Beryl is the green Chaos Emeralds, but just alot of them, and to me? That's pretty uncreative! So, what did I do to it?

I flipped it. I've made the colour purple instead of green, and created 2 forms of Anarchy Beryl, Refined and Unrefined. So, let's get into the Unrefined Anarchy Beryl first.

Unrefined Anarchy Beryl

This is Anarchy Beryl in its unrefined form, less powerful then the Refined version but far more common, this is his you would find the gem just out in the world. In this state Anarchy Beryl is pretty dangerous, sure it looks nice and would make for a neat decoration, but actually using it would be very, insanely dangerous. The gem like this is pretty unstable, and actually absorbing and using its power could give the user tons of side effects, tons of possible issues to face later in life.

Scourge actually used it, when he went Super, this is what he had stashed in his throne, completely unrefined Anarchy Beryl. The only reason it hasn't ruined his life is thanks to his previous exposure to the Master Emeralds power, it helped null the affects of the Anarchy Beryls issue's. However, if you do survive using the gem, and by the end of your Super transformation, you will lose all your energy, strength and overall just become really weak for a little while.

Refined Anarchy Beryl

This is Anarchy Beryl after it has been refined. In this state Anarchy Beryl is useful, not just for world takeover, but for every day use. Anarchy Beryl like this is what you want to use, because now it works like Chaos Emeralds, Strong and Powerful, while not hurting the user, however it is stronger than the Chaos Emeralds, significantly so. You can teleport farther, Super forms last longer, etc, but because of its increased strength it still causes you to feel weaker per use, and once you come out of your Super form you will be completely worn out, unlike the Chaos Emeralds.

The shape of the Gem matters, it can come in many different shapes, and depending on that changes how strong the gem is in that field. The Anarchy Beryl is great at everything no matter the shape, but the shape makes one area amazing. For example, sharp Anarchy Beryl increases the gem's power, how strong you get from the gem, sharp Anarchy Beryl allows the user to tap into its Super Strength easier. Then there are the Oval ones, these allow easier and stronger access into Anarchy Beryl's Anarchy Force, E.G the equivalent of Shadow's abilities, like teleportation, time manipulation, magical attacks. The next form is the Marquise Anarchy Beryl leans towards the Speed aspect of the Gem, allowing you to react and move significantly faster than before, and for Speedsters (Such as Scourge) it can make them go far beyond their limit. Then the last one I'll talk about here is the Radient Anarchy Beryl, this version of the Gem is best if you're looking for one that focuses on all areas of Anarchy, it's Great in everything, but not amazing in anything, basically it's what you want to start learning how to use Anarchy Beryl with.

Now, there are more types, each different Shape you make Anarchy Beryl into can change the outcome. There's Round, Emerald, Asscher, Princess, Pear and heart left, and I'll leave that up to your guys.

Monarchy Beryl

The Monarchy Beryl, Moebius' Master Emerald. This artifact, this powerful gem, the ruler of Anarchy, hasn't been seen in 100's of years. Why? It was destroyed, in a war, centuries ago.

Back in the old days of Moebius, long before any of the Suppression Squad were born, there was a tribe of Echidna, isolated on Angel Island, the floating Island above the ocean. The tribe were peaceful, looking out for eachother, sworn to pacifism and always willing to help a stranger, they were the guardians, the protectors of the Monarchy Beryl, and it was their God.

Then, the "Land Dwellers" as the Echidna's called them, they were selfish, in it for themselves and wanted power, and there was a race guarding the most powerful thing on the planet, so what did they do? They attacked, they raided Angel Island, they went to war with the Tribes. This war went of the weeks, ending with alot of lives lost, but the Echidna's victory. But...the Land Dweller's were not having this loss. If they can't have the Monarchy Beryl, no-one can.

One last time the Land Dweller's went to Angel Island, but not for a fight, but a terrorist attack. Using new technology they sent a handful of bombers, and sent them straight to the Gem, and, they blew it up, into tiny pieces to broken to ever put the Gem back together. And...we all know what happens when Angel Island's Gem is destroyed...the Island fell, straight into the ocean, the force of the fall, the force of the landing, the tidal waves and all the rubble and destruction caused by this wiped out the majority of the Echidna race. This was a mass extinction event, and, a couple 100 years later, only one Echidna Remains. O'Knux, Sunken Island's protector. And all he wants is to uncover his extinct race's history before he dies, taking the Echidna's with him.

The Monarchy Beryl no longer exists by the time of the Suppression Squad, it's lost to time, only in what little remaining artwork and writing survived the Echidna Extinction. No Chaos, no Tikal, Just Moebians fighting over power.

The history of Anarchy Beryl

Anarchy was Discovered early in Moebius' documented history, thanks to it being naturally stronger in some Moebians, and this lead early philosophicers to believe there was more to it, eventually finding the the rock underground, in mountains, cliffs, even boulders, it was everywhere. They learnt the 2 were connected because the Beryl glowed when In contact with a Moebian strong with the Anarchy Force, and this led to test after test, all culminating with Anarchy Beryl becoming one of Moebius' most expensive gemstones, if not one of the most expensive things, even though it's high in quantity. Anarchy Beryl was tested on lots, and only a couple hundred years after its discovery was it learnt that the gem acts differently when in different shapes, this being used to the advantage of the people. Anarchy Beryl was quickly integrated into every day life, and it still is to this very day.

Before the days of the Suppression Squad, Anarchy Beryl was used as tool for any everyday folk, it being useful for any task, and anyone could use it because it was so easy to get. However, once the Suppression Squad came into the picture, Anarchy Beryl was one of their favourite tools. So, they took it. They took almost all of the world's Anarchy Beryl for themselves and if someone didn't give theirs to them? They'd hurt, maim and make a message out of them, showing they won't have people say no. The Suppression Squad took it for themselves because it allows them to have easy access to Power. However, Once Scourge started going too far, making himself ruler instead of Alicia, taking Actual lives, attacking peaceful people and overall being awful, the Suppression Squad hid the Anarchy Beryl across the globe, and made sure Scourge had no idea where it was, unfortunately for them, he had a stash in his throne.

What actually is "Anarchy" on Moebius?

Anarchy on Moebius is just like Chaos on Mobius, but to the 2 universes, they're looked at differently. Anarchy and Chaos is the mystical energy that allows both universes to exist, it's the all-encompasing energy of the universe. Everyone has it. Scourge has it, Miles has it, even Boomer has it, you could have that power too. These forces are in everyone, stronger in others, it's more or less every magical ability we see in Sonic, for Example, Shadows abilities are Chaos, he has them from his strong connection to the Chaos Force. Same all goes for Moebius, Anarchy and Chaos are the same, just named differently.

Wrap up

Whelp. That's my take on Anarchy Beryl, what did you think? Is it an improvement? Is it a downgrade? What about design wise, do you prefer the official or my designs?

Honestly, I kinda wish we saw it more (wow shocker), but in all seriousness I think it did deserve more time to shine. I'd of loved to see how it was different to Chaos Emeralds, I'd of loved to see how a Mobian reacts to it, stuff like that! The idea of an Anti/opposite Chaos Emerald is neat in my opinion, but like most of Moebius, it was underused and then the lawsuit happened, causing it to be forgotten.

But anyway, thanks for reading! This took me abit, soooo I hope you liked it! Ima leave you with some extra notes now, bye!

═════════•°•📝•°•═════════

Extras

-Anarchy Beryl is found in clusters.

-Mobians can use it, but it is far weaker on them then it is on Moebians.

-Before the Suppression Squad, Anarchy Beryl was Moebius' most precious Gem.

-The Monarchy Beryl's existence is more of a legend than a fact.

-Sonic Universe's 25 years later "Light Mobius" References an "Anarchy Beryl bomb" located under Castle Mobius.

-It was Referenced in the Sonic Forces tie-in comic, but that actually turned out to just be a coincidence.

-All Anarchy Beryl art was drawn by me

[silma-words]

Another prompt for Adrian and MC...

Number 5 / "say please"

not sure how you want to take this one, but I thought the smut could be next level... have fun! 😂

N/A: Omg I cannot thank you enough for this prompt @mssukeyna! This was so much fun, and a great prompt to push me a little out of my comfort zone! I literally woke up 2h earlier every day so that I could write more before work ;) I hope you’ll like it!

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Choices: Bloodbound

Pairing: Adrian Raines x MC (Ellie)

Rating: Explicit (NSFW, 18+)

Genre: Smut.Smut.Smut

AU Chronology: Bloodbound AU (after book 1 – the events of book 2 never happened) – ‘Inevitable - Arc I: Before we part’ (Masterlist)

Summary: “We are travelling for business, Ellie, we’ll have to behave like professionals”, he had warned her, although he did not look so convinced about it himself….

Inspired by the following nsfw-prompts: #5. for sex in public / “say please”

Words: 4200

**Disclaimer: Characters and background plot are the property of Pixelberry.**

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Down to business (Part I?)

Getting to travel was one of the perks Ellie enjoyed the most about her job as the CEO’s personal assistant. She never really had any opportunity to get out of her small town before she moved to NYC, and had always been of a curious nature. This job was a dream come true on that matter. But some trips were better than others. The ones that revolved around business negotiations, although exciting in their own ways, were not her favourites. By far, the ones she preferred were the ones that were meant for networking, for Adrian to maintain his relationships with previous business partners. There had not been many of those since she had started working at Raines Corp. but she loved those very much. These business trips revolved mostly around socializing. And socializing was one of her strengths.

But the reason she liked these trips the most was not because of the fancy dinner parties, the pricey hotels, or the designer dresses she got to wear to play the part. No. What she liked the most were the times she could have to herself in between social events, to explore around and satiate her curiosity about ‘the rest of the world’, and the times when she could get Adrian all to herself. He was more relaxed during these trips. More light hearted. More playful. As well as more tuned to her cues than when they were travelling for more serious business. And that, she loved to play around with. A lot.

Adrian was always doing his best to keep up the façade of the boss-assistant interactions between them when they were in public. And she completely understood why. Truly. But that was also so tempting for her to do her best to weave her way through that invisible barrier he was tentatively setting between them.

She would brush his fingers when he would hand her a drink. Sneak a hand up his thigh under the table at dinner. Fiddle with her long strands of hair to attract his attention to her neckline. Oh, his poker face was good. Spot on. Decades of practice truly paying off. But whenever she played her cards well, she could see that façade slowly crumble down. His cheeks slightly changing colour as she would whisper sweet - well maybe not so sweet - nothings to his ear. His Adam’s apple moving slightly at the sight of her legs shifting as she would change position on her seat, her skin exposed through the slit of her dress. His speech suddenly stammering slightly as she would slowly caress the inside of his calf with her foot, whenever she had been sitting across from him at dinner and had felt bold enough to risk reaching blindly under the cover of the table cloth.

She always made sure to keep her face composed so that the other guests would not notice how Adrian’s reactions were directly connected to her. But she would also cast him a challenging look as soon as the moment had passed, to make it perfectly clear that the game was on. And never once had she received back any kind of response that would indicate that Adrian was not on board with this. He might play the game by pretending that this behaviour was totally unprofessional, but they both knew that Adrian had never been anyone who cared much about the rules.

This time, their ‘socialising trip’ had led them further from home than ever before. Ellie was finally given the chance to fly out of the country and get a glimpse at Europe, with their first stops leaving her in awe at the wonders of the Italian countryside where they had stayed for five days to catch up with a couple of Adrian’s old ‘friends’ who had chosen to retire there. She did enjoy the socializing parts way more than she had anticipated: who would have dared to complain about the exquisite cuisine, the tours of the vineyards, the breath-taking views over lakes and mountains, and the luxurious guestrooms they could discreetly retreat to when the schmoozing was getting boring and the yearning had become too much.

The last part of their ten-days trip had also reached beyond of her expectations: she had always dreamt of discovering France, and although their journey would not grant her her secret wish of seeing Paris, she found out that the luxurious hills and valleys of the South-West of France were as equally magnificent as what she had seen so far over the last few days. There was so much history around, old medieval castles and ancient caves that she wished she could explore, that her curiosity and excitement seemed to be only matched by Adrian’s nerdy enthusiasm. European history was not necessarily his strongest suit, but he did know quite a few things about it, and gladly shared with her his knowledge about the places they travelled through. His expertise on French wines was definitely spot on though. And kind of sexy too.

Their guest was – unsurprisingly – a wealthy investor who had inherited a prosperous estate from his great-grandfather who was, originally, the business partner Adrian had been trading with at the beginning of the twentieth-century. Pretending to be his own descendant was apparently something Adrian was quite used to. Even though their current host – Emile – was pretty obnoxious.

They dined, visited local investors, attended a couple of art exhibitions grand opening nights. And indulged on wine, local delicacies, and smouldering gazes in between polite handshakes and casual conversations. Ellie’s French was not really up to the challenge when other guests could not speak English, but luckily Adrian was doing quite well in that department – another sexy trait to add to that very long list that Ellie kept filling up in her head.

That night, their host had been planning a special treat for his guests – Adrian and Ellie among a larger group of about thirty: a tour of his private ‘art collection’, followed by a fancy garden-party on his estate. Ellie had been looking forward to it, until the tour had started and she had realised that most of these ‘pieces of art’ were actually ancient remains that Emile had bought from lucky ‘discoverers’ around the world and snatched from the hands of archaeologists and museums to fill up his own little private gallery. As the tour was going on, she kept grumbling by Adrian’s side, drawing the attention of a few other guests that were marvelling at these stolen relics and obviously did not care much about how these had been acquired. As the group proceeded to move on to the next room, Adrian discreetly motioned her to move aside and slow her pace, grinning at her once they had managed to place themselves at the tail of the touring group.

“I know this is grating you, but this is quite a common thing these days – there is no point sulking about it now while there is not much we can do about it”.

“You’re the one to talk, ‘Mr-I-glare-at-that-old-British-dude-for-buying-an-original-John Trumbull-canvas-to-decorate-his-guestroom’!”, she retorted challengingly. “These objects are as important to historians as those Revolutionary War paintings you keep talking about. They shouldn’t be kept in here only to be displayed once a year to a bunch of rich morons who care more about how much he paid for it than about what these objects were”.

“I know, I know…” Adrian admitted with a sight, raising his hands in surrender. “But as I said, there is not much we can do about it now. Let try to survive through this tour and enjoy the night.”

Rolling her eyes, Ellie let out an annoyed sight and finally nodded, her tensed shoulders still betraying her frustration.

The tour proceeded, Adrian and Ellie sharing eye rolls and annoyed looks every time Emile would brag about the price of a unique item. They always kept behind when they could, making a point of looking at some of the glass panels in detail to at least try to learn a little something out of this display of wealth. But that revealed to be a nearly impossible endeavour. There was barely any labels or information attached to these objects whatsoever. Nothing there to keep them distracted from that never ending tour. Well. Apart from each other.

It started with just the tingle of his breath in her neck as he was hovering above her to look at an old grease-lamp from some ancient cave. And then continued as she would casually hook her arm through his while staring at the antic statue of a Roman god. And a brush of his fingers down her spine as he stood behind her pretending to listen to Emile’s dull blabber. Her hand sneaking along the side of his thigh as they followed the group around. The light pressure of his hand on her lower back as he led her to move past him into yet another room.

Pretending to pay attention to their host was increasingly difficult. Preventing their faces from betraying their very unprofessional thoughts even more so.

“I know I have said this before but…”, Adrian whispered in her ear, a playful smile forming on his lips, “I love that little tempter of yours… it makes me feel… a lot of things”.

He could hear Ellie’s heartbeat race in her chest at his words, even though she was keeping her eyes trained on the display panel before them, doing her best to keep her composure while the predatory tone in his voice was making her knees tremble slightly. The other guests were buzzing around them, pointing at glass display cases here and architectural features there, oblivious to the heat surrounding the two secret lovers as if the bubble Adrian and Ellie had formed around them had turned them into two of those trinkets exposed around the room that nobody was truly paying attention to.

Trying to break through the thick air that had been lingering between them, Ellie shifted on her heels to follow the flock of people that were regrouping to move along, casting a knowing smile at Adrian, and holding his gaze for a few seconds before walking away.

But before she could turn left into the next corridor, she felt his arm wrap around her middle, only to swiftly whoosh her aside to a secluded corner of the room, out of sight from the rest of the group thanks to one of the strong pillars that supported the roof of the exhibition room. A gasp escaped her lips as he sprung her around, pressing her back against the cold marble as he eagerly captured her lips in a searing kiss, his hands pressed against her neck, and his torso edging closer to her chest as she was gradually yielding to his powerful embrace.

Trailing her fingers up his neck until they reached his hair, she eventually gave a gentle tug so that she could make a break for air, their lips just a few inches apart as she teased, breathless: “I thought we had to keep our public appearances strictly professional, Mr Raines?”

She felt his grin against her mouth more than she could see it. “Well, what we are doing now is purely professional, Miss Reed. If there was anyone left around to see us, I’d just explain how I was telling all about...” he paused to nibble at her lower lip for a few seconds, “... about the sturdiness of these eighteenth-century pillars...”.

“Eighteenth century, han?” she giggled against his lips, her voice catching in her throat to form a silent moan as Adrian’s mouth began to trail down her chin to follow her jawline.

Her mind struggling between the will to keep her eyes open to check that no one was in sight, and the tantalizing swirls of his tongue against the skin beneath her ear, the shivers that were running down her spine quickly sorted that battle for her. She let her eyelids drop and her head fall back to rest against the stone behind her, focusing only on Adrian’s touch and on the way his hands had now started to drift from her neck to her shoulders, inching lower and lower as his mouth tasted the salt of the skin down her neck and along her collarbone.

Her hands unconsciously travelling from his hair to his back, they suddenly grabbed his shoulders a little tighter to press him closer as she felt him reach for the fabric of her dress to bunch the black silk over her hips. It took all of her will to remain silent when Adrian wedged his knee between her legs, her lips tightening in a thin line to repress a whimper as his fingers trailed down one of her thigh to her knee so he could lift her leg up against his hip, pressing himself forward to conquer the empty space between them.

She could feel his grin against her windpipes when her hips started to grind against his of their own accord, the tight grip of his fingers against her rear sending waves of heat down to where their bodies met.

“I think one of us should keep an eye on that corridor, in case anyone is sent out to look for us” he whispered against her skin, before lifting his gaze back to her, his golden eyes glimmering with mischief. “Would that be a mission you’d be happy to take on, Miss Reed?”

“Of course” she manages to answer, her voice croaking from anticipation.

“Good.” he grins. “Then, you’ll have to face the other way…”

She barely had time to register what he meant before she felt the heat of his body replace the cold marble that had been pressing against her back. She instinctively reached forward to place her palms on the pillar as Adrian resumed his pressing touches eagerly, one arm wrapped around her chest to keep her close, and the other finding its way between her thighs.  

She could peek at the corridor ahead of them from where they stood, most of their bodies hidden by the imposing column that seemed to edge closer and closer to her as Adrian’s touch became more insistent. But being able to see ahead did not mean that she was actually looking. Even if she had wanted to fulfil her ‘mission’, the pressure of his left palm against her thigh and the hand that slipped under the fabric of her cleavage made it near impossible to focus on the task. The soft bites and kisses her neck were subjected to were not helping either.

Not being able to see or touch him was like torture, his quiet groans vibrating from his chest to her ribs, and his arousal pressing firmly against her back like a wicked promise that was for now beyond reach. Her back arched involuntarily when a firm hand grabbed her breast, his warm breath beneath her ear betraying his grin as the fingers on her thigh started to wander towards the edge of her underwear, playing with the seam of the lace before sneaking underneath with a deliberate slowness that had her whimper behind her tightened lips.

The light graze of his fingertips against her swollen nerves was all that was needed to weaken all muscles in her body, making both of them dangerously tumble forward as her arms gave in, removing the only leverage she had against Adrian’s pressure in her back, which had been keeping her so far from being flushed against the cold marble with no room to escape the sweet torment of his heated caresses.

Even though her eyes were now shut, she knew that Adrian was watching closely her features when she let her head fall back to rest in his shoulder, her brain going into overdrive when his touch became more pressing, kneading her breast and drawing lazy circles against her centre relentlessly. It was not long before she lost the last bit of control she had left over her own body, her lips parting slightly to let a moan escape, quickly muffled by Adrian’s mouth covering hers in an attempt to preserve the silence around them.

That might have worked perfectly, if only he had been able to kiss her with more restraint. Instead, his tongue had quickly found its way through her parted lips, brushing hers in patterns mirroring the movement of his fingertips between her legs, swallowing her whines as if he could taste her own pleasure through the ragged sounds that he was drawing out of her.

She was itching to touch him. One of her hands had left the cold surface of the pillar to find its way to his head and tangle in his hair, her entire body squirming against his to seek the friction that she was craving for. She knew he was trying to make her lose her mind. And it was working. She could feel his fingers slide gradually further down against her core, dipping into the wetness of her folds before retreating back, drawing growl after growl each time.

She could tell Adrian was relishing this by the way the corners of his mouth curled against hers. It was only when he suddenly pulled away from her swollen lips that she finally opened her eyes again, the lust and wickedness of his gaze sending a shiver all the way down to her toes. He had stopped moving, simply holding her petite form against his chest as tight as deemed possible, his golden eyes anchored to hers with an unmistakable gleam of challenge and promise.

“Adrian…” she mumbled feebly, desperately trying to grind against him but unable to resist his hold on her.

He smiled, remaining silent for a few seconds, before finally breaking the stillness with a low, husky voice, in a tone that was somehow both inviting and commanding: “Say please”.

There was no hesitation in her response, no control, her rasped voice echoing around the room as she begged, breathless: “Adrian, pleeeaaase…”

Thankfully, he did not make her say it again, barely waiting a few seconds before plugging a finger into her dampened slit, followed nearly immediately by a second, resuming his circular patterns over her swollen clit with the pad of his thumb. Withdrawing and dipping back into her with maddening slowness, she could feel her muscles clench around his fingers and her knees start to quiver as the pleasure was slowly building in.

Her dilated pupils could not tear away from his golden eyes, silently begging for more as he increased his pace, his hips grinding voraciously against her back, his mouth inches from hers as if resisting the urge to kiss her so that he could revel in the sweet music of her feverish whines echoing around them.

“Adrian… this is… so…” she tried to mutter between her gasps.

Adrian’s eyes flashed with a voracious gleam as he purred against her lips with a proud smirk, “so… good?”.

Her lips pursed weakly to form a teasing grin. “So… unprofessional”.

His smirk only widened further at her words, his hands suddenly moving away from her burning skin to grip her hips, making her head jerk up from his shoulder in surprise. She was about to complain when he swiftly swirled her body around and crashed his lips onto hers, pushing her back against the pillar, the contrast between the cold marble and the heat of her skin making her jump a little in his grasp.

It was not long before Adrian’s hands had found their way back beneath her dress, his fingers reaching hurriedly for the hem of her thong as his mouth started to descend from her mouth to her chin, roaming over her neck and her collarbone, until he sunk to his knees before her, skipping the parts of her that were covered by fabric to head straight for the space right below her navel. Dragging her underwear down her legs, he only broke the contact between his warm lips and her skin so that he could guide the lace over her heels, quickly shoving the fabric in his pocket before capturing her pulsing nub between his lips, not wasting any minute before expertly starting to explore her aching core, nibbling and suckling with an unmatched dedication.

Her hands were roaming all over his head, tangling her fingers in his hair and pushing her hips forward to demand more, her lower lip caught between her teeth to repress the urge to cry out with every stroke of his tongue, or every time the deft fingers that were slithering up and down her inner thigh came close enough to tease her entrance before retreating back wickedly. As much as part of her wanted to pull him back up to his feet and beg him to take her now, the other part could not even fathom the idea of making him stop his godly work between her legs.

There was no more coherent thought going through her fogged brain. Fragmentary visions of heated memories and unspoken fantasies were flashing before her eyes, mingling with the rousing sight of Adrian down on his knees before her, tasting her fervently in every way that she had ever dreamt of being tasted.

When she felt the intoxicating warmth of his mouth suddenly leave her centre, her mind unconsciously thanked him for ending this sweet torture, expecting the yearning in her core to be satiated soon enough when she would finally get to feel him inside her.

But that sweet release never came.

It took her a few seconds to realise that Adrian had jerked back up to his feet and hurriedly pulled down the fabric of her dress, unceremoniously grabbing Ellie’s waist to move her away from their hiding spot, releasing his grip once she was standing beside him in front of one of the display cases, their back turned away from the corridor.

She had to grip the edge of the display case to keep herself steady, her knees still trembling from Adrian’s handywork just a few seconds before, her eyes opening and closing at a maddening pace to try to clear her clouded brain and regain her senses. It was only when she heard the distinct sound of a pair of heels echoing towards them that she finally understood.

“Monsieur Raines?”, they heard a woman’s voice call out at a distance.

Adrian’s cheeks were flushed, and his hair completely tousled, but he made a quick work of fixing it as well as fixing his shirt with a smirk, mastering the art of regaining his composure in a flick of an eye, like the annoyingly perfect businessman that he was. Ellie fumbled around in an attempt to do the same, fully aware that she would never be able to be as efficient as Adrian, especially in the state of desperate yearning that he had just put her through. She was still panting, her heart thumping in her chest, pupils dilated and cheeks hot from so much blood rushing to her face, both from arousal and from the embarrassment that she knew was about to come.

Ellie jumped a little when the woman’s voice finally reached the room they were in: “Ah, Monsieur Raines! Je vous ai trouvé! Le buffet va commencer, si vous voulez bien rejoindre les autres invités dans le jardin?”.

Ellie had no clue what the woman had just said, and was in no shape to turn around and let the woman see the state of her. She was so grateful that Adrian knew exactly what to say and how to behave casually to buy her a few more minutes to sort out the mess he had made of her… although hearing him speak French was not helping much getting her arousal under control, as he politely answered the woman: “Merci, nous vous rejoignons dans quelques instants.”.

Ellie sighted with relief when she heard the woman’s footsteps retreat, turning around to face him, glaring at him with her best attempt at a reproachful scowl.

“That was….” she started, before being interrupted by Adrian’s mouth on hers, as he pressed a soft kiss on her swollen lips, before pulling away slowly with a grin.

“… unprofessional?” he teased, earning a falsely unamused eye-roll in return.

“We better get going, the party is starting, and all of the other guests are gathered in the gardens now” he announced, translating what the woman had said, but not releasing Ellie from his embrace just yet.

“I am in no state for socialising now” she admitted with a grimace, although she could not fight the teasing grin that was starting to form on her face. “I will never be able to focus properly after this… all I will be thinking about is sorting out this… hum, unfinished business…”

Adrian’s hold tightened a little more around her waist at her words, his eyes still gleaming with mischief and never leaving hers when he stepped slowly away, grabbing her hand to start dragging them both away from the room.

His voice was husky and full of promise when he casually answered with a teasing smile: “Well… unfortunately, we’ll have to play along a little bit longer I’m afraid… but I will certainly be looking forward all evening to the second part of this… unfinished business…”.

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N/A: If anyone else is as eager as Adrian to see how ‘Part II’ of their little ‘public indiscretions’ is going to play out, let me know, and I’d be happy to oblige 😉 This prompt has inspired me way too much, thank you so much for the ask @mssukeyna 😉

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Tagging @adriansbiss , @itsjustwinter , @shanzay44 , @purvishraick, @thefrenchiemama

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