#no i didn’t forget the orb this is post act 3

[a-hydraulic]

valentines or something

[lucius-the-sinful]

Galethor as a Companion (Part 1)

original post >> here <<

Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

General:

1: Where can your Tav be recruited?  Are they first encountered on the Nautiloid, or in the Nautiloid crash region?  Or are they not recruitable until a later act?

Galethor is among the tieflings in their camp. You find him near Kannon’s grave, where he is acting very suspicious. You will get this dialogue:

(Perception check, if successful) You notice dirt on the tieflings hands, he was digging.

Galethor: You killed the goblins at the gate? Impressive. I'm Galethor, but you can call me Gale.

No thanks to you. But I see you already got your hands full.

Thank you, although we could have used your help. 

(both options lead to an insight check, if successful) You realize he might be hiding something. 

Galethor: You seemed to have it handled. How about we move along and you forget you saw me over here, sound good? 

Its disrespectful to be digging around a fresh grave. Maybe we should have a chat with Zevlor about this? (Intimidate, DC 15)

I can overlook it, but you owe me. (Persuade, DC 20)

Thieves deserve a swift end. (Attack)

Not sure what you’re talking about. 

Successful charisma checks lead to:

Galethor: Alright, alright. No need for conflict. I didn’t actually take anything, I swear.

Unsuccessful charisma check:

(if you are not a tiefling) Galethor: Ha, like Zevlor would believe that from someone like you. (if you are a tiefling) Galethor: I doubt he would believe you, even if you are one of us. (4th option) Galethor: Nevermind, then. 

Either way, this leads to the tadpoles finally connecting: You see a warmly lit ballroom, full of guests in overly expensive attire. You recognize some of them as the elites of Baldur’s Gate and their cohorts. You are leaving the event with a hand through someone’s elbow, but a shadow is looming over you. The Nautiloid.

2: Do the other companions have special comments or reactions upon recruiting your Tav?

Gale: Another one named Gale. I suppose as long as he keeps his hands to himself and doesn't refer to me as “Human Gale”, he could prove rather useful if he is magically inclined.

Astarion: Great, we’re travelling with a bard now. I hope he is at least decent with that violin. 

Lae’zel: Chk, we should dispose of Galethor. He will do nothing but draw the wrong attention with that pitiful instrument.

3: Does your Tav have any comments or advice when you recruit other companions?

Wyll: I feel like I need to watch myself around Wyll, for better or for worse. 

Gale: Human Gale getting himself trapped in his own magic seems a bit counterintuitive. I hope he doesn’t blow us all to hells by accident, either. (Note: perhaps a bit of ironic foreshadowing to the netherese orb, lol)

Astarion: I wouldn’t worry too much about Astarion, he seems to be all bark and no bite. (the player can comment on how Gale might just be projecting here)

4: What sort of general actions raise or lower their approval?

Gale approves of lying, stealing, or killing in most situations as long as you or the group isn't caught. He approves of most antagonizing/funny options. 

He is neutral towards side objectives, such as helping the tieflings/exposing Kagha. As a side note, however, he will open up quicker if the player helps the tieflings over killing them. 

He disapproves of outright charity, or being told what to do or how to feel. He disapproves of finding a cure for the tadpole. 

5: Are there any instances where your Tav can permanently leave the party, depending on player character actions?

There may be a few instances in his personal quests, but not during the main story.

6: Do they have any secrets that can be revealed?  What are the prerequisites for this secret coming to light?

After being recruited, Gale can be asked about what the player saw when the tadpoles connected. He will respond: 

Galethor: Oh, that? I wouldn’t worry too much over it. I doubt anyone will come looking for me, afterall I was just visiting Baldur’s Gate. I’m from Calimport. Really, I’m not that interesting.

(The player makes a knowledge check here; if they fail the conversation ends, if they pass) You know of many famous bards from Calimport, none by the name of Galethor Elvun. You do, however, recall a tiefling lord by the name of Abrildin Cerez Elvun. 

I’m not so certain. It can’t be a coincidence you share a name with a Calimport lord, right? 

Galethor: I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Calimport is one of the largest cities in Faerun. 

(The player makes an insight check; if they fail, the conversation ends. If they pass:)

If you keep lying to me, I’ll cut that pretty tongue out. (Intimidate, loses approval, DC 20)

If you want me to trust you, I need you to stop lying. (Persuasion, DC 15)

You obviously have something to hide, but I won’t push it. (Leave, gains approval).

On a successful charisma check:

Galethor: Fine, since you won’t let this go. Abrildin is my father, but not one I’d like to see again. I’d appreciate it if you kept this between us.

This secret will otherwise be revealed after the tiefling/goblin party if his approval is high enough.

[ah-ga-seven]

No More Pain | Jung Jaehyun

Pairing: Jung Jaehyun x Fem!reader 

Synopsis: The lingering wounds of your miscarriage have reopened. Now that you are broken up, an unforseen change in Jaehyun’s life has brought him back to your doorstep. Will he be able to fix you this time? Or will he fail just the same as before?

Genre: Angst, One Shot. 

Warnings: mentions of the reader having a miscarriage, depression, alcohol addiction and heartbreak.

Word Count: 2.8k

A/N: Probably one of the heaviest angsts I’ve written. I know the subject is rough but the idea came from a dream so I just had to write it down.

This was a different kind of pang to your heart.

You’ve had your fair share of tragedies, heartbreaks and disappointments, but this…

This feeling was nothing like anything you’ve ever felt before and quite frankly, you wouldn’t wish this upon your greatest enemy.  

It was a Thursday night, one like many where you decided to stay in and recharge from a busy day at your demanding job.

You were seated on your couch with a hot cup of tea as you mindlessly scrolled through your Instagram feed. Completely wrapped in the warmth of your favorite fleece blanket. But even the thick fluffy material couldn’t protect you from the cold shivers that ran down your spine.

You blankly stare at the post your best friend forwarded to you via dm and stiffened.  

Memories of the night you miscarried 4 months into your pregnancy flood back to you as you stare at his comment.

You remembered how broken he looked when the doctor couldn’t find the baby's heartbeat anymore.  

You remembered how he held you as you cried in his arms, promising that he’d love you just the same as he tried to console you to his best ability while suffering himself.

You remembered the pain and the relief of having Jaehyun by your side through it all. Glad that even though your life was about to change forever, he’d be the one constant thing you could rely on.

You remembered all of these moments like they happened yesterday, wishing future you could mentally prepare past you for what was going to be the hardest time in your life.  

The man who swore never to leave you did just that, and not even 6 months into his new relationship, your biggest insecurity was made into a reality.  

He had moved on for good, and even though you have no ill feelings towards him, you can’t help but feel anger over sadness right now.  

It was that easy to replace you. And that easy for him to find someone that could give him what you couldn’t.

Even though your miscarriage wasn’t the direct cause of why he left, the effects of the incidence on your mental health dragged him down with you. So both of you felt it’d be better to part ways for the sake of not wanting to hate or resent each other in the end.  

But God…you hated and resented him now more than ever.  

It didn’t matter to you that both of you started to date new people, because a part of you always held on to the fact that you’d somehow find your way back to each other, though the probability of that ever happening again turned to ash.

Your miscarriage broke you.  

No appetite for weeks, no motivation to get yourself out of bed and no cure for the monsters in your head who told you that Jaehyun was only sticking around out of pity for your broken state.

That same insecurity is what drove him into the arms of the women he told you not to worry about, and now they’re having a fucking child together.  

Knowing that that should’ve been you was a thought that was just too much to bear right now. You suddenly feel sick to your stomach, tears prickling your eyes as you rub the spot on your belly where the mini bump used to be 8 months ago.

You were finally doing better, thriving in your job and social life. Meeting new people and dating a few loose ends here and there, but you can already feel yourself spiraling back into old depressional habits as you stare at the picture once more.  

You pettily decide to like it, hoping it would spark interest from none other than your ex, and much to your surprise, it did.

Not even 20 minutes later your phone started to buzz on the counter as you poured yourself a glass of wine. You mindlessly retrieve it, expecting it to be your best friend but when you see his name as you take a sip you almost choke.

Is he serious?

You try to come up with what to say for the next 3 to 5 minutes but nothing in your head seems to translate your exact feelings to your fingertips.

You sigh in agony while leaning over on your kitchen counter with your phone still in your hands, reading his messages over and over again. You subconsciously start to bite your lip in deep thought, getting startled by your ringtone as your phone starts to ring in your grasp.

“Fuck,” you mumble to yourself, taking a big chug of the alcoholic beverage in front of you, putting on the bravest face and straightest posture to make yourself feel better before accepting the call.  

You knew you didn’t have to answer, but you were dying to hear what he had to say under these circumstances.  

“Y/N? Is that you?” His voice was unchanged. You didn’t know why, but you expected him to sound different, be different. Yet the same worry he’s always had for you was evident in his tone this time as well.

You clear your throat to avoid a voice crack and sigh. “Congratulations,” you tried to sound as genuine as you could, but you knew you sounded like shit.  

You start to play with the ends of your hair out of anxious anticipation, waiting for him to respond on the other end of the line.  

“I meant to tell you,” he starts. “I just…I didn’t know how and Chaeyoung suddenly uploaded the picture and-”

“Jae…please spare me the details,” you interrupt him. Saying his name like you used to felt like speaking a foreign language. He stayed quiet upon hearing your voice again and let out a frustrated sigh.

“Do you still live in the same apartment in Itaewon?” he suddenly asks, immediately alerting you to stand up straight because he could only be asking for one reason and one reason only.

“Y-yes.”

“Good, I’m on my way.”

Just like that, he hung up and just like that your heart rate starts to race uncontrollably.  

You down the remnants of your wine glass and hope he’s isn’t too close because your place looked far from neat. For the next 15 minutes, you run around, shoving things into random cabinets. Whether those items belonged there or not was the least of your concern and just as you fluff the last pillow on your couch, your doorbell rings.

You take a deep breath, calming your nerves as you walk up to your front door, taking it off the lock before you open it with a dramatic swing.

There he was. Jung Jaehyun.

As beautiful and put together as he always looked, no matter the circumstance. You forget how to breathe when you lay eyes on him and gulp. It’s actually him.

His big dark orbs widened as he laid eyes on you after months of not seeing you. His facial expression softened, slowly parting his lips to speak but you beat him to it when you broke out of your trance.  

“What are you doing here?” your shoulders fall as you look into his eyes for answers. The same eyes that once looked at you with so much love and adoration, but right now his pupils were stressfully darting back and forth, trying to read you like he used to be able to but he had no idea what you were feeling right now.

“Because I feel like shit y/n. Please let me in and let me explain,” he pleaded with a defeated tone.

You scoff, rolling your eyes. “What is there to explain? You knocked up your girlfriend and finally got what you wanted. Why bother coming here? To rub it into my face?”  

Your plan of staying calm and collected went completely out the window just now and you could tell by the shock on his face that he did not expect you to be angry with him.

He took a step forward, backing you into your own hallway. His height towered over you when you stepped back and without looking back he closed the door behind him.

“Y/n. I would never purposely do that to you. Ever.” You ignore his statement, narrowing your eyes at him.

“I don’t remember inviting you in Jaehyun. Does she even know you’re here?”

You hold your ground, crossing your arms over your chest as you wait for him to counter your attack, but he simply shook his head. Knowing damn well that you’re acting tough just so you won’t get emotional.  

As he’s scanning the premises, his eyes linger on the red wine bottle on your kitchen counter and with a look of utter disbelief, he averts his attention back on you.

“You’re drinking again?” he asks with an almost condescending tone.  

“Did you come here to practice your parenting skills because no thanks Jae, please leave,” you bite back as coldly as you could, but he wasn’t having it.

“That shit almost killed you and you’re just casually drinking again?” He runs his hand through his locks out of pure frustration, not knowing what to do with the misplaced feeling of still caring for you just the same, while also knowing he has no business to tell you how to live your life.

The truth is, Jaehyun had no idea what he was doing here. Everything about the situation felt wrong and he couldn’t lie to himself any longer. Ever since Chaeyoung told him she was pregnant; he couldn’t be fully happy about it. He couldn’t commit to fatherhood knowing how much it broke your relationship. How much it broke the women he loved most to this day.

“A little red wine didn’t hurt anyone,” you mumble under your breath and that comment alone send Jaehyun’s emotions into overdrive, unable to hide his disappointment and worry for you any longer.

“IT HURT YOU Y/N. DAMN IT!” He raised his voice at you as he roughly grabbed your arm to make you look at him, which is the last thing you expected. He wasn’t mad at you. He was mad at himself. Mad at the fact that he wasn’t there when you needed him most and mad at the fact that this is what your lives had come to.

You might have previously dealt with your pain by drinking, and you might have mindlessly mixed your anti-depressants with your drink once, which…just might have earned you a trip to the hospital, but that was your lowest low and you made sure it’d never happen again.

You beat your demons by yourself when he had already moved on, so he had no place to waltz back into your life when he felt like it, just to judge you.

You’re absolutely fuming by now because of that same reason and much to your dismay you feel new tears well up in your eyes.  

“NO, YOU HURT ME!” you yell back at him as you smack his chest, the salty droplets streaming down your face as you kept hitting his chest to make him feel your pain. “YOU LEFT ME.”

Your knees got weak and you knew you looked absolutely pathetic as you crouched down in front of him. Shock took over his features as he got down on his own knees just as quickly, pulling you into the comfort of his arms. The warmth that you used to call home and the warmth that always seemed to calm you down engulfed you completely, a feeling your favorite fleece blanket from before could hardly imitate.  

He patted your head with assuring strokes, whispering sweet nothings to you as he held you on the floor of your apartment. Letting you sob the pain away in his black shirt. “Shhh, it’s okay…” he kissed the top of your head, caressing your cheek as he wiped away your tears.

You calmed down slowly, ignoring the suffocating ache in your head and heart while he made you feel safe and sound like he always did. You sat there like that for God knows how long, letting your minds go into overdrive as silence comforted the both of you.  

Ironically enough, this scenery was the exact same as the one in the hospital 8 months ago. You cried in his arms just like this when you had lost your child, but now you were crying because you had lost him. For good now.  

“I would never purposely plan to have a baby this quickly y/n, you have to believe me. Chae was on birth control but it just…happened,” he whispers, finally breaking the agonizing silence.

You stay quiet, closing your eyes to the sound of his low voice, letting his words register. “I was going to tell you. I was planning to ask you out for a coffee but as soon as she passed her first trimester, she was just so excited and made the announcement…it was just bad timing.”

“All of this is bad timing,” you mumble, which made him nod in agreement. He sighed into your hair as he continued to explain. “Y/n, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care for you anymore. I wish things were different, but they simply aren’t and I’m sorry.”

You sniff, dabbing your tears and your nose with the sleeves of your blouse before looking up at him through your lashes.

“You don’t have to apologize for moving on and being happy Jaehyun. It’s all I ever wanted for you.” You wipe the single tear that remained on the corner of his eye, not having realized that he shed a few tears himself too.

He leaned into your touch as he looked into your eyes before closing them, leaning his forehead onto yours while taking a deep breath.  

“I just want you to be ok.” He says suppressing a sob. “I can’t live this picture-perfect life knowing that you’re in pain y/n. It makes no sense; you deserve so much more it’s not fair.”  

Your lip starts to quiver as his words hit you, and you build up the courage to look at him again.  

He stared at you longingly and lovingly for the first time since forever and you knew a mistake was about to be made when he inched his face closer to you, but it was too late.

His lips made contact with yours and you completely gave in. Letting him lead you into a slow yet passionate kiss that took both of your breaths away.  Before things could get more heated, you realize what was happening and froze.

You take a hold of his wrists as you pull away, your eyes staring into his equally electrified ones as you recompose yourselves.

“I-I’m sorry,” he started. “I should’ve never confused you like that. Fuck. What the fuck am I doing.” He covers his mouth as he got up. Frustrated with his own behavior, he digs his fingernails into the palms of his hands to suppress the urge to swing at your door or any other object in sight for that matter.

You get up just as quickly as well. Straightening out your clothes before shaking off the nerves of what just happened.  

You take a deep breath followed by a shaky exhale as you opened your front door, turning around on your heels to look at an equally distressed Jaehyun.

He was about to speak; about to confess that he still loved you, but you stopped him by raising your hand, motioning for him to keep whatever he was about to say to himself.

Your eyes find his own and you take one last glance at the man that was supposed to be the pillar to your family. The man you used to call yours, and the man that you had hoped to still have a future with, despite everything.  

But you knew better.

You knew what was right and you knew what you had to do before things would start to spiral out of control again.

You stepped aside so he could pass by you, trying to avoid eye contact all while you could still feel his burning stare lingering on your fragile state.

You swallow harshly, licking your lips before you spoke as clearly and steadily as you could.

“For the sake of your family, please leave Jae…and never come back.”  

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Pharaoh’s Cool New Trick

Digging my way through quite a pile of commission work (funny how these things only come all at once or not at all), nearing the light at the end of the tunnel, was looking forward to some free time to catch up on my many little side projects when I was asked to take off for a weekend to do some cat-sitting to which I would NEVER say no to a cat, so like...Rip this blog I guess, we only update like once a week nowadays, but what do you do?

That’s right, play Puzzles and Dragons! The only phone game worth paying any attention to! Where they just released Pegasus on their Yugioh Collab and he looks pretty great!

So I’m just gonna take a second for some art appreciation, because the Puzzles and Dragons art team is just A++++ honestly, and yes, I did pull 13 times to get a Pegasus in my monster box, and yes, he is a completely insane team leader that is absolutely broken when paired with Yugi (the numbers are so satisfying) but...look at him. He looks so good!

(also I finally got Joey Wheeler, and so now my gatcha cravings are settled. And, don’t worry, I play this game so much that I was there during Christmas when they offered like a bajillion stones for free so I didn’t actually use real money on this.)

Now PAD also released a Weevil and Rex, and I don’t know why, and neither does the art team because they still look pretty good but in comparison to all the mains, they sure do looks like just some shorty guys in some casuals.

though I gotta admit, I want to learn how the hell this art team does swooshy effects, because man, that would make my art so much better to just have flames violently exploding out of all my art. Why am I not doing that more often? I have the technology.

anyway, I didn’t bother trying to pull them. Maybe I’ll accidentally pull them when they eventually release a Duke Devlin. (also, RIP to the fact that Roland will probably never be in Puzzles and Dragons but like...I can only send them so many polite letters covered in stickers pretending I’m some 10 year old child and writing in my broken Hiragana “Roland in PAD?”. Thems the breaks. (They also might not remember who Roland is.))

Shoutouts to the card that Weevil is holding that is censoring this nipple on the booby spider, PS.

So because this is not actually a Puzzles and Dragons blog, and it’s been ten eons since I regularly updated so I could remember episode to episode...where the hell were we?

That’s right, we’re on an island now. This show’s wonderful obsession with evil islands (and spoiler, this is one of the few Yugioh Islands that doesn’t explode at the end. Mostly because Kaiba isn’t here to do it or this place would be cinder)

(read more island stuff under the cut)

Anyway, after announcing “hey guys! Screw islands!” Yugi immediately collapses and without any warning.

Apparently the armor is a big ol parasite, which is something that Yugi is so used to at this point that he refuses to admit that this is a problem. Just normal Muto stuff, refusing to tell anyone that he has a serious illness going on underneath that giant mass of hair.

(the sailor moon vibes coming off this weird orb energy)

Sort of feels like a call back to S1 when Yugi was clearly possessed and everyone else was like “He acting weird to you?” except it’s S5 and everyone has learned to never trust Yugi when he says he’s fine and they are responding like he is about to die. Which is correct.

Outside of the cave falls this scroll that is...glowing, I guess. So they open it up and get a bunch of hieroglyphs that give them the “riddle of light” and like youknow...it’s riddle stuff.

They’re doing this riddle for “wings.” And it’s like...everyone’s monster here has a set of wings or an ability to fly. Every single monster except for I dunno, flaming swordsman? Hell, Yugi himself had two sets of wings when he fused with Dark Magician (which was weird, and I still don’t like to think about what technically was going on there.) But we have to go and get ourselves even more wings.

Weirdly, Joey turns to Tea and does something that in any other show would be completely normal. He was like “you want to stay here with Yugi, don’t you?” and it was the first time Joey has ever actually addressed the fact that Tea and Yugi are close. Uncharted territory. I was amazed at the amount of casual shipping that is happening here. It’s almost like a normal ass relationship.

So the boys decide to go off, and be boys and tackle this themselves. And they shouldn’t have, because Tea is smart for this group, and also has the only healing spell.

Like if you’re playing D+D you wouldn’t typically leave your only healer behind. Just saying.

Also like...Grandpa Muto went with them? I guess he’d have to since he’s the translator but also...kind of weird to leave your grandson dying in a cave, but maybe that’s just the Muto lifestyle.

Do not be fooled by my caps, no one has addressed the Bakura in the puzzle for 3 seasons. I’m starting to think this show will never address the Bakura in the puzzle. Which honestly, that would be hilarious if they made a big deal out of that plot point and then couldn’t use it in the end.

And speaking of plot points that kind of come out of nowhere and don’t make full sense with the continuity of the show--Joey has regressed back to the 4th grade.

Hey show? What?

So like if you love Joey, this is not the arc for you, because this arc he is reduced to a Himbo and nothing else. Straight up didn’t know what an echo is, but is very strong and pretty, I guess.

This inevitably happens with any TV show becuase different people make different parts, and I’ve brought up before that sometimes it feels like some teams only have loose post-it notes of what any character should be like at any given point (ESPECIALLY with Seto Kaiba’s timeline) but like...

...Personally I’m mot so fond of this interpretation of Joey, kind of ignores Joey’s best traits, and makes Tristan look way too smart in comparison (and like I always pinned Tristan to be the Himbo of the group, but maybe it’s because they give Tristan so little else to do?)

And like don’t get me wrong, Joey’s a dumbass a lot of the time and needs to get corrected by his pals...but...to the point he doesn’t know what an echo is? He’s a dumbass in a High School student sort of way, youknow?

Anyway, they get down to this big ravine, and they have to destroy this stone while the light passes over it. Kind of feels like a Breath of the Wild shrine quest, actually. In fact, I think Breath of the Wild recycled the shadow/sunlight pathing quest like 4 or 5 times. (I love Breath of the Wild to death but boy did they run out of ideas at the end there.)

They have to fight a glass monster and it’s kind of like...do you know the game Balls 3D? probably not, but it looked like a bunch of random shapes stuck together like a 90′s animation. They basically went to war with shapes.

Pure Himbo energy, has several pokemon, but punches for his pokemon instead of using them. A power move if I ever saw one.

Youknow that would make pokemon a lot more interesting if you could like throw out your pikachu, and then choose to just physically run up to your opponents Eevee and sock it in the jaw. Raise of hands--I know you all would love a version of pokemon like that. Let Ash Ketchum punch a Ratata.

Bro has informed me that Ash does do something like this in the anime. But I’m not talking about the anime, I’m talking about the video game. Give me the option to physically combat my rival. This is what I want, Pokemon.

They discover a way to break the monolith, and the show thinks we’re like actually 7 years old (because the show is Y7, although I forget because it deals with so many dark themes) so the show is going to hold on to this puzzle for a while...just to fill time. And it’s fine because we gotta switch over to Pharaoh anyway.

Yami has this dream again. He attempts to fuse with Dark magician to overcome the dream, but alas, he is still not strong enough.

Yugi wakes up in this murky cave while Tea is out washing out like...some rag? (he’s also still got a rag, so I guess multiple rags were required for how sweaty Yugi is.)

Yugi says “I feel like I’m a new man!” a lot in this episode, and every time he calls himself a man like he’s some sort of adult it’s very funny to me.

And then this plot lore dropped.

I mean I guess inevitably it had to happen...

But man, end of an era. It was freakin hilarious while it lasted: that Pharaoh refused to read ancient Egyptian because it’s like 2002 and he is a High Schooler living in Japan and he actually doesn’t WANT to resolve the mystery of the puzzle. Maybe the people who made this arc don’t know about how in S2 and S3, the fact Pharaoh couldn’t read Marik’s back tatt was like...a really big issue. He couldn’t read the God card, he couldn’t even read that massive tablet that read “HEY PHARAOH THIS IS LITERALLY YOU”. KAIBA had to tell him how to read the God card for him. Freakin Seto “Magic is a lie” Kaiba had to tell him how to use the God Card because Pharaoh couldn’t read it.

But like...Pharaoh finally gave in at some point after the world was devoured by the Leviathan, and before Kaiba finished building Kaibaland (which was already built in S1 but wtv)

The timelines on this show have always been a mishmash...but this one is just like...

...show are you trying to convince me that at any point in this show after season Zero, Pharaoh had any idea what he was doing? Did he sap that brain energy straight out of Joey Wheeler so he could do this?

Wow.

(secretly hoping he forgets how to read Egyptian after this arc is over and the show goes back to the other development team)

Pharaohs reasoning is that, if this is the riddle of the light.....

....then where is the riddle of darkness????????????

and when Tea was like “Pharaoh that is not even remotely logic. Omg it’s so bright outside, lets go back to gross cave.” and Pharaoh was like “Tea! You got it!” and she was like “What the hell are you talking about?”

Not gonna lie, I saw the Orichalcos green, and I got concerned.

Anyway, Yugi gets very frustrated and was like “ugh, lets go save em. They’re gonna die (again.)” and marches down there as if he didn’t pass out an hour ago.

And he fuses with Dark Magician again while everyone else (including his grandpa) was like “Yugi are you freakin kidding me? The suit freakin kills you omg! Tea you had one freakin job!”

And then we get the plot twist that...I mean it makes sense but it was choreographed in a confusing way.

And out of no where this guy shows up again:

So this mysterious man shows up and says “If you don’t succeed you have to live here forever” which...nice...that would probably save the world a lot of problems if Yami got locked away and took his OP puzzle with him. And then this man also says “if you do succeed you become VERY POWERFUL” and Yami was like. “...”

This whole episode had a theme to it, where Tristan and Joey were trying to prove that they could do things on their own and without Yugi’s help. And honestly...felt a little bit misplaced. Yami’s the same guy who murdered Yugi last season with the Orichalcos so like...

...I mean he is probably more reliable than Tristan who once died and turned into a robot monkey for 10ish episodes.

and then they flew into a glowing door.

Folks, this was wild to look at.

This is wild.

And at this point I closed Photoshop and thought I was done. But then I looked at my timeline on the video and was like...wait...there’s more?

and I’m really glad I kept watching because it went back to Alex, who...is apparently just still at those steps in this haunted ass Pyramid.

Now we’re watching Yugioh.

I forgot for a second when they turned Joey into a Himbo and made Pharaoh literate, but we’re back. I mean...

...look at the liner art on this adult man.

So...I posit the question...has Alex spent the last 2-3 episodes doing nothing but applying eyeliner to his face in the dark? Because he absolutely has. And honestly, the vibe of being in a spooky haunted pyramid with barely any light, just applying eyeliner down the edge of your face...that’s a Yugioh vibe, if I ever saw one.

This arc is wild. Anyway, next episode we do even more fetch quests and riddles? Just going to guess now that we probably will.

(and for those new here, this is a link so you can read them from the top. Which, since we’re in S5, means you got like...hours of Yugioh content to read through. Enjoy the rewards of my weird hobby.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

[adapembroke]

5 Lessons From My 12th House Profection Year

I am turning 36 next month. For most people, 36 is a fairly minor birthday, but I am not most people. I am an astrologer. For astrologers, 36 is an important year because it marks the end of a 12-cycle and the beginning of a new one.

Namely, my 12th house profection year ends on my 36th birthday, and my 1st house profection year begins. 

I am not yet 36 as I write this, but the Scorpio Full Moon marked a major milestone for me: It was the last major lunar event in my 12th house profection year. Since my 12th house is in Cancer, which is ruled by the moon, this means that my 12th house profection year has passed its last major milestone and is, essentially, over.

Most importantly—especially, when talking about things that have to do with the moon—my 12th house profection year feels over. I feel like I have reached the top of a tall mountain, and I am surveying the terrain I’ve traveled.  

Since I am in a reflective mood, I thought I’d share some of the lessons I’ve learned.

1. It’s not just about you. What is happening in the rest of the world matters.

This transit marks my 3rd 12th house profection year. I experienced them when I was 12 and 23. 

I haven’t met anyone who has enjoyed a 12th house profection year. (Though, I’m sure they’re out there.) Humans, as a rule, don’t like to feel isolated, even if they like solitude, and the 12th house has the tendency to impose isolation if you aren’t in the mood for solitude.

By far, though, this 12th house profection year was the least lonely for me. 

The reason: I went through this 12th house profection year when the whole world was in lock-down. 

My particular flavor of Aquarius moon tends to interpret periods of solitude as periods of exile. Even when I chose to be by myself, there is always a part of me that believes I am alone because I am unwanted. 

I didn’t socialize any more than I did in previous 12th house profection years, but it was certainly a lot easier to be by myself knowing that I was alone because it was literally against the law to socialize in person. 

2. It is amazing the things you can do behind your own back.

I do not have any planets in the 12th house in my natal chart, so the 12th house is unfamiliar territory for me.

 I knew going into this year that the 12th house is the “house of self-undoing,” but knowing this didn’t prevent me from working against my own self-interests in a way that was really infuriating. From “forgetting” to put a link in my bio to a new course I was trying to get people signed up for to “accidentally” posting something controversial just before a post inviting people to join my community, this has been the year of getting in my own way.

3. Don’t just focus on the profected house. The ruler and its house are important, as well. 

Articles about 12th house profection years tend to focus on 12th house themes—isolation, self-undoing, hidden enemies, addiction, mental health. All of these things were relevant themes for me this year, but the theme that was at the center of my awareness had nothing to do with the 12th house and everything to do with my 12th house ruler, the moon.

This was an important year for my relationships, and my moon is in the 7th house. 

In Astrology and the Authentic Self, Demetra George says that the house of the ruler of a house describes the source of the things that happen in a house. 

In the case of my 12th house profection year, my partnership relationships supported or were “hidden enemies” of my ability to work in a healthy way with 12th house themes. In some cases, my partners expressed for me things that I was unable/unwilling to look at for myself, acting out my unconscious shadow or desires. 

4. Look at all of the significations of the profected sign and its ruler. 

Because I try to use gender-inclusive language, I downplay the association of the moon with mothers and prefer the more inclusive words “care-takers” or “nurturers”  instead. 

These words are more inclusive of nurturing people of all genders, but it’s important not to be so inclusive of people on the margins you exclude people at the center. The moon rules mothers, which means that mothering and mothers are going to be themes in moon times.

I learned this the hard way when I was blindsided by the question that elbowed its way into the center of my life this year: Do I want to be a mother?

5. A 4 degree orb is plenty close enough for a moon/Pluto square.

I have wondered for years if the square between my Pluto and my moon with a 4 degree orb counted as an aspect.  Traditional astrologers prefer to disregard aspects to the outer planets unless the aspect is very close (1 degree or less in some cases), so I have hesitated to claim to have a square between Pluto and my moon.

After this moon-ruled profection year, I am absolutely certain there is a square between my Pluto and my moon. 

My emotions and how I process them were at the forefront this year—as you would expect from a year ruled by the moon—and everything had a very Plutonian flavor.

I experienced powerful (Pluto) emotions (moon). Mood issues that have been there but not present enough in my life to be dealt with were blasted to the surface like impurities in a crucible, so they could be scraped off. Sometimes the blasting in question involved literal death. I have had to completely transform (Pluto) my relationship with my emotions this year.

Ultimately, that’s what profection years are about, transforming your relationship with the profected house, but my transformations were plutonian in the extreme.

How about you? If you’re turning 24 or 36, you’ve just gone through a 12th house profection year, too. What have you learned?

I’d love to hear about it on my community’s Discord server or Instagram. 

[i-love-hobbies]

(This isn't an anti-Eda, anti-Lilith or anti-Bump post. Just read this fully, please!)

Murder and violence are not ok!

This whole thing started literally after s1ep2 where Eda murdered a dude on screen.

What am I talking about?

"It's just a cartoon. Don't read too much into it."

I don't have a very strong opinion on this but I'm not a fan of normalizing murder. Also "Heroes that are genocidal maniacs, kill the villain cause he's awful." sounds extremely cringe.

And why are you reading a post that analyses a part of a cartoon right now?

"Death is normal on the Boiling isles, so that makes it ok."

Woah, woah! WHAT?

If everyone used that logic, slavery would still be a thing.

Just cause it's normalized in a culture doesn't mean it's less harmful or that everyone that comes from that culture does it.

It can be used to explain someone's actions, but not excuse them.

The ignorance of context.

1. Eda's murders

First I wanna point out that it was never emotional, it was all calculated. Remember when Tibbles scammed her, she didn't attack him back. None of her kills are revenge. She has always had something to win from them.

She has murdered two people, probably more, Adegast and Tibbles.

If she didn't kill Adegast. I can see this going two ways. He would starve to death, which means she put him out of his misery or he would slowly go back to full power which ties with Tibbles.

Batman kills the Joker.

No they are not as bad as the Joker but they would have continued trying to hurt her untill they got the idea of killing Willow and Gus in their sleep. TIBBLES KNEW THEIR ADDRESS!

Also if they were willing to do this. Who knows what else they have done to other people too. By doing this she has saved more lifes than she has taken (mostly kids).

Plus this willingness to kill is probably the reason Luz can go to school. Eda's enemies know that if they become an actual treat, things won't end well.

Her enemies are criminals. They are not stupid enough to think that she is helpless without magic. Especially now that she isn't running from the law.

- Now on to almost killing Amity in s1ep5 by making Luz cheat. That was messed up but not that badly.

Witches are harder to hurt, there were healers around who would help a Blight. She saw Amity use abomination so she knew mainly her traps were gonna be activated by a non-living thing.

Luz was going to be injured if that didn't happen. Amity was not in control of her strength and I don't think Lilith thought this trough. Though both sisters would have probably intervened when this got out of hand.

She also isn't the one to force Luz into the fight as many people have said. She has never on screen forced her opinion on someone else except in s1ep9 which was to protect her from school and changed in that episode. Luz just couldn't leave cause quitting ment never being able to perform magic.

Now I know that the right thing to do here was for her to try talk things through. I'm just saying it's not as bad as it seems.

2. Eda's scamming

To get my point across I'm gonna compare it to Wordlob.

Hers is the equivalent of you trying to buy gold and getting plastic. His is the equivalent of you're desperate for a cure and he promises to give it to you and then steals all your money and leaves you to die.

You're not going to try to buy gold when your desperate are you?

Scamming can take different forms and hers is the least harmful.

And consider this, what else can she do to put food on the table with her two adopted kids, Hooty and Owlbert. She can't find a legal job, cause that would be helping Belos, she'll die before she does that and she definitely knows ways to disguise herself but that puts her at risk as well.

3. Lilith's redemption arc still works

Yes, she did murder a bird in s1ep18, but the way it talked and acted. It seemed like it was mimicking speach.

Yes, she did almost kill a child, but she has made up for it probably in that week and a half that we didn't see considering this is the Boiling isles and everything is trying to kill you.

Plus, Eda only talked about the curse, considering "You hurt Luz, you cursed me!" She is not the person who would forget about her kid.

Bonus, she did make up for it on screen as well. In s2ep2 she saved King from Eda's experiments. In s2ep3 she saved Luz and King with her ice glyphs, when she could have just left, giving time for Eda to get them out of there. If Eda didn't show up Lilith would be dead.

4. Bump's jokes

- Dissecting Luz

I don't know why everyone talks about Bump and Amity trying to dissect Luz. They weren't certain if this was going to kill her. They weren't certain if she was alive. All they knew was that the lie will be broken if this would kill her.

Yes, they did try to catch her later on, but not to kill her. They wanted to make sense of what's going on and hopefully find her parents so she gets at the very least a talk on why she shouldn't do this.

Willow just overreacted which in return made Luz do the same.

- Bump's detention room

This room is a hypnosis one. Hypnosis is a job in real life. It can be dangerous but that can also be said about therapy if the therapist is bad. Depends on who does it.

"Impressive still alive!" This is a joke.

If a hypnotic session is stopped in the middle, you'd be too relaxed to be able to move. He was fine, he just needed some time.

- Bump's add

Everything that attacked Matt was alive. He probably did something to piss them off. But yeah Bump should have done something.

- Detention track

Guys knowing what he did for Willow in s1ep3, it's obvious that he was in a lot of stress. If he did what he did in that episode regularly. You just touch an orb and byeeeeee. Then this place should have been crowded.

Plus the wall with troublemakers' names had what six names and a portrait of lord calamity. Eda left school before three decades. And that's all we got.

He was probably not gonna keep them there even though he said so. He probably wasn't even planning that.

- Grom was very messed up. I have nothing to say except I wouldn't be surprised if the Emporer's coven forces this to be a thing and refuses to send actual adults, so the kids learn from a young age or whatever.

- Same with the photomemory class.

- "Bosha got away with murder. I can't say I approve, but at least she's trying new things."

This was a joke. Bosha's parents definitely have influence. His hands are tied like usual so he has learned to make jokes out of it. Plus since when are principals responsible for what happens out of school grounds.

5. The bat queen

She is a protector of palismans and I don't think she started to kill until the government was against her (I'm talking about her cave having bones all over it.)

I can't say it's completely justified like I did with Eda. But I don't see a way out of it where palisman wouldn't be extinct.

Now let's see our vilians' behaviour

1. Adegast

He was trying to kill Eda for his business by using a child as a bait.

2. Tibbles

He almost murdered four children so his stand is revenged.

3. Piniate

Is keeping people captive and literally is making them helpless as a punishment for not writing a book.

4. Demon hunters

They were gonna trow kids off a cliff. I'm not sure why actually.

5. The cat ladies

They were kidnapping children for their cafe.

6. The "coven" inspecture

She was stealing all the magic from none other than kids for power.

7. Wordlob

Who knows how many people have died, lost their jobs and so one, cause of his scams. All for money.

8. Warden wrath

He cut Eda's head so she goes out with him. Captures people for nothing.

9. Odalia and Alador

Alador was not stopping Odalia from trying to kill Luz. In their mind this was gonna help in combination with their child abuse, with their daughter helping their business. Everything they have done for now is for their business.

They backed up when Alador saw an opportunity for THEIR BUSINESS.

10. Kikimora

She tried to murder a child, cause of jealousy. Uses her authority to make the system even worse, cause how dare them look in her direction.

11. Belos

Is abusing a child and abused Lilith. Is the reason that palisman are getting extinct. Wild magic= death sentence. Basically created a horrible authority system that has created a lot of suffering and who knows how many it has killed. Probably all for power, though we don't know completely.

[yuzukult]

effortlessly pt. 6 || jungkook & reader

title: effortlessly pairing: jungkook x reader genre: fluff, romance, school!au, smut (no smut in this chapter) words: ~4k notes: longer than i thought but closer to the end!! possibly 3 chapters left if i planned this right ;___; sorry for the delay! days pass by so quickly... and i’m always napping after work....

series: part one || part two || part three || part four || part five || part six || part seven || part eight || part nine || part ten || epilogue 

“Hey, you okay?”

His palms are clammy, you take note of this because the leather of his steering wheel evidently shows the residue left from the moisture on his hands. He’s anxious, it’s more than obvious, and you could potentially pinpoint the reason behind his uneasiness but you want to hear it from the man himself.

“Uh, sure. Kind of. Something along those lines.”

“You’re acting rather suspicious,” You say, paraphrasing the words he had used on you previously. “Talk to me, I’m supposed to be your best friend.”

The windows are rolled down and the sunroof is open, with the breeze flowing into the car yet you can still feel the heat of tension radiating between the two of you. He’d been silent the past couple days, head so focused and lost into just swimming during his practices, but that was all he did. Practice. Practice, practice, practice. Jungkook did it like a ritual, every single day at the same time, and performed it as if it was his religion. He hasn’t cooperated by eating enough meals during the day and although you guys didn’t share every class together, it had been apparent that he was behind on schoolwork. 

He’d completely gone insane.

“So... the finals are coming up soon,” He manages to choke out, hands still tightly gripping on the steering wheel and eyes never leaving the road. He never said where the destination was when he sent you a text, prior to picking you up from your house on a Saturday afternoon, but you figured as much that he needed some time out so you complied. “And I heard that recruiters are coming. Well, rumor has it.”

“Hey, that’s great! You can finally show those guys your talents.”

“Yeah, but... what if I don’t get anything?” His voice is shaky, full of fear and angst. Although he wasn’t looking directly at you, you could tell that his chocolate orbs were mixed with ambiguity. Jungkook lived his entire life with the prospect that his dreams and aspirations were unattainable because he didn’t have the means to reach them. He lacked what many of his colleagues had— experience in competitions at a young age, training by professional coaches, and support financially from his family. He was at the bottom of the totem pole, knowingly still attempting to climb to the top despite of the downfalls, yet dismay always lingered.

The drive is quiet. The only sounds are coming from his old car, so worn out that the bumper is hanging on by duct tape. You regularly questioned Jungkook how the tape is so strong, and oddly enough, figuratively you realize that no matter how fucked up things are, you are the tape to Jungkook, who is holding onto his bumper of dreams. This situation wasn’t any different.

“Jungkook, I’m sure you’ll hear something. But even if you don’t, that doesn’t mean your journey ends there. And... you’re not alone. I’ll be with you even surpassing the end.” 

It takes a moment for your response to sink in, but the edges of his mouth twist into a soft smile, your comforting words warming his heart. He feels as though he’s on top of the world when he’s with you, and it’s a reminder that nothing is out of reach if it means that you’re by his side.

Weeks later, Jungkook spends less and less time with you as time progresses on.

You’re trying to be understanding— again, emphasis on the trying, because he’s leaving classes and briskly moving straight to practices. He had made it through consolations with ease, but moving up to finals meant that the biggest competitors would be there however his colossal adversary is himself. Nonetheless, you miss your best friend, and it hadn’t been long after you’d been dating that he’s back immersed with his passions, long forgetting you. Or so, you mention dramatically. 

“Why do you look so... sad?” Yura says, almost hinting disgust in her words. The two of you were out, looking for something to eat yet again, with Yura’s never ending black hole of a stomach. 

“Because I haven’t hung out with Jungkook in forever.”

“You just saw him yesterday. Is this what puppy love is?” You roll your eyes at your friend, pushing her to a food stall on a street when the aromatic scents coming from the vendor invitingly enhances your senses. “No, I barely actually hung out with him. I came to his practice then he drove me home.”

Grabbing a couple sticks of fish cakes, Yura shamelessly shoves one in her mouth in one go. “What about today? I’m surprised you’re even hanging out with me despite the fact he has practice.” You frown, knowing that the guilt would eat you alive later, but you told your significant other you were ditching the one session since you’d been going back-to-back every single day. It had become a bit exhausting trying to keep up with his antics. “I... was going to go, but I’m tired. I’ve been going everyday for the past three weeks, I need a break.”

“A break from Jungkook?”

“No, not a break from Jungkook, a break from going to his practices.”

“Hmm,” She hums, cheeks full of rice cakes as you lean over and steal a stick of fish cake from her. “Well, you look hella sad. Why don’t you just tell him that you want to spend one on one time with him without the smell of chlorine in the air?”

“It’s so hard to talk to him.” 

“No, you’re just being a weak ass bitch,” Yura snaps, your eyebrows raising at her choice in words. “You can tell Jungkook these things when you guys weren’t dating, why is it so different now? Because you actually care about what he thinks of you? Stop being so stupid, he loved you back then and he still loves you now.”

“OK, but won’t he think I’m too needy?” Immediately, it’s Yura’s turn to roll her eyes, groaning at your response. “Stop being one of those people! You want something, go get it. Beating around the bush doesn’t get you anywhere, yaknow.”

Yura makes a point. She always does, but like usual, you don’t let her know that. 

“Did I tell you that Taehyung confessed to me?”

She coughs— nearly choking on the rice cake that she stuffs into her mouth momentarily before you mention the confession. “What the fuck— what? Kim Taehyung? The prodigy that graduated before any of us then got that wicked ass scholarship to study abroad and swim?”

“The one and only.” You remarked, taking a bite out of your food. “I rejected him, obviously. I told Jungkook about it since then, and we talked. Everything was fine, and still is fine, but I guess with the paucity of attention, it’s starting to eat me up inside and believe that it’s why he’s been ignoring me.”

“I mean, I doubt it. You rejected Taehyung. What else did the guy say?”

Fingers fiddling with the stick, you’re waving it in front of Yura’s face playfully as her eyes follow the goodness. “He just wanted me to know. I think it didn’t sit well with him if he didn’t at least try.”

“Do you think it bothers Jungkook knowing that if he didn’t confess, you’d be in the arms of the great Kim Taehyung?”

“Possibly. But he’s been so focused on swimming lately, I don’t think he even notices.”

That’s when the feeling drowns into your stomach— you know it’s not the food because it only happens when Yura mentions the words that bring your mind into overdrive. You’re overthinking now, there’s no way around it, and although you want to confront Jungkook about his new actions, you know he’d be the old him again soon after.

Your hands are equally muculent as if you’d just dipped your hands in the pool water with how much sweat you’re perspiring. 

The chlorine in the air is an all too familiar feeling that you resent but yet again, you’d find yourself here frequently that the smell doesn’t quite grind your gears anymore. You’ve gotten used to it since you and Jungkook had become a thing, your love for him is a lot more indisputable and something you want to display.

He’d been giving you less attention lately, but he never fails to drop a quick peck on your lips before starting his practices. Today was different though.

Today was the finals.

You showed up in his locker room with an apple in hand and a cute little post-it note for support and motivation, and he gifts you his signature before-practice kisses, despite today being a swim meet. He’s distressed and fidgety; you’re pretty much the same. His team pats him on the back, pushing him with an inspirational chant which he lets out a laugh to—a laugh that is so nostalgic it reminds you of a time before the release date for the finals.

Sitting in the bleachers feels weird today. It’s not the bleachers at your school, for one, and two, there were just so many people in the crowd, you think Jungkook won’t be able to find you.

“Hey, if you sit here, Jungkook will be able to see you.” His name perks up your ears, turning to the owner of the assumption when you meet your eyes with Taehyung.

He looks... unfamiliar in this lighting. More mature, if you had to describe him in a word. 

“Sure, I guess I could join you,” You respond, exchanging a smile with him as you settle yourself on the bleachers. The humidity in the arena was disgusting and you could almost feel your hair going insane with the frizz. But that was the least of your worries. “I’m kind of scared for Jungkook, even though I know he’s going to do fine.”

“Of course he’s going to do fine, he’s going to do better than fine. He’s Jeon Jungkook. Plus, he has us, his personal cheerleaders on the sideline for him and the rest of his team backing him up. He has all the support he needs, and he’s full of talent so he doesn’t even need luck on his side.”

You want to believe him because everything he says is true. But the word luck doesn’t sit well with you.

The introduction starts, informing the audiences what the relays would be, and a couple of the matches begin. Your brain can’t even fixate itself to watch the other players on Jungkook’s team because of how restless you are about Jungkook’s portion, but from what you hear beside you, Taehyung says that they’re all doing well.

Then it’s Jungkook’s turn.

He’s standing on the platform, dressed in his swim tights and cap, goggles in hand. Shaking to warm and loosen up his body, he looks like he’s shivering in fear. You don’t think he even takes a glance up at the crowd to find you and a bit of disappointment settles in.

Back crouched over, he’s taking in a couple breathes before preparing himself for the initial push. It’s like any other swim meet, is what he repeats in his mind but he knows that this isn’t just any swim meet. He knows that amongst the people in the crowd are recruiters, people who could determine the fate of his future, and he couldn’t bring himself to look at the sidelines. Too many emotions would sit in him and he possibly won’t even be able to swim if he did.

The whistle blows.

Jungkook dives off the platform, swimming away in freestyle mode. He’s admirable when he’s swimming, like he has all the freedom in the world without any burden on his shoulders. The words he mentions previously about his aspirations ring in your ears again. When I’m in the water, I’m floating. Floating without a care in the world, without anything pushing down on my shoulders. All I can think about is how I’m just surrounded by the water, how it sounds in my ears and how it feels on my fingertips. 

Seeing him in his true happy place made you a bit envious. Envious that you didn’t find anything in close resemblance to how swimming made Jungkook feel, how you couldn’t even commit yourself to hobbies. What he said in the car weeks ago is a reminder that it’s okay for you to feel this way, that no matter what happens to you, Jungkook would always be there. There was some comfort in that.

He’s doing well, from what you can tell. He’s not overexerting himself in the water, and he’s switching between different types of strokes in order to ease the pressure off himself and quicken his speed. He’s neck and neck with his opponent, and you think nothing of it because it’s the exact scenario as some of his swim meets.

But then— you’re unsure what happens. It’s a moment of hesitation, possibly, but his opponent does one last push and he makes it.

Jungkook won second place.

It’s hard to tell exactly how he’s feeling. His eyes that once were bursting with excitement and happiness were filled with despair and anger yet his voice is calm and soft when he speaks to his teammates.

He doesn’t even look directly at you and you feel a certain way, but you don’t let that feeling eat you up inside knowing he’s upset with his performance.

The car ride is utterly quiet. So quiet that you don’t even hear the engine of the car sputter or roar during the drive, almost like even the car could feel the tension in the air. 

“Jeon, you okay?” You barely say, voice as quiet as a mouse squeaking. He’s like a ticking time bomb at this point, and there’s uncertainty on what can detonate his anger.

He doesn’t respond for a couple minutes for exasperating a long and heavy sigh. “You already know the answer to your question. What’s the point of even asking? It’s a waste of breath.”

“Hey, you won second though. That should take account for something. You did well, I’m sure you’ll be okay.”

“Are you definitely sure?” He snaps. His tone is harsh and the volume is increased a bit but you brush it off thinking it was an impulsive decision on his end to respond that way.

“Of course I am.”

“Listen, don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t have dreams that just got ruined. Your goals don’t even exist for that— this swim meet was my chance to show those recruiters what I’m capable of. These were the fucking finals! I could be living the way Taehyung is, training for my life, given a coach that actually has the ability to show me tricks and tips that ours couldn’t.”

This... wasn’t the Jungkook you’ve come to know and admire. His aspirations were eating him alive, and for a brief moment, he’d abandoned the love he had for swimming, and just swimming alone, the only thoughts flooding his mind was winning finals. Swim meets weren’t even his favorite thing, he’d only did them because they were stepping stones to continue swimming and to do it as a career.

You push the tears back from brimming in your eyes, arms slipping into your jacket in preparation to get out the car. “Yeah, no, you’re right. I’m just some lost chick who stood in the bleachers, so dumbfounded and blinded by your love and affection. I won’t understand because I never will, I don’t have those passions or goals like you do.”

“Wait—“ Glancing over at you and before he can finish and say your name, you sling your backpack over your shoulder. “Stop the car. I can walk home or grab an Uber.”

“I was just mad in the moment—“

“You said what you said, and you meant it. I’ve been trying to be patient, but I’ve had enough. Stop the car, Jungkook.”

Abiding by your instruction, he pulls over to the shoulder of the road, turning to look at your expression. His face didn’t shone in antagonism anymore but that same fear he had before he went in for his swim meet earlier. 

“Where are you going?” He says, voice wary. “Don’t go.”

“Home,” You respond abruptly and sharply, unlocking the seatbelt that embraces you before opening the door. “I can walk myself home. Don’t follow or wait up for me.”

He doesn’t comply with those orders though. Instead, as you’re walking on the sides of the street, he trails behind you silently, understandingly giving you your space despite the fact he didn’t want to. All he wants is to pull you into his arms and apologize. Apologize for letting his anger get to him, saying things to you that he didn’t mean. 

Cars are beeping behind him, cursing and sticking their middle fingers up at Jungkook as they go around him, but he could care less. His day has gone so far down— potentially losing the love of his life and the route of his career.

Finally reaching to the front of your houses, he watches as you enter in as he makes his way into his own. Once he reaches his room, he quickly attempts to get your attention from his window. Jungkook figured, even when you’re mad, you couldn’t resist seeing his cute face from across the little space between your houses. 

Excited with a smile on his face, he peeks through the glass, only to see that you’d already closed the window and dropped the blinds. His smile dissipates within seconds.

Jungkook concludes he’d let you calm down for the night and try again tomorrow.

The sun peers through his blinds, and shone on his face as he grunts in displeasure. His body is sore from the amount of practices and the swim meet from the day before, but nothing in comparison to the thought of hurting you.

His phone rings and almost immediately, he jumps out of his bed, still in his boxer briefs and without hesitation, he exclaims a “hi!” without checking the caller ID. Once he realizes that the voice on the other line doesn’t belong to you, his enthusiasm sizzles out.

“Jeon Jungkook?”

“Ah, yes. That’s me. Can I ask who’s calling?”

“I’m one of the recruiters that came to your swim meet yesterday. I’m so sorry for not getting to meet you afterwards, I’ve been so swamped in my personal life, I didn’t get the chance. Do you have a moment to speak?”

[witchypandamonium]

It’s All a Performance (Silco/f!OC)

Chapter 3 is here

Post-Act 1 Silco/f!OC Chapter 3 of ? 2,536 words, SFW No warnings

AO3 link

Silco didn’t get excited easily. Anxious, maybe. Restless. Building energy for the next strategic move or aggressive strike. Before, perhaps, when he was still a naïve optimist, so innocent even as he and his friends fought (and maybe killed) Enforcers. But not now.

Or so he thought. He found himself filled with a giddy sort of anticipation for when Amara would return to record. To hear her voice again, to be perhaps the first to hear her newest composition… He realized he’d been tapping his finger on the desk and staring into the middle distance for a while, a large chunk of ash about to fall onto the papers he’d forgotten were there.

She’d looked so lovely, even without the artfully pieced-together dress and glass baubles, instead in humble layers of black and muted jewel tones to keep out the early fall chill that seeped into the Sumps every late October. A small part of him anxiously screamed to revoke the deal, to leave her be. Ties with him could put her in danger, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. But he knew deep down that they risked death every day simply living in the Undercity. There was no escaping it.

No, he wanted to see what she could do with his patronage. She could be the Voice of Revolution, giving shape to their anger and directing it to his purpose. He wanted her on his side.

But fortunately relief had arrived today, as Sevika tapped on his door and brusquely said through it, “Your Siren’s back,” a few moments before she opened the door for her.

Her—a skinny, bending willow in the breeze. Her—long brown-mulberry locks that poured over a soft, hunger-panged face. Her—with perceptive honey orbs that sparkled in the low light of his office. She dressed unassumingly when not performing—a wise choice—but he still felt as though the breath had been knocked from his lungs when she entered the room, lowering his cigar to the ashtray lest he forget about it and have hot ash drop into his lap (as he accidentally had at the bar when he’d first seen her).

“Your timing, as ever, is impeccable, dear,” he drawled as he pulled himself from his reverie quickly before he could give anything too hasty away.

She, however, couldn’t hide the red that rose in her cheeks, nor the unconscious nervous fidgeting with the gas mask that hung around her neck. “I’m not going to keep you long,” she nearly stuttered, seeming shy and flattered for a moment before that easy temptress fell into place. “I just wanted to return these,” the stack of records she’d been carrying was set on his desk, “and figure out a good time to see your ‘guy’.”

Standing, he stepped to his wardrobe and retrieved his overcoat, “As my business for today has already been taken care of, there’s no time like the present.” He turned to enjoy her surprised, taken aback expression that flashed across her face.

“N-now?” she gasped, persona flickering for a moment. Immediately he knew he’d be teasing her more often, just to prod more of those reactions from her. “I don’t have my chem-tech synthesizer…”

“We can pick it up on the way.”

“How do you know the studio will be open?”

“He owes me a favor, remember? He’ll make time. Sevika, get the carriage ready.”

At least she seemed to understand that, even giving a little laugh. It was near-infuriating sometimes dealing with people who didn’t seem to grasp the fact that he was a Chem-Baron. The Undercity—and even some Topside—moved to his schedule, not the other way around.

“You sure know how to make a girl feel special,” she said mischievously, giving an appreciative hum as he opened his office door for her.

“It’s far beyond time you enjoyed the benefits of having a wealthy patron, my dear.” Something only confirmed when she paused to marvel at the vehicle that pulled in front of the Last Drop and awkwardly stepped inside as though such a convenience was completely alien to her. It only further cemented his drive to bring about an independent Zaun, much like raising Jinx did. They deserved better, and he would give it to them.

No matter what he had to do to achieve it.

He understood that embracing that monstrous role scared many, even among those he wished to uplift, so he wasn’t surprised or insulted when Amara asked they stop before her block so her neighbors wouldn’t see her with him. It was better that way. As he continued his rapid rise to power, he’d made a lot of enemies, and gained the resentment of many of the already-established Chem-Barons. He was constantly having to stay one step ahead of them, and he knew that many of them would try to use her against him any way they could. She deserved better than that, too.

She was just as amazed by the private hexdraulic conveyer they took to the bridge. “Wait, we’re going Topside? I thought your business was all down below?”

He gave a dark chuckle. “This man used to live in the Entresol, but let’s just say he made several deals to weasel his way across the bridge. As I said: he’ll make time.”

Her eyes glinted with annoyance and disappointment, leaning her chin on her arm as she stared out the window of the private taxi they took from the Promenade through the gates to Piltover-proper. “Ah, one of the ‘lucky’ ones, then. Who got out. Who get to forget the hell they came from.”

“He won’t forget,” he replied simply. “I won’t let him.”

“Today will certainly be quite the reminder,” the sullenness passed from her features, her wry, dark sort of mischief returning.

And it was. The moment he answered the door Silco could see the recognition and terror on his face, displacing the busy disinterest he’d started with. “Who is it? I’m very bussssssss—”

All a social-climbing bottom-feeder like Ademar (once known as Tresk) could afford, even with all his Undercity dealings, was a small studio at the very edges of Piltover, barely a block away from the bridge. He’d put quite a lot of effort into make his workplace look the height of art and culture, casting the illusion of an exclusive studio that was operating amongst the lower class out of generosity rather than necessity (and concealing the small apartment in the third floor of the townhouse that he lived in).

And in an instant the illusion shattered and he was just a little man, a humble Zaunian in the ill-fitting trappings of upper-class society.

“I’ve a special project for you, Ademar,” Silco drawled, letting the name fall from his lips with a hint of distaste, and pushed inside without invitation, gesturing for Amara to follow. “I daresay it may be the highlight of your career.”

To his credit, when Ademar heard her first backing track as they began recording, his terror was partially replaced with awe. “This… this is big…” he murmured, hands suddenly flying across the controls of his hex-soundboard. “This could be just what they need—something new…”

Silco never took his eyes off Amara as he passed the smaller man the album art. “Press it, get it in music stores all across the city. Reserve a third for the Undercity.”

“We’ll need a Single—drum up interest by getting her in every hex-jukebox we can find…”

“She said she prepared a composition while learning these—use that.” Ignoring the man’s frown as he withdrew a cigar from his coat’s breast pocket and lit it, savoring the warm flavor of the smoke as he watched his Siren work her magic, an infectious joy and excitement on her face that stirred something within him that he couldn’t fully understand yet. Something small that buzzed with energy as she glanced at him through the glass of the recording booth with smiling eyes.

“It’s time they listened to the voice of Zaun.”

•••

It had been a long day, but thanks to her already having prepared the instrumentation and practicing, they were able to have a record in record time. It was past midnight, sure, but it was done. The idea of going for a drink to celebrate was tossed around, but Amara was bone-tired (and she suspected he was too, having stayed the entire time, to his credit), so back to the Lanes they went. “But another time,” she murmured with a wink, just barely keeping façade up.

Stopping the carriage before her block again, she had to fight the urge to grab his hand and gush about how much the whole day meant to her. No no no, that wouldn’t be on brand, and being that honest with a Chem-Baron could invite trouble. So instead, she flipped her hair off her shoulder offered her hand, admittedly a bit a-flutter to see if he’d do what she secretly hoped he’d do. “We’ll be in touch.”

Her chest erupted in warmth when he took the hint, bringing her hand to his lips as he looked up at her with what she could only call a smolder, the mutated iris burning in the dark shadows cast by the Undercity’s neon sign lights. “Thank you for the private concert, Siren.”

Getting calmly out of the vehicle was suddenly incredibly difficult, but she was a consummate performer, and only dropped the persona once she rounded the corner, clutching her burning face with her hands as she slumped against the alley wall. With a few grounding breaths, she picked herself up and resumed the walk home.

Most of the neighborhood was asleep, but a few residents worked late nights, and so would keep watch from their porches or windows as they finally were allowed a wind-down smoke or meal. Marluk, for instance, finished at the docks at midnight and would spend an hour or two afterwards sitting on his little porch, eating take-out from Jericho’s and puffing from his pipe as the lights cast his broad shoulders and bald head in greens and golds, enjoying the last of the fall warmth before winter forced him inside. Brod was out as well.

But he wasn’t smoking his usual cigarettes—it seemed he’d finally gotten his hands on a Shimmer vaporizer, his unfocused eyes glowing a faint purple as he stared at the bricks at his feet. His shoulders, even relaxed as they were, seemed a bit taller, pulled back into a slightly healthier posture. She’d heard Shimmer had some restorative qualities, thus why it had taken so well in the Undercity, and why she wouldn’t judge him for it. Brod had been dealt a bad hand, and if something could make him feel better, she certainly couldn’t blame him. She was honestly more curious than anything, but at the moment she had work to do and no time to spare for exploring an altered state.

He didn’t even notice her as she passed.

Slumping against the front door to close it, she weakly tossed her bag with noodle-like arms onto the table, causing a bit of a clatter as it landed amidst the mess of unfinished projects and shiny baubles found on the streets. Part of her wanted to just slump on the old couch, wrap herself in some fabric remnants, and sleep, but she had at least one ritual that she could not neglect, so with a yawn she trudged up the stairs to the roof.

Being at the very top of the Sump granted Amara a rather remarkable view from the top of her house. She could see the still bustling streets of the Lanes below and to her left, the bright night markets of the Entresol to her right, and far, far in the distance the Bridge of Progress. She’d seen it many times, but there was always something interesting to find if you simply looked. She wondered if a Topsider would be able to find any beauty in it at all.

Perhaps, if she gave them a little help. Far back, tucked into a protective nook she’d crafted, was a small shrine to Janna—nothing special, just a small lantern with a blue bird painted on it, sheer white fabric draped here and there to catch the wind, little gold windchimes, and beside it her little gift to Zaun: a kite. Lifting the toy with a whispered prayer, she carried the paper bird to the edge of the roof and waited. Waited for a breeze. It almost never failed: if there was even the slightest gust, she could cast her kite into it and watch it soar, carrying with it several strings of lights. As she watched her bird take flight, another was launched from a house not far away minutes later, and then another, and another. She may have been the first, but she was proud of the people who’d been inspired to take up the task to fly their own stars, even not knowing who they were. Together a handful of strangers had pierced the Gray to give the Undercity stars.

They deserved beauty, and it never failed to amaze her what they created to capture that. The elegantly-wrought green glass atriums, the soft murals and dynamic graffiti painted on any large blank wall, the colorful lights, even the rare weed and crawling vine that found root in cracked foundations.

She hated that she understood why people like Ademar crossed the bridge—even that little bit of Piltover proper that she saw today, and the shining towers she looked up to every night… it was so different. Clean whites and shining golds, spaces dedicated solely to plants that thrived in the clear air, statues and orreries and fountains… And she knew quite well the opportunities were numerous. Above, merchants and craftsmen could make a living creating beautiful things that existed simply to be beautiful; below, if it wasn’t useful, it wasn’t worth the cogs (with few exceptions). Above, even the lower class serving the noble houses made enough to enjoy three meals a day and new clothes every other month; below, the very poorest had to dig through toxic waste to find scrap to sell to afford a single meal of half a stale loaf of bread and wore a single set of clothes until it could no longer be repaired and fell apart.

The Academy was the only establishment in Piltover that escaped her bitter dismissal—every year they took the best and brightest minds from the Undercity and lifted them up, giving them the chance to make a difference with a proper education and the right tools. She vaguely remembered a boy about her age that made toys and machines out of scrap who managed to catch their eye. She wondered what he was up to now…

Eyes drooping under the artificial starlight, she gave her little shrine a grateful nod and headed inside, only toeing off her shoes and freeing her hair from the loose bun she’d tied it in before she limply toppled onto the bed and fell asleep almost instantly, dreaming of a glinting, glowing eye in the dark.

[thelibranarchives]

For @giucorreias Flufftober 2020 Day 3 prompt- Sunshine

'You've mellowed, Draco,' Pansy opined, taking a drag from the joint before passing it to Millie on her left. 'The Gryffindors have done their number on you.'

Draco Malfoy snorted. 'Nope,' he denied.

Blaise laughed, slapping his thigh. 'This,' he said in between bouts of laughter, 'is exactly what she meant. Normally, a stinging hex would have been your answer.'

'On the contrary,' Daphne said, picking the cigarette out of Millie's mouth. 'If the Gryffindors have had any influence on him, he would have physically tackled you both.'

'That's more like it,' Draco nodded.

Nobody said anything for a while. They were enjoying a very rare, much awaited and incredibly precious Slytherin-only gathering in a small clearing in the Forbidden Forest. It had been almost impossible to not have some Gryffindor hanging off their shoulders for two months now what with the lions accompanying them everywhere from showers to classes, but that day, Granger had Arithmancy for her afternoon class. Longbottom had volunteered to help Prof. Sprout weed out the greenhouses and Weasley and Potter had gone to Diagon to the joke shop. Ginevra and Lovegood were at the quidditch trials, which left the Slytherins with a golden opportunity.

Unlike rumours and speculations, the Forbidden Forest, had a cheerful air about it, though slightly dark with the thick canopy. The five of them sat in a circle under a bubble of protective charms, sharing a joint and blowing out smoky rings, or as in Pansy's case, trying to. An idle, and clearly out of place bird, was humming a sweet tune. There was the occasional rustling of leaves and the half growl and half bark of some as yet unencountered forest animal but Draco was relaxed.

Draco and Potter's dynamic had undoubtedly changed ever since Potter got that dragon lily tattoo on Halloween, even though Potter's behaviour towards him didn't. He still went to classes with Draco and sat next to him, partnering him in Charms, Potions and DADA. No one had mentioned anything about the tattoo in the two weeks since and Draco wasn't a fool to harbour hope that they didn't understand its significance too. He wasn't going to talk about it for as long as he could.

'Muggles celebrate Thanksgiving in November,' Blaise said, inhaling deeply. 'On the fourth Thursday, to be exact.'

'What is it for?' Millie's tone was curious.

'To be grateful to the good things or people that happened to them that year? Mother says Muggles cherish it a lot.'

'How's Maine? Is it suiting her?' Pansy asked.

'She says that's where she's going to settle down but that is what she said of Milan too so I wouldn't bet on it.'

Daphne's brows were furrowed. 'Why are you telling us about this Thanksgiving?' That girl was quick and sharp, no matter how clueless she sometimes acted to be.

'Well,' Blaise said, licking his lips, 'we should thank them too, don't you think?'

It had been easy for Draco to get a first edition copy of Rare Charms and Unique Spells for Granger, a chocolate frog card made in honour of Fred Weasley for Weasley and his sister and an assorted collection of Celestina Warbeck's classics for Longbottom, who loved them and transferred some of his admiration for her onto Blaise as well.

Pansy, Daphne and Millie had got some trinkets, rings and other accessories for all the girls while Blaise imported an Italian Bellflower plant for Neville. The purchases were all made through owl-post, from stores suggested by Narcissa Malfoy, under the name of Madame Zabini.

Draco curiously couldn't think of the best gift to Potter, though Potter was the one he knew the best out of everyone else. He decided he would ask Potter what he wanted but as the days passed, either Draco or Potter found themselves otherwise busy, to say more than "hey" to each other.

Draco sighed and shrugged. There was nothing he could do.

Thanksgiving dawned on them, abnormally cold and cloudy. Draco woke up late from a fitful sleep and didn't even have time to overthink if the atmosphere outside was setting the tone to what was to unfold that day.

Daphne had done that for him, however, whining every possible minute she could about how potentially disastrous the others could think their gifts were. Pansy and Blaise, in their attempts to find courage in liquor since they seemed to lack it in themselves, added to it after stumbling into the common room drunk, half an hour later than the time they had fixed.

Even then, Draco was glad when they had all assembled.

'So,' he began, fidgeting with his shirt, 'Blaise told us, technically it was Blaise's mother, that muggles celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November and well,' he gulped, ' well,' he licked his lips, 'we just..'

'Here are the gifts, bitches!' Pansy screamed, wand shooting confetti into the air as she twirled, tripped and fell over the neatly wrapped presents. 'Oops,' she said, grinning up at them with a dazed look in her eyes.

The stress of worrying his brains over the small surprise that lit up the faces of everyone present, finally melted away the stress beneath his skin. Draco wasn't even aware that he was beaming until Blaise knocked him on the shoulder, sloshed and swaying.

'You've become a sap, Draco,' he slurred.

'And you, a Hufflepuff,' Draco retorted, grinning wider, because yes, this group of unlikely people made each other smile to the maximum.

'I don't want to see all of your teeth, Draco.'

'I don't want to see you bouncing like a toddler either.'

'I'm in full control of myself, thanks.'

Draco had to give him a once over then. 'Yes, I can see that.'

'Are you two arguing over who is better at pretending to be the least affected by our reaction?' Lovegood's sweet voice wafted from behind them followed, an instant later, by her floral perfume and then a smacking kiss to their cheeks.

Weasley and his sister came up to them next, eyes shimmering. They held up Fred's chocolate frog card that read "one half of the only two who managed to set off fireworks in the Great Hall and literally got away with it." That had been Draco's personal addition. He would never forget Umbridge's horror at that.

'This,' Weasley choked.

'Means a lot,' Ginevra said, barely keeping it together. 'Excuse me,' she whispered and then she was exiting the common room, Draco's eyes trained on her till the door shut behind her.

When he turned back, he found Potter staring at him and he blushed, remembering that he hadn't got anything for him.

Potter held up the broom polish from Blaise and a few shirts from the girls as if to ask, 'you?'

'I didn't know what to get for you,' Draco mumbled, rocking on his heels. Behind Potter he spotted a radiant Granger hugging Weasley and talking his ear off about the book in her hand.

'If-' Draco said, glancing back at Potter, 'tell me what you want and I'll get it. For you.'

'Anything?' Potter asked, a small smile playing on his lips.

'Yes, anything.' Draco didn't know how his voice sounded so confident.

'Well,' Potter smirked, 'I want to see the sun, make the clouds go away.'

Draco thought for a while and smiled back. 'Be ready, then.'

Next morning found them both racing through the sky on their brooms at four am.

'Is this revenge, Malfoy?' Potter shouted when they landed on the hill, wet and shivering from the rain falling at Hogwarts.

'Why, scared Potter?' He called back.

'You wish!'

They sat next to each other on a boulder, Draco making them face a certain point in the sky.

'I can't see anything there,' Potter grunted.

'Not yet,' Draco murmured.

'Where are we anyway? Why isn't there snow here?'

'Shut up and watch, Potter.'

And watch they did as the sky lightened and the sun rose in a golden hue. Potter was dumbstruck.

Draco laughed at his expression, wrapping one arm around Potter's shoulder. It was instinctual but Draco had never initiated it before. He froze until Potter leaned into him, resting his head on Draco's shoulder.

'Do you know why I like the November sun?' He asked quietly. 'It shines brighter than in May. There's something about the warmth of the wintry sun, don't you think?' Potter looked up at him.

Draco's gaze was hooked onto the way the emerald orbs were reflecting the sunlight, brimming with satisfaction.

'Yes,' Draco whispered, not looking away. 'The sunshine is brighter.'

This is probably a bit here and there and I tried to make it not huge but 🤷🏻‍♀️

[gruviafan-forever]

LIKE FATHER; LIKE SON

One fine morning Gray Fullbuster, Fairytail's ice-devil slayer was getting ready to leave on a S-class mission which would last around a week.

This was his first long mission since his son's birth. Yes!! Gray got married to his lover Juvia Lockser, who now proudly carries the Fullbuster surname behind her name.

It was a dream come true moment in her life, when Gray proposed to her on her special day.

But what turned the sweet memory into delightful one was when Juvia disclosed to her lover that she was carrying their baby and was 8 weeks along.

Gray was over the moon after hearing this happy news and as planned, they got married 2 weeks after.

They celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary along with their baby boy who was around 4 months old at that time .

" Gray-sama!!! What are you waiting for? Get ready soon. You have a train to catch." 

Juvia was urging him to get ready soon.

" Yeah, Juvia I know. Do you really  want me to go? Are you sure? You can manage him alone." 

Gray asked out of concern as he didn't want to stay very far away from his family.

"Gray-sama!!! Juvia is Storm's mother. She will take care of him. Don't worry about that.

      Besides, you need some alone time to clear your mind and to grab some rest.

      Ever since you found out, Juvia was pregnant, you didn't leave her side. You were very protective and took good care of her at the expense of your health.

     Now it has become even harder for you after Storm's birth.

   So don't worry, enjoy your mission, after all, this will help you recover from the stress." 

Juvia assured and convinced him that she would take care of their child.

Storm Fullbuster, now, 6 months old, shares a striking resemblance to his father except for his pale skin, blue eyes and navy blue wavy hair which he inherited from his mother.

When Gray held his son for the first time, he knew he was a goner.

Gray never felt this kind of love and affection for anyone even including his wife at the first meet itself.

Gray's heart melted when he saw his son open up his blue orbs which reminded him of his wife's eyes. 

He was grateful to the genetics as Juvia's eyes were a perfect example of beautiful and mesmerizing pair which was hard to miss for the grabs.

He felt a sudden sense of protective instincts and was determined to live solely for his family without being reckless anymore.

"But Juvia, what if someone attacks you both while in my absence? 

Moreover, you still haven't recovered from your post-natal pregnancy issues due to which your magic is unstable. 

How will you protect yourself and Storm? And..." 

Juvia made Gray cut out his insecurities by hugging him and resting her head on his chest.

"Gray-sama, relax. Thank you for this concern. Juvia really loves this side of yours.

     Don't worry, Juvia is recovering. Besides, Gajeel-kun, Erza-San and others from the guild will visit us to ensure our safety.

   So Gray-sama, take care and be safe. Return back to us. Don't forget that you are a loving husband and a doting father now not an ignorant bachelor anymore.

I Love You."

She tip-toed to reach his lips to give a goodbye kiss which he responded back by leaning forward.

Just then, a wailing sound was heard from the nursery, 

"Looks like my son is not letting me have my ways with his mom."

"Looks like he got that side of yours as well." Juvia giggled.

Hearing this Gray chuckled and went to attend the crying child.

He carried the crying baby in his arms and checked his diaper whether it was wet or not.

"Hey buddy, always interrupting your daddy's moments, huh!!" 

Gray gently pinched the baby's small button nose.

Storm stopped crying after recognizing his dad's voice and smiled at him for being in his arms.

Storm's cute smile reminded Gray of Juvia's smile. 

"You smile just like your mother. Come on, let's go and meet your mommy." 

Gray blew raspberries in his chubby tummy which caused the baby to giggle and soon went to the living room.

Seeing his mother, Storm made cutesy voice and reached out his arms indicating her to carry him which didn't go unnoticed by Juvia.

"Oh baby!! What made Juvia's baby snap out of his peaceful nap time? Did my baby have a bad dream?"

Juvia examined the baby in her arms to see whether he was hurt or got bit by any insects.

After confirming her worries were baseless, she swung the baby sideways which earned her a laughter and giggles from the happy baby.

"Hey I guess he must have freaked out finding none of us along with him. 

   That's why started to cry to capture our attention. Smart boy just like his dad." 

Gray ruffled Storm's soft hairs while feeling a surge of pride growing within him.

"Yeah, that's why now, he looks happy to be in Juvia's arms and bosoms. 

   Just like his daddy feeling happy and warm from the Juvia's contact." 

Juvia teased her husband as he grew red due to embarrassment.

"Yeah...yeah...whatever. Come let's have a family hug. I still have a train to catch." 

Gray pulled his wife into a hug without squeezing the baby in her arms. They silently enjoyed the embrace.

"Bye Juvia, Bye Storm buddy. Take care. Don't overwhelm your mommy in my absence. Bye I love you both. See ya soon." 

Gray kissed his wife's lips and the baby's forehead and left for his work. 

Both Storm and Juvia waved bye to their most important person and went inside the house.

"So what does Juvia's baby want to do? Wait!! mommy has a plan, let's first take a bath and spend some time with your uncles and aunts in the guild." 

Juvia gently bit her baby's chubby cheeks while Storm let out cute giggles.

#

Soon Juvia reached the guild while carrying Storm in her arms after safely tugging him in his baby blanket and covered his head with a hat to avoid dust and harsh sunlight.

"Hi Juvia, good afternoon. Hi Storm. How are you?" Lucy greeted them with her big smile.

"Hello Lucy-san. Say hi to auntie Lucy." Juvia grabbed Storm's hand and made him to wave.

He flashed Lucy a bright smile which melted her heart.

"Aw!! He is so cute. Hey Juvia, can I carry him?" 

"Sure" 

Juvia let Lucy carry her baby after removing the blanket and the hat and made way to their usual bench.

Juvia greeted others while Lucy and Wendy and Charla were playing with her baby.

"Juvia, where is Gray? Didn't he come with you?" Both Erza and Natsu asked in unison.

"Gray-sama has gone on a mission . It would take him a week to come back." Juvia smiled and made herself comfortable in the bench.

Just then Mira came with Juvia's lunch and gave it to her which she happily accepted.

The girls have now ganged up together to take a good look at her handsome boy.

"Isn't he cute?" 

Wendy squealed as Storm grabbed her finger with his tiny hands.

"Yeah, he's definitely cute. He has got the charms of his mother." Levy said while ruffling his hair.

"Yeah, he looks exactly like Juvia." Mira happily exclaimed while pinching the baby's chubby cheeks.

The other girls looked at her with a funny expression. Mira wondered what happened to them suddenly.

Cana broke the silence, "Seriously Mira, have you gonna blind? He is an exact copy of Gray. 

Take a good look at his face, it's definitely Gray's face."

"No, I guess, she meant the smile on his face which is similar to Juvia's smile." Lissanna fought back for her sister.

Juvia was smiling seeing the conversation her friends were having on whom the baby went after.

According to Juvia, her baby boy was in and out resembled her Gray-sama.

Once when Gray tried to kiss her while having Storm in her arms, he cried. Both didn't know what made him grumpy suddenly.

After sometime, they realized he was possessive of his mother. As Gray again tried to kiss her, Storm moved his dad away with his chubby arms. 

He didn't like sharing his mother with anyone let it be his father also.

For the next 2-3 days, whenever Gray was near Juvia, Storm had an awful crying session. 

So Gray didn't want his son to cry because of him so he had to control himself on his advances until Storm let's go of his jealousy.

It reminded Juvia of how Gray was possessive whenever Lyon was around her close proximity.

Her thoughts were halted when she heard her baby's whimpering sound. She looked at him and the girls were smiling. 

Then she felt an arm hugging her shoulders, when she turned to face the owner, it was Cana. She instantly knew the reason behind this act.

"See didn't I say, he is just as possessive as his father. Doesn't want to share anything belonging to him with others." Cana grinned.

"Yeah, you are right, Cana. I wonder how Gray is spending time with Juvia around Storm?" 

Mira winked and Juvia understood the meaning behind it.

"Yeah Mira-San, he doesn't let Gray-sama to touch Juvia at all. Very possessive indeed." Juvia smiled.

When Cana let go of Juvia, Storm stopped crying and had a cute frown on his face which made the girls to squeal seeing his cuteness.

"See that is typical Gray's frown." Erza said while carrying the baby in her arms and rubbing her cheeks on his face causing him to giggle.

Just then Natsu made his way to her and took a good look at Storm. 

On seeing his flame-breath uncle, the baby had a pissed off expression on his cute face.

Natsu exclaimed, "He is surely is Gray's son. See he has the same arrogant face and droopy eyes just like his dad. All that he got from Juvia is that eye colour." Still glaring at the baby. 

Storm also gave him tough competition in glaring which reminded Natsu of Gray's never give up and tough attitude.

"Natsu-San, no one should insult Juvia's baby. If you do that again, Juvia will ask Gray-sama to take care of you." Juvia threatened Natsu with deadly glare.

"Okay Juvia, relax. I was just kidding. He is such a cute baby." Natsu tried to pinch Storm's cheeks but the baby was not interested and turned his face away from his uncle.

"Knock it off, Salamander. You are scaring him. He may have the look of that ice-prick but don't forget he is also Juvia's son." 

The baby turned his attention to the iron dragon slayer and showed his cute toothless smile.

"See that is Juvia's smile. The Stripper won't have such bright smile." 

Gajeel extended his arms to carry the baby and Storm happily complied to the invitation.

While Gajeel was strolling around the guild with the baby in his arms showcasing all the things much to Storm's excitement.

The girls turned their attention to Juvia and asked for her opinion, 

"Of course, Juvia's baby looks and acts like her Gray-sama."

"Yeah Juvia. But for now, we can't say much about his personality but we hope he gets that from you. 

   So that he can grow to be more open, broad minded, happy and cheerful unlike Gray how he used to be.

   I'm not trying to offend him, Juvia.  But as we grew up together, I know how his personality was and it's because of you, he has changed into someone who he is now.

   All I and Natsu want is that your baby shouldn't undergo what you and Gray underwent, Fine."

Erza said her heartfelt words with a warm smile which Juvia responded back.

"Yes, Erza-San. Juvia understands."

After spending some time at the guild, Gajeel dropped Juvia and Storm at her house and told that he would visit them everyday till Gray comes back.

Storm fell asleep in Gajeel's arms while on the way back home. She placed him in his bassinet and covered him with his baby blanket.

When Storm slept, he looked exactly like her Gray-sama bearing that peaceful face.

Juvia felt very happy when she saw her son for the first time, she felt complete having him in her arms. He instantly reminded her of Gray.

She forgot all the pains and troubles of labour when she saw the healthy baby sleeping in her husband's arms. 

She vowed that day, she will protect her baby from any harm even by happily sacrificing her life for his safety.

Juvia knew soon her baby will grow up and he will look more and more like her Gray-sama which will make her to spoil him with all the love and pampering.

Juvia and Gray loved their son to the core and made their son's life and protection their important priority.

So till Gray returns home , Juvia had an ample amount of time to spend with her son, bond with and spoil him further which will make her son even more possessive.

This will create a hard time for Gray to convince his son that they both can equally share their most important person's affection and time.

But nevertheless, Storm loves both of his parents equally with unconditional and undivided love or should we say a little bit extra love for his amazing and stunning mother.

[summoner-kentauris]

im running a day behind for brufonse week! ahaha! half my coworkers are deeply ill! im! having a blast! hahahahahaha! yes! eveything is fine! anyway!

day 3 of @brufonseweek prompt battle / rest. i seem to be doing hybrids by accident i swear im not doing it on purpose. although this one is fairly off topic is i was going for battle. maybe i should just claim it was for rest. anyway.

not posting on ao3 yet because i havent actually edited AT ALL beyond typos. be forewarned. FYI the ao3 versions of my stuff are always more cleaned up

anyway.

cws in tags until i can do this properly on the archive o’3. mainly just heavy angst, and then me debating whether is counts as heavy or not. im a skewed subject yall. also precanon. thats a thing

-

It takes five months. Five months before Alfonse gets tired of the constant fighting, and cajoling, and coddling, and he agrees.

The last time he’d been in Zacharias’ room was, actually, the day before the battle. As he comes to a halt in front of the open doorway, he’s horrified to find he doesn’t remember what he’d – they’d been doing. Probably what they usually did when they ended up staying up late together. Reading. Laughing. Talking. Waking up late in the deepest parts of midnight because Zacharias was screaming from nightmares he’d always claimed he never remembered.

Alfonse would like to think that’s how they spent their last night together. Cuddled around one another, under the thin light little crochet coverlet Zacharias slept under. He always claimed it was too hot, in the castle. Had never denied Alfonse a place by his side, all the same.

Alfonse’s hands curl as other Order members squeeze pass him, into the room. Five months since that last night. Five months, and not a word from enemy forces about a ransom. Not a word from friends about a mysterious stranger turning up. There’d been no body, but then, sometimes people never found a-

He bites back the thought. He’d heard it repeated enough these past five months, when people thought they couldn’t hear him.

“How do you let go of someone you love?” he’d heard Anna talking to the stablemaster, one day. He’d thought she’d been talking about herself, but, “I’m just...worried about him,” she’d added. “We all are.”

Fine. Fine. If this was what they all needed to reassure themselves that he was alright…if packing up all of Zacharias’ things was some act they needed to do in order to sleep at night…if they wanted to pretend that forgetting someone was as easy as sweeping away their things, their memories, their papers and books and shield buckles and shells, and a small blue gemstone button from their trip to Aþál, and right there, on the nightstand, the elegant oil lamp they’d been gifted for helping aid the village near áyfir. On the windowsill a shining orb-stone engraved with their Order of Heroes commissions, under the stone one of Alfonse’s old royal dress capes, carefully folded with the clasps still as stunningly bright polished as they were when Alfonse had shrugged it off and lightly wrapped it around Zacharias’ shoulders, rain pouring down both of their faces and flattening their hair and mixing in with laughs and smiles and… and he’s crying, Alfonse is crying and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Gods. What is he doing? What, by Hel itself, is he doing?

An OoH member has her hand on Zacharias’ blanket.

“Stop,” he orders. His voice is far more hoarse than he expected. He feels like he’s been running for weeks. Even his heart is racing.

No one is looking at him. Everyone, in fact, is trying hard not to look at him.

“That’s mine,” he tells her.

She frowns. “But-”

Alfonse isn’t sure when Commander Anna got here, but she is here. She lays a hand gently on the woman’s shoulder.

“It’s his,” she agrees. Then she frees it from the woman’s hands, and carefully extends it to Alfonse.

His fingers must be numb, because he can’t truly feel the delicate patterns that make up the almost lace-like coverlet. There must be something wrong with his eyes, because where the blanket is usually a pale sunshine blue, today he can’t help but see dark red specks and blood and screams.

There must be something wrong with him, because he can’t breathe.

It doesn’t matter.

None of it matters anymore.

“Thank you,” he says, stiffly. “If there’s nothing else you need…?”

The sight of the gaggle of people who glance over at him sends a bolt of fury through him. Zacharias didn’t like people to be in here. This was his room, no matter what they were trying to do to it.

The anger dies almost before it has a chance to exist, though. He’s tired. Gods, he’s just so tired of this.

Anna watches him, with something unplaceable in her eyes.

“Alfonse,” she says, with uncharacteristic gentleness, “you know we’re not suggesting he’s-”

“I asked,” he cuts her off before she can say it, before she can suggest it, before she can even move to think it, “if you needed anything else from me.”

She stares at him for a moment. And then a moment longer. It would take effort to stop his incomprehensible tears from dropping all over Zacharias’ blanket, and he’s too tired to bother, so he doesn’t. Besides, Zacharias will, when he comes back, understand.

He always does.

Anna stares for a moment longer, then says, “No,” very quietly.

“Well then,” Alfonse responds. He reaches deep inside himself for the part of him he only brings out for court occasions, royal events, anything that means he has to stand up straight and smile and be the crown prince of Askr for the day. Unexpectedly, detaching himself takes no effort at all. And once he does it, the word feels as soft and as fuzzed out as the touch of the blanket in his hands.

He smiles politely at everyone crammed into what used to be Zacharias’ room.

“Thank you all for you help,” he says.

And before they can say anything else, he turns sharply, and departs.

[heeydolan]

L A {G.D.} – Part 3

Summary: moving to LA her senior year, Y/N goes into this new journey with low exceptions. Surprisingly, the new school has tons of drama to keep her occupied from what she’s missing out on back home.

A/N: ok i know it took forever to post this but i have been looking for an apartment and all this other adult stuff that’s really been stressing me out so please, don’t hate me.

Warnings: N/A

WC: 2.5k

masterlist

After Grayson ran off last night, Ethan called me again, thanking me for telling his brother what I saw.

In no way do I feel like the hero Ethan is making me out to be though. From what I gathered with the way Grayson bolted like he did, telling him about Tara brought him pain. I hate thinking he’s in pain.

Walking into school this morning, I am very unsure on how the day is going to go. I mean hell, it’s the second day and there has already been enough drama to entertain me for a whole year. I assume that’s just LA in a nutshell, though.

By the time I’m in fourth period, I begin to worry about Grayson. Class is about to start and he isn’t in his assigned seat beside me.

“Good morning class.” Mr. Bennett greets us as the bell chimes throughout the halls.

In unison, we all reply with a simple good morning.

Halfway through class, I receive a text from Grayson.

Grayson Dolan

We need to talk asap.

Y/N

Kinda sitting in class like you should be. Where are you?

Grayson Dolan

Had to take care of something. Meet @ bathrooms on west hall in 5.

Without any questions, I do as he says. I get permission to leave class and head towards the bathrooms all in the 5-minute time frame Grayson asked of me.

Once I reach the bathrooms, I don’t see Grayson anywhere. As I’m scanning up and down the hall, a force pulls me into a janitors closet.

“What the hell, Gray?” I question when I realize it’s him.

“Y/N, I’m sorry about last night. I shouldn’t have ran off like that. I know you were just trying to help and I’m sure you’ve been confused but I just– once you told me, I had to go end it with Tara and–”

“– you broke up with her?” For some reason, I wasn’t expecting him to cut things off with her so soon after I told him. Honestly, I don’t know if it even crossed my mind that they would break up at all. I just assumed he’d address the issue and it’d be worked out.

“Yeah.” He chuckles and scratches the back of his neck, “She’s with someone else. She doesn’t need me and frankly, I don’t need her.”

“And you couldn’t have told me that over text?”

“Well, I wanted to ask you something and it would be rude if I asked you over text.”

I fold my arms across my chest and raise an eyebrow, indicating for him to continue.

His hazel eyes glisten with hope in the dimmed light of the tiny room. “Y/N, would you go to dinner with me this Saturday night?”

“Like a...” I begin, unsure if I should say the word or not.

“Date? Yes, like a date.” He confirms.

During lunch, Tara and Sabrina sit at a separate table. At this point, I’m sure the whole school is aware of the breakup considering Tara’s sudden change in dining location.

Jordan ends up sitting with us and it seems as though him and Holly can’t stop flirting. How sweet.

Grayson and I give each other a couple glances but unless we speak conversation within the table, it doesn’t go any further than that.

After school, Holly gives me another ride home. I could just start driving my own car to school but I honestly despise driving. Also, LA traffic is the worst. I’d probably have a mental breakdown trying to maneuver through it. 

“So,” I turn down the radio, “Grayson asked me out on a date.”

“What?” Holly looks over at me shocked then quickly back at the road. “Grayson asked you out? And what did you say?”

“Well, since Tara isn’t in the picture anymore I figured it wasn’t a big deal so I said yes.”

As she turns on to my road, she sighs, “I hate to break it to you, but Tara will always be in the picture. I know Grayson is insanely attractive and no one in their right mind would turn him down but in reality, he’s stuck in this bubble with Tara that is never going to pop.”

All night, I go back in forth with what Holly told me. As much as I like Grayson, and given our history, everything in me wants to try with him. I mean, like I said, we have history. It could be different with me and the bubble really will be popped. But if it’s not, and I’m just a distraction until he gets back with Tara, I will be devastated. I had to disconnect myself from Grayson once before and it was hard. I really don’t know if I’d be able to do it again.

As much as I want to convince myself that Grayson and I have something special, I end up letting the cons outweigh the pros and I decide to just look out for my own heart and I back out of the date with Grayson.

Being the hypocrite I am, I do it over text. Of course I feel bad but I know I wouldn’t be able to do it in person.

I can picture it now: I’d tell him to meet me to talk, which seems to be a trend with us, I’d look into those beautiful hazel orbs and immediately forget what I had to say. Instead, my mind would wonder to the things we did 2 summers ago and I most likely wouldn’t be able stop myself from jumping his bones.

So, this simple text would have to do the trick.

It takes him a couple hours to respond, which freaks me out, but once he does, he questions me. I simply let him know it’s just too soon.

Agreeing, we leave it off with the mutual decision to not let this ruin our friendship.

Thank God he doesn’t hate me for bailing because I really don’t think I could deal with anymore drama this week.

When Saturday finally arrives, Holly and I decide to have a girl’s day and go shopping.

Part of me thinks she is using it as an excuse to see Jordan when she comes to pick me up. That’s fine with me, though. Jordan needs a girlfriend so maybe he’ll get disconnected from fortnite at 3 am and reconnected with a normal sleeping schedule.

With how fancy this house is, you’d think the walls would be thicker. We live in this huge place yet I still have a bedroom right next to his.

“What time are you going to be home– oh, hey Holly! Didn’t know you were coming over.” Jordan tries to play it cool as he walks into my room.

I laugh as I get my things together, “Shut up J, I told you she was coming to get me. As for when I’ll be home, I don’t know and I’m sure you don’t care.”

My brother’s face turns a nice shade of red as Holly and I walk past him towards her car.

“Hols, do you like this top? I think I might get it for the party on–” turning to face my friend who I thought was right beside me, I bump into a tall, blonde guy who has a smile to die for.

“–woah there, slow down now!” He chuckles, offering his hand as support as I stumble a little.

“I am so sorry!”

“Well, ‘so sorry’, that’s an odd name. I’m Ross.”

I can’t stop myself from giggling even though his joke was absolutely terrible. Good thing he’s cute.

“Actually, my name is Y/N.”

“That’s a pretty name for a pretty girl.” He flirts. Again I giggle even though this wasn’t meant as a joke. “Listen, I really gotta get going. I just ran in here to grab a present for my sister but do you think you would be up to going to dinner with me tonight?”

I slowly nod, giving him a soft smile. We exchange numbers then he’s on his way.

“Oh my gosh, Y/N!” Holly whisper yells as she walks up to me, her mouth basically hitting the floor. “Ross Bradley?”

“What? Is there something wrong with him, too?” I question, worried she was about to tell me some dark story about his past and how I shouldn’t even associate with him.

“No! He’s one of the hottest guys in school! Well, after the Dolans and your brother of course.”

“Ok, ew Hols.”

She laughs then continues telling me about him, “He’s on the lacrosse team, has connections with the owners of most of the bars downtown, and is so rich that his family could basically buy the state of California and make it their own country.”

I act as if his bank account fascinates me but in reality, it doesn’t.

After her quick over view of the guy who just asked me on a date, she jumps right back in to our earlier conversation about my least favorite subject: my brother.

Like a gentleman, Ross knocks on the front door, compliments me on my appearance, walks me to the car, and also opens the car door for me.

I’m quite surprised at his hospitality but one hundred percent impressed by it as well.

He takes me to one of the fanciest restaurants I’ve ever been to. I mentally thank Holly as she is the one who helped me pick out my outfit tonight. Without her, I’d be sticking out like a sore thumb.

As the host leads us to our table, I try to keep my head down because of how out of place I feel. Also, I feel as if I might fall in these heels so if I don’t watch where I’m going, it will be inevitable.

Even though my focus is on my feet and making sure I don’t wipe out, I still manage to catch the single pair of eye in the room that are watching me.

They belong to no one other than Grayson Dolan.

And who is he at this beautiful restaurant with?

Tara Rhodes.

He gives me an ‘I’m-sorry’ look but I break the eye contact.

Holly was right about the bubble and for the second time tonight, I mentally thank her.

I purposely sit with my back to Grayson so he doesn’t distract me from my date. Once I brush off the feeling that he’s staring holes into the back of my head, the dinner with Ross goes great. In attempt to impress my parents, he doesn’t want to keep me out too late, so he takes me home afterwards.

“I had a lot of fun with you tonight.” Ross says.

“I really enjoyed it, too.”

We stand there for another few seconds not saying a word. It’s obviously a little awkward until he finally breaks the silent by simply telling me goodnight. He pulls me into a hug then walks back to his car, only turning around once more to send me another smile.

I make my way inside, following the voices in the kitchen. Holly stayed and had a movie night with Jordan. Before I can reach them, there’s a knock on the front door.

I spin around and head back to the entrance, expecting to see Ross standing there with something I left in his car.

For the second time tonight, I am making eye contact with the guy who was not my date.

“Grayson,” I breathe, “w-what are you doing here?”

“I- uh- Jordan left his math book in my car so I brought it to him. I thought maybe he’d need it.” He scratches the back of his neck as he begins to realize how dumb he sounds.

“Oh yeah, he’s been devastated because he couldn’t study statistics on his Saturday night.” I laugh, grabbing the book from him.

“Really? I–”

“No Gray, not really.” I cut him off, unintentionally letting another giggle slip.

His face turns red, realizing how dumb he sounded again but something inside me can’t help but be even more attracted to him.

I walk outside with him, taking a seat on the top step of the front stoop. He is quick to follow and sits beside me.

“What’s on your mind?” He asks. I shrug my shoulders and look down at my feet.

The summer we met, Grayson and I never expected it to end. Our naive 16-year-old selves thought that those two months would last forever. In this moment right now, sitting beside him in our spot, I felt like I was back– like it never ended. 

But I wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Are you and Tara back together?” I quietly ask.

“Nah, we were just talking tonight.”

Nodding my head, I fumble with my thumbs. Knowing this is a nervous tick I have, Grayson grabs both of my hands and pulls my full attention to him.

“I just want you to know, I really was looking forward to our date.”

“I was too.” I whisper.

“Then why’d you back out?”

“I- I don’t know I just- I guess it’s just so obvious that you’re in this constant cycle with Tara that I don’t want to be caught in. I didn’t want to be your rebound and I didn’t want to get hurt when you went back to her.” I struggle to confess.

He simply nods, not arguing with what I’m saying. I simply watch him as he stands up. He turns to me before walking down the driveway in the direction of his house, “You look beautiful tonight by the way.”

As he disappears out of sight, I stand up to go inside. Just as I’m about to push the door open, a car pulls into the driveway.

Realizing its Ross coming back, my heart begins to race as he quickly gets out of the car and rushes up to me.

“There’s something I forgot to do.” He says. Grabbing my face and pulling me towards him. He connects our lips, kissing me like he wanted to before he left the first time.

If anyone was watching this, I’m sure it would look like a scene from a movie.

Out of breath, Grayson rounds the corner of the large hedge at the end of the driveway, taken aback with what was going on in front of him.

Little did Y/N know, it was like a scene in a movie. The genre being horror for Grayson.

He had come back to do the same thing to her, maybe convince her to give him a chance. But it was too late for him. She was already lip-locking with someone who is not him and as much as he wanted to run up to Ross and punch him square in the face, he knew he shouldn’t because she wasn’t his anymore.

Tags: @atlas-of-a-human-soul @agirlssfantasy @freewill-is-an-illusion @lexi-victoria

[endless-vall]

The Map - Part Sixteen - Last Chapter, The End.

<< First  < Previous .

Summary: The final battle takes place, but the future has never been brighter. 

Author’s note: This is it. This is the final chapter of my multi-chapter Endless Summer story, “The Map”. 

I hope you’ll like it. 

I know it took me a long time to finish it, and even more to post it. I want to take this chance and thank everyone who supported me, and read this story. Although I started writing it after the book ended, the response and the support  was amazing. I never thought there’ll be so much love and appreciation for my post-final story, so I want you to know you all are amazing and dear to me! <3

Endless Summer is finished, but it’ll always be in our hearts. Our precious gang deserve it’s happy ending, and here they finally have it. 

Tagging: @writtenbycandy​ @meeraaverywalker @asprankle​ @liam-rhys-x-mc-x-constantine​ @dandeservestheworld​ @endlessly-searching-for-you​ @quacksonlover​ @kamybelen-blog​ @endlessflame​ @truekender​ @princesstopgun​ @nekkidmolerat @mysteli . I hope I got everyone who asked to be tagged! Comment on this post to let me know if you wanna be tagged as well.

La-Huerta was indeed a normal island now. It didn’t have the Celestial anymore and some parts of it’s abnormal zones but it was La-Huerta nonetheless.

It was secluded from the outside world, mainly so the watchers would be safe. Not appearing on any map beside the one embedded in Varynn’s memory.

“This place is still one of the most beautiful things I got to witness.” Diego told Taylor, who was sitting next to him on the plane.

Just like their journey began, this is how it was going to end.

But an ending isn’t the sad part, because it just means they’ll get to start a new chapter.

“Yeah,” She nodded, her heart fluttering in her chest.

This was it. This is where everything started.

And this is where it ends, and they start a new chapter in their lives.

“But isn’t… The island’s heart kinda useless… Right now?” Craig furrowed his eyebrows., still trying to make sense out of everything.

“Yeah, it is.” Varynn confirmed, shrugging.  

“But Rourke’s a wacko.” Aliester explained. “So he still wants it.”

“We could just… Give it to him.” Mike popped his head into the passengers area, noting.

Everyone exchanged baffled looks between each other.

“What do you mean-” Before Raj could complete his question Taylor jumped in.

“That could actually work.” She said.

A moment of silence passed through the group.

“You want to… Trick him?” Zahra asked, not waiting for a response. “Sick! I’m in.” She flashed a grin, fist-bumping Craig.

“Yeah… That could… Actually work.” Aliester and Estela nodded too. 

They seemed to be the most skeptical beside Taylor, so if they agreed on it - this plan was worth trying.

Everyone else exchanged looks once again. It seems they were in agreement.

“Let’s do this.”

Taylor rose up, exchanging a brief look with Mike. He nodded and she flashed him a smile before climbing into the cockpit of the plane.

Jake was flying the plane now. Remarkably so.

“Hey princess.” He smiled as she sat beside him.

“Brings you memories, hotness?” She couldn’t believe she could ever forget the man sitting in front of her.

But to be fair - she had a part of her literally taken away. And she still found him, still remembered him in the end.

“Actually, yes.” He shot her a wink before looking back at the sky ahead.

They fell into light conversation, until Jake announced they were getting close and Mike came back, switching his seat with Taylor’s.

Getting to La-Huerta turned out to be easier than expected, and soon the gang was setting foot on the long-lost island.

But, unfortunately, getting there was the easy part.

“What now?” Michelle asked, voicing everyone’s thoughts.

“Here,” Varyyn pointed into the distance. A group of Vaanti soldiers were drawing near them.

“Even though I remember everything, it’s still kinda fricky to see all of it in person.” Craig commented.

“I’m right there with you.” Zahra calmly stated, her hand nervously finding it’s way to Craig’s. He blinked at their linked hands, but didn’t complain. A pinkish color decorated his cheeks instead, but he shook his head and himself out of it, giving Zahra’s hand a tight, reassuring squeeze.

“Yeah, dudes.” Raj added, and Taylor turned towards everyone.

“Okay, guys. We need to focus.” She reminded them.

“Right.” Jake gulped, standing next to her staring into the skyline. The Vaanti finally reached the gang, and reported back to Varyyn. 

They’ve narrowed down Rourke’s possible location and had the main area surrounded.

“We were waiting for you.” Seraxa finished explaining. “What are you’re orders?” She asked.

“Ask them,” Varynn smiled, gesturing towards the group. 

“We have a plan.” Taylor stepped to the front. 

Seraxa shot her a knowing smile, happy to see her again. Taylor smiled back at her, for a moment before continuing.

“Take us to Rourke.”

“will he ever give up?” Michelle complained while on their way, clearly annoyed but eager to stop him.

“No, apparently, he’ll never. Which is why I think we should think this through. How do we wanna act? Do we really want to just capture him?” Aliester stepped up.

Taylor arched her eyebrows. “What’s the other option?” She asked, even though she had an idea.

A silence fell through the group, everyone hanging their gazes at each other.

“… We could kill him. End this once and for all.” Estela said what everyone were thinking, but too afraid to say.

“Let’s hope it won’t come to that.” Taylor answered, shaking her head.

“Are you serious?” Zahra countered, siding with Estela. “After everything he’s done, the baster deserves it!” She continued.

“But are we really the judge for it?” Quinn narrowed her eyes at them, defending Taylor.

“Of course we are! Who else could?!” Zahra raised her voice, having enough of that.

“Guys, guys! Let’s calm down!” Taylor placed herself between the two sides of the group, worked up.

“Catalysts, are you ready?” A warrior of Seraxa’s asked them, calming the atmosphere.

Taylor hanged her eyes on him, her expression falling unsettled. “Not really.” She shrugged.

“Too bad for you.” Suddenly, the ground beneath them shaking. A huge robotic shape burst through the ground, carrying countless weapons on its hands and back.

“Ahhhh!” The gang was caught off-guard, everyone falling and being thrown away into different directions.

“Taylor!” Without giving it much thought, Jake threw himself over Taylor, defending her with his body.

“Taylor??” Most of the gang got to safety, hiding behind blocks of wood and shields the Vaanti had supplied.

“I’m alright!” She let them know, pulling Jake with her to hind behind a broken branch. It wasn’t much comfort but it was better than nothing.

The robotic mechanism hovered in the air, firing its weapons without an aim. Peering inside there, was seated - without a doubt, Everett Rourke.

He had an unshaved messy beard, and an even messier hair, and a chaotic, crazy look in his eyes.

“He lost it completely, haven’t he?” Taylor asked rhetorically, speaking mainly to herself.

“He needs to pay for what he’s done to Ben.” Jake clenched his jaw, balling his fists until his knuckles flashed white.

Taylor looked at him worriedly. “And he will.” She placed a comforting hand over his shoulder.

They haven’t had a chance to decide on their course of action or plan, but there wasn’t much time left at the moment.

But even Jake had to agree, that doing the dirty work himself wasn’t Rourke’s style. Maybe he had lost every ounce of his sanity.

“But we need to think this straight. Charging in without a plan will only result in someone getting hurt.” She ran her hand down his back, and could feel his body relaxing - just the slightest - under her touch.

“We need to regroup with the others.” He didn’t let his emotions to get the best of him, as he initially did.

Taylor smiled at him, weakly. “Exactly.” She said.

“Follow my lead.” Jake had a determined look in his eyes, and Taylor gave him a nod.

He charged out, leading them through the open space, using the smoke screen Rouke’s shooting created as a diversion. Somehow, they managed to get to the group unscratched.

Reuniting with the group, a few Vaanti warriors surrounded them with shields. “We need a distraction,” Seraxa barked out. 

“Any volunteers?”

“Rourke! Stop shooting! We have what you want.” Taylor was the bait, as per usual.

Jake grabbed her shoulders and kissed her forehead before sending her on her way, only after she’d promised she’d make it back safe.

She was waving her arms, holding a glowing purple orb in her hand.

Was that the Island’s heart? Not really. It was just some cool rock Varyyn had given her. But it should’ve been enough to trick Rourke,

long enough for them to seize him.

They still haven’t worked out what they wanted to do with him once they have him under lock, but that was something to worry about later.

They’ll cross that bridge when they get to him. And as long as everyone’s on board. and safe.

“Rourke!” She shouted once again, and the rain of bullets finally ceased. 

From inside the huge, mechanic creature, Rourke was squinting his eyes, trying to make out if she was telling the truth.

“It’s the island’s heart. Really. You can have it.” She spoke with her tone up. extending her arm for him to ‘see’ better.

“But only if you stop this madness and come down here to get it.” She made it clear.

They needed him out of his armor, if they wanted a chance.

“Get down there? Never!” He swung one of his robotic arms at her, but the attack was stopped before it reached her, held down by a number of Vannti warriors, that managed to grab it with some forest vines.

He was fuming, furious, but didn’t have too many choices.

“Will you really hand it over, no fighting?” He asked. His voice suddenly sounded rugged, helpless, desperate. Taylor almost felt bad for him.

Rourke has lost his sanity in an attempt to bring back his wife, but he also committed murder and various other crimes, trying to become the emperor of the Earth. So Taylor’s compassion could only go that long.

“Really.“ She placed one hand over her heart.

Yes! He bought it.

She wasn’t entirely lying. She’d give him whatever she was holding in her hands. It’s just that it wasn’t really what he was looking for.

He got out of his suit. The ground under them finally stopped shaking, and the insane amount of shooting ceased.

It was obviously a trap, but Rourke wasn’t exactly… Sane anymore.

The bags under his eyes indicated he hadn’t slept in days at a time. The scratches on his hands and chest hinted he was injured, maybe even sick. His hopeless attempt at retrieving the Island’s heart gave them a sense of what was left of the man’s brain and… It was not good.

But lying to Rourke, never went as planned. The moment he realized their trick, he pressed a button on top of his glove, blowing everything in the radius of ten meters around them up.

The man was anything, but unprepared. Even when he’d lost his mind, he had a backup plan up his sleeve.

Taylor was standing right next to him. He might’ve taken the blow too, but she sustained the outburst. Most of all, she was thrown away in the air and down a cliff.

While rolling down the hill, Taylor’s instincts kicked in and her hands fought to grab anything in her way.

Finally, she managed to lunch herself onto a brunch that was sticking out of the pillar, rocks and sticks brushing past her and into the long, deep void.

She forced herself not to look down, focusing all her might on hanging onto the branch.

“Taylor!! Jake’s voice hurried to come, and he abandoned his post in favor of helping her.

Quickly, but carefully and calculatedly, he slid down until he was almost able to reach her.

"Jake, no!” Someone yelled at him, scolding him for leaving himself out in the open, leaving himself vulnerable to Rourke’s doings.

But the cry for help went by with no use, Jake would risk his life without giving a second thought for the people he held dear.

“Jake” Taylor mouthed helplessly.

“Hold on! I’m almost there!” He grind his teeth, stretching as far as he could until his fingers brushed against Taylor’s hand.

Her breathe came out ragged, uneven, as she fought not to fall for her death. Her eyes remained fixed on Jacob. That man gave her power she didn’t know she had. He gave her hope, he was she sole reason she kept holding on.

He brushed against her hand a couple of times, but was unable to catch her in his grip.

It was so hopeless, that even Rourke didn’t bother shooting at them.

“Taylor,” He begged, furrowing his brows in concern. “You have to reach up, and take my hand. I can’t reach down any further, but if you hoist yourself, even just slightly–” He explained, and Taylor nodded, cutting him off.

“I got it. I’ll… try.” She answered, the fatigue already audible in her voice. Panting, she tried to reach up. She felt as her other hand slid down, as she tried to grab on to Jake.

“Almost there…” He encouraged her.

Her hand gently patted Jake’s, a huge, relived smile spreading across his lips. “Yes, I got you–”

Just when her hand slipped off the tree branch. “No!” Jake shouted.

“Ahhhhhhh!”

It took her a couple of moments, before she grabbed onto the next available spot. This time she held onto the cliff-side, and she hoisted herself far enough to roll over and lay on top of the rock, her hands finally getting a break from trying to hold on.

“Taylor!” Jake’s voice sounded now a lot further than before.

“I’m… fine.” She breathed out. “Maybe.” A pounding pain in the side of her body suddenly pierced through her, now that she wasn’t trying to hold on to dear life and the adrenaline started to tone down.

“Taylor, I’ll-” The inside of his eyes glossy, as he tried climb further down without falling.

“Jake.” She cut him off. The look in her eyes suddenly determined and decisive. “Just leave me here, Jake. You can’t get down here without slipping and falling. The cliff is too steep and we’ll only end up with two casualties instead of one. Just concentrate on taking down Rourke, according to our plan and come back for me later!” She urged, her eyes scowling at him.

“I’m not leaving you!” He countered, still trying to climb down. A few rocks rolled down his path as his steps became more and more dangerous, dangling and threatening to join Taylor’s fate.

“You’re being unreasonable! It’s crazy! Just come back for me later!” She begged.

“Of course I’m being crazy! I already lost you once! I just got you back. I’m not losing you a second time.” He was as decisive as her, and the nickle finally dropped in her brain.

“Jake…” her voice soft, she felt her heart beats growing stronger in her chest. She finally stood up on her feet.

The distance between them didn’t seem as much as it did a few minutes ago.

Maybe it was Jake’s unbelievable stubbornness, or the fact that whenever they combined their power, anything seemed possible, but suddenly hope was set in the horizon.

Jake was closer than ever, and Taylor clutched to her side with one hand, and tried hoisting herself up with the other.

“Almost… there-” their hands linked, and Jake was pulling her up. Only god knows how he managed to do it, but quickly and surely enough they were all the way up the cliff.

They rolled over each other, getting further from the edge, both panting if relief. “I… can’t believe we just did that.” Taylor confessed, immediately bursting in giggling.

“I can.” Jake noted, 

burying his face in the crook of her neck and joining her contagious laugh. 

The mere fact of having her in his arms once again was enough to send Jake to the stars, and he’d enjoy it a few seconds further before joining their mission back.

The rest of the gang left them be, both driving Rourke away and trying to seize him.

“We should join them.” Taylor sat up, looking into the direction they most likely went to.

“We should. But you’re injured-” Jake stared at her worriedly.

“I’ll manage, Michelle could take a look at it, all the more reasons to catch up with the rest of the group.” She bit down on her lower lip.

Jake was right. She was injured, and weakened. She was used to be the first in the line of fire, the leader of the group. It’s not that she didn’t trust them to succeed without her, but she was worried someone else might get hurt, and that was the last thing she wanted to see happen.

“Okay, let’s go.” Jake finally agreed, at her convincing. He stood up first, then gave Taylor a hand. After helping her up, he threw her hand around his shoulder and supported her waist.

It might slow them down, but it’s the only way he can be sure Taylor will be 100% fine.

Rejoining the group, Michelle and Grace ran up to them. They took Taylor out of Jake’s arms, sighing in relief while starting to tend to her wound.

The cut wasn’t too deep, but it needed to be looked into.

“Where is Rourke?” Jake questioned, seeing the Vaanti and their friends fighting Rourke’s robot pawns in the distance.

Rourke, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight.

“He’s inside that cave over there. The robots are guarding it, it’s impossible to get past them.” Grace explains, while helping Michelle however she can to treat Taylor.

“Impossible…” Jake frowns, looking at the fight ahead.

It was true, in a sense. There were more robots fighting than people on their side, and unlike robots, the group and the Vannti actually got tired, throughout the fight. It was only a question of time.

“Unless…” Taylor suddenly spoke up, gaining Jake, Michelle, and Grace’s attention.

“Unless?” Jake repeated after her.

“He left his mecha-suit, all the way over there.” Taylor said, pointing in the right direction. “If one of us wears it, he can definitely take all of those robots out and turn the scales in our favor!” She explains, her plan, as always, so crazy it might actually work.

“I’ll do it.” Jake jumped, determined, and decided with a nod.

“It was my plan, it only makes sense that I go-”

“You, young lady, are not going anywhere.” Michelle frowned at her.

“Young?? We’re literally the same age.” Taylor’s eyebrows rose up, as she blinked at Michelle in disbelief.

“A-a-a-a-ah!” Michelle pointed a finger at her scoldingly. “Nope. You don’t have a say in this.” She added.

Taylor’s gaze drifted pleadingly between Garce and Jake, but both stood tall alongside Michelle.

“I’m doing it and that’s it.” And with that, Jake disappeared from Taylor’s sight.

She raised a hand to her chest, clutching over her heart.

Oh lord… please bring her Jake back safe and in one piece.

And, as planned, Jake arrived, flying in, a couple of minutes later, just when it looked like the gang was about to lose hope. He wiped out Rourke’s army of robots.

He landed near everyone, while Grace and Michelle helped Taylor to walk over as well.

“Woah!!! Dope!” Despite his exhumation, Craig still managed to get excited over Jake wearing Rourke’s mecha-suit.

Jake opened his helmet, lifting the glass window for his eyes and nodding. “So where’s the bastard? We have some unfinished business…”

"Bring me Taylor Astra. Bring her to me now." Rourke demanded. "You're in no place to be setting ultimatums." Jake threatened, holding his mecha-arm equipped with a gun pointed at Rourke. They had cornered him, inside the cave. Once all his robotic pawns were taken care off, Rourke was left with no line of defense, and capturing him seemed to be fairly easy. They'd chasen him off until they hit a dead end, the only thing that was behind Rourke was a giant hole in the ground, and he had nowhere left to go.

"No, it's okay." Taylor stepped in front of the group. Michelle was still supporting her side in her first few steps, before Taylor assured her it was fine and walked alone.

"Taylor, n-" Everyone started protesting, but she shook her head.

"This is it," She ignored them. "This is the end, Rourke." She told him, her voice calmer than ever. The hint of a smile appeared in the corners of her mouth. A comforting one, almost promising a good ending. For all.

He blinked at her, his oh-so-determined look of his eyes finally wavering.

"Bu- But I was so close... I could have had her... Could've saved everyone..." He fell to his knees.

Taylor nodded, as if understandingly, sympathetically.

"Don't go too near him-" Diego begged, she could hear the caution in his voice.

She took a couple more steps, standing right in front of Rourke.

"I know... But this is not the way. It never was. She wouldn't have wanted it that way." She comforted while putting a mirror in front of him.

"You... Know that. Don't you?" She questioned.

Rourke gulped, slowly but surely - nodding at her.

"You knew that all along?"

"I guess..." Something in his eyes changed. As if his conscious, his sanity, was getting back to him. "I did." He confesses.

A look of great grief passed through his face, when he realized all the harm that he's done. Every single person he hurt in the process. All his crimes and evil doings.

Throwing a look behind his shoulder, and into the huge pit-hole, he sighed. In some sort of closure and acceptance, he shot a quick smile at Taylor, and everyone behind her. He paused on Aliester and gave a firm nod to Estela, before turning back to Taylor.

His last words, echoing in her ears. "I guess there's only one thing left to do now." 

He spread his hands to both of his sides, and stopped fighting. He let his body fall back.

"No!" Taylor tried grabbing onto him. Her instincts acting faster than her mind could wrap around, but she was still too slow.

She watched closely as Rourke fell to his death. 

For the first time in years... He looked in peace.

"This is over. This is really over."

Bonus :

“So, should we get going back to the states?” Sean asked, his hand wrapped around Michelle, who nodded as if she was joining the question.

“I guess so?” Jake shrugged, looking around. A few long minutes had passed, everyone were catching their breath. Everyone were still calming down, trying to let their mind wrap around the fact it was truly over. Around the fact they succeeded, and could finally turn a new leaf in their lives’ journey.

His eyes fell on Taylor - On his wife, who he couldn’t stop calling that way. He was so in love with her. 

She was patched up and taken care of. She was still a bit shaken from everything, but she was there. And his. 

From now on - till forever.

He couldn’t believe he ever forgot her - but it was the way thing had to go, in order for them to reunite eventually.

In his heart, he always had strong feelings for her. Even if in the beginning they weren’t exactly positive.

“We could use the same plane we took on the way here. Heh, it’s the first time you didn’t destroy an aircraft we used!” Zahra was standing hand in hand with Craig, but she sent a wink in Jake’s way.

Everyone shared a laugh, before Jake grinned, turning to Mike. “It’s because I had my co-pilot this time.” He assured them.

“Well, from now on - You’ll never lose him.” Aliester spoke up. Grace was curled up under his arm. 

Everything seemed to be in place. Right.

Home.

Everyone exchanged the same looks on their faces. Happiness, pure bliss. 

“Are we ready to go?” Mike asked.

Suddenly, the sound of heels echoed in the cave's hallways. 

Shadows of two figures appeared behind them.

The gang members turned around, not even having enough time to get their guard on, only to be shocked to find two woman, standing side by side, smiling at them.

Two woman who supposedly should’ve hated each other - but right now seemed to be getting along pretty well, holding each other's hand.

Olivia Montoya and Imogen Rourke stood there, in front of the gang, smiles smeared over their faces.

“Do you have some extra space in that plane of yours?” Olivia asked, sending a warm smile to Estela.

“Mom!” Estela didn’t question it, neither did she answer her. She just ran up to her, wrapping her in a crushing hug, teary-eyed.

“Mom?” Aliester took a cautious step forward. Grace gave him a nudge, pushing him in support towards her.

“Come here, my boy.” Imogen opened her arms, throwing them to the sides. Aliester proceeded towards her. He was still wary but his pace quickened until he was in her arms.

After Olivia, Estela, Imogen and Aliester shared that touching reunion, they turned around to face the gang.

“Now we’re ready.”

[k1tt3nhau5]

Tips I learned while playing BoTW

Update! Somewhat. Very minuscule update.

These are stuff I learned when I was playing. I'm on mobile so it won't look so organized, but this is stuff I learned and I felt they might be really useful. It'll be a list of things I feel people might not know but since the game has been out for a while, most people already know what to do.

Koroks

They suck but you only need 441 seeds to max your stash

If you have the Korok Mask, it helps a lot!

With the mask, if you move a little ways and it stops singing no matter your direction, it's above you or below you.

If you see three trees with two of the trees having one apple, it's a possible Korok. You have to match the third tree so it's the same as the other two.

Update: The same is with the Cacti in the Desert.

Using Stasis helps locate the rock you need for the rock puzzles.

If you see the pinwheel and don't hear or see the target balloons, it's usually the clay pots.

Enemies

Lizalfos are terrible and I hate them. They never sleep.

If you can freeze the Enemies, the weaker they are, the longer they'll stay frozen. Golden Enemies don't freeze too long.

Using Chuchu jellies are useful when paired with Shock weapons. Pop the blue chuchu jelly around the enemies and hit them with your shock weapons to create the thunder dome to get multiple enemies.

If a Lizalfos ends up in the water, shock arrows are good if you are not good at aiming like me.

Spin attacks are good when you have a heavy/two-handed weapon because it'll keep hitting the enemies without them moving so much. USUALLY. Sometimes they'll still hit you.

If the enemies hit you and take more life than usual, the weapon might actually have more attack power. Or your defense is lower than usual.

Lynels are vicious but more manageable when you're up close and personal. If they pull out their bow and shoot straight on the air, it'll likely get you 95% of the time. (If there is an update that fixes that, disregard this.)

Flying Guardians suck. Careful when you reflect their laser beam because it might not hit your shield, but just above you.

If a Hinox's leg guard doesn't burn, it's metal and if you use a shock arrow, it'll shock them long enough to hit their eye or wail on them.

Using Remote Bombs to roll along the sand will force Molduga to eat them and you can detonate the bomb to stun it. When it begins to move, you can move just out of the spin attack and stay there. Usually it'll burrow under the sand but breach out to surface as it circles you so you can shoot it with a bomb arrow and repeat the process.

Weapons

As I mentioned above, if an enemy hits you harder than usual, it's probably a stronger weapon.

Black Hinox's carry the Royal Weapons and are useful if you need one.

If you like hunting Lynels, you can score some pretty good bows.

Enemy camps can be pretty good to find stronger swords or bows.

Molduga can also be useful too.

If you have more than, I think 60 or 70 arrows of any kind, the stores won't sell them until you have around 20 or 30. Maybe. I'm not quite sure the number but they won't sell you arrows if you have a lot.

If you want to farm for regular arrows, going along Zora Domain's path and killing all the Lizalfos will drop over a 100 for sure. You can stop at the great bridge after the small camp with the black Lizalfos.

The Royal Guards weapons are beautiful and awesome looking, but they suck at durability, which actually annoys me because I love the black color. However! They do have some pretty high attack power compared to the Royal Weapons. So if you still wanna make the most use out if them, sneak attacks are your best friend. The shield can be useful in a pinch and the bow has a great fire rate.

Materials and Meals

Satori Mountain is pretty good for getting all kinds of good plants like Endura Carrots or Hearty Durians/Radishes.

The Faron region is also a pretty good place to get all three beetles and definitely Hearty Durians.

Riola Spring spawns Farosh from the water. Easy place to farm its dragon parts.

Naydra is a jerk. But if you want to farm parts from it, I learned that a good spot is around Lanayru Heights, facing towards where Zora's Domain is. When it drops the part you hit, instead of flying down into the water to pick it up, you can get it from the grass. I usually go towards the West Gate, the highest I can go, and face away from the bridge towards the plains where deer are.

Drinaal is a bit easier than Naydra but the same thing can happen depending where you are. A good spot is along the Deplian Badlands where the three Lynels are. North of the Thyphlo Ruins (The Dark Forest) and Death Mountain. It flies low enough to almost hit you if you're not careful. Another spot, though not as good as the Badlands, is at the very end of Tanagar Canyon. If Lynels make you worried, this spot is well enough that you don't have to drop so far to pick up its piece. It's at the end towards the Gerudo Highlands.

From Hateno Tower towards Firly Plateau, there's a pond next to a giant tree where you can get at the very least 4 Hearty Bass. At max, 6.

Darners > Butterflies.

You can mix food items of the same stat as the insects to make elixirs! Just don't forget the Monster part!

So far, Lynel Guts have a lot of potency but I'm still experimenting.

Update: Modulga Guts and Hinox Guts seem pretty good as well. 

Dragon Horns guarantee 30 minutes of your stat. So make sure you use highly potent ingredients.

Monster Extract can do the same, but it's a gamble. You might end up with 1 minute or 30 minutes. Use it during a Blood Moon.

Blood Moons makes your cooking critical, so use it to your advantage when cooking up stat meals. Extra hearts or Stamina doesn't seem affected by it. 

Sometimes cooking a meal like Rice Balls will bump up your stat time more than just using five of the same ingredient. At least I noticed that.

Silent Princesses is highly potent steal ingredient. 

Fleet-Lotus seeds are the best Haste ingredient.

Endura Carrots > Endura Shrooms

If you set fire to a Spicy Pepper, it can cause an updraft. Use it for a quick boost!

Making an elixir gives you more time than a cooked meal from what I noticed. Example: 3 Mighty Porgies + 1 Bladed Rhino Beetle + 1 Lynel Gut gives you more time than 5 Mighty Porgies. (Health/Stamina boosts don't count)

Miscellaneous

Cooking during a Blood Moon works at 11:30 pm game time. It's when the critical cooking is in effect.

Climbing Gear is so useful with the Climbing Bonus. You use less stamina when you jump.

Update: Majora’s Mask acts as a disguise for Lizalfos, Moblins, Bokoblins, and Stal Children. It works with Lynel’s, but they see through it pretty quick.

The Soldier Gear/Ancient Gear/Hero's Gear maxes out at 28 Defense per piece. Very useful to have. Champion's Tunic maxes at 32 defense.

During a Blood Moon, if you want more time to cook or you need the shrine that requires it, hop into a shrine before the animation starts, usually at 11:55 pm before the animation cuts in, and wait it out. The game will not register a Blood Moon actually happened and will do it again the next night. So far it's worked all the time for me. It will not bring back the enemies but it's a good way to make some meals or get more ingredients for them.

If you do the Master Sword Trials, your boons will carry over. Extra Hearts, Stamina, and attack/defense/etc. will carry over.

It also works with the Stranded on Eventide shrine quest.

The Shrouded Shrine quest, or that pitch black forest north of Great Hyrule Forest, is that if you don't want to drop a weapon you like for the torch, using a Remote Bomb helps. I noticed if I use the Magnesis Rune on a metal object, it illuminates better around you but your camera is pretty fixed.

Ancient/Guardian Items don't conduct electricity. Feel free to use them during a Thunderstorm.

That's all I got for now, but if you found those useful, I'm glad it helped. Though I didn't really look hard to see if anyone posted some of the stuff I mentioned, I think some of it can be new that some people didn't really know about. I did mention stuff that I have seen but it was just in case. Thanks for checking it out if you're reading this! (• u •)b

Spoiler Warning just in case

The Shrouded Shrine quest, the Pitch Black forest, you can go straight ahead, you'll see a giant bird statue and a small bird statue you can light up, and climb over the wall. You'll land where the shrine pops up. When you see the blinking arrow, that's the Hinox sleeping. Get the orb, by stealing it or killing the Hinox, and plop the orb into the pedestal.

If you go to Zora's Domain through the back, Akkala Region, you will see a new Cut Scene for Prince Sidon if you don't speak to him at the bridge.

If you go along the path when you meet Prince Sidon at the bridge but fly down to the domain before meeting him at the entrance and meet the King, Sidon will not be there. You can go to the entrance where he is waiting for you and he'll give you a different reaction when you sneak up on him.

[its-furiohsa-not-furiosah]

DnD Character Ramblings - Background

(Long-ass Info dump ahead! Writing this on mobile and no 'keep on reading' option, sorry!)

----

Name: M

Race: Aasimar, Protector (currently unknown to M in the campaign until my DM decides to reveal that in the story)

Class: Wizard, School of Abjuration, Level 6

Age: Early 30s when campaign starts

Alignment: Neutral Good

Appearance:

- approx. 6' 3", lanky but athletic build

- gender fluid in appearance; cannot fully distinguish whether M is male or female; can play up either in a given situation.

- medium length metallic black wavy hair, right side often braided above the ear.

- right eye is brown/black, left eye is light blue; dark circles under eyes from studying and restless nights of bad dreams

- wears a once fine and tailored, but now torn at some seams, all black travelers clothes with a lining of red inside the jacket.

- wears their father's diamond stud earring in right ear (used for their Chromatic Orb spell), and a larger dangly earing on the left ear.

----

M grew up along the northwestern coast of Faerun in the large port city of Waterdeep. Their parent's talent in business had risen them to a place of wealth and influence within the oligarchal soceity. Overall, M and their identical twin (who we shall refer to as H) lived a privileged and happy, albeit isolated, childhood.

M and H were exceptionally close; kept away from the lower status children, they were often each other's only source of company. When their parents would be throwing a gala late into the night for their business partners, the pair would sit on the library balcony, looking out over the water, read poetry and share stories.

At the age of 16, a horrific accident claimed H's life. The shaking of shoulders and their father's sullen voice breaking the news was the last thing M remebered before the wave of falling emptiness swallowed them in grief. Time was blurred and life was dim for M over the following months. It was however, in these dark times, that M began to see the spirits of the dead...

Initially chilled and frightened at this sudden revelation, M found new company in the ghosts of those long past who, too, were lonely and searching for a resolution. A few weeks passed of this and M decided to confide in their parents about this newfound ability.

Concerned that M's parents would be repulsed at hearing this, their fears were quelled when their parents were instead...thrilled at the news. They immediately pulled their influential strings to acquire an apprenticeship for M at the prestigious arcane academy in Waterdeep, The Blackstaff Tower.

The day M turned 18, their parents packed M's things in the family carriage and sent them to study magic at the Tower. "Make us proud" they said, waving the carriage away. For the next 4 years, the stone walls of the Blackstaff Tower was their home.

The solitude and quiet diligence of arcane study at the Tower was something M found to be helpful in recovering from their grief. After their first year, they became drawn to and ultimately specialized in abjuration magic (protection spells, magical wards, defenses against other magic, etc).

The 4 years of their studies at the Blackstaff Tower were coming to an end, and M had grown particular close with the head mage (no name yet DX ), we'll refer to them as the Blackstaff. One night before graduation, M and the Blackstaff were sharing a celebratory drink and got to talking. The Blackstaff looked anxious and distant, the look of deep thought and worry on their face. M asked what was wrong and the Blackstaffs gaze broke back to reality: "I--I need to confide in you about something, M" A little surpised at seeing the usually composed Blackstaff this way, M quietly nodded and responded "Go ahead, in confidence"

The Blackstaff quietly began to tell M that they were almost not admitted into the academy for study. When M asked why, because there wasn't much barring anyone from attending, the Blackstaff paused. "What I am about to tell you, I say with the desire to help you, child...'

'Prior to your parent's rather adamantly submitting your name for admission, the circle of mages at the Tower strongly suspected your parent's of using dark, evil magic to rise to power within Waterdeep"

M sat stone still and put down their drink...heart beating in their ears.

The Blackstaff kept going, "One of our own connections within the business world of the city informed us of a dark ritual that was rumored to take place at their residence one night. We managed to scry our way to get a view of this...and our suspicions were confirmed." The Blackstaff paused and took a large sip of their drink before putting it down and reluctantly continued:

"They had used evil magic to maniuplate your mind, M, and then made you murder your twin, H; your parent's goal being that the sacrifice of one of their children would trigger a series of events that would cause the end of the world, you being the catalyst for that change. They then altered your memory with that same magic to make you forget, waiting and hoping their plan had worked. That is why they were excited to hear about your ability to see the dead...that is why they adamantly sent you here to study magic, M. M?"

Frozen. Empty and falling into cold unforgiving darkness. Memories swirling to the surface...M sat motionless for a moment, gripping the arm rests, before breaking the silence. "You didn't answer my question Blackstaff...why did you accept me to the academy? Why, if you knew this?" The Blackstaff could see M's fingernails digging into the wood of the armrest and the watery reflection of tears in their eyes, then answered "We didn't want to accept you, especially after learning that...but there were some in the circle--some that believed we could help you and change that dark destiny towards good...and thats what we ended up doing. Look at all the good you've been doing here M! Whatever your parents had plan--"

The Blackstaff was interrupted when M hastily got to their feet and stormed out of the room. The Blackstaff followed and pleaded for M to stop but M had put up a ward on themselves that kept any sound reaching them. Racing waves of thoughts of betrayal, hatred, and despair consuming M's thoughts. M packed their things and left the Tower that night, disgusted and disillusioned in their parents, and themselves.

Before leaving town, M snuck back to and broke into their home along the coast of Waterdeep. They had not been here since the day 4 years ago their parents had shipped them off to become...to become some evil puppet for their sick plan. Not surprisingly, their parents were throwing another of their extravagant business galas. M wondered how many of those nights sitting on the balcony had their parents been committing dark acts of magic downstairs...

They crept into the massive study their father kept his best books and most expensive/important things. The only things M took from that life were a large diamond earring of their father's, a leather envelope of cash, and the book of poetry M and H would read together.

It was off into the night...and shit, M had never really been able to explore the city but needed to make it to the next boat out of here. Suddenly though, M felt a nearby spirit pull them towards a direction that ended at the docks of the port.

Using the cash stolen from their father's study, M booked passge on the next boat out of Waterdeep, heading south. During the 3 weeks of travel, M was frequently sick and sought reprieve on the open deck at night, looking out at the moonlit water.

However, one night M swore that out of the corner of their eye, their reflection in the water moved independently from themselves. When M turned to see this, the reflection's eyes in the water captured M's gaze and held it for what seemed like forever. Time stopped and it felt like something was staring at M through the water's depth...only to be broken by the sound of the bell being rung to indicate the changing of the ship's post.

Similar instances in mirrors, pints of ale/water or other reflective surfaces continued for the duration of the voyage. Over time, M became progressively more and more paranoid that whatever this reflection was, their parents learned of them fleeing The Blackstaff Tower and were somehow tracking M's whereabouts.

The ship finally made it to port and M begins a life of running. For the next 8 years, M struggles to learn how to survive and keep low, always looking over their shoulder worried their parents will find them. They become increasingly haunted by their own dreams where their reflection is looking at, and sometimes speaking to them.

They develop a companionship with a magical familiar in the form of a white-necked Raven, lovingly called Bishop. Bishop is there to comfort M when the paranoia gets too strong, or when hunger, resentment, and guilt sink in.

Even though those 8 years in solitude weren't easy, they were not suffered in vain. M increased their prowess in abjuration and other arcane studies. Resolute in proving their parent's plan for them wrong and using their talents and abilities to do good, M becomes what you could call a freelance exorcist.

Two years into the freelance exorcism business, and business is slow, just barely making ends meet. Quietly drinking their stress away at the tavern, they strike up a conversation with a rather peculiar dwarven bard named, Kunesh. They drunkenly get talking and sharing about their current sturggles to make it in life, on one hand a rather odd and strange looking freelance exorcism and on the other a beardless lute-playing dwarf. A deal is made that they'll split the profits they make if Kunesh can advertize the business.

Later, on a job with 2 quarreling nobles where M was needed to investigate a murder and question the ghosts of the deceased, the two learn of a phenomenon called The Death Curse spreading across Faerun. The details of this curse are particulary troubling for their business as 1) those who die cannot be resurrected through any means and 2) the spirits of the dead are swalled and trapped in another plane of existence.

With word of fame and fortune for those who can undo the curse, M and Kunesh make their way to the continent of Chult, searching for the ancient city of Omu that is most likely the epicenter of the curse. It is here that they run into the main party of the campaign who are also searching for a way to fix the curse.

----

Thank you for reading!

[esmerodo]

SAILOR MOON GEMSTONES & MINERALS: GARNET (FOR SAILOR PLUTO DAY) 

 By: ~ Mamoru Chiba 

A belated Happy Birthday to Setsuna! Born on Sunday, October 29th. What year? WHO REALLY KNOWS? ;-) This is a post I did Sunday for the FB Page Sailor Moon: The Mooniverse, where I am their Admin Mamoru Chiba 🎩🌹🌙🌏

I have a Birthstones & Horoscope Post for all of the Senshi plus Tuxedo Mask. Would you like to see them here on Tumblr? Let me know in the replies! --Esmerodo. 

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SCORPIO: Setsuna was born on October 29th, under the Zodiac sign of Scorpio. The Ruling Body for people born on this date is the Planet Pluto, representing desire, transformation and expansion. (Moonies, please note: anyone who remarks here that Pluto isn’t a planet anymore, gets bopped on the head with the Time Rod and sent to a time in history that you will NOT like! You have been warned!) 

NAOKO-SENSEI’S TRAINING IN MINERALS & GEMSTONES: The reason we do this feature is because Naoko Takeuchi named most of her villain characters after a gemstone or mineral and has each of the Senshi themed around certain symbolic gemstones. Where they are known I’ve also listed each Senshi’s Zodiac gemstone and Talismanic gemstone too. I have added the horoscope for the day each Senshi was born. Takeuchi-sensei was born in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, the historically famous city of artisan gems carving and distributing in Japan. To this day, the Yamanashi Gem Museum displays gems, precious stones, and large quartz crystals collected from Japan and around the world. Naoko also pursued her interests by joining an earth sciences club in high school. 

 In university, Naoko Takeuchi studied chemistry in preparation to become a pharmacist and clinical research technician, which led to a by-the-book “mineral knowledge” being persistent throughout her work, and she got to know all the lore behind a large variety of minerals and gemstones. For instance, Mimete isn’t a gemstone; she is a mineral, mimetite, and her dress and tights are EXACTLY the same golden yellow colour of mimetite. Naoko coloured her illustrations VERY carefully! Naoko-sensei had promised her Dad, if this manga drawing idea didn’t work out, she could always fall back on working in a drug store! :-)And as you will see, the mineral/gemstone knowledge did NOT go to waste, when that Sailor Moon manga thing worked out in a big way! 

SECRETIVE, PASSIONATE & IMPULSIVE: People born on this date are passionate, secretive and impulsive, masking their strong willed, ambitious nature under a deceptive cool calm reserve. Because people born on this day like to keep others in the dark about their true thoughts and intentions, they call a person born on this date the "Chess Master." They are very attractive to everyone they meet. 

A WOMAN OF MYSTERY: We can easily imagine the Senshi of Time, with her knowledge of all the ages, keeping secret all the knowledge she has acquired about the past, present and future, quietly observing, making her plans and directing the other Senshi masterfully. You better let this Scorpio be in charge, or she will be annoyed! Independent and innovative, bursting with ideas and energy, the Scorpio woman is formidable and awe inspiring, but we never know what she’s thinking. Setsuna is an ageless woman of mystery. Well, maybe one thing we DO know: People born on this date are drawn to people born between July 23 and August 22, the sign of Leo. Hmmm. That’s Mamoru’s Zodiac sign and...AHEM, let’s not go there. :P 

SOLITARY SCORPIO: Sailor Pluto is ideally suited to her role as the eternally solitary Senshi, because people born on this date tend to give all their energy to achieving their professional goals while sometimes forgetting about their personal lives, favouring unusual careers and often ending up working for themselves. They spend money casually but aren’t interested in money for its own sake. We all have noticed that Setsuna is wise, gentle, affectionate and considerate, especially with the youngest Senshi, Chibi Moon/Small Lady, and Sailor Saturn/Hotaru. These admirable qualities will only get stronger as she gets older. 

PLUTO’S SCORPIO BIRTHSTONE, THE GARNET: The Garnet, the talisman in Sailor Pluto’s Time Rod, is most closely associated with our most mysterious of the Senshi. Garnet is the Planetary Gemstone associated with Pluto, the ruling planet of Scorpio, and is hence the planetary stone for Scorpio. 

SCORPIO'S LUCKY COLOURS: Deep red, the colour of garnet is Scorpio’s lucky colour, along with violet, scarlet and carmine. Perhaps this is why Setsuna usually wears a violet suit with a red bow in the 90’s anime! Garnet, the Scorpio birthstone occurs mostly in deep red, a passionate sensual Scorpio colour. The Scorpio gemstone is believed to enhance healing and relieve depression. [REFERENCES: http://birthdaypersonality.org/october-29-zodiac-birthday-horoscope/ http://www.zodiac-signs.co/months/october-29-zodiac-sign-scorpio.html http://kamayojewelry.com/zodiac-signs-birthstones/scorpio-birth-stone/ http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/horoscopes-astrology/october-29-birthday-astrology.htm http://www.thehoroscope.co/zodiac-signs/october-29-zodiac-scorpio.html ] 

GARNET ROD: According to wikimoon.org, the Garnet Rod was an item carried by Sailor Pluto. She primarily used the Garnet Rod to perform the attack Dead Scream, but it also functioned as a key of sorts to the Space-Time Door. Her talisman, the Garnet Orb, sat atop this Rod. Sailor Pluto still had access to the Garnet Rod even in her civilian form. In the manga, it protected her from the Tellun she was analyzing, and in the anime, she used it to show the Inner Senshi a vision of the Silence. 

GARNET, THE OLDEST GEMSTONE OF ALL: So why did Naoko Takeuchi choose a Garnet for the Time Rod? Sailor Moon Fans, she chose it because garnets have a history the world over, as old as Time itself. Sailor Moon’s creator really, really knows her gemstones and minerals and has done her homework on what they mean to the Sailor Moon story. Garnets have as long a history as both a gemstone and a talisman as there were humans on Earth, from what we can determine. According to crystalvaults.com, not only was Garnet prized as an ornamental jewel, but its strong curative powers and protective energies made it invaluable. 

GARNET=POMEGRANATE: Garnet comes from the Latin name “Granatum”, meaning pomegranate, because granular varieties of Garnet look a lot like pomegranate seeds. Wonder if Setsuna likes drinking POM Wonderful pomegranate juice for its antioxidant qualities, to keep her ageless? If so, she could, in theory, drink a pint of pomegranate juice from an ancient Roman hollowed out cup made from garnet! The Roman historian Pliny wrote that the large dull-colored "Carbunculus of India" (a type of Garnet) used to be hollowed out into vessels, which would hold as much as a pint. 

THE HISTORY OF GARNETS: Not only were Garnets popular in ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, but Garnets were used in Egypt more than 5000 years ago, in Sumeria around 2100 B.C., in Sweden between 1000 and 2000 B.C. and in the former Czechoslovakia as far back as the Bronze Age. 

GARNETS AS A TALISMAN: As a talisman, Garnet was used as a sacred stone by the Native American Indians, the South American Indians, the Aztecs, the African tribal elders, and the Mayans. Garnet acts with speed to expand one's awareness, due to the flash of lightning contained within, and enhances one's internal fire to bring creative powers to implementation. As a Warrior's Stone, Garnet served as a talisman in the Crusades for both the Christians and their Muslim enemies. Garnets also had religious significance in Biblical times: According to the Talmud, the only light on Noah's ark was provided by a large Garnet. 

GARNETS AS A BLOOD RED WEAPON: The red Garnet, which used to be called a carbuncle, is the colour of blood. So some Asiatic tribes believed that this blood red stone would not only protect you from being wounded, but it would be more deadly as a weapon in a slingshot or as a bullet. In 1892 on the Kashmir frontier, the rebellious Hanzas used Garnet bullets to fire on British troops. No, I don’t know whether Garnet bullets are more effective than lead bullets! But they certainly would be more expensive ammunition! 

GARNETS AS GEMSTONES & ITS PROPERTIES: Garnet is a powerful energizing and regenerative stone. It balances, strengthens and protects. According to crystalcure.com, Garnet is known as the stone for a successful business. Maybe this is why Setsuna never seems to lack for funds and when she moved in with Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru, they seemed to live in great prosperity! Not to mention, her timeless Garnet talisman Rod was the key to the Time Gates, which allowed Sailor Pluto to go back in time and collect priceless items that she could bring back to the modern world to sell. Some day I hope to see Setsuna’s outstanding awesome collection on the Antiques Roadshow! 

SUCCESS IN BUSINESS & PROTECTION ON JOURNEYS: If your business is not as good as it should be, just put 3 or more garnets on your desk. It is believed that if a garnet is put under a pillow it will cure depression. Garnets can be used to make a person popular and have self-esteem when worn as jewellery. It helps protect one on trips (any trips, not just through Sailor Pluto’s Time Gates!). Garnets bring constancy to friendships.

BLOOD RED, BURNING COAL: Garnets help aid circulation and all blood related issues. Garnet does come in colours other than blood red, but in its most common form, it is called Almandine, formerly known as a “carbuncle” (though originally, almost any red gemstone was known by this name). The term "carbuncle" is derived from the Latin meaning "live coal" or burning charcoal. Almandine is a corruption of Alabanda, a region in Asia Minor where these stones were cut in ancient times. 

ANCIENT JEWELLERY (WIKIPEDIA): Red garnets were the most commonly used gemstones in the Late Antique Roman world, and the Migration Period art of the "barbarian" peoples who took over the territory of the Western Roman Empire. They were especially used inlaid in gold cells in the cloisonné technique, a style often just called garnet cloisonné, found from Anglo-Saxon England, as at Sutton Hoo, to the Black Sea. Pure crystals of garnet are still used as gemstones. 

THE COLOURS OF GARNET: Garnet gemstone varieties occur in shades of green, red, yellow, and orange. The next most common colour after red is emerald green, the colour of Sailor Pluto’s hair. There are two well known varieties of emerald green Garnets: Tsavorite and Demantoid, which is the most valuable Garnet of them all. So is Setsuna’s hair supposed to resemble Tsavorite or Demantoid? We’ll have to ask Naoko-sensei that question! Garnet is also the birthstone for the month of January and the State Gemstone for New York State. The Star Garnet (Garnet with rutile asterisms) is the State Gemstone of Idaho. 

OTHER BIRTHSTONES: PLANETARY GEMSTONE FOR SCORPIO: Ruby Ruby is the other Planetary Gemstone associated with Pluto and Scorpio. For more information on Rubies, please see Sailor Mars’ Gemstone Page. Other Scorpio Zodiac Gemstones are Apache Tear, Aquamarine, Beryl, Coral, and Obsidian. Before Pluto was discovered, Mars was considered to be the ruling planet for the Zodiac sign of Scorpio. The red gemstones of Mars such as Ruby, Red Coral and Poppy Jasper are still considered to be the most auspicious colours for Scorpios to wear. 

TALISMANIC GEMSTONE: Amethyst FOR GRIEF, LOSS & DISPELLING NEGATIVE EMOTIONS: The Talismanic Birthstone associated with Scorpio is the Amethyst. Amethyst imparts soberness, spiritual insight, calm, balance, peace and inner strength to the wearer, helping him or her to deal with personal losses and grief. Apache Tear and Obsidian, like other black gemstones are best for dispelling negative emotions and grief. Given Sailor Pluto’s extremely long life through the ages as the daughter of Chronos and Guardian of the Time Gates, she has experienced and will experience the grief of losing those she loves many times. Setsuna will need whatever strength Amethyst, Apache Tear and Obsidian can give her to move on and be the wise, spiritual and calm Senshi who so many rely on. [http://kamayojewelry.com/zodiac-signs-birthstones/scorpio-birth-stone/] 

FAN ART: Eternal Sailor Pluto by nuxi-chan with her green garnet hair, holding aloft her blood red Garnet rod with its talisman gemstone, eternal as time itself! 

GEMSTONE PHOTOS: Top Left: Teardrop shaped African Demantoid, from swalagemtraders. Top Centre: Rough mineral Garnet fromprettyrock.com Top Right: Russian Demantoid Diamond Ring Bottom Left: TMC Pakistan Tsavorite Bottom Centre: From jewelocean uk: garnet gemstone engagement ring on silver Bottom Right: Heart shaped Tsavorite from uppergems.com 

 Many happy returns, Setsuna, from admin ~ Mamoru Chiba